A knowledge of English Grammar is essential to a good education. William Whewell. As Grammar was made after language, so it ought to be taught after it. - Herbert Spencer. Grammar must be learned through language, and not language through Grammar. -Johann G. von Herder. No law of a grammarian is absolute, for it may be repealed when brought before the court of last resort, made up of our best speakers and approved authors. —— George Campbell ("Philosophy of Rhetoric "). ENGLISH GRAMMAR. INTRODUCTORY. 1. Language, in its most comprehensive sense, Language. includes all ways and means of communicating thought. Language is from the Latin lingua-tongue, or speech. To him who in the love of Nature holds communion with her visible forms, she speaks a various language. - William Cullen Bryant. 2. Language in a more restricted sense comprises the ways and means of communicating thought through the medium of articulate sounds, letters, or characters. 3. Language made up of articulate sounds is Spoken spoken language. 4. Language made up of letters and characters is written language. Language is the picture and the counterpart of thought. -Mark Hopkins.. Language. Written Language: 1 English 5. The language of England, whether used in Language. England or elsewhere in the world, is called the English Language. Grammar. 6. An investigation of the facts, processes, and usages of a language is called Grammar. tive Grammar. Grammar is from the Greek gramma-letter, or word. The whole fabric of Grammar rests upon the classifying of words according to their functions in the sentence. - Alexander Bain. Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason. Richard C. Trench. 7. While every kind of grammar includes to some extent an inquiry into the facts, processes, and usages of language, there are particular kinds of grammar that direct especial attention to these different fields of inquiry. Compara- 8. Comparative Grammar is an inquiry into the comparative forms of words and constructions in different languages, to find common likenesses and common origin, and thus places emphasis on the facts of language. Historical 9. Historical Grammar is an inquiry into the oriGrammar. gin, modes of growth, and development of a language, and so emphasizes the processes of language. Descriptive 10. Descriptive Grammar is an inquiry into the Grammar. forms and constructions used in a language, and a classification of the accepted usages. 11. A Grammar of the English language is an English English Grammar. Grammar. Grammar. 12. The province of an English Grammar of to- Province of day is to treat present accepted usages of the Eng- English lish language. Its function is not so much to tell how to use the English language, as how it is used by good writers and speakers. Every tongue whatever is founded on use or custom, whose arbitrary sway words and the forms of language must obey. George Campbell. Use can almost change the stamp of Nature. -Shakespeare. of a 13. The learning of a language is largely a Learning process of imitation, reaching toward perfection through repeated efforts and corrections. Grammar gives rules for use in such corrections. Language. 14. Grammar does not create rules, but simply Rules of formulates accepted usages as they are found, and Grammar. records and arranges them into rules. Science deals exclusively with things as they are in A principle in science is a rule in art. John Playfair. 15. Rules in English Grammar must needs be Rules changed from time to time to embody the changing Change. usages of the English language. A language grows, and is not made. - James Russell Lowell. |
