10. To the best of my recollection, she was not there.

II. Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between thee and me. 12. The army of Xerxes, to put it in round numbers, comprised 2,500,000 persons.

72. Pleonasm.-Examine

tence:

the following sen

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Here the words "Thy rod and thy staff" name the subject of the thought, but are independent of the sentence "they comfort me," which is complete in itself, the grammatical subject being "they" and the predicate "comfort me." It is as if we used two subjects denoting the same thing: thus,

Definition. The use of more words than are needed is called Pleonasm ("more than enough"). Other examples of pleonasm are:—

The smith, a mighty man is he.

My banks, they are furnished with bees.

This construction was once very good English, but it is now uncommon, and as a rule should not be imitated.

73. Punctuation of Independent Elements.—It is customary to separate independent elements from the rest of the sentence by commas or (in the case of exclamations) by exclamation points.

EXERCISE 69.

Write two sentences of your own with vocatives attached; two with exclamations; two with parenthetical expressions.

74. Summary of the Parts of a Sentence.—The parts of a sentence, which we have now studied, may be summarized as follows:

EXERCISE 70.

(GENERAL REVIEW.)

1. Reproduce from memory the preceding summary, omitting the numerical references.

2. Define and illustrate each of the terms used in the summary.

To the Teacher.-The nominative absolute, which is independent in form, though it is really a modifier, is treated in Part II.

CHAPTER VIII

OF SENTENCES AS SIMPLE, COMPLEX, AND COMPOUND

WITH respect to meaning, sentences are classified as Assertive, Interrogative, or Imperative. With respect to form, they are either Simple, Complex, or Compound.

Each of these sentences, you observe, consists of but one subject and one predicate, though several of the subjects and predicates are compound.

Definition. A sentence which contains only one subject and one predicate, either or both of which may be compound, is called a Simple Sentence.

In a simple sentence with compound subject and predicate, every verb belongs to every grammatical subject, and every grammatical subject belongs to every verb.

Some grammarians hold that there are as many sentences or clauses in anything we say as there are verbs. According to them,

sentences (c) and (d) are not simple sentences, but two separate sentences united, with some words omitted: as, The horses took fright and [the horses] ran away;" "The horses and the cattle were fastened in the same stable and [the horses and the cattle] were fed at the same time."

In each of these sentences a clause, performing the office of a single word, forms an indispensable part of the whole. It cannot be removed without injury to the meaning of the sentence. On the other hand, it depends on the rest of the sentence for its own significance. It is clear that the subject and the predicate of such a clause are subordinate to, that is, of lower rank than, the subject and the predicate of the sentence of which the clause is only a part.

Definition. A clause used like a single word as a dependent or subordinate part of a sentence is called a Dependent or Subordinate Clause.

Definition. A sentence containing a principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses is called a Complex Sentence (Latin, "woven together”). The " principal clause" in the first illustrative sentence is the entire sentence; in the second sentence it is, "The spot is not known."