A clause must contain
a subject and a verb (simple predicate): a phrase need not.
Note:
a phrase can be part of a clause but a clause cannot be part of a phrase.
A prepositional
phrase is a phrase that begins with a preposition.
Both phrases and
clauses can act as adverbs and adjectives. They also can act as nouns though
this is less common. Prepositional phrases only rarely act as nouns.
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The
highlighted words in each of the following sentences are phrases:
- The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed, and groped his way to the window. He was obliged to rub the frost off (1) with the sleeve (2) of his dressing-gown (3) before he could see anything.
In the second sentence above,
there are two clauses:
- He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown
- before he could see anything.
These are clauses
because they contain subjects (He/he) and verbs / simple predicates
(obliged/could see).
Clause:
- His nephew left the room without
an angry word
Phrases:
- of his nephew / leaving the room
By themselves these
two phrases have no predicate: the adjective phrase "leaving the
room" describes the nephew, but there is nothing here to show why
the writer is mentioning the nephew in the first place.
Clause:
- The nephew left the room.
This is a complete clause because
the writer is mentioning the nephew because he left the room.
- I saw a picture of his nephew leaving the room.
This is also a complete clause. The writer is mentioning the nephew leaving
the room because he "saw a picture" of his nephew leaving the
room.
Clause:
Yes, this single-word command
(known as the imperative) is also a clause, even though its subject is understood
to be whoever is being talked to. The clause clearly means, "[You]
rise!" Direct commands are fairly common in speech.
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~Prepositions
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other
words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is
called the object of the preposition.
A
preposition usually indicates the relationship of its object in time or space
logic to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:
- Her copy of A Christmas Carol is on the table.
- Her copy of A Christmas Carol is beneath the table.
- Her copy of A Christmas Carol is leaning against the table.
- Her copy of A Christmas Carol is beside the table.
- She held her copy of A Christmas Carol over the table.
- She read her copy of A Christmas Carol during class.
In each of
the preceding sentences, the preposition of links "copy" to "A Christmas Carol"; in each of the preceding sentences a preposition
locates the noun "copy" in space or in time. Of is possibly
the most common preposition; it often can be replaced by a possessive
noun ("the children of their children" with "their children's
children"; "from the window of a hut" with "from a
hut's window") or by simply placing its object before the noun it
modifies and using it as an adjective (Her Christmas Carol copy) - this latter technique is not
recommended in for your papers.
A
prepositional phrase
is made up of the preposition, its object
and any associated adjectives or adverbs. A prepositional phrase can function
as a noun (rarely), an adjective, or an adverb.
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The following
are common prepositions relating to:
- time: after, at, before, during, past, since, till, to, until,
upon
- location: about, above, across, after,
against, along, among, around, at, behind, below, beneath, beside, between,
beyond, by, down, from, in, inside, into, on, onto, out, outside, over,
through, to, toward, under, underneath, up, upon.
- possession: by, of, to, with.
- other: despite, except, for, like,
off, throughout.
Note: not all of these
words are always prepositions; it is irritating, but many words in English
can "be" more than one part of speech and retain their basic meaning.
You will see that prepositions relating to time are also often adverbial conjunctions; some words that
are usually prepositions become adverbs when they follow a verb and are
not followed by an object: In "[It looked] with ghostly spectacles
turned up upon its ghostly forehead" "up" acts as an adverb
modifying the verb and "upon" is a preposition introducing a prepositional
phrase (the phrase is also an adverb. Notice you could end the sentence
with "up" and not be ending it with a preposition.)
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Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a preposition
and introduces a prepositional phrase:
- It was clothed in one simple green robe.
In this sentence, the preposition "in" introduces the noun
"robe." The prepositional phrase "in one simple green
robe" functions as an adverb describing how it (the spirit) was
clothed.
- Away they came, flocking through
the streets.
Here, the prepositional
phrase acts as an adverb describing where they flocked.
- Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared
to plunge it in the breast.
The prepositional phrase "along the carving knife" acts as
an adverb, describing where Mrs. Cratchit was looking. The prepositional
phrase in the breast acts as an adverb, describing where the knife
was to be plunged.
The prepositional
phrase "At Bob Cratchit's elbow" acts as an adverb modifying
the verb "stood."
The prepositional phrase
"of glass" acts as an adjective modifying the noun "stood."
The prepositional phrase
"without a handle" acts as an adjective modifying the noun "custard-cup."
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~Verbals
and Verbal Phrases
Infininitives
and Infinitive Phrases
An infinitive
is a verbal consisting of the word to
plus a verb (in its "stem" form) and functioning as a noun, adjective,
or adverb. The term verbal
indicates that an infinitive, like the other two kinds of verbals (participles and gerunds), is based on a verb and therefore expresses
action or a state of being. However, like all verbals, an infinitive is
never "the verb" of a sentence. Instead, the infinitive may function
as a subject, direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb in
a sentence. Figuring out how it is functioning can be difficult.
- To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of
his nature on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing
and crying; and to see
his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to his business
friends in the city, indeed. (subject)(subject)
- I hope to live to be another man from what I was (direct object)(adverb)
- To edge
his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to
keep its distance, was what the
knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge. (subject)(adjectives)
- To see
the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have
thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale. (adjective
- modifying "one"; this is similar to an introductory participial phrase.)
- Scrooge was not a man to be
frightened by echoes.
- It seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. (subject complement)
- Some people laughed to see the alteration in him. (adverb)
Be sure not to confuse an infinitive
- to plus a verb - with a prepositional phrase beginning with to - to
plus a noun or pronoun and any modifiers:
Infinitives: She clapped her hands and laughed, and
tried to touch
his head; but being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to
embrace him. Then she began to drag him, in her childish eagerness, towards
the door; and he, nothing loath to go, accompanied her.
Prepositions: To
his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from six to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to twelve; then stopped. Twelve! It was past
two when he went to bed.
The clock was wrong. An icicle must have got into the works.
Prepositions always are part
of a phrase; infinitives often are. An infinitive phrase consists of an
infinitive and words that either modify it or are its "object."
- to buy the beef ("beef" is the object of the infinitive.)
- to sit close to it ("close" is an adverb; "to
it" a prepositional phrase modifying close)
- to attract his thoughts ("thoughts" is the object of the infinitive.)
- to shape some picture ("to shape" is the object of the infinitive.)
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~Participles
and Participial Phrases
A participle is a verbal that is formed by adding the suffix "ing"
to the verb stem. Participles act as adjectives. They should not be mistaken
for gerunds which are formed the same way but act as nouns. They
should also not be confused with the use of the participial form in verbs.
Participles often introduce adjective
- Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery red.
"Setting" is a
participle modifying sun.
- Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand
at the grind- stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
clutching, covetous,
old sinner!
"Squeezing, wrenching,
grasping, scraping, clutching" are all participles. Like the adjectives
covetous and old, they modify sinner.
- Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore,
and sitting
up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion
to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. (This is similar
to an introductory infinitive phrase)
- Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not
by any means prepared for nothing.
- Basking in luxurious thoughts of sage-and-onion,
these young Cratchits danced about the table, and exalted Master
Peter Cratchit to the skies.
In each of these sentences,
the bolded words are participles that introduce participial phrases
that modify the underlined nouns. Note that with being prepared both
words are part of the participle.
The suffix "ed"
added to the verb stem forms the past participle:
- Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife,
dressed out
but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap
and make a goodly show for sixpence.
"Dressed"
is a past participle that introduces a participial phrase that modifies
Mrs. Cratchit.
- For the people who were shoveling away on the housetops were jovial and full
of glee.
"Shoveling" is
part of the verb "were shoveling" not
a participle.
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~Gerunds
and Gerund phrases
Gerunds are formed
from verbs and act as nouns. As noted above, gerunds, like participles,
are formed by adding "ing" to a verb stem. Unlike participles,
they cannot be formed by adding any other suffix to the verb stem. (Historically,
participles were not formed with the "ing" suffix - they seem
to have "borrowed" it from the gerunds many centuries ago) When
they are not the objects of a preposition, they often can be seen as interchangeable
with the infinitive of the same verb, although some verbs take infinitives
as objects, and others gerunds.
- He was taken with a violent
fit of trembling.
"Trembling" is
a gerund and the object of the preposition of.
- Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking
jokes
In this sentence "cracking"
is the object of a preposition and "jokes" (a noun) is the object
of the gerund. This is a common construction for a gerund.
- What's Christmas time to you but a time
for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a
time for balancing your
books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months
presented dead against you?
In the above sentence the
gerunds are bolded
and their objects are in italics.
Note that the prepositional phrases "for paying", "for
finding" and "for balancing" could be replaced with the
infinitives "to pay", "to find" and "to balance."
- Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued
to shake very much; and shaving requires attention, even when you don't dance while you are
at it.
Here the gerund "shaving"
is the subject of both "was" and "required." It could
be replaced by "To shave" in each case. It is interesting that
using gerunds as subjects is relatively rare in Dickens.
- Edging his way along the crowded paths of life,
warning all
human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts"
to Scrooge.
This sentence
provides a good example of how narrow the difference between gerunds and
participles can be. As written, "Edging" is the gerund subject
of the sentence and "warning" is a participle modifying the
gerund phrase. But look what happens if the gerund phrase is eliminated
from the sentence:
- Warning all human sympathy to keep its distance
was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge.
"Warning" has been
transformed into a gerund and the participial phrase is now a gerund phrase.
Notice also that eliminating the word "ones" transforms knowing
from a participle to a noun. Also notice that the past participle "crowded"
cannot be transformed into a gerund. Again, all gerunds end in "ing'.
(Note: Dickens' original
sentence was: "To edge his way along the crowded paths of life,
warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing
ones call "nuts" to Scrooge." For purposes of illustration
I changed the infinitive subject to a gerund.)
- Then the shouting and the struggling, and the onslaught that was made on the
defenseless porter.
- The immense relief of finding this a false alarm.
In these two sentences, both
of which are technically "fragments", gerunds seem to supply
the actions.
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~
Other phrases
Appositive
phrases
Appositive
phrases are phrases that usually follow a noun or proper noun and expand
upon it. They are also the equivalent of the word they stand "in
apposition to."
- "I
know him; Marley's Ghost!"
Him
= Marley's ghost
- "In
life I was your partner, Jacob Marley."
Partner
= Jacob Marley
- They
went, the Ghost and Scrooge,
across the hall, to a door at the back of the house.
They = the ghost and Scrooge. (Note that here
Dickens separates "They" and the appositive with a verb.)
- In
came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile.
Mrs.
Fezziwig = one vast substantial smile.
- Then
up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife.
Mrs. Cratchit = Cratchit's wife.
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Phrases of Comparison
A
common form of comparison uses "as" and "so" to introduce
phrases:
- Old
Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
- The
yard was so dark
that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his
hands.
In
both these sentences the phrases acts as subject
complements. Because they describe the subjects, they are adjectives.
Like prepositional phrases, they can also act as adverbs. Note that some
words on the comparative form (darker, softer) are turned into adverb
phrases when used as adverbs (more darkly, more softly).
- It
swung so softly
in the outset that it scarcely made a sound.
Sometimes
it can be difficult to determine whether a phrase modifies the subject of
the verb. Do you think the following phrase modifies "flaring"
or "candles?"
- Candles
were flaring in the windows of the neighboring offices, like ruddy
smears upon the palpable brown air.
Notice
in the following sentence the comparative phrase acts as the subject:
- "There's
more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"
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