When children and adolescents improve their vocabulary, their academic and social confidence and competence improve, too. What words do I teach? I have a favorite mnemonic device that helps me remember the types of words I want to teach explicitly: Type A Words: These words are like Type A personalities.
They work hard in order to convey the meaning of the text being read. There are two sources for these words: A cademic Language and the Content A reas. Academic Language describes the language of schooling — words used across disciplines like genre and glossary.
Content Area words are specific to the discipline — words like organization in social studies and organism in science.
Type B Words: These words are the B asics. There are hundreds of high-frequency words. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. PDF No. Crowell Company is based in New York. This one should be read before moving on to Chapter 1 since it provides valuable information on a training plan.
Can you train yourself to read faster? How fast can I read per minute? Download Now. Such a person may be utterly lacking in sexual restraint, or addicted to hard drugs. So you are re- ferred to a psychoanalyst or psychiatrist or clinical psychologist who practices psYchoanalytically oriented therapy. As a child you built up certain re- sentments and anxieties because you seemed unable to please your parent-and this will sound farfetched, but it is perfectly possi- ble as a result you became asthmatic.
How else were you going to get the parental love, the approbation, the attention you needed and that you felt you were not receiving? In your sessions with your therapist, you discover that your asthma is emotionally, rather than organically, based-your ail- ment is psychogenic sI'-ko-JEN'-ik , of PsYChic origin, or the terms are used more or less interchangeably although they differ somewhat in definition psychosomatic, resulting from the interac- tion of mind and body.
Psychogenic is built on psyche plus Greek genesis, birth or origin. And your treatment? No drugs, no surgery-these may help the body, not the emotions. Instead, you "work out" this is the term used in psychoanalytic [si-ko-an'-a-LIT'-ik] parlance early trauma in talk, in remembering, in exploring, in interpreting, in reliving childhood experiences.
And if your asthma is indeed psychogenic or psychosomatic , therapy will very likely help you; your attacks may cease, either gradually or suddenly. Freudian therapy is less popular today than formerly; many newer therapies-Gestalt, bioenergetics, transactional analysis, to name only a few-claim to produce quicker results. Psychological treatment aims at TRUE. FALSE sharpening the intellect. Every therapist uses psychoanalysis. A psychopath is often a criminal. A pedodontist pee'-do-DON'-tist specializes in the care of children's teeth-the title is constructed from paidos, child, plus odontos.
As a quick glance in the mirror will tell you, the gums surround the teeth, more or less. For the adjective?
Greek endon, inner, within. Try your. What is the specialty? And the adjective? The prefix ex-, out, combines with odontos to form exodontist eks'DON'-tist. What do you suppose, therefore, is the work in which this practitioner specializes? Metron is the root in many other words: 1.
Osteopathy os'-tee-OP'i-thee , you will recall, was originally based on the theory that disease is caused by pressure of the bones on blood vessels and nerves. An osteopathic os'-teei- PATH'-ik physician is not a bone specialist, despite the mislead- ing etymology-and should not be confused with the orthopedist, who is.
The podiatrist Greek pous, podos, foot, plus iatreia, medical healing practices podiatry p::i-DI'-G-tree. The adjective is po- diatric po'-dee-A T'-rik.
The suffix -ium often signifies "place where," as in gymnasium, stadium, auditorium, etc. The specialty is chiropody h-ROP'-a-dee. Chiropody combines. The term was coined in the days before labor-saving machinery and push-button devices, when people worked with their hands and developed calluses on their upper ex- tremities as well as on their feet.
Today most of us earn a liveli- hood in more sedentary occupations, and so we may develop calluses on less visible portions of our anatomy.
Chiropractors heal with their hands-the specialty is chiro- practic ki'-ro-PRAK'-tik. Cheir chiro- , hand, is the root in chirography ki-ROG'-ra- fee. Recalling the graph- in graphologist, can you figure out by etymology what chirography i s? If the suffix -maney comes from a Greek word meaning fore- telling or prediction, can you decide what chiromaney KI'-ro- man'-see must b e?
Orthodontia is a branch of dentistry. Chiropractic deals with handwriting. A pedodontist is a foot doctor. A periodontist is a gum specialist. A endodontist does root-canal therapy. An exodontist extracts teeth. A barometer measures heat. An octopus has eight arms. A platypus is a land mammal.
A tripod has four legs. A chiromancer reads palms. We know that the graphologist analyzes handwriting, the term combining graphein with logos, science, study. Chirographer is built on graphein plus cheir chiro- , hand. You have built so solid and unsavory a reputation that only a stranger is likely to be misled-and then, not for long.
A notorious liar 2. Your skill has, in short, reached the zenith of perfection. Indeed, your mastery of the art is so great that your lying is almost always crowned with success-and you have no trouble seducing an unwary listener into believing that you are telling gospel truth.
A consummate liar 3. An incorrigible liar 4. Tell- ing untruths is as frequent and customary an activity as brushing your teeth in the morning, or having toast and coffee for break- fast, or lighting up a cigarette after dinner if you are a smoker. And almost as reflexive. This was over two thousand years ago, but I presume that Diogenes would have as little success in his searcl. Lying seems to be an integral weakness of mortal character-I doubt that few human beings would be so brash as to claim that they have never in their lives told at least a partial untruth.
Indeed, one philologist goes so far as to theorize that language must have been invented for the sole purpose of deception. Perhaps so. It is cer- tainly true that animals seem somewhat more honest than humans, maybe because they are less gifted mentally. Why do people lie? These are the common reasons for falsification.
No doubt there are other, fairly unique, motives that impel people to distort the truth. And, to come right down to it, can we always be certain what is true and what is false?
If lying is a prevalent and all-too-human phenomenon, there would of course be a number of interesting words to describe different types of liars. The question is, what kind of liar are you? Are you going to invite Doris and I to your party? Some people are almost irresistibly drawn to the pro- noun I in constructions like this one. However, not only does such use of I violate a valid and useful grammatical principle, but, more important, it is rarely heard in educated speech.
Consider it this way: You would normally say, "Are you going to invite me to your party? One writer responded: "It has been right for about years ' Editors of magazines and newspapers questioned on the same point were just a shade more conservative. Sixty out of sixty-nine accepted the usage. One editor commented: "I think we do not have to be nice about nice any longer. No one can eradicate it from popular speech as a synonym for pleasant, or enjoyable, or kind, or courteous.
It is a workhorse of the vocabulary, and prop- erly so. As in the famous story of the editor who said to her secretary: "There are two words I wish you would stop using so much. One is 'nice' and the other is 'lousy. He's pretty sick today. RIGHT, One of the purist's pet targets of attack is the word pretty as used in the sentence under discussion. Yet all modern dictionaries accept such use of pretty, and a survey made by a professor at the University of Wisconsin showed that the usage is established English.
I feel awfully sick. Dictionaries accept this usage in informal speech and the University of Wisconsin survey showed that it is established English. The great popularity of awfully in educated speech is no doubt due to the strong and unique emphasis that the word gives to an adjective-substitute very, quite, extremely, or severely-and you considerably weaken the force. On the other hand, it is somewhat less than cultivated to say "I feel awful sick," and the wisdom of using awfully to intensify a pleasant concept "What an awfully pretty child"; "That book.
Of twelve dictionary editors, eleven accepted further, and in the case of the authors, thirteen out of twenty-three accepted the word as used. A professor of English at Cornell University remarked: "I know of no justification for any present-day distinctj.
As applied to spatial distance, further and farther have long been interchangeable. Some people adniit that their principle goal in life is to become wealthy. In speech, you can get principal and principle con- fused as often as you like, and no one will ever know the difference-both words are pronounced identically. In writing, however, your spelling will give you away. There is a simple memory trick that will help you if you get into trouble with these two words. Rule and principle both end in -le-and a principle is a rule.
On the other hand, principal con- tains an a, and so does main-and principal means main. Get these points straight and your confusion is over. Heads of schools are called prineipals, because they are the main person in that institution of learning. The money you have in the bank is your principal, your main financial assets. And the stars of a play are prineipals-the main actors.
Thus, "Some people admit that their principal main goal in life is to become wealthy," but "Such a principle rule is not guaranteed to lead to happiness. What a nice thing to say! Purists object to the popular use of nice as a synonym for pleasant, agreefible, or delightful.
They wish to restrict the word to its older and more erudite meaning of exact or subtle. You will be happy to hear that they aren't getting anywhere. Correctness, in short, is determined by current educated usage. The following notes on current trends in modern usage are in- tended to help you come to a decision about certain controversial expressions. Would you be willing to phrase your thoughts in just such terms? Decide whether the sentence is "right" or "wrong," then compare your conclusions with the opin- ions given after the test.
Let's not walk any further right now. In the nineteenth century, when professional grammari- ans attempted to Latinize English grammar, an artificial distinc- tion was drawn between farther and further, to wit: farther refers to space, further means to a greater extent or additional.
Today, as a result, many teachers who are still under the forbidding in- fluence of nineteenth-century restrictions insist that it is incorrect to use one word for the other. To check on current attitudes toward this distinction, I sent the test sentence above to a number of dictionary editors, authors, and professors of English, requesting their opinion of the accepta- bility of further in, reference to actual distance.
Their contribution to the complexity of modern living is the repeated claim that many of the natural, carefree, and popular expressions that most of us use every day are "bad English," "incorrect grammar," "vulgar," or "illiterate. Students in my grammar cfasses at Rio Hondo College are somewhat nonplused when they discover that correctness is not determined by textbook rules and cannot be enforced by school- teacher edict.
They invariably ask: "Aren't you going to draw the line somewhere? The Human Mind, by Karl A. Spurgeon English and Gerald H. Pearson Next, I suggest books on some of the newer approaches in psy- chology.
These are available in inexpensive paperback editions as well. Harris, M. The Transparent Self, by Sydney M. Those who are familiar with Freud's theories know all the words that explain them-the unconscious, the ego, the id, the superego, rationalization, Oedipus complex, and so on.
Splitting the atom was once a new idea-anyone famil- iar with it knew something about fission, isotope, radioactive, cyclotron, etc. The words you know show the extent of your understanding of what's going on in the world. The size of your vocabulary varies directly with the degree to which you are grow- ing intellectually. You have covered so far in this book several hundred words. Having learned these words, you have begun to think of an equal number of new ideas.
Realizing these facts, you may become impatient. You will begin to doubt that a book like this can cover all the ideas that an alert and intellectually mature adult wishes to be acquainted with. Your doubt is well-founded. One of the chief purposes of this book is to get you started, to give you enough of a push so that you will begin to gather momentum, to stimtilate you enough so that you will want to start gathering your own ideas. Where can you gather them? From good books on new topics.
How can you gather them? By reading on a wide range of new subjects. If your curiosity has been piqued by these references, here is a good place to start. In these fields there is a tremendous and exciting literature-and you can read as widely and as deeply as you wish. What I would like to do is offer a few suggestions as to where you might profitably begin-how far you go will depend on your own interest. These three words, based on lingua, tongue, use prefixes we have discussed.
Can you define each one? With Anglophile as your model, can you figure out what country. The words they know a. Anglus Anglophile Recalling the 'root sophos, wise, and thinking of the English word moron, write the name given to a second-year student in high school or college:. Etymo- IOgically, what does this word mean? Based on the root sophos, what word means worldly-wise? Student of the stars and other heavenly phenomena: a ge- ologist, b astronomer, c anthropologist 2.
Student of plant life: a botanist, b zoologist, c biolo- gist 3. Student of the meaning and psychology of words: a philol- ogist, b semanticist, c etymologist 5. Analysis of living tissue: a autopsy, b biopsy, c au- tonomy 6. Part that represents the whole: a epitome, b dichotomy, c metronome 9.
One who physically travels in space: a astronomer, b as- trologer, c astronaut " One who has extramarital affairs: a cosmonaut, b philanderer, c philanthropist KEY: 1-b, 2-a, 3-b, 4-b, 5-b, c, 7-b, 8-a, 9-c, b B. Anglophile f. Did Dr. Is an egoist the epitome of selfishness?
Is a philanthropist antisocial? Anglophile ANG'-gla-ffi' 6. Socius is the source of such common words as associ- ate, social, socialize, society, sociable, and antisocial; as well as asocial ay-SO'-shal , which combines the negative prefix a- with socius. The antisocial person actively dislikes people, and often be- haves in ways that are detrimental or destructive to society or the social order anti-, against.
On the other hand, someone who is asocial is withdrawn and self-centered, avoids contact with others, and feels completely indifferent to the interests or welfare of society. The asocial per- son doesn't want to "get involved. Anglus English Aphrodisiac is an adjective as well as a noun, but a longer ad- jective form, aphrodisiacal af-rn-da-ZI'-a-kal , is also used.
A bibliophile BIB'-lee-a-ffi' is one who loves books as collecti- bles, admiring their binding, typography, illustrations, rarity, etc. The combining root is Greek biblion, book. The combining root is Latin Anglus, English.
Semantics, like orthopedics, pediatrics, and obstetrics, is a sin- gular noun despite the -s ending. Semantics is, not are, an exciting study. However, this rule applies only when we refer to the word as a science or area of study.
Wendell Johnson. Can you write, and pronounce, the ad- jective? Companion itself has an interesting etymology-Latin com-, with, plus pants, bread. If you are social, you enjoy breaking bread with companions. Pantry also comes from pants, though far more than bread is stored there. So a woman who is the epit- ome of kindness stands for all people who are kind; and an act that epitomizes a philosophy of life represents, by itseH, the com- plete philosophy.
Can you write, and pronounce, the adjective form of philology? The verb philander fa-LAN'-dQr , to "play around" sexually, be promiscuous, or have extramarital relations, combines philein with andros, male. Philandering, despite its derivation, is not of course exclusively the male province. The word is, in fact, derived from the proper name conventionally given to male lovers in plays and romances of the s and s.
By etymology, philosophy is the love of wisdom Greek sophos, wise ; Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love Greek adel- phos, brother ; philharmonic is the love of music or harmony Greek harmonia, harmony ; and a philter, a rarely used word, is a love potion. We have long since split the atom, of course, with re- sults, as in most technological advances, both good and evil.
The adjective is atomic a-TOM'-ik. The Greek prefix ana- has a number of meanings, one of which is up, as in anatomy a-NAT'-a-mee , originally the cutting up of a plant or animal to determine its structure, later the bodily struc- ture itself. The adjective is anatomical an'-a-TOM'-a-kal. Originally any book that was part of a larger work of many vol- umes was called a tome TOM -etymologically, a part cut from the whole.
Today, a tome designates, often disparagingly, an ex- ceptionally large book, or one that is heavy and dull in content. The Greek prefix dicha-, in two, combines with tome to con- struct dichotopiy dI-KOT'-a-mee , a splitting in two, a technical word used in astronomy, biology, botany, and the science of logic.
It is also employed as a non-technical term, as when we refer to the dichotomy in the life of a man who is a government clerk all day and a night-school teacher after working hours, so that his life is, in a sense, split into two parts. Dichotomous thinking is the sort that divides everything into two parts-good and bad; white and black; Democrats and Republi- cans; etc.
An unknown wit has made this classic statement about dichotomous thinking: "There are two kinds of people: those who divide everything into two parts, and those who do not.
What you have is an epitome a-PIT'-a-mee , a condensation of the whole. From epi-, on, upon, plus tome. An epitome may refer to a summary, condensation, or abridg- ment of language, as in "Let me have an epitome of the book," or "Give me the epitome of his speech. Where these parts join, there appears to the imaginative eye a "cutting in" of the body.
Hence the branch of Zoology dealing with insects is aptly named entomology, from Greek en-, in, plus tome, a cutting. The adjective is entomological en'-t:rma-LOJ'-a-k:il. The word insect makes the same point-it is built on Latin in- in, plus sectus, a form of the verb meaning to cut. The prefix ec-, from Greek ek-, means out. The Latin prefix, you will recall, is ex-. Combine ec- with tome to derive the words for surgical procedures in which parts are "cut out," or removed: tonsillectomy the tonsils , appendectomy the appendix , mas- tectomy the breast , hysterectomy the uterus , prostatectomy the prostate , etc.
Combine ec- with Greek kentron, center the Latin root, as we have discovered, is centrum , to derive eccentric :ik-SEN'-trik - out of the center, hence deviating from the normal in behavior, attitudes, etc. Thti noun is ec- centricity ek'-s:in-TRIS'-:rtee. Do geological investigations sometimes determine where oil is to be found? Does a geometrician work with mathematics? Do geographical shifts in population sometimes affect the economy of an area?
YES NO 9. Does a biographical novel deal with the life of a real person? Is botany a biological science? Is the United States politically autonomous? Is a biopsy performed on a dead body? Is a metronome used in the study of mathematics? KEY: 1-no, 2-no, 3-yes, 4-yes, 5-yes, 6-yes, 7-yes, 8-yes, 9-yes, yes, yes, no, no, no, no Can you recall the words? KEY: 1-d, 2-h, 3-a, 4-f, 5-c, 6-i, 7-e, 8-g, 9-b Can you work with the words? A biopsy is contrasted with an autopsy AW'-top-see , which is a medical examination of a corpse in order to discover the cause of death.
Th autos in au- topsy means, as you know, self-in an autopsy, etymologically speaking, the surgeon or pathologist determines, by actual view or sight rather than by theorizing i. Botanist is from Greek botane, plant. Zoologist is from Greek zoion, animal. The science is zaology.
The adjective? The combina- tion of the two o's tempts many people to pronounce the first three letters of these words in one syllable, thus: zoo.
However, the two o's should be separated, as in co-operate, even though no hyphen is used in the spelling to indicate such separation. Zoo, a park for ani- mals, is a shortened form of zaological gardens, and is, of course, pronounced in one syllable. The zodiac Z6'-dee-ak is a diagram, used in astrology, of the paths of the sun, moon, and planets; it contains, in part, Latin names for various animalsscorpio, scorpion; leo, lion; cancer, crab; taurus, bull; aries, ram; and pisces, fish.
Hence its derivation from zoion, animal. The adjective is zodiacal zO-Dl'-a-kal. You know the instrument that beginners at the piano use to guide their timing? A pendulum swings back and forth, making an audible click at each swing, and in that way governs or orders the measure or timing of the player. The science is geology jee-OL'-a-jee. Can you write the adjective? The ety- mology of the word shows that this ancient science was originally concerned with the measurement- of land and spaces on the earth.
Geography jee-OG'-ra-fee is writing about graphein, to write , or mapping, the earth. The name George iS also derived from ge geo- , earth, plus ergon, work-the first George was an earth-worker or farmer. Biologist combi. The sci- ence is biology bi-OL'-a-jee. The science is. Can you form the adjective? Can you pronounce it? Nautical NOT'-a-kQl , relating to sailors, sailing, ships, or navigation, derives also from nautes, and nautes in tum is from Greek naus, ship-a root used in nau- sea etymologically, ship-sickness or seasickness!
Aster AS'-tQr is a star shaped flower. In ancient times it was believed that the stars ruled human destiny; any misfortune or calamity, therefore, happened to someone because the stars were in opposition. Dis-, a prefix of many meanings, in this word signifies against. For example, if you can make your own laws for yourself, if you needn't answer to anyone else for what you do, in short, if you are independent, then you enjoy autonomy aw-TON'-a- mee , a word that combines nomos, law, with autos, self.
Au- tonomy, then, is self-law, self-government. KEY: 1-entomologist, 2-philologist, 3-sociologist, 4-anthropolo- gist, 5-scmanticist, 6-botanist,? Can you write the adjective form of this word? Astronomer is built on Greek astron, star, and nomos, arrange- ment, law, or order. An entomologist 8. This person is, in short, a student of linguistics, ancient and modern, primitive and cultured, Chinese, Hebrew, Icelandic, Slavic, Teutonic, and every other kind spoken now or in the past by human beings, not excluding that delightful hodgepodge known as "pidgin English," in which a piano is described as "big box, you hit 'um in teeth, he cry," and in whkh Hamlet's famous quandary, "To be or not to be, that is the question.
This linguistic scientist explored the subtle, intangible, elusive relationship between language and thinking, between meaning and words;. A semanticist This scientist is a student of the ways in which people live to- gether, their family and community structures and customs, their housing, their social relationships, their forms of government, and their layers of caste and class.
The field is the comparatively little and insignificant whirling ball on which we live-the earth. How did our planet come into being, what is it made of, how were its mountains, oceans, rivers, plains, and valleys formed, and what's down deep if you start dig- ging?
A geologist 4. The field is all living organisms-from the simplest one-cefled amoeba to the amazingly complex and mystifying structure we call a human being. Plant or animal, flesh or vegetable, denizen of water, earth, or air-if it lives and grows, this scientist wants to know more about it.
A biologist 5. This scientist's province is the former category-flowers,. A botanist 6. Science, then, deals with human knowledge-as far as it has gone. It has gone very far indeed since the last century or two, when we stopped basing our thinking on guesses, wishes, theories that had no foundation in reality, and concepts of how the world ought to be; and instead began to explore the world as it was, and not only the world but the whole universe.
From Galileo, who looked through the first telescope atop a tower in Pisa, Italy, through Pasteur, who watched microbes through a microscope, to Einstein, who deciphered riddles of the universe by means of mathematics, we have at last begun to fill in a few areas of igno- rance.
Who are some of the more important explorers of knowl- edge-and by what terms are they known? The field is all mankind-how we developed in mind and body from primitive cultures and early forms. An anthropologist 2. The field is the heavens and all that's in them-planets, galaxies, stars, and other universes. Here are two typical reactions. An editor at Doubleday and Company: "The restriction against the split infinitive is, to my mind, the most artificial of all gram- matical rules.
I find that most educated people split infinitives reg- ularly in their speech, and only eliminate them from their writing when they rewrite and polish their material. The construction adds to the strength of the sentence-it's compact and clear. This is to loudly say that I split an infinitive whenever I can catch one. And they are not medical doc- tors. The M. Do you prophecy another world war? Use prophecy only when you mean prediction, a noun.
When you mean predict, a verb, as in this sentence, use prophesy. This distinction is simple and foolproof. Leave us not mention it. On the less sophisticated levels of American speech, leave is a popular substitute for let. On educated levels, the fol- lowing distinction is carefully observed: let means allow; leave means depart.
If you expect to eventually succeed, you must keep trying. We have here, in case you're puzzled, an example of that notorious bugbear of academic grammar, the "split infinitive. Splitting an infinitive is not at all difficult-you need only insert a word between the to and the verb: to eventually succeed, to completely fail, to quickly remember.
Now that you know how to split an infinitive, the important question is, is it legal to do so? I am happy to be able to report to you that it is not only legal, it is also ethical, moral, and some- times more effective than to not split it. And modem writers are equaJiy partial to the construction.
Five and five is ten. But don't jump to the conclusion that "five and five are ten" is wrong-both verbs are equaliy acceptable in this or any similar construction. If you prefer to think of "five-and-five" as a single mathematical concept, say is. If you find it more reasonable to consider "five and five" a plural idea, say are.
The teachers I've polled on this point are about evenly divided in preference, and so, I imagine, are the rest of us. Use whichever verb has the greater appeal to your sense of logic.
I never saw a man get so mad. When I questioned a number of authors and editors about their opinion of the acceptability of mad as a synonym for angry, the typicalreaction was: "Yes, I say mad, but I always feel a little guilty when I do. In short, mad has a spe- cial implication offered by no other word in the English language; as a consequence, educated people use it as the occasion demands and it is perfectly correct.
So correct, in fact, that every authori- tative dictionary lists it as a completely acceptable usage. If you feel guilty when you say mad, even though you don't mean insane, it's time you stopped plaguing your conscience with trivialities.
Every one of his sisters are unmarried. Are is perhaps the more logical word, since the sen- tence implies that he has more than one sister and they are alI un- married. In educated speech, however, the tendency is to make the verb agree with the subject, even if logic is violated in the process-and the better choice here would.
He visited an optometrist for an eye operation. If the gentleman in question did indeed need an opera- tion, he went to the wrong doctor. I, please? It completely violates his sense of language, but he does want the jelly apple, so he grudg- ingly conforms. But honest, Mom, it wasn't me-I didn't even touch it! Some adults, conditi9ned in childhood by the kind of misguided censorship detailed here, are likely to believe that "between you and I" is the more elegant form of expression, but most educated speakers, obeying the rule that a preposition governs the objective pronoun, say "between you and me.
I'm your best friend, ain't I?. Am I not? With a sen- tence like the one under discussion you are practically in a linguis- tic trap-there is no way out unless you are willing to choose be- tween appearing illiterate, sounding prissy, or feeling ridiculous.
Ain't I? In all honesty, therefore, I must say to you: don't use ain't I? What is a safe substitute? Apparently none exists, so I suggest that you manage, by some linguistic calis- thenics, to avoid having to make a choice. Decide whether the sentence is right or wrong, then compare your conclusion with the opinions given following the test.
Let's keep this between you and I. I'm your best friend, ain't I? Children are so frequently corrected by piirents and teachers when they say me that they cannot be blamed if they begin to think that this simple syllable is probably a naughty word. Dialogues such as the following are certainly typical of many households.
You mean 'May John- nie and I go out to play? Grammar is a science, all right-but it is most inexact. There are no inflexible laws, no absolutely hard and fast rules, no unchanging principles.
Correctness varies with the times and depends much more on geography, on social class, and on collec-.
In mathematics, which is an exact science, five and five make ten the country over-in the North, in the South, in the West; in Los Angeles and Coral Gables and New York. In grammar, however, since the facts are highly susceptible to change, we have to keep an eye peeled for trends.
What are educated people saying these days? Which expressions are gener- ally used and accepted on educated levels, which others are more or less restricted to the less educated levels of speech?
The an- swers to these questions indicate the trend of usage in the United States, and if such trends come in conflict with academic rules, then the i:ules are no longer of any great importance. Grammar follows the speech habits of the majority of educated people-not the other way around. That is the important point to keep in mind. Obvi- ously, that's nonsense.
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