The Conditions of Sentential Structure

WE are brought face to face with the most difficult problems of style when we consider the nature of a sentence. Our embarrassment is increased by the fact that most of the text-book statements about the sen¬tence totally miss the real difficulty of its mechanism. Before we attempt to define the laws of sentential structure, let us pause to examine the conditions upon which they depend.

(1)	The Time-relation.—Words convey ideas in time, and a conception can be obtained from language only by successive increments. Since a proposition is neither true nor of any force to the mind until it is completed, this time-relation presses a claim to con¬densation. Hence the maxim, Brevity is the soul of wit." For if it require several seconds to effect the revelation of a single idea, the beginning is lost before the end is reached, and but a fragment of the idea is conveyed.

(2)	The Truth-relation.—But condensation to the last degree can be attained only by the omission of the qualifying words and clauses which explicate the idea. The time-relation is, therefore, constantly drawing us into general and hence inexact statements. The truth- relation, however, urges in the opposite direction, de¬manding the insertion of limitations and exceptions. In the affairs of daily life, general statements are seldom true. In mathematics general statements prevail ; hence the brevity and logical simplicity of geometrical theorems.