A Grammar of the English Language (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Grammar of the English Language

Order of instruction, Shepherd's Elementary Grammar of the English Language, the same general plan being ad hered to in each. N o pains have been spared to exclude all irrelevant material, to render definitions clear, concise, and accurate, and especially to admit only examples of pure English into the models and illustrations. Some of the general principles of comparative and historical grammar have been introduced, so that advanced pupils may at least begin the process of tracing the growth and development of the language, its changes of construction, the decay of old forms, the rise of modern idioms. The exercises in False Syntax have been designedly limited to a few under each rule, and to auch only as represent clear and palpable viola tions of English usage. Many of the examples inserted in most grammars, to be corrected as False Syntax, are in perfect accord with the usage of classic authors, - the aim of the grammarian in such cases being rather to establish a subjective standard of excellence than to acknowledge the authority of reputable writers, - the sole criterion of lingu istic.

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