ENGLISH GRAMMAR. PART I. 1. ENGLISH GRAMMAR is the art or science of speaking and writing the English language with propriety: 2. It is divided into four parts, viz. Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody. 3. Orthography teaches the nature and powers of letters, and the just method of spelling words. 4. Etymology treats of the different sorts of words, their various modifications, and their derivations. 5. Syntax treats of the agreement and construction of words into a sentence.. 6. Prosody consists of two parts; the former teaches the true pronunciation of words, comprising accent, quantity, emphasis, pause, and tone; and the latter, the laws of versification.* * ETYMOLOGY. 7. Words are divided into nine sorts, commonly called parts of speech; viz. substan *Orthography and Prosody are not particularly treated. The former more properly belongs to the exercises of the spelling book; and the latter, to the study of thetorick. A.. tive or noun, article, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Of Substantives. 8. A substantive or noun is the name of a thing. The name of any thing which we can see, taste, smell, hear, feel, or conceive of, is a noun. 9. Substantives are either proper or common. Proper substantives are names appropriated to individuals, without any reference to kind. Common substantives are appropriated to kinds, or whole species, containing many individuals under them. 10. To substantives belong gender, number, and case. 11. Gender is the distinction of nouns with regard to sex. There are three genders, viz. masculine, feminine, and neuter. 12. The masculine gender denotes animals of the male kind; the feminine gender denotes animals of the female kind; the neuter gender denotes objects which are neither male nor female. 13. Number is a term which has reference to quantity, as consisting of one or more particulars or objects. 14. Substantives are of two numbers, viz. singular and plural. The singular number expresses but one object; the plural number expresses more objects than one. 15. Case is the state or relation which the noun sustains to the other words in the sentence. 16 Substantives have three cases, viz. nominative, possessive, and objective. 17. The nominative case expresses the name of a thing existing or acting as the subject of discourse. 18. The possessive case expresses the relation of property or possession, and in general has an apostrophe with the letter s coming after it. 19. The objective case generally expresses the object of an action or relation. 20. Substantives are declined in the following manner : 21. An article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point them out and limit their signification. 22 There are two articles, a and the; a usually becomes an before a vowel or silent h. 23. A or an is styled the indefinite article, because it is used in an indefinite or vague sense to point out one single thing of a kind or species; the is styled the definite article, because it is used in a definite sense to point out what particular thing or things are meant. |