Page images
PDF
EPUB

NEW

LANGUAGE LESSONS:

AN ELEMENTARY

GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.

By WILLIAM SWINTON,

66

AUTHOR OF "HARPER'S LANGUAGE SERIES," BIBLE WORD-BOOK," ETC.

EXONT

ΣΟΥΣΙΝ

NEW YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,

FRANKLIN SQUARE.

[ocr errors]

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
EDUCATION DEPS,

PREFACE.

THE present text-book is a new-modelling and rewriting of Swinton's Language Lessons. It has grown out of a double motive -first, the desire of better fitting it to fill its place as the intermediate book of Harper's "New Language Series ;" and, next, the conviction that an elementary manual might be made, which, combining the essentials of English Grammar and Composition, should find especial welcome in ungraded schools.

The remarkable favor with which the Language Lessons was received has suggested the propriety of retaining, in the new book, at least the spirit of the old. In that work the author's theory was set forth in the following words:

"This book is an attempt to bring the subject of language home to children at the age when knowledge is acquired in an objective way, by practice and habit, rather than by the study of rules and definitions. In pursuance of this plan, the traditional presentation of grammar in a bristling array of classifications, nomenclatures, and paradigms has been wholly discarded. The pupil is brought in contact with the living language itself: he is made to deal with speech, to turn it over in a variety of ways, to handle sentences; so that he is not kept back from the exercise so profitable and interesting-of using language till he has mastered the anatomy of the grammarian. Whatever of technical grammar is here given is evolved from work previously done by the scholar."

541632

In the actual test of the school-room during the past four years, it has been found that the vitalizing elements of the Language Lessons are, first, the analytic or inductive method of unfolding the theory of language; and, secondly, the affluence of constructive work. Accordingly, in the preparation of the present book these approved features have been retained; but it has been the author's aim to remould the book on a more comprehensive plan, with a more systematic arrangement and a more orderly development of the subject. Wherever the book was thought to be weak for instance, according to many, on the side of too great a neglect of grammatical forms-it has been "toned up;" and, throughout, the effort has been made to produce a thorough, working text-book.

[ocr errors]

as,

To the thousands of teachers who gave the old Language Lessons a reception exceptional in the history of text-books, the author desires to commend the New Language Lessons as being, in his belief, more worthy of their acceptance, and, in his hope, a nearer approach to their ideal.

Dec., 1877.

WILLIAM SWINTON.

[blocks in formation]

Abstract noun, definition of, 62.
Active voice, 103.

Adjective, definition of, 6; use of, as
modifier, 29; qualifying, 71; limit-
ing, 72; proper, 71; pronominal, 73;
irregular, comparison of, 97; com-
parison of, 96; syntax of, 123; pred-
icate, syntax of, 125.

Adjunct, definition of, 28, 144.
Adverb, definition of, 9; use of, as mod-
ifier, 42; simple, 78; conjunctive, 78;
comparison of, 97; syntax of, 131;
misuse of, 125.
An, article, 6.

Analysis, definition of, 144; of the sim-
ple sentence, 148-150; of complex
sentences, 154-157; of the compound
sentence, 162-164.

Antecedent, definition of, 68.
Apposition, explanation of, 36; syntax
of, 127.

Article, definite, 72; indefinite, 72; use
of, 72, 73; syntax of, 124.
Auxiliary verb, 103.

Bills, forms of, 176.

Capitals, rules for use of, 21, 61, 71.
Case, definition of, 89; nominative, 89;

« PreviousContinue »