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Read Ebook: Higher Lessons in English: A work on English grammar and composition by Kellogg Brainerd Reed Alonzo
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To express a thought we use more than a single word, and the words arranged to express a thought we call a sentence.
These first words always deal with the things that can be learned by the senses; they express the child's ideas of these things.
We have spoken of thoughts and sentences; let us see now whether we can find out what a thought is, and what a sentence is.
A sentence is a group of words expressing a thought; it is a body of which a thought is the soul. It is something that can be seen or heard, while a thought cannot be. Let us see whether, in studying a sentence, we may not learn what a thought is.
The sentence, then, consists of two parts,--the name of that of which something is said, and that which is said of it.
The first of these parts we call the +Subject+ of the sentence; the second, the +Predicate+.
LESSON 3.
A TALK ON SOUNDS AND LETTERS.
We have already told you that in expressing our ideas and thoughts we use two kinds of words, spoken words and written words.
We learned the spoken words first. Mankind spoke long before they wrote. Not until people wished to communicate with those at a distance, or had thought out something worth handing down to aftertimes, did they need to write.
But speaking was easy. The air, the lungs, and the organs of the throat and mouth were at hand. The first cry was a suggestion. Sounds and noises were heard on every side, provoking imitation, and the need of speech for the purposes of communication was imperative.
Spoken words are made up of sounds. There are over forty sounds in the English language. The different combinations of these give us all the words of our spoken tongue. That you may clearly understand these sounds, we will tell you something about the human voice.
In talking, the air driven out from your lungs beats against two flat muscles, stretched, like bands, across the top of the windpipe, and causes them to vibrate up and down. This vibration makes sound. Take a thread, put one end between your teeth, hold the other with thumb and finger, draw it tight and strike it, and you will understand how voice is made. The shorter the string, or the tighter it is drawn, the faster will it vibrate, and the higher will be the pitch of the sound. The more violent the blow, the farther will the string vibrate, and the louder will be the sound. Just so with these vocal bands or cords. The varying force with which the breath strikes them and their different tensions and lengths at different times, explain the different degrees of loudness and the varying pitch of the voice.
If the voice thus produced comes out through the mouth held well open, a class of sounds is formed which we call vowel sounds.
But if the voice is held back or obstructed by the palate, tongue, teeth, or lips, one kind of the sounds called consonant sounds is made. If the breath is driven out without voice, and is held back by these same parts of the mouth, the other kind of consonant sounds is formed.
The written word is made up of characters, or letters, which represent to the eye these sounds that address the ear.
You are now prepared to understand us when we say that +vowels+ are the +letters+ that stand for the +open sounds+ of the +voice+, and that +consonants+ are the +letters+ that stand for the sounds made by the +obstructed voice+ and the +obstructed breath+.
The alphabet of a language is a complete list of its letters. A perfect alphabet would have one letter for each sound, and only one.
Our alphabet is imperfect in at least these three ways:--
TO THE TEACHER.--Write these letters on the board, as above, and drill the pupils on the sounds till they can see and make these distinctions. Drill them on the vowels also.
In closing this talk with you, we wish to emphasize one point brought before you. Here is a pencil, a real thing; we carry in memory a picture of the pencil, which we call an idea; and there are the two words naming this idea, the spoken and the written. Learn to distinguish clearly these four things.
TO THE TEACHER.--In reviewing these three Lessons, put particular emphasis on Lesson 2.
LESSON 4.
ANALYSIS AND THE DIAGRAM.
TO THE TEACHER.--If the pupils have been through "Graded Lessons" or its equivalent, some of the following Lessons may be passed over rapidly.
In each of these sentences there are, as you have learned, two parts--the +Subject+ and the +Predicate+.
+Explanation+.--Draw a heavy line and divide it into two parts. Let the first part represent the subject of a sentence; the second, the predicate.
If you write a word over the first part, you will understand that this word is the subject of a sentence. If you write a word over the second part, you will understand that this word is the predicate of a sentence.
LESSON 5.
COMPOSITION--SUBJECT AND PREDICATE.
Ask yourselves the questions, What tarnishes? Who sailed, conquered, etc.?
Ask yourselves the question, Glycerine does what?
TO THE TEACHER.--This exercise may profitably be extended by supplying several subjects to each predicate, and several predicates to each subject.
LESSON 6.
ANALYSIS.
The predicate sometimes contains more than one word.
TO THE TEACHER.--Let this exercise be continued till the pupils can readily point out the subject and the predicate in ordinary simple sentences.
When this can be done promptly, the first and most important step in analysis will have been taken.
LESSON 7.
COMPOSITION--SUBJECT AND PREDICATE.
The helping words in column 2 must be prefixed to words in column 3 in order to make complete predicates. Analyze your sentences.
Review Questions.
What is language proper? What is English grammar? What is a sentence? What are its two parts? What is the subject of a sentence? The predicate of a sentence? The analysis of a sentence? What is a diagram? What rule has been given for the use of capital letters? For the period? May the predicate contain more than one word? Illustrate.
TO THE TEACHER.--Introduce the class to the Parts of Speech before the close of this recitation. See "Introductory Hints" below.
LESSON 8.
CLASSES OF WORDS.
NOUNS.
+Introductory Hints+.--We have now reached the point where we must classify the words of our language. But we are appalled by their number. If we must learn all about the forms and the uses of a hundred thousand words by studying these words one by one, we shall die ignorant of English grammar.
But may we not deal with words as we do with plants? If we had to study and name each leaf and stem and flower, taken singly, we should never master the botany even of our garden-plants.
But God has made things to resemble one another and to differ from one another; and, as he has given us the power to detect resemblances and differences, we are able to group things that have like qualities.
From certain likenesses in form and in structure, we put certain flowers together and call them roses; from other likenesses, we get another class called lilies; from others still, violets. Just so we classify trees and get the oak, the elm, the maple, etc.
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