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275
temperature).
It is used after statal verbs denoting processes, states, or characteristics allowing measurement, such as to
measure, to last, to wait, to sleep, to walk, to run, to weigh, to cost. Nouns as adverbials of measure are
preceded by numerals or the indefinite article in its, numerical function.
The room measures 30 feet across.
We walked (for) five miles.
The box weighs a ton.
The temperature went down ten degrees below zero.
The adverbial of exception
§ 112. This adverbial is expressed by nouns or prepositional phrases introduced by the prepositions but,
except, save, but for, except for, save for, apart from, aside from, with the exclusion of.
I looked everywhere except in the bedroom.
Your English is decent apart from spelling.
The road was empty except for a few cars.
The prepositions save and save for are more formal and occur in writing, as in:
These men were in fact quite civil save during certain weeks of autumn and winter.
Independent elements of the sentence
§ 113.
Independent elements of the sentence, as the term implies, generally are not
grammatically dependent on any particular part of the sentence, but as a rule refer to the sentence as a whole.
Only occasionally they may refer to a separate part of the sentence. The independent element may consist of a
word or a phrase. Its position is more free than that of any other parts of the sentence and accordingly it may
occur in different positions in the sentence.
There are two groups of independent elements:
I. Direct address. A direct address is the name of a person (or occasionally a non-person) to whom
the rest of the sentence is addressed. It may be emotionally charged or neutral, but semantically it does not
influence the sentence.
I’m sorry, Major, we had an arrangement.
Jenny, darling, don’t say such things.
How’s the world, good friend?
II. Parenthesis. As to its meaning the parenthesis may be of several types:
a) It may express the speaker’s attitude to the relation between what is expressed in the sentence and reality
(perhaps, maybe, certainly, of course, evidently, oh, Goodness Gracious, etc.).
Undoubtedly you are both excellent engineers.
Surely he had too wide a mouth.
The cottages were, in fact, boxlike and rather towny.
Oh, we can’t go.
b) It may connect the sentence it belongs to with the preceding or the following one expressing different
relations (first, firstly, secondly, finally, after all, moreover, besides, by the way, on the contrary, that is (i.e.),
for example (eg), etc.).
I was listening and thinking. Besides, I wanted to tell you something.