Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by SAMUEL S. GREENE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Rhode Island. STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN. EDUCATION DEPT, PREFACE. 66 THIS Introduction to the study of English Grammar is based upon the same general plan as the ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR." The Introductory and Oral Exercises are all brought together in Part I. They embrace a series of lessons commencing with elementary principles entirely familiar to the merest child. By a gradual succession of exercises, which require a constant use of well-known and familiar objects, the learner, almost imperceptibly, masters the different parts of speech. And not only so, he learns their principal properties, and various uses in construction. The inductive method prevails throughout the whole of this part; and such is the nature and arrangement of the Lessons, that a child cannot faithfully perform the exercises without being thoroughly prepared to enter upon the more formal study of Grammar. In Part II., the principles of English Grammar are stated in the form of definitions and rules, to be committed to memory, and applied in the exercises. In preparing this abridgement of the larger work, it has been thought best to exclude the critical Remarks and Notes, rather than the practical Exercises. Hence many discussions important to a thorough knowledge of Grammar are here omitted, and should be supplied, whenever needed, from the Elements. The peculiarities of the work to which the author would call special attention are these: : 1. It begins with what the child already knows, and advances step by step, deriving new facts and new relations, from what is already established and familiar. 2. The order of development is natural and easy. Grammar is the analysis of speech; and when we speak, we utter something of some object. The mind is occupied first with the object itself; then with its qualities, actions, or relations,—and hence, in speaking, we use nouns, or object-words, adjectives, or qualitywords, verbs, or action-words, and so of other classes of words. 3. The relation between expressions and the ideas for which they stand is constantly illustrated by appeals to familiar things, and to the child's own habits of speaking. 4. It requires a perpetual use of the pen or pencil, the only true way to learn to write the English language correctly. 5. It requires at the outset, a strict attention to the rules of criticism. 6. It teaches a child to analyze his own thoughts, and to comprehend and appreciate the expressions he employs in uttering them. It presents the sentence, not only in its parts, consisting of words, phrases, and clauses, but as a whole,—a complete structure designed to convey a thought to the minds of others. The Exercises for practice, in some parts, may not be found sufficient for the beginner. The Teacher will readily supply any deficiency of this kind. Indeed, it will often be best in teaching, to multiply examples given spontaneously by the teacher, or, which is far better, drawn from the members of the class. For a more extended discussion of the various parts, reference should be had to the author's "Elements," or "Analysis of Sentences." PROVIDENCE, September, 1856. S. S. GREENE. CONTENTS. .................................................................. IV. Sentence-Subject and Predicate......... V. The uses of the Noun in the sentence.... VI. Qualities -Adjectives...................... VII. The Adjective in the Predicate XII. Modifying or Limiting-Analysis XIV. Connections-Conjunctions and Interjections XVII. Person, First, Second, Third XVIII. Gender, Masculine, Feminine, Neuter .................. 64 |