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The exercises are framed to illustrate great principles
High School, LIVERPOOL INSTITUTE,
LIVERPOOL, October, 1878.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ANALYSIS OF SIMPLE SENTENCES.
On the Simple Sentence.
$1. Simple sentences have three forms; namely, of
1. Assertion, Brutus stabbed Cæsar.
Command, Do thou likewise !
Long live the King ! The relations of words to one another in a sentence are the same whatever the form of the sentence
Sentences must begin with capital letters, and be separated from each other by FULL stops, by marks of question, or by marks of exclamation.
§ 2. Every sentence has two parts: the Subject and the Predicate.
[The subject stands for what is spoken about, and the predicate stands for what is said about it.]
§ 3. A single-word subject is called a noun, and a single-word predicate is called a verb.
Even the shortest sentences must therefore contain at least two words, a noun and a verb. Such sentences stand thus :
$ 4. Many verbs, called Transitive, cannot make a predicate by themselves (like those in $ 3), but must be followed by Objects. (8 41.)
[Objects stand for things which receive the action expressed by the verb.]
A single-word object is a noun, like the singleword subject.
$5. Copulative Verbs also cannot make predicates by themselves, but require to be followed, not by objects, but by nouns which stand for the same thing as the subject, or by words which describe it.
e.g. Sheep are animals. The work proved difficult.
Copulative verbs, together with their complements, may be taken as equivalents of other verbs. e.g. Serpents are creepers Serpents creep.
Thousands are mourners = Thousands mourn.