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Henry David Thoreau:

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

What is the structure of this sentence?

I think it's safe to simplify to "To do, that is A".

Is it a cleft sentence? Is it an inversion?

Can I change "that" to "this", or "it"?

Would the normal order be "A is to do"?

Edit:

My question focus on an infinitive before the main clause, and the subject of the main clause is "that".

I also found "to be or not to be, that is the question". This quote so happens to also use "that"? Are there any hidden rules?

Gqqnbig
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  • @MarcInManhattan Your link discusses a noun phrase ahead of the main clause. Mine is an infinitive and the subject is "that". Which answer in your link answers my question? – Gqqnbig Jun 26 '22 at 15:05
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    The antecedent (referent) of "that" is "to affect the quality of the day". Therefore, the infinitive phrase functions as a nominal phrase (or clause, if you prefer to call it that). It is thus analogous to "John" or "Mary" in the linked question. – MarcInManhattan Jun 26 '22 at 15:08
  • @MarcInManhattan What you said could make sense. If "To do, that is A" is not a fixed phrase, is "Doing, this/it is A" correct as well? – Gqqnbig Jun 26 '22 at 15:12
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    I think so, if you mean something like: "Doing homework, that is boring." – MarcInManhattan Jun 26 '22 at 15:24

1 Answers1

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Almost two centuries ago, in a different written dialect (now extinct), Thoreau wrote:

  • To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Today we might write

  • It is the highest of arts to affect the quality of the day.

in something like the equivalent written register. That sentence is an extraposition from

  • To affect the quality of the day is the highest of arts.

with an infinitive subject. Extraposition moves heavy subject clauses to the end of the sentence and inserts a dummy it to pretend it's the subject.

Thoreau, however, was emphasizing the infinitive, and he used that (no doubt with a heavy stress, though that isn't represented in English writing) to refer back to the infinitive. So in effect, the structure was an apposition, like a left dislocation:

  • Ale, that's the stuff!

It isn't a cleft, and it isn't an inversion. It's just a poetic mode of emphasis.

John Lawler
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    Frankly, I can totally see two tipsy professors chatting in a bar where one might say to the other: "To flunk a lazy student, that is truly a pleasure. Sláinte". – Lambie Jun 26 '22 at 16:46
  • Awesome response. Would you shed light on in which dialect book is written, or give some references? – Gqqnbig Jun 26 '22 at 16:56
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    It was what passed for literary English two centuries ago, in the New England part of the United States. The language and its literature have changed since Thoreau and Emerson. – John Lawler Jun 26 '22 at 17:07