But may we not deal with words as we do with plants? If we had to study and
name each leaf and stem and flower, taken singly, we should never master
the botany even of our garden-plants.
But God has made things to resemble one another and to differ from one
another; and, as he has given us the power to detect resemblances and
differences, we are able to group things that have like qualities.
From certain likenesses in form and in structure, we put certain flowers
together and call them roses; from other likenesses, we get another class
called lilies; from others still, violets. Just so we classify trees and
get the oak, the elm, the maple, etc.
The myriad objects of nature fall into comparatively few classes. Studying
each class, we learn all we need to know of every object in it.
From their likenesses, though not in form, we classify words. We group them
according to their similarities in use, or office, in the sentence. Sorting
them thus, we find that they all fall into eight classes, which we call
Parts of Speech.
We find that many words name things--are the names of things of which we
can think and speak. These we place in one class and call them +Nouns+
(Latin _nomen_, a name, a noun).
PRONOUNS.
Without the little words which we shall italicize, it would be difficult
for one stranger to ask another, "Can _you_ tell _me who_ is the postmaster
at B?" The one would not know what name to use instead of _you_, the other
would not recognize the name in the place of _me_, and both would be
puzzled to find a substitute for _who_.
Pages:
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38