Chapter LXXXVII: Analysis of Sentences Containing Infinitive Phrases

=345.= The infinitive phrase is analyzed very much like a predicate. First, the infinitive should be given as the base word; then its complement and modifiers should be given.

MODEL.—_By the law of the jungle the tiger has no right to change his quarters without fair warning._

This is a simple, declarative sentence.

The subject is _the tiger_. The predicate is _has by the law of the jungle no right to change his quarters without fair warning_.

The predicate verb is _has_; it is completed by the direct object _no right to change his quarters without fair warning_, and then modified by the prepositional phrase _by the law of the jungle_.

The base word of the object is the noun _right_; it is modified by the infinitive phrase _to change his quarters without fair warning_, and then denied by the adjective _no_.

The base word of the infinitive phrase is the infinitive _to change_; it is completed by the direct object _his quarters_ and modified by the prepositional phrase _without fair warning_. The base word of the object is the noun _quarters_, modified by the possessive pronoun _his_. The base word of the object of the preposition _without_ is the infinitive _warning_, which is modified by the adjective _fair_.

The base word of the object of the preposition _by_ is the noun _law_, which is modified by the prepositional phrase _of the jungle_ and the article _the_.

=Exercise.=—Analyze the following sentences:—

1. Turning grindstones to grind scythes is one of those heroic
but unobtrusive occupations for which one gets no credit.

2. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and
some few to be chewed and digested.

3. When Kotick felt his skin tingle all over, his mother told
him he was learning the feel of the water.

4. Mother made and embroidered a white linen pocket for me to
wear at my belt.

5. The neighbors and friends did not wait for an invitation to
go to the house of the young wife, so impatient were they to
see her treasures.

6. The Boy had no desire to investigate further, with the risk
of finding the lynx at home.

7. It seems hard any day to think what to have for dinner.

8. The next thing was to cord up the trunk, and Mr. Peterkin
tried to move it.

9. I have seen wild bees and butterflies feeding at a height of
13,000 feet above the sea.

10. If you wear an automobile veil to pick cherries in, I must
get an automobile to take you to the cherry trees.

11. No person but yourself is permitted to lift this stone or
enter the cave.

12. Very sweet were the child’s ways of loving her
father,—putting flowers on his study table, learning to read
so that she could read his books, reaching up to rub her cheek
against his, praying for him, and letting him put her to bed.

13. The Oldest Inhabitant refused to go to bed on any terms,
but persisted in sitting up in a rocking-chair until daybreak.

14. The Eskimo never knows when his own time may come to beg.

15. Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith.

16. The only department of life in which Mr. Randall failed to
shine was the making of sufficient money to live upon.

17. He saw an eagle swoop across the gigantic hollow, but the
great bird dwindled to a dot ere it was halfway over.

18. After she began wearing the bracelet, she was unwilling to
go without it even for a day.

19. Hewing wood and sawing plank leave me no time to take part
in disputes.

20. The one object of Polly’s life was to get out of her cage.

21. The skipper had taken his little daughter to bear him
company.

22. Every boy is anxious to be a man.

23. A man has no more right to say a rude thing to another than
to knock him down.

24. To travel in Switzerland it is generally necessary to cross
the mountains, to go around the sides, or to go through them.

25. Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know Scrooge.

26. Let dogs delight to bark and bite.

27. When a bear kills a sheep, he skins it deftly and has the
politeness to leave the pelt in a neat bundle, just to indicate
to the farmer that he has been robbed by a gentleman.

28. The first tracks to meet their eyes were the delicate
footprints of the red squirrel.

29. It is not good to make a jest of thy teacher.

30. Angels seemed to have sat with Ernest by the fireside.

31. My joy was greater than I can express when I saw the tiger
rise and slink into the jungle.

LXXXVIII. PARTICIPLES

=346.= In Lesson LIV we learned that the perfect tenses of any verb are formed by combining certain auxiliaries with the =past participles= of the verb; as, “I have _heard_,” “I had _heard_,” “I shall have _heard_.” We learned also that the past participle is one of the principal parts of a verb.

In Lesson LV we learned that the passive voice of any transitive verb is formed by adding its past participle to the conjugation of the verb _be_; as, “It is _caught_,” “It was _caught_,” “It will be _caught_.”

In Lesson LVI we learned that the past participle of a verb may be used like an adjective as the subjective complement of a verb; as, “The potatoes seem _done_,” “The flowers are _withered_ now.”

=347.= In Lesson LVII we learned that the =present participle= of a verb always ends in _-ing_, and that this participle is used in forming the progressive conjugation, as, “I am _sleeping_,” “I was _sleeping_,” “I shall be _sleeping_.”

We are ready now to study participles in all their relations.

=348.= Intransitive verbs have four participles:—

PRESENT PAST PERFECT

coming come having come
_Progressive_ having been coming

Transitive verbs have six participles:—

PRESENT PAST PERFECT

_Active_ writing having written
_Active Progressive_ having been writing[1]
_Passive_ being written written having been written

[1] This form is rarely used.

The active participles denote action performed; they make us think of the doer of the action. On the other hand, the passive participles denote action received; they make us think of the receiver of the action.

The present participle expresses action as still in progress; the past participle expresses action completed in past time; the perfect participle expresses past action completed before some particular past time.

=349.= The participle, like the infinitive, is a verbal, because it is a verb form without the power to assert. Just as an infinitive is oftenest used as a noun, so the participle is oftenest used as an adjective; that is, it is usually associated with some noun. Indeed, it is by their adjective use that we are able to distinguish participles from infinitives in _-ing_, for in form they are almost exactly the same.

What nouns do the participles belong with in the following sentences?

I hear the sound of trickling water.

The lost child had wandered far.

The diamonds sparkling in her dark hair rivaled the stars.

The chair made two hundred years ago tilted one forward very
uncomfortably.

=350.= The participles used oftenest are the simplest of all, the present active participle and the past passive participle.

=351.= A participle, like an infinitive, may have all the complements and modifiers that a verb may have; as, “The man _turning the switch_ is faithful,” “_Feeling sleepy after lunch_, I took a nap.”

The participle and all its accompanying words form together a =participial phrase=.

=Summary.=—A =participle= is a verbal that is generally used as an adjective.

Participles may be active or passive or progressive in meaning.

Participles have three tenses,—present, past, and perfect. The present participle expresses continuing action, the past participle completed action, and the perfect participle past action completed before a particular time.

Participles have the same complements and modifiers as verbs.

A =participial phrase= is a group of words consisting of a participle and its complement and modifiers.

=Exercise 1.=—Form all the participles of the verbs _choose_, _draw_, _drink_, _go_, _find_, _know_, _tell_, _think_, _turn_, _shine_.

=Exercise 2.=—Select all the participial phrases in these sentences. Tell what noun or pronoun they belong with. Classify the participles.

1. Two children sat on the grass under the lilacs, making
dandelion chains and talking happily.

2. Those three tall poles now being lifted to position will
enable us to have a telephone.

3. From a little hill called Hutchinson’s Hill you could look
over three and a half miles of ground covered with fighting
seals.

4. Having given away the old candle mold, she was anxious to
get it back again.

5. Mrs. Merrithew, knowing well that little folk are generally
troubled with a wonderful thirst, had also brought a cup and a
bottle of lemonade.

6. The floors were bird’s-eye maple, and having been lately
waxed, they looked too fine for my desecrating tread.

7. The workmen, having been painting for hours on the sunny
side of the house, grew faint and dizzy.

8. The boy took his seat, frowning and blinking at the candle
light, while his mother, placing his coffee before him, let her
hand rest on his shoulder.

9. Having passed at the turnstile into the campus, David stood
before the college.

10. In one hand he carried a faded valise made of Brussels
carpet sprinkled with pink roses.

11. The old peasant woman, having eaten three meals with the
servants and three with the mistress, declared at evening that
she was satisfied.

12. If all the money being spent for ice-cream sodas were put
to some useful purpose—cement sidewalks, for instance,—few of
us would be stubbing our toes on old board walks.

13. A snowball soaked in water and left out to cool was a
projectile which had been resorted to with disastrous results.

14. No flying or crawling creature escapes the sharp little
eyes of the birds.

15. Its roots having been cut, the top of the tree suffered.

16. The tourists, having watched the bears nose about among the
tin cans in the garbage piles, went back to the hotel to avoid
being devoured by mosquitoes.

17. Very soon their path led them out into a wide glade, fenced
all about with the serried and formal ranks of the young firs.

18. That log just being sawed will produce eight hundred feet
of lumber.

19. The whale is the largest animal now living in the world.

20. Having been told by his master that he too could go to the
village, Shep bounded away down the road like mad.

21. Sleep, having descended upon him, spread a quiet mist
through his brain.

22. Having been tramped down by the cattle, the snow was smooth
like a floor.

Tell the use of all the infinitive phrases in sentences 2, 4, 10, 13.