“Let’s you
and I pray about it.”
My brother
Hugh called me a few days ago with a conundrum. His son Cameron had to diagram
the sentence above for his homeschool homework. It was his first diagramming
experience and they, Cam and his parents, were stumped. I’ve produced a writing
course and have been dubbed “Grammar Queen” of the family. Not a smart move on
my part, as it turns out. I was stumped, too. Even Grammar Queens find sentence
surgery difficult at times.
I posted the
sentence on my Facebook page and received enthusiastic responses from high school
teachers, college English professors, homeschooling moms, avid readers and grammar
geeks. Now, more than 24-hours after posting the sentence, I’m still a little
uncertain. Let me share some of my research with you and we’ll see if we reach
the same conclusions. If not, we’ll remain friends, I hope. What’s a split
infinitive or two among friends, right? Remember, by the way, to differentiate
between formal and informal writing. The speech I write for “Grammar Geeks Society
of America” annual awards dinner will be far more precisely written and
delivered than a “Grammarians Just Wanna Have Fun” pep talk at a bon-fire
rally. You bring the marshmallows.
Now, on to
the major hair-splitting purposes of this blog post. (Try diagramming that
non-sentence; no, don’t.) How beautifully fluid the English language is! We can
say what amounts to nonsense and, still, to the practiced ear, it’s completely,
(or nearly so), understandable. Down to business.
First, we
must do a little research to learn, or in some cases, refresh our memories
concerning parts of speech. Within the innocent looking little sentence we’ve
been assigned, “Let’s you and I pray about it,” lurk many hidden speech-labeling
pitfalls, not the simplest of which to discern is the simple word “let.”
“Let” simply would not let me label it as
either a helping verb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_verb
nor a linking verb http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/linkingverb.htm
. As it turns out, however, it’s sort of a first cousin. I will explain.
As you know,
English verbs can be placed in three major separate boxes: Transitive verbs,
which have the strength to pass action on to a receiver, “The boy threw the ball.”; intransitive verbs,
which do not transfer the action performed but merely describe it, “The ball disappeared under the bleachers.”; and linking
verbs whose job is to connect subject and predicate, creating syntactical
flow, “The ballgame is (appears to be,
seems to be, etc.) over.”
However, intransitive
verbs need not sit in their passivity and pout. They may be propelled into action
through the use of what we call causative verbs. Now we’re making
progress towards our dissecting and labeling goal! Here’s a list of the most
common verbs used as causative verbs. There are only three true causative verbs,
have, let and make. These three
causative verbs all require a base verb. The other verbs in our list, and those
like them, require an infinitive verb. (For more on the topic of infinitive
verbs, see the link further down in this post from Tanya Trusler).
Here’s a
list of verbs often used as causative verbs which I’ve compiled from various
sources :
ask, allow, cause, command, compel, convince,
encourage, employ, entice, force, get, have, hire, induce, insist, let,
make, motivate, permit, persuade, require, suggest, and urge.
“In sentences that use a causative
verb, the subject doesn’t perform the action of the operative verb but causes
someone or something else to do it. And … causative verbs do very well in
enabling intransitive verbs to surmount their handicap of being unable to act
on an object.” http://josecarilloforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=1539
Now
we’re half way to our goal in determining the main verb. Since “let” is a causative verb, i.e.,
a cousin of the helping verbs that enables the action of the operative intransitive
verb, we must conclude that the operative verb in our sentence is the intransitive
verb “pray.” This verb falls into the
category “intransitive” because of its designation as such in the definition provided
in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “Pray: (second set of definitions) 1.) To make
a request in a humble manner, 2.) to address God…with adoration, confession,
supplication, or thanks, as in the sentence: “Let us pray.” ” [My note: “Aha!!”]
Thus,
we must conclude that “pray” is the
main or operative intransitive verb in our sentence, needing “let,” the causative verb, to promote or
enable the action. A further investigation (I feel my Sherlock modality kicking
in) of causative verbs provides us with this helpful insight from Tanya Trusler
at this site http://www.esl-library.com/blog/2013/10/31/causative-verbs/
. Ms. Trusler says: “English has three true causative verbs: have, let,
and make. This grammar target has a special pattern that often trips
students up because it requires a base verb where normally an
infinitive verb would go. Once students memorize the pattern and see some
examples, they should be able to recall it quite easily. However, it’s also
important to point out the other verbs with a similar meaning that are not, in
fact, causative verbs. Verbs such as get, force, allow,
and cause take an infinitive verb, not a base verb.” It follows
that causative verbs may not take an infinitive verb, not even an “understood infinitive” verb such as “to pray.”
Here’s
more help from Ms. Trusler:
The
verbs have, let, and make follow this irregular pattern when they
have the meaning of causing someone to do something. …
Note that it’s
important to give examples with both singular and plural objects as well as
different tenses so that students truly understand that a base verb is
required, not just a present verb. I find the biggest mistakes textbooks make
is that they only give examples in the present tense. I’ve often had students
tell me that they didn’t “get it” until they saw an example in the past tense.
Here’s
a little more good information from Ms. Trusler:
“We know, too, that “make,” “get,” “have,” and “let” can also make
objects do the action of intransitive verbs: “She made the dog jump.”
“She got the dog to jump.” “She had the dog jump.” “She let
the dog jump.” In these three sentences, it’s clear that the “dog” is the
object of the verbs “made,” “got,” and “had,” “she” is the agent causing the
action, and the action of the intransitive “jump” is what this agent causes the
object to perform.
The verbs “make,” “get,” “have,” and “let” belong to a class of verbs called causatives. In sentences that use a causative verb, the subject doesn’t perform the action of the operative verb but causes someone or something else to do it. And as we have seen above, causative verbs do very well in enabling intransitive verbs to surmount their handicap of being unable to act on an object.
We mustn’t think, though, that causative verbs are meant only for intransitive verbs. They work as well with transitive ones: “The mother made her child take the medicine.” “The movie director had the leading lady wear a wig.” The big difference is that transitive verbs—working with causative verbs or not—always need an object somewhere in the sentence for the latter to make sense. Drop the objects “medicine” and “wig” from the two sentences given earlier, for instance, and both sentences will collapse.”
The verbs “make,” “get,” “have,” and “let” belong to a class of verbs called causatives. In sentences that use a causative verb, the subject doesn’t perform the action of the operative verb but causes someone or something else to do it. And as we have seen above, causative verbs do very well in enabling intransitive verbs to surmount their handicap of being unable to act on an object.
We mustn’t think, though, that causative verbs are meant only for intransitive verbs. They work as well with transitive ones: “The mother made her child take the medicine.” “The movie director had the leading lady wear a wig.” The big difference is that transitive verbs—working with causative verbs or not—always need an object somewhere in the sentence for the latter to make sense. Drop the objects “medicine” and “wig” from the two sentences given earlier, for instance, and both sentences will collapse.”
Are
you with me so far?
Before
we start diagramming, it would be helpful to determine the subject of our
sentence, “Let’s you and I pray about it.”
Here
are my thoughts and conclusions. I’d be happy to hear yours. (Well, maybe not
actually happy, but I’ll try to receive yours in a spirit of true friendship
and camaraderie. Well, maybe I won’t go that far. Actually, I’ll be rather
peeved with you if you strongly disagree since I’ve spent so much time on this
hair-splitting venture. Rather like arguing how many angels can dance on the
head of a pin, isn’t it? I could have re-arranged all the closets in my house
by now. Please, feel free to come over and help me do that. It would be a lot
more rewarding in the eternal scheme of things).
Although
at first glance, or even second glance, I assumed the understood “you” to be
the subject of the sentence, I have come to the rather shaky conclusion (which
will not be backed up by research and is, therefore, just as much a subject of
your whim or deeper knowledge as it is mine), that the subject of our overly-scrutinized
sentence is the compound, misplaced words “You and I.” The word “us,” which is
the second word in the contraction, “let’s,” provides us with an appositive for
the main subject, “You and I.” Or vice-versa. Perhaps, since it’s written
first, the plural pronoun, “us,” should be hailed as the subject with a
compound appositive, “you and I,” but this is problematic since "we," not"us," would have to be the subject.
Here’s how my final diagrammed sentence would
look.
Since
I don’t have a program on my poor little Toshiba laptop that allows drawing my
example, I’ll draw it and add the photograph.
Here
are my basic grammatical conclusions (subject to change at the drop of a
convincingly dogmatic argument):
Subject: You and I
Appositive: Us (put in
parentheses beside the subject)
Predicate: let pray (let is the causative verb with pray as the intransitive base verb)
Prepositional phrase acting as direct object: about it (it is the
direct object with about as the
connecting preposition)
Because
I couldn’t find any examples of my conclusions concerning the subject, I may
stand alone here. But I think my conclusions are plausible, given the
colloquial construction of the sentence. Try to recognize idiomatic, colloquial
or simply conversational sentences and realize that diagramming them is next to
impossible without changing the construction.
Well, it’s been an education for me. Thanks
for following along. I don’t expect many of you have; so to you, the true
grammar-lovers of the world, my hat is off. Keep diagramming. And, should you
ever have a concern that I should know about, be it grammar, recipes or world
conquest,
“Let’s you and I pray
about it!”
“Let’s you
and I pray about it.”
