Plain English Part 4

This is an a.s.sertion expressed as an exclamation.

Oh! Why should war continue?

Here we have a question in the form of an exclamation.

Come! Keep your courage up.

In this, we have a command, an imperative sentence, expressed in the form of an exclamation.

+An exclamatory sentence expresses surprise, excitement or some other emotion.+

In these three forms of sentences, the a.s.sertive, the interrogative and the imperative, together with the exclamatory, we are able to express every thought and feeling which demands expression, either for practical or artistic purposes.

The sentence is the basis of spoken and written language and as we trace its development we trace the history of the evolution of man and the growth of his power of expression, as he has developed his powers of mind.

+22.+ +Every sentence must begin with a capital letter.+

+Every a.s.sertive and imperative sentence should end with a period.+

+Every interrogative sentence should end with a question mark.+

The word in an exclamatory sentence which expresses strong emotion is followed by an exclamation point. The sentence itself if in interrogative form should be followed by a question mark; if in the a.s.sertive or the imperative form it may be followed either by an exclamation point or a period.

Exercise 1

Mark the a.s.sertive sentences among the following with an _a_ in the blank s.p.a.ce. Mark the interrogative sentences with a _q_ for question; the imperative sentences with a _c_ for command; and the exclamatory with an _e_ for exclamation.

1. ...... Books are the true levelers.

2. ...... Put not your trust in princes.

3. ...... To err is human; to forgive divine.

4. ...... What are the rights of a child?

5. ...... Seize common occasions and make them great.

6. ...... Not until all are free, is any free.

7. ...... Freemen! Shall not we demand our own?

8. ...... Is a world of happiness but a Utopian dream?

9. ...... He who will not work, shall not eat.

10. ...... Strike at the polls for freedom!

11. ...... Do the majority want social justice?

12. ...... A friend is the hope of the heart.

13. ...... How beautiful is the vision of peace!

14. ...... Acquire the thinking habit.

15. ...... Is it glorious to die for our country?

16. ...... Lo! Women are waking and claiming their own!

17. ...... Claim your right to the best.

18. ...... What is the highest good?

19. ...... Workers of the world, unite!

20. ...... To remain ignorant is to remain a slave.

WORDS--THEIR USES

+23.+ We have learned from our study that we use sentences to express our thoughts. These sentences are made up of words; therefore we call words _parts of speech_. Words are only fractions or parts of speech, and it is by combining them into sentences that we are able to express our thoughts.

There are many thousands of words in the English language. It would be impossible for us to study each word separately. But these words, like people, are divided into cla.s.ses, so we can study each cla.s.s of words.

These thousands of words are divided into cla.s.ses much as people are, or rather as people ought to be; for words are divided into cla.s.ses according to the work which they do. In the Industrial Commonwealth there will be no upper or lower cla.s.s, but men will be divided into groups according to the work which they do. There will be various industrial groups, groups of agricultural workers, groups of clerical workers, etc. So words are divided into cla.s.ses according to the work which they do in helping us to express our ideas.

+24.+ +Words are divided into kinds or cla.s.ses according to their use in sentences.+

+There are eight of these cla.s.ses of words, called parts of speech.+

THE NAMES OF THINGS

+25.+ What a word _does_ determines what part of speech it is. When primitive man, long ago, first began to use words, in all probability the first words which he invented were those used to name familiar objects about him. He invented a word for _man_, _boy_, _tree_, _animal_, etc. Gradually, all the things he met in his daily life received a name. About one half of the words in our language are of this cla.s.s, the _names_ of things.

Every word which is used as a name of something is called a _noun_. This word _noun_ is derived from the Latin word which means _name_, so it is quite the same thing as saying _name_. Notice the following sentences:

Boys run.

Fish swim.

Horses neigh.

Soldiers march.

Flags wave.

Flowers fade.

Girls study.

Winds blow.

Men work.

All of the words used like _boys_, _girls_, _fish_, _horses_, _soldiers_, _flag_, _winds_, _flowers_ and _men_, are the names of objects, therefore all of these words are _nouns_. The subject of a sentence is always a noun or a word used as a noun. However, we may use in a sentence many nouns besides the noun which is used as the subject, the noun about which the statement is made. We will study the use of these nouns later in our lessons.

_The famous palace of the kings of the Moors, at Granada, in Spain, was called the Alhambra._ We have six nouns in this sentence, _palace_, _kings_, _Moors_, _Granada_, _Spain_ and _Alhambra_, but the noun _palace_ is the noun which is the subject--the noun which is the name of that about which something is said. _Palace_ is the subject; and _was called_ is the predicate in this sentence.

+26.+ +A noun is a word used as the name of something.+

Now we want to learn to distinguish every word that is used as a name.

Pick out the nouns as you read your books and papers until you are able to tell every word which is used as a noun, the name of something.

In the following paragraph, the nouns are printed in italics. Carefully study these nouns:

The _fire_ in the _grate_, the _lamp_ by the _bedside_, the _water_ in the _tumbler_, the _fly_ on the _ceiling_ above, the _flower_ in the _vase_ on the _table_, all _things_ have their _history_ and can reveal to us _nature's_ invisible _forces_.

Exercise 2

Underscore every noun in the following quotation:

The whole history of the earth has been one of gradual development, of progress, of slow and painful climbing through the ages. Not only have the hills and the mountains, the rivers and the stars, the trees and the cattle, the beasts and the birds, been developing; but man himself--his mind and his body--has been developing. Men are marvelous little creatures; they have weighed the sun in their balances, measured the stars and a.n.a.lyzed the light and beauty of the rainbow; they have sounded the depths of the ocean; they have learned how the sun and the mountains were born and the rivers were laid in their mighty beds; they have learned how the seas became salt, what the stars are made of. They have learned so much, and yet when it comes to matters of time and s.p.a.ce, and law and motion, they still know so little. The only man who is conscious of his ignorance is he who has learned a great deal.--_McMillan_.