ANALYZING COMPLEX SENTENCES.

379. These suggestions will be found helpful: (1) See that the sentence and all its parts are placed in the natural order of subject, predicate, object, and modifiers. (2) First take the sentence as a whole; find the principal subject and principal predicate; then treat noun clauses as nouns, adjective clauses as adjectives modifying certain words, and adverb clauses as single modifying adverbs. (3) Analyze each clause as a simple sentence. For example, in the sentence, "Cannot we conceive that Odin was a reality?" we is the principal subject; cannot conceive is the principal predicate; its object is that Odin was a reality, of which clause Odin is the subject, etc. 380. It is sometimes of great advantage to map out a sentence after analyzing it, so as to picture the parts and their relations. To take a sentence: "I cannot help thinking that the fault is in themselves, and that if the church and the cataract were in the habit of giving away their thoughts with that rash generosity which characterizes tourists, they might perhaps say of their visitors, 'Well, if you are those men of whom we have heard so much, we are a little disappointed, to tell the truth.'" This may be represented as follows:
I cannot help thinking ____________________ | _______________________| (a) THAT THE FAULT IS IN THEMSELVES, AND (b) [THAT] THEY MIGHT (PERHAPS) SAY OF THEIR VISITORS ___________________ | _____________________________|_________________________________ | | O| b| j| e| c| t| | | | \ (a) We are (a little) disappointed ___________________________ ________________________| M| o| d| i| f| i| e| r\ M| o| d| i| f| i| e| r| \ | | | | | (b) If you are those men | ___ | _________________________| | M| | o| Of whom we have heard so much. | d. | \ | _____________________________________________________| (a) If the church and ... that rash generosity __________ | _______________________________________________| | | | \ (b) Which characterizes tourists.

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