Describing the syntax in a sentence from Jane Austen's Emma

Question

I'm writing an essay on a passage from Jane Austen's Emma and am trying to comment upon the structure of a certain sentence. I know what I want to say (in terms of the effects of the syntax), but I could use some help with describing the syntax itself, as my grammar's a little shaky.

The sentence is:

"He was accused of having a delightful voice, and a perfect knowledge of music; which was properly denied; and that he knew nothing of the matter, and had no voice at all, roundly asserted"

I noticed that this was made of two similarly structured parts (phrases? clauses? This is where I'm getting lost): (very loosely) ... [object] and [object], ... [verb]; [object] and [object], ... [verb]". How might I describe this? In my quest to describe this accurately I've discovered complex-compound sentences and verb complements, but I'm still pretty lost. Can anyone give me a hand?

Answer 1

It might be helpful to first divide it into two halves:

1. He was accused of having [a delightful voice], and [a perfect knowledge of music]; [[which was properly denied]].

The predicate of the clause (subject "He") contains a large preposition phrase (from "of" to "music") where the complement of the prep "of" is the non-finite having clause comprising two noun phrases (bracketed) serving as objects of "having". That clause is the antecedent for the double-bracketed non-restrictive relative clause. So we understand that "x" denied having a delightful voice and a perfect knowledge of music".

2. and [that he knew nothing of the matter], and [had no voice at all], roundly asserted.

The clause in the second part contains two coordinated subordinate clauses (bracketed) as subject of "asserted". You could paraphrase this by extraposing the subject: "It was roundly asserted [that he knew nothing of the matter], and [had no voice at all]".

Answer 2

Here is a partial analysis:

[S [S They accused him of X] but [S he [V' [V' denied X (denying X was proper)] and [V' asserted Y (asserting Y was done roundly)]] ] ]

where "denying X was proper" is an appositive relative clause in apposition to the verb phrase "denying X", and this is converted to an adverb that modifies that verb phrase, "properly",

and "asserting Y was done roundly" is also a relative clause, which modifies the V' "asserted Y",

and X = a nominalized form of "he had [NP [NP a delightful voice] and [NP a perfect knowledge of music] ]"

and Y = "he [V' [V' knew nothing of the matter] and [V' had no voice at all] ]"

"He was accused of having a delightful voice, and a perfect knowledge of music; which was properly denied; and that he knew nothing of the matter, and had no voice at all, roundly asserted"