SENTENCE MODIFIERS
Closely allied to the independent elements discussed in the preceding
chapter are certain adverbs and adverbial phrases, which seem to modify
not any special part of the sentence but the whole assertion. In some
cases it is difficult to decide whether it is better to call a certain
expression a sentence modifier or an independent element, but this need
not trouble us greatly, for it is not the name we give to an element
that is the vital point; it is a clear perception of what that element
does in the sentence for the communication of the author’s thought.
* * * * *
=Classification of Sentence Modifiers.=--Certain of these modifiers are
so clearly distinguishable from all other sentence-elements that we may
study them in the following groups.
1. Adverbs.--Most of these are modal adverbs, denoting the manner
in which an assertion is made. This may be positive, doubtful, or
negative, hence the adverbs _surely_, _perhaps_, and _not_ are very
common sentence modifiers.
Other adverbs make the sentence emphatic, as _indeed_; others denote
the extent of its application, as _generally_; still others take the
reader back in thought to some previous statement, and denote the
logical relation between this previous statement and the sentence in
which they occur, as _moreover_, _however_, _anyhow_, _though_.
Examples of the use of these adverbs are found in the following
sentences:
(_a_) “_Perhaps_, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to
recommence your narrative.”--_Conan Doyle._
(_b_) “_Indeed_, almost all slang is like parched corn and should be
served up hot or else not at all.”--_Higginson._
(_c_) “It served, _moreover_, as a council of state to assist the
monarch in the transaction of public business.”--_Prescott._
2. Prepositional phrases.--These denote, for the most part, what the
modal adverbs denote. Usually they may be changed to adverbs that are
nearly or quite equivalent in meaning; for example, “on the other hand”
= _however_; “at all events” = _anyhow_; “of course” = _certainly_.
It may seem best to some persons to say of these phrases, as likewise
of the adverbs, that they modify the predicate instead of the whole
sentence. There can be no objection to this, as the predicate is the
asserting part of the sentence.
Examples of these phrases are found in the following sentences:
(_a_) “_For the most part_, young people have a pretty keen
sense of honor, so that the main thing is to keep it fresh and
active.”--_Munger._
(_b_) “_For my part_, I travel not to go anywhere, but to
go.”--_Stevenson._
(_c_) “_For the life of me_, I cannot understand it.”--_Stevenson._
3. Phrases or clauses introduced by _as_; for example,--
(_a_) “_As luck would have it_, there was a fair spring morning shining
over the city.”--_Black._ This clause means _luckily_, and tells the
author’s opinion of the statement he makes.
(_b_) “_As a rule_, we disbelieve all facts and theories for which we
have no use.”--_Wm. James._ This phrase means _generally_, and denotes
the extent to which the statement is true.
(_c_) “_As sure as my name is Jack Copley_, I saw the prettiest girl in
the world today.”--_Mrs. Wiggin._ This clause means _truly_, _verily_,
and is used to make the statement emphatic.
4. We frequently meet sentences containing a phrase like that
italicized in the following,--“_Far from showing due reverence to St.
Edmund_, he did not even show him common justice.”--_Carlyle._ This
phrase, it is plain, means “_instead of showing due reverence to St.
Edmund_,” but in addition it implies there is a very wide difference
between two things,--the thing he did not do and the thing he did do.
It would be natural for us to say--“Instead of white, she wore pink”;
and it would be just as natural to say--“Far from wearing white, she
wore black.” Our choice of phrases depends on the degree of difference
between the two things contrasted. The difference between white and
pink is not great; but the difference between white and black is one
hundred and eighty degrees.
When we analyze this sentence modifier we find it to consist of the
adverb _far_ for a base-word, modified by a prepositional phrase
introduced by _from_. The object of the preposition is a gerund, which
may be complete or incomplete, modified or unmodified.
It is not uncommon for _far_ to be modified by _so_, which only
intensifies its meaning; thus, “For the King’s subjects, _so far_ from
being charmed by his resolution to marry a woman out of their midst,
are scandalized.”
Exercise 40
Dispose of the sentence modifiers in the following sentences.
1. Nevertheless, an important part of culture is to acquire the habit
of finishing every work.--_J. F. Clarke._
2. For my own part, I think there is such a thing as being too
Anglo-Saxon.--_Lowell._
3. People, as a rule, only pay for being amused or for being cheated,
not for being served.--_Ruskin._
4. Believe me, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that your modesty, so
far from doing you any disservice, rather adds to your other
perfections.--_Jane Austen._
5. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech.--_Webster._
6. Had we seen this charming landscape immediately after bidding
farewell to Chocorua, it would have failed to make the strong
impression upon us which as a matter of fact it did produce.--_Bolles._
7. Of course, genius and enthusiasm are, for both sexes,
elements unforeseen and incalculable; but, as a general rule,
great achievements imply great preparations and favorable
conditions.--_Higginson._
8. Probably the election goes by avoirdupois weight; and, if you
could weigh bodily the tonnage of any hundred of the Whig and the
Democratic party in a town on the Dearborn balance, as they passed the
hayscales, you could predict with certainty which party would carry
it.--_Emerson._
9. To be inefficient or shiftless is the unpardonable sin, to the mind
of a born New Englander.--_J. F. Clarke._
10. With a frank cordiality charming to contemplate, they severally
and collectively did their very best to make him feel that, so far
from being a stranger in a strange land, he was very much at home
among genuine friends.--_Janvier._
Exercise 41
Analyze the following sentences. As far as possible analyze independent
elements.
1. For, to repeat, the ground of a man’s joy is often hard to
hit.--_Stevenson._
2. Alas! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth;
And constancy lives in realms above;
And life is thorny; and youth is vain;
And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain.--_Coleridge._
3. Surely this was his native village which he had left but the day
before.--_Irving._
4. As a rule, when I have heard some slight indication of the course
of events, I am able to guide myself by the thousands of other similar
cases which occur to my memory.--_Conan Doyle._
5. Milton, it is said, inherited what his predecessors
created.--_Macaulay._
6. For my own part, as the gondola slipped away from the blaze and
bustle of the station down the gloom and silence of the broad canal,
I forgot that I had been freezing two days and nights; that I was at
that moment very cold and a little homesick.--_Howells._
7. The king, as we have seen, must be an experienced
warrior.--_Prescott._
8. Our solar system, far from being alone in the universe, is only one
of an extensive brotherhood bound by common laws and subject to like
influences.--_Draper._
9. Fight on, thou brave true heart, and falter not through dark
fortune and through bright.--_Carlyle._
10. Further,--and this was where the pinch came,--his reputation as a
promoter had been most severely injured.--_Janvier._
11. “So, my dear Miss Pyncheon,” said the daguerreotypist,--for it was
that sole other occupant of the seven-gabled mansion,--“I am glad to
see that you have not shrunk from your good purpose.”--_Hawthorne._
12. The voice, for example, in a surprisingly large number of us, has
a tired and plaintive sound.--_Wm. James._
13. As for this old man, he had the beard of a saint and the dignity
of a senator.--_Howells._
14. Fortunately for us, want of food, great heat, extreme cold,
produce promptings too peremptory to be disregarded.--_Spencer._
15. In the first place, he was named “Frank,” a circumstance I
mentally resented; but, what was more to the point, he had an evident
desire to spill us over the steepest bank he could find.--_Bolles._
16. Thanks to the beneficent mysteries of hereditary transmission, no
capital earns such interest as personal culture.--_C. W. Eliot._
17. The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it,
is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow, and the men who
lend.--_Lamb._
18. The first author, it is plain, could not have taken anything from
books, since there were no books for him to copy from.--_Bagehot._