GRAMMAR 



2556 



GRAMMAR 



the rules which govern current usage. His- 

 torical grammar concerns itself with one lan- 

 guage but not with one age, for it deals with 

 all the recorded grammars of the language. 

 Comparative grammar finds resemblances and 

 differences among the various languages be- 

 longing to the same general family. Historical 

 and comparative grammar are young sciences 

 which came into being in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury with the interest in Sanskrit, the ancient 

 parent from which modern languages have 

 sprung. The present article, of course, covers 

 only the didactic grammar of the English lan- 

 guage of to-day. 



Parts of Speech. The "grammar of words," 

 or etymology, is learned through the mastery 

 of the eight groups into which all words have 

 been divided. These classes are called the 

 parts oj speech, and comprise noun, pronoun, 

 adjective (including the articles), adverb, verb, 

 preposition, conjunction and interjection. In 

 these volumes each is treated individually and 

 should be looked for under its proper head. 



In studying the parts of speech and learning 

 the inflections and uses of each, the student 

 finds it is not a case of "once a verb, always 

 a verb," but that words are one part of speech 

 or another solely according to the part they 

 play in the sentence. The same word may 

 serve in a number of capacities verbs as 

 nouns; nouns as verbs and adjectives; pro- 

 nouns as nouns, adjectives and even verbs. 

 Thus, in Whittier's line, "The good is always 

 beautiful, the beautiful is good," both good 

 and beautiful are used once as noun and once 

 as adjective. 



Sentence-Building. Syntax, or the "gram- 

 mar of sentences," has two divisions analysis, 

 which means taking a sentence apart into the 

 elements of which it is composed, and synthe- 

 sis, which means putting together words, 

 phrases and clauses to form a sentence. The 

 sentence is the foundation or unit of all 

 speech, and in English the vital factor in sen- 

 tence-making is the position or order of the 

 words. In Latin, position is of no grammatical 

 importance; words may be shifted about so 

 as to make harmonious combinations, because 

 it is their inflections that show in what rela- 

 tions the words stand to one another. In 

 the English sentence, on the other hand, al- 

 though there is a certain amount of freedom 

 in arrangement, a change from the established 

 order usually changes the meaning. For in- 

 stance, if we transpose subject and object in 

 the sentence, "Wellington defeated Napoleon," 



Outline on Grammar 



I, Definition 



(1) Deals with classes, forms, uses 



and relations of words 



(2) Science of current usages 



(3) Derivation of words 



II. Purposes 



(1) To teach principles of correct 



speech 



(2) To develop keen observation and 



criticism of language 



(3) To lead up to composition, rhet- 



oric and the study of literature 



(4) To cultivate the mind 



III. Classification 



(1) Ordinary use of term 



(a) Etymology, the "grammar of 



words" 



(b) Syntax, the "grammar of 



sentences" 



(c) Orthography, phonetics and 



prosody no longer included 



(2) Broader interpretation 



(a) Didactic 



(b) Historical 



(c) Comparative 



IV. Etymology 



(1) Parts of speech 



(a) Noun 



(b) Verb 



(c) Pronoun 



(d) Adjective 



(e) Adverb 



(f) Conjunction 



(g) Preposition 

 (h) Interjection 



(2) Parts of speech a matter of func- 



tion 



(3) Inflections 



(a) Declension 



(b) Conjugation 



V. Syntax 



(1) Analysis 

 (a) Parsing 



(2) Synthesis 



(a) Relation to composition 



(3) Order of elements of sentence 

 (a) Importance in English be- 

 cause of lack of inflections 



(4) Kinds of sentences 



(a) Declarative 



(b) Interrogative 



(c) Imperative 



(d) Complex and compound 



VI. Present -Day Tendencies 



(1) The trend toward simplicity 



(2) Dropping gender distinctions 



(3) Less frequent use of subjunctives 



(4) Short sentences in favor 



