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Candy Chiu Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Deciphering long sentences
I often encounter difficulties in deciphering long sentences. For example, the following sentence by Faulkner confuses me:
"He did not still feel weak, he was merely luxuriating in that supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence in which time, hurry, doing, did not exist, the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours to which in its well state the body's slave both waking and sleeping, now reversed and time now the lip-server and mendicant to the body's pleasure instead of the body thrall to time's headlong course."
My questions:
1. Does the first "which" refer to "supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence"? What does the second "which" refer to?
2. What's the subject of "now reversed"?
3. Are there any books that talk about structures of long sentences? Examples on breaking up and understanding long sentences would be helpful.
Thanks.
CC
"He did not still feel weak, he was merely luxuriating in that supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence in which time, hurry, doing, did not exist, the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours to which in its well state the body's slave both waking and sleeping, now reversed and time now the lip-server and mendicant to the body's pleasure instead of the body thrall to time's headlong course."
My questions:
1. Does the first "which" refer to "supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence"? What does the second "which" refer to?
2. What's the subject of "now reversed"?
3. Are there any books that talk about structures of long sentences? Examples on breaking up and understanding long sentences would be helpful.
Thanks.
CC
Top answer
1. Does the first "which" refer to "supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence"? Yes.
- 1.
- Does the first "which" refer to "supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence"?
- Yes.
- What does the second "which" refer to?
- " the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours" 2.
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9 Answers
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1. Does the first "which" refer to "supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence"? Yes.
What does the second "which" refer to? "the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours"
2. What's the subject of "now reversed"? I read it as meaning "the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours ... were now reversed", with "were"
What does the second "which" refer to? "the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours"
2. What's the subject of "now reversed"? I read it as meaning "the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours ... were now reversed", with "were"
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1. May I break the sentence into three parts?
- He did not still feel weak,
- he was merely luxuriating in that supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence in which time, hurry, doing, did not exist,
- the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours to which in it
- He did not still feel weak,
- he was merely luxuriating in that supremely gutful lassitude of convalescence in which time, hurry, doing, did not exist,
- the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours to which in it
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Yes, you can break the sentence like that. The core of the sentence, with your three parts separated by commas, is:
"He did not still feel weak, he was merely luxuriating in convalescence, the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours now reversed."
The last part does not modify any specific element of what has gone before, but just provides further information about
"He did not still feel weak, he was merely luxuriating in convalescence, the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours now reversed."
The last part does not modify any specific element of what has gone before, but just provides further information about
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The clauses after the commas in the simpler examples provided are dependent clauses. On the other hand, can "the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours now reversed" be parsed as an independent clause?
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Candy ChiuOn the other hand, can "the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours now reversed" be parsed as an independent clause?Out of context, yes, but in context, no. Out of context, "the accumulating seconds and minutes and hours" could be parsed as the subject of the active-voice verb "reversed". However, in context it must (according to my understandi
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In this case, the sentence can be represented by the following structure:
main-clause, independent clause, dependent clause.
Is this syntactically correct? Joining two independent clauses with comma constitutes a comma splice.
main-clause, independent clause, dependent clause.
Is this syntactically correct? Joining two independent clauses with comma constitutes a comma splice.
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"He sat in silence, the tears streaming down his face."
"He sat in silence" is the main clause.
What do we called "the tears streaming down his face"? Is it an adverbial that modifies "sat"?
"He sat in silence" is the main clause.
What do we called "the tears streaming down his face"? Is it an adverbial that modifies "sat"?
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Candy ChiuIs this syntactically correct? Joining two independent clauses with comma constitutes a comma splice.Often yes, but it seems OK in this case. A simpler example illustrating the same kind of exception would be "I'm not angry, I'm upset".
Candy Chiu"He sat in silence" is the main clause.
What do we called "the tears streami
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"the tears streaming down his face" is nominative absolute modifying the main clause. Other example of sentence with nominative absolute :Game over, the crowd began to disperse.
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