Abbots Grammar

  One of the books Miss Mason used with 4-6 graders is How To Tell The Parts of Speech, by E. A. Abbott.  The book is dated enough that it is of limited use for today’s teacher/parent, unless you are confident enough in your knowledge of grammar to make adaptations and corrections as you go.  We can, however, still glean some useful principles and applications from it.  Miss Mason particularly recommended that her teachers read the preface, which I shared in another post in this grammar series. 

Below I share just the chapter on nouns, transcribed electronically, and I have not done anything to the formatting or checked for typos from the transcription, it's a raw copy:

 Tell me the names of some persons, such us

John, Mary.

2. Tell me the names of some places; such as

London, Middlesen, England.

8. Tell me the names of some things that you can

see, feel, hear, or smell; such as apples, soldiers,

cat, sky, air, thunder, gas.

•4. Tell me the names of some groups of pergons or things ; such as class, family, crowd, fock,

herd.

EXERCISE I.

• Write or repeat four names of (1) boys; (2)

girls ; (3) places; (4) rivers ; (5) public buildings;

(6) dogg ; (7) horses ; (8) other animals ; etc.

Write or repeat four names of (1) things good to

eat; (2) parts of a house ; (3) parts of the body

Tell me the names of some persons, such us

John, Mary.

2. Tell me the names of some places; such as

London, Middlesen, England.

8. Tell me the names of some things that you can

see, feel, hear, or smell; such as apples, soldiers,

cat, sky, air, thunder, gas.

•4. Tell me the names of some groups of pergons or things ; such as class, family, crowd, fock,

herd.

EXERCISE I.

• Write or repeat four names of (1) boys; (2)

girls ; (3) places; (4) rivers ; (5) public buildings;

(6) dogg ; (7) horses ; (8) other animals ; etc.

Write or repeat four names of (1) things good to

eat; (2) parts of a house ; (3) parts of the body

3

The Parts of Speech

(4) parte of free1 (5) parts of a book; (6) porta

of a ship; (7) thing used for writing: (a) tools

used by a gardener: (9) by a carpenter, etc.

• Write or repeat as many names as you aan of

group of (1) boys or girls; (2) soldiers : (3) other

pensous; (1) aulmale; (6) trees; (6) houses ; (7)

books ; cto.

5. Now look at this plece of chalk. What sort of a

thing is it? It is wbite, solid, rough or amooth, useful,

amall or large. All these worels tell us the guulitius

of the chalk (quality means of what sort)! well, I

want nuncs of these qualities ; give me them: rohite

ness, solidness or solidity, roughness or smoothness, usefulness or utility, smallness, lurgenese.

You cannot sec usefulness, but usefulness is the

name of a quality of the chalk.

6. Tell me some more names of the qualities of

things, such as weight, beauty.

7. Tell me some names of the qualities of persona:

(a) good qualities or virtues, such as gentleness,

honesty, justice, temperance; (b) bal qualities or

vices, such as harxhuese, cruelty, dishonesty, injur.

tice, intempurance, untruthfulness.

8. Tell me some names of (a) the feelings of your

body, such as hunger, (b) the feelings of your mind,

such as joy, hope, pity.

9. Tell me some paines of actions : such as jumping, running, readiny, counting, singing.

EXERCISE II.

Write or repeat six names of (1) actions ; (2)

feelings of your mind: (3) good qualities of persons :

() had qualities of penons ; 6) qualities of coal;

(6) air; (7) India-rubber; (8) snow; (9) paper;

(10) hair; (11) steel: (12) water.

10. Hoy shall we call all these namus? Ir we

call them 11 Dames," people will think we mean none

but names of persons; but we mean names of places,

of things, of faults, actions, etc., as well. So we

will call them Nouns, which is another word for

Names (1)

EXERCISE III.

Point out the Nouns in

Some thoughtless boys were playing with stones

near & pond. During their play they noticed a family

of frogs and began to pelt them, not out of cruelty,

for they were not cruel, but out of thoughtlessness.

Very soon they hit one of the frogs, and all the

family at once dived down in a fright beneath the surface of the water. - This is fine fun," said the boys,

we will wait till they come up again, and then we

will give them a good pelting." Just then the mother

of the frogs popped up her bead, croaking so pitifully

that the boys held their hands and did not pelt her.

Young gentlemen," said she, "if you are really

gentle you will not continue your sport.

How would

you like it if a giant killed your mother or sister out

of sport? But that is what you have done to me:

you have killed my youngest daughter, and maimed

my two sons for life. What is sport to you is death

to us;

11. Sometimes you may be pazzled about Nouns.

You may not nee, for example, that pating in the

Exercise above is the name of an action, and so you

may not know that it is a Noon. So here to a good

way to find whether a word is a Noun or not, —

12. If a word (sometimes with 'a' or 'the

before it') can come after “I like," or "dislike," to answer the question, “What do you

like?" it is a Noun. (

13. Thus you can say, " I like apples, Thomas,

nothing, a walk, the country, jumping ; " but you

cannot say, “I like quickly;" 80 quickly is not a

Noun. Of course, you must be careful to see how a

word is used in the Exercise, before you say it is

a Noun. For example, " playing " might sometimes

be a Noun, as in " I like playing," but it is clearly

not a Noun in the first line of the Exercise above,

because it is not there used as a Name.

How to make Nouns.

14. Sometimes you can make Nouns out of other

words that are not Nouns. For example, slow is

not a Noun; but you can make a Noun out of it,

slovonese. High is not a Noun; but you can make

a Noun out of it, --height.

EXERCISE IY.

Make Nouns out of the following words : prix,

broad, glad, long, deep, careless, narrow, vide,

ready, obstinate, persevere, just, humble, pious, brave, repent.• 15. Look carefully as the intro Nowh the

following contacar

« Charle to the oldest son of the family.

Chana and son, you nee, ara almaply dimenant

name for the same penon; but they are lo difer

ent Linda of names.

(1) Charla is the name of a particular person,

that is, of an individual. The name may be sald to

belong to Charles, to be peculiarly Mis onon. Hence,

It le called a Proper Noun. (Proper means

* one's own,' as in property, appropriate.)

(2) Son is a name common to Charles and all his

brothers; Indeed, to all boy-children. It is the name

of every one of a class. Hence, it is called a Common Noun.

• 16. Tell the difference between (1) Helen, (2)

girl; (1) London, (2) city; (1) Ponto, (2) dog;

(1) Racer, (2) horse; (1) Hudson, (2) river; (1)

State-House, (2) building; (1) Post-Office, (2)

house.

MODEL. — (1) Helen in the name of a particular girl: it in

her proper (her com) name. Therefore it is a Proper Noun.

(2) Girl in the name, not only of Helen, but of all other girls :

It is commor to them all. Therefore it is a Common Youn. .

(1) A Proper Noun is a name peculiar or

proper to an individual.

(2) A Common Noun is a name common to a class.

• 17. But the sentence has a third Noun, family.

It means Charles and his brother (and, perhaps,

some other persons) taken together, spoken of 19 a

group. Hence, it is called a Collective Noun.

(Collective meana 'taken together.')

• 18. Tell the difference between the Nouns in

cach of the following phrases :

(1) A bevy of girls, (2) a pack of wolves, (3)

an army of ants; (4) a herd of buffaloes ; (5) a

fock of sheep; (6) u brood of chickens; (7) a

clump of bushes; (8) a bunch of grapes ; (9) a roto

of houses.

—

(3) A Collective Noun is the name of a

number of objects taken together, the name

of a group.

N.B. — An object is anything of which we can

think, something throion in the way of our minds.

• 19. Once more. ** Charles " is said to be te the

oldest son"; and oldest tells us of a quality of

Charles's. ($ 5] What is its name? aye? Bat when

we give this quality a name, we think of it as ab.

stracted (that is, taken arowy) from Charles.

Hence, it is called an Abstract Noun. So, names

of feelings (5 8), of actions CS 9), and of some other

things, help us to think of the feelings, etc., ag

taken away from the persons who feel, act, etc.;

and they, too, are hence called Abstract Nouns.

(4) An Abstract Noun is the name of a quality, feeling, action, etc, thought of as abtracted, a aban amay, from the

object to

which it belong.

90. Tell the atmammana batucen the Nouna ha

auch or the following cantander

(1) The weight of the lead broke the wale.

(2) George's anger required panishment.

(8) The laughing of the knot of boys ww beard in

the school-noom.

(4) The ill-health of the master gave the school.

holiday.

EXERCISE V.

Tell the kind of each Noun in Bercloo III. and

in —

At the time of Braddock's defeat, an Indian chiot

named Pontiac had seen the red-coats running away

before his own men. Being a man of great courage

and skill, he laid a plan to unite all the tribes of his

race, and to drive the English out of America. First

he tried to take Detroit, which was then only a fort;

but be failed, and his conspiracy broke down. Soon

after, he was murdered by another Indian in

drunken frolic.

* EXERCISE VI.

Write this story again in your own words, being

careful to use some Nouns of each kind.

21. A Noun is a name of any kind. (')

N.B. - A Noun is not a thing, but the name of a

thing. A cow is not a Noun ; but the word - "cow" is a noun.