ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES CONTAINING NOUN CLAUSES
It is most convenient to analyze the noun clause last, even if it
is the subject of the sentence. As soon as the clause is mentioned,
however, as a sentence-element, its introductory word should be given.
Clauses within the noun clause should be disposed of after the rest of
the noun clause has been analyzed.
A direct quotation is frequently introduced into a sentence to
fulfill the office of a noun clause. In structure and form it is like
an independent proposition, but in function it is subordinate; for
example, “The first and last and closest trial question to any living
creature is, “_What do you like?_”--_Ruskin._
Notice that this sentence is declarative though the quotation is
interrogative.
Exercise 8
Analyze the following sentences:--
1. Whoever has common sense and a sound heart has the power by which
Whittier may be appreciated.--_Masson._
2. It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple-tree is
connected with that of man.--_Thoreau._
3. We were welcomed to a Highlander’s home and told where we could
fish to advantage from three o’clock till dark.--_Bolles._
4. The announcement that for centuries the tropical forests of Central
America have hidden within their tangled growth the ruined homes and
temples of a past race, stirs the civilized world with a strange, deep
wonder.--_Agassiz._
5. I was quite determined that the old set of singers should be
dismissed.--_George Eliot._
6. It was within the dingy walls of this little potentate’s imperial
palace that I chose my country residence.--_Longfellow._
7. Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in
this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked
here.--_Carlyle._
8. The question of common-sense is always, what is it good for?--a
question which would abolish the rose and be answered triumphantly by
the cabbage.--_Lowell._
9. Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill
mountains.--_Irving._
10. I am told that one of the most reliable weather signs they have
down in Texas is afforded by the ants.--_Burroughs._
11. “It is only the love of all humanity that can keep from
bitterness,” said Brian.
12. I left my own garden yesterday, and went over to where Polly was
getting the weeds out of one of her flower-beds.--_Warner._
13. “Now tread we a measure!” said young Lochinvar.--_Scott._
14. Whoever allies himself with God is armed with all the forces of
the invisible world.--_J. F. Clarke._
15. Boom is not a nice place, and is only remarkable for one thing:
that the majority of the inhabitants have a private opinion that they
can speak English, which is not justified by fact.--_Stevenson._
16. I do not doubt but that many of you came unwillingly
to-night.--_Ruskin._
17. With nature and God one law is inexorable--he who disuses or
misuses a faculty must lose it.--_Hillis._
18. It is by little things that we know ourselves.--_Holmes._
19. I felt in every fibre that this woodman invariably cheated me in
measurement.--_Howells._
20. “How happy,” exclaimed this child of air,
“Are the holy spirits who wander there,
Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall!”--_Moore._