Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1904-06-17
p,cr, Paul and Marshall Con-
clude Their Talks on
Grammar,
THEY DO NOT DIFFER MUCH.
,. Versus Form is the Status
,,.e Attendance Of Teachers Heard
The Final Discussion Today.

~. Anal session Of the assembly OF
..aaners TO continue the discussion Of
ns, p,urs thesis that grammar IS
~ was held this morning at the
"s,1 .,,,y There was a large audi
VIZ ,rcsant. The discussion and
,'..,,nrs Of views was conducted with
". utmost courtesy. and the differences
So,wcen the rival theories was finally
,sry much restricted.
prot Paul began by Illustrating now
,,opebt classlncations In grammar
v,b, to arise. by showing that the
s,aIyss Of typical sentences MADE
Sacossory the classification Of con-
'..,,ione and by explaining the com
,lstoness, consistency ana lhtellBlpIll-
70 s,rb "a process Of classifying ac-
" y. 90 tn tba present meaning Of the
W.ImsS, ,.ithout regard TO the ancient
snuH,, ,bc language. with this OK
loll ,ii,r prof Marshall stated that H.
HAS porfoctly agreed. , A..
lIU ',ress of tho statement that one
~ Toast OF the values of the STUDY
.,'g is that Il enables US TO cor
rortaIn errors Of speech and had
w, ,inod that the great value OF
u.S, Is that by it's study we learn
tI"l'r'st correctly, Prof, Paul ask ed
,i,or tbis were the fact, or whether
mai learn to speak, correctly on
,r,,ieo by observation, by imitation
V.', ,.s,t,se hy repetition, by readlnh
w ,,riting. while the grammar sun
onu s.,,rl,os the standard OF reference
irbo sneaker then presented paper
in part as follows
TENSE AND MODE.
c...,dor the following. ~ may go
Here the verb Is in the present te,,nv,
bnt denotes future time 80 does lnust
"a" and can CO. where me tllne anu
'be tense always conflict lheso unl.c
,ssortions are classed as one iioue,
Inn, in sense they nave three alsllnet
sinds of meaning so that the pieSoi,S
mode classification Is inadequ"le ~
rcnresont the facts Might 60 you,u
CO. would go and should go-an are
vast tense, but they denote lutule, p,Vo
ept or past time why re.a.n NJ,
Nlsng name past , t,,,,.tt,,,
verbs? Might Is really"supJul,ou,i a
bejng mere possibility lhousn "a"
srammars say 1t is potential Ioulu
!. me only one OF the four that ~ 20
III in meaning. denoting poWer 10
V'"', .lhonldu denotes obligation, ana
W ,t5' derofcs dcgirc. Yet all these
are logically thrown losV,l,"u Fam
.,o mode and called past tense'~lour
grrors In time and three errors 1T ''e
dssslncatlon Of four words
Confusing CLASSIFICATION
Till. 5rnculty IL doubled 10y the per-
feet lenses with may, can, must, misn"
royd would, and should, thereby man
inc I'M mode and tense nearly ~ 'hoou-
,slencies or contradictions IN mus 81"
glo mode. This is a sample OF Whal
ann Directing TO IN the traditional clds-
s0cations Of tense and MODE Nl luc
school grammars say that tense ueIlVtcS
time. and they thus produce ehulgsa
confusion. since tense and time are 1'l
ierent things. why call anything Wnat
tsuot? Look at the subiunctlVe moue'
How many lenses has III Two tnlec
or six? II / be- and were are tWo
tcnscs, the present denotlng future illne
and the past denoting present tilhc,
There are only these two In when ~ II
possible 10 make any error But is inns
future 10 say III he be at home OF
II he should be at homer rms tlhe
Is The same, it is future I'm both what
mode have these predicates? In one
usc they state acts-indlcatiye' IN
another use they state hypothesis OF
Observation-Disclosures. THIS shows
that the modes are wholly. insutlElent
TO include the commonest forms OF eN-
preston. and the whole subject Is IN
hopeless confusion, why not simply
look TO the meaning In the first place
and name each assertion by some term
that dcu0lly fits or describes ~ Inc
present method n calling one form OF
statement "a certain mode, say the po-
tntol and then adding that sometimes
Che potential form has the indicative
or sub'uncuyc meaning, shows at once
that the mode form is useless and that
the meaning controls. II you say, how
ever that the form controls the mode
llh.s Is the position taken by the text
books, then AN these contradictions
come 90 Ihc surface, and the student
must suangle reason, as Luther ad-
l5of AS Il IL We're a wild beast, In or
9er mar ho may memorize blindly ana
falsely the so-called modes.
THE ASSERTING WORD.
The grammarIans say that the first
auxiliary Is always the asserting work
] shan prove that this is not true. The
auxiliary do and It's past form did, "
lhough they once performed the func-
Uon. OF asserting words, and were pre-
nAed 10 inhnItives no longer have that
use or meaning, Thus In He did the
work, ala is a real verb, making an
assertion. So in old English, "A do (to)
come 'do' performs the function Of
Sn asserting word before the lnnnitiye.
tn,ul TINS Is no longer true. We now say
40 come meaning that ] certainly
come Here do Is no longer an as
nIuNg word, but a mere qualfieT OF
,he asserting word Come" and
come M spite Of the doctrine Of
s.9lmmarlans, il not any longer an in
nIluFo, but true finite verb, which
made more emphatic by the use Of
lne particle do" So will" and shall"
wood and Should" ordinarily make
w assertion, but serve only 90 modify
'he assertion made by some other real
'e'b Thus, u shall write" once
meant 81 shall TO write" or 81 shall
pg'lWm The action of writing" But
ON we now use II, write" Is the as
ssgy.lng word as well as, the thing as
ss.lel ana shall" is used only 10 indl-
,%% ,ho time Of the action. II ] say,
., NilIe now or - write tomorrow
10" or tomorrow" are modihers
agS"ing the time Of the action SO, In
su7il write shall Is merely adj
,.gIoi3l showing the time OF the writ