Harvey's English Grammar- PB

I bought these on a recommendation from my daughter's homeschool Language Arts course, which wants the parent not simply to follow the teacher instructions, but to be completely educated and prepared to teach. I never thought I would enjoy such deep study, so deeply! (The recommendation was from Classical Writing curriculum.)

First of all, I need to clarify my 3 star rating. I rate this book 5 stars for its depth of information, but only 1 star for its usability for practical daily lessons.This book is set up in the format of an advanced grammar handbook or reference guide and has information about grammar that I never learned all the way through college. If you are an adult teacher this is an EXCELLENT guide for you.However, it isn't set up as a lesson type book for homeschool. If you want to take the time as the teacher to plan ahead what you will use from this book and then apply to it to other reading or writing work for your child, then go for it, but that's a LOT of extra work.Don't misunderstand, I am glad I bought this book and will keep it forever as a reference guide. It simply doesn't work for practical daily homeschool lessons.

These make teaching the difficult rules of English grammer, especially the exceptions to the rules, so much easier and student friendly.

I generally like the books from Mott Media, and this one is no exception. However, I'll echo the words of another reviewer by saying that while this is a fine specimen of an educational book from the 19th century and has esthetic and historical value, it is not what someone needs to learn modern English grammar. It is based on antiquated Latinate grammar that doesn't fit what English is doing now. It is heavily rule governed and prescriptive rather than descriptive, and it is bogged down by obsolete jargon no one uses anymore--declensions, nominative and vocative cases, modes rather than moods, copulative verbs, and terms of figurative language that no one will use unless he or she is doing post graduate work, and maybe not even then: tmesis, apocope, epizeuxis, zeugma, etc. The examples are taken from literature such as "Avaunt, minion!" If you want a metaphor, think of Newtonian physics. Yes, the rules of motion and force still work, but knowledge has progressed over the centuries and we know about things like subatomic particles now. PLEASE don't use this to teach your children. Here are some other titles available on Amazon that you can use to learn English grammar and teach it to others: "Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers" by Brock Haussamen, et al.(2003). "Grammar and Usage in the Classroom, 2nd ed." by Mark Lester (2001), now out of print (see my Amazon review). "Understanding English Grammar, 6th ed." by Martha Kolln and Robert Funk (2002--there are newer editions available).

本書は1878年にアメリカで小学7年生向けに出版されたHarveyの文法書 A Practical Grammar of the English Language を一部修正復刻したものである。Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, Prosody, Diagram から成る。orthography「正字法」では，音声とスペリングが扱われている。etymologyは現在では「語源学」であるが19世紀までは「形態論」（accidence）の意味で使われていた。ここでは８品詞(名詞、形容詞、代名詞、動詞、副詞、前置詞、接続詞、間投詞)が扱われている。syntaxは「統語論」で、いわゆる文法が扱われている。prosodyは「韻律学」で音節、強勢、詩の韻律などを扱っている。最後のdiagramは「分析図」で文を分析(parse)した結果を図式で示す方法を述べたものである。現在の文法書と比べるとかなり趣が異なるが，それはそれなりに面白い。Harveyの文法と日本の英学史との関係は未開の分野ではなかろうか。