The Bad English of Lindley Murray and Other Writers on the English Language: A Series of Criticisms

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Hatchards, 1869 - English language - 249 pages

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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 28 - All that regards the study of composition, merits the higher attention upon this account, that it is intimately connected with the improvement of our intellectual powers. For I must be allowed to say, that when we are employed, after a proper manner, in the study of compositioiiv'iwe are cultivating the understanding itself. The study of arranging and expressing our thoughts with propriety, teaches to think, as well as to speak, accurately...
Page 41 - To render pauses pleasing and expressive, they must not only be made in the right place, but also accompanied with a proper tone of voice, by which the nature of these pauses is intimated;" much more than by the length of them, which can seldom be exactly measured. Sometimes it is only a slight and simple suspension of voice that is proper; sometimes a degree of cadence in the voice is required...
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 96 - And in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites, who fell by their hand : and they dwelt in their tents throughout all the east land of Gilead.
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 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 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." In this sentence, though the objects contained in it have a sufficient connexion with each other, yet, by this manner of representing them, by shifting so often both the place and the person, we and they, and / and who, they appear in so disunited a view, that the sense of connexion is much impaired.
Page 154 - Mr. Gould has much to learn in the school of letters if he thinks that the public will be satisfied with this explanation. Carelessness admits of no excuse. What is worth doing at all, is worth doing well ; and, if we are justified in looking for perfection in language in any book, it certainly is in one which has been written to expose the errors of other writers. Besides, Mr. Gould should bear in mind what he says on that point respecting Archbishop Trench and Dean Alford. See page 121. Mr. Gould...
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...

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