T HE O RDER OF E LEMENTS IN THE S ENTENCE: P ERMUTATIONS

Rules:

The English (the Italian) language tends to follow the direct order in prose, inversion being very rare.

In poetry, inversion is very common.

The direct order consists in placing: first, the subject, then the predicate, then the objects, direct and indirect; then the modifiers follow according to the importance they derive from the meaning of the sentence.

These ideas are after all so simple and clear that the child rarely has any difficulty in understanding them. Nevertheless, it is much easier to give the child a vivid impression of them by the permutation of parts than by explanation. This permutation is made very convenient by the sentences being printed in sections which may be moved about and combined at will. Just as the sequence of the various parts of speech was made clear by transposing the parts, here the same result can be accomplished by transposing the sections of the printed slip. Example:

(subject) (predicate) (direct object) (attribute) on the pavement.

(place: adverb)

The following combinations are possible results of permutation: We—heard—the clatter—of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement. We—the clatter—heard—on the pavement—of the horse's hoofs. We—of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement—the clatter—heard.

Of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement—heard—the clatter—we, etc., etc.

SERIES VIII

(The inverted order)

The effect of direct and inverted order can be shown in every sentence. But it is better to try examples of inversion from poetic language. In this series, all the sentences show inversion of one type or another:

—Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. —Upon the roof we sat that night!

The noise of bells went sweeping by; Awesome bells they were to me. —Still sits the school-house by the road. —Before them under the garden-wall

Forward and back

Went drearily singing the chore-girl small. —And day by day more holy grew

Each spot of the sacred ground.

—There thronged the citizens with terror dumb.

Exercises on the putting together of sentence elements can lead to practise in the identification and use of grammatical forms as parts of speech, which the study of single words would not at first permit; as for instance, forms of the verbs used as nouns (infinitive and gerund as subject and object), the difference between personal pronouns used as direct or indirect objects, and so on.

SERIES IX

The roll contains the two forms of the verb, active and passive, in sections. The analysis is conducted on the chart for the simple sentence:

ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE REFLEXIVE

(Action performed by subject) (Action performed by agent)

Mary dresses the little girl. The little girl is dressed by Mary. The little girl dresses herself. The teacher praised Charles

for the drawing.

Charles was praised by the teacher for the drawing.

Charles praised himself for the drawing.

The little girl excused George for his roughness.

George was excused for his roughness by the little girl.

George excuses himself for his roughness.

The janitor accused the boy. The boy was accused by the janitor. The boy accused himself. The old man liked Albert very

much.

Albert was very much liked by the old man.

Albert liked himself very much.

The nurse tucked the child into the warm bed.

The child was tucked into the warm bed by the nurse.

The child tucked himself into the warm bed.

The girl rocked her little friend to sleep in the rocking-chair.

The little friend was rocked to sleep in the rocking-chair by the little girl.

Her little friend rocked herself to sleep in the rocking-chair. The teacher saw Henry in the

large mirror.

Henry was seen in the large mirror by the teacher.

Henry saw himself in the large mirror.

The angry boy hurt Louis. Louis was hurt by the angry boy. Louis hurt himself.

SERIES X

(Use of the personal pronoun)

The sentences previously given for analysis in teaching the personal pronouns can be used over again at this point for analysis on the sentence-chart.

—The children wrote a letter to their mother The children wrote her a letter

They wrote it to her

—They gave their mother a surprise They gave her a surprise

—I told father all about it I told him all about it

—Charles soothed his sister with a kiss He soothed her with a kiss

—Will you give your drawing to the teacher? Will you give her your drawing?

—Don't think badly of your schoolmates Don't think badly of them

—Show those dirty hands to the teacher Show her those dirty hands

Show them to her

—Tell the story to the children in the other room Tell it to the children in the other room

Tell it to them there

The exercise in permutation brings out the relative positions of the direct and indirect objects; as also the conditions under which the preposition to is required before the indirect object.

II