Reed & Kellogg's Graded Lessons in English

As I mentioned elsewhere, I bought a copy of Reed & Kellogg’s Graded Lessons in English: a grammar book in the Euclidean pedagogical tradition dating from the late 19^th. Having read it, I really enjoyed it and extracted notes from it; since the material builds axiomatically, proposition by proposition, it’s very easy to extract notes for.

I think there are two good reasons for a modern person to read the book.

1. It is a clear, reasoned, adult-ready book of the grammar of the English language. I’m not sure it’s the best way to learn English, but as a summary, or a review, or a coalescing document, it’s lucid and enjoyable.
2. It introduces the abstraction of the sentence diagram as a learning aid. I think this is worth seeing in the primary source for two audiences:
3. Those who create learning materials: How the learning aid and knowledge organizing tool is introduced (the diagram) never loses sight of the fact that it is in service to the material, it is not an end in itself. That’s worth remembering!
4. Those who need tools for studying other grammar (linguists, foreign language learners, etc.) Knowing the grammatical terms and their notation in English sets one up for porting a diagramming framework to other languages under study

Find my notes after the jump

Lessons dealing with diagramming are prefixed with ! for easy finding

1. Lesson 1

• Letter the sign of a sound in English
• Idea: a mental picture
• Word: the sign of an idea

2. Lesson 2

• There are 26 letters
• Vowels: Number 5 and correspond to sounds which are made with an open mouth voicing
• Consonants are made by restricted breathing and restricted voicing
• Artificial Language: Spoken and written words used to communicate ideas and thoughts
• English Grammar: the science which teaches the forms, uses, and relations of the words of the English Language

3. Lesson 3

• Some utterances assert something

4. Lesson 4

• Sentence: the expression of a thought in words

5. Lesson 5: Review
6. Lesson 6

• Subject: that of which something is thought
• Predicate: what is thought
• Analysis: separation of a sentence into its parts

7. (!) Lesson 7: INTRODUCTION OF THE DIAGRAM

• Solid horizontal line
• Short vertical line bifurcating
• Subject on the left half
• Predicate on the right half

8. Lesson 8

• Sentences must start with a captial letter
• Sentences must end with a period

9. Lesson 9: Exercises
10. Lesson 10: Review
11. Lesson 11

• A predicate sometimes contains more than one word
• Example: Money is circulated → money | is circulated

12. Lesson 12: Exercises
13. Lesson 13: Exercises
14. Lesson 14

• Words are grouped into classes known as “Parts of Speech”
• Noun: The name of anything
• Parsing: Identifying the part of speech a word belongs to is the first step of Parsing

15. Lesson 15

• Proper Nouns are capitalized

16. -_cLesson 16

• Verb: Verb is a word that asserts action, being, or state of being
• The office of the verb except in the case of the participle (verbal adjective) or infinitive (verbal noun) is to assert

17. Lesson 17: Exercises
18. Lesson 18: Exercises
19. Lesson 19

• Pronoun: a word used for a noun

20. (!) Lesson 20

• The subject and predicate are the foundation for the sentence
• Subjects and Predicates can be modified. They have modifiers applied to them
• Modifier: is a group of words joined to some part of the sentence to qualify or limit the meaning
• DIAGRAMMING Modifiers are written as diagonal slashes off from the subject or predicate like \

21. Lesson 21: Exercises
22. Lesson 22

• Adjective: a word used to modify a noun or a pronoun

23. Lesson 23: Exercises
24. Lesson 24: Predicates can also be modified per 20
25. (!) Lesson 25:

• Modifiers can be modified. They are given a line and another subordinating \. Thus “The animal fled still more rapidly” will have rapidly modify fled and more modify rapidly and still modify more.
• DIAGRAMMING: Small hooks of new modifiers after a more prime modifier

26. Lesson 26: Exercises
27. Lesson 27:

• Adverbs: is a word used to modify a verb, an adjective, or an adverb

28. Lesson 28: Exercises
29. Lesson 29: Exercises
30. Lesson 30: Exercises
31. (!) Lesson 31

• Many phrases are introduced by a preposition
• Phrase: a group of words denoting related ideas but not expressing a full thought
• DIAGRAMMING: Use the preposition as a modifier. Extend from its end a horizontal line bearing the preposition. The horizontal line bears the indirect object e.g. into Florida: into on the diagonal, Florida on the horizontal

32. Lesson 32: Exercises
33. Lesson 33: Exercises
34. Lesson 34

• Preposition: a word that introduces a phrase modifier, and shows the relation, in sense, of its principal word to the word modified.

35. (!) Lesson 35

• Compound Subject: When two or more subjects are linked by a conjunction but have the same predicate
  • Birds and bees fly.
• Compound Predicate: When two or more predicates are linked by a conjunction to a common subject
  • Birds twitter and fly.
  • DIAGRAMMING: We place the common compounds each on a horizontal line, flaring out from either the basic subject or predicate slot. Across the horizontal bars, which are the compound constituents, we apply a vertical line upon which we write the conjunction that’s coordinating the compounds.

36. (!) Lesson 36

• Conjunction: a word used to connect words, phrases, or clauses
• Interjection: a word to express a sudden feeling
• DIAGRAMMING
  • Conjunctions are dashed lines connecting the split elements
  • Interjections stand wholly apart

37. Lesson 37

• Comma Rule: Phrases that are out of order, out of the nature of the sentence, etc. are bonded into it with ,
• Comma Rule: Commas replace full conjunctions in series
• Abbreviations close with a period
• Exclamatory statements end with an exclamation point

38. Lesson 38: Exercises
39. Lesson 39

• When a verb demands a direct object as “The Sun gives” we are missing a complement.
• Object Complement: The direct object called for by the verb thus completing the predicate
• Attribute Complement: The attribute that we use to modify a subject. Chalk is …
• Modified Complement: The total of the complement and its modifiers
• DIAGRAMMING
  • Object complements are set off from subject and predicate by another bar | on the main line
  • Attribute complements are set off from subject and predicate by a back bar \ after the predicate

40. Lesson 40: Exercises
41. Lesson 41: Exercises
42. Lesson 42: Exercises
43. Lesson 43: Exercises
44. Lesson 44: Exercises
45. Lesson 45: Exercises
46. Lesson 46: Exercises
47. Lesson 47: Exercises
48. (!) Lesson 48:

• Participles Are verbal adjectives
• As such, they modify nouns
• They may be completed by objects or attributes
• DIAGRAMMING: Because of this they arc across the \ and the _ that makes an ell off of what is being modified

49. (!) Lesson 49

• Infinitives Are verbal nouns
• They may be completed by objects or attributes
• DIAGRAMMING: Because of this they arc across the \ and the _ that makes an ell off of what is being modified. When they are the subject, this “ell” is linked to the subject space with a /\ with the infinitive base on a _ on top and the \ backslash leading into the “topper”. I call this the stick-man figure

50. Lesson 50: Exercises
51. Lesson 51: Exercises
52. Lesson 52: Exercises
53. Lesson 53

• Nouns function as modifiers when they are possessives

54. Lesson 54

• Appositives or explanatory modifiers are set off by ,

55. Lesson 55: Exercises
56. Lesson 56: Exercises
57. (!) Lesson 57

• Complex Sentences and the Adjective Clause
  • Sometimes an adjective can be expanded into a phrase: the running man to the man who runs. The phrase re-names the noun, thus is behaves as a pronoun and is triggered to that use by the pronoun “who” i.e. the relative pronoun
  • Clause is a part of a sentence containing a subject and its predicate.
  • Dependent Clause is one used as an adjective, an adverb, or a noun.
  • Independent Clause is one not dependent on another clause.
  • Simple Sentence is one that contains but one subject and one predicate, either or both of which may be compound.
  • Complex Sentence is one composed of an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
  • A man who will be honored is coming
    • (IC) A man is coming
    • (DC) who will be honored
    • Ergo: complex sentence
  • DIAGRAMMING
    • Use a dashed line to create a new diagram where the relative pronoun restates the subject
    • Thus the new diagram has its own subject/predicate line with: (relative pronoun) | (predicate)

58. Lesson 58: Exercises
59. (!) Lesson 59

• Complex Sentences and the Adverb Clause
  • book was carefully read to book was read with care
  • at sunrise to when the sun rose
  • DIAGRAMMING
    • Use the adverb on a dashed \ bonded from the main diagram to a new sub-diagram
    • Diagram the clause as normal

60. Lesson 60: Exercises
61. Lesson 61

• Complex Sentences and the Noun Clause
  • A clause may be used as a noun as a subject or as an object complement
  • “That stars are suns is taught” (subject)
  • “They teach that stars are suns (object complement)”
  • DIAGRAMMING Use the stick-man figure

             That
  stars | are |\\ suns
  -- -- --- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
                  |
                  |
                /   \\\
                _____    | is taught
  

62. (!) Lesson 62

• Compound Sentence: Composition of two or more independent clauses
• DIAGRAMMING Since we have two full clauses, use two diagrams connected by a straight line to each other via the conjunction

63. Lesson 63

• 3 Sentence Types
  • Simple
  • Complex
  • Compound
• 4 Sentence Meaning Types
  • Declarative
  • Interrogative
  • Imperative
  • Exclamatory

64. Lesson 64: Exercises
65. Lesson 65: Exercises
66. Lesson 66: Exercises
67. Lesson 67: Exercises
68. Lesson 68: Exercises
69. Lesson 69: Exercises
70. Lesson 70: Exercises
71. Lesson 71

• Classes of Noun
  • Proper Noun
  • Common Noun
• Classes of Pronoun
  • Personal Pronoun: Denotes speaker, one spoken of, or one spoken to
  • Relative Pronoun: Connects to relative clauses
  • Interrogative Pronoun: Asks

72. Lesson 72: Exercises
73. Lesson 73

• Classes of Adjective
  • Descriptive Adjective: Describes a kind by limiting a quality
  • Definitve Adjective: Points out, numbers, or denotes quality

74. Lesson 74

• Classes of Verb
  • Transitive Verb: Those which require a direct object
  • Intransitive Verb: Those which do not require a direct object
• Classes of Verb Form
  • Regular: forms past tense and past participle by adding -ed
  • Irregular: not

75. Lesson 75

• Classes of Adverb
  • Of Time
  • Of Place
  • Of Degree
  • Of Manner

76. Lesson 76

• Classes of Conjunction
  • Coordinate Those that connect clauses of the same rank (and, or, but)
  • Subordinate Those that subordinate a clause (if, because, that, for)

77. Lesson 77: Exercises
78. Lesson 78

• Nouns have number, singular or plural

79. Lesson 79: Exercises
80. Lesson 80

• Nouns have gender and might change suffixes

81. Lesson 81

• Nouns have person: first, second, third
• Nouns have case: subjective, objective, possessive

82. Lesson 82: Exercises
83. Lesson 83:

• Declension is the arrangement of cases (3) into columns based on number (sg., pl.)
• Compound Personal Pronoun: Add -self
• Relative / Interrogative Pronouns: Who/Which, Whose/Whose, Whom/Which

84. Lesson 84

• Possessive is formed by 's or s'

85. Lesson 85

• Forms of the pronoun
  • Nominative: I, We, thou, ye, he/she, they, and who
  • Objective: Me, Us, thee, thee, him/her, them, whom

86. Lesson 86

• Classification of Noun
  • Noun | Kind (Proper, comparative) || Person | Number | Gender | Case || Syntax (function)

87. Lesson 87

• Comparative of adjectives
  • Positive
  • Comparative (-er)
  • Superlative (-est)

88. Lesson 88

• Adverbs follow the same format as adjectives

89. Lesson 89

• Voice is a factor in verbs
  • Active: names the actor
  • Passive: names the thing acted upon

90. Lesson 90

• There exist four modes (“mood” in Latin study) of verb
  • Indicative: James walks out
  • Potential: James may walk out
  • Subjunctive: If James walk out, he will be healthy
  • Imperative: James, walk out.
• There exist six tenses in English
  • Present: I walk
  • Past: I walked
  • Future: I shall walk
  • Present Perfect: I have walked
  • Past Perfect: I had walked
  • Future Perfect: I shall have walked
• Verbs agree in person and number
• Infinitive is a form of the verb which names the action or being in a general way, without asserting it of anything.
• Participle is a form of the verb partaking of the nature of an adjective or noun, and expressing the action or being as assumed.
  • The Present Participle denotes action or being as continuing at the time indicated by the predicate.
  • The Past Participle denotes action or being as past or completed at the time indicated by the predicate.
  • The Past Perfect Participle denotes action or being as completed at a time previous to that indicated by the predicate

91. Lesson 91

• Auxiliary Verbs: are those that help in the conjugation of other verbs
• The auxiliaries are: do, be, have, shall, will, may, can, and must
• The Principal Parts of a Verb are the present indicative or the present infinitive, the past indicative, and the past participle.
  • Blow, blew, blown
  • Been, was, been
  • Break, broke, broken

92. Lesson 92: Conjugation of “to see”
93. Lesson 93: Regular conjugation exercise
94. Lesson 94: Conjugation of “to be”
95. Lesson 95: Verb must agree in number and person
96. Lesson 96: Exercises
97. Lesson 97: Exercises
98. Lesson 98: Exercises
99. Lesson 99: Exercises
100. Lesson 100: Exercises

• Punctuation rules
  • NB: Comma
    • (1) a phrase out of its natural order or not closely connected with the word it modifies
    • (2) an explanatory modifier that does not restrict the modified term or combine closely with it
    • (3) a participle used as an adjective modifier, with the words belonging to it, unless restrictive
    • (4) the adjective clause, when not restrictive
    • (5) the adverb clause, unless it closely follows and restricts the word it modifies
    • (6) a word or phrase independent or nearly so
    • (7) a direct quotation introduced into a sentence unless formally introduced
    • (8) a noun clause used as an attribute complement and
    • (9) a term connected to another by or and having the same meaning. Separate by the comma
    • (10) connected words and phrases, unless all the conjunctions are expressed
    • (11) independent clauses, when short and closely connected
    • (12) the parts of a compound predicate and of other phrases, when long or differently modified.