OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR USED BY THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. NEW YORK II BARCLAY STREET PREFACE. THE present text-book attempts to combine theory with practice. It aims at putting English Grammar on a scientific basis. With this view, it has not lost sight of the Old English in which our language is rooted, and of the various stages through which our language has passed in the process of its growth and development. We are too prone to forget that the English now spoken and written has come to us in its present form, with all its flexibility and power of expression, through many stages in which idioms and terms struggled for existence; that where one expression has survived, hundreds have been destroyed; that the present forms of words and phrases and idioms are intelligible to us only through their past history; and that it is only in a study of the nature and genius of our own language throughout the course of its growth and development that we can steer clear of foisting upon i rules and laws that are foreign to its whole spirit. Grammar is profitable in proportion as it initiates the pupil into familiar acquaintance with the rules and prin ciples governing the construction of the language. How may this be best effected?-The pupil begins by learning iii the nature and functions of the various classes of wor that enter into a sentence. He next learns how to analyze and parse a sentence. He gradually becomes familiar with the forms that are of best usage in the present stage of the language. Parsing and the analysis of sentences are useful in so far as they help the pupil to acquire familiarity with correct forms, and no farther. Therefore, the most definite rule for the study of Grammar which we can lay down is this: Ground the pupil slowly, carefully, and thoroughly in the principles and rules regulating the classification, government, and relation of words, and then show him how admirably these principles and rules have been applied by the best models of pure English. Hand in hand with the grammar should go the spelling-book, the dictionary, and the reading-book, containing the best models, and furnish ing the pupil with ideas which he should recast in his own words. The pupil should be accustomed to use correct grammatical expressions in his remarks and recitations, and to write correct grammatical sentences in his compositions. It is only by such practice, kept up during years of thoughtful study, that the pupil will be enabled to make profitable the study of Grammar as here given. After the rules and principles of Grammar have been fairly mastered, it is of small avail to spend several hours a week in the merely mechanical drill-work of correcting false syntax and parsing sentences. For this reason, it has been deemed best not to overcrowd the pages of Syntax with exercises for parsing. The examples given under each rule will be found sufficient for the purpose. The pupils' time were far more profitably employed in constructing sentences according to models of good English. In the following pages we have practically carried out our method as laid down in the Management of Christian Schools (Chapter ix., pp. 73-84). June 29, 1890. |