33. We cannot always describe or point out objects as fully as we wish by means of adjectives, and so we use another sort of modifier, which is not a single word, but a group of words. In the sentence, “Broad, flat fields without fences stretch in every direction,” we describe the fields by the two adjectives broad and flat, and by the group of words, without fences. Thus the noun fields has three modifiers, and they are very well placed, two of them coming before the noun, and one of them after it.

In the group of words without fences, the two words are closely related to each other. In fact, neither of them could be in the sentence at all without the other. Such a group of related words is called a phrase. When a phrase modifies a noun, we say it is an adjective phrase.

34. In the same sentence there is another phrase, in every direction, telling where the fields stretch. Since this phrase modifies the verb, it performs the same office as an adverb, and we therefore call it an adverbial phrase.

35. Phrases never consist of fewer than two words, and they may consist of a good many, for it is possible to have one or more phrases within a phrase. In the sentence, “I was born in a stable on the outskirts of a small town in Maine,” the verb was born is modified by a long phrase, in a stable on the outskirts of a small town in Maine. The noun stable in this phrase is modified by the phrase on the outskirts of a small town in Maine. The noun outskirts in this second phrase is modified by the phrase of a small town in Maine. The noun town in this third phrase is modified by the fourth phrase, in Maine.

36. Phrases do not always modify the word they come next to; they modify the word whose meaning they tell something about. In the sentence, “I scrambled through the evergreens to my friend’s little hut just before sunset,” there is no phrase within another phrase, but there are three entirely distinct phrases. What are they?

37. A series of phrases consists of two or more phrases each modifying the same word; as, “Ours is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.” Phrases in a series are separated from each other by a comma. Why do not the phrases in the sentence in § 35 form a series?

It might seem at first thought that the sentence in § 36 contains a series of three phrases; but it does not, for the phrases do not modify the same word. Through the evergreens modifies scrambled; to my friend’s little hut modifies scrambled through the evergreens. What does the third phrase modify?

In the punctuation of phrases a good deal must be left to the judgment of the writer. That punctuation is best which most clearly reveals the structure and meaning of the sentence.

Summary.—A phrase is a group of related words having neither a subject nor a predicate, and used like a part of speech.

A phrase is often used like an adjective to modify a noun, or like an adverb to modify a verb.

Phrases in a series are separated from each other by a comma.

Exercise.—Select all the phrases in these sentences, and tell what each phrase modifies. Account for the punctuation of the phrases in sentences 2 and 9. Why are commas omitted in sentence 5?

1. I passed a very comfortable night in the carrot bin.

2. The four little rabbits lived with their mother, in a sand bank, underneath the root of a very big fir tree.

3. He went along over hills and mountains, and on the third day came to a wide forest.

4. During those long winter evenings I read six of Scott’s novels aloud to my mother.

5. Mr. Jeremy Fisher lived in a little damp house amongst the buttercups at the edge of a pond.

6. On that evening, before sunset, some women were washing clothes on the upper step of the flight that led down into the basin of the Pool of Siloam.

7. On the fourth day after our arrival came a letter from my mamma.

8. Jelly fishes generally float near the surface of the sea, and are often washed up on the shore by the waves.

9. Where no human hand would have dared to rest, the young lions crawled fearlessly—across the knotty muscles of the back, over the sinewy neck, across the death-dealing paws, even between the frightful jaws.

10. Tom arched his back like a contortionist at a circus.

11. The women of the different provinces in Holland are known by their head dresses.

12. The last words rang out like silver trumpets.

13. A farm without a boy would very soon come to grief.

14. In winter I get up at night.

38. Analyzing a sentence is the process of separating it into its parts, and telling the relation between those parts. In analyzing the sentences in the following exercise proceed according to this outline:—

(1) Tell whether the sentence is declarative or interrogative.

(2) Divide it into subject and predicate.

(3) Select the simple subject and give its modifiers.

(4) Select the simple predicate and give its modifiers.

(5) If a predicate is compound, select the two or more predicate verbs, and then give the modifiers of each.

Tell the exact truth in good, clear English. For example, in analyzing the expression, the four little rabbits, do not say that the, four, and little are adjectives modifying rabbits, but say that rabbits is modified by the adjectives little, four, and the. Why should they be given in this order?

Exercise.—Analyze sentences 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14 in the exercise on p. 33.