EXERCISE 21.

Explain all root infinitives and participles.

1. We come as Americans to mark a spot which must for

ever be dear to us.

2. We found him to be honest and efficient.

3. It is easy to preach patience, but difficult to practice it.

4. Let nature be your teacher.

5. England expects every man to do his duty.

6. My father taught me to be afraid of nothing.

7. Whom did you think me to be?

8.

9.

He appears to have thought himself the rightful king.
Why do you start, and seem to fear?

10.

The best way to put boyishness to shame is to foster scholarship and true manliness.

11. Lettuce, like most talkers, is apt to run rapidly to seed. 12. He was so foolhardy as to attempt to reach the summit. 13. He lived frugally in order to spend generously.

14. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches.

15. It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it.

16. To be sure, eyes are not so common as people think, or poets would be plentier.

17. Conclave after conclave asked him to be Pope.

18. My spurs are yet to win.

19. No cloud was to be seen in the sky.

20. I have not allowed myself to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind.

21. 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours,

And ask them what report they bore to heaven.

22. Each morning sees some task begin.

23.

He came clattering up to the school door with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making to be held that evening at Farmer Van Tassel's.

24. Be noble ! and the nobleness that lies

In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.

25. They that stand high have many blasts to shake them.
There was nothing to be done but to turn round and go

26.

back.

Make a list of the constructions of the root infinitive, and illustrate each. In sentences 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 15, 20, 25, of Exercise 21, expand the infinitive phrases into clauses. Explain the use of each clause, and determine which you prefer-clause or phrase.

Gerund, or Infinitive in ing.

The gerund has the same form as the present participle, but differs

from it in use: it has the construction of a noun. Like the other verbals, it may take the same modifiers as a verb, but it may also have a possessive modifier; as,

Your writing the letter so neatly secured the position.

We heard of their leaving town.

As the participle may become a mere adjective, so the gerund may become a mere noun, losing its power to take adverbial modifiers and objects; as,

Caesar's crossing the Rubicon precipitated war in Italy. (Gerund.)

The crossing of the Rubicon precipitated war. (Noun.)

In general, when the gerund is modified by the article the, it should not have adverbial or object modifiers, as it has lost its verbal nature.

EXERCISE 22.

Explain the construction of all gerunds, root infinitives, participles, and subordinate clauses.

1. Children learn to speak by watching the lips and catching the words of those who know already.

2. The art of knowing when one is needed is difficult.

3.

4.

The only end of teaching is that men may learn.

It's easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient. 5. The cat did not like being whipped.

6.

Refusing to bare his head to any earthly potentate, Richelieu would permit no eminent author to stand bareheaded in his presence.

7. To the far woods he wandered, listening,

And heard the birds their little stories sing.

8. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,

Each in his narrow cell forever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

9. To sweeten the beverage, a lump of sugar was laid beside each cup, and the company alternately nibbled and sipped with great decorum.

10. The evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race.

11. "Tis only noble to be good.

12. There never was such a child for straying about out of
doors since the world was made.

13. When love begins to sicken and decay,
It useth an enforced ceremony.

Of marching to Philippi presently? 15. It faded on the crowing of the cock.

PART II.

THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

I.

NATURE OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

We have learned that sentences are composed of several different classes of words, each having a distinct use, and that these classes are called parts of speech. They may be thus defined:

A noun is a word that names an object of thought.

A pronoun is a word that designates an object of thought without naming it.

A verb is a word that asserts.

An adjective is a word that modifies the meaning of a noun or

a pronoun.

An adverb is a word that usually modifies the meaning of either a verb, an adjective, or an adverb; a few adverbs may modify prepositions.

A preposition is a word that joins a noun or a pronoun to some other word as a modifier, and shows how the ideas expressed by the two words are related.

A conjunction is a word that connects either clauses, coördinate words or coördinate phrases, and shows how the connected terms are related.

An interjection is a word that is used to express sudden emotion. It is evident from the above definitions that we have two classes of words which express object ideas,-nouns and pronouns. A pronoun is sometimes spoken of as a mere substitute for a noun, but it is much more. The only office of a noun is to name to bring a definite image of some object before the mind. Pronouns, of themselves, bring no definite image before the mind; but they do certain things that nouns cannot do. The pronouns I, you, he, she and it, with their various forms, show what relation the object designated bears to the discourse: I designates the speaker; you, the hearer or hearers; he, she, or it, the person or thing spoken of. This and that show whether an object is thought of as near or distant. The relative pronouns, as we have seen, join clauses in certain definite relations. The interrogative pronouns stand for an unknown element in a thought. Nouns can do none of these things.

We have also two classes of words that express attributes of objects, verbs and adjectives. But while verbs generally express attributes, they are essentially asserting words; while adjectives are purely attributive words or limiting words. Verbs and adjectives differ also in the kinds of attributes which they express. Adjectives. generally express quality; verbs generally express action, and never quality. As qualities are permanent, and actions constantly chang

ing, we may say that adjectives express permanent attributes, and verbs, changing attributes.

We have one class of words, adverbs, which express ideas that modify either attribute ideas or ideas of relation. It is evident that when an adverb is related to a verb or an adjective that expresses an attribute, it expresses some modification of an attribute idea; when it is related to the pure verb or to a preposition, it expresses some modification of a relation. Most adverbs modify attributive verbs, and very few ever modify either the pure verb or a preposition.

Besides the verb, which asserts the relation between the subject of thought and that which is attributed to it, we have two classes of relation words, prepositions and conjunctions. The office of the preposition is to show in what way an object idea modifies some other idea. The office of the conjunction is, primarily, to show the relation between thoughts. Its use as a connective of coördinate words or phrases has grown out of the contraction of compound

sentences.

The interjection is not a "part of speech" in the same sense in which the other classes of words are; for it has no construction in the sentence. As its name implies, it is merely thrown in to express some strong and sudden feeling.

The verbals are not regarded as distinct parts of speech; for their uses are those of either adjectives or nouns. Hence they introduce no new element into the sentence.

Classes of Nouns,

II.

NOUNS AND PRONOUNS.

1. Nouns are either concrete or abstract.

A concrete noun is the name of a substance, or real object. An abstract noun is the name of an attribute separated in thought from the object to which in reality it belongs; as, goodness, strength, beauty, noise, movement.

2. Concrete nouns are either common or proper.

A common noun is a name that may be applied:

(a) to any object of a class; as, man city, tree, robin, house. (b) to any amount of a material; as, air, water, wheat, iron,

glass.

(c) to a number of like objects taken together to form a single group; as, class, audience, swarm, fleet. Such nouns are called collective nouns.

A proper noun is a name that distinguishes an individual object from other objects of the same class; as, Caesar, Rome, Mount Washington, Mississippi, Charter Oak.

3. A proper noun, when written or printed, always begins with a capital letter; but a noun may require a capital on account of its

In

derivation or its original meaning, and yet be a common noun. the following sentence, the capitalized nouns are class names, and hence common nouns:

Several Englishmen, two Frenchmen, and one American were discussing the merits of their respective countries. The names of the seasons are not regarded as proper nouns, and should not be capitalized. The names of the months and of the days of the week are proper nouns, and hence must be capitalized.

Classes of Pronouns.

Pronouns are classified as personal, relative, interrogative, demonstrative, and indefinite.

1. A personal pronoun is a pronoun that marks grammatical person. The simple personal pronouns are I, thou,you, he, she, it, with their case and number forms. The compound personal pronouns are myself, thyself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, with their plurals. These compound pronouns are used either for emphasis or as reflexive objects.

2. A relative pronoun is a word that has the use of both a pronoun and a connective.

The following relative pronouns connect an adjective clause to a preceding word, which is called the antecedent of the pronoun: who, which, that, and sometimes as and but.

The following relative pronouns introduce noun clauses, and contain within themselves the meaning of both antecedent and relative : what, whoever or whosoever, whichever or whichsoever, whatever or whatsoever. They are indefinite in meaning, being equivalent to anything that or anyone who. Who is sometimes used poetically in the meaning of whoever; as,

"Who steals my purse steals trash."

The relative pronoun who refers to persons, which to the lower animals and to inanimate things, and that to any object whatever. The distinction between who and which is comparatively recent. As late as the seventeenth century, which, as well as who, might refer to persons, as in the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father which art in heaven." That is used mainly in restrictive clauses; who and which are used in both restrictive and non-restrictive clauses. As is used as a relative pronoun chiefly after such. But is a negative relative, equivalent to that not. As and but are rarely used as pronouns.

3. An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun that represents the unknown element in a thought. The interrogative pronouns now in use are who, which, and what. Whether was formerly an interrogative pronoun, meaning which of two; as, "Whether of them twain did the will of his father?" This word is now used only as a conjunction.