ENGLISH GRAMMAR. ENGLISH GRAMMAR is the art of speaking and writing the English language with propriety.....It is divided into four parts, viz. 1. ORTHOGRAPHY, 3. SYNTAX, AND 4. PROSODY. THIS division may be rendered more intelligible to young minds, by observing, in other words, that Grammar treats, First, of the form and sound of the letters, the combination of letters into syllables, and syllables into words; Secondly, of the different sorts of words, their various modifications, and their derivation; Thirdly, of the union and right order of words in the formation of a sentence; and Lastly, of the just pronunciation, and poetical construction of sentences. Grammar may be considered as consisting of two species, Universal and Particular. Grammar in general, or Universal Grammar, explains the principles which are common to all languages. Particular Grammar applies those general principles to a particular language, modifying them according to the genius of that tongue, and the established practice of the best speakers and writers by whom it is used. C PART I. ORTHOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. OF THE LETTERS. SECTION I. Of the letters of language—and of a perfect alphabet. Orthography teaches the nature and powers of letters, and the just method of spelling words. A letter is the first principle, or least part, of a word. The letters of the English language, called the English Alphabet, are twenty-six in number. These letters are the representatives of certain articulate sounds, the elements of the language. An articulate sound, is the sound of the human voice, formed by the organs of speech. Language, in the proper sense of the word, signifies the expression of our ideas, and their various relations, by certain articulate sounds, which are used as the signs of those ideas and relations. The faculty of speech is one of the distinguishing characters of our nature; none of the inferior animals being in any degree possessed of it. For we must not call by the name of speech that imitation of human articulate voice, which parrots and some other birds are capable of: speech implying thought, and consciousness, and the power of separating and arranging our ideas, which are faculties peculiar to rational minds. That some inferior animals should be able to mimic human articulation, will not seem wonderful, when we recollect, that even by machines certain words have been expressed in this manner. But that the parrot should annex thought to the word he utters, is scarcely more probable, than that a machine should do so. Rogue and knave are in every parrot's mouth: but the ideas they stand for, are incomprehensible by any other beings, than those endued with reason and a moral faculty. It has however been a common opinion, and it is sufficiently probable, that, among irrational animals, there is something which, by a figure, we may call Language, as the instinctive economy of bees is figuratively called Government. This at least is evident, that the natural voices of one animal are, in some degree, intelligible, or convey particular feelings, or impulses, to others of the same species. But these, and other animal voices that might be mentioned, have no analogy with human speech.—For, first, men speak by art and imitation, whereas the voices in question are wholly instinctive. That a dog, which had never heard another bark, would notwithstanding bark himself, admits of no doubt and that a man, who had never heard any language, would not speak any, is equally certain. Secondly, the voices of brute animals are not broken, or resolvable, into distinct elementary sounds, like those of man when he speaks; nor are they susceptible of that variety, which would be necessary for the communication of a very few sentiments: and it is pretty certain, that, previously to instruction, the young animals comprehend their meaning, as well as the old ones. Thirdly, these voices seem intended by nature to express, not distinct ideas, but such feelings only, as it may be for the good of the species, or for the advantage of man, that they should have the power of uttering: in which, as in all other respects, they are analogous, not to our speaking; but to our weeping, laughing, groaning, screaming, and other natural and audible expressions of appetite and passion. Buffon, in his account of the Ouran-Outang, says, "The tongue, and all the organs of the voice, are similar to those of men, and yet the animal cannot articulate; the brain is formed in the same manner as that of man, and yet the creature wants reason: an evident proof that the parts of the body, how nicely soever formed, are formed to very limited ends, when there is not infused a rational soul to direct their operations." |