WORDS THAT NEED WATCHING.
328. If the student has now
learned fully that words must be studied in grammar according to their function
or use, and not according to form, he will be able to handle some words that
are used as several parts of speech. A few are discussed below,—a summary
of their treatment in various places as studied heretofore.
THAT.
329. That may be
used as follows:
(1) As a demonstrative adjective.
That night was a memorable one.—Stockton.
(2) As an adjective pronoun.
That was a dreadful mistake.—Webster.
(3) As a relative
pronoun.
And now it is like an angel's
song,
That makes the heavens be mute.
—Coleridge.
(4) As an adverb of degree.
That far I hold that the Scriptures teach.—Beecher.
(5) As a conjunction: (a) Of purpose.
Has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that
you might behold this joyous day.—Webster.
(b) Of result.
Gates of iron so massy that no man could without
the help of engines open or shut them.—Johnson.
(c) Substantive conjunction.
We wish that labor may look up here, and be proud
in the midst of its toil.—Webster.
WHAT.
330. (1) Relative
pronoun.
That is what I understand by scientific
education.—Huxley.
(a) Indefinite relative.
Those shadowy
recollections,
Which be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day.
—Wordsworth.
(2) Interrogative pronoun: (a) Direct
question.
What would be an English merchant's character
after a few such transactions?—Thackeray.
(b) Indirect question.
I have not allowed myself to look beyond the Union, to
see what might be hidden.—Webster.
(3) Indefinite pronoun: The saying, "I'll tell you
what."
(4) Relative
adjective.
But woe to what thing or person stood in the
way.—Emerson.
(a) Indefinite relative adjective.
To say what good of fashion we can, it rests on
reality.—Id.
(5) Interrogative adjective: (a) Direct
question.
What right have you to infer that this condition
was caused by the action of heat?—Agassiz.
(b) Indirect question.
At what rate these materials would be
distributed,...it is impossible to determine.—Id.
(6) Exclamatory adjective.
Saint Mary! what a scene is here!—Scott.
(7) Adverb of degree.
If he has [been in America], he knows what good
people are to be found there.—Thackeray.
(8) Conjunction, nearly equivalent to
partly... partly, or not only...but.
What with the Maltese goats, who go tinkling by
to their pasturage; what with the vocal seller of bread in the early
morning;...these sounds are only to be heard...in Pera.—S.S. Cox.
(9) As an exclamation.
What, silent still, and silent all!—Byron.
What, Adam Woodcock at court!—Scott.
BUT.
331. (1) Coördinate
conjunction: (a) Adversative.
His very attack was never the inspiration of courage,
but the result of calculation.—Emerson.
(b) Copulative, after not only.
Then arose not only tears, but piercing cries, on
all sides. —Carlyle.
(2) Subordinate
conjunction: (a) Result, equivalent to that ...
not.
Nor is Nature so hard but she gives me this joy
several times.—Emerson.
(b) Substantive, meaning otherwise ...
than.
Who knows but, like the dog, it will at length be
no longer traceable to its wild original—Thoreau.
(3) Preposition, meaning except.
Now there was nothing to be seen but fires in
every direction.—Lamb.
(4) Relative pronoun, after a negative, stands for
that ... not, or who ... not.
There is not a man in them but is impelled
withal, at all moments, towards order.—Carlyle.
(5) Adverb, meaning only.
The whole twenty years had been to him but as one
night.—Irving.
To lead but one measure.—Scott.
AS.
332. (1) Subordinate
conjunction: (a) Of time.
Rip beheld a precise counterpart of himself as he
went up the mountain.—Irving.
(b) Of manner.
As orphans yearn on to
their mothers,
He yearned to our patriot bands.
—Mrs Browning.
(c) Of degree.
His wan
eyes
Gaze on the empty scene as vacantly
As ocean's moon looks on the moon in heaven.
—Shelley.
(d) Of
reason.
I shall see but little of it, as I could neither
bear walking nor riding in a carriage.—Franklin.
(e) Introducing an appositive word.
Reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the
village.—Irving.
Doing duty as a guard.—Hawthorne.
(2) Relative pronoun, after such, sometimes
same.
And was there such a resemblance as the crowd had
testified?—Hawthorne.
LIKE.
Modifier of a noun or
pronoun.
333. (1) An
adjective.
The aforesaid general had been exceedingly like
the majestic image.—Hawthorne.
They look, indeed, liker a lion's mane than a
Christian man's locks.-SCOTT.
No Emperor, this, like him awhile ago.—Aldrich.
There is no statue like this living man.—Emerson.
That face, like summer ocean's.—Halleck.
In each case, like clearly modifies a noun or
pronoun, and is followed by a dative-objective.
Introduces a clause, but its verb is
omitted.
(2) A subordinate conjunction of manner. This
follows a verb or a verbal, but the verb of the clause introduced by
like is regularly omitted. Note the difference between these two
uses. In Old English gelic (like) was followed by the dative, and was
clearly an adjective. In this second use, like introduces a shortened
clause modifying a verb or a verbal, as shown in the following
sentences:—
Goodman Brown came into the street of Salem village,
staring like a bewildered man.—Hawthorne.
Give Ruskin space enough, and he grows frantic and beats
the air like Carlyle.—Higginson.
They conducted themselves much like the crew of a
man-of-war. —Parkman.
[The sound] rang in his ears like the iron hoofs
of the steeds of Time.—Longfellow.
Stirring it vigorously, like a cook beating
eggs.—Aldrich.
If the verb is expressed, like drops out, and
as or as if takes its place.
The sturdy English moralist may talk of a Scotch supper
as he pleases.—Cass.
Mankind for the first seventy thousand ages ate their
meat raw, just as they do in Abyssinia to this day.—Lamb.
I do with my friends as I do with my books.—Emerson.
NOTE.—Very rarely like is found with a verb
following, but this is not considered good usage: for example,—
A timid, nervous child, like Martin
was.—Mayhew.
Through which they put their heads, like the
Gauchos do through their cloaks.—Darwin.
Like an arrow
shot
From a well-experienced archer hits the
mark.
—Shakespeare.
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