French Grammar

FRENCH GRAMMAR. A FRENCH GRAMMAR, BASED ON BY HERMANN BREYMANN, Ph.D., Lecturer on French Language and Literature at the Owens College, Manchester. THIRD EDITION. MACMILLAN AND CO, 1880, [The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.] 445 B75f 1880 LONDON : R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL, E. C. TO PROFESSOR DIEZ, THE FOUNDER OF ROMANCE PHILOLOGY, THIS BOOK IS IN TESTIMONY OF THE AUTHOR'S SINCERE RESPECT AND ADMIRATION. PREFACE, WHOEVER ventures on offering a new French Grammar to a public already provided with a considerable number of "Aids," "Grammars," and "Manuals" for learning French, is doubtless under the obligation of stating the reasons why he has undertaken what may at first sight seem so superfluous a task. Before doing so, I may be allowed to premise a few general remarks on the object at which, in my judgment, all instruction ought to aim. Every kind of instruction must tend to bestow on the student—and here I will make use of terms easily intelligible by a consideration of their primary significance— i. " Formal Culture ; " i.e. it must awaken and in tensify his powers of reasoning ; it must tend to impart to his mind promptitude, precision, and clearness of judgment. 2. "Real Culture;" i.e. it must assure to him the acquisition of positive knowledge admitting of being used in practical life, whether this knowledge be of a general or special kind, as designed for a particular profession or calling. Any teaching which fails to form or educate the mind must remain barren ; for of infinitely higher importance than mere knowledge without the Dower of applying it vin PREFACE. is that power itself. A well-trained and clear-sighted intelligence is at all times capable not only of acquiring new stores of positive knowledge, but also of applying it easily and immediately to the various demands of life. On the other hand, he who has acquired positive know ledge only, without that critical faculty which combines with vigour of decision keenness of judgment, has gained the letter only, but not the spirit. Experience teaches that it is the man whose intellectual powers have been formed by theoretical instruction—who easily applies what he has laboriously learned. For to him and to no other are known those general laws which determine and cover every special case, whether foreseen or unforeseen. What, then, has been, up to the present time, the method generally followed in teaching French ? It has been, and still is, as far as I know, that system of in struction of which the Ollendorff Grammars are popularly regarded as the type. Now, it is quite true, as the dis tinguished Professor of Sanskrit in Yale College, Mr. William Whitney, remarks, that " such a system has its unquestionable advantages where learning to speak is the main object directly aimed at, and where the small- ness of the classes and the time spent with the instructor render it possible for the latter to give each pupil that amount of personal attention and drilling which is needed in order to make the system yield its best results." Yet, there are two serious objections to it. " Firstly, it is"— to quote Mr. Whitney once more—" for the most part impracticable in schools and colleges. Their circum stances and methods of instruction render translation and construction the means by which the most useful knowledge and the best discipline can be gained. To PREFACE. IX the very great majority of those who learn German"— and I must be allowed to add French—" ability to speak is an object inferior in importance to ability to under stand those languages accurately and readily: and the attainment of the former is properly to be made posterior to that of the latter. One who has mastered the prin ciples of grammar, and acquired by reading a fair vocabulary and a feeling for the light use of it, will learn to speak and write rapidly and well when circum stances require of him that ability." The second objection I have to urge against this system is, that it fails fully to satisfy the first of the objects at which every kind of instruction ought to aim ; it addresses itself rather to the memory of the learner than to his faculty of judgment ; it gives rule after rule, with as many exceptions for each, without making the least attempt to explain them or to give a reason for them. Yet, sharing the view of a recent writer,1 that the " study of modern languages must be placed on a higher and more scientific foundation7' than is at present the case, and that these languages must be taught " according to the more logical method2 which is applied to the teaching of the dead languages," I hold, firstly, that such a system is not the most prac ticable, especially for schools and colleges, and, secondly, that instruction in the French language ought to be at once historical and comparative, " The study of the history of the changes which have taken place in a language ought not to be stigmatized as unpractical erudition, for erudition is in this instance 1 See the Educational Review of French Language and Literature\ p. 21 2 The Annual Report of the Delegacy uncbr Statute : " De Examinatione qui non sunt de corpore Universitatis." See the Educational Review, p. 9. X PREFACE. the means and not the end ; " * it awakens, as has been said, and intensifies the powers of reasoning and the faculty of judgment. If we follow the historical and comparative method, most of the grammatical forms which used to be considered irregular appear in quite a different light; as apparent exceptions to the rule, they only serve to confirm it And;: in a book recently published by one who speaks with authority on these matters,2 I read : " There is no longer an excuse why, even in the most elementary lessons—nay, I should say why more particularly in these elementary lessons—the dark and dreary passages of Greek and Latin, of French and German grammar, should not be brightened up by the electric light of Comparative Philology." This method, far from making the work more difficult for the student, on the contrary, will render it easier and, let us hope, more interesting ; because, being based on historical foundations, it is more true than any other, and because it leads the student to see that the different forms of this language have obeyed a substantially uni form action of certain definite laws. If it be true, on the one hand, that * the better we understand a thing, the better we are able to learn and to retain it, and, on the other hand, that nothing renders both teaching and learning more cheerful than a clear insight into the living organism of a language, it is certainly not un reasonable to hope that these studies may become more and more domesticated among us. I am the more hopeful that, sooner or later, such a result will be brought about, because it is in accordance with the 1 Educational Review, Sec, p. 19. 2 Max Miiller, " Lectures on the Science of Religion," p 3. PREFACE. xi labours and wishes of men whom all teachers of French have to acknowledge as their masters, viz. Diez, Littré, Mâtzner, Paris, and Brachet. Whatever there may be good and useful in the present book, it is to them that I owe it.T Yet, it will be admitted, I hope, that I have not carried the "jurare in verba magistriv too far. Refusing to look upon modern languages from a merely practical point of view, or to consider them only as so-called social accomplishments which, in many cir cumstances of life, may be very useful and agreeable, but which are incompetent as means of education, I firmly believe that, taught in the right way, they are entitled to share with the ancient languages the task and mission of promoting a true and sound studlum humanitatis. As it seems to be a quality inherent in man to oppose at first whatever is new to him—be it in the world of ideas or in that of facts—I am prepared to meet with strong opposition from many quarters. , Yet, as I shall never be brought to believe that the training of the mind to think is valueless, I am not only deter mined to learn myself more and more the right way of teaching in the spirit of the scholars mentioned above, but I have also set before myself, as the object of my life, to try whether or not young minds will derive from this new system the benefit I confidently expect from it. It will be seen that the present Grammar is intended to occupy an intermediate position between the elaborate works ofMatzner, Stadler, the Grammaire des Grammaires, &c, and the more or less elementary treatises which still 1 It seems almost unnecessary to say that, besides having studied the works of these scholars, I have, to a certain extent, used other valuable grammars, as those of Boniface, Meissner, Schmitz, Noël et Chapsal, Poitevin, Ploetz, Kôrting, Eugène, Havet, Tarver, Delille, &c. I am happy to say that, as to matters of detail, I have learnt at least something from each of them. XII PREFACE. continue to be used even in the higher forms of schools, or in colleges. It is not meant for beginners,1 unless they are of a certain age—say sixteen or seventeen—but for those who, having mastered the very elements of the language, wish for a more systematic and scientific study.

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