CHAPTER I

GENERAL MEANINGS OF THE WORD "SENTENCE "

181. In grammar, the word that is perhaps more frequently used than any other is the word sentence.

Any definition of this word which can be given at the beginning of our study will have to be enlarged as we learn more of the subject. But we may at least say at the start (what you probably know already) that A sentence is a completely worded statement, inquiry, or command; and that when written it begins with a capital letter and ends either with a period (.), a question mark (?), or an exclamation point (!).

Sentences, you see at once, are the stuff of which language is formed, for nearly everything that can be said is either a statement, an inquiry, or a command.

182. Most sentences are either statements or combinations of statements; therefore we must

make ourselves familiar with the meaning of the word statement. Then, because the statement form of sentence is written with a capital and a period, we may properly ask whether every statement has the right to a capital and period, or whether only some statements have, and, if so, which. These subjects will be our study in the next three chapters.

183. When we have learned what statements are, and which ones can stand alone as sentences, we shall proceed to ask how statements are made up within themselves; and shall then ask the same thing about inquiries and commands.

184. You have probably learned already something of how sentences are made up within themselves. You are well aware that every sentence says something about something. The part of the sentence which does the saying is called the predicate. The part naming that of which the predicate is said is called the subject.

185. Every sentence may, therefore, be divided into two parts. In a sentence like

"Birds fly," Birds is the subject, fly the predicate.1

In "Birds are flying," Birds is the subject and are flying the predicate.

In "Birds are animals," the predicate is are animals; 2 while in "Birds catch insects," the predicate is catch insects.

In "Cannibal birds kill other birds," Cannibal birds is the subject, kill other birds the predicate.

We are now ready to ask ourselves what a statement is, and what it is not.

1 Here the predicate consists of the verb fly.

2 Here the predicate consists of the verb are and the noun animals.

CHAPTER II

STATEMENTS AND NOT-STATEMENTS

186. A nod of the head may convey a thought; a laugh or cry may express a feeling. But neither nod nor laugh nor cry is a statement. A word may carry much meaning, for instance the word blackbird; yet a word is not a statement. A word may even imply an act, for instance the word flying, but still the word is not a statement. You may join the two words flying and blackbird, naming a "flying blackbird," but the two words are not a statement. Flying blackbird is called a phrase. A phrase is a group of words conveying an idea, but not making a statement.

Once more, a word may almost make a statement and yet just miss it. We say that a verb states or asserts (13); yet in strictness there is no STATEMENT until a subject is placed with the verb. The verb flies is not a statement ; but "Time flies is one. The verb is flying