alytical practical grammar - Toronto Public Library

116 ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
578. A senteuce to be parsed must be intelligible, and it is necessary for
tbe pupil. in the first place, to understand it. When he under8tands a sen·
tencp, and also tbe definition of the differellt parts of speech given in the
grammar he will not find much difficulty in ascertaining to which of them
each wor;l belongs; that is, which of the words are .. nalll~s of thing8 " or
nouns; which" qualify the names of things," or, "affirm anything conceruina
them," that is to say, which words are adjectil'es, and which are verbs.
Tbis method will ex\}rcise the Ji,criminating powers of the pupil better,
engage his attention much more, and. on trial, be found much more easy
and certain, than that of consulting his dictionary on every occa~ion-a
plan always !abol:ious, often unsatisfactory, and .which, instead of I.eading
him to exercise hIS own powers, and depend on hiS own resources, will lead
him to habits of slavi"h dependence on tbe authority of others.
579. The following general principles should be remembered, and stead·
ily kl'pt ill view, in parsing every sentence, viz.:-
1. Every adjective qualifies or limits a noun or pronoun, expressed or
understood (195, and J 96).
2. The subject of a verb, that is, the person or thing spoken oj, is always
in the nominative (except when the verb is in the infinitive), and said to
be the nominative to the Terb (315 and 762).
8. ETery verb in the indicative, potential, subjunctive, or imperative,
has a nominative or subject, expressed or understood (661, 4).
4. Every verb in the active voice ueed transitively, and every preposition,
is followed by a noun or pronoun in the objective case, or by an infinitive
mood or a clause of a sentence equivalent to it; and every objective
case, except as in (828), is governed by au active trnnsitive verb, or pro·
position (661, 6).
5. The infinitive mood, for the most part, depends on, or is governed by,
a verb or adjective (865).
580. MODEL OF ETYMOLOGICAL l'ARSING.
"The minutest plant or animal, if [it is] attentively examined, affords a
thousand wonders, and obliges us to admire and adore the Omnipotent
Hand by which it was created.""
• In parsing nouns, pronouns, and verhs, it is quite unneces~ary to repeat the words
gender, ~llm.beT, ~a5e, t.enlie, mood, voice. Thus, "Father is a noun, masculine gender, in
the nommall\"e cast, smgular number." It is enough, and is both neater and briefer to
say~ "a noun ~nsculine. in the nominative singular.,t So ,vith the ~erb: instead of
S:lYJIlg-, "'Loves IS n verb," &'c.," in the present tense, indicati\'e mood active voice third
perSOIl, singular number:' it is sufficient and better to ~ay ... In the 'pTesent jndic~tive
Active, third person singular!' The conjugatiun of regular verbs al50 (485) "I,rithout any
detriment, may bf? omitted, the form of the principal. parts being sufficiently ascertained
whe~l ~hey are said to be regular (491. note). All thls saves much time, and it is just as
expllcllllS the full (orm often used. For the same reason, and ns fonnerly mentioned
(lOS), the word~ proper nnd common, ad applied .to nouns~ may be omitted i because,
whether a noun IS proper or common, makes no difference In the construction of n St::n ..
tence ; no use .is made o( it, nothing d~pends on it. In like manner, the designation of
person, as applied 10 nouns, may be omItted, except when they are of the first or 6eoond,