“They are very civil and attentive to the smallest order, and furnish a house entirely complete, _for twenty-seven guineas, all new and well seasoned_.”--Advertisement in the Times.
Sentences are of two kinds, simple and compound.
A simple sentence has in it but one subject and one finite verb; that is, a verb to which number and person belong: as, “A joke is a joke.”
A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences connected together: as, “A joke is a joke, but a ducking is no joke. Corpulence is the attribute of swine, mayors, and oxen.”
Simple sentences may be divided (if we choose to take the trouble) into the Explicative or explaining; the Interrogative, or asking; the Imperative, or commanding.
An explicative sentence is, in other words, a direct assertion: as, “Sir, you are impertinent.”--_Johnson._
An interrogative sentence “merely asks a question:” as, “Are you a policeman? How’s your Inspector?”
An imperative sentence is expressive of command, exhortation, or entreaty: as, “Shoulder arms!” “Turn out your toes!” “Charge bayonets!”
A phrase is two or more words properly put together, making either a sentence or part of a sentence: as, “Good morning!” “Your most obedient!”
Some phrases consist of two or more words improperly put together: these are improper phrases: as, “Now then, old stupid!” “Stand out of the sunshine!”
Other phrases consist of words put together by ladies: as, “A duck of a man,” “A love of a shawl,” “_so_ nice,” “quite refreshing,” “sweetly pretty.” “Did you ever?” “No I never!”
Other phrases again consist of French and English words put together by people of quality, because their knowledge of both languages is pretty nearly equal: as, “I am au désespoir,” “mis hors de combat,” “quite ennuyé,” or rather in nine cases out of ten, “ennuy_ée_,”--“I have a great envie” to do so and so. These constitute an important variety of comic English.
Besides the above, there are various phrases which we may call elliptical phrases, consisting principally of the peculiar terms employed in the different trades and professions: as,
“One college (pudding) for No. 6,” by waiters.
“To carry off:” as, “See how the old woman in a red cloak carries off the tower,” by painters, &c.