To
compel a pupil to wade through a page or two of such bewildering terms as
"complex adverbial element of the second class" and "compound prepositional
adjective phrase," in order to comprehend a few simple functions, is
grossly unjust; it is a substitution of form for content, of words for
ideas.
+Subdivisions and Modifications after the Sentence.+--Teachers familiar
with text-books that group all grammatical instruction around the eight
parts of speech, making eight independent units, will not, in the following
lessons, find everything in its accustomed place. But, when it is
remembered that the thread of connection unifying this work is the
sentence, it will be seen that the lessons fall into their natural order of
sequence. When, through the development of the sentence, all the offices of
the different parts of speech are mastered, the most natural thing is to
continue the work of classification and subdivide the parts of speech. The
inflection of words, being distinct from their classification, makes a
separate division of the work. If the chief end of grammar were to enable
one to parse, we should not here depart from long-established precedent.
+Sentences in Groups--Paragraphs+.--In tracing the growth of the sentence
from the simplest to the most complex form, each element, as it is
introduced, is illustrated by a large number of detached sentences, chosen
with the utmost care as to thought and expression.
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