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Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The analyses of a text #4
The narrator recalls his adolescence.
He came to the grave of his mother, her baby, and his father, who died before he was born.
Peggotty is his old nurse.
The grave beneath the tree, where both my parents lay?on which I had looked out, when it was my father's only, with such curious feelings of compassion, and by which I had stood, so desolate, when it was opened to receive my pretty mother and her baby?the grave which Peggotty's own faithful care had ever since kept neat, and made a garden of, I walked near, by the hour. It lay a little off the churchyard path, in a quiet corner, not so far removed but I could read the names upon the stone as I walked to and fro, startled by the sound of the church-bell when it the struck the hour, for it was like a departed voice to me. My reflections at these times were always associated with the figure I was to make in life, and the distinguished things I was to do. My echoing footsteps went to no other tune, but were as constant to that as if I had come home to build my castle in the air at a living mother's side.
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know why it is "but," not "and/ so."
2. I'd like to know if "was" is omitted before "startled."
3. And I'd like to know what "departed voice" means.
Thank you in advance for your help.
He came to the grave of his mother, her baby, and his father, who died before he was born.
Peggotty is his old nurse.
The grave beneath the tree, where both my parents lay?on which I had looked out, when it was my father's only, with such curious feelings of compassion, and by which I had stood, so desolate, when it was opened to receive my pretty mother and her baby?the grave which Peggotty's own faithful care had ever since kept neat, and made a garden of, I walked near, by the hour. It lay a little off the churchyard path, in a quiet corner, not so far removed but I could read the names upon the stone as I walked to and fro, startled by the sound of the church-bell when it the struck the hour, for it was like a departed voice to me. My reflections at these times were always associated with the figure I was to make in life, and the distinguished things I was to do. My echoing footsteps went to no other tune, but were as constant to that as if I had come home to build my castle in the air at a living mother's side.
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know why it is "but," not "and/ so."
2. I'd like to know if "was" is omitted before "startled."
3. And I'd like to know what "departed voice" means.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Top answer
1. This is an old-fashioned usage of "but". The meaning of that part is "close enough for me to be able to read the names".
- 1.
- This is an old-fashioned usage of "but".
- The meaning of that part is "close enough for me to be able to read the names".
- 2.
- No.
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3 Answers
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1. This is an old-fashioned usage of "but". The meaning of that part is "close enough for me to be able to read the names".
2. No.
3. The voice of someone who had died (and was buried in the churchyard).
2. No.
3. The voice of someone who had died (and was buried in the churchyard).
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Thank you, GPY, for another so very kind answer from you. 
Then I was wondering if a partici
2. No.
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park sang joonThen I was wondering if a participle phrase "startled by the sound of the church-bell when it the struck the hour, for it was like a departed voice to me" modifies "walked."No, it modifies "I".
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