How to parse. ..

Front matter

HOW TO PARSE.

By the author of "How to Parse!'

HOW TO WRITE CLEARLY. Rules and Exercises on English Composition. i6mo. Cloth. Price, 60 cents.

Preface

The First Part of this book is intended for pupils so far advanced as to be able to distinguish the Parts of Speech. The author's object has been to teach elementary English Grammar as simply as is consistent with the honest recognition of difficulties, and not to accumulate masses of information that might be of use to foreigners, but must be useless to English boys.

I have been accused, by a very friendly and favorable reviewer, of " unkindness " in completely ignoring the " Article " in my introductory treatise How to Tell the Parts of Speech. It has occurred to me, in consequence, to prefix to this work a Glossary of Grammatical Terms — many of them, let us hope, obsolete or obsolescent. Here the pupil may now and then refresh his memory as to the meaning of Article, Genitive, Nominative, Accusative, Case, Proper Noun, Conjugation, Decline, and the like ; and by this means he will be able to satisfy himself that many of these terms, when applied to the Grammar of his native tongue, are absolutely superfluous or erroneous. It is also probable that ready access to a Glossary, explaining etymologically Cardinal, Inflection, Apostrophe, Climax, Bathos, Verse, &c, may in many cases be of positive as well as negative benefit.

The Exercises are specially written to illustrate the rules. This has involved some labor ; but I am convinced that the labor was well spent. A pupil cannot vi BOW TO PARSE.

be regarded as thoroughly tested in his knowledge of grammatical rules till he has applied them to connected narrative. As long as he is tested in nothing but short sentences, you can never feel sure that his accuracy is not merely mechanical.

Paragraphs 1-82 are of a much simpler character than those that follow ; and the pupil should be well drilled in them before passing onward. The grammarlessons of three or four months may be very well spent in teaching boys how to select the Subjects and Objects of the different Verbs in a Sentence, and a month or two more may well be given to Relative Sentences. Indeed, if the majority of a class of boys, between 11 and 12 years old, can, after six months' training in grammar, parse " jay " in : —

" The jay that robbed the other birds of their feathers was afterwards punished for robbing them" —

I should, myself, think the six months spent to very good purpose.

Paragraphs 82-162 are decidedly more difficult, and constitute work for a higher class. The chapter on the Subjunctive Mood is put last, out of its place, owing to the extreme difficulty of the subject.

The chapter on Irregularities, Paragraphs 191-230, is of a different nature from the former part of the book. It is intended to prepare the pupil for Part II. , and is an attempt to apply the principles of scholarship to the explanation of the irregularities of English Grammar. These principles are few, and capable of brief enunciation, viz., (1) that every irregularity is a deviation from a "regula " or rule ; (2) that there must be some attracting force to produce this deviation ; (3) that this attracting force is generally one of three causes, of which the " confusion of two constructions " is by far the most common. Simple and brief though they are, these principles require, as every teacher knows, careful and constant inculcation before the pupil is imbued with them. But when the pupil has once mastered them, he has the key to unlock any idiomatic irregularity, in any

PREFACE. vii

language — always provided that he is well acquainted with the particular language in its regular expressions. Not much space is given to Analysis ; but perhaps as much as the subject deserves. If this subject is to be taught at all — and there is much in it that constitutes a useful mental exercise — it ought, in the opinion of the author, to be disencumbered of its present technicalities, and to be taught more logically. For example, in most treatises on Analysis, it is assumed that, in such a sentence as : —

"Feeling the man's hand in my pocket I turned suddenly round,"

— the words " feeling the man's hand " are an Adjective Phrase, or " Enlargement of the Subject." But nothing surely ought to be more obvious than that (whatever the grammatical construction maybe) u feeling" here means " when, or because I felt," and is nearly the same as " on feeling; " so that the words in question form really an Adverbial, and not an Adjectival Phrase. It is almost startling that this Adjectival error should have been gravely inculcated for a generation in the best, as in the worst, treatises on English Grammar. Possibly the servile imitation of Latin Grammar — the ruin of all good English teaching — has been at work here, as in so many other cases, assimilating the English to the Latin Active Participle, and ignoring the extent to which the English Participle has been merged in the English Verbal Noun. 1

For these reasons, in the Chapter on Analysis, several changes have been introduced with the view of discarding technicalities: and the terms Phrase, Clause, and Sentence, are rigidly used according to their definitions. (See Glossary and also Par. 239. ) 2

In the "Hints on Spelling," Paragraphs 266-291, an attempt has been made to give explanations, or

1 See Paragraphs 585-595.

2 I gladly acknowledge my obligation to Mr. Mason for his excellent method of indicating the Subordination of Sentences by underlining.

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suggestions of possible explanations, of a few among the thousand anomalies that strew this wilderness and despair of teachers. The author has at least succeeded (Par. 283) in impressing upon himself, what he never could remember before, the right spelling of " succeed," 4 ' proceed, ' ' and ' * exceed. ' ' Whether others will derive the same benefit from the explanation is perhaps doubtful ; but the mere fact that an explanation exists is a just cause for thanksgiving. Mr. Laurie's useful Manual of Spelling has been of great service in the composition of this chapter.

Part II. Chapter I., is explained by its title, " Difficulties and Irregularities in Modern English." It is intended for the higher (not for the highest) classes in our first-grade schools. Here I must acknowledge verylarge obligations to Matzner's two volumes on English Syntax. Adopting his arrangement, I have selected from these two volumes every difficulty that appeared likely to be a difficulty to an English boy — I believe I may add, in many cases, to an English man — as distinct from a foreigner. A few examples from Campbell, Scott, and Byron have been quoted from Matzner, unverified ; but in such cases, the reader is always warned by a foot-note. The vast majority of the examples have been modified or re-written to illustrate the difficulty under consideration, or they are the fruits of my own reading.

In this part of the work it has been of course necessary to illustrate modern English by older English of different periods : and here, while again acknowledging my obligations to Matzner, I must also add the name of Dr. Morris, whose elaborate Historical Outlines of English Accidence — a book that, the more you study it, impresses you the more with the feeling that much is left to study — have been laid under large contributions for this part of my work, and more especially for the Appendix on the " Growth of the English language." Here I have also to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Mr. Skeat, who was kind enough to correct the proof-sheets of the Appendix, and from whose

PREFACE. ix

edition of the Gospel of St. Mark 1 I derived great help in obtaining an insight into the " Period of Confusion ' ' in early English . I have had the less hesitation in occasionally referring to statements and examples about early English found in the Shakespearian Grammar, because all of these were supervised and many of them originated by Mr. Skeat, but for whose kindness and learning I should scarcely have ventured on ground of which it may be said, no less than of the field of criticism, that —

" Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

The chapter on Poetical Constructions will, I hope, be found as useful as any in the book. It is an attempt to draw out in grammatical detail the principles of poetry as laid down by Professor Seeley and myself in English Lessons for English People, and to lead the pupil to see the reason and the beauty of ** poetical irregularities."

In the Appendix on the " Growth of the English Language," I have ventured so far to differ from Dr. Morris, in his account of the u Periods of the English Language," as to assign a separate period to the sixteenth century, and also to give names to the several periods. I do not think boys will find it easy to remember the periods without epithets of a rather more picturesque nature than ordinal numbers. I have also added some remarks on the Elizabethan period.

A few tables of the Early Forms are added in the Appendix with the view of illustrating remarks scattered through the book. But no attempt has been made to give any complete system of Accidence. To try to do this completely, in the face of Dr. Morris's Accidence, would have been superfluous: and to do it imperfectly, in the way in which it has been done in many Grammars, under the title of "Etymology,"

1 The Gospel according to St. Mark, in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Versions, Synoptically Arranged. Edited for the Syndics of the University Press by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, M.A. Cambridge : Deighton, Bell, & Co. 1871.

x HOW TO PARSE.

would have been worse than superfluous, mystifying English children by telling them what, when they know what well enough already, and need only to be told why. But to tell the why of English Accidence requires — and it is useless disguising the fact — a great deal of knowledge in the teacher and not a little in the pupil. If it is to be done at all, it should be done thoroughly, with the aid of such a book as Dr. Morris's, and by pupils old enough to appreciate it.

Consequently, though the pupil will find " strong " and " weak " verbs defined in the Glossary, he will see no lists of them in the book. Lists of irregular plurals will also be missing; the teacher will look in vain for focus, foci; datum, data; nebula, nebulas. The only apparent sacrifice to the mania for " learning something by heart " is this, that the modern verb will be found " conjugated "in the Appendix to Part II. But this has been done, not to give the pupil something to learn by heart, but to enable him to compare the old verb with the new at a glance. Throughout the book, the Author has endeavored to keep in view the main object of a teacher teaching English grammar to English children, viz., to teach, not so much what as why.

The division of the book into parts, the first of which is differently arranged from the second, might cause some difficulty in referring, were it not that a full Alphabetical Index is inserted at the end — an appendage that, in the Author's opinion, may fairly claim to be accepted as a compensation, in a book of this kind, for many faults of non-arrangement or misarrangement.

In passing the book through the press I have derived most valuable assistance from the two gentlemen whose names I had occasion to mention in the preface to How to Tell the Parts of Speech, viz., Mr. G. S. Brockington, one of the Assistant Masters of King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Mr. T. W. Chambers, B.A., Scholar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, one • of the Assistant Masters of the City of London School, whose sound judgment and practical experience have

PREFACE. xi

frequently induced me to modify or even re-cast large portions of the First Part. I must also mention two others among my colleagues, Mr. T. Todd, and Mr. James Pirie, M.A., whose criticism and corrections have been of very great service.

Lastly, while expressing my obligations to the admirable " Shakespeare Lexicon," compiled by Dr. Schmidt, and published by Messrs. Williams & Norgate, I may be also permitted, coming nearer home, to say that I have gained much help and many apt examples from the inspection of the proof-sheets of a Complete Concordance to the Poetical Works of Pope, compiled by my father, and now in course of publication.

CONTENTS.*

Part I

ETYMOLOGICAL GLOSSARY OP GRAMMATICAL TERMS . XVU RULES AND DEFINITIONS XXViU

Chapter II. The Relative Pronoun 17

CHAPTERS III AND IV.

USES AND INFLECTIONS :

I. Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, &c 28

II. Verbs 45

1 For all detailed reference the reader is referred to the Alphabetical Index at the ead of the book.

xiv HOW TO PARSE.

CHAPTER V.

THE INDIRECT OBJECT, &C 88

CHAPTER VI.

THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD 112

CHAPTER VII.

IRREGULARITIES 127

APPENDIX I.

THE ANOMALIES OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD . . . 148

APPENDIX II.

THE ANALYSIS OP SENTENCES 153

SCHEME OF ANALYSIS 172

APPENDIX III.

HINTS ON SPELLING 174

h APPENDIX IV.

; HINTS ON PUNCTUATION 185

J SCHEME OF PARSING 195

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CONTENTS. xv

Part II. Difficulties And Irregularities In Modern English

CHAPTER I.

PROSE 199

CHAPTER II.

POETICAL CONSTRUCTIONS 281