A new English grammar conformed to present usage

Front matter

NEW ENGLISH GRAMMAR

CONFORMED TO PRESENT USAGE

WITH THE

Part I. Orthoepy

Conspectus . . 15

Definitions, Explanations, and Remarks . . . 15—19

Methods of Teaching Pronunciation . . . 19-21

Physiological Chart of Articulate Sounds ... 20

ORTHOGRAPHY.

Definitions, Explanations, and Remarks . . . 21-25

Advanced Methods of Teaching .... 26-29

PARTS OF SPEECH. — INTRODUC- TORY LESSONS. — NOUNS.

Number Gender Person .

Parsing Lesson Pronouns

PAGE

• 32

• 34 35-37

VERB.

Case 37

Subject and Object . 38, 39 Possessive Case . . 40, 41

Declension of Personal Pronouns and Nouns . . 42 Classes of Nouns ... 43 Classes of Pronouns . 44-46

Declension of Relative Pronoun .... 47

Part II. Etymology. — The Noun

Classes

Person .

Number

Gender

Case

Declension

. 48 . 48

• 57

Contents

THE PRONOUN.

PAGE

Definition .... 57 Classes. . . . 58-61

Part III. Syntax. — Rules Of Syntax

Rule I

Rule II

Rule III

Rule IV

Rule V

Rule VI

Rule VII

Rule VIII

Rule IX

RuleX

Rule XI

Rule XII

Rule XIII

Rule XIV

Rule XV

Rule XVI

Rule XVII

Rule XVIII

Rule XIX

Rule XX

Rule XXI

Rule XXII

Rule XXIII

Rule XXIV

Rules of Limitation

167-172

173-175

175-177

177, 178

178-180

. 181

. 181

. 182

182-184

. 184

184, 185

. 185

186, 187

187, 188

188, 189

189, 190 190-192

192, 193

193. 194 195-198

. 198

198, 199

199, 200 . 200 . 201

PAGE

Rules of Connection . . 201 Rules of Agreement . 201, 202 Rules of Government . 202, 203 Rules of Independent Construction .... 203

Part IV. Prosody

Definition .

.

Figures

Figures of Orthography

Figures of Etymology .

.

Figures of Syntax

Figures of Rhetoric .

Punctuation .

Rhetorical Punctuation

Etymological "

213,

Punctuation for Reference

Punctuation for Printer

214,

Part Five. Analysis

As to Structure . . 216, 217 As to the Nature of the Proposition . . . 217-219 As to Structure . . .219 As to Relation . . . 220 As to the Base . . 220, 221 Diagrammed Analysis . 221-227 Programme for Verbal Analysis 227

Verbal Analysis Exemplified

228-236 Abridgment . . . 237-239 Examples for Parsing and

Analysis . . . 240-247 Programmes and Models for Parsing . . . 248-266

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

LANGUAGE— HISTORY.

ORIGIN OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE.

1. Language is a divine gift. Spoken Language was used undoubtedly by our first parents. Adam gave names to all cattle, and to fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field, before there was a helpmeet for him; so says the Bible. He is also represented as talking directly with that Being from whom he derived the faculty of speech, and who trained him in its use.

Let teachers remember who was the first of their profession; and not only so, but that no profession has been more highly honored.

ORIGIN OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

2. The first account we have of Written Language, is the writing of the decalogue on the tablets of stone. It is remarked that all the Hebrew characters, except one or two unimportant points, which have since been added to the language, are found in the Ten Commandments.

Before Written Language, pictures, monuments, and medals were used to communicate events, and to some slight extent to communicate ideas between those of the io ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

same age. These forms, however, represented things, and not sounds used in words. The Romanic letters, which we use, are evidently derived from the Greek letters; while the Greek letters, according to their historians, were brought by Cadmus from Phenicia, B. C. 1493. The Phenician alphabet is similar, in some respects, to the Hebrew, as is also the Greek.

Mr. Pitman, in forming his Phonographic Alphabet, seems to have imitated the Hebrew more nearly than any other, especially in his vowel system. Thus we have in the latest and most improved form of Written Language, a restoration of the original characters to some extent, as taught to Moses on Mount Sinai.

DIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES.

3, Profane History assigns no reason for the multiplicity of languages. Sacred History gives us an account of the "confusion of tongues," at the Tower of Babel, and the consequent dispersion of mankind. This may account for the existing number and variety of languages; or, if, as many commentators suppose, the "confusion of tongues" refers to a disagreement of the builders in their plans, and the consequent irreconcilable quarrels which drove these early inhabitants into diverse parts of the earth, then the changes which take place in the pronunciation and signification of many words in a few years in modern society, even though language is fixed by written characters, and by the diversity of pronunciation in different localities in the same country, where there is much and frequent intercourse, will show that, when tribes have wandered far from each other, with no written language, with no intercourse, their language, though originally the same, will, in a few generations become so changed as to become entirely unintelligible to others than the tribe or tribes in more imme-

LANGUAGE. 1 1

diate proximity. The great diversity of languages ceases to be a wonder, then, even though men were originally of one blood, used one language, and no miracle interposed to confound their language.

TIME OF HIGHEST DEVELOPMENT.

4. Both Greece and Rome, at the time of their highest political power, enjoyed the greatest refinement in the arts and sciences. Language is no exception to the rule. Gradual improvement may be traced in the style of their authors from the earliest historical dawn of those nations to the period of their highest glory, respectively. This improvement may be noticed in all the qualities which constitute excellence of language; some of which are precision, euphony, flexibility, and susceptibility of nice shades of difference in expressing thought or feeling.

At the present time, the several spoken languages have attained a higher degree of polish and power than at any previous period. Among these modern languages, the German is highly cultivated for the expression of thought, and the Italian for the exhibition of the emotions; while the English yields to no other in its strength, flexibility, and delicacy of expression for both thought and feeling.

CHIEF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANCIENT AND MODERN LANGUAGES.

5. This lies mainly in the mechanical structure of their verbs and nouns, the nouns of the ancient languages having more methods of declension, and each declension more terminations than any of the modern nouns. This variety of termination gives equal precision, with much greater latitude of arrangement. The cases of modern nouns are determined to some extent by their position with relation to the verb. The cases of ancient nouns depend entirely on their termination, and not in the least on their position in the sentence. Hence the ancient languages give a better opportunity for securing harmony in the arrangement than the modern.

The verbs of the ancient languages are much more complete in their terminations, and, of course, make use of fewer auxiliary verbs. None are necessary save that denoting being, which is used only in the passive voice.

DEFINITIONS, EXPLANATIONS, AND REMARKS.

6. Language.— Any method of communicating thought or feeling.

7. Natural Language. — Instinctive methods of communicating thought or feeling.

Remark. — Brute animals possess their own instinctive forms of language, many of which forms are understood by other species than those which use them.

8. Artificial Language. — That which must be learned before it can be used.

9. Vocal Language. — That produced by the organs of speech.

10. Written Language. — Any method of communicating thought by visible characters depicted on a surface.

11. Symbolic Language. — That form of written language in which the characters are designed to represent ideas and not sounds.

12. Phonic Language. — That form of written language in which the characters are designed to represent sounds.

13. Pictorial Language. — That form of symbolic language in which the ideas are plainly represented.

LANGUAGE. 13

14. Hieroglyphic Language. — That form of symbolic language in which the ideas are so obscurely represented as to need an interpreter.

15. Syllabic Language. — That form of phonic language in which the characters represent syllables.

16. Alphabetic Language. — That form of phonic language in which the characters represent separate articulate sounds.

17. Equivocal Alphabetical Language. — Those in which a letter represents more than any one sound, and in which a sound is represented by more than one letter.

18. Unequivocal Alphabetical Languages. — Those in which the number of letters equals the number of separate articulate sounds — giving but one sound to each letter, and but one letter for each sound.

19. Gesticulate Language. — Any method of communicating or impressing thought or feeling, by motions, postures, or appearances of the animal form, not producing or representing articulated sounds or written characters.

GRAMMAR.

20. General, or Universal, Grammar. — That form of grammar which treats of all those principles and usages which are common to all languages.

21. Particular Grammar. — That form of grammar which treats of all those principles, usages, characters, and sounds, comprised in any particular language.

22. English Grammar. — That branch which treats of the English language.

23. Orthoepy. — That division of grammar which treats of articulate sounds, and of their correct use in pronunciation.

24. Orthography. — That division of grammar which treats of letters, words, and spelling.

25. Etymology, — That division of grammar which treats of the derivation and formation of words, and the classification of words according to their uses.

26. Lexicography. — That division of grammar which treats of the signification of words.

27. Syntax. — That division of grammar which treats of the arrangement of words in sentences.

28. Analysis. — That division of grammar which treats of the separation of sentences into their elements.

29. Prosody. — That division of grammar which treats of versification and punctuation.