Part 52 (1/2)
17. The garment _sits_ well.
18. The hen _sits_ on her eggs.
19. He came in and _lay_ down.
20. The Mediterranean _lies_ between Europe and Africa.
Notice that we may speak of _laying_ something or _setting_ something, or may say that something is _laid_ or is _set_; but we cannot speak of _lying_ or _sitting_ something, or of something being _lain_ or _sat_.
_Set_, in some of its meanings, is used without an object; as, ”The sun _set_;” ”He _set_ out on a journey.”
_Lay_, the present of the first verb, and _lay_, the past of _lie_, may easily be distinguished by the difference in meaning and in the time expressed.
POSSESSIVE FORMS.
Pupils may be required to copy such forms as the following:--
The sailor's story; the farmer's son; the pony's mane; the monkey's tail; a day's work; James's book; a cent's worth; a man's wages; the child's toys; the woman's hat; the sailors' stories; the farmers' sons; the ponies'
manes; the monkeys' tails; three days' work; five cents' worth; two men's wages; those children's toys; women's hats.
This may be continued till the pupils are able to form some such statement as the following:--
(_'s_) and (_'_) are the possessive signs, (_'_) being used when _s_ has been added to denote more than one, (_'s_) in other cases.
Such expressions as the following may be copied:--
Dombey and Son's business; J. J. Little & Co.'s printing-house; William the Conqueror's reign; Houghton, Mifflin, and Company's publications.
This may be continued till the pupils learn that, when a group of words may be treated as a compound name, the possessive sign is added to the last word only.
THE OBJECTIVE COMPLEMENT.
The treatment of the objective complement may be introduced in a review course, when the cla.s.s is sufficiently mature. The following explanation may aid some teachers:--
In ”It made him _sad_,” _made_ does not fully express the action performed upon him--not ”_made_ him,” but ”_made sad_ (saddened) him.” _Sad_ helps _made_ to express the action, and also denotes a quality which as the result of the action belongs to the person represented by the object _him_.
Whatever completes the predicate and belongs to the object we call an _Objective Complement_.
Nouns, infinitives, and participles may also be used in the same way; as,
”They made Victoria _queen_,”
”It made him _weep_;”
”It kept him _laughing_.”
They | made / queen | Victoria ======|========================= |
+Explanation+.--The line that separates _made_ from _queen_ slants toward the object complement to show that _queen_ belongs to the object.
A noun or p.r.o.noun used as objective complement is in the objective case.
The teacher may here explain such constructions as, ”I proved it to be _him_,” in which _it_ is object complement and _to be him_ is objective complement. _Him_, the attribute complement of _be_, is in the objective case because _it_, the a.s.sumed subject of _be_, is objective. Let the pupils compare ”I proved it to be _him_” with ”I proved that it was _he;_”
”_Whom_ did you suppose it to be?” with ”_Who_ did you suppose it was?”
etc.
NOUNS AS ADVERB MODIFIERS.
The following uses of nouns and p.r.o.nouns, not found in the preceding Lessons, may be introduced in a review course.