The Study of Languages

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 edition. Excerpt: ...join words to it in all its moods and tenses, attaching thereto, directly and mentally, the ideas conveyed by these combinations. The conjugation of propositions, both useful and interesting, supplies memory with the materials of conversation; whereas the monotonous task of conjugating the verb by itself presents no distinct idea to the mind, and affords no help toward speaking. Hence it is, that the ablest teachers at the present day exercise their pupils on the verbs in the way we suggest. 6 Learners, beside forming different phrases, on the same verb, should compose variations on the model phrases, which the professor selects from what he has read to them. This exercise is superior to the first; because it leads them from the known to the unknown, and presents to them, not words with which to form phrases, but sentences to be decomposed into their elements and recomposed by imitation. The professor will give the preference to those expressions which elucidate points of grammar, especially those which differ in their construction in the two languages, taking care in these variations to preserve the syntactic or idiomatic character of the model-phrase. If his pupils hesitate, they should be at once assisted either by his recalling to their memory the model-phrase, or stating the grammatical rule which governs it, as also by constructing for them a part or the whole of the sentences proposed. When seasonable assistance is afforded to them, more sentences are formed in a given time, the syntactical construction of the language becomes very familiar, and the words are learned with their proper pronunciation, by being repeatedly heard from the instructor. This exercise is the counterpart of that for teaching how to understand the spoken language as...