Exercise 7
In the following paragraph, the predicates are printed in italics, and the participles and infinitives in italic capitals. Study carefully.
If it were taught to every child, and in every school and college, that it is morally wrong for anyone TO LIVE upon the COMBINED labor of his fellowmen without CONTRIBUTING an approximately equal amount of useful labor, whether physical or mental, in return, all kinds of GAMBLING, as well as many other kinds of useless occupations, would be seen TO BE of the same nature as direct dishonesty or fraud, and, therefore would soon come TO BE CONSIDERED disgraceful as well as immoral. Alfred Russel Wallace.
Exercise 8
Underscore all the verbs in the following and note the participles, the infinitives and the various time forms; also the helping verbs:
What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net purport of war? To my knowledge, for example, there dwell and toil, in the British village of Dumrudge, usually some five hundred souls. From these, by certain 'natural enemies' of the French, there are selected, say thirty able-bodied men; Dumrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed them; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood and trained them in the crafts, so that one can weave, another build and another hammer. Nevertheless, amidst much weeping and swearing, they are selected; all dressed in red and shipped away, at the public charges, some two thousand miles, or, say only to the south of Spain, and fed there till wanted. And now to that same spot in the south of Spain are thirty similar French artisans, in like manner, wending their ways; till at length the thirty stand facing the thirty, each with his gun in his hand. Straightway, the word 'Fire' is given, and they blow the souls out of one another; and in the place of the sixty brisk, useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury and anew shed tears for.
Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the devil is, not the smallest! They lived far enough apart; were the entirest strangers; nay, in so wide a universe, there was even, unconsciously, by commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them.
How then?
Simpleton! Their governors had fallen out; and instead of shooting one another, had these poor blockheads shoot. —Carlyle.
SPELLING
LESSON 11
There are but few rules which can be learned to aid in the spelling of English words. The spelling of words must be largely mastered by concentration and effort of the memory. It will help you to memorize the correct spelling if you will write each word a number of times. This gives you a visual image of the word. Then spell it aloud a number of times. This will give you an auditory image.
Words which you find difficult to master, write in a list by themselves and review frequently. There are a few rules, however, which are helpful to know. There is one rule of spelling we want to learn this week concerning words formed by adding a suffix.
A word of one syllable which ends in a single consonant before which stands a single vowel, doubles the final consonant when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added.
For example: mat, matted, matting; sun, sunned, sunning.
Mat ends in t, a single consonant which is preceded by the single vowel a,—so you double the t when you add the suffix ed or ing, which begin with a vowel.
Notice these: Blend, blended, blending; Help, helped, helping.
These words do not end in a single consonant, so you do not double the consonant.
Notice also: Lean, leaned, leaning; Rain, rained, raining.
These words end in a single consonant, but before the consonant is a double vowel, ea in lean and ai in rain. So we do not double the final consonant.
This same rule holds true of any suffix, beginning with a vowel, as er and est, for example: sad, sadder, saddest. Slim, slimmer, slimmest.
Learn to spell the following words. Add the suffixes ed and ing to the words for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Add er and est to the words for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Monday
Chat
Cheat
Grin
Groan
Suit
Tuesday
Sap
Soap
Bet
Beat
Rot
Wednesday
Talk
Teach
Gain
Stir
Plan
Thursday
Thin
Dear
Flat
Cheap
Straight
Friday
Clean
Brief
Fair
Shrill
Wet
Saturday
Strong
Great
Mad
Fleet
Fat
PLAIN ENGLISH
LESSON 12
Dear Comrade:
In this lesson we are beginning the study of still another part of speech. You will notice that in words, at least, we give credit and place in society only because of work performed. In the society of men, people are given place and position too often because of outward dress and form or because of some special privilege. They are not given their place in society because of the work which they do or because they perform any useful function. In fact, in our topsy-turvy world, those who perform no work at all, but are simply parasites upon society, have claimed for themselves the best of everything and the highest positions.
Surely some time we shall see a society as successfully organized as our society of words, when men will be received, not because of that which they possess, but because of that which they do and are. Man has really laid the foundation for an ideal commonwealth in his organization of words into a spoken and written language.
When we think back across the centuries and think of the primitive man as he dwelt in trees to protect himself from the wild animals, we wonder what sort of speech he used then. Possibly it was only a little more articulate than the speech of some animals.
But man had within him the instinct to question, and this has been the root of all his progress. We can imagine these primitive men witnessing the wonder of fire, as the terrible unknown god of the lightning set fire to the forest in which they lived; but after the fear had subsided, some adventurous, inquiring forefather of ours ventured near the ashes, and began to investigate concerning this fearful and wonderful thing.
So gradually they discovered the use of fire, and with it a wonderful new future opened before the primitive man. With these great discoveries, he needed a better form of communication with his comrades, so articulate speech developed. But when we go back into the beginning of written speech, it is difficult for us to trace it to its beginning.
The first evidence we find was of man as a sign maker. On the walls of caves in France and Belgium and here in America, we have found rude sketches which the scientists tell us date back to the Ice Age and the Old Stone Age. Here the primitive man has drawn for us crude pictures describing different phases of his life, the animals about him, the hunt and the chase, and in these pictures we find the very beginning of our alphabet of to-day.
How much more wonderful it makes our spoken and written language to know that man has developed it himself. It has not been handed down by some god or powers above; but the spirit of rebellion against the things that be; the great desire to know more and to find out the reason why of all the things around us,—these have been the forces that have led the race from the animal-like beings that lived in trees to the race of today that understands in a large measure the laws that govern life.
It is only as we, through this spirit of rebellion, this same divine discontent with the things that are, seek to do our own thinking that we can add our share to the heritage of the race. Let us have the same courage that must have inspired the heart of that primitive man who dared to venture and inquire concerning the fearful things of nature round about him. Let us think for ourselves. Ask always the question "why" and demand the reason for all things. Thus we shall free ourselves and help to free the race.
Yours for Education,THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.
IN PLACE OF A NOUN
202. You remember in our study of the parts of speech we found that we have one part of speech that can be used in place of a noun. This is a very helpful part of speech for it saves us a great deal of tiresome repetition. Notice the following sentences:
John Smith is a machinist.
John Smith works at the machine.
The machine is John Smith's master.
This is awkward and the repetition is tiresome. So we say instead:
John Smith is a machinist.
He works at the machine.
It is his master.
You readily understand who and what we mean by he and it and his, and we will all agree that the latter is a much better way of making the statements. These words like he and his and it, which we use in place of the noun, we call pronouns. Pro means literally in the Latin, for or in place of; so when we say pronoun we are practically saying, in place of a noun.
A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun.
203. The word for which a pronoun stands or the noun in whose place it is used is called its antecedent. Ante means before and cedent comes from the Latin word meaning go, hence antecedent means literally, going before.
Notice this sentence: The manager spoke to the men before he left and told them to stop at the office. Manager is the antecedent of the pronoun he, and men is the antecedent of the pronoun them.
The word for which a pronoun stands is called its antecedent.
KINDS OF PRONOUNS
204. The Latin language has had a great deal of influence upon English. Many of our words are taken from the Latin. You remember that all of the names of our parts of speech are derived from Latin words. We also feel the influence of the Latin language in the way in which we number our personal pronouns. The Romans naturally thought that one would think of one's self first, and so the pronouns referring to one's self, or the person speaking, are called the first person pronouns. They are, I, my, mine, me and we, our, ours, and us.
Then they naturally thought that one would think second of the person spoken to, so the pronouns referring to the person spoken to are called the second person pronouns. Formerly thou was used in speaking to one person. In German and many other languages this form is still used, but in English we do not today use the singular form thou with its variations, thy, thine, and thee, except in poetry or poetic prose. In every-day speech we use you and its forms, your and yours, for both the singular and the plural.
Then the Romans considered last the person or thing of whom they were speaking; so pronouns referring to the person or thing spoken of are called the third person pronouns. These are he, she, and it, with their other forms, his, him, her, hers, its, in the singular, and they, their, theirs and them in the plural.
A personal pronoun is one that denotes the speaker, the person spoken to, or the person or thing spoken of.
COMPOUND PERSONAL PRONOUNS
205. All of these forms of pronouns which we have named are simple forms; but we have several personal pronouns which have a compound form; that is, a form made by the addition of self or selves to the simple forms.
These are called compound personal pronouns. They are, in the singular, myself, thyself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, and in the plural, ourselves, yourselves and themselves.
The compound personal pronouns have two uses, reflexive and emphatic.
Reflexive
206. A compound personal pronoun has a reflexive use when the actor becomes the object of its own action or in other words when the subject and the object refer to the same thing; as in this sentence, He has hurt himself, himself is the object of the incomplete verb has hurt, but it refers to the subject he. Reflexive is from the Latin re meaning back and from the Latin verb meaning throw, so reflexive means literally thrown back. These pronouns throw their meaning back to the subject.
Emphatic
207. A compound personal pronoun has also an emphatic use when it directs especial attention to the noun or pronoun to which it refers. For example in the sentence, He did the work himself, or, He, himself, did the work, himself gives emphasis or intensifies the meaning of the pronoun he.
Remember a compound personal pronoun is correctly used only in these two ways, reflexive and emphatic. For example, the following sentences are incorrect:
This is for yourself and your comrade.
Ourselves will find out the reason.
The correct form would be:
This is for you and your comrade.
We, ourselves, will find out the reason.
208. You can readily distinguish between the reflexive and the emphatic use. In the reflexive, the compound personal pronoun is always the object of a verb or preposition, and the subject of the sentence is its antecedent. The subject and the object always refer to the same thing.
In the emphatic use, the compound personal pronoun is neither the subject nor the object, but is thrown into the sentence simply to render it emphatic, and to call special attention to its antecedent.
Exercise 1
Supply the compound personal pronoun in the following blanks and tell whether the use is reflexive or emphatic.
1. He discovered the truth.......
2. The workers have robbed......by their ignorance.
3. You must educate.......
4. You must do the work.......
5. He must defend.......
6. Capitalism overreaches.......
7. The people will rule.......
8. We will settle the question.......
Write six sentences in which the compound personal pronouns are correctly used.
SINGULAR AND PLURAL
209. Personal pronouns, like nouns, have number form. Nouns simply add s to the singular form to denote the plural, but in personal pronouns we have different words which we use to express one or more than one person or thing. In the first, second, and third person forms, personal pronouns also have different forms for the object form, the possessive and the subject form. The following table gives the singular and plural of the subject form,—that is the form which is used as the subject of the sentence.
210. Remember that the first person refers to the person speaking, the second to the person spoken to, and the third person to the person or things spoken of. When we speak of things, we never use the first or second person, unless we are speaking of them in a personified form. So in the third person singular, we have the pronoun it which refers to one thing. In the plural, we have no special pronoun referring to things, but the pronoun they is used to refer both to persons and things.
Exercise 2
Which of the following pronouns refer to the person speaking, which to the person spoken to, and which to the person or thing spoken of? Which are singular, which plural?
I will defend my principles.
Give them to me for they are mine.
Do you believe him to be your friend?
We saw their mistake at once.
They acknowledged it was their fault.
Success will be your portion if you persevere.
He struggles for his rights; she does not understand her rights.
It forces us to struggle for our education.
Woman craves her freedom.
Workers of the world, unite; you have a world to gain and nothing to lose but your chains.
Form sentences of your own containing all these pronouns.
POSSESSIVE FORM
211. You will note in these sentences above that we have used the pronoun my and your and his and her as my principles, your friend, his rights, her freedom. This is the possessive form of these personal pronouns, the form that denotes ownership or possession. You remember that nouns had a possessive form, a form to denote possession or ownership, as, The man's book. The boy's school. The worker's college. So pronouns also have a possessive form which we use to show that an object belongs to such and such a person or thing. If I want to tell you that I own or possess a home, I say, I own my home. Each personal pronoun has its possessive form, thus:
POSSESSIVE FORM
212. You will notice that the possessive forms, my, our, her, your, its, his and their, are always used with the name of the object possessed. As for example; my work, our library, her delight, your task, its purpose, his home, their mistake.
213. The possessive forms, mine, thine, hers, ours, yours and theirs, are always used by themselves and are used either as subject, object or complement. As for example:
That letter is mine.
The work is hers.
Thine is the glory.
Is that yours?
Theirs not to reason why; theirs but to do and die.
The possessive form his may be used either in connection with the name of the object possessed or by itself. For example:
This is his home.
This home is his.
OBJECT FORM
214. Pronouns have one form which nouns do not have. We use the same form for the noun no matter whether it is the subject or the object. For example:
The man saw me.
I saw the man.
In the first sentence man is the subject of the verb saw, and in the second sentence man is the object of the verb saw. The same word is used; but you will notice that in the first sentence me is the object of the verb saw, and in the second I is the subject; yetboth refer to the same person, the first person, the person speaking.
So we have a different form of the pronoun for the object, for example: I saw him. He saw me. She watched us. We watched her. You found them. Him, me, us, her, and them in these sentences are used as the objects of the verbs, see, watch and found, and are called the object forms of the pronouns. You and it have the same form for both the subject and object; as, You did it. It frightens you. Her is used as both the possessive form and the object form, as, Her work tires her.
215. The following table gives the subject and the object forms of the personal pronouns, and these should never be confused in their usage. We must not use the object form as the subject of the verb, nor the subject form as the object of the verb.
GENDER
216. You notice in all of these tables that there are three forms given for the third person singular, he, she, and it. These are the only forms in which pronouns express gender. In all other forms the gender can be determined only by the gender of the antecedent.
He, representing a male, is masculine.
She, representing a female, is the feminine.
It represents a sexless thing, and hence is said to be of the neuter gender.
THE LITTLE VERB BE
217. You remember when we studied verbs, we had the incomplete verb that took an object; the complete verb that needed no object, since it was complete in itself; and one other kind of a verb. Do you remember this third kind of verb? This third kind is the copulative verb, and the copulative verb which we use most frequently is the one in the use of which we make the most mistakes.
It is that troublesome, bothersome, little verb be, which is so difficult to master. You remember it is an incomplete verb, but instead of taking an object, it takes a complement or completing word. So when you see a pronoun with any form of this verb be, you must use the subject form and not the object form. This copulative verb be is simply a connecting word, not a verb that asserts action or takes an object.
218. Here is where we make so many mistakes. We say, It was me, It was them, It was him, It wasn't her; instead of, It was I, It was they, It was he, It wasn't she. We have used the incorrect form in this particular so often that the correct form has a strange sound to our ears.
The only way to remedy this is to repeat over and over aloud the correct form until it has a familiar sound. Don't think this is putting on airs. It is not. It is simply demanding the best for yourself in words, as you should do in everything. We of the working class have built the world in its beauty. Why should we live in shacks, dress in shoddy, talk in slang? There is no reason except that we endure it. When the united working class demands its own, it will receive it. Demand yours and arouse the stupid from their sleep as rapidly as you can.
Repeat the following sentences aloud ten times every day this week and see if the correct form does not come to your lips more readily. We can learn the rule, but only continued practice and watchfulness can break us of our old habits.
It is I who seek my own.
It shall be they who are defeated.
It was I who was ignorant.
It is they who cause all wars.
It is he who must be aroused.
It is we who strive for freedom.
It shall be I who shall win.
It was she who was enslaved.
It shall be we who shall demand equality.
It shall be they who shall conquer.