In all such cases the ambiguity may be avoided by substituting a participial phrase, or a possessive case: The discovery made by Livingstone; The president's choice.

Beside is now used chiefly with the sense of by the side of. Besides means in addition to. He sits beside the well. Have you any money besides this?

Upon should rarely be used except with the accompanying sense of height. We may say, Upon the top of a building, but On the ground, On a table. Upon is also used in the sense of after; as, Upon hearing the news, we sent you word.

Off of is extremely inelegant. We should say, He fell off the roof, not off of.

PARSING

In parsing a preposition it is necessary only to state its object, and the relation which the phrase of which it is a part bears to some other word in the

sentence.

EXERCISE 70. Pick out all the prepositions in the following selections, name their objects, and tell whether the elements of the sentence they aid in forming are adjective or adverbial phrases and why:

1. The number of teeth and their form vary greatly in the different groups of animals.

2. Tears are the softening showers which cause the seed of heaven to spring up in the human heart. - Sir Walter Scott.

3. Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains;

They crowned him long ago

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,

With a diadem of snow. - Byron.

4. Ichabod Crane's appetite for the marvelous and his powers of digesting it were equally extraordinary, and had been increased by his residence in the spell-bound region of Sleepy Hollow. Washington Irving.

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5. Over the wooded northern ridge, Between its houses brown,

To the dark tunnel of the bridge

The street comes straggling down.

Whittier.

6. Doubtless, to think deeply and clearly in the recess of a cabinet is a fine intellectual demonstration; but to think with equal depth and equal clearness amid bullets is the most complete exercise of the human faculties.

7. Rats!

Disraeli.

They fought the dogs and killed the cats,

And bit the babies in the cradles,

And ate the cheese out of the vats,

And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles,

Split open the kegs of salted sprats,

Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,

And even spoiled the women's chats,
By drowning their speaking

With shrieking and squeaking

In fifty different sharps and flats. — Robert Browning.

8. It is undeniable that a person seems temporarily to change his nature when he becomes part of an excursion. Whether it is from the elation at the purchase of a day of gayety below the market price, or the escape from personal responsibility under a conductor, or the love of being conspicuous as a part of a sort of organization, the excursionist is not on his ordinary behavior.-C. D. Warner.

THE CONJUNCTION

DEFINITION. A conjunction is a word used to connect parts of sentences.

These connected parts may be single words, or they may be phrases or clauses.

CLASSES

Conjunctions are divided, according to their use, into two principal classes: 1. Coördinating conjunctions; 2. Subordinating conjunctions.

DEFINITION. A coördinating conjunction is a conjunction used to connect words, phrases, or clauses of equal rank.

(a) Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the

(b)

shore,

And the individual withers, and the world is more and more.

Not only we, that prate

Of rights and wrongs, have loved the people well,
And loathed to see them overtax'd; but
She did move, and underwent, and overcame.

We grow ourselves

Divine by overcoming with mere hope
And (with) most prosaic patience.

Tennyson.

- Tennyson.

- Mrs. Browning.

(d) I had been content to perish, falling on the foeman's ground, When the ranks are roll'd in vapor, and the winds are laid with sound. Tennyson.

In (a) the coördinating conjunctions in blackfaced type connect independent clauses. In (b) they connect words having the same grainmatical relation. In (c) it connects phrases having the same grammatical relation. In (d) it connects dependent clauses having the same grammatical relation.

The coördinating conjunctions are divided as follows:

(a) Copulative, denoting addition; as, both, and, also, moreover, further, etc.

(b) Disjunctive, denoting choice or separation; as, either, or, neither, nor, else, otherwise.

(c) Adversative, denoting opposition of meaning; as, but, still, yet, notwithstanding, however.

(d) Illative, denoting effect or consequence; as, therefore, wherefore, hence, whence, consequently, accordingly, thus, so, so that, then, so then.

DEFINITION. A subordinating conjunction is a conjunction used to connect a subordinate clause with the part of the sentence upon which the clause depends.

Subordinating conjunctions are classified according to the various relations which they indicate:

(a) Time; as, as, while, until, before, ere, since, after, as soon as, as long as.

(b) Reason or cause; as, because, for, since, as, whereas, inasmuch as.

(c) Supposition or condition; as, if, provided, supposing, unless, except, otherwise, though, notwithstanding, albeit, whether. (d) End or purpose; as, that, in order that, lest.

(e) The conjunction of comparison, than. The clause introduced by than is often partially omitted; as, He can read better than I (can read). He is taller than I (am tall).

It was the time when lilies blow.

You never miss the water till the well runs dry.
He said that he would be there.

In the first sentence, the adjective clause is connected with the noun time by means of the subordinating conjunction when. In the second sentence, the adverbial clause is connected with the verb miss by means of the subordinating conjunction till. In the third sentence, the noun clause that he would be there is the object of the verb said, with which it is connected by means of the subordinating conjunction

that.

Conjunctions often occur in pairs; as,

Both and: Both John and James are coming.

Not only-but: He not only reads well but writes well.

Either

·or: He regarded him as either a knave or a fool. Neither nor: Neither heat nor cold could daunt him.

Whether- or: Whether he go or stay, is a matter of no con

sequence.

Though yet: Though all men deny thee, yet will not I.

The

Or sometimes introduces an alternative name or synonym; as, The prime minister, or head of the British Cabinet. first name is usually followed by a comina.

Nor is sometimes equivalent to and not; as, He suspected that all was not right, nor was he deceived (and he was not).