Chapter LXXII: Adverbial Clauses of Condition and Concession

=288.= Very often an action cannot take place except under a certain condition, and this condition is often expressed in a dependent clause; as in the sentence, “A man can buy a vote only if some other man is willing to sell a vote.” Here the one condition under which a man can buy a vote is told in the adverbial clause, _if some other man is willing to sell a vote_. This is called a clause of =condition=. It is generally introduced by _if_, _unless_ (which means _if not_), _provided_, or _providing_. In the illustration what does the clause modify? What is the use of _only_?

=289.= Sometimes an action takes place in spite of something else, and we tell this in such a sentence as the following, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Here the fact that I trust Him is true in spite of the fact that He may slay me. Such a clause as _though He slay me_ is called a clause of =concession=, for it concedes, or grants, something that seems to be in direct opposition to what is in the principal clause. What does it modify? What can you say of the word _yet_?

A clause of concession is generally joined by the subordinate conjunction _though_, or by some such word as _notwithstanding_, or _even if_, which means _though_.

Sometimes _though_ has a correlative, the word _yet_, _still_, or _nevertheless_ used at the beginning of the principal clause.

=Summary.=—A clause of =condition= answers the question _provided what?_ It tells the circumstance under which the principal statement is true.

A clause of =concession= answers the question _in spite of what?_ It tells the circumstance in spite of which the principal statement is true.

=Exercise.=—Select all adverbial clauses. Tell what each clause denotes, what it modifies, what it is joined by. Account for the punctuation.

1. If your everyday language is not fit for a letter or for
print, it is not fit for talk.

2. In Bermuda, if you are in want of some choice cologne, do
not fail to ask for it at the nearest shoe shop.

3. Though delicate in his tastes, an elephant likes quantity as
well as quality, and at his meals makes nothing of bales of hay
and gallons of water.

4. Though the weeping willow and the mountain ash could not
endure the cold northeast storms, yet the sturdy elms grew
apace and soon spread their branches far.

5. Half the pleasure in going out to murder another man with a
gun would be wanting, if one did not wear feathers, and gold
lace, and stripes on his pantaloons.

6. There is something queer about thoughts; you cannot have a
good time with them if you have done anything naughty.

7.

Though watery deserts hold apart the worlds of East and West,
Still beats the selfsame human heart in each proud Nation’s breast.

8. If our forefathers had not chosen to emigrate to America, we
should now be English people ourselves.

9. Rebecca was so slender and so stiffly starched that she slid
from space to space on the leather cushions, though she braced
herself against the middle seat with her feet, and extended her
cotton-gloved hands on each side.

10.

If the men were so wicked, I’ll ask my papa
How he dared to propose to my darling mamma.
Was he like the rest of them? Goodness! Who knows?
And what should I say if a wretch should propose?

11. Though he looked like a bird, he behaved like a monkey.

12.

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small,
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.

13. If the scythes cut well and swing merrily, it is due to the
boy who turned the grindstone.

14. If a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if
he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he
read little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know
that he doth not.

15.

Men must work and women must weep.
Though storms be sudden and waters deep.
And the harbor bar be moaning.

Account for the mode of the verb in each dependent clause in the preceding sentences.