Re: Re: Hmm,
 

Someone pointed out this is bad grammar. It is, but at first glance it seems correct.

The subject of the verb "cast" is the nominative pronoun "he."

But on closer review:

"Cast" is not the verb in this sentence. It's an infinitive, with the sign of the infinitive ("to") understood.

Since the subject of an infinitive is in the objective case (strange but true), the correct pronoun is "him."

Let (Allow) him who is without sin (to) cast the first stone.

And, you gotta admit, "let him" sounds better than "let he."

A sentence without an adjective clause (who is without sin) makes the point clearer:

Let her make the money.
Let them run the company.
Let him cast the first stone.

Finally, here's a sentence that shows how the subject of an infinitive, even <i>with</i> the sign, must be in the objective case:

<blockquote>I wanted her to go. (Naturally, we wouldn't say: I wanted she to go.)</blockquote>That sentence, parsed, is: Subject (I) Verb (wanted) Direct Object (her to go).

Ah.... He didn't want "her." He wanted "her to go."

Truth to tell, this is more fun than discussing verbal obstruction.

Grammar: Now <i>that's</I> where it's at.

Oh, does that sentence end with a preposition?

Churchill said: "That's something up with which I will not put!"

Re: Re: Re: Hmm,
 

Possibly, but I am put in mind of James Thurber's essay entitled "Here lies Miss Groby" in which he commented about his teacher of English composition: "It wasn't what prose said that interested Miss Groby; it was the way prose said it. The shape of a sentence crucified on a blackboard (parsed, she called it) brought a light to her eye."

I enjoyed the grammar lesson, but let's not extend it to diagramming sentences, OK?

[I can't remember if the title of an essay should be underlined or enclosed in quotation marks. But on an Internet site, underlining means something else anyway.]

Dave Reed

Dave, I believe italicized would be appropriate for titles.:D

I raked my yard with my daughter. In the great scheme of things, I wonder what was more valuable? :)

JJ

I don't presume to know the great scheme (or the Great Scheme, if there is one). But I do agree with Keynes, that in the long run we are all dead. Hope that's on-topic.

"Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?"

Ay, the horses trample,
The harness jingles now;
No change though you lie under
The land you used to plough.

"Is football playing
Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
Now I stand up no more?"

Ay, the ball is flying,
The lads play heart and soul;
The goal stands up, the keeper
Stands up to keep the goal.

"Is my girl happy,
That I thought hard to leave,
And has she tired of weeping
As she lies down at eve?"

Ay, she lies down lightly,
She lies not down to weep,
Your girl is well contented.
Be still, my lad, and sleep.

"Is my friend hearty,
Now I am thin and pine,
And has he found to sleep in
A better bed than mine?"

Yes, lad, I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man's sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.

Far from the churchyard dig his grave,
On some green mound beside the wave;

To westward, sea and sky alone,
And sunsets. Put a mossy stone,

With mortal name and date, a harp
And bunch of wild flowers, carven sharp;

Then leave it free to winds that blow,
And patient mosses creeping; slow,

And wandering wings, and footsteps rare
Of human creature pausing there.

--William Allingham.
__________________________________________________ ____________
__________________________________________________ ____________

Tim.

Aw, jeez, now it's gonna be the freakin' poetry thread!!!

Housman's poetry is so spare, he's always put me in mind of Emily Dickinson. Let me change from death to a lighter vein:

<blockquote>A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides —
You may have met Him — did you not
His notice sudden is —

The Grass divides as with a Comb —
A spotted shaft is seen —
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on —

He likes a Boggy Acre
A Floor too cool for Corn —
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot —
I more than once at Noon

Have passed, I thought, a Whip lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled, and was gone —

Several of Nature's People
I know, and they know me —
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality —

But never met this Fellow
Attended, or alone
Without a tighter breathing
And Zero at the Bone — </blockquote>It's my favorite short poem by an American author, perhaps because I grew up in the 40s where the "Whip lash" was real. I know first hand about "Zero at the Bone."

I love Dickinson. Simple yet elegant...concise but not stingy...a wonderful control of "words".

I remember from the first time I read this how the first line "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" is such a broad tell, but the sibilance in line 4 is the cincher.

Your examples were exclamations. His use of it was not. Imploring is not proclaiming vehemence, but I know that you knew that. I guess it was just another case of writing one thing but meaning another. Lah me!

As I tried to explain before, imperatives need not be punctuated with exclamation points. I find it curious you still want to argue this. From your history, I would have deemed it beneath you.

Ph.D.: piled higher and deeper.

The last time I looked, a punctuation mark had nothing to do with the parse of a sentence.

<blockquote>The snitch is tied to a chair. Waddles up the fat enforcer. Slowly he leans down, down... close to the unfortunate's ear and softly whispers, the sibilants hissing in the still of the shadowy room: "Sing. Ssssing."</blockquote>Do you suppose the guy in the chair is worrying about his tormentor's grammar?

"Sing." is a complete, imperative sentence, whether shouted or spoken softly. "Careful." belongs in the same category.

I was you, I'd stick to ignoring FED rules. That's something you seem to do well.

Oh, by the way: I've had three emails from readers who would like me to criticize for structure and mechanics one of your longer posts. So far, I have resisted temptation. But I am an inveterate sinner and backslider, so....

Funny, but the King gave only examples that had those pesky puctuation marks.

It was my error not to include an imperative sentence that was not also emphatic. But that's not the point, which is:

Do you now understand that a complete sentence requires but one word?

Even adjectives and adverbs can be single-word sentences:

"Good."
"Awful."
"Fine."
"Worried."
"Proud."

A sentence is complete when there is a subject and a verb in an independent clause. That subject and verb may be stated ("When you won, how did you feel?" "I felt proud.") or implied ("Proud.").