Plain English Part 7

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

WORDS ADDED TO NOUNS

+33.+ When man began to invent words to express his ideas of the world in which he lived, we have found that probably the first need was that of names for the things about him. So we have nouns. The second need was of words to tell what these things _do_, and so we have verbs. But primitive man soon felt the need of other cla.s.ses of words.

The objects about us are not all alike. For example, we have a word for man, but when we say _man_ that is not sufficient to describe the many different kinds of men. There are tall men, short men, white men, black men, strong men, weak men, busy men, lazy men. There are all sorts of men in the world, and we need words by which we can describe these different types and also indicate which man we mean.

+34.+ So we have a cla.s.s of words which are called adjectives.

_Adjective_ is a word derived from the Latin. It comes from the Latin word _ad_, meaning _to_, and the Latin word _jecto_, which means _to throw_; hence an adjective is a word _thrown to_ or _added to_ a noun.

If you will stop to think for a moment, you will see that it is by their qualities that we know the things about us. Some men are strong, some are weak, some are tall, some are short. These qualities belong to different men. And we separate or group them into cla.s.ses as they resemble each other or differ from one another in these qualities.

Things are alike which have the same qualities; things are unlike whose qualities are different. Apples and oranges are alike in the fact that both are round, both are edible. They are unlike in the fact that one is red and one is yellow; one may be sour and the other sweet. So we separate them in our minds because of their different qualities; and we have a cla.s.s of words, _adjectives_, which describe these various qualities.

+35.+ We use adjectives for other purposes also. For example, when we say _trees_, we are not speaking of any particular trees, but of trees in general. But we may add certain adjectives which point out particular trees, as for example: _these_ trees, or _those_ trees, or _eight_ trees or _nine_ trees. These adjectives limit the trees of which we are speaking to the particular trees pointed out. They do not express any particular qualities of the trees like the adjectives _tall_ or _beautiful_ express, but they limit the use of the word _trees_ in its application. So we have our definition of the adjective.

+36.+ +An adjective is a word added to a noun to qualify or limit its meaning.+

Exercise 1

Underscore all of the adjectives in the following quotation. Notice also the nouns and verbs in this quotation.

Yet fearsome and terrible are all the footsteps of men upon the earth, for they either descend or climb.

They descend from little mounds and high peaks and lofty alt.i.tudes, through wide roads and narrow paths, down n.o.ble marble stairs and creaky stairs of wood--and some go down to the cellar, and some to the grave, and some down to the pits of shame and infamy, and still some to the glory of an unfathomable abyss where there is nothing but the staring, white, stony eye-b.a.l.l.s of Destiny.

They descend and they climb, the fearful footsteps of men, and some limp, some drag, some speed, some trot, some run--they are quiet, slow, noisy, brisk, quick, feverish, mad, and most awful in their cadence to the ears of the one who stands still.

But of all the footsteps of men that either descend or climb, no footsteps are so fearsome and terrible as those that go straight on the dead level of a prison floor, from a yellow stone wall to a red iron gate.--From _The Walker_. _Giovannitti_.

WORDS ADDED TO VERBS

+37.+ From our study, you see how our cla.s.ses of words grew out of man's need of them in expressing his thoughts. And notice also how the many thousands of words in our language can all be grouped under these few cla.s.ses. We _name_ the things about us; we invent words to tell what these things _do_; we have another cla.s.s of words which _describe_ the things which we have named; and now we come to a fourth cla.s.s of words for which we also find great need.

When we come to tell what things _do_, we find that we need words which will tell us _how_ or _where_ or _when_ these things are done. Notice the following sentences:

The men work busily.

The men work late.

The men work now.

The men work here.

The men work hard.

The men work well.

The men work inside.

The men work more.

We would have a complete sentence and express a complete thought if we said simply, _The men work_, but each of these words which we have added, like _busily_, _hard_, _late_, etc., adds something to the meaning of the verb. These words add something to the action which is a.s.serted by the verb, for they show _how_ and _when_ and _where_ and _how much_ the men work.

+38.+ We call this cla.s.s of words _adverbs_, because they are added to verbs to make the meaning more definite, very much as adjectives are added to nouns. Adverb means literally _to the verb_.

An adverb will always answer one of these questions: _how?_ _when?_ _how long?_ _how often?_ _how much?_ _how far?_ or _how late?_ If you want to find the adverbs in your sentences just ask one of these questions, and the word that answers it will be the adverb.

+39.+ An adverb may be used also with an adjective. Notice the following sentences:

The book is _very_ long.

_Too_ many people never think.

Notice here that the adverbs _very_ and _too_ modify the adjectives _long_ and _many_.

+40.+ Adverbs may also be used with other adverbs. Notice the following sentences:

He speaks _very_ distinctly.

He walks _too_ slowly.

Here the adverbs _very_ and _too_ are used with the adverbs _distinctly_ and _slowly_, and add to their meaning. We will study more fully in later lessons concerning both the adjective and the adverb, but we can see by this brief study why adverbs were added as a cla.s.s of words, a part of speech, for they are absolutely necessary in order to describe the action expressed by verbs, and also to add to the meaning of adjectives and other adverbs. Hence we have our definition of an adverb.

+41.+ +An adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.+

Exercise 2

Underscore all adverbs in the following sentences:

1. He will not come today.

2. Here and now is the day of opportunity.

3. Very slowly, but even then entirely too rapidly, the fire crept forward.

4. The room was very quiet and still.

5. He was too weary to go farther.

6. One must learn to feel deeply and think clearly in order to express himself eloquently.

7. Ferrer stood there, so calmly and so bravely facing the firing squad.

8. He was condemned to death because he stood uncompromisingly and courageously for the education of the ma.s.ses.

9. Ferrer understood thoroughly that the schools of today cleverly and effectively adapt their teaching to maintain the present system of society.

10. He said "The school imprisons the children physically, intellectually and morally."

WORDS USED IN PLACE OF NOUNS

+42.+ Now we come to study another cla.s.s of words which are also very necessary in order to express our ideas. Suppose you had just arrived in a strange town and you wanted to find the way to a friend's house. You inquire of a stranger, "Can you tell me who lives in the house on the corner?"

Notice the words _you_ and _me_ and _who_. You could not call the stranger by name for you do not know his name, and hence you say _you_.

And if you used your own name instead of _me_, he would not recognize it, and you would both be puzzled to find a subst.i.tute for that little word _who_.

If you knew the stranger and he knew your name, you might say, "Can Mr.

Smith tell Mr. Jones what person lives in the house on the corner." But this would sound very stilted and unnatural and awkward. So we have these little words like _you_ and _me_ and _who_, which we use _in place of nouns_. These words are called p.r.o.nouns. This word is taken from the Latin also. In the Latin the word _pro_ means _in place of_. So the word p.r.o.noun means literally in place of a noun.