THE ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR: SO ARRANGED AS TO COMBINE THE ANALYTICAL AND SYNTHETICAL METHODS: WITH AN INTRODUCTION FOR BEGINNERS, AND VARIOUS EXERCISES, ORAL AND WRITTEN, FOR THE FORMATION, ANALYSIS, TRANSFORMATION, CLASSIFICATION. AND PROFESSOR IN THE NORMAL DEPARTMENT, BROWN UNIVERSITY AND SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PROVIDENCE. PHILADELPHIA: H. COW PERTHWAIT & CO. 1862. Sewed, according to Act of Congress. in the year 1823. un SAMUEL S. GREENE, Sa te Clerk's Office of the District Court o jode tava L PREFACE. 590 Y-S12 1862 THE design of this new work for it is essentially new s to combine in one treatise all the distinguishing features of the "Analysis" and "The First Lessons." The departments of Orthography and Etymology are made sufficiently full, and their principles are illustrated by a great variety of examples. Oral Exercises, Exercises for Parsing and for the Correction of Errors, are introduced in their appropriate places, under each part of speech. The Syntax contains all the essential distinctions found in the " Analysis," but differently arranged, and less rigidly and technically set forth. In the presentation of a subject like that of English Grammar, the first question which naturally arises is that of the point of view from which it shall be examined. Shall the forms of language be regarded as direct results from thought, as the offspring of an inner impulse? or shall they be looked upon as possessing in themselves, regardless of their origin, all that is necessary to guide to a successful investigation? The one may be called the interior, the other the exterior, point of view. From the one point, language is regarded as organized under the influence of a vital, life-imparting power, determining all its outward forms and manifestations; while from the other it becomes a lifeless frame, to be dissected and examined, for the purpose of ascertaining what it is, and of what it is composed. At one point, the learner is M289986 iii placed in sympathy with the speaker or writer, in the act of embodying thought, and is allowed, as it were, to inquire why one form is chosen and another rejected; why one expression, better than another, supplies the inner demand; whether a single word or a group of words best meets the want, and what the word or group shall be called, not so much from its external features as from the nature of the idea which it denotes. From the other point of view the learner seeks to know what a word or expression is from its external aspect its termination, position, or from some auxiliary or other outward sign. In one case, an idea being given, the problem with the learner is, to find as well an appropriate expression as to decide upon the nature and classification of the latter. In the other case, an expression being given, the problem is to determine therefrom its nature and class. In the one case, expression is the prominent object of interest; in the other thought, expression being regarded only as the medium of its manifestation. The author has aimed in the following pages, as far as possible, to take the interior point of view. He has, therefore, required much to be written by the pupil, believing that what is produced by one's own mind is best appreciated and best analyzed. To this end also have the Introduction and Oral Exercises been prepared. Objects in the outer world first attract the attention of the child: they first call forth the desire to speak; they are ever after his lexicon. Nay, more: they give rise to most of the distinctions in language; and it is believed that an ingenious teacher would, at the outset, accomplish more in imparting a knowledge of grammar during a single walk in the fields, among the objects of nature, than during a whole week devoted to the abstract definitions of a text book. With children, that which is seen is impressive; a distinction addressed to the eye is indelibly fixed. The image or mental picture arising there from is ever after distinct, awakening the impression of a corresponding outward reality. What is defined in words must be committed to memory, as the result of another's judgment; what is seen reaches the understanding at once, and defines itself by appealing directly to the discriminating faculty. When visible objects are employed, the teacher i required to tell but little; he only guides, intimates, sugges while the learner is observing for himself, discriminatin~ for himself, expressing for himself. The Introductory Course is intended to be wholly The models are given as specimens of methods which ers may adopt to evolve grammatical distinction nal objects. As objects, with all their varieties, attribes, relations, modifications, and distinctions, first evoked in the child the desire to speak, so now they may be most fittingly resorted to as the interpreters of the distinctions found in speech itself. A child of six years already knows enough to distinguish the noun, although he may not know one word of its definition. He knows what an apple is; it is an object perfectly familiar to him; its name is equally so. The one he can touch, taste, handle; the other he can only speak or write. The one is the thing itself; the other its name, a mere word, an object-word, a NOUn. He can now generalize, and make the same distinction between a peach, a cherry, a nut, an insect, a fish, a bird, or a quadruped, and its name. He finds nouns wherever he finds objects which he can name. So, again, he knows the qualities of objects; he may not know the meaning of the word quality, but he knows when an apple is sweet or sour, hard or soft, ripe or unripe, small or large, rough or smooth, red r yellow, good or bad. He knows that no one of these designates the apple itself, but only something discovered in it. It is only necessary to draw his attention to what he thus knows, and make a skil-. ful use of it. The quality is something in the object; the word is something away from the object spoken or written a mere word - a quality-word - an ADJECTIVE. He knows when an object acts; he can tell when a dog runs or walks, growls or barks, plays or fights; and yet the definition, "A |