Graded Lessons in English Part 16

Live, feel, and grow; judges and rewards; owes and pays; inhale and exhale; expand and contract; flutters and alights; fly, buzz, and sting; restrain or punish.

Write _compound subjects_ before the following _predicates_.

May be seen; roar; will be appointed; have flown; has been recommended.

_Write compound predicates_ after the following _compound subjects_.

Boys, frogs, and horses; wood, coal, and peat; Maine and New Hampshire; Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill; pins, tacks, and needles.

Write _compound subjects_ before the following _compound predicates_.

Throb and ache; were tried, condemned, and hanged; eat, sleep, and dress.

Choose your own material and write five sentences, each having a _compound subject_ and a _compound predicate_.

LESSON 39.

COMPLEMENTS.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.--When we say, _The sun gives_, we express no complete thought. The subject _sun_ is complete, but the predicate _gives_ does not make a complete a.s.sertion. When we say, _The sun gives light_, we do utter a complete thought. The predicate _gives_ is completed by the word _light_. Whatever fills out, or _completes_, we call a +Complement+. We will therefore call _light_ the complement of the predicate. As _light_ completes the predicate by naming the thing acted upon, we call it the +Object Complement+.

Expressions like the following may be written on the board, and by a series of questions the pupils may be made to dwell upon these facts till they are thoroughly understood.

The officer arrested -----; the boy found -----; Charles saw -----; coopers make -----.

Besides these verbs requiring object complements, there are others that do not make complete sense without the aid of a complement of _another_ kind.

A complete predicate does the a.s.serting and expresses what is a.s.serted. In the sentence, _Armies march_, _march_ is a complete predicate, for it does the a.s.serting and expresses what is a.s.serted; viz., _marching_. In the phrase, _armies marching_, _marching_ expresses the same act as that denoted by _march_, but it _a.s.serts_ nothing. In the sentence, _Chalk is white_, _is_ does the a.s.serting, but it does not express what is a.s.serted.

We do not wish to a.s.sert merely that chalk _is_ or _exists_. What we wish to a.s.sert of chalk, is the quality expressed by the adjective _white_. As _white_ expresses a quality or attribute, we may call it an +Attribute Complement+.

Using expressions like the following, let the facts given above be drawn from the cla.s.s by means of questions.

Gra.s.s growing; gra.s.s grows; green gra.s.s; gra.s.s is green.

+DEFINITION.--The _Object Complement of a sentence_ completes the predicate, and names that which receives the act+.

+DEFINITION.--The _Attribute Complement_ of a sentence completes the predicate and belongs to the subject+.

The complement with all its modifiers is called the +_Modified Complement_+.

a.n.a.lysis and Parsing.

+Model+.--_Fulton invented the first steamboat_.

Fulton | invented | steamboat ========|====================== | the first

+Explanation of the Diagram+.--You will see that the line standing for the _object complement_ is a continuation of the predicate line, and that the little vertical line only touches this without cutting it.

+Oral a.n.a.lysis.--+_Fulton_ and _invented_, as before. _Steamboat_ is the _object complement_, because it completes the predicate, and names that which receives the act. _The_ and _first_, as before. _The first steamboat_ is the _modified complement_.

1. Caesar crossed the Rubicon.

2. Morse invented the telegraph.

3. Ericsson built the Monitor.

4. Hume wrote a history.

5. Morn purples the east, 6. Antony beheaded Cicero.

+Model+.--_Gold is malleable_.

Gold | is malleable =====|=============== |

In this diagram, the line standing for the _attribute complement_, like the _object line_, is a continuation of the predicate line; but notice the difference in the little mark separating the _incomplete_[Footnote: Hereafter we shall call the _verb_ the _predicate_, but, when followed by a complement, it must be regarded as an _incomplete_ predicate.] predicate from the complement.

+Oral a.n.a.lysis+.---_Gold_ and _is_, as before.

_Malleable_ is the _attribute complement_, because it completes the predicate, and expresses a quality belonging to gold.

7. Pure water is tasteless.

8. The hare is timid.

9. Fawns are graceful.

10. This peach is delicious.

11. He was extremely prodigal.

12. The valley of the Mississippi is very fertile.

+To the Teacher+--See Notes, pp. 183,184.

LESSON 40.

ERRORS IN THE USE OF MODIFIERS.

+Caution+.--Place _adverbs_ where there can be no doubt as to the words they modify.

ERRORS TO BE CORRECTED.

I only bring forward a few things.

Hath the Lord only [Footnote: Adverbs sometimes modify phrases.]spoken by Moses?

We merely speak of numbers.

The Chinese chiefly live upon rice.

+Caution+.--In placing the adverb, regard must be had to the _sound_ of the sentence.