BAD ENGLISH BADLY POINTED.
LESSON I.—UNDER VARIOUS RULES.
"Discoveries of such a character are sometimes made in grammar also, and such, too, is often their origin and their end."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 191.
"Traverse, (to cross.) To deny what the opposite party has alleged. To traverse an indictment, &c. is to deny it."—Id., ib., p. 216.
"The Ordinal [numerals] denote the order or succession in which any number of persons or things is mentioned, as first, second, third, fourth, &c."—Hiley's Gram., p. 22.
"Nouns have three persons, FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD. The First person is the speaker, the Second is the one spoken to, the Third is the one spoken of."—Hiley's Gram., p. 44.
"Nouns have three cases, NOMINATIVE, POSSESSIVE, and OBJECTIVE. The relation indicated by the case of a noun includes three ideas, viz: those of subject, object, and ownership."—Ib., p. 45.
"In speaking of animals that are of inferior size, or whose sex is not known or not regarded, they are often considered as without sex: thus, we say of a cat 'it is treacherous,' of an infant ‘it is beautiful,’ of a deer 'it was killed.'"—Ib., p. 39.
"When this or these, that or those, refers to a preceding sentence; this, or these, refers to the latter member or term; that, or those, to the former."—Churchill's Gram., p. 136; see Lowth's Gram., p. 102.
"The rearing of them [i. e. of plants] became his first care, their fruit his first food, and marking their kinds his first knowledge."—N. Butler's Gram., p. 44.
"After the period used with abbreviations we should employ other points, if the construction demands it; thus, after Esq. in the last example, there should be, besides a period, a comma."—Ib., p. 212.
"In the plural, the verb is the same in all the persons; and hence the principle in Rem. 5, under Rule iii. [that the first or second person takes precedence,] is not applicable to verbs."—Ib., p. 158.
"Rex and Tyrannus are of very different characters. The one rules his people by laws to which they consent; the other, by his absolute will and power: that is called freedom, this, tyranny."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 190.
"A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, which can be known, or mentioned, as: George; London; America; goodness; charity."—Cooper's Plain and Pract. Gram., p. 17.
"Etymology treats of the classification of words; their various modifications and derivations."—Day's School Gram., p. 9. "To punctuate correctly implies a thorough acquaintance with the meaning of words and phrases, as well as of all their corresponding connexions"—W. Day's Punctuation, p. 31.
"All objects which belong to neither the male nor female kind are called neuter."—Weld's Gram., 2d Ed., p. 57. "All objects, which belong to neither the male nor female kind, are said to be of the neuter gender."—Weld's Gram., Abridged, p. 51.
"The Analysis of the Sounds in the English language presented in the preceding statements are sufficiently exact for the purpose in hand. Those who wish to pursue it further can consult Dr. Rush's admirable work, 'The Philosophy of the Human Voice.'"—Fowlers E. Gram., 1850, §65. "Nobody confounds the name of w or y with their sound or phonetic import."—Ib., §74.
"Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest,
Some are and must be, greater than the rest."—Ib., p. 96.
LESSON II.—UNDER VARIOUS RULES.
"In adjectives of one syllable, the Comparative is formed by adding -er to the positive; and the Superlative by adding -est; as, sweet, sweeter, sweetest."—Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 19.
"In monosyllables the comparative is formed by adding er or r to the positive, and the superlative by adding est or st; as, tall, taller, tallest; wise, wiser, wisest."—Id., Pract. Les., p. 24.
"By this method the confusion and unnecessary labor occasioned by studying grammars in these languages, constructed on different principles is avoided, the study of one is rendered a profitable introduction to the study of another, and an opportunity is furnished to the enquiring student of comparing the languages in their grammatical structure, and seeing at once wherein they agree, and wherein they differ."—Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., Pref. to 5th Ed., p. vii.
"No larger portion should be assigned for each recitation than the class can easily master, and till this is done, a new portion should not be given out."—Id., ib., p. viii. "The acquisitions made in every new lesson should be rivetted and secured by repeated revisals."—Id., ib., p. viii.
"The personal pronouns may be parsed briefly thus; I, the first personal pronoun, masculine (or feminine), singular, the nominative. His, the third personal pronoun, masculine, singular, the possessive, &c."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 23: Pract. Les., p. 28.
"When the male and female are expressed by distinct terms; as, shepherd, shepherdess, the masculine term has also a general meaning, expressing both male and female, and is always to be used when the office, occupation, profession, &c., and not the sex of the individual, is chiefly to be expressed. The feminine term is used only when the discrimination, of sex is indispensably necessary. Thus, when it is said 'the Poets of this country are distinguished by correctness of taste,' the term 'Poet' clearly includes both male and female writers of poetry."—Id., E. Gram., p. 12; his Analyt. and Pract. Gram., 24.
