CHAPTER VI

COMPOUND SUBJECTS, PREDICATES, AND

SENTENCES

284. When we say one thing about one thing, we make a simple sentence. But we may wish to say the same thing about two or more subjects; in this case we usually make a compound subject, as in "Jack and Jill went up the hill."

Again, we may wish to say two or more things about one subject; in this case we do not usually repeat the subject, but make a compound predicate, as in "Jack fell down and broke his crown."

A simple sentence has one subject and one predicate, either of which may be compound.

285. A compound subject or predicate may be of considerable length, as the sentences following will show.

Compound Subject

1. Neither great poverty nor great riches

2. Men, monkeys, bears, chickadees, flounders, and oysters

Simple Predicate

will hear reason.

are animals.

Compound Predicate

{swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps,

(makes the heart stout and strengthens the arm.

286. Often no punctuation is needed to show the parts of a compound subject or predicate.

1. Jack and Jill went up the hill.

2. Jack fell down and broke his crown.

3. Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear

reason.

287. But if the compound subject or predicate consists of several simple subjects or predicates, commas may be needed to keep them apart. This is so in sentences 2 and 3 in 285. You see (in 2) that the comma may take the place of and. But notice that the comma occurs before one and in such a series.

Show where commas should be inserted in the following sentences.

1. Joy temperance and repose slam the door on the doctor's nose.

2. It rained blew and finally hailed.

3. Cæsar Pompey and Crassus ruled Rome together. 4. Cæsar came saw and conquered.

5. Neither ridicule threats nor blows could change the boy's purpose.

288. When the two parts of the predicate are long, so as to seem like two separate statements, a comma is needed. This is especially true before but.

1. God stays long, but strikes at last.

2. He stood silent a minute, and then began to speak. 3. President Lincoln's son Tad was at one time much annoyed by the bragging ways of a snobbish schoolmate who did not as yet know Tad's parentage, and on being asked who his father was replied, "A woodchopper."

Point out each com

289. ORAL EXERCISE. pound subject and compound predicate in the following anecdote. Then consider each place which is underlined, and say whether it needs a comma or not. Give your reasons.

A DEFECTIVE EDUCATION

Mr. Hearn is a writer and traveler. He knows the Japanese language well and has recently become a Japanese citizen. He speaks and writes the language perfectly now but was some time in learning it. Before he had mastered it he met with a peculiar experience and was much amused by it.

A Japanese gentleman and scholar was entertaining Mr. Hearn. He had heard that his guest was a literary man and was much interested in the fact. Now in Japau a man of letters usually holds a high office of some sort and is in every way a person of great authority. But he must possess one particular art, that of writing a

hand as clear as engraving. One day the host came into the room where Mr. Hearn was and noticed some sheets of paper on which Mr. Hearn had written certain memoranda. He looked at the manuscript with great respect but did not seem enthusiastic. Mr. Hearn and his interpreter were talking together later in the day and were speaking of the host. Then Mr. Hearn learned that the host had remarked, “He must have had great personal popularity at home that they did not send him to writing-school before they sent him abroad."

290. When two statements that may be written as wholes are very closely related in sense, they may be joined together in one compound sentence. Each will keep its own subject and predicate and will be equally important with its neighbor; but both will form one whole. This joining together of two grammatically independent statements may be effected in several ways. Let us take the two sen

tences:

We may give advice. We cannot give conduct.

They are closely related to each other by the principle of contrast. We may join them

thus:

1. We may give advice; we cannot give conduct. 2. We may give advice; but we cannot give conduct. 3. We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct. 4. We may give advice but we cannot give conduct.

In the first of these four compounds, the capital letter of the second sentence is dropped, whereupon a semicolon takes the place of the period, and we have two independent clauses of equal rank. The semicolon has the power of the period to stand between statements grammatically independent of each other. It is used to connect independent statements which are closely related in sense.

In the second compound sentence we keep the semicolon and connect the sentences by but, thus making the junction less abrupt and the contrast a little clearer.

In the third sentence we keep the but and place a comma before it, to make the connection still closer. Except for the word but, we should not dare change the semicolon to a comma, for ordinarily the comma may not separate statements that are grammatically independent of each other.

In the fourth compound we throw away the comma and keep only the connective but, thus securing the closest possible junction of the two statements. Joining two sentences into one by only the word but is not common, and often not safe. But sometimes means except; and such a sentence as "He gave away all the