Lectures on Language As Particularly Connected with English Grammar.

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Ti­tle: Lec­tures on Lan­guage As Par­tic­ular­ly Con­nect­ed with En­glish Gram­mar.

Au­thor: William S. Balch

Re­lease Date: Jan­uary 24, 2006 [EBook #17594]

Lan­guage: En­glish

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LEC­TURES ON LAN­GUAGE,

AS PAR­TIC­ULAR­LY CON­NECT­ED WITH

EN­GLISH GRAM­MAR.

DE­SIGNED FOR THE USE OF TEACH­ERS AND AD­VANCED LEARN­ERS.

BY WM. S. BALCH.

Si­lence is bet­ter than un­mean­ing words.--_Pythago­ras._

PROV­IDENCE: B. CRANSTON & CO. 1838.

En­tered ac­cord­ing to Act of Congress, in the year 1838,

BY B. CRANSTON & CO.

In the Clerk's Of­fice of the Dis­trict Court of Rhode-​Is­land.

PROV­IDENCE, Feb. 24, 1838.

TO WM. S. BALCH,

SIR--The un­der­signed, in be­half of the Young Peo­ple's In­sti­tute, has­ten to present to you the fol­low­ing _Res­olu­tions_, to­geth­er with their per­son­al thanks, for the Lec­tures you have de­liv­ered be­fore them, on the Phi­los­ophy of Lan­guage. The un­com­mon de­gree of in­ter­est, plea­sure and prof­it, with which you have been lis­tened to, is con­clu­sive ev­idence, that who­ev­er pos­sess­es taste and tal­ents to com­pre­hend and ap­pre­ci­ate the phi­los­ophy of lan­guage, which you have so suc­cess­ful­ly cul­ti­vat­ed, can­not fail to at­tain a pow­er­ful in­flu­ence over the minds of his au­di­ence. The Com­mit­tee re­spect­ful­ly re­quest you to fa­vor them with a copy of your Lec­tures for the Press.

Very re­spect­ful­ly, Your most obe­di­ent ser­vants, C. T. JAMES, E. F. MILLER, H. L. WEB­STER.

* * * * *

_Re­solved_, That we have been high­ly en­ter­tained and great­ly in­struct­ed by the Lec­tures of our Pres­ident, on the sub­ject of Lan­guage; that we con­sid­er the prin­ci­ples he has ad­vo­cat­ed, im­mutably true, ex­ceed­ing­ly im­por­tant, and ca­pa­ble of an easy adop­tion in the study of that im­por­tant branch of hu­man knowl­edge.

_Re­solved_, That we have long re­gret­ted the want of a sys­tem to ex­plain the gram­mar of our ver­nac­ular tongue, on plain, ra­tio­nal, and con­sis­tent prin­ci­ples, in ac­cor­dance with phi­los­ophy and truth, and in a way to be un­der­stood and prac­tised by chil­dren and adults.

_Re­solved_, That in our opin­ion, the man­ifold at­tempts which have been made, though doubt­less un­der­tak­en with the purest in­ten­tions, to sim­pli­fy and make easy ex­ist­ing sys­tems, have failed en­tire­ly of their ob­ject, and tend­ed on­ly to per­plex, rather than en­light­en learn­ers.

_Re­solved_, That in our be­lief, the pub­li­ca­tion of these Lec­tures would meet the wants of the com­mu­ni­ty, and throw a flood of light up­on this hith­er­to dark, and in­tri­cate, and yet ex­ceed­ing­ly in­ter­est­ing de­part­ment of a com­mon ed­uca­tion, and thus prove of im­mense ser­vice to the present and fu­ture gen­er­ations.

_Re­solved_, That Messrs. Charles T. James, Ed­ward F. Miller, and Hen­ry L. Web­ster, be a Com­mit­tee to wait on Rev. William S. Balch, and re­quest the pub­li­ca­tion of his very in­ter­est­ing Course of Lec­tures be­fore this In­sti­tute.

* * * * *

PROV­IDENCE, Feb. 25, 1838.

MESSRS. C. T. JAMES, E. F. MILLER, AND H. L. WEB­STER:

GEN­TLE­MEN--Your let­ter, to­geth­er with the Res­olu­tions ac­com­pa­ny­ing it, was du­ly and grate­ful­ly re­ceived. It gives me no or­di­nary de­gree of plea­sure to know that so deep an in­ter­est has been, and still is, felt by the mem­bers of our In­sti­tute, as well as the pub­lic gen­er­al­ly, on this im­por­tant sub­ject; for it is one which con­cerns the hap­pi­ness and wel­fare of our whole com­mu­ni­ty; but es­pe­cial­ly the ris­ing gen­er­ation.

The on­ly rec­om­men­da­tion of these Lec­tures is the sub­ject of which they treat. They were writ­ten in the space of a few weeks, and in the midst of an ac­cu­mu­la­tion of en­gage­ments which al­most for­bade the at­tempt. But pre­sum­ing you will make all due al­lowances for what­ev­er er­rors you may dis­cov­er in the style of com­po­si­tion, and re­gard the _mat­ter_ more than the _man­ner_, I con­sent to their pub­li­ca­tion, hop­ing they will be of some ser­vice in the great cause of hu­man im­prove­ment.

I am, gen­tle­men, Very re­spect­ful­ly yours, WM. S. BALCH.

PREF­ACE.

There is no sub­ject so deeply in­ter­est­ing and im­por­tant to ra­tio­nal be­ings as the knowl­edge of lan­guage, or one which presents a more di­rect and pow­er­ful claim up­on all class­es in the com­mu­ni­ty; for there is no oth­er so close­ly in­ter­wo­ven with all the af­fairs of hu­man life, so­cial, moral, po­lit­ical and re­li­gious. It forms a ba­sis on which de­pends a vast por­tion of the hap­pi­ness of mankind, and de­serves the first at­ten­tion of ev­ery phi­lan­thropist.

Great dif­fi­cul­ty has been ex­pe­ri­enced in the com­mon method of ex­plain­ing lan­guage, and gram­mar has long been con­sid­ered a dry, un­in­ter­est­ing, and te­dious study, by near­ly all the teach­ers and schol­ars in the land. But it is to be pre­sumed that the fault in this case, if there is any, is to be sought for in the man­ner of teach­ing, rather than in the sci­ence it­self; for it would be un­rea­son­able to sup­pose that a sub­ject which oc­cu­pies the ear­li­est at­ten­tion of the par­ent, which is ac­quired at great ex­pense of mon­ey, time, and thought, and is em­ployed from the cra­dle to the grave, in all our wak­ing hours, can pos­si­bly be dull or unim­por­tant, if right­ly ex­plained.

Chil­dren have been re­quired to learn ver­bal forms and changes, to look at the mere signs of ideas, in­stead of the things rep­re­sent­ed by them. The con­se­quence has been that the whole sub­ject has be­come un­in­ter­est­ing to all who do not pos­sess a re­ten­tive ver­bal mem­ory. The phi­los­ophy of lan­guage, the sub­lime prin­ci­ples on which it de­pends for its ex­is­tence and use, have not been suf­fi­cient­ly re­gard­ed to ren­der it de­light­ful and prof­itable.

The hum­ble at­tempt here made is de­signed to open the way for an ex­po­si­tion of lan­guage on tru­ly philo­soph­ical prin­ci­ples, which, when cor­rect­ly ex­plained, are abun­dant­ly sim­ple and ex­ten­sive­ly use­ful. With what suc­cess this point has been la­bored the read­er will de­ter­mine.

The au­thor claims not the hon­or of en­tire orig­inal­ity. The prin­ci­ples here ad­vanced have been ad­vo­cat­ed, be­lieved, and suc­cess­ful­ly prac­tised. William S. Cardell, Esq., a bright star in the fir­ma­ment of Amer­ican lit­er­ature, re­duced these prin­ci­ples to a sys­tem, which was taught with tri­umphant suc­cess by Daniel H. Barnes, for­mer­ly of the New-​York High School, one of the most dis­tin­guished teach­ers who ev­er of­fi­ci­at­ed in that high and re­spon­si­ble ca­pac­ity in our coun­try. Both of these gen­tle­men, so em­inent­ly cal­cu­lat­ed to el­evate the stan­dard of ed­uca­tion, were sum­moned from the ca­reer of the most ac­tive use­ful­ness, from the scenes they had la­bored to bright­en and beau­ti­fy by the aid of their tran­scen­dant in­tel­lects, to un­seen re­al­ities in the world of spir­its; where mind com­munes with mind, and soul min­gles with soul, dis­en­thraled from er­ror, and em­bo­somed in the light and love of the Great Par­ent In­tel­lect.

The au­thor does not pre­tend to give a sys­tem of ex­po­si­tion in this work suit­ed to the ca­pac­ities of small chil­dren. It is de­signed for ad­vanced schol­ars, and is in­tro­duc­to­ry to a sys­tem of gram­mar which he has in prepa­ra­tion, which it is humbly hoped will be of some ser­vice in ren­der­ing easy and cor­rect the study of our ver­nac­ular lan­guage. But this book, it is thought, may be suc­cess­ful­ly em­ployed in the in­struc­tion of the high­er class­es in our schools, and will be found an ef­fi­cient aid to teach­ers in in­cul­cat­ing the sub­lime prin­ci­ples of which it treats.

These Lec­tures, as now pre­sent­ed to the pub­lic, it is be­lieved, will be found to con­tain some im­por­tant in­for­ma­tion by which all may prof­it. The read­er will bear in mind that they were writ­ten for, and de­liv­ered be­fore a pop­ular au­di­ence, and pub­lished with very lit­tle time for mod­ifi­ca­tion. This will be a suf­fi­cient apol­ogy for the mis­takes which may oc­cur, and for what­ev­er may have the ap­pear­ance of sever­ity, irony, or pleas­antry, in the com­po­si­tion.

On the sub­ject of Con­trac­tions much more might be said. But ver­bal crit­icisms are rather un­in­ter­est­ing to a com­mon au­di­ence; and hence the con­sid­er­ation of that mat­ter was made more brief than was at first in­tend­ed. It will how­ev­er be re­sumed and car­ried out at length in an­oth­er work. The hints giv­en will en­able the stu­dent to form a tol­er­able cor­rect opin­ion of the use of most of those words and phras­es, which have long been passed over with lit­tle knowl­edge of their mean­ing or im­por­tance.

The au­thor is aware that the prin­ci­ples he has ad­vo­cat­ed are new and op­posed to es­tab­lished sys­tems and the com­mon method of in­cul­ca­tion. But the dif­fi­cul­ties ac­knowl­edged on all hands to ex­ist, is a suf­fi­cient jus­ti­fi­ca­tion of this hum­ble at­tempt. He will not be con­demned for his good in­ten­tions. All he asks is a pa­tient and can­did ex­am­ina­tion, a frank and hon­est ap­proval of what is true, and as hon­est a re­jec­tion of what is false. But he hopes the read­er will avoid a rash and pre­cip­itate con­clu­sion, ei­ther for or against, lest he is com­pelled to do as the au­thor him­self once did, ap­prove what he had pre­vi­ous­ly con­demned.

With these re­marks he en­ters the are­na, and bares him­self to re­ceive the sen­tence of the pub­lic voice.

CON­TENTS.

LEC­TURE I.

GEN­ER­AL VIEW OF LAN­GUAGE.

Study of Lan­guage long con­sid­ered dif­fi­cult.--Its im­por­tance.--Er­rors in teach­ing.--Not un­der­stood by Teach­ers.--At­tach­ment to old sys­tems.--Im­prove­ment prefer­able.--The sub­ject im­por­tant.--Its ad­van­tages.--Prin­ci­ples laid down.--Or­thog­ra­phy.--Et­ymol­ogy.--Syn­tax.-- Prosody.

LEC­TURE II.

THE FUN­DA­MEN­TAL PRIN­CI­PLES OF LAN­GUAGE.

Gen­er­al prin­ci­ples of Lan­guage.--Busi­ness of Gram­mar.--Chil­dren are Philoso­phers.--Things, ideas, and words.--Ac­tions.--Qual­ities of things.--Words with­out ideas.--Gram­mat­ical terms in­ap­pro­pri­ate.-- Prin­ci­ples of Lan­guage per­ma­nent.--Er­rors in men­tal sci­ence.--Facts ad­mit of no change.--Com­plex ideas.--Ideas of qual­ities.--An ex­am­ple.--New ideas.--Un­known words.--Signs with­out things sig­ni­fied.--Fixed laws reg­ulate mat­ter and mind.

LEC­TURE III.

WRIT­TEN AND SPO­KEN LAN­GUAGE.

Prin­ci­ples nev­er al­ter.--They should be known.--Gram­mar a most im­por­tant branch of sci­ence.--Spo­ken and writ­ten Lan­guage.--Idea of a thing.--How ex­pressed.--An ex­am­ple.--Pic­ture writ­ing.--An anec­dote.--Ideas ex­pressed by ac­tions.--Prin­ci­ples of spo­ken and writ­ten Lan­guage.--Ap­ply uni­ver­sal­ly.--Two ex­am­ples.--En­glish lan­guage.--For­eign words.--Words in sci­ence.--New words.--How formed.

LEC­TURE IV.

ON NOUNS.

Nouns de­fined.--Things.--Qual­ities of mat­ter.--Mind.--Spir­itu­al be­ings.--Qual­ities of mind.--How learned.--Imag­inary things.--Nega­tion. --Names of ac­tions.--Prop­er nouns.--Char­ac­ter­is­tic names.--Prop­er nouns may be­come com­mon.

LEC­TURE V.

ON NOUNS AND PRO­NOUNS.

Nouns in re­spect to per­sons.--Num­ber.--Sin­gu­lar.--Plu­ral.--How formed.--For­eign plu­rals.--Prop­er names ad­mit of plu­rals.--Gen­der.--No neuter.--In fig­ura­tive lan­guage.--Er­rors.--Po­si­tion or case.--Agents.-- Ob­jects.--Pos­ses­sive case con­sid­ered.--A defini­tive word.--Pro­nouns.-- One kind.--Orig­inal­ly nouns.--Specif­ical­ly ap­plied.

LEC­TURE VI.

ON AD­JEC­TIVES.

Def­ini­tion of ad­jec­tives.--Gen­er­al char­ac­ter.--Deriva­tion.--How un­der­stood.--Defin­ing and de­scrib­ing.--Mean­ing changes to suit the noun.--Too nu­mer­ous.--De­rived from nouns.--Nouns and verbs made from ad­jec­tives.--For­eign ad­jec­tives.--A gen­er­al list.--Dif­fi­cult to be un­der­stood.--An ex­am­ple.--Of­ten su­per­flu­ous.--De­rived from verbs.--Par­tici­ples.--Some prepo­si­tions.--Mean­ing un­known.--With.-- In.--Out.--Of.

LEC­TURE VII.

ON AD­JEC­TIVES.

Ad­jec­tives.--How formed.--The syl­la­ble _ly_.--Formed from prop­er nouns. --The apos­tro­phe and let­ter _s_.--De­rived from pro­nouns.--Ar­ti­cles.--_A_ comes from _an_.--_In_def­inite.--_The_.--Mean­ing of _a_ and _the_.-- Mur­ray's ex­am­ple.--That.--What.--“Pro­noun ad­jec­tives.”--_Mon_, _ma_.--De­grees of com­par­ison.--Sec­ondary ad­jec­tives.--Prepo­si­tions ad­mit of com­par­ison.

LEC­TURE VI­II.

ON VERBS.

Un­pleas­ant to ex­pose er­ror.--Verbs de­fined.--Ev­ery thing acts.--Ac­tor and ob­ject.--Laws.--Man.--An­imals.--Veg­eta­bles.--Min­er­als.--Neu­tral­ity de­grad­ing.--No­body can ex­plain a neuter verb.--_One_ kind of verbs.--_You_ must de­cide.--Im­por­tance of teach­ing chil­dren the truth.--Ac­tive verbs.--Tran­si­tive verbs false.--Sam­ples.--Neuter verbs ex­am­ined.--Sit.--Sleep.--Stand.--Lie.--Opin­ion of Mrs. W.--Anec­dote.

LEC­TURE IX.

ON VERBS.

Neuter and in­tran­si­tive.--Agents.--Ob­jects.--No ac­tions as such can be known dis­tinct from the agent.--Imag­inary ac­tions.--Ac­tions known by their ef­fects.--Ex­am­ples.--Signs should guide to things sig­ni­fied.-- Prin­ci­ples of ac­tion.--=Pow­er=.--An­imals.--Veg­eta­bles.--Min­er­als.--All things act.--Mag­net­ic nee­dle.--=Cause=.--Ex­plained.--First Cause.--=Means=.--Il­lus­trat­ed.--Sir I. New­ton's ex­am­ple.--These prin­ci­ples must be known.--=Rel­ative= ac­tion.--Anec­dote of Gallileo.

LEC­TURE X.

ON VERBS.

A philo­soph­ical ax­iom.--Man­ner of ex­press­ing ac­tion.--Things tak­en for grant­ed.--Sim­ple facts must be known.--Must nev­er de­vi­ate from the truth.--Ev­ery _cause_ will have an _ef­fect_.--An ex­am­ple of an in­tran­si­tive verb.--Ob­jects ex­pressed or im­plied.--All lan­guage elip­ti­cal.--In­tran­si­tive verbs ex­am­ined.--I run.--I walk.--To step.-- Birds fly.--It rains.--The fire burns.--The sun shines.--To smile.--Eat and drink.--Mis­cel­la­neous ex­am­ples.--Evils of false teach­ing.--A change is de­mand­ed.--These prin­ci­ples ap­ply uni­ver­sal­ly.--Their im­por­tance.

LEC­TURE XI.

ON VERBS.

The verb =to be=.--Com­pound­ed of dif­fer­ent rad­ical words.--=Am=. --De­fined.--The name of De­ity.--_Ei_.--=Is=.--=Are=.--=Were=, =was=.--=Be=.--A di­alogue.--Ex­am­ples.--Pas­sive Verbs ex­am­ined.--Can­not be in the present tense.--The past par­tici­ple is an ad­jec­tive.

LEC­TURE XII.

ON VERBS.

=Mood=.--In­dica­tive.--Im­per­ative.--In­fini­tive.--For­mer dis­tinc­tions.-- Sub­junc­tive mood.--=Time=.--Past.--Present.--Fu­ture.--The fu­ture ex­plained.--How formed.--Mr. Mur­ray's dis­tinc­tion of time.--Im­per­fect.-- Plu­per­fect.--Sec­ond fu­ture.--How many tens­es.--=Aux­il­iary Verbs=.--Will. --Shall.--May.--Must.--Can.--Do.--Have.

LEC­TURE XI­II.

ON VERBS.

Per­son and num­ber in the agent, not in the ac­tion.--Sim­ilar­ity of agents, ac­tions, and ob­jects.--Verbs made from nouns.--Ir­reg­ular verbs.--Some ex­am­ples.--Reg­ular Verbs.--_Ed_.--_Ing_.--Con­ju­ga­tion of verbs.--To love.--To have.--To be.--The in­dica­tive mood var­ied.--A whole sen­tence may be agent or ob­ject.--Im­per­ative mood.--In­fini­tive mood.--Is al­ways fu­ture.

LEC­TURE XIV.

ON CON­TRAC­TIONS.

A tem­po­rary ex­pe­di­ent.--Words not un­der­stood.--All words must have a mean­ing.--Their for­ma­tion.--Changes of mean­ing and form.--Should be ob­served.--=Ad­verbs=.--End­ing in _ly_.--Ex­am­ples.--Ago.--Astray.--Awake. --Asleep.--Then, when.--There, where, here.--While, till.--Whether, to­geth­er.--Ev­er, nev­er, when­ev­er, etc.--Oft.--Hence.--Per­haps.--Not. --Or.--Nor.--Than.--As.--So.--Con­junc­tions.--Rule 18.--If.--But.--Tho. --Yet.

LEC­TURES ON LAN­GUAGE.

LEC­TURE I.

GEN­ER­AL VIEW OF LAN­GUAGE.

Study of Lan­guage long con­sid­ered dif­fi­cult.--Its im­por­tance.--Er­rors in teach­ing.--Not un­der­stood by Teach­ers.--At­tach­ment to old sys­tems.--Im­prove­ment prefer­able.--The sub­ject im­por­tant.--Its ad­van­tages.--Prin­ci­ples laid down.--Or­thog­ra­phy.--Et­ymol­ogy.-- Syn­tax.--Prosody.