A treatise on the grammar of the English language, containing a complete system of analysis and parsing

Preface

TnE following treatise on English Grammar contains the author's conclusions on this subject after years of teaching and investigation.

In the works in common use, grammar is regarded as coextensive with the science of language; but as there are several distinct branches of study relating to the English language, and as each of these branches is so related to the others as to be best taught separately, grammar is here restricted to a special field. The author, therefore, proposes to separate the science of written language into four distinct branches, viz: —

I. Lexicology, or the science of words, which includes (1) Phonology, or the elements of speech, their notation and changes; (2) Etymology, or the origin, derivation, and composition of words; and (3) Orthog it a phy, or the correct representation of words by means of letters.

II. Grammar, or the laws relating to words combined into sentences,, which includes (lj Classification, relating to the parts of speech and properties of words; (2) Inflection, or the changes which words undergo in order to express certain modifications of thought; and (3) Construction, or the arrangement, agreement, and government of words when used to express psychical acts.

III. Composition, or the laws of combining sentences so as to express connected thought. These laws relate to capitals, rjunctuation, style and its varieties, tne figures of speech, ..prose and poetry, including versification.

IV. Exegesis, or the science of interpretation, which relates to literature, and includes (1) Philology, or the investigation and comparison of the English language in the various stages of its growth, together with the study of cognate dialects; (2) Criticism, or the laws of judging with propriety the faults and beauties of literary compositions; and (3) Hermeneutics, or the explanation of an author's words and phrases.

This plan is logical and comprehensive, and will present the study of language in a natural way.

Beginning with vowel and consonant sounds, which are the elements of speech, we proceed to their notation and changes in the formation of words from demonstrative and predicative roots, thence to the combination of these words so as to form other words, and finally to the correct representation of the words so formed. In this process the letter is the factor and the word is the product. Then, having formed our vocabulary, the laws by which words are combined into sentences are clearly developed. Here the word is the factor and the sentence is the product. We next take sentences and combine them, so as to express connected

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thought. This enables us to treat of capitals, punctuation, &c, and includes prosody. Here the sentence is the factor, and discourse is the product. These things being accomplished, we are prepared to commence the study of literature proper, a field of all-absorbing interest, but heretofore too much neglected. Instead, therefore, of presenting a series of three or four grammars, covering substantially the same ground, and presenting the same thing in different forms, the author proposes four books, to embrace the entire science of written language, and to afford a wide range of instruction. This volume is the second in the series, and the author trusts that it will be found adequate as a text-book in English Grammar.

In determining the basis of this science, three things are to be considered, viz.: (1) the matter of thought; (2) the thought itself; and (3) the words used to represent thought. It is not the province of grammar to treat either the matter or the substance of thought, except as they are conditioning facts. The things which words represent determine their classification, properties, and modifications, and as language is the embodiment of mental acts in words, the thought itself breathes in the verbal forms. All our knowledge is acquired. As a child perceives objects, it learns the words by which they are designated. To teach it words without a knowledge of the things which they represent, would be cramming, a process which, happily, is disappearing under our improved methods of instruction. A knowledge of divisions and subdivisions, of definitions and rules, will not make any one a grammarian. He must understand the principles and usages of the language, and must make them so much his own as to apply them whenever occasion requires. That which is artificial and arbitrary should find no place in a true system — only that which is natural and useful. The object of grammar is evidently to teach correct speaking and writing, which can be attained only by the practical application of the principles educed from a scientific development of the usages, tendencies, and analogies of a language.

This treatise is not designed as a primary book. In the author's opinion, no such work is necessary. Oral teaching should prevail at first, and the definitions and exercises of this book are sufficiently elementary to be used with any class prepared to prosecute the study of grammar successfully. "What both teacher and pupil want, is a text-book in which the principles of grammar are logically arranged and clearly defined, not a hand-book burdened with explanations, which any live teacher should be able to give orally.

Conscious of the imperfection of all human productions, the author presents this work to the public as his contribution towards perfecting a science so long under the dominion of empiricism.

Annville, Pa.,