19.

20.

that they would go sometime.

inasmuch as he was already there.

V. Make three answers to each of the following questions,

by means of simple sentence, one by complex, and one by

compound or compound-complex: —

1. Why did you go to the city to-day?

2. Where were you yesterday?

3. How do you reach the station from here?

4. Why did he leave so abruptly?

5. How many hours did you spend on your lesson?

6. Who was the gentleman who came with you?

7. When did you return to town?

8. What is a simple sentence?

9. What is a complex sentence?

10. What is a compound sentence?

11. What is a compound-complex sentence?

RHETORICAL FORMS OF SENTENCES

Sentence Classifications. Up to the present time, we - have noted four classifications of sentences from the point of view of grammar; namely, the Simple, the Compound, the Complex, and the Compound-complex.

We have studied elsewhere that sentences are divided into four different classes from the expressional point of view. We know, for instance, that there is such a thing as a declarative sentence, or a sentence concerned with a declarative statement; such as,

John threw the ball,

in which the voice is used on one plane alone in making a complete declaration of some fact. We know, also, that opposed to this there is the interrogative sentence, which is always indicated by keeping the voice well raised at the end, as in the following:

Has John a ball?

where a definite question is asked with its required intona tion of voice. A third division of the expressional classification is the imperative sentence, which name again indicates the tone of voice that is commonly used in uttering it; to illustrate :

John, give me the ball.

Usually a sterner, more commanding voice is required in the utterance of such sentences. And the fourth division, the exclamatory sentence, is the sentence which when uttered denotes strong emotion on the part of the speaker. Here again it is the tone of the voice or the tone of expression that tells the listener what kind of sentence is being used. We may illustrate by the following:

Alas, he is dead!

These four types are called expressional sentences, because what characterizes them is not the form, but the way in which they are uttered. In our former classification we were concerned with the grammatical structure or form of the sentence; here, that does not enter into the consideration at all. Any one of these four expressional types may have any grammatical construction discussed above; that is, a declarative sentence may be simple, complex, compound, or compound-complex, and so on.

The Balanced Sentence. There is still another classification of sentences, this time purely from the rhetorical point of view. We have read sentences in which words or phrases or whole clauses seemed to be set over against one another in equal parts; for instance,

In the morning it rained, and in the evening it snowed. Here we see two phrases, "in the morning" and "in the evening," balancing or paralleling each other. Again, in the sentence,

John, James, and Bill run, jump, and scream,

we notice that there are three subjects and three predicates in perfect balance or in perfect parallel. Further, in the sentence,

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,

we notice a perfect balance of proposition with consequence as expressed in two different clauses. In other words, in all of these illustrations we have easily noted a perfect parallelism or balance, and we call such sentences, therefore, Parallel or Balanced Sentences. This type of sentence is particularly valuable when we have to express comparison and when we want to clarify particularly intricate or difficult matter. It is a sentence that is almost mathematical in its construction; its terms, being stated opposite one another, can be immediately discerned, their relations established, and their meaning more easily gotten at. It may be, of course, either compound or complex, and it may belong in form to any one of our expressional types.

The Loose Sentence. In the following sentence, however, we notice a somewhat different relation :

I found my mother ill this morning when I reached home. In this sentence we find no fewer than three places where the sense may be concluded; where we may place a period, in other words, and have complete sense before we reach the end of the sentence. We may say:

I found my mother ill this morning.

And in each case we shall have a complete thought and a complete statement of that thought. Our construction is seen to be "loose," and we call such a sentence a Loose Sen

tence. To define it again, a loose sentence is one which may be brought to a close at some place before the actual end and still preserve a complete thought. The loose sentence is the conversational sentence; it is the sentence that you and I use constantly. It is, therefore, very informal and should be cultivated for the expression of our everyday thoughts. We should, however, be warned against stringing too many ideas together in this loose construction, else our expression will become very choppy, uncertain, and monotAvoid such sentences as

onous.

I went down town and afterwards came home, but found no one there, and so went back down town again,

both in writing and speaking.

The Periodic Sentence. If now we take the sentence used for illustration above, and turn it around, making a slight change in it, we shall have a reading somewhat as follows: When I reached home this morning, I found that my mother was ill. Here the content of the sentence is not perfected, the thought is not complete, until we have reached the very last word. We cannot stop our reading and give our hearer any satisfaction until we have come to the period. We call this sentence, therefore, from the rhetorical point of view, a Periodic Sentence. Try to read all of this sentence but the last word; you will find that it is nonsense, that it is nothing but a jumble of ideas and incomplete in its thought. No one can guess what is left to be said after the word "was." We might add the word "happy"; we might say "weeping," or "working," or " playing the piano." In short, the answer to our question "What?" is not given until we have reached the very last word. Periodic sentences are used in formal types of expression, they are used for the creating of suspense and climax, and they are, moreover, used to a large extent by

public speakers and orators who are striving to produce certain effects at a specific time. For the ordinary purposes of writing, they will be found invaluable for "pulling your thoughts together." Try pulling together in this fashion the too loose sentence given above. The following plan, by way of summary, will help us to keep these three classifications in mind:

I. Which among these sentences are loose, which periodic, which parallel? What effect would a change to another form have in each case?

A.

1. On Sunday afternoon the city pours forth its legions to breathe the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine of the parks and rural environs. 2. I have dwelt upon this beautiful rural custom, because, as it

is one of the last, so it is one of the holiest offices of love.

3. The feast went on merrily, or at least noisily, for the guests were all blessed with those keen appetites that attend upon light purses and mountain air.

4. I had scarcely dressed myself, when a servant appeared to invite me to family prayers.

5. As I passed through the hall, on my way to my chamber, the dying embers of the Yule log still sent forth a dusky glow.