XCIV. ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES
366. A participial phrase is analyzed very much like an infinitive phrase. First the participle should be given as the base, then its complement and modifiers.
Model.—Behind each islet of tall reeds is a fishing boat held fast by two poles stuck in the bottom of the river.
This is a simple, declarative sentence. The subject is a fishing boat held fast by two poles stuck in the bottom of the river. The predicate is is behind each islet of tall reeds.
The base word of the subject is boat. It is modified by the infinitive fishing, the article a, and the participial phrase held fast by two poles stuck in the bottom of the river.
The base word of this phrase is the participle held. It is modified by the adverb fast and by the prepositional phrase by two poles stuck in the bottom of the river. The base word of the object of the preposition by is the noun poles. It is modified by the adjective two and the participial phrase stuck in the bottom of the river. The base word of this phrase is the participle stuck. It is modified by the prepositional phrase in the bottom of the river, etc.
367. A sentence containing an absolute phrase should be analyzed as follows:—
Model.—Amy having gone to Vermont, the lady was lonely.
This is a simple, declarative sentence containing the absolute phrase Amy having gone to Vermont, which is used instead of the adverbial clause of cause, since Amy had gone to Vermont.
The subject is the lady. The predicate is was lonely, etc.
The absolute phrase consists of the noun Amy and the participial phrase having gone to Vermont, which have the logical relation of subject and predicate. The base of the participial phrase is the participle having gone, etc.
Exercise.—Analyze the following sentences:—
1. In one store I would find a catbird moping on a high shelf or in a dark back room; in another a bluebird scared half to death, and dumb in the midst of squawking parrots and singing canaries.
2. In that first battle, Jim ran barking after the very first shell that came screaming over our heads.
3. The island is supplied with the best water imaginable, small streams leaping down from the sides of the hills and running through every valley.
4. The biting cold wind that shrunk our faces and pinched our noses blue only brought a wild-rose bloom to mother’s delicate cheeks.
5. The doings of the people thus suddenly become his neighbors, Bobby studied with all a bird’s curiosity.
6. Coming out into the road on my way home again, I fell in with an old friend.
7. The soldiers were miserably clad, and asked whether we had shoes to sell.
8. It is difficult to describe the left-half’s agony as he picked himself up and went limping back to his place.
9. At daylight, directly ahead of us was the island of Juan Fernandez, rising like a deep blue cloud out of the sea.
10. Long ears twinkling, round eyes softly shining, the rabbits leaped lightly hither and thither, pausing every now and then to touch each other with their sensitive noses, or to pound on the snow with their strong hind legs in mock challenge.
11. In long, graceful leaps, barely touching the fence, the fox went careering up the hill as fleet as the wind.
12. Joel’s long legs began to ache, and seemed stiffening at the thighs and knees.
13. After their supper of milk and oatmeal porridge, the children sat down, waiting and watching, and fancying they heard sounds in the hills.
14. Hearing loud cries of distress coming from the lawn, the gardener rushed across and found the crow lying on his back, his claw tightly gripping the end of one of the wings of a large hawk.
15. We soon found the vireo’s nest, suspended within the angle of two horizontal twigs, and trimmed outwardly with some kind of white silky substance.
16. He lay like a warrior taking his rest.
17. For four miles the pilot must race along a squirming, twisting, plunging thread of water, that leaps ahead like a greyhound, and changes its crookedness somewhat from day to day with wind and tide.
18. For centuries the trees had developed strength to resist the winds when they were clad in all their leaves, or to carry the load of those leaves weighted with raindrops, or to bear the winter snows; but they had no strength that would enable them to be coated thick with ice and then wrenched by angry blasts.
19. The servants having gone to their cabins, the great house was filled with the quiet of a Sunday afternoon.