XVII. CONJUNCTIONS
57. Notice the sentences,—
Every pine and fir and hemlock wore ermine too dear for an earl.
I stood and watched by the window.
The parts of the compound subject in the first sentence and of the compound predicate in the second are joined by the word and. This very common word has a use different from that of any word studied thus far; hence it is considered another part of speech. Because it is a joining word, it is called a conjunction.
There are many conjunctions besides and that we all have frequent occasion to use. Among these are nor, or, but, yet, therefore, so, and hence.
58. Conjunctions may join not only single words, such as nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs, but also phrases, and even whole sentences; as,—
You may enter without money and without price.
The stiff rails were softened to swan’s down,And still fluttered down the snow.
59. Although the word but is commonly used as a conjunction, yet, in the sentence, “I work every day but Sunday,” it is a preposition, and means except. What is its object? The great difference between a conjunction and a preposition is that a preposition always has an object, whereas a conjunction never has one.
Summary.—A conjunction is a word that joins sentences or parts of sentences.
Exercise.—Select all the conjunctions in the following sentences, and tell what they join:—
1. Crow was ten years old now, and he was very black and polished and thin.
2. Mount St. Michael was not only strongly fortified, but it was well guarded by nature.
3. The horse neither switches his tail, nods his head, nor stamps his feet.
4. Thirty years later, the remnants of her wedding gowns,—the blue silk, the black silk, the striped silk, and the plaid silk,—were cut into diamonds and squares, and then pieced together lovingly and proudly into a patchwork quilt.
5. There are several steamboats which run up and down the Seine like omnibuses, and the charge to passengers is about two cents apiece.
6. After steaming for several hours over the smooth river and between these flat lowlands, we reach the city of Rotterdam.
7. These great ice streams are always moving slowly downwards; hence they carry off, year by year, the snow which falls upon the mountain above.
8. The stars danced overhead, and by his side the broad and shallow river ran over its stony bed with a loud but soothing murmur that filled all the air with entreaty.
9. The things that Mowgli did and saw and heard when he was wandering from one people to another, with or without his four companions, would make many stories.
10. I drove the cows home through the sweet ferns and down the rocky slopes.
11. The sucker’s mouth is not formed for the gentle angleworm nor the delusive fly of the fisherman.
12. Our ancestors were very worthy people, but their wall papers were abominable.
13. The keeper of the lodgings did not supply meals to his guests; so we breakfasted at a small chophouse in a crooked street.
14. The Northmen had no compass; they must steer by the sun or by the stars, guess at their rate of sailing, and tell by that how many more days distant was their destination.
15. Through this silence and through this waste, where the sudden lights flapped and went out again, the sleigh and the two that pulled it crawled like things in a nightmare.
16. There may be times when you cannot find help, but there is no time when you cannot give help.
17.
Over the meadows and through the woods,To grandfather’s house we go.18. The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people are much in want of one.