Sentence Building

CHAPTER XIII

SENTENCE BUILDING

A. INCOMPLETE VERBS AND THEIR COMPLEMENTS

200. An Incomplete Verb is one that requires the addition of another word, called the complement, to give the sentence meaning.

EXERCISE 176

201. In each of these sentences, —

	I am cold.	You are generous.
	He was asleep.	He slept.
	They were ill.	They suffered.
	She is happy.	He smiles.

what is the complete predicate? In those of three words, does the verb or the adjective tell us more about the person mentioned? In those of two words, what describes the person mentioned?
Each of the verbs slept, suffered, smiles, is enough to give us some information; but the verbs —

am, was, were, is, are,

only begin to tell us something that is expressed mostly by the adjectives. Of course there is no assertion without the verb; but in He was asleep, the adjective, being the word that describes what the subject refers to, is so important, that the verb seems incomplete without it. The two words together — was asleep — are very much like the single verb in He slept, for that means about the same thing.

EXERCISE 177.

202. In the sentences, —

The story seems doubtful. The clouds look stormy.

we see incomplete verbs that by themselves have a little more meaning than the ones we have been studying, such as — am, is, are, was, were, will be, is being, has been, etc.
But even these verbs serve principally to connect or couple the subject with something that describes what it refers to, and so they are all called Copulative verbs.
There are not many of them, but they are very frequently used.

203. In the sentences, —

	Those men were soldiers.	Boys may be heroes.
	Harrisburg is the capital.	Our guide will be an Aborigine.

what kind of word is added to the verb to describe what the subject refers to? What two words in each sentence refer to the same person or thing?
We see that a noun, as well as an adjective, may be used with the verb as a sort of second name, to describe what the subject stands for, or to explain what is meant.

204. A noun used as a complement with a compulative verb is called a predicate noun. [See § 159.]

EXERCISE 178.

205. A Copulative verb is one that has a complement hat describes what the subject refers to.
The word “copulative” means coupling or connecting.

EXERCISE 179.

2. TRANSITIVE VERBS

EXERCISE 180.

EXERCISE 181.

EXERCISE 182.

206. In nearly all the sentences in Ex. 181, the verb alone gives considerable information about the subject; but yet it would seem very incomplete to say, —

The trees shed. Dairies sell. Hail destroys.

for any one would wait to hear what the trees shed, what the dairies sell, and so on.
We see, then, that there are still other verbs, such as shed, shed, sell, destroys, bends, that we must call incomplete, since they have so much need of an object to fill out the meaning.

207. These verbs assert that some action is performed that passes over to and affects something else. The complement shows who or what it is that receives this action. So they are called Transitive — which means “passing over.”

208. We cannot tell whether a verb is transitive or not except by its use, for sometimes the verb without an object expresses as much as we wish to say, or else it has a different meaning.

EXERCISE 183.

209. A Transitive verb is one that has a complement showing who or what receives the action.

210. The complement of a transitive verb is called its Object.

211. Copulative and transitive verbs are the only ones that always need complements. Most others are complete in themselves.
If we say, —

The sun rises. The lilacs blossom.

the idea is complete without adding anything; for nobody could ask what the sun rises, or what the lilacs blossom. The rising or the blossoming does not necessarily affect anything else.

EXERCISE 184.

212. A Complete verb is one that requires no complement.

EXERCISE 185.

EXERCISE 186.

3. COMPLEMENTS

     213. We have learned that there are two kinds of complements: —
     I. The complement of a copulative verb refers to the subject, and is called a Subjective Complement.
     Any word or phrase that can modify a noun or a pronoun may be a subjective complement; as, —

	Some plants are poisonous.	(adjective)
	Your friends are musicians.	(noun)
	It cannot have been he.	(pronoun)
	Time is of great value.	(phrase)

     214. II. The complement of a transitive verb is the object of it, and has nothing to do with the subject of the sentence, but only with the verb.
     (a) Any noun or pronoun may be used with a transitive verb as the object of it, as may also clauses (Ch. 24) and verbal phrases (Ch. 23) acting as nouns.
     (b) As adverbs and other expressions modify the verb by answering the questions how, how, when, where, etc., so the object answers the question what. Objects are the most important and necessary kind of modifiers, and this is why they are called complements of the verb.

215. A Complement is what must be added to an incomplete verb to give meaning to the sentence.

EXERCISE 187.

B. THE BASE OF A SENTENCE

216. The materials that we must have for making the shortest of sentences are — subject with a noun or a pronoun in it; and a predicate with a verb in it.
(a) Two words are required; something talked about, and something said; as, —

Night comes. Hope departs. Life ends.

Look you! Who calls?

(b) But when the verb is incomplete, that is, when the sentence would be almost meaningless without some other word in the predicate, then three words at least are required; as, —

We are children. Youth is hopeful. Love makes friends.

Drinking may have cause death.

217. In every simple sentence there are these two or three foundation elements, upon which all the rest is built up, and which we call the Base.

218. The Base of a Sentence, or what it needs more than anything else to give it meaning, consists either of two parts or elements: —

Subject,

Complete Verb;

or of three parts: —

	Subject,	Copulative Verb,	Subjective Complement; or,
	Subject,	Transitive Verb,	Object.

EXERCISE 188.

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