CHAPTER X INTERJECTIONS AND EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES CLASSES OF INTERJECTIONS 177.. INTERJECTIONS are hardly parts of speech, though they are conveniently considered under that head; for many of them are not properly words at all. True interjections are sounds or combinations of sounds used to express emotion and not definite ideas. Grammatically they are always independent, i. e., unnecessary to the structure of the sentence, though, like other absolute constructions, they are related to its meaning. a. Interjections may be roughly classed under the following heads: I. Those that express Pain: Oh! Alas! Ah! Surprise: Ha! Oh! Contempt or indignation: Fiel Fudge! Pshaw! II. Emphatic expressions: By Jove! Goodness! Mercy! IV. Quieting words: Hush! Hist! v. Onomatopoetic words: Ding-dong! Bang! Bing! vi. Rhyming and alliterative words: See-saw! Tip-top! Hoity toity! b. Various parts of speech appear as interjections. 1. Adverbs: Well! How! Why! Indeed! I. Verbs: See! Help! Behold! III. Nouns: Bother! Nonsense! Peace! Goodness! IV. Adjectives: Good! c. Substantives may accompany interjections (Section 88e); also other expressions: I. Phrases: Fie on you! II. Epithets: Oh, you little rogue! EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES 178. Exclamatory sentences are frequently elliptical in form, because the emotion of the speaker or writer makes him disinclined to use unnecessary words in the expression of his feeling. The verbs, nouns, and adjectives mentioned above as found in interjectional use (Section 177b), may be elliptical sentences; the verbs being imperatives, Bother! standing for "What a bother it is!" and Good! for "That is a good thing!" King Richard III, lame, defeated, deserted, in danger of capture and execution, does not stop to make the grammatically complete sentence, 1a. I need a horse; I would give my kingdom for a horse, but calls out, 1b. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! -SHAKESPEARE, Richard III v. 4. 13. Cowper does not prosily remark, 2a. I long for a lodge in some vast wilderness, but expresses his longing in the phrase, 2b. Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness! The desire for a contented mind is more strongly voiced by 34. Oh, for a calm, a thankful heart! than it could be by the complete sentence, 3b. I long for a calm and thankful heart. For other contractions of the sentences expressing emotion, see Section 230. NOTE. For elliptical exclamatory sentences, see also Strong, Logeman, and Wheeler, History of Language, Chapter VI, "The Fundamental Facts of Syntax." 179. The exclamatory sentence is not infrequently introduced by an intensifying expression, like what a or how, or by an interrogative pronoun (Sections 97d and 106). 1. What a fine day it is! 2. How it rains! 3. Who would believe it! In such sentences there is frequently a change of word order. 4. How are the mighty fallen!—2 Samuel i. 19, 25. 5. How wonderful is Death, Death and his brother, Sleep! →SHELLEY, Queen Mab i. EXERCISE ON CHAPTER X Make the following elliptical exclamatory sentences into grammatically complete declarative sentences, and note the loss of force: 1. But she is in her grave; and oh, The difference to me!-WORDSWORTH, Lucy. 2. Up, guards! and at them! 3. Alas, both for the deed and for the cause! 4. O for that warning voice, which he who saw The Apocalypse heard cry in heaven aloud! -MILTON, Paradise Lost iv. 1-2. 5. Grovel in the dust!—crouch-crouch!-wild beast as thou art! 6. Peace! No more! —BULWER, Rienzi i. 12. 7. But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still!-TENNYSON. 8. Oh, lovely Spain! renown'd, romantic land! 9. Up and off! 10. Away with you! II. Here goes! 12. Now for it! 13. You a soldier! -BYRON, Childe Harold i. 35. 14. As if I could have been guilty of that! 15. Six years away! 16. You my cousin! 17. Well! and is this the great front of Versailles? What a huge heap of littleness!-GRAY, Letter to West, May 22, 1739. 18. Fire! 19. Water! 20. More! CHAPTER XI COMPOUND SENTENCES 180. The following definitions will explain terms found in the succeeding chapters, not already defined nor to be defined in the chapters themselves: a. A CLAUSE is a part of a sentence containing a subject and a predicate. Because of an ellipsis, one of these essential parts may be suppressed; but in its full grammatical form the clause is an assertion. b. A clause is INDEPENDENT when it is not subordinate to another clause or part of another clause; when the assertion it makes does not limit another thought, or modify an idea. I shall go home, but my brother is going to Chicago. Here two separate assertions are made: one about I, the other about my brother. Neither assertion is made dependent on the other. c. DEPENDENT clauses are explained in Section 189, note. d. A SIMPLE SENTENCE is one that consists of a single subject and a single predicate. But either the subject or the predicate of a simple sentence, or both of them, may be compound. 1. I had a pleasant journey to New York. 2. The pictures came safely by express, and have been examined with satisfaction. COMPOUND SENTENCES 181. A COMPOUND SENTENCE contains two or more independent clauses. These clauses may be joined by co-ordinate conjunctions (Section 172), or placed side by side without formal connection. In the latter case, the thought relation of the two sentences is to be determined by the general sense or by the context. The various relations which the clauses may bear to one another are discussed under the five sections following. CLAUSES IN THE SAME LINE OF THOUGHT 182. The clauses may be in the same line of thought. The conjunction employed to connect such clauses is most commonly and, though other conjunctions with the same meaning are found (Section 172a). a. These clauses are regularly used for the enumeration of details in description, and of events that succeed one another, or occur at the same time. The vine still clings to the mouldering wall, And the day is dark and dreary.-LONGFELLOW, The Rainy Day. b. The second clause may repeat, for the sake of clearness, what has been said in the first. 1. Nature comes home to one most when he is at home; the stranger and the traveler finds her a stranger and a traveler also.-JOHN BURROUGHS. 2. A book without art is simply a commodity; it may be exceedingly valuable to the consumer, very profitable to the producer, but it does not come within the domain of pure literature.-THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. The second clause may express the same thought as the first from another point of view. 3. Nothing sooner inspires people with confidence in a business man than punctuality, nor is there any habit which sooner saps his reputation than that of being always behind time. c. The compound sentence may begin or end with a clause summarizing briefly or naming the notion or thing more fully described by the rest of the sentence. 1. I fear you will laugh when I tell you what I conceive to be about the most essential mental quality for a free people, whose liberty is to be progressive, permanent, and on a large scale; it is much stupidity.-WALTER BAGEHOT. 2. All was confusion; children cried, women screamed, men shouted, dogs barked, and poultry flew cackling about. |