Higher Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (popular books to read TXT) 📕

[Footnote: Subjective Complement may, if preferred, be used instead of Attribute Complement.] Connected attribute complements of the same verb form a +Compound Attribute Complement+.

Most grammarians call the adjective and the noun, when so used, the +Predicate Adjective+ and the +Predicate Noun+.

 

+DEFINITION.—The Attribute Complement of a Sentence completes the predicate and belongs to the subject.+

Analysis.

1. Slang is vulgar.

Slang | is vulgar ==========|================= |

+Explanation+.—The line standing for the attribute complement is, like the object line, a continuation of the predicate line; but notice that the line which separates the incomplete predicate from the complement slants toward the subject to show that the complement is an attribute of it.

+Oral Analysis+.—_Vulgar_ is the attribute complement, completing the predicate and expressing a quality of slang; is vulgar is the entire predicate.

2. The sea is fascinating and treacherous. 3. The mountains are grand, tranquil, and lovable. 4. The Saxon words in English are simple, homely, and substantial. 5. The French and the Latin words in English are elegant, dignified, and artificial. [Footnote: The assertion in this sentence is true only in the main.] 6. The ear is the ever-open gateway of the soul. 7. The verb is the life of the sentence. 8. Good-breeding is surface-Christianity. 9. A dainty plant is the ivy green.

+Explanation+.—The subject names that of which the speaker says something. The terms in which he says it,—the predicate,—he, of course, assumes that the hearer already understands. Settle, then, which—plant or ivy—Dickens supposed the reader to know least about, and which, therefore, Dickens was telling him about; and you settle which word—_plant_ or ivy—is the subject. (Is it not the writer’s poetical conception of “the green ivy” that the reader is supposed not to possess?)

10. The highest outcome of culture is simplicity. 11. Stillness of person and steadiness of features are signal marks of good-breeding. 12. The north wind is full of courage, and puts the stamina of endurance into a man. 13. The west wind is hopeful, and has promise and adventure in it. 14. The east wind is peevishness and mental rheumatism and grumbling, and curls one up in the chimney-corner. 15. The south wind is full of longing and unrest and effeminate suggestions of luxurious ease.

 

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LESSON 30.

ATTRIBUTE COMPLEMENTS—CONTINUED.

Analysis.

1. He went out as mate and came back captain.

as

– ‘

went ‘ mate

/=======================

He | / ‘ out ====|=and ‘ | ‘ came captain ======================= back

+Explanation+.—_Mate_, like captain, is an attribute complement. Some would say that the conjunction as connects mate to he; but we think this connection is made through the verb went, and that as is simply introductory. This is indicated in the diagram.

2. The sun shines bright and hot at midday. 3. Velvet feels smooth, and looks rich and glossy. 4. She grew tall, queenly, and beautiful. 5. Plato and Aristotle are called the two head-springs of all philosophy. 6. Under the Roman law, every son was regarded as a slave. 7. He came a foe and returned a friend. 8. I am here. I am present.

+Explanation+.—The office of an adverb sometimes seems to fade into that of an adjective attribute and is not easily distinguished from it. Here, like an adjective, seems to complete am, and, like an adverb to modify it. From their form and usual function, here, in this example, should be called an adverb, and present an adjective.

9. This book is presented to you as a token of esteem and gratitude. 10. The warrior fell back upon the bed a lifeless corpse. 11. The apple tastes and smells delicious. 12. Lord Darnley turned out a dissolute and insolent husband. 13. In the fable of the Discontented Pendulum, the weights hung speechless. 14. The brightness and freedom of the New Learning seemed incarnate in the young and scholarly Sir Thomas More. 15. Sir Philip Sidney lived and died the darling of the Court, and the gentleman and idol of the time.

 

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LESSON 31.

OBJECTIVE COMPLEMENTS.

+Introductory Hints+.—_He made the wall white._ Here made does not fully express the act performed upon the wall. We do not mean to say, He made the white wall, but, He made-white (_whitened_) the wall. White helps made to express the act, and at the same time it denotes the quality attributed to the wall as the result of the act.

They made Victoria queen. Here made does not fully express the act performed upon Victoria. They did not make Victoria, but made-queen (_crowned_) Victoria. Queen helps made to express the act, and at the same time denotes the office to which the act raised Victoria.

A word that, like the adjective white or the noun queen, helps to complete the predicate and at the same time belongs to the object complement, differs from an attribute complement by belonging not to the subject but to the object complement, and so is called an +Objective Complement+.

As the objective complement generally denotes what the receiver of the act is made to be, in fact or in thought, it is sometimes called the factitive complement or the factitive object (Lat. facere, to make). [Footnote: See Lesson 37, last footnote.]

Some of the other verbs which are thus completed are call, think, choose, and name.

 

+DEFINITION.—The Objective Complement completes the predicate and belongs to the object complement.+

Analysis.

1. They made Victoria queen.

They | made / queen | Victoria ======|========================= |

+Explanation+.—The line that separates made from queen slants toward the object complement to show that queen belongs to the object.

+Oral Analysis+.—Queen is an objective complement completing made and belonging to Victoria; made Victoria queen is the complete predicate.

2. Some one has called the eye the window of the soul. 3. Destiny had made Mr. Churchill a schoolmaster. 4. President Hayes chose the Hon. Wm. M. Evarts Secretary of State. 5. After a break of sixty years in the ducal line of the English nobility, James I. created the worthless Villiers Duke of Buckingham. 6. We should consider time as a sacred trust.

+Explanation+.—As may be used simply to introduce an objective complement.

7. Ophelia and Polonius thought Hamlet really insane. 8. The President and the Senate appoint certain men ministers to foreign courts. 9. Shylock would have struck Jessica dead beside him. 10. Custom renders the feelings blunt and callous. 11. Socrates styled beauty a short-lived tyranny. 12. Madame de Stael calls beautiful architecture frozen music. 13. They named the state New York from the Duke of York. 14. Henry the Great consecrated the Edict of Nantes as the very ark of the constitution.

 

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LESSON 32.

COMPOSITION—COMPLEMENTS.

+Caution.+—Be careful to distinguish an adjective complement from an adverb modifier.

+Explanation.+—Mary arrived safe. We here wish to tell the condition of Mary on her arrival, and not the manner of her arriving. My head feels bad (is in a bad condition, as perceived by the sense of feeling). The sun shines bright (is bright, as perceived by its shining).

When the idea of being is prominent in the verb, as in the examples above, you see that the adjective, and not the adverb, follows.

+Direction.+—_Justify the use of these adjectives and adverbs_:—

1. The boy is running wild. 2. The boy is running wildly about. 3. They all arrived safe and sound. 4. The day opened bright. 5. He felt awkward in the presence of ladies. 6. He felt around awkwardly for his chair. 7. The sun shines bright. 8. The sun shines brightly on the tree-tops. 9. He appeared prompt and willing. 10. He appeared promptly and willingly.

+Direction+.—_Correct these errors and give your reasons_:—

1. My head pains me very bad. 2. My friend has acted very strange in the matter. 3. Don’t speak harsh. 4. It can be bought very cheaply. 5. I feel tolerable well. 6. She looks beautifully.

+Direction+.—_Join to each of the nouns below three appropriate adjectives expressing the qualities as assumed, and then make complete sentences by asserting these qualities_:—

+Model.+ Hard | brittle + glass. transparent |

Glass is hard, brittle, and transparent.

Coal, iron, Niagara Falls, flowers, war, ships.

+Direction+.—_Compose sentences containing these nouns as attribute complements_:—

Emperor, mathematician, Longfellow, Richmond.

+Direction+.—_Compose sentences, using these verbs as predicates, and these pronouns as attribute complements_:—

Is, was, might have been; I, we, he, she, they.

+Remark+.—Notice that these forms of the pronouns—_I, we, thou, he, she, ye, they_, and who—are never used as object complements or as principal words in prepositional phrases; and that me, us, thee, him, her, them, and whom are never used as subjects or as attribute complements of sentences.

+Direction+.—_Compose sentences in which each of the following verbs shall have two complements—the one an object complement, the other an objective complement:_—

Let some object complements be pronouns, and let some objective complements be introduced by as.

+Model+.—They call me chief. We regard composition as very important.

Make, appoint, consider, choose, call.

 

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LESSON 33.

NOUNS AS ADJECTIVE MODIFIERS.

+Introductory Hints+.—_Solomon’s temple was destroyed. Solomon’s_ limits temple by telling what or whose temple is spoken of, and is therefore a modifier of temple.

The relation of Solomon to the temple is expressed by the apostrophe and s (‘s) added to the noun Solomon. When s has been added to the noun to denote more than one, this relation of possession is expressed by the apostrophe alone (‘); as, boys’ hats. This same relation of possession may be expressed by the preposition of; Solomon’s temple = the temple of Solomon.

Dom Pedro, the emperor, was welcomed by the Americans. The noun emperor modifies Dom Pedro by telling what Dom Pedro is meant. Both words name the same person.

Solomon’s and emperor, like adjectives, modify nouns; but they are names of things, and are modified by adjectives and not by adverbs; as, the wise Solomon’s temple; Dom Pedro, the Brazilian emperor. These are conclusive reasons for calling such words nouns.

They represent two kinds of +Noun Modifiers+—the +Possessive+ and the +Explanatory+.

The Explanatory Modifier is often called an +Appositive+. It identifies or explains by adding another name of the same thing.

Analysis.

1. Elizabeth’s favorite, Raleigh, was beheaded by James I.

favorite (Raleigh) | was beheaded ====================|============== Elizabeth’s | by James I -–––-

+Oral Analysts+.—_Elizabeth’s_ and Raleigh are modifiers of the subject; the first word telling whose favorite is meant, the second what favorite. Elizabeth’s favorite, Raleigh is the modified subject.

2. The best features of King James’s translation of the Bible are derived from Tyndale’s version. 3. St. Paul, the apostle, was beheaded in the reign of Nero. 4. A fool’s bolt is soon shot. 5. The tadpole, or polliwog, becomes a frog. 6. An idle brain is the devil’s workshop. 7. Mahomet, or Mohammed, was born in the year 569 and died in 632. 8. They scaled Mount Blanc—a daring feat.

They | scaled | Mount Blanc ( feat ) ======|===================== ======= | a daring

+Explanation+.—_Feat_ is explanatory of the sentence, They scaled Mount Blanc, and in the diagram it stands, enclosed in curves, on a short line placed after the sentence line.

9. Bees communicate to each other the death of the queen, by a rapid interlacing of the antennae. [Footnote: For uses of each other and one another, see Lesson 124.]