Linguistic Development and EducationMacmillan, 1907 - 347 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
ab extra acquire activity adult agery analytic language appear armor attention attitude auditory and vocal become beginning child complex concrete consciousness constructions copula course definite denote differentiated doubtless early effective efficiency elementary elements employed Encyclopædia Britannica English experience familiar feeling focal foreign tongue formal formal grammar function future perfect tense gain give gradually grammatical graphic word-ideas guistic Hiawatha ideas illustrate imagery imitation individual inflected instance interjectional interpretation learner learning less linguistic development matter meaning meaning-ideas ment mental method modern languages nouns novice objects observed outset Papa particular phonic phrases phylogenesis prepositional principle probably prominent pronouns Psych Psychology pupil react reaction reader readily reading relations rience seems sentence sentence elements Sentence linguistic simple sion situations speech spelling spontaneous symbols teacher teaching tence thing thought tion tive unities verb verbal forms visual vocabulary words writing
Popular passages
Page 297 - The perfect writer will express himself as Junius, when in the Junius frame of mind ; when he feels as Lamb felt, will use a like familiar speech ; and will fall into the ruggedness of Carlyle when in a Carlylean mood. Now he will be rhythmical and now irregular; here his language will be plain and there ornate ; sometimes his sentences will be balanced and at other times unsymmetrical ; for a while there will be considerable sameness, and then again great variety.
Page 316 - ... well to begin in .childhood. The later period of youth is distinctly a bad time to begin. In childhood the organs of speech are still in a plastic condition. Good habits are easily formed ; bad habits more easily corrected. The mind acts more naively, and the memory is tenacious of whatever interests. Forms of expression are readily mastered as simple facts. Later in life, in proportion as the mind grows stronger, it also grows more rigid. The habit of analyzing and reasoning interferes more...
Page 282 - To so present ideas that they may be apprehended with the least possible mental effort, is the desideratum towards which most of the rules above quoted point. When we condemn writing that is wordy, or confused, or intricate — when we praise this style as easy, and blame that as fatiguing, we consciously or unconsciously assume this desideratum as our standard of judgment.
Page 282 - This superiority of specific expressions is clearly due to a saving of the effort required to translate words into thoughts. As we do not think in generals but in particulars — as, whenever any class of things is referred to, we represent it to ourselves by calling to mind individual members of it ; it follows that when an abstract word is used, the hearer or reader has to choose from his stock of images, one or more, by which he may figure to himself the genus mentioned.
Page 318 - ... directly related to the study of grammar may properly be allowed to absorb an increasing portion of the time, but the colloquial practice should be kept up. In the teaching of grammar the most important principle to be kept in view is that the grammar is there for the sake of the language, and not the language for the sake of the grammar. The recitation of paradigms, rules, and exceptions is always in danger of degenerating into a facile routine, in which there is but little profit. The important...
Page 289 - Instead of thoughts of concrete things patiently following one another in a beaten track of habitual suggestion, we have the most abrupt cross-cuts and transitions from one idea to another, the most rarefied abstractions and discriminations, the most...
Page 282 - A reader or listener has at each moment but a limited amount of mental power available. To recognize and interpret the symbols presented to him, requires part of this power ; to arrange and combine the images suggested requires Sj a further part ; and only that part which remains can be used for realizing the thought conveyed.
Page 320 - The pupil who at the end of a two-years' course has really learned that number of nouns, so that the right gender and the right plural come to him instantly, has done quite enough. More should not be expected by the college examiner, so far as concerns those nouns the gender and declension of which cannot be determined by inspection.
Page 281 - On seeking for some clue to the law underlying these current maxims, we may see shadowed forth in many of them, the importance of economizing the reader's or hearer's attention. To so present ideas that they may be apprehended with the least possible mental effort, is the desideratum towards which most of the rules above quoted point.
Page 229 - ... and the ten slowest shows that the rapid readers remember more of the original thoughts, and that the character of their reproduction is much higher, both generally and with reference to expression and to logical content. In the auditory tests the ratio of slow to rapid readers is 14.8% to 20.7%, in the number of thoughts.