CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



readily written as bisected into subject and predi- 

 cate, thus : 



SUBJECT. PREDICATE. 



Seasons return. 



A small leak will sink a great ship. 



The sense of death js most in appreliension. 



To dig is better than to beg. 

 Those who have the greatest^ 



gifts, and are of the great- > are the most humble. 



est usefulness, ) 



When the structure is inverted or involved, it is 

 necessary to change the order, that the division 

 may be seen. Thus, the sentences : ' Short was 

 his triumph,' 'Where necessity ends, curiosity 

 begins,' 'It is a universal law of nature, that 

 disuse diminishes the capabilities of things' 

 may be written : 



His triumph was short. 



Curiosity begins where necessity ends. 



That disuse diminishes the ) _ ^ ^ , aw f t 

 capabilities of things, j 



In all these cases, the words on the left hand, be 

 they one or many, are all taken up in naming or 

 defining the subject ; those on the right, in naming 

 or defining the predicate. 



But many sentences cannot be thus divided 

 simply into two parts ; as, for instance, ' The sun 

 gives light by day, and the moon by night.' This 

 is, in fact, two distinct sentences combined, each 

 of which has its own subject and predicate, thus : 

 ' The sun gives light by day,' and ' The moon 

 gives light by night.' It is thus still true that 

 every single sentence is divisible into two parts. 

 But to return in the meantime to the analysis of 

 the simple sentence. 



In looking at the predicates of the sentences 

 dissected above, it will be observed that in many 

 of them the little word is (or are, was, were, &c. 

 which are all parts of the same verb, to be) occurs, 

 and seems to perform the office of binding the 

 predicate to the subject ; it is hence called the 

 copula. This little word appears indeed to be 

 the very essence of the sentence in which it 

 occurs that which makes it a sentence ; and 

 even in sentences that seem to be without it, it is 

 found to be present in a concealed form. Thus : 

 * The sun shines,' is equivalent to, ' The sun is 

 shining;' 'The sun shone,' to, 'The sun was 

 shining;' 'He will come,' to, 'He is about to 

 come.' Is can also be used as a predicate by 

 itself; as in 'God is,' which is equivalent to 

 ' God is existing.' 



In such sentences as, 'John will come,' ' I can 

 swim,' the copula lies in the words ' will ' and 

 4 can,' which belong to the class called auxiliary 

 verbs. (See page 586.) 



This further analysis gives us another part to 

 the sentence. The subject remains as it was ; 

 but the predicate is now resolved into (i) the 

 thing predicated, and (2) the act of predicating 

 it, which act is performed by the copula. This 

 division of the sentence into three parts subject, 

 copula, predicate is rather a logical division 

 than a grammatical. In grammar, as the copula 

 is often inseparable in form, it is generally 

 included in the term predicate. 



Such a sentence as, ' The sun shines,' presents 

 the barest form that a complete sentence can 

 have ; and may be called a skeleton sentence. It 

 contains merely the essential parts the subject, 

 predicate, and copula (involved in ' shines ') the 

 absence of any one of which would make it cease 



578 



to be a sentence ; these, therefore, are called the 

 principal elements of the sentence. The enlarge- 

 ment or development of a sentence takes place by 

 means of adjuncts, or secondary elements, tacked 

 on to the principal elements. The Predicate, for 

 instance, becomes enlarged beyond the skeleton 

 form, when the nature of the action is such that 

 the sense is not complete unless some object is 

 named on which the action is exerted ; as, ' The 

 gardener pruned (a tree).' Here ' a tree ' is the 

 object of the action, and forms the complement of 

 the predicate. Again, the Subject of the sentence 

 is enlarged by having attributes attached to it 

 that is, a word or words joined to it expressing 

 some quality or circumstance belonging to it ; 

 and the same may take place with the subject. 

 Thus : ' A skilful gardener pruned a tall tree ; ' 

 or still more enlarged, ' Our new gardener in the 

 fustian jacket pruned the young pear-tree, on the 

 south wall of the garden.' A further extension 

 takes place by joining words to the principal 

 element of the predicate, expressive of attributes 

 or circumstances of the action ; as, ' Our new 

 gardener thoroughly pruned the young pear- 

 tree ;' or yet more extended ' thoroughly pruned 

 the young pear-tree yesterday with his knife. 1 

 The words expressing the attributes of the subject 

 and of the object are in like manner capable of 

 extension ; as, ' An exceedingly skilful gardener 

 pruned a very tall tree.' And so we may go on, 

 attaching one secondary element to another, at 

 one, two, or more degrees of removal from the 

 principal, until we have expressed all the meaning 

 that we wish to convey. 



It is important to observe the effect of these 

 secondary adjuncts on the sense of the expressions. 

 The name gardener involves all the meaning 

 that is, the same number of attributes that is 

 involved in the name man, together with some- 

 thing more ; a certain knowledge, namely, of 

 plants, and handicraft in cultivating them. When, 

 instead of gardener, we use the expression skilful 

 'gardener, we add to the previous meaning the 

 j further attribute, that the person possesses more 

 ! of this knowledge and handicraft than many 

 , gardeners do. The consequence is, that the 

 ! enlarged expression no longer suits so many indi- 

 j viduals as the simple name did ; for all unskilful 

 gardeners are now excluded. The enlarged name 

 calls up an enlarged idea ; but the class to which 

 | it is applicable is limited or narrowed. In such 

 an expression as, ' Our new gardener in the 

 fustian jacket} the effect of the adjuncts is to limit 

 the application to a single individual. 



Instead of, ' Our new gardener in the fustian 

 jacket pruned the young pear-tree, on the south 

 wall of the garden} we might write, without at all 

 changing the sense, ' Our new gardener, that 

 wears the fustian jacket, pruned the young pear- 

 tree, that grows on the garden-wall on which the 

 sun shines, when he is south' Here some of the 

 adjuncts of the principal elements of the sentence 

 have undergone a transformation, and have 

 become sentences of a sort themselves. In logic, 

 the expressions, ' The gardener in the fustian 

 jacket,' and ' The gardener that wears the fustian 

 I jacket,' are identical ; they equally serve to name 

 j or define the subject of the sentence. But in 

 ! grammar, as the clause, ' that wears a fustian 

 ! jacket,' contains an affirmative word or finite 

 I verb (see page 585), it is considered as a sentence. 



