simple form allowing free interchange of grammatical functions gives peculiar vigor to style. With some loss of freedom of arrangement, there is nevertheless an economy of words, and greater idiomatic power and clearness. The power to transfer a word from one part of speech to another is remarkably developed in English. An especial prerogative seems to be the power to change almost any noun into a verb. Thus we "cable" our dispatches, and "phone" our verbal messages. We "table" a resolution and "bed" plants. Thus, also, Skakespeare's Portia uses the phrase, “Being so fathered and so husbanded." There are also large classes of words, such as the adjective pronouns, that belong equally to two parts of speech. The power of a word to perform several functions at the same time is most remarkably developed. A majority of the connective terms (including relative pronouns, relative adjectives, and conjunctive adverbs of various types) unite in the same sentence the offices of two or more parts of speech. English is very rich in its variety of verb phrases. Foreigners find it hard to learn these and Englishspeaking travelers find great difficulty in rendering all our verb phrases into the idiom of other tongues. Many irregular phrases, for instance, are in use as substitutes for the future tense. The following examples show different ways of expressing nearly the same future action. I shall write. I am going to write. I shall be writing. I am going to be writing. To these might be added perhaps the interesting Hibernianism, "I'll be afther writing." "Is to be" is one of the most common future phrases, as, "He is to be married to-morrow." The ordinary present tense may be used with future signification, as, "I go to-morrow," and most of the potential auxiliaries may also be used so as to convey a future idea. It may fairly be said that in the abundance and flexibility of its verbal combinations English is not surpassed or perhaps equalled by any other language in the world. English is not particularly rich in adjectives. "Ho, for an epithet" is the mental ejaculation of many a writer in search of choice and fitting words with which to clothe his thoughts. In passing from one language into another adjectives change their meaning more than nouns or verbs do, and English adjectives are often quite different in meaning from the foreign adjectives to which by form they are allied. A few idioms are very peculiar to English. Among these may be mentioned the use of the same term self as both a reflexive and an emphatic pronoun; the free omission of a relative pronoun in a restrictive adjective clause, as, "The man I met," and the double or cumulative possessive, as, "This speech of Caesar's.” To these may be added that form of a passive sentence in which the indirect object is made the subject, and the direct object is left in the predicate as a retained object, as, "I was given some oranges. But the phenomena of modern English are not very thoroughly classified and known. The older stages of the language are of much interest to scholars and are more studied than the shifting phases of the present. Grammars and dictionaries are necessarily conservative, and are never quite up-to-date. But the study of these flowing currents and marks of modern English usage should be of great interest to students of language and of life. As has been well said, Those who are born to be heirs of a highly analytical language must needs learn to think up to it.-THOMSON'S OULTINES OF THE LAWS OF THOUGHT. PART SECOND I RELATION OF GRAMMAR TO OTHER KINDS OF LANGUAGE STUDY Even the analysis of sentences, important as it is, has its limits as a means of instruction and training.—BUEHLER. It is intended that the study of literature be taken up as early in the course as is practicable, and continued in such a way as to supplement the technical part of the instruction. -LOCKWOOD. To the question of how to become familiar with the best use, the first answer is, Read the best literature.-BUEHLER. Practice in writing should be constant.-LOCKWOOD. The teaching of English is difficult, its results often unsatisfactory.-JOYNES. Hamlet.-Will you play upon this pipe? Gilderstern. My lord, I cannot. Hamlet.-I pray you. Gilderstern.-I cannot, I know no touch of it, my lord. Hamlet.-'Tis as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music. Look you, these are the stops. Gilderstern.-But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony.-I have not the skill.-SHAKESPEARE. There are three distinct kinds of English study that must enter into school work. They are adapted to different ends, and pursued by different methods. All of them are important, and each is defective if not supplemented by both of the others. There is the formal or structural study of the language itself, known specifically as language study or linguistics. In this department, grammar is the central study. But the formal study of language includes also all that relates to spelling, pronunciation, etymology and all else that belongs to the scientific or formal make-up of spoken or written English. This line of work is chiefly technical. Its primary aim is to give the student control of his native tongue as an instrument that may be used for the higher ends of self expression. Yet grammatical study, by its appeal to the logical faculties has educative elements that are broader and deeper than belong to mere technical training. This study of English on the structural side begins with the earliest grades of school; but it also reaches on with increasing interest and importance, through the historic and comparative philological study that belongs to high school and collegiate work. A second kind of English study for schools is that which is pursued by literary methods and devoted to literary ends. The study of the literary treasures of a language has elements of culture which the structural study of language can never give. It touches the emotions and cultivates the taste. Its appeal is to the motives and the spiritual life of the soul. It is there |