How to write

Language which we never learn from a book of any kind is the language that we come by naturally, and use without thinking of it. It is a universal language, and consequently needs no interpreter. People of all lands and of all degrees of culture use it.

This Natural language is the language of cries, laughter, and tones, the language of the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the whole face; the language of gestures and postures.

The child’s cry tells of its wants; its sob, of grief; its scream, of pain; its laugh, of delight. The boy raises his eyebrows in surprise and his nose in disgust, leans forward in expectation, draws back in fear, makes a fist in anger, and calls or drives away his dog simply by the tone in which he speaks.

But feelings and desires are not the only things we wish to communicate.

Early in life we begin to acquire knowledge and learn to think, and then we feel the need of a better language. Suppose, for instance, you have formed an idea of a day; could you express this by a tone, a look, or a gesture? To communicate, then, your thoughts, mental pictures or ideas, you need a language more nearly perfect.

This language is made up of words. These words you learn from your mothers, your friends and teachers, your playmates and companions, and you learn them by reading.

This Word language we may, from its superiority, call Language Proper.

Natural language, as was said, precedes this Word language, but gives way as Word language comes in and takes its place; yet Natural language may be used, and always should be used, to assist and strengthen Word language. In earnest conversation we enforce what we say in words, by the tone in which we utter them, by the varying expression of the face, and by the movements of the different parts of the body.

The happy union of the two kinds of language is the charm of all good reading and speaking.

Language Proper consists of the spoken and the written words used to communicate ideas and thoughts.

English Grammar is the science which teaches the forms, uses, and relations of the words of the English language.

To express a thought we use more than a single word, and the words arranged to express a thought we call a sentence. A sentence is a group of words expressing a thought; it is a body of which a thought is the soul. It is something that can be seen or heard, while a thought cannot be.

In any such sentence as this, “Spiders spin”, something is said, or asserted, about something. Here it is said, or asserted, of the animals, spiders, that they spin.

The sentence, then, consists of two parts, the name of which something is said, and what is said of it. The first of these parts we call the Subject of the sentence; the second, the Predicate.

Now, if the sentence, composed of two parts, expresses the thought, there must be in the thought two parts to be expressed. In the thought expressed by “Spiders spin” we think of spiders and their spinning is what we think of them. In the sentence expressing this thought, the word spiders names that of which we think, and the word spin tells what we think of spiders.

Not every group of words is necessarily a sentence, because it may not be the expression of a thought. “Spiders spinning” is not a sentence. There is nothing in this expression to show that we have formed a judgment, i.e., that we have really made up our minds that spiders do spin. The spinning is not asserted of the spiders.

“Soft feathers”, “The shining sun” are not sentences, and for similar reasons. “Feathers are soft.” “The sun shines.” are sentences. Here the asserting word is supplied, and something is said of something else.

“The shines sun” is not a sentence; for, though it contains the asserting word shines, the arrangement is such that no assertion is made, and no thought is expressed.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES AND PREPOSITIONS

A Phrase is a group of words denoting related ideas and having a distinct office, but not expressing a thought.

A Preposition is a word that introduces a phrase modifier, and shows the relation, in sense, of its principal word to the word modified.

A phrase introduced by a preposition is called a Prepositional Phrase.

To express our thoughts with greater exactness we may need to expand a word modifier into several words; as, “A long ride brought us there” = “A ride of one hundred miles brought us to Chicago.” These groups of words, “of one hundred miles” and “to Chicago” are Phrases.

A phrase that does the work of an adjective is called an Adjective Phrase.

A phrase that does the work of an adverb is called an Adverb Phrase.

As adverbs modify adjectives and adverbs, they may modify their equivalent phrases; as, “The train stops only at the station.” They sometimes modify only the introductory word of the phrase–this introductory word being adverbial in its nature; as, “He sailed nearly around the globe”.

To learn the office of such words as of, to, and at, used to introduce these phrases, determine how the relation of one idea to another may be expressed. “Wealthy men.” These two words express two ideas as related. We have learned to know this relation by the form and position of the words. Change these, and the relation is lost–men wealth. But by using of before wealth the relation is restored—”men of wealth.” The word of, then, shows the relation between the ideas expressed by the words men and wealth.

All such relation words are called Prepositions Lat. prae, before, and positus, placed–their usual position being before the noun with which they form a phrase.

Phrases that are placed out of their usual order and made emphatic, or that are loosely connected with the rest of the sentence, should be set off by the comma. An expression in the body of a sentence is set off by two commas; at the beginning or at the end, by one comma.

CONJUNCTIONS

Connected subjects having the same predicate form a Compound Subject.

“Charles I. was seized, was tried, and was beheaded.”

The three predicates was seized, was tried, and was beheaded have the same subject-the three acts being asserted of the same king.

Connected predicates having the same subject form a Compound Predicate.

A sentence may have both a compound subject and a compound predicate; as,

“Mary and Elizabeth lived and reigned in England.”

The words connecting the parts of a compound subject or of a compound predicate are called Conjunctions. A conjunction may connect other parts of the sentence, as two word modifiers.

“A dark and rainy night follows.”

“Some men sin deliberately and presumptuously.”

It may connect two phrases; as,

“The equinox occurs in March and in September.”

It may connect two clauses, that is, expressions that, standing alone, would be sentences; as,

“The leaves of the pine fall in spring, but the leaves of the maple drop in autumn.”

Source: Kellogg, Brainerd and Reed, Alonzo: Higher Lessons in English, 1896