Lectures on Language | Page 3

the public voice.

CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
GENERAL VIEW OF LANGUAGE.
Study of Language long considered difficult.--Its importance.--Errors in teaching.--Not understood by Teachers.--Attachment to old systems.--Improvement preferable.--The subject important.--Its advantages.--Principles laid down.--Orthography.--Etymology.--Syntax.-- Prosody.
LECTURE II.
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE.
General principles of Language.--Business of Grammar.--Children are Philosophers.--Things, ideas, and words.--Actions.--Qualities of things.--Words without ideas.--Grammatical terms inappropriate.-- Principles of Language permanent.--Errors in mental science.--Facts admit of no change.--Complex ideas.--Ideas of qualities.--An example.--New ideas.--Unknown words.--Signs without things signified.--Fixed laws regulate matter and mind.
LECTURE III.
WRITTEN AND SPOKEN LANGUAGE.
Principles never alter.--They should be known.--Grammar a most important branch of science.--Spoken and written Language.--Idea of a thing.--How expressed.--An example.--Picture writing.--An anecdote.--Ideas expressed by actions.--Principles of spoken and written Language.--Apply universally.--Two examples.--English language.--Foreign words.--Words in science.--New words.--How formed.
LECTURE IV.
ON NOUNS.
Nouns defined.--Things.--Qualities of matter.--Mind.--Spiritual beings.--Qualities of mind.--How learned.--Imaginary things.--Negation. --Names of actions.--Proper nouns.--Characteristic names.--Proper nouns may become common.
LECTURE V.
ON NOUNS AND PRONOUNS.
Nouns in respect to persons.--Number.--Singular.--Plural.--How formed.--Foreign plurals.--Proper names admit of plurals.--Gender.--No neuter.--In figurative language.--Errors.--Position or case.--Agents.-- Objects.--Possessive case considered.--A definitive word.--Pronouns.-- One kind.--Originally nouns.--Specifically applied.
LECTURE VI.
ON ADJECTIVES.
Definition of adjectives.--General character.--Derivation.--How understood.--Defining and describing.--Meaning changes to suit the noun.--Too numerous.--Derived from nouns.--Nouns and verbs made from adjectives.--Foreign adjectives.--A general list.--Difficult to be understood.--An example.--Often superfluous.--Derived from verbs.--Participles.--Some prepositions.--Meaning unknown.--With.-- In.--Out.--Of.
LECTURE VII.
ON ADJECTIVES.
Adjectives.--How formed.--The syllable ly.--Formed from proper nouns. --The apostrophe and letter s.--Derived from pronouns.--Articles.--A comes from an.--Indefinite.--The.--Meaning of a and the.-- Murray's example.--That.--What.--"Pronoun adjectives."--Mon, ma.--Degrees of comparison.--Secondary adjectives.--Prepositions admit of comparison.
LECTURE VIII.
ON VERBS.
Unpleasant to expose error.--Verbs defined.--Every thing acts.--Actor and object.--Laws.--Man.--Animals.--Vegetables.--Minerals.--Neutrality degrading.--Nobody can explain a neuter verb.--One kind of verbs.--You must decide.--Importance of teaching children the truth.--Active verbs.--Transitive verbs false.--Samples.--Neuter verbs examined.--Sit.--Sleep.--Stand.--Lie.--Opinion of Mrs. W.--Anecdote.
LECTURE IX.
ON VERBS.
Neuter and intransitive.--Agents.--Objects.--No actions as such can be known distinct from the agent.--Imaginary actions.--Actions known by their effects.--Examples.--Signs should guide to things signified.-- Principles of action.--=Power=.--Animals.--Vegetables.--Minerals.--All things act.--Magnetic needle.--=Cause=.--Explained.--First Cause.--=Means=.--Illustrated.--Sir I. Newton's example.--These principles must be known.--=Relative= action.--Anecdote of Gallileo.
LECTURE X.
ON VERBS.
A philosophical axiom.--Manner of expressing action.--Things taken for granted.--Simple facts must be known.--Must never deviate from the truth.--Every cause will have an effect.--An example of an intransitive verb.--Objects expressed or implied.--All language eliptical.--Intransitive verbs examined.--I run.--I walk.--To step.-- Birds fly.--It rains.--The fire burns.--The sun shines.--To smile.--Eat and drink.--Miscellaneous examples.--Evils of false teaching.--A change is demanded.--These principles apply universally.--Their importance.
LECTURE XI.
ON VERBS.
The verb =to be=.--Compounded of different radical words.--=Am=. --Defined.--The name of Deity.--Ei.--=Is=.--=Are=.--=Were=, =was=.--=Be=.--A dialogue.--Examples.--Passive Verbs examined.--Cannot be in the present tense.--The past participle is an adjective.
LECTURE XII.
ON VERBS.
=Mood=.--Indicative.--Imperative.--Infinitive.--Former distinctions.-- Subjunctive mood.--=Time=.--Past.--Present.--Future.--The future explained.--How formed.--Mr. Murray's distinction of time.--Imperfect.-- Pluperfect.--Second future.--How many tenses.--=Auxiliary Verbs=.--Will. --Shall.--May.--Must.--Can.--Do.--Have.
LECTURE XIII.
ON VERBS.
Person and number in the agent, not in the action.--Similarity of agents, actions, and objects.--Verbs made from nouns.--Irregular verbs.--Some examples.--Regular Verbs.--Ed.--Ing.--Conjugation of verbs.--To love.--To have.--To be.--The indicative mood varied.--A whole sentence may be agent or object.--Imperative mood.--Infinitive mood.--Is always future.
LECTURE XIV.
ON CONTRACTIONS.
A temporary expedient.--Words not understood.--All words must have a meaning.--Their formation.--Changes of meaning and form.--Should be observed.--=Adverbs=.--Ending in ly.--Examples.--Ago.--Astray.--Awake. --Asleep.--Then, when.--There, where, here.--While, till.--Whether, together.--Ever, never, whenever, etc.--Oft.--Hence.--Perhaps.--Not. --Or.--Nor.--Than.--As.--So.--Conjunctions.--Rule 18.--If.--But.--Tho. --Yet.

LECTURES ON LANGUAGE.

LECTURE I.
GENERAL VIEW OF LANGUAGE.
Study of Language long considered difficult.--Its importance.--Errors in teaching.--Not understood by Teachers.--Attachment to old systems.--Improvement preferable.--The subject important.--Its advantages.--Principles laid down.--Orthography.--Etymology.-- Syntax.--Prosody.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
It is proposed to commence, this evening, a course of Lectures on the Grammar of the English Language. I am aware of the difficulties attending this subject, occasioned not so much by any fault in itself, as by the thousand and one methods adopted to teach it, the multiplicity of books pretending to "simplify" it, and the vast contrariety of opinion entertained by those who profess to be its masters. By many it has been considered a needless affair, an unnecessary appendage to a common education; by others, altogether beyond the reach of common capacities; and by all, cold, lifeless, and uninteresting, full of doubts and perplexities, where the wisest have differed, and the firmest often changed opinions.
All this difficulty originates, I apprehend, in the wrong view that is taken of the subject. The most beautiful landscape may appear at great disadvantage, if viewed from an unfavorable position. I would be slow to believe that the means on which depends the whole business of the community, the study of the sciences, all improvement upon the past, the history of all nations in all ages of the world, social intercourse, oral or written, and, in a great measure, the knowledge of God, and the hopes of immortality, can be either unworthy of study, or, if rightly explained, uninteresting in the acquisition. In fact, on the principles I am about to advocate, I have seen the deepest interest manifested, from the small child to the grey-headed sire, from the mere novice to the statesman and philosopher, and all alike seemed to be edified and improved by the attention bestowed upon the subject.
I confess, however, that with the mention of grammar, an association of ideas are called up by no means agreeable. The mind