Lectures on Language | Page 3

false. But he hopes the reader will avoid a rash and precipitate

conclusion, either for or against, lest he is compelled to do as the author
himself once did, approve what he had previously condemned.
With these remarks he enters the arena, and bares himself to receive the
sentence of 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