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(that, etc.); (2) temporal, expressing time (when, before, since, etc.); (3) local, expressing place (where, beyond, etc.); (4) conditional, expressing condition (if, etc.); and concessional, expressing concession (though, etc.).

A preposition is a part of speech or particle that denotes the relation of an object to an action or thing: so called because it is usually placed before its object. The object is expressed by a noun or pronoun, which with the preposition constitutes an adverbial phrase, and the action or thing by a verb, adjective, or other noun or pronoun. The relation expressed was originally that of space alone, but became extended to time, cause, etc. See language. English prepositions have been divided by Maetzner into (1) those referring originally to a starting-point, as of, from, since; (2) those supposing a movement or direction to an object, as to, toward, till, against, across; (3) those originally containing the idea of position or abiding; as in, on, at, with, among; (4) those that refer decidedly to a contrary determination, as but, save, notwithstanding.

An interjection is a part of speech that expresses sudden emotion, excitement, or feeling, as, oh! alas! hurrah!

This investigation may also include the tracing of the etymology of each word recorded if desired. But, sufficient has been given above to show how much benefit can be obtained by a systematic study of the contents of a dictionary. By turning back it is easy to see that one word leads to the other through the entire series until the whole subject has been traversed, and by following the plan herein outlined, any intelligent person with a dictionary before him can obtain with comparative ease at his desk extended knowledge of any subject on which he may wish

to inform himself. Apply the plan to some other branch of learning, and the result will be the same. The advantages of following such a course of study are various. In addition to acquiring a knowledge of the subject, one, almost unconsciously, learns to spell correctly, acquires an enlarged vocabulary of words and their derivations, and learns how to use them correctly.

The man or woman who purchases a dictionary for the purpose of educating himself purchases the short-cut to a complete education in all that it contains, IF he or she will use it intelligently. Properly used, the dictionary may be made the greatest of all factors in education. Approach it how we may, no matter how wide the range of our knowledge, it teaches us the wisdom of humility, for not one of us is certain that he has a complete mastery of its contents, even though some may delude themselves into believing that they have. He who purchases it may well consider its price a charity to himself.

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VIII

The Function of Grammar

A KNOWLEDGE of the science that treats of the principles which govern the correct use of language in either oral or written form is essential but not indispensable to the correct use of English words. This science is known as grammar which has been defined as "the way to speak and write language correctly." A knowledge of grammar is a desirable adjunct to correct writing, because if one would become a a master of English, one must have an accurate knowledge of the collocation of words and sentences, that is, the treating of their arrangement and relative positions and grammatical connection, producing euphony, clearness, and energy of expression.

Rules governing the correct use of English words are codified and are available in every grammar of the English language, where the exceptions to these rules are not always truthfully told. Grammarians, ever since the best usages of the language have been codified, have split hairs the one with the other so persistently that the student of language is sometimes puzzled to know whether the particular form of expression he wishes to use is or is not correct. In this respect most grammarians are helpless to aid him for they reflect only the views of their compilers. The student, therefore, is often unable to determine what form of expression will pass muster as good English.

A reviewer of Professor Thomas Lounsbury's book, "The

Standard of Usage in English," writing to "The Globe" (New York), lately, said: "Professor Lounsbury is not one of those who lament the lack of an 'authoritative' grammar. He agrees to a certain extent with Forster that 'as soon as grammar is printed it begins to go,' and he subscribes with enthusiasm to the view of a Yale professor that 'language can not be school-mastered.' Professor Lounsbury quotes with appreciation a passage in Scott's diary, where he takes issue with his son-in-law, Lockhart: 'J. G. L. points out some solecisms in my style, as amid for amidst, scarce for scarcely. "Whose," he says, "is the proper genitive of which only at such times as which retains its quality of impersonification." Well! I will try to remember all this, but after all, I write grammar as I speak, to make my meaning known, and a solecism in point of composition, like a Scotch word in speaking, is indifferent to me. . . I believe the Bailiff in "The Good-natured Man" is not far wrong when he says, "One man has one way of expressing himself, and another another, and that is all the difference between them.

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The chief value of Professor Lounsbury's work lies in the fact that it demonstrates clearly (1) that rules of grammar are worthless if they be not founded upon the usages of reputable authors, and (2) that the grammarian who does not accept this usage as his guide shows by this very practise his unfitness for the task he has undertaken, "his own incompetence and the worthlessness of the results he reaches."

In our own time most of the schoolmasters, and the majority of the pedants are eagerly striving to fix the language with rules of grammar. There is a straining toward the austerities of grammatical purity on every side. Our teachers have forgotten that the function of grammar is not

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to anticipate and formulate thought, and its mode of expression, but to follow after them and analyze and describe them. For the earliest English grammar we must go back to the time of the Tudors; William Bullokar in 1586 published "A Bref Grammar for English" which he claimed was "the first grammar for English that ever was,” and he, like many who followed him, set about to harness the language after the Latin model then in use. "Even so late as 1796," says Ramsey1 "the grammar of Thomas Coar, published in London, filled its pages with diagrams like the following:

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The English language is so beset with irregularities and with exceptions to grammatical rule that in its study the dictionary is far more helpful than the treatise on grammar. At the very time the Tudor grammarians were struggling to harness our speech Sir Philip Sidney, in his "Defence of Poesie' said: "Another will say that English wanteth grammar. Nay, truly, it hath that praise that it wants not grammar; for grammar it might have, but needs it not, being so easie in itselfe, and so void of those cumbersome differences of cases, genders, moods and tenses . . . that a man should be put to schoole to learne his mother tongue. But for the uttering sweetly and properly the conceit of

1 "The English Language and English Grammar," p. 49.

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