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AN

ELEMENTARY GRAMMAR

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

BY SIMON KERL, A.M.

TWENTY-FIRST EDITION.

JOHN S. PRELL

Civil & Mechanical Engineer.

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

NEW YORK:

IVISON, PHINNEY, BLAKEMAN & CO.,
CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS & CO.

1868.

KERL'S

SERIES OF ENGLISH GRAMMARS.

Kerl's Elementary English Grammar.-In the rapidity of its sales, this little treatise, according to its age, has surpassed every similar book ever published in this country. It contains, in a very compact and systematic form, about as much grammar as the majority of children have time to learn in our common public schools. It is, at the same time, so nearly identical with the first part of the large Grammar, as to enable the pupil to begin that book at Part Second, or even on p. 122. Pages, 164; well printed and bound.

Kerl's Comprehensive English Grammar.—This book is designed to be a thorough Practical Grammar, for the use of Common Schools. Nearly all that it contains beyond what the generality of Grammars have, will be new and useful. To its sections on VERBS, PREPOSITIONS, CONJUNCTIONS, PARSING, ANALYSIS, VERSIFICATION, PUNCTUATION, CAPITAL LETTERS, RHETORICAL FIGURES, and FALSE SYNTAX, particular attention is directed; and also to the arrangement of matter and to the copious ILLUSTRATIONS and EXERCISES. 375 pp., 12mo.

Kerl's Common-School Grammar.-This book is of an intermediate grade between the two foregoing ones; and it contains, besides, the most important historical elements of the English language. It is, however, so elementary, and yet so comprehensive, that it does not require either of the other books. Great care has been taken to make it, in matter, method, arrangement, and typography, as good as it can be made. About 300 pages. Nearly ready.

Large 8vo.

Kerl's Treatise on the English Language. — This book is designed for High-Schools, Colleges, and Private Students. In preparation.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862,

By SIMON KERL,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Columbia.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864,
BY SIMON KERL,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Electroyped by SMITH & MCDOUGAL, 82 & 84 Beekman-street.

Educntima

Add to Lib.

GIFT

JOHN S. PRELL

890

Civil & Mechanical Engineer. K39

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
PREFACE.

1868 Educ

THIS little book is designed for beginners, for Public Schools, and as an intro, duction to the Comprehensive Grammar.

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It is the result of much labor and care, and of considerable experience in teaching. In proportion to its size, it contains more grammar, with all the necessary illustrations and exercises, than any similar book with which the author is acquainted. It affords the pupil ample facilities for mastering all the parts of speech, for analyzing plain sentences, and for correcting the common errors of language. The arrangement of matter is unusually simple, progressive, and logical. According to the present system of teaching the English language, the main object of an English grammar should be, to show the construction of the language, and to correct the popular errors, which, from ignorance or carelessness, naturally grow out of this construction. Hence I have first presented the etymological properties, attended below by a set of exercises running parallel with the text; then the syntactical properties, with exercises; then the etymological and syntactical properties combined, first, in the whole circuit of right construction, called Parsing, and, secondly, in the whole circuit of misconstruction, called False Syntax; then the construction of language on that grander scale which is called Analysis; and, lastly, under the head of Prosody, whatever is needed, as finish and ornament, to complete the subject.

I have endeavored to make the study of grammar as interesting and practical as it can possibly be made; to simplify and abridge definitions and classifications; to simplify Parsing and Analysis, by removing all superfluous machinery, and making them more of a self-evident and common-sense affair; to follow everywhere the natural order of things, except where the pupil's limited ability requires variation; and to introduce difficult subjects by familiar and striking explanations, without requiring the pupil to learn a series of questions and answers from which he can but guess the principles.

The catechetic system has been adopted to some extent, because it seems to be the best for beginners; but care has been taken not to abuse it. The arrangement of question, answer, and illustrations, is simple and direct. The labor of the pupil, too, can be thus often lightened, by throwing the less important matter into the question, and burdening his mind with not more than the chief idea. Where definitions seem rather long, it will generally be found that they are enumerative, or consist of contrasted parts, and are therefore more easily learned. We should show to children not merely the essence in an apothecary's bottle, but take them to the bush on which the roses grow. The examples to illustrate the text are therefore numerous and prominent, and the parts referred to are made obvious by means of Italics and small capitals. This mode of presenting the subject is not unlike the approved method of teaching by "object lessons."

Since difficult words could not always be well avoided, most of them have been explained on the lower margins of the pages. To understand fully what we are to learn, is the first great requisite in studying; pupils can not, therefore, acquire too soon the habit of referring to a good dictionary for the meaning of every word which they do not understand.

Sometimes words are explained a little before the page to which they belong, and sometimes the exercises are a little beyond the page to which they belong; but all the related parts have been arranged as nearly together as typography would allow.

This little book is made so nearly identical with Part First of the Comprehensive Grammar, that, when the pupil has learned the Elementary Grammar, he may begin the Comprehensive at Part Second, and use Part First as a review of the smaller treatise.

206

SYNOPSIS.

1. Introductory View, or an Outline.-Letters, syllables, words, subjects, predicates, phrases, propositions, clauses, sen

tences.

2. Nouns and Pronouns.—CLASSES: nouns, proper and common; pronouns, — personal, relative, and interrogative. PROPERTIES: genders,-masculine, feminine, common, and neuter; persons, first, second, and third; numbers,-singular and plural; cases, nominative, possessive, and objective. Declension. Exercises.

3. Articles.-Kinds; definite and indefinite. How a and an should be used. Exercises.

4. Adjectives.-CLASSES: descriptive, and definitive with sub-classes. Degrees of comparison; positive, comparative, and superlative. List of adjectives that are not regularly compared. Exercises.

5. Verbs.-CLASSES: verbs finite, participles, and infinitives; regular verbs, irregular verbs, list of irregular verbs; transitive and intransitive. PROPERTIES: voices,-active and passive; moods,—indicative, subjunctive, potential, imperative, infinitive; tenses, present, past, future, perfect, pluperfect, future-perfect, with forms-common, emphatic, progressive, and passive; persons and numbers. Participles and infinitives. Auxiliary verbs. Formation of the tenses. Conjugation. Exercises.

6. Adverbs. Their chief characteristics. Large list, carefully classified. Exercises.

7. Prepositions. Their chief characteristics. Adjuncts. List of prepositions. Exercises.

8. Conjunctions.CLASSES; coördinate, subordinate, corresponding. List of conjunctions, classified according to their meanings. Exercises.

9. Interjections.-List, classified according to the emotions. 10. Rules of Syntax.-The relations of words to one another, in the structure of sentences. Exercises under each Rule. 11. Parsing.-Formulas, models, and examples.

12. False Syntax.-Examples to be corrected, under the Rules and other principles of grammar.

13. Analysis of Sentences.-Principles, with exercises. Formulas. Sentences analyzed. Thought and its expression. The six elements. Exercises. Gray's Elegy.

14. Prosody.-Punctuation, figures, and versification.

ELEMENTARY GRAMMAR.

1. INTRODUCTORY VIEW.

What is language?

Language is the medium by which we express our thoughts.

Of what does language consist?

Of a great variety of sounds, which are used as the signs of our ideas, and are called words.

To what may all these sounds be reduced?

To a small number of simple sounds, which are made intelligible to the eye, as well as to the ear, by means of certain marks called letters.

Language thus becomes both spoken and written.

What is a letter?

A letter is a character that denotes one or more of the elementary sounds of language.

EXAMPLES: A, b, c; age, at, art, all; bubble; cent, cart.

Always read the examples carefully, reflecting upon each, so that you

may learn clearly and fully what is meant by the definition.

Grammar is the science which teaches us to speak and write correctly. English Grammar teaches how to speak and write the English language correctly.

Grammar may be divided into five parts; raphy, Etymology, Syn'tax, and Pros'ody.

Pronuncia' tion, Orthog'(Spelling, pronunciation,

and derivation, should be learned chiefly from spelling-books.)

Words Explained.-Grammar is derived from the Greek word gramma, a letter, and thence writing; because the need of a knowledge of language is greatest, or most felt, when we undertake to write it, and hence language became an object of study chiefly with a view to writing it. A science is a branch of knowledge put together in some proper order. El-e-ment-a-ry, simple, what we begin with; containing what is most important. Introductory, leading in. Lan'guage, from the Latin lingua, tongue; because the tongue is the chief organ of speech. Me-di-um; that through which a thing passes, or by which it is conveyed. Ide'ä; the picture or notion of a thing, in the mind. Intelligible, such that it can be understood. Character, a mark or sign. Example, what shows or proves, a pattern. Reflecting, thinking back upon. Defini'tion; a short description of a thing, to distinguish it from different things, by telling what it is.

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