In all such instances there is an omission of a word or words necessary to the complete grammatical structure of the sentence. This omission is called Ellipsis, and in analysing sentences of this elliptical character it is necessary to make them complete by supplying the missing words.

228. The student is now in possession of all the information which is requisite to enable him to attack a sentence and break it up into its component parts. Analysis is a capital exercise for the wits, as it cannot be effected by the use of a set of rules mechanically applied. Nor is it to be learnt by merely reading a book on the subject, any more than by reading a treatise on swimming or cricket one could become proficient in the side-stroke or the cut. Books may furnish useful directions, but practice is the only way of acquiring these arts. And so, after giving a few suggestions to the reader as to how he should set to work, and supplying examples of analysis to guide him on points of form, we shall pass on to the treatment of other questions of Syntax.

229. Hints for the Analysis of a Sentence.

I. Take a large sheet of paper and divide it into columns by ruling vertical lines. At the head of these columns write 'Sentence, Kind of Sentence, Subject, Adjuncts of Subject, Predicate, Adjuncts of Predicate, Object, Adjuncts of Object.' Instead of using the term Adjuncts, you can use the term Extension, Expansion, or Limitation, for, as we saw, the effect of an Adjunct is to produce an extension or enlargement of the information which we obtain from the word to which the Adjunct is attached, and a limitation or restriction in the number of things to which the word is applicable. Again, instead of making one column for Predicate, you may, if you like, make two, in case you have to distinguish between an Incomplete Predicate and its Complement. Similarly you may have separate columns for Direct and Indirect objects. But this excessive subdivision makes the sheet present a very complicated appearance and has few compensating advantages. These distinctions may be indicated equally well after the words which require them in the columns headed 'Predicate' and 'Object'.

There are other forms in which the analysis may be worked out, but the tabular form is certainly the neatest, and it possesses this clear superiority over the rest, that the person who corrects the exercise can see at a glance whether the essential points have been correctly grasped.

2. Read the passage over and consider carefully whether it is a Simple, a Compound, or a Complex Sentence, with which you are dealing. Describe it accordingly at the top of the page. Remember that wherever you find a finite verb you have got a separate clause. Supposing that the Sentence is Complex, make sure that you pick out the Principal Clause correctly: a mistake here will turn the whole into nonsense. Then determine what is the relation of the different Subordinate Clauses to the parts of the Principal Clause. This general outline is the element of real value in the entire product. An elaborate analysis, brimful of details, crowded with subdivisions, and elegantly executed, is absolutely worthless, if it starts wrong and represents subordinate clauses as principal clauses.

3. Write down the Principal Clause at the head of your analysis. Find its Subject; then find its Predicate; then, if the verb is transitive, set down the Object.

4. Next look for the Adjuncts of each. The Adjuncts of the Predicate will be adverbial. The Adjuncts of the Subject or Object will generally be adjectival, but not necessarily so: they may be nouns or noun-clauses in apposition. Thus in each of these sentences, "The statement that he has resigned is not true,' 'I don't believe the statement that he has resigned,' the subordinate clause is a noun-clause in apposition with the subject and object respectively.

Subordinate clauses must be dealt with in the same fashion as the Principal clause,-subject, predicate, and object, with the adjuncts of each, being placed in their proper columns.

5. Complete the structure of sentences in which there is an ellipsis before you analyse them. Supply the subject to sentences containing a verb in the Imperative mood. 'Come' must be treated as if it were 'Thou come' or 'You come.' Bear in mind that elliptical sentences expressing a comparison by means of than or as are complex: the clause in which the ellipsis occurs is a subordinate clause. Thus I am stronger than you' in full is 'I am stronger than you are strong'; ‘I am as strong as you' in full is 'I am as strong as you are strong.' The clauses in italics are adverbial adjuncts.

6. The interrogative pronouns may be treated like demonstratives and may form the subject or object of a sentence. In 'Who struck him?' who is the subject: in 'Whom did he strike?' whom is the object. The analysis is similar to that of the sentences 'He struck him,' 'Him did he strike,' i.e. 'He did strike him.'

7. Observe that a clause introduced by relative pronouns or conjunctive adverbs is usually, though not necessarily, adjectival. In the

sentence 'The man who stole the money was arrested' the subordinate clause is adjectival, describing the man; but in 'I know who stole the money' it is a noun-clause: it takes the place of the noun or pronoun, 'the man' or 'him,' and refers to no other noun or pronoun as an antecedent. Compare 'I know the place where he is living' (adjectiveclause), and 'I know where he is living' (noun-clause).

8. Observe also that these relative words sometimes introduce what is really not a subordinate but a co-ordinate clause. 'I met John who gave me your message' is equivalent to 'I met John and he gave me your message': 'I saw him in London where he was living' is equivalent to 'I saw him in London: he was living there.' The clauses in italics make fresh statements and are not limitations of John and of London. They must therefore be analysed as principal sentences.

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9. A relative pronoun is often omitted when it represents the Object it must be inserted in the analysis. So, 'Here is the book I want' requires which as the object of want: 'The man I saw yesterday' requires whom as the object of saw.

10. Pure Conjunctions have no place in the analysis, because they serve merely to join sentences or clauses. Interjections are excluded, because they do not enter into the construction of the sentence. The same remark applies usually, but not invariably, to Vocatives, i.e. Nominatives of Address. Thus in 'O Solitude! where are thy charms?' the subject is charms, and O Solitude must be left out from the analysis: but in 'O Solitude, thou hast no charms' the subject is thou, and Solitude may be described as an enlargement of the subject.

II. An Absolute phrase is an adverbial adjunct of the Predicate. Do not mistake its noun or pronoun for the Subject of the sentence. In 'The door being open, the steed was stolen,' the words in italics give the reason why the stealing was possible: the subject of the sentence is steed, not door.

12. Notice that, when the verb comes before the real subject, the word It or There often stands at the beginning of the sentence: thus, 'It is hard to earn a living,' 'It is true that he did this.' These assertions are equivalent to saying 'To earn a living is hard,' 'That he did this is true.' The it comes first as an indication that the real subject is to follow. In analysing such a sentence, however, 'It' may be called the subject, and the real subject may be regarded as an enlargement or adjunct. There is only the adverb without its full force as marking place. 'There are many pickpockets about' is grammatically the same as 'Many pickpockets are about there': there is an adverbial adjunct of the predicate.

13.

When a Complex Sentence contains as its Subject or Object a noun-clause, this noun-clause forms an essential part of the whole sentence and must be inserted as the Subject or Object of the principal verb. Thus, in the Complex Sentence How he did it is not certain,'

the words How he did it are the subject of the predicate 'is not certain.' In the Complex Sentence 'I know how he did it,' the words how he did it are the object of the principal verb 'I know.' To indicate the relation of the Principal and the Subordinate clause in sentences of this kind, write the entire sentence at the head of your analysis, underline the subordinate clause, and add the information 'Noun-clause' at its close. The sentence 'How he did it is not certain' should be written thus:-'How he did it (Noun Cl.) is not certain.' To describe as a Principal clause the words 'is not certain,' without supplying their subject, would be absurd. Similarly, the sentence 'I know how he did it' should be written in this form :-'I know how he did it' (Noun Cl.).

A.

230. Examples of analysis in tabular form.

In Brugès town is many a street
Whence busy life hath fled;
Where, without hurry, noiseless feet
The grass-grown pavement tread.
There heard we, halting in the shade
Flung from a convent-tower,

A harp that tuneful prelude made
To a voice of thrilling power.

B. While the fourth edition of the Traveller was on the counters of the booksellers, the Vicar of Wakefield appeared, and rapidly obtained a popularity which has lasted down to our own time.

C.

As thro' the land at eve we went
And pluck'd the ripened ears,

We fell out, my wife and I,

And kiss'd again with tears.

And blessings on the falling out

That all the more endears

When we fall out with those we love

And kiss again with tears!

Observe that the two clauses, When we fall out with those we love And kiss again with tears, may be regarded as adjectival adjuncts of falling out, instead of being taken as adverbial adjuncts of endears.

A. Contains two Complex Sentences:

Principal Clause of (I), In Brugès town is many a street.
Principal Clause of (II), There heard we a harp.