Syntax Exercises pp 194–96
I.
1.  The first and the third sentences in the passage are SIMPLE; the second sentence,
comprised of an INDEPENDENT CLAUSE followed by a SUBORDINATE CLAUSE beginning with
“but,” is COMPOUND. The final sentence is a FRAGMENT.
 All of the complete sentences are LOOSE, following the conventional SUBJECT-VERBOBJECT order. The second sentence, however, creates special emphasis by inverting the order
of the object, placing it at the beginning of the INDEPENDENT CLAUSE: “ To jump out of the
window would be admirable exercise.” In standard order it would read: “It would be admirable
exercise to jump out of the window.”
 The passage ends with an intentional SENTENCE FRAGMENT—“Of course not,”—
which expresses the FIRST-PERSON NARRATOR’S assertion of her own rationality and selfcontrol. She admits to feeling “angry” and to considering the possibility of “do[ing] something
desperate,” specifically of jumping out of the window. All that seems to be holding her back is
the practical barrier of the “bars” on the window, which she says “are too strong even to try.”
Then she retracts that admission by stating categorically, “Besides I wouldn’t do it.” The
fragment that follows seems on the surface to confirm that resolve, echoing the social taboo
against suicide: “Of course not.” The underlying implication, however, it that it overstates the
case and suggests that the speaker is barely in control of self-destructive impulses that she is
trying to deny or conceal.
2.  The passage consists of a simple sentence, which contains a long APPOSITIVE
that makes the subject, “a truth,” explicit: “that a single man in possession of a good fortune,
must be in want of a wife.”
 The sentence is PERIODIC: it builds up from a generalized beginning to a specific
and surprising climax. The OMNISCIENT THIRD-PRESON NARRATOR goes from claiming that the
“truth” stated is “universally” accepted to the statement of a principle that distinctly favors the
hopes of fortune hunters: namely, that a bachelor who is financially secure must be seeking to
get married. The PERIODIC syntax creates a witty, ironic conclusion that gives the assertion the
air of a pseudo-philosophic APHORISM. It turns what purports to be an accepted general
precept into a sly expression of self-interest. The VERBAL IRONY depends on the formal,
authoritative TONE and the shift in meaning at the end of the sentence.
 N/A
3.  The passage consists of a single COMPLEX sentence. It begins with a SUBORDINATE
CLAUSE—“After a night behind the scenes”—followed by an INDEPENDENT CLAUSE that makes a
simple statement, elaborated on with multiple phrases.
 This is LOOSE syntax. The INDEPENDENT CLAUSE—“Paul found the schoolroom
more than ever repulsive”—is supported by a list of specific examples: the “bare” décor, the
“prosy” male teachers, and the “pitiful[ly] serious[ ]” female teachers, both groups in unstylish
dress. The sentence does not build to a climax; it could stop earlier and still make the same
point, but the details specify the bases for the rebellious Paul’s condescension and scorn.
 N/A
4.  This is a COMPLEX sentence; the first clause begins with a participle (“knowing”)
that makes it SUBORDINATE, and the second clause is INDEPENDENT.
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 The syntax is PERIODIC. The first clause establishes the background of the
situation: the focal character, Mrs. Mallard, is “afflicted with a heart trouble.” The main clause
builds up to the revelation of why that factor is crucial: “great care” is exerted to tell her “as
gently as possible” some devastating information: “the news of her husband’s death.” The
periodic structure is key to creating the sentence’s shocking climax, which suggests both the
perspective of those who must break the news and the effect that it is likely to have on Mrs.
Mallard.
 N/A
5.  In this unconventional passage, the three middle sentences are SIMPLE. The most
straightforward is: “Mother drives me to Dr. Coronet.” The phrasing of the next sentence—
“Ferns in the office, plastic or real, they look the same”—is choppy, giving the sense that the
FIRST-PERSON NARRATOR is jotting down impressions as they occur to her. In standard form,
the sentence might read: “The ferns in the office, whether plastic or real, look the same.” The
third sentence has an elaborate subject complement describing Dr. Coronet: she is “a queenly,
nicotine-stained lady who would have studied with Freud had circumstances not prevented it.”
The long description suggests an IRONIC contrast between the image of herself that the doctor
promotes and the NARRATOR’S wry view of her qualifications.
 The structure of each complete sentence is LOOSE. The passage as a whole,
however, builds up to a climax, contained in the SENTENCE FRAGMENTS at the end, which shifts the
emphasis and meaning.
 The use of SENTENCE FRAGMENTS is extensive and crucial to the meaning. The
passage opens with a fragment that summarizes the times of the narrator’s appointments with
Dr. Coronet: “Wednesdays after school, at four; Saturday mornings at ten.” The fragment
suggests that this information is too prosaic to merit a complete sentence. The regular pattern
of the appointments, however, and the fact that Dr. Coronet had hoped to “stud[y] with Freud,”
imply the important point that the doctor is a psychiatrist. The passage ends with a series of
FRAGMENTS that convey the excessively enthusiastic attitude of the narrator’s father toward
the treatment. The first states that idea outright: “Highly recommended by father!” Then the
focus shifts to the cost of the therapy, emphasizing that he is eager and willing to fund such an
expense: “Forty dollars an hour, Father’s forty dollars!” The IRONIC TONE intensifies with the
last three fragments, which emulate the father’s voice as he expresses strident approval:
“Progress! Looking up! Looking better!” The fragments signal the narrator’s skepticism about
both the effectiveness of the therapy and the sincerity of her father’s concern about her. The
HYPERBOLIC SYNTAX implies that his focus is more on the optimistic image promoted by the
costly, fashionable treatment than on her cure.
II.
1. The passage uses SUBORDINATION, in that the opening clause, which begins with a
SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION, “while,” modifies the main clause: “of Bartleby nothing of the
sort can be done.” The sentence also uses PARALLELISM to equate the terms of the comparison
that it posits: the biography “of other law-copyists” and “of Bartleby.” The pairing is parallel in
both grammatical structure—two prepositional phrases—and in concept—two sorts of people.
The main syntactical characteristic, however, is INVERSION: in both the subordinate and the
independent clause, the prepositional phrase that completes the OBJECT (“of other lawcopyists” and “of Bartleby”) is put before the SUBJECT. Written in standard order, the sentence
would read: “While I might write the complete life of other law-copyists, nothing of the sort can
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be done of Bartleby.” The INVERSION makes the TONE sound more formal and old-fashioned,
an effect that is enhanced by the use of the passive voice in the main clause.
2. This long, elaborate passage consists of a single sentence that uses SUBORDINATION,
COORDINATION, and PARALLELISM. The subordination occurs in the DEPENDENT CLAUSES that
follow the opening INDEPENDENT CLAUSE—“It is to be observed, that these ambassadors spoke
to me by an interpreter”—which are linked to it by participles (“differing” and “priding itself”).
The same sort of SUBORDINATION (“standing upon”) is used in the DEPENDENT CLAUSE that
modifies the second INDEPENDENT CLAUSE about the Emperor’s response. The narrator uses
COORDINATION in the INDEPENEDENT CLAUSE that begins with the COORDINATING
CONJUNCTION “yet.” The passage uses PARALLELISM in listing the nouns that describe the
supposedly superior qualities of each language—“beauty, antiquity, and energy”—and in the
infinitive phrases expressing the commands that the emperor gives those whom he has
conquered: “to deliver their credentials and [to] make their speech” in the Lilliputian language.
The effect of these syntactical techniques is to convey an official, authoritative TONE, suited to
the nature of the subject matter: the negotiations for a treaty between two warring political
empires.
3. The first sentence uses SUBORDINATION in the middle clause, which begins with a
participle, “looking at the shelf where there are no plays by women.” That clause creates a
sense of immediacy about the SETTING and conveys the impression that the FIRST-PERSON
NARRATOR is checking her own library to corroborate her belief that the English Renaissance
produced no notable female playwrights. The second sentence uses INVERSION: the normal
word order would be: “She would certainly have sought that refuge.” The inverted SYNTAX
emphasizes the object of the sentence—“that refuge”—the stratagem of leaving her work
“unsigned,” which, the narrator speculates, the woman in Shakespeare’s day who dared to try
writing plays would have felt compelled to use.
4. The structure of the first sentence is SIMPLE—a single INDEPENDENT CLAUSE. The
second sentence uses PARALLELISM, INVERSION, and COORDINATION. The PARALLELISM occurs
in the list of the places where “the thing,” by implication a shark, appears: “Ahead or astern, on
one side or the other, at intervals long or short.” The series creates a sense of the
omnipresence and inescapability of the predator. INVERSION is used to save the verb—“fled” in
the first clause of the second sentence: “fled the long sparkling streak”—for after this list of
locations. That point is followed by COORDINATION, to link the two clauses in the sentence with
the COORDINATING CONJUNCTION “and.” The second clause in that sentence describes the
sound that the shark makes as it moves swiftly through the water—“the whirroo of [its] dark
fin.” In this case, the NARRATOR uses the passive voice to put special emphasis on the object,
rather than the subject of the sentence: “there was to be heard.” (In the active voice, the clause
would read: “we heard the . . . .”) The effects of the syntax are to convey a sense that the
creature is surrounding and stalking the men in the boat, who watch and listen tensely to the
signs of its movements.
5. The passage uses SUBORDIATION, INVERSION, COORDINATION, and PARALLELISM to create
a long, many-claused sentence. It begins with a SUBORDINATE CLAUSE—“Thus relieved of a
grievous load,” followed by an INDEPENDENT clause that gets special emphasis from inverting
one of the modifiers: the prepositional phrase “from that hour” precedes, rather than follows,
the verb “set to work.” Then a second SUBORDINATE CLAUSE is added: “resolved to pioneer my
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way through every difficulty.” Instead of ending the sentence there, the NARRATOR links it with
a colon to the account of the results of this resolution. The first is described in two
INDEPENDENT CLAUSES, linked with the COORDINATING CONJUNCTION “and”: “I toiled hard,
and my success was proportionate to my efforts.” The sentence then proceeds to a series of
PARALLEL clauses. The first two describe the means to the success: “my memory, not naturally
tenacious, improved with practice,” and “exercise sharpened my wits.” In two more clauses, in
which both the content and the syntax are PARALLEL, the NARRATOR describes the time that
passes and the achievements that accrue: “in a few weeks I was promoted to a higher class; in
less than two months I was allowed to commence French and drawing.” The effect of this long,
balanced sentence is to convey a sense of the determination with which the NARRATOR applies
herself to her studies, and the steady pace at which she achieves success. The syntax reflects
the content, suggesting by the elaborate, step-by-step structure that effect is clearly linked to
cause, and that rational effort will lead to progress.
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