Plain English

A sail! a sail!

This is not a sentence, for it does not contain a verb, yet we know that what was meant was, I see a sail, I see a sail.

Exercise 3

Write sentences using the words given in the foregoing list as exclamatory words, and add as many more to the list as you can think of.

YES AND NO

392. The words yes and no, which we use in reply to questions were originally adverbs, but we no longer use them as adverbs. We no longer combine them with other words as modifying or limiting words, but use them independently. They are in themselves complete answers. Thus, if you ask me the question, Will you come? I may say Yes, meaning, I will come; or, No, meaning, I will not come.

The responsives yes and no thus stand for whole sentences, so they are really independent words. We may use them in connection with other sentences. For example; I may say, Yes, I will come, or No, I will not come. Used in this way, they still retain an independent construction in the sentence. We call them responsives because they are used in response to questions.

OTHER INDEPENDENT EXPRESSIONS

393. Other words may be used in an independent construction in sentences, without depending upon the sentence in which they are used or without having the sentences depend upon them, such as:

1. A word used in address. For example:

Mr. President, I move that a committee be now appointed.

Fellow Workers, I rise to address you.

In these sentences, Mr. President and Fellow Workers are nouns used independently; that is, they are neither the subject of the sentence nor used as object or predicate complement. They are independent of all other words in the sentence.

The most common use of words used independently in direct address occurs with imperative sentences. For example:

Comrades, rouse yourselves.

Men, strike for freedom.

2. Exclamatory expressions. These are nouns used in the manner in which we have already discussed, as in the sentence:

Nonsense! I do not believe a word of it.

Alas! poor Yorick! I knew him well.

3. Words and phrases used parenthetically, as for example:

By the way, I met a friend of yours today.

We cannot, however, join you at once.

He called, it seems, while we were gone.

In these sentences such words as, however, and such phrases as, by the way, and, it seems, are used independently,—in parenthesis, as it were; that is, they are just thrown into the sentences in such a way that they do not modify or depend upon any other word in the sentence. When we analyze our sentences, these independent words are not considered as elements of the sentences in which they are used. It is sufficient to say that they are independent words.

4. Conjunctions used as introductory words. We have noted the use of conjunctions like the co-ordinates and, but, etc., and the subordinates because, in order that, so, for, wherefore, how, whether, etc., which are used to introduce sentences and connect them in thought with sentences and paragraphs which have gone before.

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

394. We have a number of words which we use to introduce our sentences. They are such words as, so, well and why. These are ordinarily adverbs, but when they are used merely to introduce a sentence they retain little of their adverbial force. For example:

So, that is your only excuse.

Well, I cannot understand why you should accept it.

Why, that is no reason at all.

In these sentences, so, well and why do not modify any of the words in the sentences, but are used merely to introduce the sentences. They serve in a measure to connect them with something which has gone before.

395. The adverb there is also used as an introductory word. When it is used in this manner, it loses its adverbial force. There, as ordinarily used, is an adverb of place, but it is often used to introduce a sentence. For example: There is some mistake about it. In this sentence there is not used as an adverb, but it is used simply as an introductory word. It is used to introduce a sentence in which the verb comes before the real subject. Mistake is the real subject of the verb is, and there is used simply as the introductory word.

396. The indefinite pronoun it is also used as an introductory word, to introduce a sentence in much the same manner as there. The real subject of the verb occurs later in the sentence. For example:

It is best to know the truth.

This could be written, To know the truth is best, and the entire meaning of the sentence would be conveyed.

397. Adverbs of mode. You remember in our study of adverbs, we had certain adverbs which were called adverbs of mode. These are used to modify the entire sentence. They express the feeling in which the entire sentence is uttered. Adverbs of mode may be regarded also as independent words. They are such words as, indeed, surely, certainly, perhaps, etc. For example:

Indeed, I cannot tell you now.

Surely, I will comply with your request.

Perhaps it may be true.

I certainly hope to do so before long.

Exercise 4

Note in the following sentences the words which are pure interjections, and those which are other parts of speech used as exclamatory words. Mark those which are used in direct address, those which are used parenthetically, and those which are used as mere introductory words.

1. Oh, it seems impossible to believe it.

2. Surely, you will accept my word.

3. Nonsense, there is not the least truth in the story.

4. It will be impossible for us to join.

5. Therefore we urge you to join in this campaign.

6. There is only one solution to the problem.

7. It is difficult to discover the true facts.

8. Well, I have done my best to persuade you.

9. Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point of order.

10. Comrades, come and stand for your rights.

11. Yes, I have studied that philosophy.

12. Enough! we have been enslaved too long.

13. Hark! we hear the tramp of the army of labor.

14. Alas! that any should refuse to join in this battle.

15. You have not, it seems, understood the issue.

16. Indeed, solidarity is our only hope.

17. Br-r-r-r-r-r-r, thus whirl the machines that grind our children's lives.

18. Hush! Over the crash of the cannon sounds the wail of Europe's women and children.

EXPLANATORY WORDS

398. We sometimes use words which do not belong in the construction of a sentence to explain other words in the sentence. For example:

We, the undersigned, subscribe as follows:

Helen Keller, the most wonderful woman of this age, champions the cause of the working class.

In the first sentence, the words, the undersigned, are added to the pronoun we to explain who we means. In the second sentence, the words, the most wonderful woman of this age, are added to explain who Helen Keller is. Words added to other words in this way are called explanatory words. They are placed in apposition to the noun which they explain. Apposition means by the side of, or in position near. You remember that in clauses we found that a clause may be placed in apposition with a noun to explain the meaning of that noun. For example:

There is an old saying, in union there is strength.

These words in apposition may themselves be modified or limited by other words or phrases or clauses. For example:

Helen Keller, the most wonderful woman of this age, champions the cause of the working class.

In this sentence, woman is the noun placed in apposition to the particular name, Helen Keller, and the noun woman is modified by the adjectives the, and wonderful, and by the phrase of this age.

Sometimes a second explanatory word is placed in apposition to the first one. This is quite often the case in legal documents or resolutions, where the language is quite formal. For example:

We, the undersigned, members of Local No. 38, do hereby move, etc.

I, John Smith, Notary Public, in and for the county of Clay, etc.

These words, undersigned and members, are both placed in apposition to the pronoun We, explaining to whom that pronoun refers.

Exercise 5

In the following sentences note the explanatory words and their modifiers:

1. Wendell Phillips, the great abolitionist, was a man of genius.

2. Buckle, the historian, writes from the view point of the materialistic conception of history.

3. Giovannitti, the poet, wrote "Arrows in the Gale."

4. Helen Keller, champion of the working class, wrote the introduction to this book.

5. We, the workers of the world, will some day claim our own.

6. He was found guilty of treason, a crime punishable by death.

7. Ferrer, the martyr of the twentieth century, was put to death by the Spanish government.

8. Jaures, the great French socialist, was the first martyr to peace.

9. But ye, Plebs, Populace, People, Rabble, Mob, Proletariat, live and abide forever.

10. Ye are eternal, even as your father, labor, is eternal.

11. This document, the Constitution of the United States, hinders the progress of the people.

12. The memory of Guttenberg, the inventor of the printing press, should be reverenced by every class-conscious worker.

13. Wallace, the scientist and author, was co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution.

14. Karl Marx, the thinker, applied this theory to social forces.

15. Do you understand the three basic principles of Socialism—the class struggle, economic determinism and surplus value?

Exercise 6

Read the following list of words and note the ideas which they suggest to you, then make sentences containing these words, modified by a word or group of words in apposition, which explain more fully these words.

Law, martyr, society, education, inventor, commander, freedom, Eugene V. Debs, Karl Marx, Kaiser Wilhelm, The Balkan, Lawrence, Colorado, Calumet.

ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTION

399. We have found that every word in a sentence bears some relation to every other word, except these words which we have been studying, which we use independently. These explanatory words which we have just been studying are not used independently, but do in a sense modify the noun with which they are placed in apposition. Sometimes we place a noun or a pronoun and its modifiers alongside the whole sentence and it does not really modify any part of the sentence, but modifies the whole sentence in a way, for it expresses an attendant thought or an accompanying circumstance. For example:

The workers being unorganized, the strike was easily defeated.

The strikers having won, work was resumed on their terms.

The workers being unorganised and the strikers having won are not clauses for they do not contain a verb. Being unorganized and having won are participles. Neither do they modify any word in the sentence. They are not placed in apposition with any other word. While they do express a thought in connection with the sentence, in construction they seem to be cut loose from the rest of the sentence; that is, they are not closely connected with the sentence, hence they are called absolute constructions. Ab means from, and solute, loose; so this means, literally, loose from the rest of the sentence.

We speak of these as absolute constructions, instead of independent, because the thought expressed is connected with the main thought of the sentence and is really a part of it. Notice that the noun used in the absolute construction is not the subject of the sentence.

Take the sentence, The workers being unorganized, the strike was easily defeated, the noun strike is the subject of the sentence, and the noun workers is used in the absolute construction with the participle, being unorganized.

These absolute constructions can ordinarily be rewritten into adverb clauses. For example, this sentence might read: The strike was easily defeated because the workers were unorganized. Do not make the mistake of rewriting your sentences and using the noun in the absolute construction as the subject of the sentence. For example:

The workers, being unorganized, were easily defeated.

This is not the meaning of this sentence. The meaning of the sentence is that the strike was easily defeated because the workers were unorganized. But the adverb clause, because the workers were unorganized, instead of being written as an adverb clause, has been written in the absolute construction, the workers being unorganized.

While it is nearly always possible to change these absolute constructions into adverb clauses the sentences are sometimes weakened by the change. These absolute constructions often enable us to make a statement in a stronger manner than we could make it with a clause or in any other way.

Exercise 7

In the following sentences, note the groups of words which are used in absolute construction. Rewrite these sentences and if possible change these words used in absolute construction into equivalent adverb phrases or clauses. Note how some of the sentences are weakened when you make this change.

1. Nationalism having been taught to generation after generation, the workers obeyed the call of the master class to slaughter their fellow workers.

2. The hour having arrived, Ferrer was blindfolded and led forth to die.

3. The mass being without education, capitalism gains an easy victory.

4. The class struggle being a fact, why should we hesitate to join our class?

5. These facts being true, such a conclusion is inevitable.

6. Darwin having stated the theory of evolution, Marx applied its principles to social science.

7. Chattel slavery having been destroyed, wage-slavery became the corner stone of capitalism.

8. The price having been paid, we claim our own.

9. The battle ended, the army left the trenches.

Exercise 8

Mark the interjections in the following quotations. Note the independent constructions. Mark the words used as explanatory words in apposition.

In the mind's eye, I see a wonderful building, something like the Coliseum of ancient Rome. The galleries are black with people; tier upon tier rise like waves the multitude of spectators who have come to see a great contest. A great contest, indeed! A contest in which all the world and all the centuries are interested. It is the contest—the fight to death—between Truth and Error.

The door opens, and a slight, small, shy and insignificant looking thing steps into the arena. It is Truth. The vast audience bursts into hilarious and derisive laughter. What! Is this Truth? This shuddering thing in tattered clothes, and almost naked? And the house shakes again with mocking and hisses.

The door opens again, and Error enters—clad in cloth of gold, imposing in appearance, tall of stature, glittering with gems, sleek and huge and ponderous, causing the building to tremble with the thud of its steps. The audience is for a moment dazzled into silence, then it breaks into applause, long and deafening. "Welcome!" "Welcome!" is the greeting from the multitude. "Welcome!" shout ten thousand throats.

The two contestants face each other. Error, in full armor—backed by the sympathies of the audience, greeted by the clamorous cheering of the spectators; and Truth, scorned, scoffed at, and hated. "The issue is a foregone conclusion," murmurs the vast audience. "Error will trample Truth under its feet."

The battle begins. The two clinch, separate, and clinch again. Truth holds its own. The spectators are alarmed. Anxiety appears in their faces. Their voices grow faint. Is it possible? Look! See! There! Error recedes! It fears the gaze of Truth! It shuns its beauteous eyes! Hear it shriek and scream as it feels Truth's squeeze upon its wrists. Error is trying to break away from Truth's grip. It is making for the door. It is gone!

The spectators are mute. Every tongue is smitten with the palsy. The people bite their lips until they bleed. They cannot explain what they have seen. "Oh! who would have believed it?" "Is it possible?"—they exclaim. But they cannot doubt what their eyes have seen—that puny and insignificant looking thing called Truth has put ancient and entrenched Error, backed by the throne, the altar, the army, the press, the people and the gods—to rout.

The pursuit of truth! Is it not worth living for? To seek the truth, to love the truth, to live the truth? Can any religion offer more?—Mangasarian.

SPELLING

LESSON 23

Many words contain letters for which there are no corresponding sounds in the spoken words. Thus, in the spoken word though there are only two sounds, the th and the o; u and g and h are silent. There are a great many words in the English language which contain these silent letters. There has been a movement inaugurated for the purpose of simplifying the spelling of these words, omitting these silent letters. Some writers have adopted this method of simplified spelling, and so in some magazines and books which you read you will find these silent letters dropped; for example, you will find though spelled tho, through spelled thru.

This method of simplified spelling has not been universally adopted and we have not followed it in these lessons because we feared that it would be confusing. Probably in most of your reading you will find the old method of spelling followed and all of these silent letters included. No doubt, as time goes on, we shall adopt this simplified method of spelling and drop all of these silent and useless letters.

In our spelling lesson for this week we have a number of words containing silent letters.

MONDAY

In a number of words you will find ea pronounced as short e. The board of simplified spelling has suggested that we drop the a, which is a silent letter, from these words. If we adopted their suggestion, words like head would be spelled hed. Note the spelling of the following words in which ea is pronounced as short e and the a is silent.

Spread, stead, threat, meant, pleasant, stealth.

TUESDAY

We have a number of words ending in ough in which the gh is silent.

1. In some of these words the ou is pronounced like ow. We have already changed the spelling of a few of these words, for example, we no longer use plough, but write it plow.

2. In other words ending with ough the ugh is silent and the words end with a long o sound, as in though. Many writers have dropped the silent letters ugh and spell this simply tho.

3. A few other words ending with ough end with a u sound and those who adopt the simplified spelling have dropped the ough and used simply u, as in through; many writers spell it simply thru. Observe the spelling of the following words and mark the silent letters:

Bough, through, thorough, furlough, borough, though.

WEDNESDAY

We have a number of words ending in mn in which the n is silent. Note the spelling of the following words:

Autumn, solemn, column, kiln, hymn, condemn.

THURSDAY

We have a number of words containing a silent b. Notice the spelling of the following words:

Doubt, debt, dumb, limb, thumb, lamb.

FRIDAY

A number of words end with silent ue after g. Some writers omit the ue and probably after a while we will drop this silent ue, but you will find it used now in most of your reading. These are such words as:

Catalogue, demagogue, decalogue, tongue, league, harangue.

SATURDAY

We have a number of words ending with gh in which the gh has the sound of f, as in the following words:

Trough, rough, enough, laugh, tough, cough.

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 24

Dear Comrade:

We have finished our study of the different parts of speech and are going to enter upon the work of sentence building. In the next few lessons we will gather up all that we have been studying in these lessons so far. This is a good time to give this work a thorough review. Perhaps there have been a number of things in the lessons which you have not thoroughly understood, or perhaps there have been some rules for which you have not seen the reason. Now as we begin to construct our sentences, all of this will fit into its place. We shall find the reason for many of the things which may not have seemed thoroughly clear to us.

There is a science in language as in everything else, and language, after all, is governed by the will of the people. This has seemed so self-evident to those who make a special study of the language and its development that they have given this power a special name. They speak of the "Genius of the Language" as though there was some spirit guiding and directing the developing power of language.

There is a spirit guiding and directing the developing power of language. That spirit is the creative genius of the people. It is the same spirit that would guide and direct all phases of life into full and free expression, if it were permitted to act. There being no private profit connected with the control of the language, the creative genius of the people has had fuller sway.

The educator sitting in his study cannot make arbitrary rules to change or conserve the use of words. The people themselves are the final arbiter in language. It is the current usage among the masses which puts the final stamp upon any word. Think what this same creative genius might do if it were set free in social life, in industrial life. It would work out those principles which were best fitted to the advance of the people themselves. But those who would profit by the enslavement of the people have put stumbling blocks,—laws, conventions, morals, customs,—in the way of the people.

Their creative genius does not have full sway or free sweep, but let us rejoice that in language, at least, we are free. And let us, as we realize the power of the people manifest in this phase of life, determine that the same power shall be set free to work out its will in all life. Some day the revolution will come. The people will be free to rule themselves, to express their will, not in the realms of words alone, but in their social and economic life; and as we become free within, dare to think for ourselves and to demand our own, we each become a torch of the revolution, a center of rebellion—one of those who make straight the path for the future.