Part 3 (1/2)

*N.B. In all styles, especially in letter-writing, a final emphasis must not be so frequent as to become obtrusive and monotonous.*

*15 b. An interrogation sometimes gives emphasis.* ”No one can doubt that the prisoner, had he been really guilty, would have shown some signs of remorse,” is not so emphatic as ”Who can doubt, Is it possible to doubt, &c.?”

Contrast ”No one ever names Wentworth without thinking of &c.” with ”But Wentworth,--who ever names him without thinking of those harsh dark features, enn.o.bled by their expression into more than the majesty of an antique Jupiter?”

*16. The subject, if unusually emphatic, should often be removed from the beginning of the sentence.* The beginning of the sentence is an emphatic position, though mostly not so emphatic as the end. Therefore the princ.i.p.al subject of a sentence, being emphatic, and being wanted early in the sentence to tell us what the sentence is about, comes as a rule, at or near the beginning: ”_Thomas_ built this house.”

Hence, since the beginning is the _usual_ place for the subject, if we want to emphasize ”Thomas” _unusually_, we must remove ”Thomas” from the beginning: ”This house was built by _Thomas_,” or ”It was _Thomas_ that built this house.”

Thus, the emphasis on ”conqueror” is not quite so strong in ”_A mere conqueror_ ought not to obtain from us the reverence that is due to the great benefactors of mankind,” as in ”We ought not to bestow the reverence that is due to the great benefactors of mankind, _upon a mere conqueror_.” Considerable, but less emphasis and greater smoothness (19) will be obtained by writing the sentence thus: ”We ought not to bestow upon a mere conqueror &c.”

Where the same subject stands first in several consecutive sentences, it rises in emphasis, and need not be removed from the beginning, even though unusual emphasis be required:

”The captain was the life and soul of the expedition. _He_ first pointed out the possibility of advancing; _he_ warned them of the approaching scarcity of provisions; _he_ showed how they might replenish their exhausted stock &c.”

*17. The object is sometimes placed before the verb for emphasis.*

This is most common in ant.i.thesis. ”_Jesus_ I know, and _Paul_ I know; but who are ye?” ”_Some_ he imprisoned, _others_ he put to death.”

Even where there is no ant.i.thesis the inversion is not uncommon:

”Military _courage_, the boast of the sottish German, of the frivolous and prating Frenchman, of the romantic and arrogant Spaniard, he neither possesses nor values.”

This inversion sometimes creates ambiguity in poetry, _e.g._ ”The son the father slew,” and must be sparingly used in prose.

Sometimes the position of a word may be considered appropriate by some, and inappropriate by others, according to different interpretations of the sentence. Take as an example, ”Early in the morning the n.o.bles and gentlemen who attended on the king a.s.sembled in the great hall of the castle; and here they began to talk of what a dreadful storm it had been the night before. But Macbeth could scarcely understand what they said, for he was thinking of something worse.” The last sentence has been amended by Professor Bain into ”_What they said_, Macbeth could scarcely understand.” But there appears to be an ant.i.thesis between the guiltless n.o.bles who can think about the weather, and the guilty Macbeth who cannot. Hence, ”what they said” ought not, and ”Macbeth” ought, to be emphasized: and therefore ”Macbeth” ought to be retained at the beginning of the sentence.

The same author alters, ”The praise of judgment Virgil has justly contested with him, but his invention remains yet unrivalled,” into ”Virgil has justly contested with him the praise of judgment, but no one has yet rivalled his invention”--an alteration which does not seem to emphasize sufficiently the ant.i.thesis between what had been 'contested,' on the one hand, and what remained as yet 'unrivalled' on the other.

More judiciously Professor Bain alters, ”He that tells a lie is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain one,” into ”for, to maintain one, he must invent twenty more,” putting the emphatic words in their emphatic place, at the end.

*18. Where several words are emphatic, make it clear which is the most emphatic.* Thus, in ”The state was made, under the pretence of serving it, in reality the prize of their contention to each of these opposite parties,” it is unpleasantly doubtful whether the writer means (1) _state_ or (2) _parties_ to be emphatic.

If (1), ”As for the _state_, these two parties, under the pretence of serving it, converted it into a prize for their contention.” If (2), write, ”Though served in profession, the state was in reality converted into a prize for their contention by these two _parties_.”

In (1) _parties_ is subordinated, in (2) _state_.

Sometimes the addition of some intensifying word serves to emphasize.

Thus, instead of ”To effect this they used all devices,” we can write ”To effect this they used _every conceivable device_.” So, if we want to emphasize fidelity in ”The business will task your skill and fidelity,” we can write ”Not only your skill _but also_ your fidelity.” This, however, sometimes leads to exaggerations. See (2).

Sometimes ant.i.thesis gives emphasis, as in ”You _do_ not know this, but you _shall_ know it.” Where ant.i.thesis cannot be used, the emphasis must be expressed by turning the sentence, as ”I _will make you_ know it,” or by some addition, as ”You shall _hereafter_ know it.”

*19. Words should be as near as possible to the words with which they are grammatically connected.* See Paragraphs 20 to 29. For exceptions see 30.

*20. Adverbs should be placed next to the words they are intended to affect.* When unemphatic, adverbs come between the subject and the verb, or, if the tense is compound, between the parts of the compound tense: ”He _quickly_ left the room;” ”He has _quickly_ left the room;”

but, when emphatic, after the verb: ”He left, or has left, the room _quickly_.”[10] When such a sentence as the latter is followed by a present participle, there arises ambiguity. ”I told him to go slowly, but he left the room _quickly_, dropping the purse on the floor.” Does _quickly_ here modify _left_ or _dropping_? The remedy[11] is, to give the adverb its unemphatic place, ”He _quickly_ left the room, dropping &c.,” or else to avoid the participle, thus: ”He _quickly_ dropped the purse and left the room,” or ”He dropped the purse and _quickly_ left the room.”