Brainerd Kellogg

“ The assertion that correct diagrams can be made mechanically is not borne out by the facts. It is easier to avoid precision in oral analysis than in written. The diagram drives the pupil to a most searching examination of the sentence, brings him face to face with every difficulty, and compels a decision on every point. ”

“ Define each class. Name the vowels. What is a word? What is artificial language? What is English Grammar? What is a sentence? What is the difference between the two expressions, ripe apples and apples are ripe? What two parts must every sentence have? Define each. What is the analysis of a sentence? What is a diagram? What are parts of speech? How many parts of speech are there? Give an example of each. What is a noun? What is a verb? What must every predicate contain? What is a pronoun? What is a modifier? What is an adjective? What adjectives are sometimes called articles? When is a used? ”

“ The part of speech to which a word belongs is determined only by its function in the sentence, and inflections simply mark the offices and relations of words. Unless the pupil has been systematically trained to discover the functions and relations of words as elements of an organic whole, his knowledge of the parts of speech is of little value. It is not because he cannot conjugate the verb or decline the pronoun that he falls into such errors as "How many sounds have each of the vowels?" ”

“ As all modifiers are joined by slanting lines, to the words they modify, you learn from this diagram that who is wise is a modifier of man.
+Oral Analysis+.—This is a complex sentence, because it consists of an independent clause and a dependent clause. A man will be honored is the independent clause; who is wise is the dependent clause. Man is the subject of the independent clause; will be honored is the predicate. The word A and the clause, who is wise, are modifiers of the subject. A points out man, and who is wise tells the kind of man. A man who is wise is the modified subject ”

“ To prepare the pupil thoroughly for this work, the teacher will find it necessary to explain why such words as music, mathematics, knowledge, etc., are common nouns. Music, e. g., is not a proper noun, for it is not a name given to an individual thing to distinguish it from other things of the same class. There are no other things of the same class—it forms a class by itself. So we call the noun music a common noun. ”

“ Break this long object complement up into two sentences. What do the horses stretch? Where do they stretch their shoulders? How do they stretch? Why do they stretch with more energy? What is the subject of look in 4? The phrase beginning with at and ending with earth does what? Find two other long phrases introduced by at and tell what they do. That seem to grasp the firm earth goes with what? Put the noun feet in place of the pronoun that and make a separate sentence of this group. What word, then, makes an adjective modifier of this sentence and joins it to feet? Does to grasp assert action? ”

“ THE INFINITIVE PHRASE. +Hints for Oral Instruction+.—There is another form of the verb which, like the participle, cannot be the predicate of a sentence, for it cannot assert; as, She went out to see a friend; To lie is a disgrace. As this form of the verb expresses the action, being, or state in a general manner, without limiting it directly to a subject, it is called an +Infinitive+, which means without limit. The infinitive generally follows to; as, to walk, to sleep. ”

“ Do we ordinarily speak of looking anything? In who are looking reproach, what is the object complement of are looking? What long group of words made up of two sentences tells why the beasts are looking reproach? Read separately the main divisions of 2. What conjunction connects these? Is one of these divisions itself divided into parts by commas? Should, then, some mark of wider separation be put between the main divisions of 2? To build so long a sentence as 2 is venturesome. We advise young writers not to make such attempts. It is hard to write very long sentences and keep the meaning clear. ”

“ Personal pronouns and verbs are the only words that distinguish person by their form.
The bear killed the man. The man killed the bear. The bear's grease was made into hair oil. In the first sentence, the bear is represented as performing an action; in the second, as receiving an action; in the third, as possessing something. So the word bear in these sentences has three different uses. These uses of nouns are called +Cases+. The use of a noun as subject is called the +Nominative Case+; its use as object is called the +Objective Case+ ”

“ All good writing consists of good sentences properly joined. Since the sentence is the foundation or unit of discourse, it is all-important that the pupil should know the sentence. He should be able to put the principal and the subordinate parts in their proper relation; he should know the exact function of every element, its relation to other elements and its relation to the whole. He should know the sentence as the skillful engineer knows his engine, that, when there is a disorganization of parts, he may at once find the difficulty and the remedy for it. ”

“ If we say forgetful of the fact, we see that the noun clause means the same as fact and has the same office. What two long noun clauses aroused to complete should remember? What conjunction introduces each of these clauses? What conjunction joins them together? What mark of punctuation between? If one of these noun clauses were not itself divided into clauses by the comma, would the semicolon be needed? The clause beyond ... stomach goes with what word? When ... stomach modifies what verb? Classify the sentences of this paragraph as simple, complex, or compound. ”

“ Pupils may be required to construct short sentences, oral or written, using the Past forms found in Lesson 91 as predicates, and the Past Participle forms either as modifiers or as completing words in compound verbs.
They may be led to some such conclusion as the following:—
The Past is always an asserting, or predicate, word; the Past Participle never asserts, but is used as an adjective modifier or as the completing word of a compound verb; the Present may be used as a predicate or as an infinitive. ”

“ What does often do? What does the group of words for hours do? The group almost motionless describes what things? The group close beneath the mouths of their burrows, used like a single adverb, tells what? Find the two chief words in 2. This helps out the meaning of says, but it is not an adverb. This is here a pronoun standing for the thing said. What whole sentence does this take the place of? Find the subject and the predicate verb in 3. What noun follows this verb to tell what Mr. Darwin noticed? What does occasionally do? ”

“ COMPLEMENTS. +Hints for Oral Instruction+.—When we say, The sun gives, we express no complete thought. The subject sun is complete, but the predicate gives does not make a complete assertion. When we say, The sun gives light, we do utter a complete thought. The predicate gives is completed by the word light. Whatever fills out, or completes, we call a +Complement+. We will therefore call light the complement of the predicate. As light completes the predicate by naming the thing acted upon, we call it the +Object Complement+. ”

“ The pupils may examine such sentences as—
1. Each word and gesture was suited to the thought; 2. Every bud, leaf, and blade of grass rejoices after the warm rain; 3. No dew, no rain, no cloud comes to the relief of the parched earth;—
and note that each, every, and no show that the things named in the different subjects are taken separately, and that the verbs are therefore singular.
Such sentences as—
"In the death of Franklin, a philosopher and statesman was lost to the
world"—
may be given to show that subjects connected by and may name the same thing, and so take a verb in the singular. ”

“ The verdant lawn, the shady grove, the variegated landscape, the boundless ocean, and the starry firmament are beautiful and magnificent objects. 11. When you grind your corn, give not the flour to the devil and the bran to God. 12. That which the fool does in the end, the wise man does at the beginning. ”

“ A complete predicate does the asserting and expresses what is asserted. In the sentence, Armies march, march is a complete predicate, for it does the asserting and expresses what is asserted; viz., marching. In the phrase, armies marching, marching expresses the same act as that denoted by march, but it asserts nothing. In the sentence, Chalk is white, is does the asserting, but it does not express what is asserted. We do not wish to assert merely that chalk is or exists. ”

“ A +paragraph+ is a sentence or a group of related sentences developing one point or one division of a general subject.
The first word of a paragraph should begin a new line, and should be written a little farther to the right than the first words of other lines.
+Direction+.—Combine the following statements into sentences and paragraphs, and make of them a complete composition:—
Water is a liquid. It is composed of oxygen and hydrogen. It covers about three-fourths of the surface of the earth. It takes the form of ice. It takes the form of snow. It takes the form of vapor. ”

“ You are taking the very substance of your body when you burn the lamp of pleasure till one or two o'clock in the morning. God has made sleep to be a sponge with which to rub out fatigue. A man's roots are planted in night, as a tree's are planted in soil, and out of it he should come, at waking, with fresh growth and bloom. As a rule, you should take eight hours of the twenty-four, for sleep.
+The Uses of Words and Groups of Words+.—In the exercises under the selection from the Brothers Grimm what did you learn about there as used twice in the second sentence above? ”

“ But this you will notice: his words are few, plain, and simple; the arrangement of them is easy; and so what is said is said clearly. You are nowhere in doubt about his meaning unless it be in the second paragraph. It may puzzle you to see what their, they, and they in the second sentence of this paragraph stand for. Let an astonishing number of worms and out of their holes change places, and substitute birds and worms for they and they, and see whether the meaning would be clearer. Clearness is worth all it costs. You cannot take too much pains to be understood. ”

“ Set, in some of its meanings, is used without an object; as, "The sun set;" "He set out on a journey."
Lay, the present of the first verb, and lay, the past of lie, may easily be distinguished by the difference in meaning and in the time expressed.
POSSESSIVE FORMS. Pupils may be required to copy such forms as the following:—
The sailor's story; the farmer's son; the pony's mane; the monkey's tail; a day's work; James's book; a cent's worth; a man's wages; the child's toys; the woman's hat; the sailors' stories; the farmers' sons; the ponies' manes; the monkeys' tails; three days' work ”

“ The boy shouts. The boys shout. I have changed the form of the subject boy by adding an s to it. The meaning has changed. Boy denotes one lad; boys, two or more lads. This change in the form and meaning of nouns is called +Number+. The word boy, denoting one thing, is in the +Singular Number;+ and boys, denoting more than one thing, is in the +Plural Number+.
Let the teacher write other nouns on the board, and require the pupils to form the plural of them. ”

“ A noun or pronoun used as an attribute complement is in the nominative case. A noun or pronoun following a preposition as the principal word of a phrase is in the objective case. I and he are nominative forms. Me and him are objective forms.
The following sentences are therefore incorrect: It is me; It is him; Me gave the pen to he.
+DEFINITIONS. Person is that modification of a noun or pronoun which denotes the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of. ”

“ What we wish to assert of chalk, is the quality expressed by the adjective white. As white expresses a quality or attribute, we may call it an +Attribute Complement+.
Using expressions like the following, let the facts given above be drawn from the class by means of questions.
Grass growing; grass grows; green grass; grass is green.
+DEFINITION.—The Object Complement of a sentence completes the predicate, and names that which receives the act+.
+DEFINITION.—The Attribute Complement of a sentence completes the predicate and belongs to the subject+. ”

“ The teacher can here profitably spend a few minutes in showing how ideas may be communicated by Natural Language, the language of sighs, groans, gestures of the hands, attitudes of the body, expressions of the face, tones of the voice, etc. He can show that, in conversation, we sometimes couple this Natural Language of tone and gesture with our language of words, in order to make a stronger impression. ”

“ We get it by seeing and by thinking about what we see; and we get it by listening to other people and reading what they have written. What we get by seeing, by observation, is first-hand knowledge; what we get from others is second-hand knowledge. ”

“ The verb swim does not require an object to complete the sentence. No action passes from a doer to a receiver. These verbs which express action that does not pass over to a receiver, and all those which do not express action at all, but simply being or state of being, are called +Intransitive verbs+. ”

“ If the plural does not end in s, the apostrophe and the s are both added+.
Write the possessive singular and the possessive plural of the following nouns, and place an appropriate noun after each.
Robin, friend, fly, hero, woman, bee, mouse, cuckoo, fox, ox, man, thief,
fairy, mosquito, wolf, shepherd, farmer, child, neighbor, cow.
Possession may be expressed also by the preposition of and the objective; as, the mosquito's bill = the bill of the mosquito.
The possessive sign ('s) is confined chiefly to the names of persons and animals. ”

“ Water is a great purifier. It cleanses our bodies. It washes our clothes. It washes the dust from the leaves and the flowers. Water is a great worker. It floats vessels. It turns the wheels of mills. It is converted into steam. It is harnessed to mighty engines. It does the work of thousands of men and horses.
+To the Teacher+.—Condensed statements of facts, taken from some book not in the hands of your pupils, may be read to them, and they may be required to expand and combine these and group them into paragraphs. ”

“ What is a noun? What is the first step in parsing? What is the rule for writing individual names?
LESSON 16. VERBS. +Hints for Oral Instruction+.—We propose to introduce you now to another class of words. (The teacher may here refer to the talk about birds.)
You have learned that one very large class of words consists of names of things. There is another very important class of words used to tell what these things do, or used to express their existence.
When I say, Plants grow, is grow the name of anything? +P+.—No. +T+.—What does it do? +P+.—It tells what plants do. It expresses action. ”

“ Selections from standard writers may be made with special reference to the study of adjective clauses. The position, punctuation, and choice of relatives may be noticed, and, as far as possible, the clauses may be changed into equivalent adjectives or into phrases.
ADVERB CLAUSES. An adverb clause may stand before the independent clause, between its parts, or after it; as, "When it is hot, glass bends easily;" "Glass, when it is hot, bends easily;" "Glass bends easily when it is hot." Notice the punctuation of these examples. ”