Higher Lessons in English | Page 8

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LESSON 8.
CLASSES OF WORDS.
NOUNS.
+Introductory Hints+.--We have now reached the point where we must
classify the words of our language. But we are appalled by their
number. If we must learn all about the forms and the uses of a hundred
thousand words by studying these words one by one, we shall die
ignorant of English grammar.
But may we not deal with words as we do with plants? If we had to
study and name each leaf and stem and flower, taken singly, we should
never master the botany even of our garden-plants.
But God has made things to resemble one another and to differ from
one another; and, as he has given us the power to detect resemblances
and differences, we are able to group things that have like qualities.
From certain likenesses in form and in structure, we put certain flowers
together and call them roses; from other likenesses, we get another
class called lilies; from others still, violets. Just so we classify trees and
get the oak, the elm, the maple, etc.
The myriad objects of nature fall into comparatively few classes.
Studying each class, we learn all we need to know of every object in it.
From their likenesses, though not in form, we classify words. We group
them according to their similarities in use, or office, in the sentence.
Sorting them thus, we find that they all fall into eight classes, which we

call Parts of Speech.
We find that many words name things--are the names of things of
which we can think and speak. These we place in one class and call
them +Nouns+ (Latin nomen, a name, a noun).
PRONOUNS.
Without the little words which we shall italicize, it would be difficult
for one stranger to ask another, "Can you tell me who is the postmaster
at B?" The one would not know what name to use instead of you, the
other would not recognize the name in the place of me, and both would
be puzzled to find a substitute for who.
I, you, my, me, what, we, it, he, who, him, she, them, and other words
are used in place of nouns, and are, therefore, called +Pronouns+ (Lat.
pro, for, and nomen, a noun).
By means of these handy little words we can represent any or every
object in existence. We could hardly speak or write without them now,
they so frequently shorten the expression and prevent confusion and
repetition.
+DEFINITION.--A Noun is the name of anything.+
+DEFINITION.--A Pronoun is a word used for a noun.+
The principal office of nouns is to name the things of which we say, or
assert, something in the sentence.
+Direction+.---Write, according to the model, the names of things that
can burn, grow, melt, love, roar, or revolve.
+Model.+-- Nouns. Wood | Paper | Oil | Houses + burn or burns. Coal |
Leaves | Matches | Clothes |
+Remark.+--Notice that, when the subject adds s or es to denote more
than one, the predicate does not take s. Note how it would sound if both
should add s.

+Every subject+ of a sentence is a +noun+, or some word or words
used as a noun. But not every noun in a sentence is a subject.
+Direction.+--Select and write all the nouns and pronouns, whether
subjects or not, in the sentences given in Lesson 18.
In writing them observe the following rules:--
+CAPITAL LETTER--RULE.--Proper, or individual, names and
words derived from them begin with capital letters.+
+PERIOD and CAPITAL LETTER--RULE.--Abbreviations generally
begin with capital letters and are always followed by the period.+
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LESSON 9.
CAPITAL LETTERS.
+Direction.+--From the following words select and write in one column
those names that distinguish individual things from others of the same
class, and in another column those words that are derived from
individual names:--
Observe Rule 1, Lesson 8.
ohio, state, chicago, france, bostonian, country, england, boston, milton,
river, girl, mary, hudson, william, britain, miltonic, city, englishman,
messiah, platonic, american, deity, bible, book, plato, christian,
broadway, america, jehovah, british, easter, europe, man, scriptures,
god.
+Direction.+--Write the names of the days of the week and the months
of the year, beginning each with a capital letter; and write the names of
the seasons without capital letters.
+Remember+ that, when a class name and a distinguishing word
combine to make one individual name, each word begins with a capital

letter; as, Jersey City. [Footnote: Dead Sea is composed of the class
name sea, which applies to all seas, and the word Dead, which
distinguishes one sea from all others.]
But, when the distinguishing word can by itself be regarded as a
complete name, the class name begins with a small letter; as, river
Rhine.
+Examples+.--Long Island, Good Friday, Mount Vernon, Suspension
Bridge, New