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

and Hopkins, hail! B. Amen."—Id., i 25.

   "These Fate reserv'd to grace thy reign divine,
    Foreseen by me, but ah! withheld from mine!"—Pope, Dun., iii, 215.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX PROMISCUOUS. [Fist] [The following examples of bad grammar, being similar in their character to others already exhibited, are to be corrected, by the pupil, according to formules previously given.]

LESSON I.—ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.

"Such an one I believe yours will be proved to be."—PEET: Farnum's Gram., p. 1. "Of the distinction between the imperfect and the perfect tenses, it may be observed," &c.—Ainsworth's Gram., p. 122. "The subject is certainly worthy consideration."—Ib., p. 117. "By this means all ambiguity and controversy is avoided on this point."—Bullions, Principles of Eng. Gram., 5th Ed., Pref., p. vi. "The perfect participle in English has both an active and passive signification."—Ib., p. 58. "The old house is at length fallen down."—Ib., p. 78. "The king, with the lords and commons, constitute the English form of government."—Ib., p. 93. "The verb in the singular agrees with the person next it."—Ib., p. 95. "Jane found Seth's gloves in James' hat."—Felton's Gram., p. 15. "Charles' task is too great."—Ibid., 15. "The conjugation of a verb is the naming, in regular order, its several modes tenses, numbers and persons."—Ib., p. 24. "The long remembered beggar was his guest."—Ib., 1st Ed., p. 65. "Participles refer to nouns and pronouns."—Ib., p. 81. "F has an uniform sound in every position except in of."—Hallock's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 15. "There are three genders; the masculine, the feminine and neuter."—Ib., p. 43. "When so that occur together, sometimes the particle so is taken as an adverb."—Ib., p. 124. "The definition of the articles show that they modify the words to which they belong."—Ib., p. 138. "The auxiliaries shall, will, or should is implied."—Ib., p. 192. "Single rhyme trochaic omits the final short syllable."—Ib., p. 244. "Agreeable to this, we read of names being blotted out of God's book,"—BURDER: ib., p. 156; Webster's Philos. Gram., 155; Improved Gram., 107. "The first person is the person speaking."—Goldsbury's Common School Gram., p. 10. "Accent is the laying a peculiar stress of the voice on a certain letter or syllable in a word."—Ib., Ed. of 1842, p. 75. "Thomas' horse was caught."—Felton's Gram., p. 64. "You was loved."—Ib., p. 45. "The nominative and objective end the same."—Rev. T. Smith's Gram., p. 18. "The number of pronouns, like those of substantives, are two, the singular and the plural."—Ib., p. 22. "I is called the pronoun of the first person, which is the person speaking."—Frost's Practical Gram., p. 32. "The essential elements of the phrase is an intransitive gerundive and an adjective."—Hazen's Practical Gram., p. 141. "Being rich is no justification for such impudence."—Ib., p. 141. "His having been a soldier in the revolution is not doubted."—Ib., p. 143. "Catching fish is the chief employment of the inhabitants. The chief employment of the inhabitants is catching fish."—Ib., p. 144. "The cold weather did not prevent the work's being finished at the time specified."—Ib., p. 145. "The former viciousness of that man caused his being suspected of this crime."—Ib., p. 145. "But person and number applied to verbs means, certain terminations."—Barrett's Gram., p. 69. "Robert fell a tree."—Ib., p. 64. "Charles raised up."—Ib., p. 64. "It might not be an useless waste of time."—Ib., p. 42. "Neither will you have that implicit faith in the writings and works of others which characterise the vulgar,"—Ib., p. 5. "I, is the first person, because it denotes the speaker."—Ib., p. 46. "I would refer the student to Hedges' or Watts' Logic."—Ib., p. 15. "Hedge's, Watt's, Kirwin's, and Collard's Logic."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part III, p. 116. "Letters are called vowels which make a full and perfect sound of themselves."—Cutler's Gram., p. 10. "It has both a singular and plural construction."—Ib., p. 23. "For he beholdest thy beams no more."—Ib., p. 136. "To this sentiment the Committee has the candour to incline, as it will appear by their summing up."—Macpherson's Ossian, Prelim. Disc., p. xviii. "This is reducing the point at issue to a narrow compass."—Ib., p. xxv. "Since the English sat foot upon the soil."—Exiles of Nova Scotia, p. 12. "The arrangement of its different parts are easily retained by the memory."—Hiley's Gram., 3d Ed., p. 262. "The words employed are the most appropriate which could have been selected."—Ib., p. 182. "To prevent it launching!"—Ib., p. 135. "Webster has been followed in preference to others, where it differs from them."—Frazee's Gram., p. 8. "Exclamation and Interrogation are often mistaken for one another."—Buchanan's E. Syntax, p. 160. "When all nature is hushed in sleep, and neither love nor guilt keep their vigils."—Felton's Gram., p. 96.

   "When all nature's hushed asleep,
    Nor love, nor guilt, their vigils keep."—Ib., p. 95.

LESSON II.—ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.

"A VERSIFYER and POET are two different Things."—Brightland's Gram., p. 163. "Those Qualities will arise from the well expressing of the Subject."—Ib., p. 165. "Therefore the explanation of network, is taken no notice of here."—Mason's Supplement, p. vii. "When emphasis or pathos are necessary to be expressed."—Humphrey's Punctuation, p. 38. "Whether this mode of punctuation is correct, and whether it be proper to close the sentence with the mark of admiration, may be made a question."—Ib., p. 39. "But not every writer in those days were thus correct."—Ib., p. 59. "The sounds of A, in English orthoepy, are no less than four."—Ib., p. 69. "Our present code of rules are thought to be generally correct."— Ib., p. 70. "To prevent its running into another."—Humphrey's Prosody, p. 7. "Shakespeare, perhaps, the greatest poetical genius which England has produced."—Ib., p. 93. "This I will illustrate by example; but prior to which a few preliminary remarks may be necessary."—Ib., p. 107. "All such are entitled to two accents each, and some of which to two accents nearly equal."—Ib., p. 109. "But some cases of the kind are so plain that no one need to exercise his judgment therein."—Ib., p. 122. "I have forbore to use the word."—Ib., p. 127. "The propositions, 'He may study,' 'He might study,' 'He could study,' affirms an ability or power to study."—Hallock's Gram. of 1842, p. 76. "The divisions of the tenses has occasioned grammarians much trouble and perplexity."—Ib., p. 77. "By adopting a familiar, inductive method of presenting this subject, it may be rendered highly attractive to young learners."—Wells's Sch. Gram., 1st Ed., p. 1; 3d, 9; 113th, 11. "The definitions and rules of different grammarians were carefully compared with each other."—Ib., Preface, p. iii. "So as not wholly to prevent some sounds issuing."—Sheridan's Elements of English, p. 64. "Letters of the Alphabet not yet taken notice of."—Ib., p. 11. "IT is sad, IT is strange, &c., seems to express only that the thing is sad, strange, &c."—The Well-Wishers' Gram., p. 68. "THE WINNING is easier than THE PRESERVING a conquest."—Ib., p. 65. "The United States finds itself the owner of a vast region of country at the West."—Horace Mann in Congress, 1848. "One or more letters placed before a word is a Prefix."—S. W. Clark's Pract. Gram., p. 42. "One or more letters added to a word is a Suffix."—Ib., p. 42. "Two-thirds of my hair has fallen off."—Ib., p. 126. "'Suspecting,' describes 'we,' by expressing, incidentally, an act of 'we.'"—Ib., p. 130. "Daniel's predictions are now being fulfilled."—Ib., p. 136. "His being a scholar, entitles him to respect."—Ib., p. 141. "I doubted his having been a soldier."—Ib., p. 142. "Taking a madman's sword to prevent his doing mischief, cannot be regarded as robbing him."—Ib., p. 129. "I thought it to be him; but it was not him."—Ib., p. 149. "It was not me that you saw."—Ib., p. 149. "Not to know what happened before you was born, is always to be a boy."—Ib., p. 149. "How long was you going? Three days."—Ib., 158. "The qualifying Adjective is placed next the Noun."—Ib., p. 165. "All went but me."—Ib., p. 93. "This is parsing their own language, and not the author's."—Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 73. "Nouns which denote males, are of the masculine gender."—Ib., p. 49. "Nouns which denote females, are of the feminine gender."—Ib., p. 49. "When a comparison is expressed between more than two objects of the same class, the superlative degree is employed."—Ib., p. 133. "Where d or t go before, the additional letter d or t, in this contracted form, coalesce into one letter with the radical d or t."—Dr. Johnson's Gram., p. 9. "Write words which will show what kind of a house you live in—what kind of a book you hold in your hand—what kind of a day it is."—Weld's Gram., p. 7. "One word or more is often joined to nouns or pronouns to modify their meaning."—Ib., 2d Ed., p. 30. "Good is an adjective; it explains the quality or character of every person or thing to which it is applied."—Ib., p. 33; Abridg., 32. "A great public as well as private advantage arises from every one's devoting himself to that occupation which he prefers, and for which he is specially fitted."—WAYLAND: Wells's Gram., p. 121; Weld's, 180. "There was a chance of his recovering his senses. Not thus: 'There was a chance of him recovering his senses.' MACAULEY."—See Wells's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 121; 113th, 135. "This may be known by its not having any connecting word immediately preceding it."—Weld's Gram., 2d Edition, p. 181. "There are irregular expressions occasionally to be met with, which usage or custom rather than analogy, sanction."—Ib., p. 143. "He added an anecdote of Quinn's relieving Thomson from prison."—Ib., p. 150. "The daily labor of her hands procure for her all that is necessary."—Ib., p. 182. "Its being me, need make no change in your determination."—Hart's Gram., p. 128. "The classification of words into what is called the Parts of Speech."—Weld's Gram., p. 5. "Such licenses may be explained under what is usually termed Figures."—Ib., p. 212.

"Liberal, not lavish, is kind nature's hands."—Ib., p. 196.

"They fall successive and successive live."—Ib., p. 213.

LESSON III.—ANY PARTS OF SPEECH.

"A figure of Etymology is the intentional deviation in the usual form of a word."—Weld's Gram., 2d Edition, p. 213. "A figure of Syntax is the intentional deviation in the usual construction of a word."—Ib., 213. "Synecdoche is putting the name of the whole of anything for a part or a part for the whole."—Ib., 215. "Apostrophe is turning off from the regular course of the subject to address some person or thing."—Ib., 215. "Even young pupils will perform such exercises with surprising interest and facility, and will unconsciously gain, in a little time, more knowledge of the structure of Language than he can acquire by a drilling of several years in the usual routine of parsing."—Ib., Preface, p. iv. "A few Rules of construction are employed in this Part, to guide in the exercise of parsing."—Ibidem. "The name of every person, object, or thing, which can be thought of, or spoken of, is a noun."—Ib., p. 18; Abridged Ed., 19. "A dot, resembling our period, is used between every word, as well as at the close of the verses."—W. Day's Punctuation, p. 16; London, 1847. "Casting types in matrices was invented by Peter Schoeffer, in 1452."—Ib., p. 23. "On perusing it, he said, that, so far from it showing the prisoner's guilt, it positively established his innocence."—Ib., p. 37. "By printing the nominative and verb in Italic letters, the reader will be able to distinguish them at a glance."—Ib., p. 77. "It is well, no doubt, to avoid using unnecessary words."—Ib., p. 99. "Meeting a friend the other day, he said to me, 'Where are you going?'"—Ib., p. 124. "John was first denied apples, then he was promised them, then he was offered them."—Lennie's Gram., 5th Ed., p. 62. "He was denied admission."—Wells's School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 146. "They were offered a pardon."—Pond's Murray, p. 118; Wells, 146. "I was this day shown a new potatoe."—DARWIN: Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 179; Imp. Gram., 128; Frazee's Gram., 153; Weld's, 153. "Nouns or pronouns which denote males are of the masculine gender."—S. S. Greene's Gram., 1st Ed., p. 211. "There are three degrees of comparison—the positive, comparative, and superlative."—Ib., p. 216; First Les., p. 49. "The first two refer to direction; the third, to locality."—Ib., Gr., p. 103. "The following are some of the verbs which take a direct and indirect object."—Ib., p. 62. "I was not aware of his being the judge of the Supreme Court."—Ib., p. 86. "An indirect question may refer to either of the five elements of a declarative sentence."—Ib., p. 123. "I am not sure that he will be present = of his being present."—Ib., p. 169. "We left on Tuesday."—Ib., p. 103. "He left, as he told me, before the arrival of the steamer."—Ib., p. 143. "We told him that he must leave = We told him to leave."—Ib., p. 168. "Because he was unable to persuade the multitude, he