Plain English Part 99

Adjective, _conscious_.

Adjective phrase, _in the ranks_.

Adjective clause, (_none_).

+Complete subject+, _Conscious solidarity in the ranks_.

Modifiers of the predicate:

Adverb, _now_.

Adverb phrase, _in our day_.

Adverb clause, (_none_).

+Direct object+, _freedom_.

Modifiers of direct object:

Adjective, _the_.

Adjective phrase, (_none_).

Adjective clause, _which they seek_,

+Indirect object+, _cla.s.s_.

Modifiers of indirect object:

Adjectives, _the_, _working_.

Adjective phrase, _of the world_.

Adjective clause, (_none_).

+Complete predicate+, _would give the working cla.s.s of the world, now, in our day, the freedom which they seek_.

a.n.a.lyze the dependent clause, _which they seek_, just as a princ.i.p.al clause is a.n.a.lyzed. _They_ is the simple subject, _seek_ is the simple predicate, _which_ is the direct object. The complete predicate is _seek which_.

+449.+ Notice that the first two sentences given in the exercise below are imperative sentences,--the subject, the p.r.o.noun _you_, being omitted so that the entire sentence is the complete predicate. As for example: _Take the place which belongs to you_. The omitted subject is the p.r.o.noun _you_. _Take the place which belongs to you_ is the complete predicate, made up of the simple predicate _take_; its object, the noun _place_; the adjective _the_, and the adjective clause, _which belongs to you_, both of which modify the noun _place_.

Exercise 6

Using the outline given above, a.n.a.lyze the following complex sentences.

1. Take the place which belongs to you.

2. Let us believe that brave deeds will never die.

3. The orator knows that the greatest ideas should be expressed in the simplest words.

4. Grat.i.tude is the fairest flower that sheds its perfume in the human heart.

5. Children should be taught that it is their duty to think for themselves.

6. We will be slaves as long as we are ignorant.

7. We must teach our fellow men that honor comes from within.

8. Cause and effect cannot be severed for the effect already blooms in the cause.

9. Men measure their esteem of each other by what each has.

10. Our esteem should be measured by what each is.

11. What I must do is all that concerns me.

12. The great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps the independence of solitude.

13. The only right is what is after my const.i.tution.

14. Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist.

15. They who build on ideas build for eternity.

Exercise 7

We have studied all the parts of speech, and now our work is to combine these parts for the expression of thought. It will be good practice and very helpful to us to mark these different parts of speech in our reading. This helps us to grow familiar with their use. It also helps us to add words to our vocabulary and to learn how to use them correctly.

In the following quotation, mark underneath each word, the name of every part of speech. Use _n._ for noun, _v._ for verb, _pro._ for p.r.o.noun, _adv._ for adverb, _adj._ for adjective, _p._ for preposition and _c._ for conjunction. Write _v. p._ under the verb phrases. For example:

+The workers of the world do not have, _adj._ _n._ _p._ _adj._ _n._ _v.p._ _adv._ _v.p._

under this system, very many opportunities _p._ _adj._ _n._ _adv._ _adj._ _n._

for rest and pleasure for themselves.+ _p._ _n._ _c._ _n._ _p._ _pro._

Mark in this manner every part of speech in the following quotation:

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of cla.s.s struggles.

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman,--in a word, oppressor and oppressed,--stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-const.i.tution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending cla.s.ses.

In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the middle ages, feudal lords, va.s.sals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these cla.s.ses, again, subordinate gradations.

The modern bourgeois society, that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society, has not done away with cla.s.s antagonisms. It has but established new cla.s.ses, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.

--_Communist Manifesto_.

Exercise 8

In the following quotation, mark all of the clauses and determine whether they are dependent or independent clauses. If they are dependent clauses, determine whether they are noun, adjective or adverb clauses.

Mark all the sentences and tell whether they are simple or complex.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of our country than ever before, even in the midst of war. G.o.d grant that my forebodings may be groundless. Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a refuge from the power of the people. In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit to raise a warning voice against the approach of a returning despotism.... It is a.s.sumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that n.o.body labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow, by the use of it, induces him to labor. Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could not have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. I bid the laboring people beware of surrendering the power which they possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to shut the door of advancement for such as they, and fix new disabilities and burdens upon them until all of liberty shall be lost.

In the early days of our race the Almighty said to the first of mankind, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," and since then, if we except the light and air of Heaven, no good thing has been or can be enjoyed by us without first having cost labor. And inasmuch as most good things have been produced by labor, it follows that all such things belong of right to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened, in all ages of the world, that some have labored and others have without labor enjoyed a large portion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any government.

It seems strange that any man should dare to ask a just G.o.d's a.s.sistance in wringing bread from the sweat of other men's faces.

This country, with its inst.i.tutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.