Higher Lessons in English Part 10

CONJUNCTIONS AND INTERJECTIONS.

+Introductory Hints.+--_Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth reigned in England._ The three words _Edward, Mary,_ and _Elizabeth_ have the same predicate--the same act being a.s.serted of the king and the two queens.

_Edward, Mary_, and _Elizabeth_ are connected by _and_, _and_ being understood between Edward and Mary. Connected subjects having the same predicate form a +Compound Subject+.

_Charles I. was seized, was tried, and was beheaded._ The three predicates _was seized, was tried_, and _was beheaded_ have the same subject--the three acts being a.s.serted of the same king. Connected predicates having the same subject form a +Compound Predicate.+

A sentence may have both a compound subject and a compound predicate; as, _Mary_ and _Elizabeth lived_ and _reigned_ in England.

The words connecting the parts of a compound subject or of a compound predicate are called +Conjunctions+ (Lat. _con_, or _c.u.m_, together, and _jungere_, to join).

A conjunction may connect other parts of the sentence, as two word modifiers--A dark _and_ rainy night follows; Some men sin deliberately _and_ presumptuously.

It may connect two phrases; as, The equinox occurs in March _and_ in September.

It may connect two clauses, that is, expressions that, standing alone, would be sentences; as, The leaves of the pine fall in spring, _but_ the leaves of the maple drop in autumn.

+Interjections+ (Lat. _inter_, between, and _jacere_, to throw) are the eighth and last part of speech.

_Oh! ah! pooh! pshaw!_ etc., express bursts of feeling too sudden and violent for deliberate sentences.

_Hail! fudge! indeed! amen! _etc., express condensed thought as well as feeling.

Any part of speech may be wrenched from its construction with other words, and may lapse into an interjection; _as, behold! shame! what!_

Professor Sweet calls interjections _sentence-words_.

Two or more connected subjects having the same predicate form a +Compound Subject+.

Two or more connected predicates having the same subject form a +Compound Predicate+.

+DEFINITION.--A _Conjunction_ is a word used to connect words, phrases, or clauses.+

+DEFINITION.--An _Interjection_ is a word used to express strong or sudden feeling.+

a.n.a.lysis and Parsing.

1. Ah! anxious wives, sisters, and mothers wait for the news.

Ah ---- wives ======== ' ' | wait sisters 'x =====|=========== ========' anxious for 'and/ ' / news mothers ' / ----- ========'/ the

+Explanation+.--The three short horizontal lines represent each a part of the compound subject. They are connected by dotted lines, which stand for the connecting word. The x shows that a conjunction is understood. The line standing for the word modifier is joined to that part of the subject line which represents the entire subject. Turn this diagram about, and the connected horizontal lines will stand for the parts of a compound predicate.

+Oral a.n.a.lysis+.---_Wives, sisters_, and _mothers_ form the compound subject; _anxious_ is a modifier of the compound subject; _and_ connects _sisters_ and _mothers_.

+Parsing+.--_And_ is a conjunction connecting _sisters_ and _mothers_; _ah_ is an interjection, expressing a sudden burst of feeling.

2. In a letter we may advise, exhort, comfort, request, and discuss.

(For diagram see the last sentence of the "Explanation" above.)

3. The mental, moral, and muscular powers are improved by use.

powers came ================= ========= The X and and of ........ ....... parentage muscular ----------- moral from mental land ---------

4. The hero of the Book of Job came from a strange land and of a strange parentage.

5. The optic nerve pa.s.ses from the brain to the back of the eyeball, and there spreads out.

6. Between the mind of man and the outer world are interposed the nerves of the human body.

7. All forms of the lever and all the princ.i.p.al kinds of hinges are found in the body.

8. By perfection is meant the full and harmonious development of all the faculties.

9. Ugh! I look forward with dread to to-morrow.

10. From the Mount of Olives, the Dead Sea, dark and misty and solemn, is seen.

11. Tush! tush! 't will not again appear.

12. A sort of gunpowder was used at an early period in China and in other parts of Asia.

13. Some men sin deliberately and presumptuously.

14. Feudalism did not and could not exist before the tenth century.

15. The opinions of the New York press are quoted in every port and in every capital.

16. Both friend and foe applauded.

friend ------------------- ' ' | applauded 'and.... Both >===|=========== ' / foe ' / --------'----------/

+Explanation+.--The conjunction _both_ is used to strengthen the real connective _and_. _Either_ and _neither_ do the same for _or_ and _nor_ in _either--or_, _neither--nor_.

+Remark.+--A phrase that contains another phrase as a modifier is called a +Complex Phrase+. Two or more phrases connected by a conjunction form a +Compound Phrase+.

+Direction.+--_Pick out the simple, the complex, and the compound phrases in the sentences above._

LESSON 21.

COMPOSITION---CONNECTED TERMS AND INTERJECTIONS.

+COMMA--RULE.--Words or phrases connected by conjunctions are separated from each other by the comma unless all the conjunctions are expressed.+

+Remark+.--When words and phrases stand in pairs, the pairs are separated according to the Rule, but the words of each pair are not.

When one of two terms has a modifier that without the comma might be referred to both, or, when the parts of compound predicates and of other phrases are long or differently modified, these terms or parts are separated by the comma though no conjunction is omitted.

When two terms connected by or have the same meaning, the second is logically explanatory of the first, and is set off by the comma, _i. e._, when it occurs in the body of a sentence, a comma is placed after the explanatory word, as well as before the _or_.

+Direction.+--_Justify the punctuation of these sentences:_--

1. Long, pious pilgrimages are made to Mecca.

2. Empires rise, flourish, and decay.

3. Cotton is raised in Egypt, in India, and in the United States.

4. The brain is protected by the skull, or cranium.

5. Nature and art and science were laid under tribute.