The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (free ebook reader .txt) 📕

XVII. [*] The ASTERISK, or STAR, [Dagger] the OBELISK, or DAGGER, [Double dagger] the DIESIS, or DOUBLE DAGGER, and [||] the PARALLELS, refer to marginal notes. The SECTION also [§], and the PARAGRAPH [¶], are often used for marks of reference, the former being usually applied to the fourth, and the latter to the sixth note on a page; for, by the usage of printers, these signs are commonly introduced in the following order: 1, *; 2, [Dagger]; 3, [Double dagger]; 4, §; 5, ||; 6, ¶; 7, **; 8, [Dagger][Dagger]; &c. Where many references are to be made, the small letters of the alphabet, or the numerical figures, in their order, may be conveniently used for the same purpose.

XVIII. [[Asterism]] The ASTERISM, or THREE STARS, a sign not very often used, is placed before a long or general note, to mark it as a note, without giving it a particular reference.

XIX. [,] The CEDILLA is a mark borrowed from the French, by whom it is placed under the letter c, to give it the sound of s, before a or o; as in the words, "façade," "Alençon." In Worcester's Dictionary, it is attached to three other letters, to denote their soft sounds: viz., "[,G] as J; [,S] as Z; [,x] as gz."

[Fist][Oral exercises in punctuation should not be confined to the correction of errors. An application of its principles to points rightly inserted, is as easy a process as that of ordinary syntactical parsing, and perhaps as useful. For this purpose, the teacher may select a portion of this grammar, or of any well-pointed book, to which the foregoing rules and explanations may be applied by the pupil, as reasons for the points that occur.]

"The principal stops are the following:—

The Comma (,) the semicolon (;) the colon (:) the period, or fall stop (.) the note of interrogation (?) the note of exclamation (!) the parenthesis () and the dash (—) [.]"—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 151; Pract. Les., p. 127. "The modern punctuation in Latin is the same as in English. The marks employed, are the Comma (,); Semicolon (;); Colon (:); Period (.); Interrogation (?); Exclamation (!)."—Bullions, Lat. Gram., p. 3.

"Plato reproving a young man for playing at some childish game; you chide me, says the youth, for a trifling fault. Custom, replied the philosopher, is no trifle. And, adds Montagnie, he was in the right; for our vices begin in infancy."—Home's Art of Thinking, (N. Y. 1818,) p. 54.

"A merchant at sea asked the skipper what death his father died? 'My father,' says the skipper, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather, were all drowned. 'Well,' replies the merchant, and are not you afraid of being drowned too?'"—Ib., p. 135.

"The use of inverted comma's derives from France, where one Guillemet was the author of them; [and] as an acknowledgement for the improvement his countrymen call them after his name GUILLEMETS."—History of Printing, (London, 1770,) p. 266.

"This, however, is seldem [sic—KTH] if ever done unless the word following the possessive begins with s; thus we do not say, 'the prince' feather,' but, 'the prince's feather.'"—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 17. "And this phrase must mean the feather of the prince but princesfeather written as one word is the name of a plant: a species of amaranth."—See Key.

"Böëthius soon had the satisfaction of obtaining the highest honour his country could bestow."—Ingersoll's Gram. 12mo., p. 279. "Boethius soon had," &c.—Murray's Gram., 8vo, Vol. ii., p. 83.

"When an example, a quotation, or a speech is introduced, it is separated from the rest of the sentence either by a semicolon or a colon; as, 'The scriptures give us an amiable representation of the Deity, in these words; God is love.'"—Hiley's Gram., p. 116. "Either the colon or semicolon may be used when an example, a quotation, or a speech is introduced; as, 'Always remember this ancient maxim; Know thyself.' 'The scriptures give us an amiable representation of the Deity, in these words: God is love.'"—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 155.

"The first word of a quotation, introduced after a colon [, must begin with a capital]; as, always remember this ancient maxim: 'Know thyself.'"— Bullions, E. Gram., p. 159; Lennie's Gram., p. 106. [Lennie has "Always" with a capital.] "The first word of a quotation, introduced after a colon, or when it is in a direct form: as, 'Always remember this ancient maxim: Know thyself.' 'Our great lawgiver says, Take up thy cross daily, and follow me.'"—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 284. "8. The first word of a quotation, introduced after a colon, or when it is in a direct form. EXAMPLES.—'Always remember this ancient maxim, 'Know thyself.' 'Our great Lawgiver says, Take up thy cross daily, and follow me.'"—Weld's Gram., Abridged., p. 17

"Tell me in whose house do you live."—N. Butler's Gram., p. 55. "He, that acts wisely, deserves praise."—Ib., p. 50 "He, who steals my purse, steals trash."—Ib., p. 51. "The antecedent is sometimes omitted, as, 'Who steals my purse, steals trash;' that is, he who, or person who."—Ib., p. 51. "Thus, 'Whoever steals my purse steals trash;' 'Whoever does no good does harm.'"—Ib., p. 53 "Thus, 'Whoever sins will suffer.' This means that any one without exception who sins will suffer."—Ib., p. 53.

"Letters form syllables, syllables words, words sentences, and sentences, combined and connected form discourse."—Cooper's Plain and Practical Gram., p. 1. "A letter which forms a perfect sound, when uttered by itself, is called a vowel, as: a, e, i."—Ib., p. 1. "A proper noun is the name of an individual, as: John; Boston: Hudson; America."—Ib., p. 17.

"Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing."—P. Davis's Gram., p. 96. "In the place of an ellipsis of the verb a comma must be inserted."—Ib., p. 121. "A common noun unlimited by an article is sometimes understood in its broadest acceptation: thus, 'Fishes swim' is understood to mean all fishes. 'Man is mortal,' all men."—Ib., p. 13.

"Thus those sounds formed principally by the throat are called gutturals. Those formed principally by the palate are called palatals. Those formed by the teeth, dentals—those by the lips, labials—those by the nose, nasals, &c."—P. Davis's Gram., p. 113.

"Some adjectives are compared irregularly; as, Good, better, best. Bad, worse, worst. Little, less, least."—Felton's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 63; Ster. Ed., p. 66.

"Under the fourth head of grammar, therefore, four topics will be considered, viz. PUNCTUATION, ORTHOEPY, FIGURES, and VERSIFICATION."— Hart's Gram., p. 161.

   "Direct her onward to that peaceful shore,
    Where peril, pain and death are felt no more!"
    Falconer's Poems, p. 136; Barrett's New Gram., p. 94

"Discoveries of such a character are sometimes made in grammar also, and such, too, is often their origin and their end."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 191.

"Traverse, (to cross.) To deny what the opposite party has alleged. To traverse an indictment, &c. is to deny it."—Id., ib., p. 216.

"The Ordinal [numerals] denote the order or succession in which any number of persons or things is mentioned, as first, second, third, fourth, &c."—Hiley's Gram., p. 22.

"Nouns have three persons, FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD. The First person is the speaker, the Second is the one spoken to, the Third is the one spoken of."—Hiley's Gram., p. 44.

"Nouns have three cases, NOMINATIVE, POSSESSIVE, and OBJECTIVE. The relation indicated by the case of a noun includes three ideas, viz: those of subject, object, and ownership."—Ib., p. 45.

"In speaking of animals that are of inferior size, or whose sex is not known or not regarded, they are often considered as without sex: thus, we say of a cat 'it is treacherous,' of an infant 'it is beautiful,' of a deer 'it was killed.'"—Ib., p. 39.

"When this or these, that or those, refers to a preceding sentence; this, or these, refers to the latter member or term; that, or those, to the former."—Churchill's Gram., p. 136; see Lowth's Gram., p. 102.

"The rearing of them [i. e. of plants] became his first care, their fruit his first food, and marking their kinds his first knowledge."—N. Butler's Gram., p. 44.

"After the period used with abbreviations we should employ other points, if the construction demands it; thus, after Esq. in the last example, there should be, besides a period, a comma."—Ib., p. 212.

"In the plural, the verb is the same in all the persons; and hence the principle in Rem. 5, under Rule iii. [that the first or second person takes precedence,] is not applicable to verbs."—Ib., p. 158.

"Rex and Tyrannus are of very different characters. The one rules his people by laws to which they consent; the other, by his absolute will and power: that is called freedom, this, tyranny."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 190.

"A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, which can be known, or mentioned, as: George; London; America; goodness; charity."—Cooper's Plain and Pract. Gram., p. 17.

"Etymology treats of the classification of words; their various modifications and derivations."—Day's School Gram., p. 9. "To punctuate correctly implies a thorough acquaintance with the meaning of words and phrases, as well as of all their corresponding connexions"—W. Day's Punctuation, p. 31.

"All objects which belong to neither the male nor female kind are called neuter."—Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 57. "All objects, which belong to neither the male nor female kind, are said to be of the neuter gender."—Weld's Gram., Abridged, p. 51.

"The Analysis of the Sounds in the English language presented in the preceding statements are sufficiently exact for the purpose in hand. Those who wish to pursue it further can consult Dr. Rush's admirable work, 'The Philosophy of the Human Voice.'"—Fowlers E. Gram., 1850, §65. "Nobody confounds the name of w or y with their sound or phonetic import."—Ib., §74.

   "Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest,
    Some are and must be, greater than the rest."—Ib., p. 96.

"In adjectives of one syllable, the Comparative is formed by adding -er to the positive; and the Superlative by adding -est; as, sweet, sweeter, sweetest."—Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 19.

"In monosyllables the comparative is formed by adding er or r to the positive, and the superlative by adding est or st; as, tall, taller, tallest; wise, wiser, wisest."—Id., Pract. Les., p. 24.

"By this method the confusion and unnecessary labor occasioned by studying grammars in these languages, constructed on different principles is avoided, the study of one is rendered a profitable introduction to the study of another, and an opportunity is furnished to the enquiring student of comparing the languages in their grammatical structure, and seeing at once wherein they agree, and wherein they differ."—Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., Pref. to 5th Ed., p. vii.

"No larger portion should be assigned for each recitation than the class can easily master, and till this is done, a new portion should not be given out."—Id., ib., p. viii. "The acquisitions made in every new lesson should be rivetted and secured by repeated revisals."—Id., ib., p. viii.

"The personal pronouns may be parsed briefly thus; I, the first personal pronoun, masculine (or feminine), singular, the nominative. His, the third personal pronoun, masculine, singular, the possessive, &c."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 23: Pract. Les., p. 28.

"When the male and female are expressed by distinct terms; as, shepherd, shepherdess, the masculine term has also a general meaning, expressing both male and female, and is always to be used when the office, occupation, profession, &c., and not the sex of the individual, is chiefly to be expressed. The feminine term is used only when the discrimination, of sex is indispensably necessary. Thus, when it is said 'the Poets of this country are distinguished by correctness of taste,' the term 'Poet' clearly includes both male and female writers of poetry."—Id., E. Gram., p. 12; his Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 24.

"Nouns and pronouns, connected by conjunctions, must be in the same cases."—Ingersoll's Gram., p. 78. "Verbs, connected by conjunctions, must be in the same moods and tenses, and, when in the subjunctive present, they must be in the same form."—Ib., p. 112.

"This will habituate him to reflection—exercise his judgment on the meaning of the author, and without any great effort on his part, impress indelibly on his memory, the rules which he is required to give. After the exercises under the rule have been gone through as directed in the note page 96, they may be read over again in a corrected state the pupil making an emphasis on the correction made, or they may be presented in writing at the next recitation."—Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., 2d Ed. Revised and Cor., p.