PART III.

SYNTAX.

SYNTAX treats of the relation, agreement, government, and arrangement, of words in sentences.

The relation of words, is their dependence, or connexion, according to the sense.

The agreement of words, is their similarity in person, number, gender, case, mood, tense, or form.

The government of words, is that power which one word has over an other, to cause it to assume some particular modification.

The arrangement of words, is their collocation, or relative position, in a sentence.

CHAPTER I.-OF SENTENCES.

A sentence is an assemblage of words, making complete sense, and always containing a nominative and a verb; "Reward sweetens labour."

as,

The principal parts of a sentence are usually three; namely, the SUBJECT, or nominative,—the attribute, or finite VERB,—and the case put after, or the OBJECT governed by the verb; as, "Crimes deserve punishment."

The other parts depend upon these, either as primary or as secondary adjuncts; as, "High crimes justly deserve very severe punishments."

Sentences are of two kinds, simple and compound.

A simple sentence is a sentence which consists of one single assertion, supposition, command, question, or exclamation; as, "David and Jonathan loved each other." "Do violence to no man."-" Were I Brutus."

A compound sentence is a sentence which consists of two or more simple ones either expressly or tacitly connected; as, "Send men to Joppa, and call for Šimon,

whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved."-Acts, xi, 13. A clause, or member, is a subdivision of a compound sentence; and is itself a sentence, either simple or compound.

A phrase is two or more words which express some relation of different ideas, but no entire proposition; as, "By the means appointed"-"To be plain with you."

Words that are omitted by ellipsis, and that are necessarily understood in order to complete the construction, must be supplied in parsing.

THE RULES OF SYNTAX.

1. RULES OF RELATION AND AGREEMENT.

RULE I-ARTICLES.

Articles relate to the nouns which they limit.

RULE II-NOMINATIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative case.

RULE III.—APPOSITION.

A Noun or a personal Pronoun used to explain a preceding noun or pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the

same case.

RULE IV.-ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns.

RULE V.-PRONOUNS.

A Pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it represents, in person, number, and gender.

RULE VI.-PRONOUNS.

When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Pronoun must agree with it in the plural number.

RULE VII.—PRONOUNS.

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents con

nected by and, it must agree with them in the plural number.

RULE VIII.-PRONOUNS.

When a Pronoun has two or more singular antecedents connected by or or nor, it must agree with them in the singular number."

RULE IX.-VERBS.

A finite Verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number.

RULE X.-VERBS.

When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Verb must agree with it in the plural number.

RULE XI.-VERBS.

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must agree with them in the plural number.

RULE XII.-VERBS.

When a Verb has two or more singular nominatives connected by or or nor, it must agree with them in the singular number.

RULE XIII.-VERBS.

When Verbs are connected by a conjunction, they must either agree in mood, tense, and form, or have separate nominatives expressed.

RULE XIV.-PARTICIPLES.

Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by prepositions.

RULE XV.-ADVERBS.

Adverbs relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs.

RULE XVI.-CONJUNCTIONS.

Conjunctions connect either words or sentences.

RULE XVII.—PREPOSITIONS.

Prepositions show the relations of things.

RULE XVIII.—INTERJECTIONS.

Interjections have no dependent construction.

2. RULES OF GOVERNMENT.*

RULE XIX.-POSSESSIVES.

A noun or a pronoun in the Possessive case, is governed by the name of the thing possessed.

RULE XX. OBJECTIVES.

Active-transitive verbs, and their imperfect and preperfect participles, govern the Objective case.

RULE XXI.-SAME CASES.

Active-intransitive, passive, and neuter verbs, and their participles, take the same case after as before them, when both words refer to the same thing.

RULE XXII.- -OBJECTIVES.

Prepositions govern the Objective case.

RULE XXIII.—INFINITIVES.

The preposition To governs the Infinitive mood, and commonly connects it to a finite verb.

RULE XXIV.—INFINITIVES.

The active verbs, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see, and their participles, usually take the Infinitive after them, without the preposition TO.

RULE XXV.-NOM. ABSOLUTE.

A noun or a pronoun is put absolute in the Nominative, when its case depends on no other word.

RULE XXVI.—SUBJUNCTIVES.

A future contingency is best expressed by a verb in the Subjunctive, present; and a mere supposition, with indefinite time, by a verb in the Subjunctive, imperfect: but a conditional circumstance assumed as a fact, requires the Indicative mood.

*The Arrangement of words is treated of, in the Observations under the Rules of Syntax, in Chapters 2d and 3d.

THE ANALYZING OF SENTENCES.

To analyze a sentence, is, to resolve it into some species of constituent parts, but most properly into words, its first significant elements, and to point out their several relations and powers in the given connexion.

The component parts of a sentence are members, clauses, phrases, or words. Some sentences, which are short and simple, can only be divided into their words; others, which are long and complex, may be resolved into parts again and again divisible.

Of analysis applicable to sentences, there are several different methods; and, so far as their difference may compatibly aid the application of different principles of the science of grammar, there may be an advantage in the occasional use of each.

Parsing is either partial or complete; and, when duly graduated, has initiatory steps, or a series of preparatory praxes pertaining to etymology: yet is it ever, essentially, so far as it goes, one and the same process; and, in its completeness, or as Full Syntactical Parsing, it is the very best method of sentential analysis.

FIRST METHOD OF ANALYSIS.

Sentences not simple may be reduced to their constituent members, clauses, or simple sentences; and the means by which these are united, may be shown. Thus :

EXAMPLE ANALYZED.

"Even the Atheist, who tells us that the universe is selfexistent and indestructible—even he, who instead of seeing the traces of a manifold wisdom in its manifold varieties, sees nothing in them all but the exquisite structures and the lofty dimensions of materialism-even he, who would despoil creation of its God, cannot look upon its golden suns, and their accompanying systems, without the solemn impression of a magnificence that fixes and overpowers him."-DR. CHALMERS, Discourses on Revelation and Astronomy, p. 231.

ANALYSIS.-This is a compound sentence, consisting of three complex members, which are separated by the two dashes. The three members are united in one sentence, by a suspension of the sense at each dash, and by two virtual repetitions of the subject, "Atheist," through the pronoun "he," put in the same case, and representing this noun. The sense mainly intended is not brought out till the period ends. Each of the three members is complex, because each has not only a relative clause, commencing with "who,” but also an antecedent word which makes sense with "cannot