94 SETCION I.-Of Complex Sentences Generally II.-Of Co-ordinately combined Complex Sentences. X.-Accusative Sentences. Completive of Verbs XI.-Accusative Sentences. Completive of Adjectives 145 XII.-Adverbial (Circumstantial) Sentences. Com- XIII.-Adverbial Sentences Circumstantial of Place XIV.-Adverbial Sentences Circumstantial of Time XV.-Adverbial Sentences Circumstantial of Manner. THE PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE. INTRODUCTION. SECTION I. THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE. MAN has been endowed with the faculty of THOUGHT; that is, he has the power of forming ideas concerning the various objects that surround him, or that present themselves to his mind; and, as the operations of the mind can neither be seen nor heard, he has also received from his beneficent Creator the gift of SPEECH, by which he is enabled to communicate to his fellowman that which passes in his mind. The faculty of speech has developed itself in LANGUAGE; and, to extend the communication of thought, originally limited to the range within which the voice could be heard, men have invented signs, serving to convey to the mind, through the medium of the eye, the same ideas that would be conveyed by the ear, could the sounds which these signs represent be heard; and we have thus a SPOKEN LANGUAGE and a WRITTEN LANGUAGE. GRAMMAR, as a SCIENCE, treats of the principles of language generally; when practically applied, as an ART, to any particular language, its object is to teach how to speak and write that language correctly. The simplest expressions employed in communicating thought are WORDS, which are articulate B sounds, either simple or complex, represented in writing by signs of one or more syllables. As words represent thoughts, we cannot fully comprehend the various meanings which they express unless we well understand that which passes in the mind. The operations of the mind are CONCEPTION, JUDGMENT, and REASONING. CONCEPTION is a spontaneous action of the mind, by which is presented to it the idea of some object, whether material, as a man, a ship, or an abstraction in a manner realized and regarded as an object, as speed, virtue, science. JUDGMENT is the assertion that an object which we have conceived is distinguished by certain attributes, as, after having conceived the idea of snow and the idea of whiteness, I assert that snow is white. REASONING is the use of previous judgments as the grounds of a new one; as, after having judged that intoxication is injurious, and that opium intoxicates, I thence conclude that opium is injurious. Reasoning is but an extended exercise of judgment. The two more important operations of the mind, therefore, for the grammarian, are conception and judgment, or the object of thought and the impression which it leaves, for thence springs the assertion. Starting from this luminous principle, the true foundation of the metaphysics of language, I shall lead the attentive and diligent pupil from sentences that embody the simplest operations of the understanding; and, proceeding gradually to more extended forms, reach at last the most intricate combinations of words that man has adopted for the purpose of communicating that which passes in the mind. Although the track proposed differs from that commonly pursued, it is one that will assuredly conduct us to the end proposed a clear perception of the PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE, and a perfect knowledge of ENGLISH GRAMMAR. SECTION II. LETTERS AND SYLLABLES. WORDS, in written language, are composed of LETTERS. The letters employed in a language form what is called its ALPHABET: the English Alphabet contains twenty-six letters :-A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Of these a, e, i, o, u, y, are called VOWELS; they can be distinctly articulated by themselves. The other letters are called CONSONANTS, because they can only be sounded in connection with a preceding or succeeding vowel. But y at the beginning of a syllable is regarded as a consonant, and w following a vowel is considered to be a vowel. Each of our vowels represents several distinct sounds, while the same sound may be represented by different letters; and for other sounds, that are in themselves perfectly simple, we have no single vowel, but represent them by a combination of vowels. As an illustration of different sounds represented by the same signs take the letters "ough" in cough, though, plough, through, tough: the same sound is represented by different letters in the words her, sir, cur; or in the words peace, niece, police, fleece, conceit, complete, fatigue. These instances will show the capricious nature of our orthography: an attempt to classify the sounds of our language, and the letters used to represent them, might perhaps assist a foreigner about to acquire it; but to the English student the ART OF SPELLING will be best taught by WRITTEN EXERCISES. When two vowels are so combined in a sole articulation, that, though forming but one syllable, they may each be heard, they constitute what is called a DIPHTHONG, as, "oi" in coin, or "ai" in paid. A TRIPHTHONG is the combination of three vowels in one sound, as in the word view. |