Transcriber's Notes: Despite the severity with which the author of this
work treats those who depart from his standard of correctness, the source
text does contain a small number of typographical errors. Missing
punctuation has been supplied silently, but all other errors have been left
uncorrected. To let the reader distinguish such problems from any
inadvertent transcription errors that remain, I have inserted notes to flag
items that appear errors by Brown's own standard. Spellings that are simply
different from current practice, e.g., 'Shakspeare' are not noted. Special
characters: vowels with macrons are rendered with an equals sign (=) before
the vowel. Vowels with breve marks are rendered with tildes (~) before the
vowels.--KTH.
THE
GRAMMAR
OF
ENGLISH GRAMMARS,
WITH
AN INTRODUCTION
HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL;
THE WHOLE
METHODICALLY ARRANGED AND AMPLY ILLUSTRATED;
WITH
FORMS OF CORRECTING AND OF PARSING, IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION, EXAMPLES
FOR PARSING, QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION, EXERCISES FOR WRITING, OBSERVATIONS
FOR THE ADVANCED STUDENT, DECISIONS AND PROOFS FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF
DISPUTED POINTS, OCCASIONAL STRICTURES AND DEFENCES, AN EXHIBITION OF THE
SEVERAL METHODS OF ANALYSIS,
AND
A KEY TO THE ORAL EXERCISES:
TO WHICH ARE ADDED
FOUR APPENDIXES,
PERTAINING SEPARATELY TO THE FOUR PARTS OF GRAMMAR.
BY GOOLD BROWN,
AUTHOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, THE FIRST LINES OF ENGLISH
GRAMMAR, ETC.
"So let great authors have their due, that Time, who is the author of
authors, be not deprived of his due, which is, farther and farther to
discover truth."--LORD BACON.
SIXTH EDITION--REVISED AND IMPROVED.
ENLARGED BY THE ADDITION OF A COPIOUS INDEX OF MATTERS.
BY SAMUEL U. BERRIAN, A. M.
PREFACE
The present performance is, so far as the end could be reached, the
fulfillment of a design, formed about twenty-seven years ago, of one day
presenting to the world, if I might, something like a complete grammar of
the English language;--not a mere work of criticism, nor yet a work too
tame, indecisive, and uncritical; for, in books of either of these sorts,
our libraries already abound;--not a mere philosophical investigation of
what is general or universal in grammar, nor yet a minute detail of what
forms only a part of our own philology; for either of these plans falls
very far short of such a purpose;--not a mere grammatical compend,
abstract, or compilation, sorting with other works already before the
public; for, in the production of school grammars, the author had early
performed his part; and, of small treatises on this subject, we have long
had a superabundance rather than a lack.
After about fifteen years devoted chiefly to grammatical studies and
exercises, during most of which time I had been alternately instructing
youth in four different languages, thinking it practicable to effect some
improvement upon the manuals which explain our own, I prepared and
published, for the use of schools, a duodecimo volume of about three
hundred pages; which, upon the presumption that its principles were
conformable to the best usage, and well established thereby, I entitled,
"The Institutes of English Grammar." Of this work, which, it is believed,
has been gradually gaining in reputation and demand ever since its first
publication, there is no occasion to say more here, than that it was the
result of diligent study, and that it is, essentially, the nucleus, or the
groundwork, of the present volume.
With much additional labour, the principles contained in the Institutes of
English Grammar, have here been not only reaffirmed and rewritten, but
occasionally improved in expression, or amplified in their details. New
topics, new definitions, new rules, have also been added; and all parts of
the subject have been illustrated by a multiplicity of new examples and
exercises, which it has required a long time to amass and arrange. To the
main doctrines, also, are here subjoined many new observations and
criticisms, which are the results of no inconsiderable reading and
reflection.
Regarding it as my business and calling, to work out the above-mentioned
purpose as circumstances might permit, I have laid no claim to genius, none
to infallibility; but I have endeavoured to be accurate, and aspired to be
useful; and it is a part of my plan, that the reader of this volume shall
never, through my fault, be left in doubt as to the origin of any thing it
contains. It is but the duty of an author, to give every needful facility
for a fair estimate of his work; and, whatever authority there may be for
anonymous copying in works on grammar, the precedent is always bad.
The success of other labours, answerable to moderate wishes, has enabled me
to pursue this task under favourable circumstances, and with an unselfish,
independent aim. Not with vainglorious pride, but with reverent gratitude
to God, I acknowledge this advantage, giving thanks for the signal mercy
which has upborne me to the long-continued effort. Had the case been
otherwise,--had the labours of the school-room been still demanded for my
support,--the present large volume would never have appeared. I had desired
some leisure for the completing of this design, and to it I scrupled not to
sacrifice the profits of my main employment, as soon as it could be done
without hazard of adding another chapter to "the Calamities of Authors."
The nature and design of this treatise are perhaps sufficiently developed
in connexion with the various topics which are successively treated of in
the Introduction. That method of teaching, which I conceive to be the best,
is also there described. And, in the Grammar itself, there will be found
occasional directions concerning the manner of its use. I have hoped to
facilitate the study of the English language, not by abridging our
grammatical code, or by rejecting the common phraseolgy [sic--KTH] of its
doctrines, but by extending the former, improving the latter, and
establishing both;--but still more, by furnishing new illustrations of the
subject, and arranging its vast number of particulars in such order that
every item may be readily found.
An other important purpose, which, in the preparation of this work, has
been borne constantly in mind, and judged worthy of very particular
attention, was the attempt to settle, so far as the most patient
investigation and the fullest exhibition of proofs could do it, the
multitudinous and vexatious disputes which have hitherto divided the
sentiments of teachers, and made the study of English grammar so
uninviting, unsatisfactory, and unprofitable, to the student whose taste
demands a reasonable degree of certainty.
"Whenever labour implies the exertion of thought, it does good, at least to
the strong: when the saving of labour is a saving of thought, it enfeebles.
The mind, like the body, is strengthened by hard exercise: but, to give
this exercise all its salutary effect, it should be of a reasonable kind;
it should lead us to the perception of regularity, of order, of principle,
of a law. When, after all the trouble we have taken, we merely find
anomalies and confusion, we are disgusted with what is so uncongenial: and,
as our higher faculties have not been called into action, they are not
unlikely to be outgrown by the lower, and overborne as it were by the
underwood of our minds. Hence, no doubt, one of the reasons why our
language has been so much neglected, and why such scandalous ignorance
prevails concerning its nature and history, is its unattractive,
disheartening irregularity: none but Satan is fond of plunging into
chaos."--_Philological Museum_, (Cambridge, Eng., 1832,) Vol. i, p. 666.
If there be any remedy for the neglect and ignorance here spoken of, it
must be found in the more effectual teaching of English grammar. But the
principles of grammar can never have any beneficial influence over any
person's manner of speaking or writing, till by some process they are made
so perfectly familiar, that he can apply them with all the readiness of a
native power; that is, till he can apply them not only to what has been
said or written, but to whatever he is about to utter. They must present
themselves to the mind as by intuition, and with the quickness of thought;
so as to regulate his language before it proceeds from the lips or the pen.
If they come only by tardy recollection, or are called to mind but as
contingent afterthoughts, they are altogether too late; and serve merely to
mortify the speaker or writer, by reminding him of some deficiency or
inaccuracy which there may then be no chance to amend.
But how shall, or can, this readiness be acquired? I answer, By a careful
attention to such _exercises_ as are fitted to bring the learner's
knowledge into practice. The student will therefore find, that I have given
him something to _do_, as well as something to _learn_. But, by the
formules and directions in this work, he is very carefully shown how to
proceed; and, if he be a tolerable reader, it will be his own fault, if he
does not, by such aid, become a tolerable grammarian. The chief of these
exercises are the _parsing_ of what is right, and the _correcting_ of what
is wrong; both, perhaps, equally important; and I have intended to make
them equally easy. To any real proficient in grammar, nothing can be more
free from embarrassment, than the performance of these exercises, in all
ordinary cases. For grammar, rightly learned, institutes in the mind a
certain knowledge, or process of thought, concerning the sorts, properties,
and relations, of all the words which can be presented in any intelligible
sentence; and, with the initiated, a perception of the construction will
always instantly follow or accompany a discovery of the sense: and
instantly, too, should there be a perception of the error, if any of the
words are misspelled, misjoined, misapplied,--or are, in any way,
unfaithful to the sense intended.
Thus it is the great end of grammar, to secure the power of apt expression,
by causing the principles on which language is constructed, if not to be
constantly present to the mind, at least to pass through it more rapidly
than either pen or voice can utter words. And where this power resides,
there cannot but be a proportionate degree of critical skill, or of ability
to judge of the language of others. Present what you will, grammar directs
the mind immediately to a consideration of the sense; and, if properly
taught, always creates a discriminating taste which is not less offended by
specious absurdities, than by the common blunders of clownishness. Every
one who has any pretensions to this art, knows that, to _parse_ a sentence,
is but to resolve it according to one's understanding of its import; and it
is equally clear, that the power to _correct_ an erroneous passage, usually
demands or implies a knowledge of the author's thought.
But, if parsing and correcting are of so great practical importance as our
first mention of them suggests, it may be well to be more explicit here
concerning them. The pupil who cannot perform these exercises both
accurately and fluently, is not truly prepared to perform them at all, and
has no right to expect from any body a patient hearing. A slow and
faltering rehearsal of words clearly prescribed, yet neither fairly
remembered nor understandingly applied, is as foreign from parsing or
correcting, as it is from elegance of diction. Divide and conquer, is the
rule here, as in many other cases. Begin with what is simple; practise it
till it becomes familiar; and then proceed. No child ever learned to speak
by any other process. Hard things become easy by use; and skill is gained
by little and little. Of the whole method of parsing, it should be
understood, that it is to be a critical exercise in utterance, as well as
an evidence of previous study,--an exhibition of the learner's attainments
in the practice, as well as in the theory, of grammar; and that, in any
tolerable performance of this exercise, there must be an exact adherence to
the truth of facts, as they occur in the example, and to the forms of
expression, which are prescribed as models, in the book. For parsing is, in
no degree, a work of invention; but wholly an exercise, an exertion of
skill. It is, indeed, an exercise for all the powers of the mind, except
the inventive faculty. Perception, judgement, reasoning, memory, and
method, are indispensable to the performance. Nothing is to be guessed at,
or devised, or uttered at random. If the learner can but rehearse the
necessary definitions and rules, and perform the simplest exercise of
judgement in their application, he cannot but perceive what he _must say_
in order to speak the truth in parsing. His principal difficulty is in
determining the parts of speech. To lessen this, the trial should commence
with easy sentences, also with few of the definitions, and with definitions
that have been perfectly learned. This difficulty being surmounted, let him
follow the forms prescribed for the several praxes of this work, and he
shall not err. The directions and examples given at the head of each
exercise, will show him exactly the number, the order, and the proper
phraseology, of the particulars to be stated; so that he may go through the
explanation with every advantage which a book can afford. There is no hope
of him whom these aids will not save from "plunging into chaos."
"Of all the works of man, language is the most enduring, and partakes the
most of eternity. And, as our own language, so far as thought can project
itself into the future, seems likely to be coeval with the world, and to
spread vastly beyond even its present immeasurable limits, there cannot
easily be a nobler object of ambition than to purify and better
it."--_Philological Museum_, Vol. i, p. 665.
It was some ambition of the kind here meant, awakened by a discovery of the
scandalous errors and defects which abound in all our common English
grammars, that prompted me to undertake the present work. Now, by the
bettering of a language, I understand little else than the extensive
teaching of its just forms, according to analogy and the general custom of
the most accurate writers. This teaching, however, may well embrace also,
or be combined with, an exposition of the various forms of false grammar by
which inaccurate writers have corrupted, if not the language itself, at
least their own style in it.
With respect to our present English, I know not whether any other
improvement of it ought to be attempted, than the avoiding and correcting
of those improprieties and unwarrantable anomalies by which carelessness,
ignorance, and affectation, are ever tending to debase it, and the careful
teaching of its true grammar, according to its real importance in
education. What further amendment is feasible, or is worthy to engage
attention, I will not pretend to say; nor do I claim to have been competent
to so much as was manifestly desirable within these limits. But what I
lacked in ability, I have endeavored to supply by diligence; and what I
could conveniently strengthen by better authority than my own, I have not
failed to support with all that was due, of names, guillemets, and
references.
Like every other grammarian, I stake my reputation as an author, upon "a
certain set of opinions," and a certain manner of exhibiting them,
appealing to the good sense of my readers for the correctness of both. All
contrary doctrines are unavoidably censured by him who attempts to sustain
his own; but, to grammatical censures, no more importance ought to be
attached than what belongs to grammar itself. He who cares not to be
accurate in the use of language, is inconsistent with himself, if he be
offended at verbal criticism; and he who is displeased at finding his
opinions rejected, is equally so, if he cannot prove them to be well
founded. It is only in cases susceptible of a rule, that any writer can be
judged deficient. I can censure no man for differing from me, till I can
show him a principle which he ought to follow. According to Lord Kames, the
standard of taste, both in arts and in manners, is "the common sense of
mankind," a principle founded in the universal conviction of a common
nature in our species. (See _Elements of Criticism_, Chap, xxv, Vol. ii, p.
364.) If this is so, the doctrine applies to grammar as fully as to any
thing about which criticism may concern itself.
But, to the discerning student or teacher, I owe an apology for the
abundant condescension with which I have noticed in this volume the works
of unskillful grammarians. For men of sense have no natural inclination to
dwell upon palpable offences against taste and scholarship; nor can they be
easily persuaded to approve the course of an author who makes it his
business to criticise petty productions. And is it not a fact, that
grammatical authorship has sunk so low, that no man who is capable of
perceiving its multitudinous errors, dares now stoop to notice the most
flagrant of its abuses, or the most successful of its abuses? And, of the
quackery which is now so prevalent, what can be a more natural effect, than
a very general contempt for the study of grammar? My apology to the reader
therefore is, that, as the honour of our language demands correctness in
all the manuals prepared for schools, a just exposition of any that are
lacking in this point, is a service due to the study of English grammar, if
not to the authors in question.
The exposition, however, that I have made of the errors and defects of
other writers, is only an incident, or underpart, of the scheme of this
treatise. Nor have I anywhere exhibited blunders as one that takes delight
in their discovery. My main design has been, to prepare a work which, by
its own completeness and excellence, should deserve the title here chosen.
But, a comprehensive code of false grammar being confessedly the most
effectual means of teaching what is true, I have thought fit to supply this
portion of my book, not from anonymous or uncertain sources, but from the
actual text of other authors, and chiefly from the works of professed
grammarians.
"In what regards the laws of grammatical purity," says Dr. Campbell, "the
violation is much more conspicuous than the observance."--See _Philosophy
of Rhetoric_, p. 190. It therefore falls in with my main purpose, to
present to the public, in the following ample work, a condensed mass of
special criticism, such as is not elsewhere to be found in any language.
And, if the littleness of the particulars to which the learner's attention
is called, be reckoned an objection, the author last quoted has furnished
for me, as well as for himself, a good apology. "The elements which enter
into the composition of the hugest bodies, are subtile and inconsiderable.
The rudiments of every art and science exhibit at first, to the learner,
the appearance of littleness and insignificancy. And it is by attending to
such reflections, as to a superficial observer would appear minute and
hypercritical, that language must be improved, and eloquence
perfected."--_Ib._, p. 244.
GOOLD BROWN.
LYNN, MASS., 1851.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PRELIMINARY MATTERS.
Preface to the Grammar of English Grammars
This Table of Contents
Catalogue of English Grammars and Grammarians
INTRODUCTION.
Chapter I. Of the Science of Grammar
Chapter II. Of Grammatical Authorship
Chapter III. Of Grammatical Success and Fame
Chapter IV. Of the Origin of Language
Chapter V. Of the Power of Language
Chapter VI. Of the Origin and History of the English Language
Chapter VII. Changes and Specimens of the English Language
Chapter VIII. Of the Grammatical Study of the English Language
Chapter IX. Of the Best Method of Teaching Grammar
Chapter X. Of Grammatical Definitions
Chapter XI. Brief Notices of the Schemes of certain Grammars
THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS.
Introductory Definitions
General Division of the Subject
PART I. ORTHOGRAPHY.
Chapter I. Of Letters
I. Names of the Letters
II. Classes of the Letters
III. Powers of the Letters
IV. Forms of the Letters
Rules for the use of Capitals
Errors concerning Capitals
Promiscuous Errors of Capitals
Chapter II. Of Syllables
Diphthongs and Triphthongs
Rules for Syllabication
Observations on Syllabication
Errors concerning Syllables
Chapter III. Of Words
Rules for the Figure of Words
Observations on Figure of Words
On the Identity of Words
Errors concerning Figure
Promiscuous Errors in Figure
Chapter IV. Of Spelling
Rules for Spelling
Observations on Spelling
Errors in Spelling
Promiscuous Errors in Spelling
Chapter V. Questions on Orthography
Chapter VI Exercises for Writing
PART II. ETYMOLOGY.
Introductory Definitions
Chapter I. Of the Parts of Speech
Observations on Parts of Speech
Examples for Parsing, Praxis I
Chapter II. Of the Articles
Observations on the Articles
Examples for Parsing, Praxis II
Errors concerning Articles
Chapter III. Of Nouns
Classes of Nouns
Modifications of Nouns
Persons
Numbers
Genders
Cases
The Declension of Nouns
Examples for Parsing, Praxis III
Errors concerning Nouns
Chapter IV. Of Adjectives
Classes of Adjectives
Modifications of Adjectives
Regular Comparison
Comparison by Adverbs
Irregular Comparison
Examples for Parsing, Praxis IV
Errors concerning Adjectives
Chapter V. Of Pronouns
Classes of the Pronouns
Modifications of the Pronouns
The Declension of Pronouns
Examples for Parsing, Praxis V
Errors concerning Pronouns
Chapter VI. Of Verbs
Classes of Verbs
Modifications of Verbs
Moods
Tenses
Persons and Numbers
The Conjugation of Verbs
I. Simple Form, Active or Neuter
First Example, the verb _LOVE_
Second Example, the verb _SEE_
Third Example, the verb _BE_
II. Compound or Progressive Form
Fourth Example, to _BE READING_
Observations on Compound Forms
III. Form of Passive Verbs
Fifth Example, to _BE LOVED_
IV. Form of Negation
V. Form of Question
VI. Form of Question with Negation
Irregular Verbs, with Obs. and List
Redundant Verbs, with Obs. and List
Defective Verbs, with Obs. and List
Examples for Parsing, Praxis VI
Errors concerning Verbs
Chapter VII. Of Participles
Classes of Participles
Examples for Parsing, Praxis VII
Errors concerning Participles
Chapter VIII. Of Adverbs
Classes of Adverbs
Modifications of Adverbs
Examples for Parsing, Praxis VIII
Errors concerning Adverbs
Chapter IX. Of Conjunctions
Classes of Conjunctions
List of the Conjunctions
Examples for Parsing, Praxis IX
Errors concerning Conjunctions
Chapter X. Of Prepositions
List of the Prepositions
Examples for Parsing, Praxis X
Errors concerning Prepositions
Chapter XI. Of Interjections
List of the Interjections
Examples for Parsing, Praxis XI
Errors concerning Interjections
Chapter XII. Questions on Etymology
Chapter XIII. Exercises for Writing
PART III. SYNTAX.
Introductory Definitions
Chapter I. Of Sentences
The Rules of Syntax
General or Critical Obs. on Syntax
The Analyzing of Sentences
The several Methods of Analysis
Observations on Methods of Analysis
Examples for Parsing, Praxis XII