ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 





HP HE following outline of English Grammar is 

 1 intended for grown-up persons who have 

 already that knowledge of their own language that 

 results from hearing it and speaking it, reading it 

 and writing it, but who now wish for the first 

 time to make it a special subject of attention and 

 examination. Many also learn grammar at an 

 age when it can be little else than blind rote ; and 

 for such it might be profitable, and not without 

 interest in itself, to take a concise view of the 

 principles of the subject, such as is here presented, 

 after arriving at the age of maturity. The 

 method will therefore be somewhat different from 

 that usually followed in elementary grammars for 

 teaching children, in which the definitions and 

 rules are laid down dogmatically. We shall en- 

 deavour to proceed as much as possible in the 

 way of investigation, leading the student to feel as 

 if he were discovering the principles and rules for 

 himself our chief function being to point out to 

 him the shortest road to the discovery. It is in 

 this way that the study of grammar becomes a 

 valuable instrument of intellectual discipline a 

 kind of concrete logic. 



There are many persons with a strong faculty 

 for language and with natural good taste, who, by 

 mere observation and practice, and without any 

 study of grammar by itself, acquire the power of 

 speaking and writing with propriety, and even 

 elegance. And so there are some whose bodily 

 movements are easy and graceful without any 

 teaching ; but this does not hinder it from being a 

 fact that the great majority of men and women 

 are vastly improved by gymnastic training. Simi- 

 larly the study of grammar is essential for most 

 men, if they would be able to speak and write 

 with anything like correctness, or even to inter- 

 pret aright the language of others. 



The subject-matter of grammar is Speech or 

 Language. The consideration of the laws of lan- 

 guage in general belongs to General or Universal 

 Grammar (see LANGUAGE). But any individual 

 language English, for example besides these 

 general laws, has peculiarities a genius, as it 

 were, of its own ; and, therefore, its grammar 

 embraces both kinds of laws. 



SPEECH OR LANGUAGE. 



Speech is thought expressed in words. Merely 

 to utter such expressions as ' table ' ' a whole 

 day ' ' verily,' is not to speak, because there is 

 nothing said or affirmed no thought or judgment 

 expressed. But when I use the words, ' This 

 table is made of oak,' I express a thought 

 which is passing through my mind, and which 

 calls for belief or disbelief on the part of other 

 minds. No word, or set of words, then, can 

 be considered speech unless they express a 

 thought. 



In studying botany, the attention is not directed 

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at first to the vegetation of a whole field or 

 garden, nor yet to a single leaf ; but as much is 

 taken as will represent the whole namely, an 

 individual plant, the unit of vegetation. What in 

 language will correspond to this? In other 

 words, what is the unit of speech ? It is not a 

 word ; for we have seen that words do not neces- 

 sarily make speech. Before we have speech, 

 something must be said a thought must be 

 expressed. A whole or unit in speech, then, is as 

 much as expresses a thought, or makes an asser- 

 tion. An expressed thought or assertion is called, 

 in Logic, a proposition; the form of words in 

 which it is expressed, is what grammarians call a 

 sentence. The sentence, then, is the unit or in- 

 teger of language, and forms the natural starting- 

 point in this study. 



THE SENTENCE. 



A distinguished grammarian thus defines the 

 nature of a sentence : Man thinks when he judges 

 that a person or a thing does (or does not do) 

 something, and this judgment expressed in words 

 is a sentence ; as, ' The servant obeys,' ' Gold 

 does not rust,' ' The lark is a singing bird/ 

 'The knife is sharp.' In every case, it may be 

 made out that doing something is implied ; thus : 

 ' The knife is sharp,' is equivalent to, ' The knife 

 cuts; ' ' The lark is a singing bird,' to, ' The lark 

 sings ; ' ' Sugar is sweet,' to, ' Sugar affects the 

 palate in a certain way.' 



When we think, then, we join in our minds the 

 idea of an activity to the idea of a person or 

 thing, and when we utter this thought, we affirm 

 or assert that the activity belongs to the person 

 or thing. This is called predicating the activity of 

 the thing. 



Parts of a Sentence. In analysing sentences, it 

 is best to begin with short ones ; for however 

 short, they must contain the essential parts, and 

 it is these we are just now in quest of. Take, for 

 instance, (i) ' Ink is black ;' (2) 'A fish swims ;' 

 (3) ' All men are mortal.' We find in (i), first of 

 all, the idea of a thing, and then the affirmation 

 regarding it, that it ' is black.' There are there- 

 fore two chief ideas presented to the mind ' ink,' 

 and ' being black ; ' in (2) also, we have ' a fish,' 

 and 'swimming;' in (3), 'all men,' and 'being 

 mortal' And so, however short or long the 

 sentence may be, if it is only a single sentence 

 that is, if it only contain one assertion 

 we always find two chief ideas, dividing the 

 sentence into two parts. In fact, if the essence 

 of a sentence is to say something, there must be 

 a something that is spoken about, and a some- 

 thing that is said of it. The something that 

 is spoken about is called, in Logic, the subject 

 of the sentence ; the something that is said 

 about it is called the predicate. Single sen- 

 tences of the plainer kind of structure can be 



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