The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 04 (of 12)

The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 04 (of 12)

Published in one volume 12mo in 1810 (xvii. + 205 pp.) with the following title-page: A new and improved Grammar of the English Tongue: for the use of Schools In which the Genius of our Speech is especially attended to And the Discoveries of Mr. Horne Tooke and other Modern Writers on the Formation of Language are, for the first time incorporated By William Hazlitt. Author of an Essay on the Principles of Human Action etc. etc. etc. To which is added A new Guide to the English Tongue In a letter to Mr. W. F. Mylius, Author of the School Dictionary, By Edward Baldwin, Esq. London: Printed for M. J. Godwin, at the Juvenile Library, No. 41, Skinner Street; And to be had of all Booksellers. 1810. The volume was printed by Richard Taylor and Co., Shoe-Lane, London. It is a circumstance which may at first excite some surprise, that, amidst the various improvements in books of modern education, there has hitherto been no such thing as a real English Grammar. Those which we have are little else than translations of the Latin Grammar into English. We shall, however, no longer wonder at this circumstance, when we recollect that the Latin Grammar was regularly taught in our schools several centuries before any attempt was made to introduce the study of the mother-tongue; and that even since some attention has been paid to the latter, the study of the learned languages still having the precedence, our first notions of grammar are necessarily derived from them. Those who have written on the subject have not been exempt from the influence of early prejudice, and instead of correcting the error, have strengthened it. The following is an attempt to explain the principles of the English language, such as it really is. We have endeavoured to admit no distinctions, which, but for our acquaintance with other languages, we should never have suspected to exist. The common method of teaching English grammar by transferring the artificial rules of other languages to our own, not only occasions much unnecessary trouble and perplexity; but by loading the memory with mere technical formalities, accustoms the mind to one of the worst habits that can be,that of mistaking words for things, and of admitting a distinction without a difference. We might here refer particularly to the accounts given, in the most approved and popular grammars, of the genders, and the objective case of English nouns, that is, of a case without any difference of termination, and of genders without any mark denoting sex, &c. &c. In this respect the French seem to have much the advantage of us; as their grammars are, generally speaking, real descriptions of their language, not a fanciful and laboured account of what has no where any existence. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 61763
Author: Hazlitt, William
Release Date: Apr 6, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Glover, Arnold, 1865-1905 , Waller, A. R. (Alfred Rayney), 1867-1922