Was the pantomime art in much repute at Rome? What made language in its infancy metaphorical? Was it the barrenness of language alone that gave rise to metaphorical language? What else gave rise to metaphors? When did language lose that figurative style which was its early character? For what are figures of speech now reserved? Rise and Progress of Language and of Writing. Is there any difference between the ancient and modern arrangement of words in a sentence? Of what use will a consideration of this dif ference be? If a savage, unacquainted with words, desired some fruit, which he requested another would give him, how would he strive to make himself understood? Suppose him to have acquired words, how would he arrange them? Why? Do we find this in reality the order in which words were arranged in the infancy of language? How do modern Europeans arrange words in a sentence? What is this order called? Is the ancient or modern arrangement the most animated? Which allows of the greatest transposition and inversion, poetry or prose? Do modern tongues vary in this respect? Was writing prior, or posterior, to speech, in the order of time? Of how many kinds are its characters ? What are signs of things? What was the first attempt towards writing! How do you account for these being the first? Where did this kind of writing exist when C 0lumbus first discovered America? Did it answer the purpose of recording fiac ts correctly? What was the second stage of the art of wristing? Of what did they consist? Give an example. Where was this kind of writing brought inte> a regular art? What was the next attempt towards the art of writing? What nation now makes use of these characters? Of what is each character expressive? Is the number of them large? Can nations who speak different languaget: converse intelligibly by these characters? Have we any example of this kind of writing"? What was invented to remedy the imperfections of these modes of writing? To whom are we indebted for the discovery of letters? By whom were they brought into Greece? How many letters did his alphabet contain? Is it probable that all the alphabets of the different nations were derived from the same source? What was the ancient order of writing? What is the present established order? When was paper invented? Structure of Language. What is the foundation of grammar, and the most ancient parts of speech? How do you account for their being the first? How did men contrive to distinguish what individual of a genus or species was meant, when they wished to designate one thing? How many are there in English? What else belong to nouns? What is number? How is the origin of the dual number accounted for? To what can gender be applied with propriety? Is this distinction preserved in all languages? In what languages is the neuter gender wholly unknown? In what languages is the distinction of gender philosophically preserved? What does case denote ? Do all tongues agree in this mode of expression? How do these languages express the relation of objects? Have English nouns any case? Has beauty or utility been given to language by the abolition of cases? What advantage results from this abolition of cases? What disadvantages? What are the greatest disadvantages? What are pronouns ? To what are they subject? Are all the pronouns distinguished by gender? Why? What are adjectives? Are they found in all languages? Structure of Language. English Tongue. Of how many tenses do we naturally think? Which tense may be considered as one indi- visible point? How many past tenses have we in English? How many varieties are there in the future time? Explain them. What else do verbs admit? For what are modes intended? How does the indicative mode express an action? How the imperative? How the subjunctive? What constitutes the conjugation of a verb? In what language is conjugation nearest perfection? Do Modern, or Oriental, languages excel in this respect? What in our language supersedes different terminations of modes and tenses? Which formed the ancient conjugation? What are adverbs? For what do conjunctions and prepositions serve? For what are conjunctions commonly employed? For what are prepositions? Of what languages is the English language compounded? What advantages attend a compound language? What do you understand by the flexibility of language? Upon what does it depend? What languages possessed these requisites in the highest degree? In what did the Latin differ? Among modern tongues, which is the most flexible? Is our language destitute of flexibility? What proves that our language is not destitute of harmony? What constitutes the character of the English language? What other peculiar property does it possess Of what error is this the cause? What is necessary in order to speak and write with propriety? Can we catch an elegant and correct style by the ear, or acquire it by reading good authors? Style, Perspicuity and Precision. What is style? Under how many heads may the qualities of a good style be ranged? What is the fundamental quality? What does it require? When considered with respect to words and phrases, what does it require? What is purity? What is propriety? What does it imply? May style be pure, and yet deficient in propriety? Can it be proper, without being pure? What does precision signify? In how many ways may words, employed to express ideas, be faulty? Explain them. Can you define the difference between courage and fortitude? What is the great source of a loose style? Are there many words really synonymous? |