San Saba County news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1874-19??, 1893-10-27
Gdnfational.

self, will, 1 think, admit of dis
cussion' In the sentence, 9Th
rose is white" you say the wor,
white is the predicate, 1 do no
agree with you for the following
reasons,
/ The predicate of sentence
must express action, teing, o
lstate of action OF being, and a.
,7hite in this sentence does Meth
T, it is therefore not the predicate
,s.Pal 6 essential parts OF d sen
tence are subject and predicate
and these are the only essentia
parts; this being true, in the sen.
tence, "The rose is white" taking
rose for the subject and white for
the predicate, you have no SEN
tence, because, The rose white, is
not a sentence, having no asserting
word.
8. The predicate of a sentence
is that which is affirmed of the
subject. { Harvey.) Words which
affirm anything of the subject are
called verbs, Harvey and as
white, in the above sentence is not
a verb, it is therefore not the pred
Icate. ] really think this is enough
to prove my position, but We will
give another example, take the
sentence, 81 am in haste" Har-
vey says that IN haste is the gram
NAUTICAL predicate and that am is
the copula. Now, 1 would like to
know in what sense OF the word
can, in haste, be regarded as the
grammatical predicate? So far as
the grammatical relation between
the subject and the predicate is
concerned, I am Is as complete as,
1 run, see, 1 jump, or l fly. 1 am
contains the subject 1 and the
verb am agreeing with 1 in num-
Der and person. This is complete
SO far as grammar is concerned.
In haste has not the slightest
grammatical connection with 1,
whatever may be regarded as the
of am. Nor is this all.
BE is happy She looks pale, He
inns happy, and many other SIM
lar sentences. You would make
these adjectives, that follow the
verbs, predicate, would you? Don't
believe you can prove it. Now let
us go back to the subject. The
rose is white. What is white? 1t
is the complement. 1t is a prop
erty QUALITY of the rose. 1t
completes the predicate IS but be-
longs to the subject rose. 1t is an
attribute of rose, hence it is the
attribute complement, Maxwell,
Holbrook, Kellogg, Murray, Wag-
gener). Remember that this is q
grammatical discussion.
Very Respectfully,
W. W. Higgins.
My DEAR PRoF;-In my answer
given last week l admitted that
grammarians differ on this ques-
ton in controversy. But as /
stated that tohite is the predicate |
shall give my reasons for SO stat
ing. The generally accepted def
milton of a predicate is this: "The
predicate of proposition is thai
which is affirmed of the subject
1t is not that which afiIms, bur
that which is affirmed. In the
sentence "The rose is white" tina
which is affirmed of the subjec
rose is the property a0hitc, and 4
is tn word used to affirm that prop
erty; hence according to the def
milton of a predicate ,rhite is thu
predicate. For authorities on thc
definition given, see Webster ant
also Worcester, they both agre'
and you cannot question that the.
are the highest authorities in tn
English language on defining
words. Worcester says in tn
sentence, "Man is rational" ma
is the subject, rational is the pred
icate, and is is the copula."
Your very first premise unde
your first statement is objectiona
BILE. If the definition of a predicat
we're, that afirms, instead of, thu
tOhich is affirmed, then you woul,
be right. Then if Webster an
Worcester are correct, you ar
wrong.
Your second statement is correC
as far as it goes. The only esser
tial parts of a sentence are til
subject and predicate. But thes
essential parts do not necessaril
exclude other parts.
| Your third statement is correc
You gave the right definition {
predicate, also "Words which a
firm anything of the subject al
called verbs" That is correct to,
Now, Prof, see how well these de
initions fit our sentence; thus,