THE LANGUAGE OF GRAMMAR

A little volume written with the intention ""not to reform or revolutionize the terminology of grammar but to familiarize the reader with those words now most commonly used to discuss the structure of our language"". The author, associated with The New School for Social Research, defines overall terms -- philology, semantics, etc., then goes on to word, phrase, clause, sentence; subject, predicate (essential and complete), modifiers; the eight parts of speech; verbals; agreement; case; types of phrases and clauses; the anatomy of a sentence (with diagramming illustrated). There are examples of usage and questions for discussion. With the confining of interest to definition, this is of use mainly as a clarifier, but it is hard to see how it will extend knowledge beyond the books already available on the subject. As a supplementary text, yes, but not for the Elements of Style market.