MY LATE SON

Back to Paul Theroux. This time, I will look at how the sentences relate to each other, too. I won't just parse the sentences and try to look at the form and function of all the pieces. I will also look at how one sentence comes out of the one right before it. I will look at how it is Turtles All the Way Down. I will look at how the writer has the gall to make his own stamp, get it inked up on his own pad, and then make a mark on what could have been a perfectly good blank page.

Here is the fourth sentence:
"His slight speech defect made him seem truthful."

"His slight speech defect" is the subject of the sentence.

"made" is the main verb. It's a transitive verb since it requires something more, though I don't think what follows is a standard direct object.

"him seem truthful" is what I'm going to treat as the direct object since I don't think "him" can be a DO by itself. It requires a complement--something like "seem truthful."

"seem truthful" is a bare infinitive phrase, I believe, since there is no "to" in front of "seem."

"truthful" is an adjective that serves as a predicate adjective--or a subject complement--since it's on the other side of the linking infinitive "seem."

This sentence relates to the one before because it has pronouns in it. "His" functions as an adjective--it's a determiner--but it's also a kind of pronoun in that it has a referent. "him" is also a pronoun. This sentence further relates to the one before because it has words in it that have to do with the voice of the character.

The next sentence is this:
"There was a babyish innocence in 'daily bwed.'"

This sentence has a special form, I think. The "There" makes it special. I think the "There" is what's called "Existential There." Maybe this sentence is inverted, and the true subject is what comes at the end.

So I will say that "There" is an adverb that functions as the subject complement.

"was" is the main verb, the "to be" verb.

"a babyish innocence" is the simple subject.

"in 'daily bwed'" is a prepositional phrase that functions as an adjective.

The "There" in this sentence, in a general way, references all that's come before because it sets up "Thereness." It reinforces that the place in the story exists and that, yes, there is a place for these characters to speak and to be. This sentence also relates to what comes before because it gives an example of the "speech defect" that's mentioned in the sentence that's right before.