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

"When an example, a quotation, or a speech, is introduced, it is separated from the rest of the sentence either by a comma or by a colon; as, 'The Scriptures give us an amiable representation of the Deity, in these words: God is love.'"—Hiley cor. "Either the colon or the comma may be used, [according to the nature of the case,] 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 cor.

"The first word of a quotation introduced after a colon, or of any sentence quoted in a direct form, must begin with a capital: as, 'Always remember this ancient maxim: Know thyself.'—'Our great lawgiver says, Take up thy cross daily, and follow me.'"—Bullions and Lennie cor.; also L. Murray; also Weld. See Luke, ix, 23.

"Tell me, in whose house do you live?"—N. Butler cor. "He that acts wisely, deserves praise."—Id. "He who steals my purse, steals trash."—Id. "The antecedent is sometimes omitted; as, 'Who steals my purse, steals trash.'—[Shak.] That is, 'He who,' or, 'The person who.'"—Id. "Thus, 'Whoever steals my purse, steals trash;'—'Whoever does no good, does harm.'"—Id. "Thus, 'Whoever sins, will suffer.' This means, that any one, without exception, who sins, will suffer."—Id.

"Letters form syllables; syllables, words; words, sentences; and sentences, combined and connected, form discourse."—Cooper cor. "A letter which forms a perfect sound when uttered by itself, is called a vowel; as, a, e, i."—Id. "A proper noun is the name of an individual, [or of a particular people or place]; as, John, Boston, Hudson, America."—Id.

"Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing; more, a cunning thing; but very few, a generous thing."—Davis cor. "In the place of an ellipsis of the verb, a comma must be inserted."—Id. "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."—Id.

"Thus, those sounds formed principally by the throat, are called gutturals; those formed principally by the palate, palatals; those formed by the teeth, dentals; those by the lips, labials; and those by the nose, nasals."—Davis cor.

"Some adjectives are compared irregularly: as, Good, letter, best; Bad, worse, worst; Little, less, least."—Felton cor.

"Under the fourth head of grammar, therefore, four topics will be considered; viz., PUNCTUATION, ORTHOEPY [sic—KTH], FIGURES, and VERSIFICATION."—Hart cor.

   "Direct her onward to that peaceful shore,
    Where peril, pain, and death, are felt no more!"—Falconer cor.

"Discoveries of such a character are sometimes made in grammar also; and such, too, are often their origin and their end."—Bullions cor.

"TRAVERSE, [literally to cross,] To deny what the opposite party has alleged. To traverse an indictment, or the like, is to deny it."—Id.

"The Ordinal numerals denote the order, or succession, in which any number of persons or things are mentioned; as, first, second, third, fourth, &c."—Hiley cor.

"Nouns have three persons; the First, the Second, and the Third. The First person is that which denotes the speaker: the Second is that which denotes the person or thing spoken to; the Third is that which denotes the person or thing merely spoken of."—Hart cor.

"Nouns have three cases; the Nominative, the Possessive, and the Objective. The relations indicated by the cases of a noun, include three distinct ideas; viz., those of subject, object, and ownership."—Id.

"In speaking of animals that are of inferior size, or whose sex is not known or not regarded, we often treat them as without sex: thus, we say of a cat, 'It is treacherous;' of an infant, 'It is beautiful;' of a deer, 'It was killed.'"—Id.

"When THIS and THAT, or THESE and THOSE, refer to a preceding sentence; THIS or THESE represents the latter member or term, and THAT or THOSE, the former."—Churchill cor.; and Lowth.

"The rearing of them became his first care; their fruit, his first food; and the marking of their kinds, his first knowledge."—N. Butler cor.

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

"In the plural, the verb has the same form in all the persons; but still the principle in Rem. 5, under Rule iii, that the first or second person takes precedence, is applicable to verbs, in parsing."—Id.

"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 government is called freedom; this, tyranny."—L. Murray cor.

"A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned: as, George, London, America, goodness, charity."—See Brown's Institutes, p. 31.

"Etymology treats of the classification of words, their various modifications, and their derivation"—P. E. Day cor.

"To punctuate correctly, implies a thorough acquaintance with the meaning of words and phrases, as well as with all their corresponding connexions."—W. Day cor.

"All objects that belong to neither the male nor the female kind, are said to be of the neuter gender, except certain things personified."—Weld cor twice.

"The Analysis of the Sounds in the English language, presented in the preceding statements, is sufficiently exact for the purpose in hand. Those who wish to pursue the subject further, can consult Dr. Rush's admirable work, 'The Philosophy of the Human Voice.'"—Fowler cor. "Nobody confounds the name of w or y with the sound of the letter, or with its phonetic import."—Id. [[Fist] This assertion is hardly true. Strange as such a blunder is, it has actually occurred. See, in Orthography, Obs. 5, on the Classes of the Letters, at p. 156.—G. B.]

   "Order is Heav'n's first law; and, this confess'd,
    Some are, and must be, greater than the rest."—Pope.

"From adjectives of one syllable, and some of two, the comparative is formed by adding r or er to the positive; and the superlative, by adding st or est: as, sweet, sweeter, sweetest; able, abler, ablest."—Bullions cor.

"From monosyllables, or from dissyllables ending with a vowel or the accent, 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; holy, holier, holiest; complete, completer, completest."—Id.

"By this method, the confusion and unnecessary labour occasioned by studying grammars, in these languages, constructed on different principles, are avoided; the study of one is rendered a profitable introduction to the study of an other; and an opportunity is furnished to the inquiring student, of comparing the languages in their grammatical structure, and of seeing at once wherein they agree, and wherein they differ."—Id.

"No larger portion should be assigned for each recitation, than the class can easily master; and, till the previous lessons are well learned, a new portion should not be given out."—Id. "The acquisitions made in every new lesson, should be riveted and secured by repeated revisals."—Id.

"The personal pronouns may be parsed briefly, thus: 'I is a personal pronoun, of the first person, singular number, masculine gender, (feminine, if the speaker is a female,) and nominative case.' 'His is a personal pronoun, of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and possessive case.'"—Id.

"When the male and the 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, or profession, and not the sex, of the individual, is chiefly to be expressed; the feminine term being used only when the discrimination of sex is indispensably necessary. Thus, when it is said, 'The poets of this country are distinguished for correctness of taste,' the term 'poets' clearly includes both male and female writers of poetry."—Id.

"Nouns and pronouns connected by conjunctions, must be in the same case"—Ingersoll cor.

"Verbs connected by and, or, or nor, must generally be in the same mood and tense; and, when the tense has different forms, they must be in the same form."—Id.

"This will habituate him to reflection; exercise his judgement 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 any rule have been gone through, agreeably to the direction in the note at the bottom of page 88th, 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 cor.

   "Man, but for that, no action could attend;
    And, but for this, were active to no end."—Pope.

"'Johnson, the bookseller and stationer' indicates that bookseller and stationer are terms belonging to the same person; 'the bookseller and the stationer,' would indicate that they belong to different persons."—Bullions cor.

"Past is [commonly] an adjective; passed, the past tense or perfect participle of the verb: and they ought not (as they frequently are) to be confounded with each other."—Id.

"Not only the nature of the thoughts and sentiments, but the very selection or arrangement of the words, gives English poetry a character which separates it widely from common prose."—Id.

"Men of sound, discriminating, and philosophical minds—men prepared for the work by long study, patient investigation, and extensive acquirements—have laboured for ages to improve and perfect it; and nothing is hazarded in asserting, that, should it be unwisely abandoned, it will be long before an other, equal in beauty, stability, and usefulness, will be produced in its stead."—Id., on the common "system of English Grammar."

"The article the, on the other hand, is used to restrict; and is therefore termed Definite. Its proper office is, to call the attention to a particular individual or class, or to any number of such; and accordingly it is used with nouns of either number, singular or plural."—Id.

"Hence, also, the infinitive mood, a participle with its adjuncts, a member of a sentence, or a whole proposition, forming the subject of discourse, or the object of a verb or preposition, and being the name of an act or circumstance, is, in construction, regarded as a noun; and is usually called, 'a substantive phrase:' as, 'To play, is pleasant.'—'That he is an expert dancer, is no recommendation.'—'Let your motto be, Honesty is the best policy.'"—Id.

"In accordance with his definition, Murray has divided verbs into three classes: Active, Passive, and Neuter;—and included in the first class transitive verbs only; and, in the last, all verbs used intransitively"—Id.

"Moreover, as the name of the speaker or that of the person spoken to is seldom expressed, (the pronoun I being used for the former, and THOU or YOU for the latter,) a noun is very rarely in the first person; not often in the second; and hardly ever in either, unless it is a proper noun, or a common noun denoting an object personified."—Id.

"In using the parsing exercises, it will save much time, (and this saving is all-important,) if the pupil be taught to say all things belonging to the noun, in the fewest words possible; and to say them always in the same order, after the example above."—Id.

"In any phrase or sentence, the adjectives qualifying a noun may generally be found by prefixing the phrase, 'What kind of,' to the noun, in the form of a question; as, 'What kind of horse?' 'What kind of stone?' 'What kind of way?' The word containing the answer to the question, is an adjective."—Id.

"In the following exercise, let the pupil first point out the nouns, and then the adjectives; and tell how he knows them to be such."—Id.

"In the following sentences, point out the improper ellipses; show why they are improper; and correct them."—Id.

"SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. I am smitten, 1. We are smitten, 2. Thou art smitten, 2. You are smitten, 3. He is smitten; 3. They are smitten."—Wright cor.

The second chapter of Prosody, treating of articulation, pronunciation, elocution and the minor topics that come under Utterance, contains no exercises demanding correction in this Key.

In the third chapter of Prosody, the several Figures of speech are explained; and, as the illustrations embrace no errors for correction, nothing here corresponds to the chapter, but the title.