parsing exercises some important elements. Yet analysis as well as parsing has a tendency to exalt technique and to become tedious through repetition of useless details.

Another objection that is sometimes urged against both analysis and parsing is that by the emphasis laid on the technicalities of language much good literature has been deprived of its true literary effect.

This misuse of grammatical drill, however, has mostly disappeared from American schools. In the opinion of some, the reaction against parsing has been carried too far and it would be an advantage if some of it could be reinstated in American schools. There is a grammatical drill in both analysis and parsing which it is foolish to frown upon. As has been well said, “Although what is called parsing, or assigning words to their part of speech, is a juvenile exercise yet it is nevertheless, the surest test of a person's having learnt that which grammar has to teach."

The botanist who investigates the structure of a flower is not thereby debarred from the enjoyment of flowers, nor from seeing them also in poetical relations. Neither is the study of the grammatical structure of a piece of literature necessarily a foe to the appreciation of its aesthetic value. On the contrary, excellences are lost upon the student unless he first grasps the logical relations of the thought itself; and the attempt by the pupil to formulate these relations gives the teacher the best evidence as to whether the thought is truly understood.

Parsing in Latin is chiefly an exercise in accidence; in

English it is an exercise in syntax. The simpler grammatical ideas are easily grasped through the study of Latin, but in a logical language like ours, parsing has another kind of disciplinary value that is not to be depreciated. For the convenience of teachers some models for analysis and parsing are affixed to this chapter, but each teacher should be able to modify all such models, or to construct new ones according to the needs of the class. Parsing models should be as simple as possible, and emphasis should always be laid upon the correct interpretation of the thought rather than upon adherence to · the form of the model. There are idiomatic words and phrases to which models cannot apply, and in dealing with ordinary sentences there is constant danger of useless repetition of points already fully known. The teacher should therefore often turn from the formal model, and fall back upon the more educative exercise of a good grammatical “quiz.”

The questions for this are of two main classes: First, questions of fact, as, What part of speech? What mode? What case? What relation? and second, the still better class of questions: Why the subjunctive mode in this sentence? Why this tense or case?

In a word, a good grammatical drill passes lightly over well-known or useless points, and brings out those of greatest linguistic value. In the hands of a wise and skillful teacher analysis and parsing are among the most useful tools for language teaching, but they should both be used always for broad ends and not for trivial ones.

FORM OF ANALYSIS

(To be used in whole or in part according to the needs of the class.)

I. Kind of sentence.

Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, Exclam

atory.

Simple, Complex, Compound.

NOTE. Since most sentences are declarative, the first distinction needs to be noted only when the sentence differs from the assertive form.

II. If a simple or a complex sentence, give (1) Entire subject and predicate.

(2) Subject-word. The adjective elements that limit it.

(3) Predicate term. (Name copula and attribute if distinct.) Object or objects. Adverbial elements.

Later, any clause or phrase (if desired) can receive more minute analysis.

(1) Give its basis.

(2) Then the subordinate parts.

III. If the sentence is compound

(1) Give the principal divisions.

(2) Analyze each as if it were a simple or complex sentence.

FORM OF PARSING

Part of Speech. Inflectional Form (if any). Relation to Other Words.

NOTE.-In parsing, lay special emphasis on all peculiarities of the word, either of form or relationship. If a pupil shows appreciation of the real character of a word it is not well to discourage him by insisting too closely on adherence to a form of statement. More real thought is often awakened by a good grammatical question than by formally parsing the word. Models should be used so far as they save time, or stimulate consecutive thinking. If they begin to consume time needlessly, or to stultify fresh thought and interest, it is time to dispense with them.

VI

SENTENCE DIAGRAMS AND OTHER DEVICES

Some device by which the whole class can work together may be of value in large classes.-SOUTHWORTH.

A diagram is almost necessarily misleading in many ways. The half mechanical accomplishing of diagraming comes to be sought rather than an intimate comprehension of the sentence. Those peculiar features of a sentence which cannot be diagramed are lost sight of.-TOLMAN.

At this stage of his studies the pupil should not be required always to analyze sentences to their very dregs, nor should he be expected to analyze any sentence that is so complicated as to be very puzzling.-KITTRIDGE AND ARNOLD.

Too minute analysis may prove perplexing in complex sentences. Sufficient drill in the analysis of phrases will be given by the simple sentences.-HARPER AND Burgess.

In the study of the individual sentence, analysis properly precedes the work of parsing. The early exercises in analysis should be of a broad and general kind, marking out merely the main features of the sentence. There should be abundant practice in this general analysis without confusing the pupils' minds by points of detail. At a later period clauses and phrases should be analyzed and specific words parsed.

In dealing with long and intricate sentences, a rapid method of interpretation called "construing" is often