THE independent elements of the sentence

The independent elements of the sentence are words and word-groups which are not grammatically dependent on any part of the sentence.

They are:

1. Interjections such as ah, oh, hurrah, eh, hallo, goodness gracious, good heavens, etc.

2. Direct address. Good morning, sweet child!

3. Parenthesis.

A PARENTHESIS either shows the speaker’s attitude towards the thought expressed in the sentence or connects a given sentence with another one, or summarizes what is said in the sentence. A parenthesis is connected with the rest of the sentence rather semantically than grammatically. No question can be put to it. Very often it is detached from the rest of the sentence and consequently it is often separated from it by commas or dashes.

Besides, you know, I’m a pensioner, anyway.

A Parenthesis can be expressed by:

1. Modal words such as indeed, certainly, assuredly, decidedly, in fact, truly, naturally, surely, actually, possibly, perhaps, evidently, obviously, maybe.

Luckily, they found what they had been looking for.

2. Adverbs, which to a certain extent serve as connectives such as firstly, secondly, finally, thus, consequently, then, anyway moreover, besides, still, yet, nevertheless, otherwise, notwithstanding, therefore, etc.

He was loosing money. Furthermore, he was ruined.

3. Prepositional phrases such as in a word, in truth, in my opinion, in short, by the by, on the one hand, on the contrary, at least, etc.

By the way, Harry, this is a report.

4. Infinitive and participial phrases such as to be sure, to tell the truth, to begin with, generally speaking, strictly speaking, etc.

To tell you the truth, I don’t want to go there.

SENTENCES WITH HOMOGENEOUS PARTS

Two or more parts of the sentence having the same function and referring to the same part of the sentence are called homogeneous parts of the sentence. They are linked either by means of coordinating conjunctions or asyndetically. There can be:

1. Two or more homogeneous subjects to one predicate.

Spoons, forks and knives were already on the table.

2. Two or more homogeneous predicates to one subject.

a) Simple predicates:

He went away and came back without informing anybody.

b) A compound verbal modal predicate with homogenous parts within it:

He could run and jump better than anybody.

c) A compound verbal aspect predicate with homogeneous parts within it:

He began to take the things away and put them into the cupboard.

d) A compound nominal predicate with several predicatives within it:

She was smart, pretty and sensitive.

It became gloomy and cold.

3. Two or more attributes, objects, or adverbial modifiers to one part of the sentence.

Red, brown and yellow leaves covered the ground.

I want to take some newspapers and magazines.

It often rains here in autumn and in winter.

 

INDIRECT SPEECH

Indirect Speech is a form of utterance in which the words of the speaker are reported (but not reproduced exactly).

When direct speech is converted into indirect the following changes are necessary:

1. The quotation marks and the comma are omitted.

She says: “I’m glad to see you.” – She says she is glad to see me.

2. If the speaker reports somebody else's words, the pronouns are correspondingly changed:

Ann says: “I’ll help you.” – Ann says she ’ll help us.

3. As the reported speech is a subordinate clause in the sentence, the word order in it is direct:

“Where’s Mary?” he asks. – He asks where Mary is.

4. If the verb in the principal clause is in a past tense the tenses in the subordinate clause are changed according to the general rules of the sequence of tenses. It may be necessary to replace the adverbs and demonstrative pronouns expressing 'nearness' by those denoting 'distance'.

John said: “ These people here are my friends” –

John said those people there were his friends.

INDIRECT STATEMENTS

Indirect Statements are generally introduced by the verbs say, tell, inform, announce.

With the verbs tell, inform the person addressed is always mentioned.

He informed us that the manager was busy.

He will tell them that he doesn’t want to go there.

Note: In the phrase “ the book tells of …” the verb ‘ tell’ is used without mentioning the person addressed.

With the verbs say, announce the person addressed may or may not be mentioned. If it is mentioned, the preposition ' to ' is used,

He said to us that the manager was busy.

Note: The verbs speak, talk are not used to introduce indirect speech.

There are some other verbs which introduce indirect speech: reply that, declare, remind, remark, deny, promise, assure, admit, explain to, report, boast, whisper, insist, shout etc.