These extracts are not given for full analysis or parsing. This, also, the
pupil would find profitless, and for the same reason. One gains nothing in
doing what he already does well enough--progress is not made in climbing
the wheel of a treadmill. But the pupil may here review what has been
taught him of the uses of adjective pronouns, of the relatives in
restrictive and in unrestrictive clauses, of certain idioms, of double
negatives, of the split infinitive, of the subjunctive mode, of the
distinctions in meaning between allied verbs, as _lie_ and _lay_, of
certain prepositions, of punctuation, etc. He should study the general
character of each sentence, its divisions and subdivisions, the relations
of the independent and the dependent parts, and their connection, order,
etc. He should note the +periodic structure+ of some of these sentences--of
(4) or (19), for instance--the meaning of which remains in suspense till
near or at the close. He should note in contrast the +loose structure+ of
others--for example, the last sentence in (20)--a sentence that has several
points at any one of which a complete thought has been expressed, but the
part of the sentence following does not, by itself, make complete sense.
Let him try to see which structure is the more natural, and which is the
more forcible, and why; and what style gains by a judicious blending of the
two.
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