School English Grammar Part-I

Menonimus

July 28, 2023

Table of Contents

School English Grammar Part-I

(A Choice of Millions)

Menonim Menonimus

Edited By

Growhills Writers Board

Internet Edition

www.menonimus.org

School English Grammar for High & Higher Classes Written by Menonim Menonimus & Edited by Growhills Publishing Editorial Board.

No part of the ‘School English Grammar’ may be reproduced in any other form.

First Impression: 2019

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Introductory

(1)

By the term ‘Grammar‘ we generally mean a book studying which we can learn to read, speak and write a language correctly. Etymologically the term ‘Grammar’ has come from the Greek word Grammatike where ‘gram’ means ‘something written’ and the part tike means ‘art’. Hence the etymological meaning of ‘Grammar’ is the art of writing. Since its birth as a branch of linguistics in ancient Greece, the term has undergone some considerable modifications through the ages.

School English Grammar Part-I

As far as it is known the first grammar was written by a Greek Philosopher called Dionysius Thrax (c. 100 B.C.) Thrax distinguished two basic units of descriptions: sentence and words. He considered ‘Sentence’ to be the upper limit of grammatical description and the ‘word’ to be the minimal unit of grammatical description. He defined Sentence as ”group of words expressing a complete thought.” The constituents of a sentence were called ‘Parts of Speech’. He distinguished Noun, Verb, Participles, Articles, Pronoun, Preposition, Adverb and Conjunction. He made nodistinction between Common Nouns and Proper Nouns but he separated the Participle from the Verb. The Adjective was classed with the Noun. Thus Dionysian Thrax introduced the tradition of analyzing Sentence as the parts of speech with which the study of a language (grammar) begins.

School English Grammar Part-I

After the model of a grammatical study initiated by the Greeks, especially by Dionysius Thrax, the Romans took to practising this branch of knowledge. The first Latin grammar was written by Varro (116-27 B. C.) under the title De Lingua Latina which was comprised of twenty-five books. After him, some others also practised the art of writing grammar. But the Roman linguistics was largely the application of Greek thought and model to the Latin language.

School English Grammar Part-I

The first grammar of the English language was written in 1585 by William Bullokar under the title Brief Grammar for English. This grammar of Bullokar was an imitation of the Greek model. Before Bullokar there was no grammar of the English language because until the end of the 16th-century Latin grammar was the only grammar taught in school. In English, the first Latin grammar was written by William Lily which was published in the first half of the 16th century. It was an aid to learning Latin and it severely followed Latin models.

School English Grammar Part-I

The grammars written by the Greek and Roman linguists may be termed as the Grammars of Ancient Tradition which were bold, though unscientific, approach to the analysis of language.

School English Grammar Part-I

After about one hundred and eighty years of William Bullokar’s grammar, another linguistic R. Lowth wrote a grammar of the English language entitled Short Introduction to English Grammar which made a turning point in the tradition of writing grammar. This grammar was Prescriptive as it prescribed what was judged to be correct rather than to describe actual usages. Till the end of the 19th century, all the grammar of the English language were prescriptive. The best one of this genre of grammar was C. P. Mason’s English Grammar published in 1858.

School English Grammar Part-I

The Prescriptive Grammars have the following features:

1. They were based on Latin grammars both in matter and treatment.

2. The prescriptivists relayed on meaning and function in the definition.

3. They emphasized on writing form of language rather than speaking.

In 1863 A. Bain wrote The Higher English Grammar that paved the way for the appearance of a new type of grammar which is termed as Descriptive or Scientific Grammar. This type of grammar i.e. descriptive or scientific grammar adopted the inductive method. Among the grammarians of this type, mention may be made of Poutsman, Kruisinga, Curme and Otto Jesperson. The main features of this type of grammar were as follows:

School English Grammar Part-I

1. Descriptive Grammarians focused their attention on the actual usage without trying to settle the relative correctness of divergent usages.

2. They relayed on the English of the best authors of their age as well as the English of the past.

3. They used meaning and function in their description of parts of speech.

4. This type of grammar was descriptive no doubt but they did little attempt to structural analysis.

School English Grammar Part-I

During the fourth decade of the twentieth century, an American linguist named Leonard Bloomfield initiated a new approach to grammar which is called Structural Descriptive Grammar. He and his followers sought to study the structure of language as objectively as possible, without reference to meaning and other languages i.e. Latin and Greek. They regarded English as a language having a specific structure. The structural grammarians have pointed out four devices used in English to indicate structural meaning: word form, word function, word order and intonation and accent pattern.

School English Grammar Part-I

The grammars written after the first half of the twentieth century are objectively structural. The structural grammarians aim at analyzing the structure of standard language and find out the rules of the formation behind them. And almost all the grammars written after the second half of the twentieth century are intended to prescribe to the school curriculum.

(2)

The present work of mine entitled School English Grammar is a grammatical work of the structural kind. (Initially, I named the book as New Millennium English Grammar. But later on, it is named as Reader English Grammar after the suggestion of my friends and students and finally it is renamed as School English Grammar by the Growhills Editorial Board). It is especially meant for the student community of High and Higher Classes. In this book, I have dealt with the structure of the English language in the inductive method.

School English Grammar Part-I

While preparing this book, I have consulted some standard works of this kind written previous to me among which mention may be made of John Eastwood’s Oxford Guide to English Grammar, M. Valeika’s An Introductory Course in Theoretical English Grammar, A. J. Thomson and A. V. Martinet’s A Practical English Grammar, A. S. Hornby’s A Guide to Pattern and Usages in English, C. E. Eckersly’s A Concise English Grammar, W.S. Allen’s Living English Grammar, P.K. De Sarkar’s A Text Book of Higher English Grammar, R. P. Gosh’s Good English and some others. In matters of subject matter, I claim no originality but in treating the matter I have applied my own method to render easy comprehensiveness of the matters of English grammar. I attempted my best to bring all the topics of grammar under the purview of this single work in order that the student community may meet their needs from this work in an easily graspable way. I think the student and the teacher communities would find the book easier to grasp all the topics of grammar as no stone is left unturned to make the book exhaustive.

School English Grammar Part-I

The book is divided into two sections. In Section-A, I have dealt with the grammatical rules with description and analysis and in Section-B, I have dealt with word formations.

School English Grammar Part-I

All rights reserved. No part of this publication i.e ‘School English Grammar’ may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior permission from the author.

School English Grammar Part-I

Santi Kanan

Menonim Menonimus

January, 2019

School English Grammar Part-I

Contents

Part-I