'Thumbelina'
Advanced Appositives
fom Mr. Fortune's Maggot
by Sylvia Townsend Warner
A Level Five KISS Grammar Workbook
© Dr. Ed Vavra
May 23, 2005
Rev. July, 2007
Introduction 3
Appositives 5
Simple Appositives 5
Finite Verbs as Appositives 5
Gerunds as Appositives 5
Prepositional Phrases as Appositives 6
Mixed Construction Appositives 6
Appositive, or Subject? 7
California "Appositives" 8
Exercises 9
Sentence Combining Exercise #1 10
Advanced Appositives #1 11
Analysis Key 12
Sentence Combining Exercise #2 13
Advanced Appositives #2 14
Analysis Key 15
Sentence Combining Exercise #3 16
Advanced Appositives #3 17
Analysis Key 18
Sentence Combining Exercise #4 19
Advanced Appositives #4 20
Analysis Key 21
Sentence Combining Exercise #5 22
Advanced Appositives #5 23
Analysis Key 24
Sentence Combining Exercise #6 25
Advanced Appositives #6 26
Analysis Key 27
Sentence Combining Exercise #7 28
Advanced Appositives #7 29
Analysis Key 30
Sentence Combining Exercise #8 31
Advanced Appositives #8 32
Analysis Key 33
Sentence Combining Exercise #9 34
Advanced Appositives #9 35
Analysis Key 36
Sentence Combining Exercise #10 37
Advanced Appositives #10 38
Analysis Key 39
Sentence Combining Exercise #11 40
Advanced Appositives #11 41
Analysis Key 42
Sentence Combining Exercise #12 44
Advanced Appositives #12 45
Analysis Key 46
Introduction
Lest the title turn one's stomach, perhaps I should note that on the title page of the novella, "maggot" is defined as "A nonsensical or perverse fancy; a crotchet." I found this story about a missionary's loss of faith in The Woollcott Reader: Bypaths in the Realms of Gold, edited by Alexander Wollcott (New York, The Viking Press, 1935, pp. 329-462). I had thought that the text is now in the public domain, but apparently it is not. As I write this, it is available at . It provides some excellent examples of a wide range of appositives that make excellent review and style exercises for eleventh graders. Each exercise includes at least one appositive. Not all the appositives are "advanced," but most of them are. The exercises are relatively short, but I have put each one on a separate page so that teachers can easily print an overhead of any exercise and let the students do it in class.
Each passage has also been made into a sentence-combining exercises, so another way to use them would be to select an exercise and have the students, for one day's work, do the sentence-combining version. If possible, have at least three or four students put their versions on the board (or on overhead transparencies) and discuss them, noting in particular how the various versions reflect differences in style. Then show the students Warner's original text and have students analyze it for a later class. Using an overhead of Warner's version, have the students, as a group, review this analysis assignment in class. Then, for still another assignment, you can have the students write a sentence by using the structure of Warner's sentence as a syntactic model.
Although the instructional materials for KISS workbooks will generally be provided in separate books, those books are not ready as this one is prepared, so I have included the current instructional materials on appositives. The KISS site also has a "Code and Color Key" for the analysis key notations.
Exercise #1 is an example of appositives that consist of the same word ("idols") as that to which they stand in apposition ("idols"). It also has some interesting gerundives and noun absolutes.
Exercise # 2 is short and sweet, with one simple appositive that is itself modified by a gerundive.
Exercise # 3 is much longer and more complex. It may be difficult to understand outside the context of the novel. Within that context, however, the numerous appositives are very clear because they form a list of Mr. Fortune's previous failures. If students can make sense of these appositives without reading the novella, this selection makes an excellent review exercise for eleventh graders. In addition to the numerous appositives, there are a noun used as an adverb, noun absolutes, passive voice, gerundives, post-positioned adjectives, an almost totally ellipsed clause, and a clause that functions as a delayed subject. It is also neat because it has appositives to appositives.
Exercise # 4 begins with a relatively rare construction -- an appositive that precedes the word to which it stands in apposition. And that appositive is itself modified by three gerundive phrases, one of which includes two post-positioned adjectives.
Exercise # 5 has a somewhat challenging appositive in the word "advance," which stands in apposition to "oncoming." Unlike most of the other exercises in this set, it consists of three clauses, and it also has a gerundive, an infinitive construction, and a post-positioned adjective.
In Exercise # 6, the two appositives are rather simple, but the clause structure is very complicated.
Exercise # 7 has four appositives, one of which is an appositive within an appositive phrase. Gerundives and post-positioned adjectives add to the complexity of this single-clause sentence.
Exercise # 8 illustrates a mixed-construction appositive, with the noun "pleasure" standing in apposition to the verbal "pleased." A gerundive and the third-level embedding of a subordinate clause add to the interest of this sentence.
Exercise # 9 illustrates prepositional phrases used as appositives. It also raises interesting questions about clause boundaries.
Exercise # 10 suggests how finite verbs might also be considered to be functioning as appositives.
Exercise # 11 is very complex. Among other things, it includes a noun fragment that can be explained as an appositive to a finite verb in the preceding paragraph. Several noun absolutes add to the complexity.
Like exercise 11, Exercise # 12 raises interesting questions about clause boundaries -- is "surface," for example, an appositive to "rock" or to "slab"? The answer to that question affects the explanation of where clauses end.
Appositives
Simple Appositives
Most definitions of "appositive" limit the concept to nouns, i.e., two nouns joined by their referring to the same thing with no preposition or conjunction joining them.
They are in Williamsport, a city in Pennsylvania.
Mary, a biologist, studies plants.
In analyzing texts, however (instead of studying the grammar textbooks), you will soon realized that other parts of speech and various constructions can also function as appositives.
Finite Verbs as Appositives
In the following sentence from the first paragraph of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, the second "lived" is clearly an appositive to the first:
She had three sons before Catherine was born; and instead of dying in bringing the latter into the world, as anybody might expect, she still lived on – lived to have six children more – to see them growing up around her, and to enjoy excellent health herself.
But verbs that function as appositives do note have to be limited only to those that repeat the exact words. Consider the following sentence:
She struggled, kicked and bit, until her attacker let her go.
The three finite verbs do not denote three distinct acts: "struggled" denotes a general concept that is made more specific in "kicked" and "bit." Can we not then say that the last two finite verbs function in apposition?
Gerunds as Appositives
As you probably know by the time you look at this, gerunds are verbs that function as nouns. They usually function as subjects (Swimming is good exercise.) as direct objects (Tom likes swimming.) or as objects of prepositions (They were talking about swimming.) Occasionally you may find them functioning as predicate nouns (The best exercise is swimming.) They can, however, function in any way that a noun can, and thus, sooner or later, you will find a few that function as appositives.
Consider the following examples:
1. I brought off a new trick (DO), jumping [Gerund, Appositive to "trick"] {off Herakles} {with a standing back-somersault}, and landing [Gerund, Appositive to "trick"] {on my feet}. / [from The King Must Die, by Mary Renault. N.Y.: Pantheon, 1958, p. 254.]
2. Hepzibah was good (PA) {at most things} [Adj. to "things" she did], making [Gerund, Appositive to "things"] pastry [DO of "making"] and telling [Gerund, Appositive to "things"] stories [DO of "telling"] and keeping[Gerund, Appositive to "things"] poultry [DO of "telling"]. / [from Carrie's War by Nina Bawden 1973 Victor Gollancz London pages 124 - 125. Contributed by Celia from Wollongong, Australia.]
Prepositional Phrases as Appositives
A sentence from an essay by George Orwell illustrates how constructions, in this case, prepositional phrases, can also function appositionally:
In Gandhi’s case the questions one feels inclined to ask are: to what extent was Gandhi moved by vanity--by the consciousness of himself as a humble, naked old man, sitting on a praying mat and shaking empires by sheer spiritual power--and to what extent did he compromise his own principles by entering politics, which of their nature are inseparable from coercion and fraud?
Is there a better, simpler way of explaining "by the consciousness" and the phrases dependent on it than to say that the phrase is an appositive to "by vanity"?
Mixed Construction Appositives
The concept of the appositive grows still more once we realize that not all appositives have to be composed of identical parts of speech, i.e., noun and noun, verb and verb. etc. The following sentence was written by a mother who had returned to college:
Heavy feet followed me on up the attic stairs -- treasure-filled attic, hiding place for Mother’s Day cards, carefully printed on pasty colored paper, yellowed packets of letters, saved since World War II.
The identity here is not of meaning, but of the word itself: the adjective "attic" turns into the noun. But is there an easier way of explaining this than as an appositive? In the following sentence, also written by a student, the apposition is between an infinitive phrase and a noun:
Left alone, and needled by that nagging sense of guilt, she busies herself cleaning house and lets the "coffee pot boil over," an effective image to describe her anger, which is short lived, as night softens her memory of the harsh morning light and she falls prey to her lust again.
Appositive, or Subject?
The following sentence is from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner:
A socket of molten stone rent and deserted by its ancient fires and garlanded round with a vegetation as wild as fire and more inexhaustible, the whole island breathes the peculiar romance of a being with a stormy past.
The psycholinguistic model suggests that most readers will process "socket" as a subject and look for its verb. But they will not find one. They may be tempted to read "rent" as a finite verb, but the following "and" joins it to "deserted," thereby indicating that these are two gerundives that modify "socket" but do not function as its finite verb. "Garlanded," the next "verb," is likewise a gerundive. Thus the reader continues to process the words in the sentence, but instead of finding a verb for "socket," they run into "the whole island." Although this is not an easy construction to decipher, it becomes apparent that the "socket" is the "island." Thus we have an appositive that precedes the noun to which it is in apposition. One could, of course, argue that "island" is the appositive to "socket," but this would simply be an argument about terminology. Appositives that precede the noun to which they are in apposition are relatively rare, but they do exist.
For an example of a noun absolute that functions in this way, consider the following sentence from Nina Bawden's Carrie's War:
So many thoughts twisting round, it made her quite giddy.
In this sentence, the subject of "made" is clearly the "it," but the "it" clearly means the words that are expressed in the noun absolute, "so many thought twisting round."
California "Appositives"
None of the preceding applies to students and teachers in California. The 1997 California state standards include a "Glossary" which defines the word "Appositive":
A word or phrase that restates or modifies an immediately preceding noun. Note: An appositive is often useful as a context clue for determining or refining the meaning of the word or words to which it refers.
Example: My son Enrico (appositive) is twelve years old.
This is a very interesting and juvenile definition and example. At the time I read it, I happened to be preparing a KISS analysis, by levels, of Shakespeare's "That time of year." It contains two appositives:
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
And
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
I wondered if most people would consider "boughs" as "immediately preceding" "choirs," and "night" as immediately preceding "self." Because there is no noun, in either case, between the appositive and its antecedent, I decided to give the California State Board the benefit of the doubt here, but, my curiosity aroused, I also decided to look for some other examples.
I found an interesting one in the opening of "Daisy Miller," by Henry James:
But at the "Trois Couronnes," it must be added, there are other features that are much at variance with these suggestions: neat German waiters, who look like secretaries of legation; Russian princesses sitting in the garden; little Polish boys walking about held by the hand, with their governors; a view of the sunny crest of the Dent du Midi and the picturesque towers of the Castle of Chillon.
If we apply the California definition to this, instead of all being appositives to "features," "waiters" is an appositive to "suggestions"; "princesses," to "legation"; "boys," to "garden"; and "view," to "governors." Defenders of the California definition might object that the semicolons in James' sentence separate these words from each other such that one cannot be the antecedent for the other. Nothing in the definition states this, but if we allow the objection, then each of the appositives ends up being in apposition to "suggestions."
Because the California definition is so simplistic, we need to look at the example, "My son Enrico. Such kinship appositives (Uncle Bob, sister Sue, cousin Sam) are in all probability examples of O'Donnell's "formulas." Fourth graders are past-masters of them. If this is what the standard means, then we have another example of state standards setting as an objective something that the students already know. We need to remember, moreover, that the standard states "Combine short, related sentences with appositives, participial phrases, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases." Fourth graders do not need to be able to identify appositives and participial phrases," they just need to "combine" them.
Because California has such a limited definition of the appositive, and because fourth graders have already mastered the kinship appositives as formulas, teachers in California can abide by the standards without violating what we know about natural syntactic development. All they have to do is to limit the exercises to kinship appositives:
My uncle's name is Bob. He is a fisherman. (My uncle Bob is a fisherman.)
These will be very easy to teach because the students will very quickly "learn" them. And the California Department of Education should be happy.
Unfortunately, California's simplistic standards created a problem for the rest of the country. The textbook publishers read the word "appositive" and included exercises such as "Mary is a biologist. She studies animals." The research, as well as my own experience, suggests that such exercises confuse some fourth graders, but what California wants, California usually gets. The rest of us, however, should probably ignore California.
Exercises
Sentence Combining Exercise #1
(adapted from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Directions: Read the passage all the way through. You will notice that the sentences are short and choppy. Study the passage, and then rewrite it in a better way. You may combine sentences, change the order of words, and omit words that are repeated too many times. But try not to leave out any of the information.
He found himself surrounded. Around him were ranks of idols. The idols were of all sizes. They were of all fashions. There were idols of wood. There were idols of stone. They were all very old. They were subdued with weather. They were moss-grown. The grass tangled round their bases.
Advanced Appositives #1
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
He found himself surrounded by ranks of idols, idols of all sizes and all fashions, idols of wood and stone, all very old, subdued with weather, moss-grown, with the grass tangling round their bases.
Advanced Appositives #1
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Analysis Key
He found himself (DO) surrounded [#1] {by ranks} {of idols}, idols [Appositive to "idols"] {of all sizes and all fashions}, idols [Appositive to "idols"] {of wood and stone}, all very old, subdued {with weather}, moss-grown [#2], {with the grass} tangling [#3] {round their bases}. /
Notes
1. Grammarians and linguists explain "surrounded" in different ways. Some consider it to be a participle (the KISS gerundive) modifying "himself"; others consider it to be an objective or subjective complement. Within the KISS framework, students can consider it to be a gerundive modifying "himself." Personally, I prefer to see "himself surrounded" as a noun absolute that functions as the direct object of "found."
2. One way of explaining this is to consider "all" as an appositive to "idols." "Old" can then be considered as a post-positioned adjective, or, if one prefers, one can consider the gerundive "being" as being ellipsed. The latter explanation would result in "old" being a predicate adjective after it. "Subdued" and "moss-grown" would then be gerundives modifying the appositive "all." An alternative explanation is to consider the entire phrase as an extended noun absolute -- "all *being* very old, subdued ..., moss-grown . . ." The noun absolute would then function as a noun, an appositive to "idols."
3. At Level Four, students would explain "tangling" as a gerundive to "grass." At Level Five, some students may prefer to explain it as part of the noun absolute "grass tangling," with the entire noun absolute functioning as the object of the preposition "with." The "with" phrase itself modifies "old," "subdued," and "moss-grown."
Sentence Combining Exercise #2
(adapted from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Directions: Read the passage all the way through. You will notice that the sentences are short and choppy. Study the passage, and then rewrite it in a better way. You may combine sentences, change the order of words, and omit words that are repeated too many times. But try not to leave out any of the information.
Mr. Fortune stole into the hut. He listened for a while to Lueli's quiet breathing. His breathing had a slight human rhythm. It had been recovered that day from the rhythm of the sea.
Advanced Appositives #2
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Mr. Fortune stole into the hut and listened for a while to Lueli's quiet breathing, a slight human rhythm recovered that day from the rhythm of the sea.
Advanced Appositives #2
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Analysis Key
Mr. Fortune stole {into the hut} and listened {for a while} {to Lueli's quiet breathing [Gerund, Object of "to"]}, a slight human rhythm [Appositive to "breathing"] recovered [Gerundive to "rhythm"] that day [NuA] {from the rhythm} {of the sea}. /
Sentence Combining Exercise #3
(adapted from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Directions: Read the passage all the way through. You will notice that the sentences are short and choppy. Study the passage, and then rewrite it in a better way. You may combine sentences, change the order of words, and omit words that are repeated too many times. But try not to leave out any of the information.
He sat down and began to rough out the image. He had the image in his mind. It was a man with a bird. The bird was perched on his wrist. The man's head was a little inclined towards the bird. It was as though the bird were telling him something. A plain smooth dog was seated at his feet. The dog also was looking at the bird. But it was looking quite kindly. He had failed so many times. Some of the failures were great. Some were small. He had failed with the trousers. He had failed with the introduction to mathematics. He had failed with all his very indifferent attempts at cookery. He had boiled bad eggs. He had made clammy coco-nut buns. He had failed with the conversion of the islanders. He had failed with the domestication of the parrots. It might have been expected of Mr. Fortune. He would put forth on sculpture with diffidence.
Advanced Appositives #3
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
He sat down and began to rough out the image he had in his mind: a man with a bird perched on his wrist, his head a little inclined towards the bird as though it were telling him something; and seated at his feet a plain smooth dog, also looking at the bird, but quite kindly. After so many failures, great and small: the trousers, the introduction to mathematics, all his very indifferent attempts at cookery, boiled bad eggs and clammy coco-nut buns, the conversion of the islanders and the domestication of the parrots, it might have been expected of Mr. Fortune that he would put forth on sculpture with diffidence.
Advanced Appositives #3
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Analysis Key
He sat down and began to rough out the image (DO) [Adj. to "image" he had {in his mind}]: a man [Appositive to "image"] {with a bird} perched [Gerundive to "bird" [#1]] {on his wrist}, his head [#2] a little [NuA] inclined [#2] {towards the bird} [Adv. to "inclined" as though it were telling [#3] him (IO) something (DO)]; and [#4] seated [Gerundive to "dog"] {at his feet} a plain smooth dog [Appositive to "image"], also looking [Gerundive to "dog"] {at the bird}, but [#5] quite kindly. / {After so many failures}, great [PPA] and small [PPA]: the trousers [Appositive to "failures"], the introduction [Appositive to "failures"] {to mathematics}, all his very indifferent attempts [Appositive to "failures"] {at cookery}, boiled bad eggs [Appositive to "attempts" [#6]] and clammy coco-nut buns [Appositive to "attempts" [#6]], the conversion [Appositive to "failures"] {of the islanders} and the domestication [Appositive to "failures"] {of the parrots}, it might have been expected (P) {of Mr. Fortune} [ [#7] that he would put forth {on sculpture} {with diffidence}.] /
Notes
1. "Bird perched" could also be explained as a noun absolute that functions as the object of the preposition "with."
2. "Head . . . inclined" is the core of a noun absolute that functions as an adverb to "perched."
3. "Were telling" is in the subjunctive mood.
4. This "and" joins "man" and "dog," the two appositives to "image." Warner probably used a semicolon before the "and" because the two appositives are separated by three prepositional phrases, a gerundive, a comma, a noun absolute, and a subordinate clause. [You will not find sentences like this one in any grammar textbook.]
5. Perhaps the easiest way to explain this "but" is to consider it as a coordinating conjunction joining an almost totally ellipsed clause -- "but *as though it were looking at the bird* quite kindly."
6. Note the appositives ("eggs" and "buns") to an appositive ("attempts at cookery") within the string of appositives.
7. This clause functions as a delayed subject -- "That he would put forth ... might have been expected...."
Sentence Combining Exercise #4
(adapted from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Directions: Read the passage all the way through. You will notice that the sentences are short and choppy. Study the passage, and then rewrite it in a better way. You may combine sentences, change the order of words, and omit words that are repeated too many times. But try not to leave out any of the information.
The island is a socket of molten stone. It is rent and deserted by its ancient fires. It is garlanded round with vegetation. The vegetation is wild. It is as wild as fire. And it is more inexhaustible. The whole island breathes romance. It is the peculiar romance of a being with a stormy past.
Advanced Appositives #4
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
A socket of molten stone rent and deserted by its ancient fires and garlanded round with a vegetation as wild as fire and more inexhaustible, the whole island breathes the peculiar romance of a being with a stormy past.
Advanced Appositives #4
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Analysis Key
A socket [#1] {of molten stone} rent [Gerundive to "socket" or "stone"] and deserted [Gerundive to "socket" or "stone"] {by its ancient fires} and garlanded [Gerundive to "socket" or "stone"] round {with a vegetation} as wild [PPA] {as fire} [#2] and more inexhaustible [PPA], the whole island breathes the peculiar romance (DO) {of a being}{with a stormy past}. /
Note
1. This is a relatively unusual case of an appositive that precedes the noun ("island") to which it is in apposition.
2. At KISS Level Two, students should be expected to explain "as fire" as a prepositional phrase. At Level Three (clauses), they may opt to explain it as an ellipsed subordinate clause -- "as fire *is wild*." In either explanation, it chunks to (modifies) the preceding "as" which functions as an adverb to "wild."
Sentence Combining Exercise #5
(adapted from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Directions: Read the passage all the way through. You will notice that the sentences are short and choppy. Study the passage, and then rewrite it in a better way. You may combine sentences, change the order of words, and omit words that are repeated too many times. But try not to leave out any of the information.
Mr. Fortune would lie on his stomach. He would watch a cloud. The cloud would come up from the horizon. It would approach. He would feel almost afraid at its silent oncoming. It was enormous. It was a towering being. Its advance was silent. It was like the advance of its vast shadow on the sea.
Advanced Appositives #5
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Lying on his stomach Mr. Fortune would watch a cloud come up from the horizon, and as it approached he would feel almost afraid at the silent oncoming of this enormous and towering being, an advance silent as the advance of its vast shadow on the sea.
Advanced Appositives #5
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Analysis Key
Lying [Gerundive to "Mr. Fortune"] {on his stomach} Mr. Fortune would watch a cloud come [#1] up {from the horizon}, / and [Adv. to "would feel" as it approached] he would feel almost afraid (PA) {at the silent oncoming} {of this enormous and towering being}, an advance [Appositive to "oncoming"] silent [PPA] {as the advance [#2]} {of its vast shadow} {on the sea}. /
Note
1. "Come" is an infinitive; "cloud" is its subject. The infinitive phrase functions as the direct object of "would watch."
2. At KISS Level Three (Clauses), students have the option of considering "as the advance" as an ellipsed adverbial clause -- "as the advance . . . *is silent." See "Adverbs / Ellipsed Prepositional Phrases / Ellipsed Clauses?"
Sentence Combining Exercise #6
(adapted from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Directions: Read the passage all the way through. You will notice that the sentences are short and choppy. Study the passage, and then rewrite it in a better way. You may combine sentences, change the order of words, and omit words that are repeated too many times. But try not to leave out any of the information.
There was no doubt. The ownership of a rain-gauge accounted for much. But there was more to it than that. There was a secret core of delight. There was a sense of truancy. There was a sense of freedom. Now for the first time in his life he was walking in the rain entirely of his own accord. He was not walking because it was his duty. He was not walking because it was what public opinion conceived to be his duty.
Advanced Appositives #6
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
No doubt the ownership of a rain-gauge accounted for much; but there was more to it than that – a secret core of delight, a sense of truancy, of freedom, because now for the first time in his life he was walking in the rain entirely of his own accord, and not because it was his duty, or what public opinion conceived to be so.
Advanced Appositives #6
(from Mr. Fortune's Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner)
Analysis Key
No doubt [#1] the ownership {of a rain-gauge} accounted {for much}; / but there was more (PN) {to it} {than that} – a secret core [Appositive to "more"] {of delight}, a sense [Appositive to "more"] {of truancy}, {of freedom} [#2], [Adv. to "was" because now {for the first time} {in his life} he was walking {in the rain} entirely [#3] {of his own accord}], and not [Adv. to "was" *because he was walking {in the rain}* [because it was his duty (DO), or [ what [#4] public opinion conceived to be so (PN).]]] /
Notes
1. There are at least two ways of analyzing this. Some people may prefer to consider it an ellipsed clause -- "*There was* no doubt *that* the ownership ...." This would make everything from "the" to "much" a subordinate clause modifying "doubt." The phrase is, however, idiomatic, and thus other people may prefer to consider "doubt" as a noun used as an adverb.
2. Because there is no "and" joining the two prepositional phrases, and because of their proximity in meaning, one could argue that "of freedom" functions as an appositive to "of truancy." See the advanced discussion of appositives.
3. The adverb "entirely" modifies the prepositional phrase "of his own accord."
4. The "what" here functions as both a subordinate conjunction, introducing the clause, and as the subject of the infinitive "to be." This will give students working at Level Three major problems because they have not yet studied infinitives. Note, however, that the infinitive needs a subject -- the public conceived ................
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