WORDS FORMED BY INTERNAL CHANGES. 609. Nouns are formed (1) By change of Vowel. (a) From other Nouns; as, kit (from cat), tip (from top). (2) By change of Consonant (from Verbs); as, ditch (from dig), speech (from speak), strife (from strive). (3) By change of Vowel and Consonant. (a) From Nouns; as, kid (from goat), chick (from cock). (6) From Verbs; as, breach (from break), life (from live), watch (from wake), woof (from weave). Exercise 258. 1. Form Nouns from the Verbs choose, knit, prove, scrape, believe, dig, bake. 2. From what Verbs are the following formed?—Bond, stroke, ditch, watch, proof, drove, share. 3. From what Nouns are kit, tip, kid, and chick derived? 610. Adjectives are formed (1) By change of Vowel. (a) From Nouns; as, hot (from heat), proud (from pride). (b) From Verbs; as, līve (from live). (2) By change of Vowel and Consonant; as, chill (from cool). Exercise 259. 1. From what words are full, wrong, hot, proud, and chill derived? 611. Verbs are formed (1) By change of Vowel. (a) From Nouns; as, gild (from gold), bleed (from blood). (c) From Verbs; as, raise (from rise), fell (from fall), set (from sit). (2) By change of Consonant. (a) From Nouns; as, to house (from house), wreathe (from wreath). (b) From Verbs; as, wince (from wink), dodge (from dog). (3) By change of Vowel and Consonant. (a) From Nouns; as, graze (from grass), breathe (from breath). (b) From Verbs; as, dredge (from drag), watch (from wake). Exercise 260. 1. From what words are the following Verbs derived ?—Heal, calve, halve, drip, shelve, glaze, hitch. 2. Form Verbs from price, advice, rise, lie, drink, wind, chop. NOTES FOR TEACHERS. I. On Some Points of Grammar. 1. Teachers may be found who are careful to tell their pupils that a Noun is the name of a thing and not the thing itself, and who yet will say that a Verb tells what a Noun does. A very little thought will show that a Verb (if it speaks at all of doing) tells of the action of some person or thing, and not of the action of some Noun. 2. Only the Third Person of the Verb be is given in pars. 10 and 11; the First and Second Persons will be given after Pronouns. 3. The other auxiliary Verbs, can, could, may, might, must, do, and did, will be dealt with in Part II. 4. Young teachers should avoid the common error of saying that the Verb be tells what a thing is. In the sentence "Sugar is sweet," is certainly does not say what sugar is. In logic, sweet is the Predicate and is the Copula. 5. The emphatic use of these words is dealt with in pars. 223, 224. 6. The definition of a Pronoun given in par. 43 would not satisfy. a logician, but a definition which would satisfy a logician would not satisfy a teacher of young children, for it would be unintelligible to them. "A name 7. The word article is from the Latin articulus, a small joint. The articles may be considered as the small joints in a sentence. Dr. Abbott ["How to Parse," p. xix.] defines Article as (a) Correctly given by the Greeks to their Article, because it served as a joint uniting several words together. (b) Then loosely applied by the Latins (as was natural, seeing they had no Article) to any short word, whether Verb, Conjunction, or Pronoun. (c) Foolishly introduced into English and once used to denote the and a." 8. Adjectives used without Nouns will be dealt with in Part II. (See pars. 269-271.) 9. "The words yes, yea, ay, no, are called Adverbs and seem to have an Adverbial force, but, as Mr. C. P. Mason remarks, they are never used to qualify Verbs, Adjectives, or other Adverbs, and therefore appear scarcely entitled to the appellation. He proposes to call them Interjections, but this, too, seems objectionable, as they are not outbursts of emotion like Alas! Hurrah! and the like. They are rather a species of relative words which express a speaker's assent or denial to a particular statement, not by repeating the statement, but by referring to it as just having been enounced. Many [other Adverbs] may be detached in the same way from the sentence that they qualify; for example, certainly, surely, indeed, etc. The Adverb then stands alone by an obvious ellipsis."-BAIN: A Higher English Grammar, p. 73. 10. Mr. Mason defines a Preposition as "a word which when placed before a Noun or Pronoun denotes some relation in which a thing, or some action or attribute of a thing, stands to something else." As a logical definition this is perhaps better than the one given in the text, but I do not think that children could understand it. Teachers must decide for themselves what their pupils should learn. Dr. Morell defines a Preposition as " a word which shows the relation of a Noun or Pronoun to some other word in the sentence," and many other writers give substantially the same definition. That, however, is open to very serious objection; it confounds names and things. In the sentence "I see the book on the table," on does not show the relation between the Noun table and the Noun book, but between the things. 11. Some of the more difficult Conjunctions, and the difference between Conjunctive Adverbs and Conjunctions, will be taken in Part II. 12. The classification of Nouns given in the text, into Proper, Common, Collective, and Abstract, is a practical rather than a logical division. All Nouns are to be divided into Proper and Common, and the latter should therefore include Class Nouns, Collective, and Abstract Nouns. A Collective Noun is a sort of Common Noun, because it is the name of all groups of its kind. This is plain when we consider the plurals of Collective Nouns, as armies, flocks. When Abstract Nouns are pluralized, as fears, pleasures, arts, etc., they assume to some extent the nature of Class Nouns, A complete classification would add another class of Common Nouns, viz., Material Nouns-the names of kinds of material, as, gold, iron, metal, liquid, dirt, glass. When such Nouns are pluralized, as oils, calicoes, clays, soils, etc., they obviously become Class Nouns. 13. The classification of the words mentioned in par. 253 bristles with difficulties. The chief merit of the method given for dealing with these words is its simplicity; that should commend it to teachers though grammarians may find fault with it. 14. Should, in the sentences given in par. 316, has no trace of its primary meaning of duty or oughtness. "If he should see me means merely "If he were to see me ; it expresses a mere supposition. But if could were used, the Verb would contain more than a supposition of his seeing me; the sentence would mean "If he were able to see me." Also, "If he would see me means "If he were willing to see me ; "If he might see me means "If he were allowed to see me" or "If it were possible"; "If he may see me means, "If it be now possible for him to see me." Thus it is clear that should is the only pure or colorless Auxiliary of the Subjunctive Mood. The others express shades of meanings belonging to themselves; should expresses a mere supposition of the act indicated by the main Verb. When used in the Indicative Mood, however, should, like the other Auxiliaries, retains its primary signification. (See par. 317.) 15. As a matter of grammar the study of the sub-tenses and of the forms of the Verb is not specially important, but with a view to composition it is very useful, because it calls attention to the shades of meaning which may be conveyed by Auxiliaries. Teachers who look upon the sub-tenses as a needless refinement or one beyond their pupils must take pains to show that the Present Perfect is Present and not Past. 16. (a) The forms given for the Subjunctive Present in this and the other Conjugations are of course used; as, "He robs, lest he have less than his due," "I will go now, for fear that he call me." But it should be noted that the forms put down as Subjunctive Past are frequently used also as a Subjunctive Present; as, "Had I the wings of a dove" [meaning if I had wings now]; "I wish I had my microscope here" [meaning now]. So with Past Subjunctives made with Auxiliaries (see par. 316): "I wished she could read it" (or "might read," or "would read "); these also may be used as Present |