Graded Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (ebook reader with highlight function .txt) 📕

Introduce the class to the Parts of Speech before the close of this recitation. See “Hints for Oral Instruction.”

See “Suggestions for COMPOSITION EXERCISES,” p. 8, last paragraph.

LESSON 14.

CLASSES OF WORDS.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.—By the assistance of the few hints here given, the ingenious teacher may render this usually dry subject interesting and highly attractive. By questioning the pupil as to what he has seen and heard, his interest may be excited and his curiosity awakened.

Suppose that we make an imaginary excursion to some pleasant field or grove, where we may study the habits, the plumage, and the songs of the little birds.

If we attempt to make the acquaintance of every little feathered singer we meet, we shall never get to the end of our pleasant task: but we find that some resemble one another in size, shape, color, habits, and song. These we associate together and call them sparrows.

We find others differing essentially from the sparrows, but resembling one another. These we call robins.

We thus find that, although we were unable to become acquainted with each individual bird, they all belong to a few classes, with which we may soon become familiar.

It is so with the words of our language. There are many thousand words, all of which belong to eight classes.

These classes of words are called +Parts of Speech+.

We classify birds according to their form, color, etc., but we group words into classes, called +Parts of Speech+, with respect to their use in the sentence.

We find that many words are names. These we put in one class and call them +Nouns+.

Each pupil may give the name of something in the room; the name of a distinguished person; a name that may be applied to a class of persons; the name of an animal; the name of a place: the name of a river; the name of a mountain; the name of something which we cannot see or touch, but of which we can think; as, beauty, mind.

Remind the pupils frequently that these names are all nouns.

NOUNS.

+DEFINITION.—A Noun is the name of anything+.

Write in columns, headed nouns, the names of domestic animals, of garden vegetables, of flowers, of trees, of articles sold in a dry goods store, and of things that cannot be seen or touched; as, virtue, time, life.

Write and arrange, according to the following model, the names of things that can float, fly, walk, work, sit, or sing.

Nouns. Cork | Clouds | +Model+.—Wood + floats or float. Ships | Boys |

Such expressions as Cork floats are sentences, and the nouns cork, ship, etc., are the subjects. You will find that +every subject+ is a +noun+ or some word or words used for a noun.

Be prepared to analyze and parse the sentences which you have made. Naming the class to which a word belongs is the first step in parsing.

+Model for Analysis+.—This is a sentence, because –—; cork is the subject, because –—; floats is the predicate, because –—.

+Parsing+.—_Cork_ is a noun, because it is the name of a thing—the bark of a tree.

LESSON 15.

Select and write all the nouns in the sentences given in Lessons 28, 31,

34.

Tell why they are nouns.

In writing the nouns, observe the following rule.

+CAPITAL LETTER—RULE.—Every proper or individual name must begin with a capital letter+.

+To the Teacher+.—See Notes, pp. 167-169.

REVIEW QUESTIONS.

With respect to what, do we classify words (Lesson 14)? What are such classes called? Can you illustrate this classification? What are all names? What is a noun? What is the first step in parsing? What is the rule for writing individual names?

LESSON 16.

VERBS.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.—We propose to introduce you now to another class of words. (The teacher may here refer to the talk about birds.)

You have learned that one very large class of words consists of names of things. There is another very important class of words used to tell what these things do, or used to express their existence.

When I say, Plants grow, is grow the name of anything? +P+.—No. +T+.—What does it do? +P+.—It tells what plants do. It expresses action.

+T+.—When I say, God is, what does is express? +P+.—It expresses existence, or being.

+T+.—When I say, George sleeps, sleeps expresses being and something more; it tells the condition, or state in which George is, or exists, that is, it expresses state of being.

All the words that assert action, being, or state of being, we call +Verbs+.

Let the teacher write nouns on the board, and require the pupils to give all the words of which they can think, telling what the things named can do. They may be arranged thus:—

Noun. Verbs. | grow, | droop, Plants + decay, | flourish, | revive.

Each pupil may give a verb that expresses an action of the body; as weep, sing; an action of the mind; as, study, love; one that expresses being or state of being.

+DEFINITION.—A Verb is a word that asserts action, being, or state of being+.

The office of the verb in all its forms, except two (the participle and the infinitive, see Lessons 48 and 49), is to +assert+. This it does whether the sentence affirms, denies, or asks a question.

+To the Teacher+.—In the exercises of this and the next two Lessons, let the pupils note the agreement of the verb with its subject. See Notes, pp.

163-165.

Supply, to each of the following nouns, as many appropriate verbs as you can think of.

Let some express being or state of being.

Water –-. Wind –-. Pens –-. Parrots –-. Vines –-. Farmers –-. Trees –-. Ministers –-.

One verb may consist of two, three, or four words; as, is singing, will be sung, might have been sung.

Form verbs by combining the words in columns 2 and 3, and add these verbs to all the nouns in column 1 with which they appropriately combine.

1 | 2 | 3 ––-|––––––|–––– Laws | has been | published. Clouds | have been | paid. Food | will be | restored. Health | should have been | preserved. Taxes | may be | collected. Books | are | obeyed.

The examples you have written are sentences; the nouns are subjects, and the verbs are predicates.

As verbs are the only words that assert, +every predicate+ must be a +verb+, or must contain a verb.

Be prepared to analyze and parse five of the sentences that you have written.

+Model+.—_Laws are obeyed_. Diagram and analyze as in Lesson 11.

+Parsing+.—_Laws_ is a noun, because–-; are obeyed is a verb, because it asserts action.

LESSON 17.

Select and write all the verbs in the sentences given in Lessons 28, 31, 34, and tell why they are verbs.

LESSON 18.

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

From the following nouns and verbs, build as many sentences as possible, taking care that every one makes good sense.

Poems, was conquered, lambs, rebellion, stars, forests, shone, were seen, were written, treason, patriots, meteors, fought, were discovered, frisk, Cain, have fallen, fled, stream, have crumbled, day, ages, deer, are flickering, are bounding, gleamed, voices, lamps, rays, were heard, are gathering, time, death, friends, is coming, will come.

+To the Teacher+.—Before this recitation closes, let the teacher open up the subject of Lesson 19. See “Hints for Oral Instruction.”

LESSON 19.

PRONOUNS.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.—We propose to introduce you now to the third part of speech. +T.—+If I should ask who whispered, and some boy should promptly confess, what would he say? +P.—+I whispered. +T.—+Would he mention his own name? +P.—+No. +T.—+What word would he use instead? +P.—+I.

+T.—+Suppose that I had spoken to that boy and had accused him of whispering, how should I have addressed him without mentioning his name? +P.—+You whispered. +T.—+What word would be used instead of the name of the boy to whom I spoke? +P.—+You.

+T.—+Suppose that, without using his name, I had told you what he did, what should I have said? +P.—+He whispered. +T.—+What word would have been used instead of the name of the boy of whom I spoke? +P.—+He.

(Repeat these questions and suppose the pupil to be a girl.)

+T.—+If I should tell that boy to close his book, when his book was already closed, what would he say without mentioning the word book? +P.—+It is closed.

+T.—+If I should accuse several of you of whispering, and one should speak for himself and for the others whispering with him, what would he say? We whispered.

+T—+Suppose that a boy should inform me that all of the boys on that seat had whispered, what would he say? +P.—+_They_ whispered.

I, you, he, she, it, we, and they are not names, but they are used instead of names. We call such words +Pronouns+.

+DEFINITION.—A Pronoun is a word used for a noun+.

+CAPITAL LETTERS—RULE.—The words I and O should be written in capital letters+.

Analysis and Parsing.

+Model.—+_You will be rewarded_.

+Oral Analysis—+This is a sentence, because–-; you is the subject, because–-; will be rewarded is the predicate, because–-.

+Parsing.—+You is a pronoun, because it stands for the name of the person spoken to; will be rewarded is a verb, because–-.

1. We think. 2. She prattles. 3. We have recited. 4. I study. 5. You have been seen. 6. It has been decided. 7. He was punished. 8. They are conquered. 9. Thou art adored.

Compose nine similar sentences, using a pronoun for the subject of each, and diagram them.

+To the Teacher.—+Call special attention to the agreement of the verb with I and you. See Notes, p. 164.

Before this recitation closes, explain “Modified Subject.” See “Hints for Oral Instruction.”

LESSON 20.

MODIFIED SUBJECT.

+Hints for Oral Instruction.—+The Subject and the Predicate may be considered as the foundation on which every sentence is built. No sentence can be constructed without them.

You have already learned that these parts alone, sometimes make a complete structure; but we are about to show you that they are often used as the foundation of a structure, which is completed by adding other parts.

I hold in my hand several pieces of metal, with letters and other characters stamped on them. What do you say I have in my hand? +P+.—Money. +T.—+Yes. What other word can you use? +P.—+_Coin_. +T.—+Yes. I will write on the board this sentence: Coin is stamped.

The subject coin is a general name for all such pieces of metal. I will write the word the before this sentence. The coin is stamped. I have now made an assertion about one particular coin, so the meaning of the subject is limited by joining the word the.

I can again limit the meaning of the subject by putting the word a before it. The assertion is now about one coin, but no particular one. I point to the piece near me and say, This coin is stamped. I point to the one farther from me and say, That coin is stamped.

When words are joined to the subject to