Higher Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (popular books to read TXT) 📕

vividly put that the story, touched with description, has all the effect of an argument. One quality of it is its clearness, its perspicuity. It is noticeable also that very little imagery is used, that the language is plain language. But it is impossible to read these paragraphs without being most profoundly impressed with their energy, their force.

The style is forcible because (1) the +subject-matter+ is +easily grasped+; (2) because +simple words+ are +used+, words understood even by children; because (3) these +words+ are +specific+ and +individual+, not generic; because (4) of the grateful +variety of sentences+; (5) because of the +prevalence of short sentences+; because (6) of the +repetition of the thought+ in successive sentences; because (7), though the murder took place some time before, Webster speaks as if it were +now taking place+ in our very sight. Find proof of what we have just said—proof of (2), in paragraphs 1 and 3; proof of (3), in sentences 3, 4, and 5, paragraph 2; proof of (4), throughout; of (5) and (6), in paragraphs 3 and 4; and of (7), in the first three paragraphs.

In paragraph 3, a remarkable sameness prevails. The sentences here are framed largely on one plan. They are mostly of the same length. The order of the words in them is the same; often the words are the same; and, even when they are not, those in one clause or sentence seem to suggest those in the next. This sameness is not accidental. The more real the murderer’s fancied security is made in this paragraph to appear, the more startling in the next paragraph will be the revelation of his mistake. Hence no novelty in the words or in their arrangement is allowed to distract our attention from the dominant thought. The sentences are made to look and sound alike and to be alike that their effect may be cumulative. The principle of +Parallel Construction+, the principle that sentences similar in thought should be similar in form, is here allowed free play.

TO THE TEACHER.—Do not be discouraged should your pupils fail to grasp at first all that is here taught. They probably will not fully comprehend it till they have returned to it several times. It will, however, be impossible for them to study it without profit. The meaning will grow upon them. In studying our questions and suggestions the pupils should have the “Extract” before them, and should try to verify in it all that is taught concerning it.

 

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PARTS OF SPEECH SUBDIVIDED

LESSON 85.

CLASSES OF NOUNS AND PRONOUNS.

+Introductory Hints+.—You have now reached a point where it becomes necessary to divide the eight great classes of words into subclasses.

You have learned that nouns are the names of things; as, girl, Sarah. The name girl is held in common by all girls, and hence does not distinguish one girl from another. The name Sarah is not thus held in common; it does distinguish one girl from other girls. Any name which belongs in common to all things of a class we call a +Common Noun+; and any particular name of an individual, distinguishing this individual from others of its class, we call a +Proper Noun+. The “proper, or individual, names” which in Rule 1, Lesson 8, you were told to begin with capital letters are proper nouns.

Such a word as wheat, music, or architecture does not distinguish one thing from others of its class; there is but one thing in the class denoted by each, each thing forms a class by itself; and so we call these words common nouns.

In Lesson 8 you learned that pronouns are not names, but words used instead of names. Any one speaking of himself may use I, my, etc., instead of his own name; speaking to one, he may use you, thou, your, thy, etc., instead of that person’s name; speaking of one, he may use he, she, it, him, her, etc., instead of that one’s name. These little words that by their form denote the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of are called +Personal Pronouns+.

By adding self to my, thy, your, him, her, and it, and selves to our, your, and them, we form what are called +Compound Personal Pronouns+, used either for emphasis or to reflect the action of the verb back upon the actor; as, Xerxes himself was the last to cross the Hellespont; The mind cannot see itself.

If a noun, or some word or words used like a noun, is to be modified by a clause, the clause is introduced by who, which, what, or that; as, I know the man that did that. These words, relating to words in another clause, and binding the clauses together, are called +Relative Pronouns+. By adding ever and soever to who, which, and what, we form what are called the +Compound Relative Pronouns+ whoever, whosoever, whichever, whatever, etc., used in a general way, and without any word expressed to which they relate.

If the speaker is ignorant of the name of a person or a thing and asks for it, he uses who, which, or what; as, Who did that? These pronouns, used in asking questions, are called +Interrogative Pronouns+.

Instead of naming things a speaker may indicate them by words pointing them out as near or remote; as, Is that a man? What is this? or by words telling something of their number, order, or quantity; as, None are perfect; The latter will do; Much has been done. Such words we call +Adjective Pronouns+.

 

DEFINITIONS.

+A Noun is the name of anything+. [Footnote: Most common nouns are derived from roots that denote qualities. The root does not necessarily denote the most essential quality of the thing, only its most obtrusive quality. The sky, a shower, and scum, for instance, have this most noticeable feature; they are a cover, they hide, conceal. This the root +sku+ signifies, and sku is the main element in the words sky, shower (Saxon scu:r), and scum that name these objects, and in the adjective obscure.

A noun denoting at first only a single quality of its object comes gradually, by the association of this quality with the rest, to denote them all.

Herein proper nouns differ from common. However derived, as Smith is from the man’s office of smoothing, or White from his color, the name soon ceases to denote quality, and becomes really meaningless.]

+A Common Noun is a name which belongs to all things of a class+.

+A Proper Noun is the particular name of an individual+.

+Remark+.—It may be well to note two classes of common nouns—_collective_ and abstract. A +Collective Noun+ is the name of a number of things taken together; as, army, flock, mob, jury. An +Abstract Noun+ is the name of a quality, an action, a being, or a state; as, whiteness, beauty, wisdom, (the) singing, existence, (the) sleep.

+A Pronoun is a word used for a noun+. [Footnote: In our definition and general treatment of the pronoun, we have conformed to the traditional views of grammarians; but it may be well for the student to note that pronouns are something more than mere substitutes for nouns, and that their primary function is not to prevent the repetition of nouns.

1. Pronouns are not the names of things. They do not, like nouns, lay hold of qualities and name things by them. They seize upon relations that objects sustain to each other and denote the objects by these relations. I, you, and he denote their objects by the relations these objects sustain to the act of speaking; I denotes the speaker; you, the one spoken to; and he or she or it, the one spoken of. This and that denote their objects by the relative distance of these from the speaker; some and few and others indicate parts separated from the rest. Gestures could express all that many pronouns express.

2. It follows that pronouns are more general than nouns. Any person, or even an animal or a thing personified, may use I when referring to himself, you when referring to the one addressed, and he, she, it, and they when referring to the person or persons, the thing or things, spoken of—and all creatures and things, except the speaker and the one spoken to, fall into the last list. Some pronouns are so general, and hence so vague, in their denotement that they show the speaker’s complete ignorance of the objects they denote. In, Who did it? Which of them did you see? the questioner is trying to find out the one for whom Who stands, and the person or thing that Which denotes. To what does it refer in, it rains; How is it with you?

3. Some pronouns stand for a phrase, a clause, or a sentence, going before or coming after. To be or not to be—that is the question. It is doubtful whether the North Pole will ever be reached. The sails turned, the corn was ground, after which the wind ceased. Ought you to go? I cannot answer that. In the first of these sentences, that stands for a phrase; in the last, for a sentence. It and which in the second and third sentences stand for clauses.

4. Which, retaining its office as connective, may as an adjective accompany its noun; as, I craved his forbearance a little longer, which forbearance he allowed me.]

+A Personal Pronoun is a pronoun that by its form denotes the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of+.

+A Relative Pronoun is one that relates to some preceding word or words and connects clauses+.

+An Interrogative Pronoun is one with which a question is asked+.

+An Adjective Pronoun is one that performs the offices of both an adjective and a noun+.

The simple personal pronouns are:—_I, thou, you, he, she, and it_.

The compound personal pronouns are:—_Myself, thyself, yourself, himself, herself, and itself_.

The simple relative pronouns are:—_Who, which, that_, and what. [Footnote: As, in such sentences as this: Give such things as you can spare, may be treated as a relative pronoun. But by expanding the sentence as is seen to be a conjunctive adverb—Give such things as those are which you can spare.

But used after a negative is sometimes called a “negative relative” = that not; as, There is not a man here but would die for such a cause. When the sentence is expanded, but is found to be a preposition—There is not a man here but (= except) the one who would die, etc.]

The compound relative pronouns are:—

Whoever or whosoever, whichever or whichsoever, whatever or whatsoever.

The interrogative pronouns are:—

Who, which, and what.

Some of the more common adjective pronouns are:—

All, another, any, both, each, either, enough, few, former, latter, little, many, much, neither, none, one, other, same, several, such, that, these, this, those, whole, etc. [Footnote: The adjective pronouns this, that, these, and those are called +Demonstrative+ pronouns. All, any, both, each, either,