The Grammar of English Grammars Part 15

Grammar, as an art, is the power of reading, writing, and speaking correctly. As an acquisition, it is the essential skill of scholars.h.i.+p. As a study, it is the practical science which teaches the right use of language.

_An English Grammar_ is a book which professes to explain the nature and structure of the English language; and to show, on just authority, what is, and what is not, good English.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR, in itself, is the art of reading, writing, and speaking the English language correctly. It implies, in the adept, such knowledge as enables him to avoid improprieties of speech; to correct any errors that may occur in literary compositions; and to pa.r.s.e, or explain grammatically, whatsoever is rightly written.

_To read_ is to perceive what is written or printed, so as to understand the words, and be able to utter them with their proper sounds.

_To write_ is to express words and thoughts by letters, or characters, made with a pen or other instrument.

_To speak_ is to utter words orally, in order that they may be heard and understood.

Grammar, like every other liberal art, can be properly taught only by a regular a.n.a.lysis, or systematic elucidation, of its component parts or principles; and these parts or principles must be made known chiefly by means of definitions and examples, rules and exercises.

A _perfect definition_ of any thing or cla.s.s of things is such a description of it, as distinguishes that entire thing or cla.s.s from every thing else, by briefly telling _what it is_.

An _example_ is a particular instance or model, serving to prove or ill.u.s.trate some given proposition or truth.

A _rule of grammar_ is some law, more or less general, by which custom regulates and prescribes the right use of language.

An _exercise_ is some technical performance required of the learner in order to bring his knowledge and skill into practice.

LANGUAGE, in the primitive sense of the term, embraced only vocal expression, or human speech uttered by the mouth; but after letters were invented to represent articulate sounds, language became twofold, _spoken_ and _written_, so that the term, _language_, now signifies, _any series of sounds or letters formed into words and employed for the expression of thought._

Of the composition of language we have also two kinds, _prose_ and _verse_; the latter requiring a certain number and variety of syllables in each line, but the former being free from any such restraint.

The _least parts_ of written language are letters; of spoken language, syllables; of language significant in each part, words; of language combining thought, phrases; of language subjoining sense, clauses; of language coordinating sense, members; of language completing sense, sentences.

A discourse, or narration, of any length, is but a series of sentences; which, when written, must be separated by the proper points, that the meaning and relation of all the words may be quickly and clearly perceived by the reader, and the whole be uttered as the sense requires.

In extended compositions, a sentence is usually less than a paragraph; a paragraph, less than a section; a section, less than a chapter; a chapter, less than a book; a book, less than a volume; and a volume, less than the entire work.

The common order of _literary division_, then, is; of a large work, into volumes; of volumes, into books; of books, into chapters; of chapters, into sections; of sections, into paragraphs; of paragraphs, into sentences; of sentences, into members; of members, into clauses; of clauses, into phrases; of phrases, into words; of words, into syllables; of syllables, into letters.

But it rarely happens that any one work requires the use of all these divisions; and we often a.s.sume some natural distinction and order of parts, naming each as we find it; and also subdivide into articles, verses, cantoes, stanzas, and other portions, as the nature of the subject suggests.

Grammar is divided into four parts; namely, Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.

Orthography treats of letters, syllables, separate words, and spelling.

Etymology treats of the different _parts of speech_, with their cla.s.ses and modifications.

Syntax treats of the relation, agreement, government, and arrangement of words in sentences.

Prosody treats of punctuation, utterance, figures, and versification.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--In the Introduction to this work, have been taken many views of the study, or general science, of grammar; many notices of its history, with sundry criticisms upon its writers or critics; and thus language has often been presented to the reader's consideration, either as a whole, or with broader scope than belongs to the teaching of its particular forms. We come now to the work of _a.n.a.lyzing_ our own tongue, and of laying down those special rules and principles which should guide us in the use of it, whether in speech or in writing. The author intends to dissent from other grammarians no more than they are found to dissent from truth and reason; nor will he expose their errors further than is necessary for the credit of the science and the information of the learner. A candid critic can have no satisfaction merely in finding fault with other men's performances. But the facts are not to be concealed, that many pretenders to grammar have shown themselves exceedingly superficial in their knowledge, as well as slovenly in their practice; and that many vain composers of books have proved themselves _despisers_ of this study, by the abundance of their inaccuracies, and the obviousness of their solecisms.

OBS. 2.--Some grammarians have taught that the word _language_ is of much broader signification, than that which is given to it in the definition above. I confine it to speech and writing. For the propriety of this limitation, and against those authors who describe the thing otherwise, I appeal to the common sense of mankind. One late writer defines it thus: "LANGUAGE is _any means_ by which one _person_ communicates his _ideas_ to _another_."--_Sanders's Spelling-Book_, p. 7. The following is the explanation of an other slack thinker: "One may, by speaking or by writing, (and sometimes _by motions_,) communicate his thoughts to others. _The process_ by which this is done, is called LANGUAGE.--_Language_ is _the expression_ of thought _and feeling_."--_S. W. Clark's Practical Gram._, p.

7. Dr. Webster goes much further, and says, "LANGUAGE, in its most extensive sense, is the instrument or means of communicating ideas _and affections_ of the mind _and body_, from one _animal to another_. In this sense, _brutes possess the power of language_; for by various inarticulate sounds, they make known their wants, desires, and sufferings."-- _Philosophical Gram._, p. 11; _Improved Gram._, p. 5. This latter definition the author of that vain book, "_the District School_," has adopted in his chapter on Grammar. Sheridan, the celebrated actor and orthoepist, though he seems to confine language to the human species, gives it such an extension as to make words no necessary part of its essence.

"The first thought," says he, "that would occur to every one, who had not properly considered the point, is, that language is composed of words. And yet, this is so far from being an adequate idea of language, that the point in which most men think its very essence to consist, is not even a necessary property of language. For language, in its full extent, means, any way or method whatsoever, by which _all that pa.s.ses in the mind of one man_, may be manifested to another."--_Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution_, p. 129. Again: "I have already _shown_, that words are, in their own nature, _no essential part of language_, and are only considered so through custom."--_Ib._ p. 135.

OBS. 3.--According to S. Kirkham's notion, "LANGUAGE, in its most extensive sense, implies those signs by which _men and brutes_, communicate _to each other_ their thoughts, affections and desires."--_Kirkham's English Gram._, p. 16. Again: "_The language of brutes_ consists in the use of those inarticulate sounds by which they express _their thoughts and affections_."--_Ib._ To me it seems a shameful abuse of speech, and a vile descent from the dignity of grammar, to make the voices of "_brutes_" any part of language, as taken in a literal sense. We might with far more propriety raise our conceptions of it to the spheres above, and construe literally the metaphors of David, who ascribes to the starry heavens, both "_speech_" and "_language_," "_voice_" and "_words_," daily "_uttered_" and everywhere "_heard_." See _Psalm_ xix.

OBS. 4.--But, strange as it may seem, Kirkham, commencing his instructions with the foregoing definition of language, proceeds to divide it, agreeably to this notion, into two sorts, _natural_ and _artificial_; and affirms that the former "is common both to man and brute," and that the language which is peculiar to man, the language which consists of _words_, is altogether an _artificial invention_:[83] thereby contradicting at once a host of the most celebrated grammarians and philosophers, and that without appearing to know it. But this is the less strange, since he immediately forgets his own definition and division of the subject, and as plainly contradicts himself. Without limiting the term at all, without excluding his fanciful "_language of brutes_," he says, on the next leaf, "_Language_ is _conventional_, and not only _invented_, but, in its progressive advancement, _varied for purposes of practical convenience_. Hence it a.s.sumes _any and every form_ which those who make use of it, choose to give it."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 18. This, though scarcely more rational than his "_natural language of men and brutes_," plainly annihilates that questionable section of grammatical science, whether brutal or human, by making all language a thing "_conventional_" and "_invented_." In short, it leaves no ground at all for any grammatical science of a positive character, because it resolves all forms of language into the irresponsible will of those who utter any words, sounds, or noises.

OBS. 5.--Nor is this gentleman more fortunate in his explanation of what may really be called language. On one page, he says, "_Spoken language_ or _speech_, is made up of articulate sounds uttered by the human voice."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 17. On the next, "The most important use of _that faculty called speech_, is, to convey our thoughts to others."--_Ib._, p. 18. Thus the grammarian who, in the same short paragraph, seems to "defy the ingenuity of man to give his words any other meaning than that which he himself intends _them to express_," (_Ib._, p.

19,) either writes so badly as to make any ordinary false syntax appear trivial, or actually conceives man to be the inventor of one of his own _faculties_. Nay, docs he not make man the contriver of that "natural language" which he possesses "in common with the brutes?" a language "_The meaning of which_," he says, "_all the different animals perfectly understand_?"--See his _Gram._, p. 16. And if this notion again be true, does it not follow, that a horse knows perfectly well what horned cattle mean by their bellowing, or a flock of geese by their gabbling? I should not have noticed these things, had not the book which teaches them, been made popular by _a thousand_ imposing attestations to its excellence and accuracy. For grammar has nothing at all to do with inarticulate voices, or the imaginary languages of _brutes_. It is scope enough for one science to explain all the languages, dialects, and speeches, that lay claim to _reason_. We need not enlarge the field, by descending

"To beasts, whom[84] G.o.d on their creation-day Created mute to all articulate sound."--_Milton_.[85]

PART I.

ORTHOGRAPHY.

ORTHOGRAPHY treats of letters, syllables, separate words, and spelling.

CHAPTER I.--OF LETTERS.

A _Letter_ is an alphabetic character, which commonly represents some elementary sound of the human voice, some element of speech.

An elementary sound of the human voice, or an element of speech, is one of the simple sounds which compose a spoken language. The sound of a letter is commonly called its _power_: when any letter of a word is not sounded, it is said to be _silent_ or _mute._ The letters in the English alphabet, are twenty-six; the simple or primary sounds which they represent, are about thirty-six or thirty-seven.

A knowledge of the letters consists in an acquaintance with these _four sorts of things_; their _names_, their _cla.s.ses_, their _powers_, and their _forms_.

The letters are written, or printed, or painted, or engraved, or embossed, in an infinite variety of shapes and sizes; and yet are always _the same_, because their essential properties do not change, and their names, cla.s.ses, and powers, are mostly permanent.

The following are some of the different sorts of types, or styles of letters, with which every reader should be early acquainted:--

1. The Roman: A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z.

2. The Italic: _A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z._

3. The Script: [Script: A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z.]

4. The Old English: [Old English: A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z.]

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--A letter _consists_ not in the figure only, or in the power only, but in the figure and power united; as an amba.s.sador consists not in the man only, or in the commission only, but in the man commissioned. The figure and the power, therefore, are necessary to const.i.tute the letter; and a name is as necessary, to call it by, teach it, or tell what it is.

The _cla.s.s_ of a letter is determined by the nature of its power, or sound; as the amba.s.sador is plenipotentiary or otherwise, according to the extent of his commission. To all but the deaf and dumb, written language is the representative of that which is spoken; so that, in the view of people in general, the powers of the letters are habitually identified with their sounds, and are conceived to be nothing else. Hence any given sound, or modification of sound, which all men can produce at pleasure, when arbitrarily a.s.sociated with a written sign, or conventional character, const.i.tutes what is called _a letter_. Thus we may produce the sounds of _a, e, o_, then, by a particular compression of the organs of utterance, modify them all, into _ba, be, bo_, or _fa, fe, fo_; and we shall see that _a, e_, and _o_, are letters of one sort, and _b_ and _f_ of an other. By _elementary_ or _articulate_ sounds,[86] then, we mean not only the simple tones of the voice itself, but the modifying stops and turns which are given them in speech, and marked by letters: the real voices const.i.tuting vowels; and their modifications, consonants.

OBS. 2.--A mere mark to which no sound or power is ever given, cannot be a letter; though it may, like the marks used for punctuation, deserve a name and a place in grammar. Commas, semicolons, and the like, represent _silence_, rather than sounds, and are therefore not letters. Nor are the Arabic figures, which represent entire _words_, nor again any symbols standing for _things_, (as the astronomic marks for the sun, the moon, the planets,) to be confounded with letters; because the representative of any word or number, of any name or thing, differs widely in its power, from the sign of a simple elementary sound: i. e., from any const.i.tuent _part_ of a written word. The first letter of a word or name does indeed sometimes stand for the whole, and is still a letter; but it is so, as being the first element of the word, and not as being the representative of the whole.