Higher Lessons in English Part 4

By means of these handy little words we can represent any or every object in existence. We could hardly speak or write without them now, they so frequently shorten the expression and prevent confusion and repet.i.tion.

+DEFINITION.--A _Noun_ is the name of anything.+

+DEFINITION.--A _p.r.o.noun_ is a word used for a noun.+

The princ.i.p.al office of nouns is to name the things of which we say, or a.s.sert, something in the sentence.

+Direction+.---_Write, according to the model, the names of things that can burn, grow, melt, love, roar, or revolve._

+Model.+-- _Nouns._ Wood | Paper | Oil | Houses + burn or burns.

Coal | Leaves | Matches | Clothes |

+Remark.+--Notice that, when the subject adds _s_ or _es_ to denote more than one, the predicate does not take _s_. Note how it would sound if both should add _s_.

+Every subject+ of a sentence is a +noun+, or some word or words used as a noun. But not every noun in a sentence is a subject.

+Direction.+--_Select and write all the nouns and p.r.o.nouns, whether subjects or not, in the sentences given in Lesson_ 18.

_In writing them observe the following rules_:--

+CAPITAL LETTER--RULE.--_Proper,_ or _individual, names_ and _words derived from them_ begin with capital letters.+

+PERIOD and CAPITAL LETTER--RULE.--_Abbreviations_ generally begin with capital letters and are always followed by the period.+

LESSON 9.

CAPITAL LETTERS.

+Direction.+--_From the following words select and write in one column those names that distinguish individual things from others of the same cla.s.s, and in another column those words that are derived from individual names_:--

Observe Rule 1, Lesson 8.

ohio, state, chicago, france, bostonian, country, england, boston, milton, river, girl, mary, hudson, william, britain, miltonic, city, englishman, messiah, platonic, american, deity, bible, book, plato, christian, broadway, america, jehovah, british, easter, europe, man, scriptures, G.o.d.

+Direction.+--_Write the names of the days of the week and the months of the year, beginning each with a capital letter; and write the names of the seasons without capital letters._

+Remember+ that, when a cla.s.s name and a distinguis.h.i.+ng word combine to make one individual name, each word begins with a capital letter; as, _Jersey City_. [Footnote: _Dead Sea_ is composed of the cla.s.s name _sea_, which applies to all seas, and the word _Dead_, which distinguishes one sea from all others.]

But, when the distinguis.h.i.+ng word can by itself be regarded as a complete name, the cla.s.s name begins with a small letter; as, _river Rhine_.

+Examples+.--Long Island, Good Friday, Mount Vernon, Suspension Bridge, New York city, Harper's Ferry, Cape May, Bunker Hill, Red River, Lake Erie, General Jackson, White Mountains, river Thames, Astor House, steamer Drew, North Pole.

+Direction+.--_Write these words, using capital letters when needed_:--

ohio river, professor huxley, president adams, doctor brown, clinton county, westchester county, colonel burr, secretary stanton, lake george, green mountains, white sea, cape cod, delaware bay, atlantic ocean, united states, rhode island.

+Remember+ that, when an individual name is made up of a cla.s.s name, the word _of_, and a distinguis.h.i.+ng word, the cla.s.s name and the distinguis.h.i.+ng word should each begin with a capital letter; as, _Gulf of Mexico_. But, when the distinguis.h.i.+ng word can by itself be regarded as a complete name, the cla.s.s name should begin with a small letter; as, _city of London_.

[Footnote: The need of some definite instruction to save the young writer from hesitation and confusion in the use of capitals is evident from the following variety of forms now in use: _City_ of New York, _city_ of New York, New York _City_, New York _city_, New York _State_, New York _state_, Fourth _Avenue_, Fourth _avenue_, Grand _Street_, Grand _street_, Grand _st._, Atlantic _Ocean_, Atlantic _ocean_, Mediterranean _Sea_, Mediterranean _sea_, Kings _County_, Kings _county_, etc.

The usage of newspapers and of text-books on geography would probably favor the writing of the cla.s.s names in the examples above with initial capitals; but we find in the most carefully printed books and periodicals a tendency to favor small letters in such cases.

In the superscription of letters, such words as _street_, _city_, and _county_ begin with capitals.

Usage certainly favors small initials for the following italicized words: _river_ Rhine, Catskill _village_, the Ohio and Mississippi _rivers_. If _river_ and _village_, in the preceding examples, are not essential parts of the individual names, why should _river_, _ocean_, and _county_, in Hudson _river_, Pacific _ocean_, Queens _county_, be treated differently?

We often say the _Hudson_, the _Pacific_, _Queens_, without adding the explanatory cla.s.s name.

The principle we suggest may be in advance of common usage; but it is in the line of progress, and it tends to uniformity of practice and to an improved appearance of the page. About a century ago every noun began with a capital letter.

The American Cyclopedia takes a position still further in advance, as ill.u.s.trated in the following: Bed _river_, Black _sea_, _gulf_ of Mexico, Rocky _mountains_. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Little, Brown, & Co., 9th ed.) we find Connecticut _river_, Madison _county_, etc., quite uniformly; but we find _Gulf_ of Mexico, Pacific _Ocean_, etc.]

+Direction+.--_Write these words, using capital letters when needed:_--

city of atlanta, isle of man, straits of dover, state of Vermont, isthmus of darien, sea of galilee, queen of england, bay of naples, empire of china.

+Remember+ that, when a compound name is made up of two or more distinguis.h.i.+ng words, as, Henry Clay, John Stuart Mill, each word begins with a capital letter.

+Direction+.--_Write these words, using capital letters when needed_:--

great britain, lower california, south carolina, daniel webster, new england, oliver wendell holmes, north america, new orleans, james russell lowell, british america.

+Remember+ that, in writing the t.i.tles of books, essays, poems, plays, etc., and the names of the Deity, only the chief words begin with capital letters; as, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Supreme Being, Paradise Lost, the Holy One of Israel.

+Direction+.--_Write these words, using capital letters when needed_:--

declaration of independence, clarendon's history of the great rebellion, webster's reply to hayne, pilgrim's progress, johnson's lives of the poets, son of man, the most high, dombey and son, tent on the beach, bancroft's history of the united states.

+Direction+.--_Write these miscellaneous names, using capital letters when needed_:--

erie ca.n.a.l, governor tilden, napoleon bonaparte, cape of good hope, pope's essay on criticism, ma.s.sachusetts bay, city of boston, continent of america, new testament, goldsmith's she stoops to conquer, milton's hymn on the nativity, indian ocean, cape cod bay, plymouth rock, anderson's history of the united states, mount was.h.i.+ngton, english channel, the holy spirit, new york central railroad, old world, long island sound, flatbush village.

LESSON 10.

ABBREVIATIONS.

+Direction+.--_Some words occur frequently, and for convenience may he abbreviated in writing. Observing Rule 2, Lesson 8, abbreviate these words by writing the first five letters_:--

Thursday and lieutenant.

_These by writing the first four letters_:--

Connecticut, captain, Colorado, Kansas, Ma.s.sachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oregon, professor, president, Tennessee, and Tuesday.

_These by writing the first three letters_:--

Alabama, answer, Arkansas, California, colonel, Delaware, England, esquire, Friday, general, George, governor, honorable, Illinois, Indiana, major, Monday, Nevada, reverend, Sat.u.r.day, secretary, Sunday, Texas, Wednesday, Wisconsin, and the names of the months except May, June, and July.