A First Lesson in "Technical" Grammar.

The writer assumes that technical grammar is not commenced before the seventh year of elementary school instruction. The pupil has become familiar with the terms used in grammar in his language-lesson studies in the lower grades, and can point out the different parts of speech, and the clauses and phrases, and state their uses in easy sen

tences.

He is now ready in the seventh or eighth grade to make the sentence itself an object of study. This study is "technical" grammar.

WHAT IS A THOUGHT?

Teacher: What do you think about this apple? (Presenting the object.) The pupils are asked to think different things about it. (The apple is red; it is nutritious; it is a Baldwin; it is ripe; it has seeds; it grew upon an apple tree; etc.) Encourage the pupils to think as many predicates of it as they can without prolonging the exercise upon one object until the interest flags. Then follow with other objects until they have had a real exercise in thinking. The purpose is to make them do some actual thinking about the object, and not make merely formal statements that are not the expression of serious thought.

The next question seeks to lead the children to reflect upon what they have been doing.

Teacher: "When you say this apple is ripe, what are you thinking about? (the apple). What do you think about it? (is ripe)." Treat other thoughts which they have expressed in a similar way.

The purpose of this set of questions is to distinguish between the subject of the thought and that which is thought about it. That which is thought about the subject is always some attribute of it.

That

is, it describes it in some measure. Even when I say "McKinley is president," that which I think about him is a descrip

Teacher: "Now you may express some thoughts about things not present to your senses."

The purpose of this is to extend the range of the subjects about which the children may think beyond the objects perceived. Treat these thoughts in the same way as the others, distinguishing the subject from the attribute which is thought of it. Let this exercise extend from remembered objects to imaginary objects, forming thoughts and analyzing them into the subject and the attribute which is predicated of it.

Teacher: "When I think that this apple is nutritious, my subject is a real object and the predicate is one of its attributes. Now let us compare the sweetness of an apple with the sweetness of sugar and of honey. Are they all alike?" The final thought reached may be that sweetness is of different kinds or degrees. He sees that in this exercise in thinking, an attribute of several objects has been the object of his thinking, and that he has thought something about that. Now he has come to see that not only real, present objects, and remembered objects, and imaginary objects, but even attributes of objects, also, may become subjects about which we may think something.

Teacher: "When we think something about a subject we form a judgment. What, then, is a thought or judgment?"

Pupils will be encouraged to try to construct a definition, and with the teacher's guidance and suggestions they will finally agree upon something substantially like the following:

A judgment is the conclusion we reach in thinking something about a subject;

or,

When we think we always judge something about a subject; or,

The judgment we form in thinking something about a subject is a thought.

The teacher will note that in this entire exercise the words and sentences have

not been referred to. The purpose has been to set the children to thinking, and then help them to see themselves doing it, so to speak, and tell what they do. The difficulty the child finds in doing this is what makes grammar a difficult study for him. It is true that grammar treats of the sentence, but the sentence that does not contain a real, live thought which the child thinks as he utters the words or writes them down, is not a sentence in the true meaning of that word. tence cannot be divorced from the thought it embodies and remain a sentence. that case it would become merely a string of word-forms. These may be so arranged as to make a sentence-form, but that is no more a sentence than a snake's skin which he has sloughed off is a snake.

A sen

In

We have entitled this article a first

lesson in technical grammar. It should be continued for several lessons, in a modified form, introducing more complex thinking in the other lessons, and until the pupils have acquired some ease in setting off the subjects about which they think, from that which is thought about them. The effort should always be to keep the pupil's attention to the thinking he is doing, and make no mention of the words whatever. He need not at first separate the language from the thought, but consider them one and the same thing; but that thing is the thought and not the symbols by which the thought is given form.

This plan of starting in the first lessons with a recognition of the two elements that must be present in all thinking, will make it clear to the pupils that every sentence must have its two parts corresponding to these. Besides, the pupil learns from the beginning to see the dependence of the sentence-form upon the thinking which it expresses.

This habit of first seeking to make the thought clear before either putting it into a sentence, or before attempting to analyze a sentence which another has constructed, is of the greatest importance to the pupil's success in the mastery of this branch, and to his interest in the study of it. When he is ever tracing the parallelism between the thinking process and the sentence form, and discovering the dependence of the latter upon the former, he is slowly but surely ap

proaching the consciousness that in the study of technical grammar he is becoming familiar with the processes and laws of his own thinking and of the thinking of others. He, by and by, sees that it is true that grammar is a natural science which reveals the processes and laws of the growth of the intelligence, quite in the same way that the study of a plant reveals the processes and laws of its growth.

The opening up of this vista to the child is of quite as much, and even more importance in stimulating his growth into a knowledge of himself, than is the study of the correct forms of sentences in which to embody his thoughts. We have in this last sentence indicated the two chief and convincing reasons for continuing the study of technical grammar in our elementary and high schools, and for not beginning it, as a rule, before the child is twelve or thirteen years of age.

Grammar, when worthily taught, leads toward the study of psychology and logic, as well as philosophy, and thus opens the way to one of the most important departments of human learning.

The reader will see that the next lesson would undertake to define a sentence in the light of its relation to the thinking process of which the sentence is the form or outward expression.

The Middle Voice in English.

tance.

The high priests and the low priests of the mysteries of English Grammar have. ever touched lightly upon the question of voice in English. The scanty morsels of information that they dole out on this most difficult subject give the student no just conception of its scope or imporToo many of our texts have been modeled after Latin grammars. The quantity of dusty nonsense usually found in the so-called English grammars is simply appalling. However, it is gratifying to note that in recent years an attempt has been made to sweep out a great deal of the old scholastic rubbish with which children were formerly crammed and choked in the mistaken effort to teach them how to speak their mother tongue.

But many grammarians and teachers have yet fully to grasp the fact that there really is such a thing as the middle voice in English. It has ever been a fixed principle in the English language and will ever so remain. There are traces of it in Middle English and even in AngloSaxon, our parent speech. The middle voice is a distinctive feature in Greek and Sanskrit, but it seems never to have struck the sages of English grammar that our tongue might have followed in the wake of these languages instead of Latin. Ever persistent have the peda gogues been in their efforts to fasten the principles of Latin grammar upon us as the fundamentals of English. "The strug gle will go on," says an eminent writer, "until at last grammarians and grammar. loving pedagogues, utterly overthrown, will pass peacefully away, and be carried out to sepulture with a funeral service from Lindley Murray read over their venerable remains." However, it is not my purpose in this article to take grammarians to task too severely. The subject we have before us is the question of voice in all of its relations.

"Voice," says Meiklejohn, "is that form of the verb by which we show whether the subject of the statement denotes the doer of the action or the object of the action expressed by the verb." According to this definition we have three well defined voices in English,—the active, passive, and middle. In the active voice the subject of the sentence stands for the doer of the action, as in the sentence: The cat caught the mouse."

In the passive voice the subject of the sentence stands for the object of the action, as "The mouse was caught."

In the middle voice the verb is active in form, but has a passive or semi-passive signification. Thus we can say, "He opened the door" (active); "The door was opened" (passive); "The door opened" (middle). In the last sentence the verb "opened" is active in form yet it is not to be construed in the active voice, for the subject of the statement does not represent the doer of the action. The door has no power of itself to open. It can not open unless acted upon by some agent which in this case is unknown. In order to see the force of the middle

(2) The wood was split easily (passive).

(3) The wood splits easily (middle). II. (1) The farmer plows the ground (active).

(2) The ground was plowed (passive). (3) The ground plows well (middle). III. (1) The merchant sells wheat for one dollar per bushel (active).

(2) The wheat is sold for one dollar per bushel (passive).

(3) Wheat sells for one dollar per bushel (middle).

IV. (1) He breaks the stone readily (active).

(2) The stone is broken readily (pas

sive).

(3) The stone breaks readily (middle). V. (1) The author sold the book (active).

(2) The book was sold (passive).

(3) The book sold well (middle). VI. (1) The butcher cuts the beef (ac

tive).

(2) This beef is cut (passive).

(3) This beef cuts tough (middle).

Many other examples might be cited but the ones just given will be sufficient to convince any deep thinking person that the middle voice exists in English in a well defined form. The non-existence of the middle voice in Latin is no proof of its non-existence in English. The middle voice exists in Greek, but its signification is not quite the same as in English. In the Greek middle voice the subject is usually represented as acting, 1. On himself; 2. For himself; 3. On something belonging to himself. In some cases the middle voice in Greek is used in a passive sense, but in many instances, as in the examples given above, it is used in an active sense. However, the passive voice exists as a distinct form in many Greek verbs.

In Sanskrit the middle voice exists as in Greek, but here it is more often used in a passive sense. The active form is called by Hindu grammarians, parasmai padam, a word for another; and the middle form is called atmane padam, a word

for one's self. In English, the first we would denote by the term transitive, and the second by the term reflexive. The distinction thus expressed is doubtless the original foundation of the difference of active and passive forms; in the recorded condition of the language, however, the antithesis of transitive and reflexive meaning is in no small measure blurred or even altogether effaced. Especially is this true in Sanskrit epics. In Gothic, the passive voice, which only occurs in the indicative and subjunctive present as a separate form, was originally the middle voice. The same thing has taken place in many other languages, and examples might be multiplied indefinitely. The instances already cited are certainly sufficient to establish the antiquity of the middle voice.

Before closing I wish to call attention to the so called copulative verbs, which, according to Harvey, are used to join a predicate to a subject, and to make an assertion. The verb "to be" is the most common and the best defined verb of this kind. Other examples are found in the verbs become, seem, appear, stand, etc. Verbs of this class can not be either in the active or passive voice, for the subject is neither the doer nor the receiver of the action. Such verbs really have no voice, but for convenience we may say that they are in the neuter voice. If we make such a division we may classify a verb in the neuter voice when it is used merely as a joining word and no action is predicated; as, Sugar is sweet;" "He seems honest." The copulative verb is frequently a source of confusion to the beginner, and should be carefully studied. An expression consisting of an asserting word followed by an adjective complement or by a participle used adjectively, may be mistaken for a verb in the passive voice; as, "The coat was badly worn;" "The lady is accomplished;" "The man was drunk before the wine was drunk."

In the last sentence, was in the first clause is the incomplete predicate, and drunk the adjective complement, while in the succeeding clause, was drunk" is the passive voice. A convenient test for the passive voice in such cases is to note whether the thing named by the subject is acted upon, and whether the verb may

On Teaching Oral Reading. The first thing to do in every grade is to lead the pupils to understand the passage to be read. This requires that the teacher learn to put herself in the child's place. It is the purpose of all child-study movements, that are not educational frauds, to enable the teacher to do this. Children of different attainments have different apperceiving abilities. By this is meant that they have different powers of understanding. The more knowledge and experience of life one has the greater is his power to understand. Some children in the lower grades can understand what is dark to pupils in the upper grades, because the former often have more knowledge of things and richer life experiences. When the teacher finds that the pupil cannot participate in those experiences which the reading lesson expresses, she ought to leave that lesson and take up another.

The method of discovering whether the pupil comprehends the thought is by asking him questions; not about the definitions of words so much as about the meaning the writer is trying to convey. This study for the meaning is what is called silent reading.

Oral reading is the art of giving vocal expression to this meaning in the language of the author. This is elocution, and is one of the fine arts. It is a difficult art, primarily because the author's language is not familiar to the child. He is compelled to use new symbols for many of the ideas that are not wholly unknown to him, but which are hardly recognized in their new dress. The dress, too, often adds something of meaning which the idea did not have before.

The crucial test of the pupil's apprehension of the thought of the writer is the modulation of voice, or varying emphasis on the words which he gives in reading it.

To secure the proper emphasis or modulation, the teacher should depend chiefly upon awakening in the pupil the consciousness that his modulation is inadequate to express the thought. When this inadequacy has become evident, and the difficulty is one of inability to control the muscles and the voice, the teacher should bring to the pupil's aid his powers of imitation. Some teachers have made so free a use of imitation, and have relied on it to such an extent that pupils will read with a proper modulation, and appear to be conscious of the meaning, when, in reality, it is chiefly a mechanical performance, and the thought which the words convey to the listener is not in the reader's mind. The pupils have merely learned to imitate the teacher's voice and modulation. Such pupils can read nothing well except what they have been drilled upon.

This analysis of what exists in very many schools will convince every teacher that his chief reliance for good oral reading is on correct thinking of the author's thought. Oral reading is good when it expresses this thought adequately.

Oral reading is artistic when the expression is beautiful as well as adequate. We shall speak of the way to make oral reading beautiful at another time.

Children's School Reading.

After the first two years of school life the purpose of the child's reading should be knowledge and a deeper and broader life experience rather than the mastery of new symbols. The mechanics of reading should be pretty well mastered by the end of the second year. And this, it is found, can be done best by giving the child interesting reading of the nature of Robinson Crusoe, or the Hiawatha stories. During this period the emphasis is placed upon the symbols. After this period the emphasis should be placed upon the experiences the child gains. from the reading, and the gaining of new symbols is subordinated to this.

There is a reason why stories of Indian life are more interesting to young children than is the sermon on the mount. Our child-study friends say truly that Indian life more nearly corresponds to the stage of the child's development than does Bryant's Thanatopsis. There is an important truth in the culture epoch theory that must not be disregarded.

What is read by children in school should be read thoroughly. This is no place for slip-shod, careless work. Nothing should be undertaken that is not worth mastering, so far as the child can be expected to master it. What has a worthy content does not become tiresome, for new things are being constantly discovered in it.

The home reading of the child is apt to be hasty and superficial. The school should seek to make the pupils' reading contribute to an organic method of thinking. This requires that the subject of which the reading treats should be built up in the mind, and that requires time.

The school reading of children should be prepared with an educational end in view. There is now a great flood of children's story books that threaten to drown them in a mass of vaguely conceived ideas and blind feelings. Children and adults as well, become literary inebriates, more hopeless and helpless, when the habit is once fixed, than any whisky inebriate.

We

The reading in the school should lead to some definite educational result. know of no better example of what should be the content and method of such school reading in primary and intermediate grades than McMurry and Husted's Robinson Crusoe, and Husted's Stories of Indian Children. There are others equally good, no doubt, but there are hundreds that seem to have entertainment of the child alone in view, and tend toward the dissipation so harmful to the young.

The chief purpose in writing this paragraph is to urge upon those who select the reading of children in the elementary schools to scrutinize carefully the character and language of the books selected. Neither should the ideas be beyond the child's range of experience, nor should the language contain so many difficulties that the ideas are concealed in the form. The latter especially is fatal to all in

terest.