GENERAL GRAMMAR. 47 



conjunction, serves to connect words or phrases, and often to qualify 

 their meaning ; as and, if, but, because. Copulative conjunctions 

 indicate connection or resemblance ; as he is good and happy : but 

 disjunctive conjunctions denote opposition or contrast; as he is rich 

 but not liberal. An interjection, is a word expressing emotion, or a 

 call of attention, salutation, or the like : as Oh! alas I behold! hark! 

 welcome ! 



4. Syntax, is that part of Grammar which treats of the agree- 

 ment and dependence of words in a sentence ; so named from the 

 Greek, aw, together, and raaa^ I arrange. It is usually divided into 

 Concord, or the agreement of one word with another, in gender, 

 number, or person ; and Government, or the power which one word 

 has over others, in directing their mood, tense, or case. The most 

 important rules of concord, are for the agreement of articles and 

 adnouns with their nouns ; of pronouns with their antecedents ; and 

 of a verb with its nominative case. Thus, it would be improper to 

 say an house ; because the indefinite article takes the form a before 

 a consonant which is sounded ; but the form an is used before a vowel, 

 or silent h : as an apple. It would be incorrect to say he are loved ; 

 because the pronoun he is in the singular number, and requires that 

 the verb should be of the form appropriated to this number by general 

 usage. The most prominent rules of government, are for one noun 

 governing another in the possessive case ; one verb governing another 

 in the infinitive mood ; and verbs, participles, or prepositions govern- 

 ing nouns or pronouns in the objective case. Thus, we say, he spoke 

 to them ; because the word them is the objective case of the personal 

 pronoun, in the third person plural, and it is governed in this exam- 

 ple by the preposition to, which requires it to take this form. 



The study of the Ellipsis, or allowable omission of such words as 

 would be readily supplied in the mind of the reader, or hearer, is also 

 an important part of Syntax ; though in regard to its use, it may also 

 be treated of under Rhe.toric. In general we must avoid omitting 

 any words which would impair or obscure the sense ; and hence, 

 instead of saying, James will go and see the books to day, and John 

 to-morrow, it would be better to supply the ellipsis, by saying John 

 will go to-morrow, or John will go and see them to-morrow. The 

 formal application of Accidential and Syntactic rules to the successive 

 words of a sentence, is called parsing; and it requires a thorough 

 knowledge of the construction of the sentence ; though not always 

 of the exact meaning of the words. Perhaps the best mode of elicit- 

 ing an exact comprehension of the meaning of sentences, is by 

 asking questions ; the answers to which will show that the sense is 

 understood. Thus, in the sentence, " perseverance overcomes all 

 difficulties ;" if the question be asked, what it is that perseverance 

 overcomes, the answer is, all difficulties : and if it be asked, what 

 overcomes all difficulties, the reply is, perseverance. Again, to the 

 question, what effect has perseverance on difficulties, the answer will 

 be, it overcomes them. 



5. Prosody, is that part of Grammar which treats of the laws 

 of versification ; including those of punctuation. It is so named from 

 the Greek irpos, concerning, and &><fy, an ode or song. Versification is 



