LESSON IV.

INTRODUCTORY.

STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES, CONTINUED: LOGICAL

ELEMENTS.

1. So far words only have been considered as factors of sentences, and this view leads only to a verbal analysis. Logical analysis, or thought-analysis, deals with groups of words, and inquires not how many words a sentence contains, but how many and what constituent parts, or elements, it has. It is necessary, therefore, to determine next what an element is.

2. In the sentence, diligent study always produces results, are five words each expressing an idea, these being, in order, a quality, a subject of action, time repeated, an action, and an object of action. Each of these words is joined immediately to some other word. There are, then, in this sentence as many factors as words.

3. But very few sentences are written after such a form; it would be next to impossible to write a sentence of twelve idea-words and no other. In the sentence, From couch to couch, a light step passed in the silence of the night, are seven idea-words, and seven others. How many logical elements does it contain? Couch is joined to passed by from, and again by to, silence is joined to passed by in, and night to silence by of. There are, thus, seven elements, that is, ideas joined together directly or by the help of relation-words. These are, in order, (1) from couch, (2) to couch, (3) light, (4) step, (5) passed, (6) in silence, (7) of night. To state this in another way: three idea-words stand in the sentence,

without any assistance but their position, and four by the help of prepositions. But for the prepositions from, to, in, of, the words couch, silence, and night could not be in this sentence. The idea and the relation are both necessary, as only related ideas make sentences; but one word each is necessary for these in three of the above, while two words. each are needed in the other four. Some factors of sentences, then, contain both an idea-word and a relation-word, and others only the former.

NOTE.-Make no account, at present, of the article, but take it with its noun, and see note in Lesson XVII.

4. In the sentences, We will go when the bell rings, He lives where I live, He does as he is told, Study that you may learn, the last noun and verb of each obviously has some connection with the first; there is a relation between the two, shown by the respective connectives. These relations are, in order, time of going, place of living, manner of doing, and purpose of studying. These thoughts come into the sentences by the help of the connectives when, where, as, and that. As a factor of the sentence, each of these must be taken as a whole. The bell rings, I live, he is told, you may learn, though each expresses a thought by itself, are nothing in this sentence without their respective connectives. Some elements, then, contain a subject and verb, with a relationword.

5. An element of a sentence, then, must express two things, an idea and a relation to some other idea, and as such is a constituent part or factor of that sentence.

6. An element may be in one of three forms: (1) a single idea-word, (2) an idea-word with some word, generally a preposition, to show its relation, (3) a subject and verb, with

some word, generally a subordinate conjunction to show the relation of the two combined to some other part of the sentence.

NOTE.-Any one of these three may have other words joined to it; the essential part of each form only is considered at present.

7. Different names are given to these factors in different grammars. The term here used, namely element, is as convenient and as exact as any. Different names are also used to designate the different forms of element. They are called elements of the first class, elements of the second class, and elements of the third class, by some. As convenient terms as any, and probably familiar to students generally, are wordelement, phrase-element, and clause-element. It is not, of course, essential that these be used, if others-adjuncts, modifiers, etc. are preferred.

8. Synopsis of logical elements.

A sentence contains as many elements as there are separate expressions of idea and relation in it.

QUESTIONS.

1. How does a logical analysis differ from a verbal one? What does it inquire? What term must next be discussed? 2 When are single words constituent parts of a sentence? Give examples of

sentences which contain as many elements as words. 3. Can long sentences be made wholly by idea-words? In the sentence given, what ideas are joined directly? How do couch and silence and night come into the sentence? How are the idea and the relation expressed? What, then, do some elements contain? 4. In the sentence given, how is the last part connected in thought with the first? How is this connection expressed? What, then, do some elements contain? 5. What must an element express? What does it thereby become? 6. In what three forms may elements be? 7. How is each form named? 8. Give a synopsis of logical elements. How many elements does a sentence contain?

PRACTICE.

Select from the following passages the words, or groups of words, which, separately, make an element of the sentence, and state whether each is word, phrase, or clause, and, also, to what the word is is joined, and how.

MODEL. Trust is a word-element, joined directly with is as its subject. Conferred is a word-element, joined directly with trust. On me is a phrase-element, joined to conferred by the preposition on. Which a citizen can receive is a clauseelement, joined by which to trusts understood after weighty.

The trust conferred on me is one of the most weighty which a citizen can receive. It concerns the grandest inter est of our Commonwealth, and also of the Union in which we are indissolubly linked. Like every post of eminent duty, it is a post of eminent honor. A personal ambition, such as I cannot confess, might be satisfied to possess it; but when I think what it requires, I am obliged to say that its honors are eclipsed by its duties.- Charles Sumner to the Legislature of Massachusetts.

You speak like a boy-like a boy who thinks the old

gnarled oak can be twisted as easily as the young sapling. Can I forget that I have been branded as an outlaw, stigmatized as a traitor, a price set on my head as if I had been a wolf, my family treated as the dam and cubs of the hillfox, whom all may torment, degrade, vilify and insult; the very name which came to me from a long and noble line of martial ancestors denounced as if it were a spell to conjure up the devil with? And they shall find that the name they have dared to proscribe-that the name of MacGregor-is a spell to raise the wild devil withal.-Rob Roy, in Sir Walter Scott's romance of that name.

LESSON V.

INTRODUCTORY.

STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES, CONTINUED: LOGICAL

ELEMENTS.

1. PRECEDING lessons have shown, in part, of what and how sentences are made. The business of analysis is not to construct sentences, but to take them to pieces; but in order to do the latter intelligently, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the former. The importance of this as a preparation for profitable analysis is so great as to justify a repetition of these lessons in a slightly different form.

2. The words mountain, book, merciful, sweet, emigrate, deceive, which are all idea-words, make no sentence standing in whatever order, because there is no obvious or discoverable connection among the ideas, nor will any transposition of the words or the introduction of relation-words readily