LXXXVI PREDICATE NOMINATIVE WITH A PASSIVE VERB What is a predicate nominative? (Page 234.) Find five sentences containing predicate nominatives with intransitive verbs. "The fools who succeed are called geniuses. Those who fail are called just fools." In what voice is are called? To which word does geniuses refer? The first sentence may be changed to the active form, so as to read "Fools who succeed we call geniuses." Geniuses thẹn becomes the objective complement. In the passive voice it becomes a subject complement, or predicate nominative. What does the object become? Name the predicate nominative in each of the following sentences: The crab was called by Dr. Johnson a red fish that walks backward. 1 In a certain girls' school, boys were always spoken of by the teachers as "circumstances." How many boys do you suppose have been named George Washington by their parents? In Germany the chief ruler is called the Kaiser, in Russia he is called the Czar, in England, the King. is he called in the United States? Change the above sentences to the active form. What do the predicate nominatives become? What LXXXVII COORDINATE AND SUBORDINATE CONJUNCTIONS Read: THE NIGHTS OF VENICE The beauty of the sky and the delights of night in Venice are beyond expression. The lagoon is so calm in clear nights that the stars do not tremble in it. When we are in the middle, it is so blue, so even, that our eye does not mark the horizon line, and the water and sky make one veil of azure where revery loses itself and is lulled to sleep; the air is so transparent and so pure that we see in the heavens a million times more stars than we can discern in our northern France. I have seen here nights so starstudded that the silvery white of the stars occupied more space than the blue of the air in the vault of the firmament. If you would taste a fresh and pure repose, choose, in one of these lovely nights, the flight of marble steps which leads down from the royal gardens to the canal. When the gilded railing is closed on the garden side, you may be borne in a gondola to the flagstones still warm with the rays of the setting sun, and not be annoyed by any importunate pedestrians. When the midnight wind passes over the lime tree and scatters its flowers on the waters; when the scent of geranium and clover rises in whiffs; when the domes of Santa Maria raise into the heavens their halfglobes of alabaster and their minarets crowned with a turban; when all is white-water, sky, and marble, the three elements of Venice - and when from the height of the tower of Saint Mark's a great brazen voice hovers over your head then there will flow through your whole being a calm so profound that your life seems to be entirely given up to rest and forgetfulness. — George Sand. What are conjunctions? Name five. In the first sentence of "The Nights of Venice," what phrases does and connect? What clauses does and connect in the third sentence? Are they independent clauses or is one principal and one dependent? What clauses does when in the same sentence join? Are they independent or is one of them dependent? Conjunctions that connect words and phrases or independent clauses are called coördinate conjunctions. (The word coördinate means of equal rank.) And in the first sentence, and elsewhere, is a coördinate conjunction. The other most common coördinate conjunctions are but, also, either, or, neither, nor. Conjunctions that join subordinate clauses to principal clauses are called subordinate conjunctions. (Subordinate means of lower rank.) When in the third sentence of "The Nights of Venice" is a subordinate conjunction. The other most common subordinate conjunctions are if, while, until, where, although, unless. Name all the coördinate conjunctions and all the subordinate conjunctions in "The Nights of Venice." LXXXVIII TENSE Turn to "Van Twiller's Judgment," page 265, and tell whether each verb in the first paragraph refers to past, present, or future time. Which are formed by inflection? Tense is the form of the verb that indicates the time referred to. There are three divisions of time, past, present, and future, but there are six tenses. LXXXIX THE PAST AND FUTURE TENSES (1) ABUSE My friend, the professor whom I have mentioned to you once or twice, told me yesterday that some one had been abusing him in some of the journals of his calling. I told him that I didn't doubt he deserved it; that I hoped he did deserve a little abuse occasionally, and would for a number of years to come; that nobody could do anything to make his neighbors wiser or better without being liable to abuse for it; especially that people hated to have their little mistakes made fun of, and perhaps he had been doing something of the kind. The professor smiled. -O. W. HOLMES. To what time does have mentioned refer? Does it refer to some particular time in the past, or merely to any past time or times? To what time does told refer? Does it refer to some particular past time or not? What word shows you? By the tense of a verb we can tell whether its time is before or after some other time referred to. To what time does had been abusing refer? Does it refer to some particular past time or not? Had the professor been abused before he told of it or after? Had been abusing refers to a past time, before the time he told the author of it. Verbs are said to have three past tenses, one for each kind of past time: First, the past tense referring to some particular past time, as, "The professor told me yesterday." “I saw the eclipse this morning." This morning fixes the time of the verb saw. The past tense refers also to the remote past, as, "Cæsar conquered Gaul." But this is always with reference to a time more or less definite. The time of Cæsar's conquest is a fixed historical date. Second, the perfect tense referring to no particular time. The subject, however, is always thought of as still in existence. Whom I have mentioned (" Abuse" first line) does not fix the date when the author mentioned the professor, but indicates that the subject I is present. 66 Edison, who invented the incandescent light, has greatly improved upon his first invention." Invented refers to a particular date as known. Has improved upon his first invention does not refer to a particular time but indicates that Mr. Edison is living at the time of the statement. "Procrastination has often been called the thief of time." That is, both in the past and down to the present. Third, the past perfect tense (sometimes called the pluperfect) referring to some past time, previous to some. other past time. |