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

certain letter or syllable in a word."—L. Murray's Gram., p. 235; Felton's, 134. "Thomas's horse was caught."—Felton cor. "You were loved."—Id. "The nominative and the objective end alike."—T. Smith cor. "The numbers of pronouns, like those of substantives, are two; the singular and the plural."—Id. "I is called the pronoun of the first person, because it represents the person speaking."—Frost cor. "The essential elements of the phrase are an intransitive gerundive and an adjective."—Hazen cor. "Wealth is no justification for such impudence."—Id. "That he was a soldier in the revolution, is not doubted."—Id. "Fishing is the chief employment of the inhabitants."—Id. "The chief employment of the inhabitants, is the catching of fish."—Id. "The cold weather did not prevent the work from being finished at the time specified."—Id. "The man's former viciousness caused him to be suspected of this crime."—Id. "But person and number, applied to verbs, mean certain terminations."—Barrett cor. "Robert felled a tree."—Id. "Charles raised himself up."—Id. "It might not be a useless waste of time."—Id. "Neither will you have that implicit faith in the writings and works of others, which characterizes the vulgar."—Id. "I is of the first person, because it denotes the speaker."—Ib. "I would refer the student to Hedge's or Watts's Logic."—Id. "Hedge's Watts's, Kirwin's, and Collard's Logic."—Parker and Fox cor. "Letters that make a full and perfect sound of themselves, are called vowels." Or: "The letters which make," &c.—Cutler cor. "It has both a singular and a plural construction."—Id. "For he beholds (or beholdeth) thy beams no more."—Id. Carthon. "To this sentiment the Committee have the candour to incline, as it will appear by their summing-up."—Macpherson cor. "This reduces the point at issue to a narrow compass."—Id. "Since the English set foot upon the soil."—Exiles cor. "The arrangement of its different parts is easily retained by the memory."—Hiley cor. "The words employed are the most appropriate that could have been selected."—Id. "To prevent it from launching!"—Id. "Webster has been followed in preference to others, where he differs from them." Or: "Webster's Grammar has been followed in preference to others, where it differs from them."—Frazee cor. "Exclamation and interrogation are often mistaken the one for the other."—Buchanan cor. "When all nature is hushed in sleep, and neither love nor guilt keeps its vigils."—Felton cor. Or thus:—

   "When all nature's hush'd asleep.
    Nor love, nor guilt, doth vigils keep."

LESSON II.—ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.

"A Versifier and a Poet are two different things."—Brightland cor. "Those qualities will arise from the well-expressing of the subject."—Id. "Therefore the explanation of NETWORK is not noticed here."—Mason cor. "When emphasis or pathos is necessary to be expressed."—Humphrey cor. "Whether this mode of punctuation is correct, or whether it is proper to close the sentence with the mark of admiration, may be made a question."—Id. "But not every writer in those days was thus correct."—Id. "The sounds of A, in English orthoepy, are no fewer than four."—Id. "Our present code of rules is thought to be generally correct." Or: "The rules in our present code are thought to be generally correct."—Id. "To prevent it from running into an other"—Id. "Shakspeare, perhaps, the greatest poetical genius that England has produced."—Id. "This I will illustrate by example; but, before doing so, a few preliminary remarks may be necessary."—Id. "All such are entitled to two accents each, and some of them to two accents nearly equal."—Id. "But some cases of the kind are so plain, that no one needs to exercise (or, need exercise) his judgement therein."—Id. "I have forborne to use the word."—Id. "The propositions, 'He may study,' 'He might study,' 'He could study,' affirm an ability or power to study."—E. J. Hallock cor. "The divisions of the tenses have occasioned grammarians much trouble and perplexity."—Id. "By adopting a familiar, inductive method of presenting this subject, one may render it highly attractive to young learners."—Wells cor. "The definitions and rules of different grammarians were carefully compared with one an other:" or—"one with an other."—Id. "So as not wholly to prevent some sound from issuing."—Sheridan cor. "Letters of the Alphabet, not yet noticed."—Id. "'IT is sad,' 'IT is strange,' &c., seem to express only that the thing is sad, strange, &c."—Well-Wishers cor. "The winning is easier than the preserving of a conquest."—Same. "The United States find themselves the owners of a vast region of country at the west."—H. Mann cor. "One or more letters placed before a word are a prefix."—S. W. Clark cor. "One or more letters added to a word, are a Suffix."—Id. "Two thirds of my hair have fallen off." Or: "My hair has, two thirds of it, fallen off."—Id. "'Suspecting' describes us, the speakers, by expressing, incidentally, an act of ours."—Id. "Daniel's predictions are now about being fulfilled." Or thus: "Daniel's predictions are now receiving their fulfillment"—Id. "His scholarship entitles him to respect."—Id. "I doubted whether he had been a soldier."—Id. "The taking of a madman's sword to prevent him from doing mischief, cannot be regarded as a robbery."—Id. "I thought it to be him; but it was not he."—Id. "It was not I that you saw."—Id. "Not to know what happened before you were born, is always to be a boy."—Id. "How long were you going? Three days."—Id. "The qualifying adjective is placed next to the noun."—Id. "All went but I."—Id. "This is a parsing of their own language, and not of the author's."—Wells cor. "Those nouns which denote males, are of the masculine gender." Or: "Nouns that denote males, are of the masculine gender."—Wells, late Ed. "Those nouns which denote females, are of the feminine gender." Or: "Nouns that denote females, are of the feminine gender."—Wells, late Ed. "When a comparison among more than two objects of the same class is expressed, the superlative degree is employed."—Wells cor. "Where d or t goes before, the additional letter d or t, in this contracted form, coalesces into one letter with the radical d or t."—Dr. Johnson cor. "Write words which will show what kind of house you live in—what kind of book you hold in your hand—what kind of day it is."—Weld cor. "One word or more are often joined to nouns or pronouns to modify their meaning."—Id. "Good is an adjective; it explains the quality or character of every person to whom, or thing to which, it is applied." Or:—"of every person or thing that it is applied to."—Id. "A great public as well as private advantage arises from every one's devoting of himself to that occupation which he prefers, and for which he is specially fitted."—Wayland, Wells, and Weld, cor. "There was a chance for him to recover his senses." Or: "There was a chance that he might recover his senses."—Wells and Macaulay cor. "This may be known by the absence of any connecting word immediately preceding it."—Weld cor. "There are irregular expressions occasionally to be met with, which usage, or custom, rather than analogy, sanctions."—Id. "He added an anecdote of Quin relieving Thomson from prison." Or: "He added an anecdote of Quin as relieving Thomson from prison." Or: "He added an anecdote of Quin's relieving of Thomson from prison." Or better: "He also told how Quin relieved Thomson from prison."—Id. "The daily labour of her hands procures for her all that is necessary."—Id. "That it is I, should make no change in your determination."—Hart cor. "The classification of words into what are called the Parts of Speech."—Weld cor. "Such licenses may be explained among what are usually termed Figures."—Id.

"Liberal, not lavish, is kind Nature's hand."—Beattie.

"They fall successive, and successive rise."—Pope.

LESSON III.—ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.

"A Figure of Etymology is an intentional deviation from the usual form of a word."—See Brown's Institutes, p. 229. "A Figure of Syntax is an intentional deviation from the usual construction of a word."—See Brown's Inst., p. 230. "Synecdoche is the naming of the whole of any thing for a part, or a part for the whole."—Weld cor. "Apostrophe is a turning-off[547] from the regular course of the subject, to address some person or thing."—Id. "Even young pupils will perform such exercises with surprising interest and facility, and will unconsciously gain, in a little time, more knowledge of the structure of language, than they can acquire by a drilling of several years in the usual routine of parsing."—Id. "A few rules of construction are employed in this part, to guide the pupil in the exercise of parsing."—Id. "The name of any person, object, or thing, that can be thought of, or spoken of, is a noun."—Id. "A dot, resembling our period, is used between every two words, as well as at the close of each verse."—W. Day cor. "The casting of types in matrices was invented by Peter Schoeffer, in 1452."—Id. "On perusing it, he said, that, so far [was it] from showing the prisoner's guilt [that] it positively established his innocence."—Id. "By printing the nominative and verb in Italic letters, we shall enable the reader to distinguish them at a glance."—Id. "It is well, no doubt, to avoid unnecessary words."—Id. "I meeting a friend the other day, he said to me, 'Where are you going?'"—Id. "To John, apples were first denied; then they were promised to him; then they were offered to him."—Lennie cor. "Admission was denied him."—Wells cor. "A pardon was offered to them."—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 183. "A new potato was this day shown me."—Darwin, Webster, Frazee, and Weld, cor. "Those nouns or pronouns which denote males, are of the masculine gender."—S. S. Greene, cor. "There are three degrees of comparison; the positive, the comparative, and the superlative."—Id. "The first two refer to direction; the third refers to locality."—Id. "The following are some of the verbs which take a direct and an indirect object."—Id. "I was not aware that he was the judge of the supreme court."—Id. "An indirect question may refer to any of the five elements of a declarative sentence."—Id. "I am not sure that he will be present."—Id. "We left New York on Tuesday."—Id. "He left the city, as he told me, before the arrival of the steamer."—Id. "We told him that he must leave us;"—Id. "We told him to leave us."—Id. "Because he was unable to persuade the multitude, he left the place, in disgust."—Id. "He left the company, and took his brother with him."—Id. "This stating, or declaring, or denying of any thing, is called the indicative mood, or manner of speaking."—Weld cor. "This took place at our friend Sir Joshua Reynolds's."—Id. "The manner in which a young lady may employ herself usefully in reading, will be the subject of an other paper."—Id. "Very little time is necessary for Johnson to conclude a treaty with the bookseller."—Id. "My father is not now sick; but if he were, your services would be welcome."—Chandler's Common School Gram., Ed. of 1847, p. 79. "Before we begin to write or speak, we ought to fix in our minds a clear conception of the end to be aimed at."—Dr. Blair cor. "Length of days is in her right hand; and, in her left hand, are riches and honour."—See Proverbs, iii, 16. "The active and the passive present express different ideas."—Bullions cor. "An Improper Diphthong, (sometimes called a Digraph,) is a diphthong in which only one of the vowels is sounded."—Fowler cor. (See G. Brown's definition.) "The real origin of the words is to be sought in the Latin."—Fowler cor. "What sort of alphabet the Gothic languages possess, we know; what sort of alphabet they require, we can determine."—Id. "The Runic alphabet, whether borrowed or invented by the early Goths, is of greater antiquity than either the oldest Teutonic or the Moeso-Gothic alphabet."—Id. "Common to the masculine and neuter genders."—Id. "In the Anglo-Saxon, HIS was common to both the masculine and the Neuter Gender."—Id. "When time, number, or dimension, is specified, the adjective follows the substantive."—Id. "Nor pain, nor grief nor anxious fear, Invades thy bounds."—Id. "To Brighton, the Pavilion lends a lath-and-plaster grace."—Fowler cor. "From this consideration, I have given to nouns but one person, the THIRD."—D. C. Allen cor.

   "For it seems to guard and cherish
    E'en the wayward dreamer—me."—Anon. cor.

CHAPTER XII.—GENERAL REVIEW. CORRECTIONS UNDER ALL THE PRECEDING RULES AND NOTES. LESSON I.—ARTICLES.

"And they took stones, and made a heap."—ALGER'S BIBLE: Gen., xxxi, 46. "And I do know many fools, that stand in better place."—Shak. cor. "It is a strong antidote to the turbulence of passion, and the violence of pursuit."—Kames cor. "The word NEWS may admit of either a singular or a plural application."—Wright cor. "He has gained a fair and honourable reputation."—Id. "There are two general forms, called the solemn and the familiar style." Or:—"called the solemn and familiar styles."—Sanborn cor. "Neither the article nor the preposition can be omitted."—Wright cor. "A close union is also observable between the subjunctive and the potential mood."—Id. "Should we render service equally to a friend, a neighbour, and an enemy?"—Id. "Till a habit is obtained, of aspirating strongly."—Sheridan cor. "There is a uniform, steady use of the same signs."—Id. "A traveller remarks most of the objects which he sees."—Jamieson cor. "What is the