Bad English Exposed: a Series of Criticisms on the Errors and Inconsistencies of Lindley Murray and Other Grammarians

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Hatchard, 1876 - 227 pages

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Page 215 - Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. 19 Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.
Page 139 - ... progress of the plague"! Surely, Mr. Gould must have been trying to emulate the Irishman who, at a public meeting, rose in a state of great excitement, and .said ; — " Gentlemen, the apple "of discord has been thrown into our midst; " and if it be not nipped in the bud, it will burst "into a conflagration which will deluge the "world!
Page 30 - It is difficult, in some cases, to distinguish between an interrogative and exclamatory sentence ; but a sentence, in which any wonder or admiration is expressed, and no answer either expected or implied, may be always properly terminated by a note of exclamation : as, " How much vanity in the pursuits of men !" "Who can sufficiently express the goodness of our Creator!
Page 44 - After we came to anchor, they put me on shore, where I was welcomed by all my friends, who received me with the greatest kindness.
Page 71 - Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan ; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.
Page 154 - ... hounds, to good naturedly " race for the lead " to a gap with his equal, with a sporting dealer, or Tom Oliver ; but a king shaking his horse and cramming him through a bullfinch side by side with Mr. Mason, would have something in it rather novel, and I think somewhat indecorous. It may be said that " what is worth doing at all is worth doing well...
Page 19 - Of this rule there are many violations to be met with ; a few of which may be sufficient to put the learner on his guard. " Each of the sexes should keep within its particular bounds, and content themselves with the advantages of their particular districts:" better thus: "The sexes should keep within their particular bounds,
Page 26 - Authors sometimes plead the difficulty of their subject as an excuse for the want of perspicuity. But the excuse can rarely, if ever, be admitted. For whatever a man conceives clearly, that, it is in his power, if he will be at the trouble, to put into distinct propositions, or to express clearly to others: and upon no subject ought any man to write, where he cannot think clearly.
Page 37 - The perfect tense, and the imperfect tense, both denote a thing that is past ; but the former denotes it in such a manner, that there is still actually remaining some part of the time to slide away, wherein we declare the thing has been done ; whereas the imperfect denotes the thing or action past, in such a manner, that nothing remains of that time in which it was done. If...
Page xvi - The Structure of Language is extremely artificial; and there are few sciences in which a deeper or more refined logic is employed, than in grammar. It is apt to be slighted by superficial thinkers, as belonging to those rudiments of knowledge, which were inculcated upon us in our earliest youth. But what was then inculcated before we could comprehend its principlesi would abundantly repay our study in maturer years ; and to the ignorance of it, must be attributed many of those fundamental defects...

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