+436.+ The usual order of the principal elements in the sentence is the
subject, the predicate and the object or complement, thus:
_Subject_ _Predicate_
_Men_ _work_
_Subject_ _Predicate_ _Object_
_Men_ _build_ _houses_
_Subject_ _Predicate_ _Complement_
_Books_ _are_ _helpful_
This is called the natural or logical order. Logical means according to
sense or reason.
Adjectives usually stand before the nouns they modify, thus:
_Good_ books are helpful.
Adverbs may be placed either before or after the verbs they modify,
thus:
The men _then_ came _quickly_ to the rescue.
The adverb _then_ precedes the verb _came_, which it modifies; and the
adverb _quickly_ is placed after the verb.
Adverbs which modify adjectives or other adverbs are placed before the
words which they modify, thus:
The _more_ industrious students learn _quite_ rapidly.
In this sentence, the adverb _more_ is placed before the adjective
_industrious_, which it modifies; and the adverb _quite_ is placed
before the adverb _rapidly_, which it modifies.
Adjective and adverb phrases usually follow the words which they modify,
thus:
The men _in the car_ came quickly _to the rescue_.
The manager _of the mine_ remained _with the men_.
In this last sentence, the adjective phrase, _of the mine_, is placed
after the noun _manager_, which it modifies, and the adverb phrase,
_with the men_, is placed after the verb _remained_, which it modifies.
+437.+ These sentences illustrate the logical order in which the
elements of the sentence usually come. But this logical order is not
strictly adhered to. Many times, in order to place the emphasis upon
certain words, we reverse this order and place the emphasized words
first, as:
_Without your help_, we cannot win.
The logical order of this sentence is:
We cannot win without your help.
But we want to place the emphasis upon _your help_, so we change the
order of the words and place the phrase, _without your help_, first.
+438.+ This inversion of the order helps us to express our thought with
more emphasis. Our language is so flexible that we can express the same
thought in different ways by simply changing the order of the elements
in the sentence. Notice in the following sentences, the inversion of the
usual order, and see what difference this makes in the expression of the
thought.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
A more terrible scene you cannot imagine.
With the shrieking of shot and shell the battle raged.
Louder and louder thundered the tempest.
Silently and sadly the men returned to their homes.
To transpose these inverted sentences--that is to place the elements in
their logical order, gives us an insight into the thought expressed in
the sentence. It is worth a great deal to us to be able in our reading
to see the live elements in the sentence at a glance, and in this way we
can grasp at once the thought of the sentence. So you will find that
this analyzing of the sentences is very helpful to us in our reading.
+439.+ When we have learned to analyze a sentence quickly we will not be
lost in the maze of words. A paragraph is often like a string of pearls.
The author has a single thread of thought running through the different
sentences which compose the paragraph and if we have trained ourselves
well in sentence analysis, we will never lose this thread. It will be
like a life line to which we cling while the breakers of thought and
emotion roar about us.