R. Lowth

“A Short Introduction tо English Grammar”

SYNTAX

Syntax shows the agreement and right disposition of words in a sentence.

The article, a and an are used only before nouns of singular number: an, before a word that begins with a vowel; a - before a word that begins with a consonant.

A and an are indefinite; as “A man, a house”; i.e. any man, any house, without any definition. But the is definite: as, “the man, the house”; i.e. some one man, some one house in particular.

The is likewise used to distinguish two or more persons or things mentioned before, as, “the men (not the women), the lords, (as distinguished from the Commons)”.

The verb agrees with its noun or pronoun, i.e. with its agent or subject, in number and person: as, “the boys write; I love; he, who reads”.

A noun of multitude, of the singular number, may have a verb either singular or plural: as, “the people is mad”; or “the people are mad”. The latter expression seems to be the more elegant.

When two or more nouns, or pronouns, are connected together in a sentence, as joint agents or subjects, they must have a plural verb, though they should be each of the singular number: as “the man and his wife are happy; I and he were there; Richard and I were very busy”.

Sometimes a Sentence or an Infinitive mode, is the subject of a verb; and then the verb must be put in the singular number and third person; as, “the King and Queen appearing in public was the cause of my going; to see the sun is pleasant”.

When the Agent and Object of verb are not distinguished (as in nouns) by different cases, the Agent is always set before, and the Object after the verb; this being the natural order, and necessary to determine the sense, ex. “Alexander conquered Darius”. If Darius had been the conquerer, it is plain that the order of the nouns must have been inverted.

In English there are ten kinds of words or parts of speech, (i.e.) article, noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, participle, adverb, conjunction, preposition and interjection.

An article is a part of speech set before nouns to fix their signification: a man, the man.

A noun, or substantive, is the name of any person, place or thing: John, London, Honour.

An adjective is a word that signifies the quality of any person, place or thing: a good man, a great city.

A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word.

Pronominal adjectives such as ten, forty, fifty and some others seem to have a genitive case regularly formed by adding “ s” to the nominative: ten -tens.

A verb is a word that signifies the acting or being of a person, place or thing: the man calls, the city stands.

A participle is derived of a verb and partakes of the nature both of the verb and the adjective.

An adverb is a part of speech joined to a verb, an adjective, a participle and sometimes to another adverb to express the quality or circumstance of it: he reads well, a truly good man.

A conjunction is a part of speech that joins words or sentences together.

An interjection is a word that expresses any sudden motion of the mind, transported with the sensation of pleasure or pain.

A preposition is a word set before nouns and pronouns to express the relations of persons, places or things to each other.

Questions:

1. What does syntax show?

2. When are articles used? How are they used?

3. What does a verb agree with? In what manner does it agree with different parts of speech?

4. How is a sentence sometimes called?

5. How many kinds of words (parts of speech) are there in English?

6. Characterize each part of speech.