| 138. About half the words in our language are alike in one respect; that is, they are names of things, and are therefore called Nouns. |
139. Some nouns stand for such things as can be seen; as —
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140. A Noun is a word typically used as the name of something. The word “noun” means just this: the name by which a thing is known. |
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141. An assertion may be made about anything we can name, and so any noun may be the subject of a sentence.
But we often use the name of something about which we do not make any statement,
and so we may have in one sentence many nouns besides the subject.
Thus: — This airplane | has two red wings, a silver rudder for stability, and two pontoons without wheels. Here airplane is the subject, and the complete predicate is a long one containing five nouns. What are they? |
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142. When the complete subject contains the names of several things, we must be careful to distinguish the one essential word which if it stood alone would still name the subject.
Thus, in the sentence — The famous palace of the kings of the Moors at Grenada, in Spain, | was called the Alhambra. we have five nouns in the complete subject. But we see that it is the palace that is said to have been called the Alhambra. The other words are added to show which palace is being referred to |
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143. Besides nouns, there are a few other words such as he, these, they, it, that often stand for that which we have just mentioned, no matter what it is. Thus, if any one said, —
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| 144. Such words are called Pronouns because they can take the place of nouns; and we always prefer to use them so long as we can be understood. |
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145. When we speak or write to a person, we do not keep referring to him by name; we say you, instead;
and when we say anything about ourselves, we never think of using our names; for, no matter what they are, we almost always say, I, me, myself, we, us, and so on. Thus, we would say, —
Try to substitute names, and you will see how convenient the pronouns are. |
146. When we do not know the name of a person or a thing, we use a pronoun to ask a question.
And so we ask: —
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147. (a) Every one of the thousands of nouns in our language, and every expression, however long, that is used like a noun to describe a person or a thing, can be replaced at one time or another by pronouns. (b) The use of them enables us to point out what we have been talking about more exactly than we could by taking the trouble to identify it again. (c) Pronouns form a class by themselves because their meaning depends on the connection in which they stand; but they are used as subjects and in other ways very much as nouns are. |
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148. A Pronoun is a word that may take the place of a noun, and refer to any person or thing as present or just mentioned. The word “pronoun” means for a noun. |
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149. Words used to assert are Verbs. They are not as numerous as nouns, but they form an equally important class, and most other words have been derived from them. | ||||||||
150. To make a complete sentence we need only give the name of something, and say or assert something about it.
With a noun or a pronoun and a verb we can do just this.
As, —
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151. The verb may be a single word that asserts;
as when we say, —
The words of each group taken together we call a verb phrase, because they do the work of a single verb. |
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153. A Verb is an asserting word or phrase. The word “verb” means word, — that which is spoken |
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154. A Verb phrase is a group of words used as a single verb.
Verb phrases are often called verbs. We will learn sometime that many other groups of words used like single words are also called phrases. |
155. It very often happens, as in these sentences, —
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