—The glass saucer is a saucer of glass.
The china saucer is a saucer of china.
—A shoe-brush is a brush for shoes.
A clothes-brush is a brush for clothes.
—George's hat is the hat of George; George's hat belongs to George.
Mary's hat is the hat of Mary; Mary's hat belongs to Mary.
—A drinking-cup is a cup for drinking.
A copy-book is a book for copying.
SERIES D
(Direction and source of motion)
—Turn from the right to the left. (da ... a, a ... da)
Turn from the left to the right.
—Draw a line from the bottom of the paper to the top.
Draw a line from the top of the paper to the bottom.
—Go from your seat to the cabinet.
Go from the cabinet to your seat.
—Change the pen from your right hand to your left hand.
Change the pen from your left hand to your right hand.
Permutations
The child has built the first sentences on each of the
slips with his cards, and he has reproduced the others by
changing simply the preposition cards. In this way he
has seen how the position of objects relative to each other
is determined wholly and only by the use of the preposition.
The preposition, therefore, determines the relation
of words, the relation of a noun to some other word,
here to another noun or to a verb. In the phrase,
Set one chair opposite another chair,
if we take away the preposition, leaving,
Set one chair another chair,
the relation that formerly existed between the words chair
and another chair is lost. The teacher must not forget
the rules for the position of the preposition. The preposition
must always precede its object and no other word can
come between it and the word or words it controls.
Here are some examples of sentences in the above exercises
from which the preposition has been taken away by
the teacher:
Go from your seat the cabinet.
Place a chair the door.
Lay the counter the box.
Place the prism the cylinder.
The china saucer is made china.
To give the child an idea of the normal position of
prepositions a series of permutations may be made leaving
the preposition and its object in their normal positions.
In this case some meaning is still left to the sentence:
Stretch a string from the door to the window.
From the door to the window stretch a string.
Stretch from the door a string to the window.
From the door to the window a string stretch.
From the door stretch to the window a string.
But the child will recognize that the right sentence is
the simplest and the clearest:
Stretch a string from the door to the window.
On the other hand if we separate the preposition from
its object or invert their normal position, the meaning is
entirely lost:
Stretch a string the door from the window to.
Stretch a string from the door window to the.
String from the stretch door to the a window.
And likewise with these other sentences:
Run from the wash-stand to the table.
Run wash-stand table (definition of motion lacking).
Run wash-stand from the table to the.
From the run wash-stand to the table.
Wash-stand from the to the run table.
Lessons and Commands on Prepositions
The teacher may also take groups of children and give
them short lessons on the preposition to explain the meaning,
selecting if possible two or three synonyms or antonyms
each time. The lessons should always he practical
and full of action. The child should come to understand
in this case the relationship established by this or that
preposition between the object (noun) and the action
(verb) to be performed. As soon as this has been made
clear by the teacher the commands are distributed to the
children who put them into execution. Here is the material
that we use:
Subject:
Command:—
—Go and get a boxful of counters. Go and get a glass of
water. Bring me a piece of cloth.
Subject:
near (to), next (to), beside, far away from (vicino, accosto,
lontano).
Command:—
—One of you boys stand in the middle of the room. Now you
others go and stand near him. One of you stand next to him
on the right, another beside him on the left. Now all go far
away from him.
Subject:
in, into, inside, out of (in, dentro, fuori).
Command:—
—Rise from your chairs and go into the next room. Stay in
that room a moment and then come back into this one. Go back
on tip-toe and lock yourselves inside the next room. Come out
of the next room into this one.
Subject:
On this side of, on that side of, beyond (di là da, di qua da,
oltre).
Command:—
—Leave your places and form a circle on that side of the
door; form a circle then on this side of the door. All of you go
and stand somewhere beyond the door.
Subject:
except, save (tranne, eccetto).
Command:—
—All the children, except George and Mary, walk on tip-toe
around the room.
—All the children, save George and Mary, walk on tip-toe
around the room.
Subject:
side by side with, opposite, in front of, along (di fianco, di
fronte, avanti).
Command:—
—Form a line side by side with each other.
—Form a line along the wall opposite the door.
—Form two lines in front of the piano.
Subject:
before, behind (dirimpetto, dietro).
Command:—
—Two of you come and stand before me.
—The rest of you go and stand behind me.
Subject:
on, about, along (su, secondo, lungo).
Command:—
—Each of you place one counter on the table. Now arrange
the same counters along the far edge of the table. Now scatter
the same counters about the center of the table.
Subject:
between, among (fra, in mezzo a).
Command:—
—One of you go and stand between the door and the piano.
—Place ten white counters on the table. Now go and scatter two or three red counters among the white ones.
Subject:
from, to, as far as (da, a, fino a).
Command:—
—Rise and walk from your places to the piano; wait a moment
and then continue as far as the door of the next room.
Subject:
around, about (attorno, intorno).
Command:—
—Walk in couples, arm in arm, around the room twice; when
you reach the piano on the second round, form a circle about the
piano.
Subject:
toward, against (verso, contro).
Command:—
—Take your chairs and move them three steps toward the wall
in front of you. Next, arrange your chairs in a row with their
backs against the wall behind you.
Subject:
across, through (attraverso, per).
Command:—
—Roll your handkerchiefs into balls and throw them across the room.
—Pick them up as they lie and try to throw them through the door into the hall.
Subject:
With, without (con, senza).
Command:—
—Walk around the room with your chairs in your hands.
—Walk around the room without your chairs.
Subject:
to, in order to, so as to (per).
Command:—
—Wash your hands in order not to soil the cloth. Then
close your eyes and feel this cloth so as to recognize it.
VIII
ADVERBS
Analyses
Again the exercise consists of sentences analyzed by
means of colored cards and commands. The grammar
box contains six compartments having, like the others, the
names of the different parts of speech on title cards of
proper color. The card for the adverb is pink. In the
rear compartment are six slips for each exercise, and in
the sections the usual number of corresponding colored
cards for the necessary words.
Group A
(Adverbs of Manner)
—Walk slowly to the window.
Walk rapidly to the window.
—Rise silently from your seat.
Rise noisily from your seat.
—Speak softly into the ear of your nearest comrade.
Speak loudly into the ear of your nearest comrade.
—Take five steps toward the door; turn abruptly to the left.
Take five steps toward the door; turn gradually to the left.
—Take your nearest comrade lightly by the arm.
Take your nearest comrade roughly by the arm.
—Look smilingly into the mirror.
Look scowlingly into the mirror.
Group B
(Adverbs of place and time)
—Place your pencil there.
Place your pencil here.
—Lay your book somewhere on the table.
Lay your book elsewhere on the table.
—Walk to the window constantly clapping your hands.
Walk to the window occasionally clapping your hands.
—Drink the water in the glass now.
Drink the water in the glass by and by.
—Carry the pink tower upstairs.
Carry the pink tower downstairs.
—Write a word on the blackboard immediately.
Write a word on the blackboard soon.
Group C
(Adverbs of quantity, comparison)
—Walk along the hall swinging your arms somewhat.
Walk along the hall swinging your arms a great deal.
—Bend your head a little.
Bend your head much.
—Walk slowly to the window.
Walk less slowly to the window.
Walk more slowly to the window.
—Place on the table your most beautiful drawing.
—Place on the table your beautiful drawing.
—Make a broad mark on the blackboard.
Make a very broad mark on the blackboard.
Group D
(Adverbs of comparison, correlative adverbs)
—Look for a piece of cloth softer
than velvet.
—Look for a piece of cloth
as soft as velvet.
—Find among your colors a shade
as black
as the blackboard.
—Find a piece of cloth
not so shiny
as satin.
—Find among the plane insets a rectangle
as broad
as half the square.
—Bring a rod longer
than your copy-book.
—Bring a rod
as long
as your copy-book.
—Bring a rod
not so long
as your copy-book.
—Find a piece of cloth
less rough
than the canvas.
Permutations
The sentences to be analyzed are reproduced as usual
by building the first sentence on each slip; and then, by
changing the adverb, the child gets the second or third
sentence. One of the first permutations is to remove the
adverb from those sentences where it performs the function
of an adjective to the verb, thereby causing one action
to be changed into another. For example take the two
sentences:
Walk slowly to the window.
Walk rapidly to the window.
Taking away the adverb we have:
Walk to the window.
The child can perform the action which, now, is a simple
one. The adverb, however, changes, modifies, the action.
If the teacher in play puts the two adverbs together
in the same sentence the child has the problem of
interpreting two contrary movements. That is, he is to
go to the window slowly and rapidly at the same time.
Taking away the adverb cards the sentence left is Go to
the window. This action the child can perform. But
how shall he perform it, in what way? With the help
of adverbs! Similarly in the following sentences:
Bend your head a little.
Bend your head much.
Written without the adverb they indicate one action.
What slight changes in the position of the head can be
brought about by these adverbs! It is the adverb which
really shows fine differentiations in movement!
In other sentences also where the adverb is, so to
speak, an adjective to an adjective and therefore really
affects the object (noun), similar permutations may be
made.
Make a broad mark on the blackboard.
Make a very broad mark on the blackboard.
Here by the use of an adverb two different objects (nouns)
are distinguished which, though they have the same quality
(breadth) differ in degree (broad, very broad). Take,
for instance, two objects belonging to the same series:
Place on your table the prism which is most thick.
Place on your table the prism which is least thick.
If the adverbs are taken away the factor determining the
degree of quality (thickness) disappears and we have sentences
which are far less precise in their meaning:
Place on your table the prism which is thick.
As the teacher proceeds to make permutations in the different
sentences she should remember (for Italian) that
the normal position of the adverb is after the verb (in
the compound tenses it comes between the auxiliary and
the participle).
(Note: In English the position of the adverb is much
freer than in Italian; it often stands at the end of the
sentence and even between subject and verb,—something
quite foreign to normal Italian usage. We retain the
text entire.)
In the sentences analyzed by the child it is sufficient
to recall that the adverb modifies the verb and follows the
verb it modifies. Take the sentence:
Bend your head a little as you write.
If the adverb is placed after the second verb the meaning
changes:
Bend your head as you write a little.
The same is true in the following:
Walk along the hall swinging your arms somewhat.
Walk somewhat along the hall swinging your arms.
General shifting of position would give results as follows:
Bend a little your head as you write.
A little bend your head as you write, etc., etc.
Somewhat walk along the hall swinging your arms.
Walk along somewhat the hall swinging your arms, etc., etc.
The child is quick to recognize by ear the accurate, the
normal position of the adverb.
On the other hand, adverbs of quantity and comparison
precede the adjective:
Make a very broad mark on the blackboard.
Place on your table the prism that is least thick.
Permutation gives the following results:
Make a broad very mark on the blackboard.
Place on your table the prism which thick least is, etc., etc.
Adverbs of time and place often ring like trumpet calls
to attention at the beginning of the sentence:
Drink the water in the glass now.
Now drink the water in the glass.
(Note: In English the adverb of time, placed at the
end of the sentence, gains quite as much emphasis. So for
adverbs of place.)
Lessons and Commands on Adverbs
Subject:
straight, zig-zag (diritto, a zig-zag).
Command:—
—Run straight into the other room; return to your place walking zig-zag.
Subject:
lightly, heavily, sedately (leggermente, gravemente, pesantemente).
Command:—
—Walk lightly into the other room; return to your place
walking sedately as though you were a very important person;
walk across the room and back again resting heavily on each
step as though it were hurting you to walk.
Subject:
suddenly, gradually (ad un tratto, gradatamente).
Command:—
—Form in line and walk forward beginning suddenly to
stamp with your left foot. Return to your places letting the
stamping gradually cease.
Subject:
meanwhile, frequently, occasionally (sempre, spesso, raramente).
Command:—
—Form in line and march slowly into the next room, stopping frequently. Return to your places stopping occasionally.
—Walk into the next room and back again, meanwhile keeping your eyes closed.
Subject:
back, forward, to and fro (avanti, indietro, su e giù).
Command:—
—Form in line and walk forward to the other side of the room; then come back to your places.
—Walk to and fro across the room with your heads lowered and your hands behind your back.
Subject:
forwards, backwards.
Command:—
—Stand in the middle of the room; then walk backwards to
the window, being careful to walk in a straight line. Return to
your places walking forwards.
Subject:
slowly, abruptly (lentamente, bruscamente).
Command:—
—Rise slowly from your seats.
—Rise abruptly from your seats.
Subject:
politely, cordially (gentilmente, garbatamente).
Command:—
—Offer your chair politely to your nearest neighbor.
—Shake hands cordially with your nearest neighbor.
Subject:
alternately, in succession, simultaneously (successivamente, alternativamente, simultaneamente).
Command:—
—Raise your two hands alternately above your heads.
—Raise your two hands simultaneously above your heads.
—One of you children walk around the room bowing to each pupil in succession.
Subject:
Well, badly, fairly, best, worst (bene, male, meglio, peggio, così così, benino, maluccio, benissimo, malissimo).
Command:—
—One of you call the children to the end of the room, carefully
observing how they walk; judge their carriage without
speaking and distribute the following cards where they belong:
well, badly, fairly, best, worst.
Subject:
away, back (via).
Command:—
—One of you stand in the center of the room; the others
gather round him. Suddenly all of you run away from him.
Then come back to him again.
Subject:
here, there, somewhere, elsewhere (qui, qua, costì, costà, lì, là, altrove).
Command:—
—Form in line and the first four children come to me here;
the rest go and stand there by the window. Now go and stand
somewhere in the other room. Remain where you are a moment,
then go and stand elsewhere. Finally all come back here
to me.
Subject:
thus, likewise (così).
Command:—
—One of you walk around the room holding his arms in a certain position. The rest of you do likewise.
—All of you hold your hands thus, as I am doing.
Subject:
up, down, upward, downward.
Command:—
—Roll your handkerchiefs into balls and throw them up to the ceiling.
—Pick them up and throw them down again to the floor.
—Look upward to the ceiling. Now look downward to the floor.
Subject:
crosswise, lengthwise.
Command:—
—Lay two rods crosswise on the table. Then lay them lengthwise on the table.
Subject:
sharply, sullenly, gently, kindly.
Command:—
—Sharply order your nearest neighbor to rise from his seat.
—Ask him gently to sit down again.
—Sit sullenly in your chair with your eyes lowered.
—Smile kindly at your nearest neighbor.
A Burst of Activity:
The Future of the Written Language In
Popular Education
In our own private experiments when we reached the
adverb there occurred among the children a veritable explosion
into a new kind of activity. They insisted on
making up commands themselves. They invented them
and then read them aloud to their companions or had
their companions interpret the slips which they had written.
All were most enthusiastic in performing these
commands and they were rigorously scrupulous in acting
them out down to the minutest detail. The executions
came to be a literal, intensely real dramatisation: if a
word was inexact or incorrect, the interpretation of the
command threw the error into noisy relief, and the child
who has written it saw before him an action quite different
from what he had in mind. Then he realized that
he had expressed his thought wrongly or inadequately and
immediately set to work to correct his mistake. The revelation
seemed to redouble his energy. He would hunt
among his numerous words for the one necessary to translate
his idea into a living scene before his eyes. Suppose
a child had written the following sentence involving
the use of the adverb sempre "always":
Walk about the room (sempre) always on tip-toe.
meaning that the child should all the while go on tip-toe;
if the child began to walk on tip-toe and continued
to do so for a long time, trying to express sempre (always—forever)
he would find himself facing a serious
problem. Hence the spontaneous query: "What must I
do to express myself correctly?"
A little girl once wrote "Walk around the tables,"
meaning that the children should form a line and walk
in and out around each table. Instead she saw her companions
form a line and walk round the entire group of
tables. Red in the face and out of breath she kept calling:
"Stop, stop. That isn't the way," just as if this
difference between the thought she actually had in mind
and the way it was being executed were hurting her intolerably.
This is only a passing suggestion of something which,
I think, will merit much further development later on,
after more thorough experiment. It will suffice, however,
to bring to the teacher a notion of a most fertile
field for the development of the written language in its
most rigorous purity. It is evident that the experiment
shows the possibility not only of having spontaneous compositions
without grammatical errors (just as the mechanical
writing was spontaneous and without errors), but of
developing a love for clearness and purity of speech which
will be a potent factor in improving the literary appreciation
of the masses, and popular culture generally.
When the children are seized with this passion for accurate
expression of their thoughts in writing, when,
spontaneously, clearness becomes the goal of their efforts,
they follow the hunt for words with the keenest enthusiasm.
They feel that there are never too many words to
build with exactness the delicate edifice of thought.
Problems of language come to them as a revelation.
"How many words are there?" they ask. "How many
nouns, how many verbs, how many adjectives? Is there
any way for us to learn them all?" They are no longer
content with their little copy-books of words. They ask
for a wealth of word material which they now enjoy with
all the delight of attractive and orderly interpretation.
They never get tired of it.
These developments in our work suggested to us the
idea of giving the children a large vocabulary comprising
a sufficient number of nouns, verbs, and adjectives and
containing all the words of the other parts of speech.
The difference in bulk between the real content of language
(substance and modification, that is, nouns with
their adjectives, and verbs with their adverbs) and the
other words which serve to establish relations and consolidate
this content, is something very impressive to children
of eight. It is for them that we tried to prepare
our word charts and the dictionaries of synonyms for
nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Here, meanwhile, are some
of the commands which the children wrote themselves—things
which they improvised all of a sudden, by an explosion
of energy, as it were, developed as the result of
inner maturity. Compare the aridity and uniformity of
the commands we invented ourselves with the variety and
richness of ideas appearing in the children's commands!
We very evidently show the weariness the preparation
of the material caused us. They, on the contrary, reveal
an ardent, vivacious spirit, a life full of exuberance.
COMMANDS IMPROVISED BY THE CHILDREN
—Build the pink tower very badly.
—Make accurately a pose for each of the pictures in the room.
—Pretend you were two old men: speak softly as if you were
very sad; and one of you say this: "Too bad poor Pancrazio
is dead!" And the other say: "Shall we have to
wear our black clothes to-morrow?" Then walk along
silently.
—Walk along limping heavily; then suddenly fall prostrate
on your faces as though you were exhausted. Return
tripping lightly to your places, without falling and without
limping.
—Walk slowly with lowered heads as though you were very
sad; return then joyfully and walking lightly.
—Take a flower and run eagerly and give it to the lady.
—Go half way round the room limping; the rest of the way
on all fours.
—Silence immediately; silently act out poses for the pictures
in the room.
—Go from your seats to the door on all fours; then rise and
limp lightly half way round the room; do the other half
back to the door on all fours; there rise and run lightly
back to your seats.
—Walk silently into the next room; walk three times around
the big table and then return to your places.
—Go into the next room running quite fast; come back
gradually reducing speed until you reach your places.
—Go to the cabinet immediately; take a letter-chart, and
walk twice around the room with the chart on your head,
trying never to let it fall; go back to your places in the
same way.
—Walk around the large hall, walking wearily; sit down, as
though you were tired, and fall asleep; wake up shortly
after and go back to your places.
—Form in line and march forward till you reach a clear
space;
there form a circle;
next a rhombus;
then a
square;
finally a trapezium. Go into the big hall conversing
softly; suddenly fall to the floor
lightly and go
to sleep; then wake up and look around, saying, "Where
are we?" Then go back to your seats.
IX
PRONOUNS
Analyses
Material:—The box has seven compartments marked
with the colored title slips; tan for the article, black for
the noun, brown for the adjective, red for the verb, violet
for the preposition, pink for the adverb, and green for
the pronoun. In the rear space are the slips for the sentences
to be analyzed. There are, as usual, fewer cards
than words. The exercise is to substitute the pronouns
for nouns.
GROUP A
(Personal Pronouns)
—George's sister was weeping. George soothed his sister with a kiss.
George's sister was weeping. He soothed her with a kiss.
—The book fell to the floor. Emma replaced the book on the table. The book fell to the floor.
She replaced
it on the table.
—The children gave their mother a surprise. The children wrote a letter to their mother.
The children gave their mother a surprise. They wrote her a letter.
—The teacher said: The drawing is beautiful! Will
you give the drawing to the teacher?
The teacher said: It is beautiful! Will you give it to me?
—Charles has gone into the other room. Can you find Charles?
Charles has gone into the other room. Can you find him?
GROUP B
(Demonstratives (questo, cotesto, quello) "this, that,
these, those, this one, that one)
(As already noted for the adjective English lacks the
demonstrative of the second person: that near you.)
—Show a child the prisms of the brown stair; this prism is thicker than that prism; that prism is thinner than these prisms.
Show a child the prisms of the brown stair; this is thicker than that; that is thinner than these.
—Let us look at the children: this child is taller than that child; that child is shorter than this child.
Let us look at the children: this one is taller than that one; that one is shorter than this one.
—Here is a cone on top of a cylinder: try to put the cylinder on top of the cone.
Here is a cone on top of a cylinder: try to put this on top of that.
—Let us show the cubes of the pink tower to a little girl: this cube is the largest; those cubes are the smallest of the series.
Let us show the cubes of the pink tower to a little girl: this one is the largest; those are the smallest of the series.
GROUP C
(Relatives and Interrogatives: (che, il quale, cui, chi?
quale?) who, whom, whose, which, that, who? whose?
whom? what? which? where, when?)
Note: The situation with the relatives is different in English:
who refers to persons; which to things; that to either persons or
things; whereas che and il quale are interchangeable referring to both
persons and things, il quale having special rhetorical advantages over
che, in addition to showing gender and number. Cui is used after
prepositions; and, for the possessive Italian has il cui, la cui, etc.,
"whose".
—Ask the children: Which child wants to see my drawing?
Ask the children: Who wants to see my drawing?
—Ask Charles for the pencil; Charles put the pencil into the drawer.
Ask Charles for the pencil which Charles put into the drawer.
Ask Charles for the pencil that he put into the drawer.
—Thank Charles. Charles gave you the pencil.
Thank Charles who gave you the pencil.
—Look at the children. You hear the children in the next room.
Look at the children whom you hear in the next room.
—Yesterday you put the flowers into a vase: change the water in the vase.
Change the water in the vase into which you put the flowers yesterday.
Change the water in the vase where you put the flowers yesterday.
Change the water in the vase that you put the flowers into yesterday.
—Choose among the pieces of cloth the cloth most like your dress.
Choose among the pieces of cloth the one which is most like your dress.
Choose among the pieces of cloth the one that is most like your dress.
—Here is the little girl. We found her pocketbook.
Here is the little girl whose pocketbook we found.
—Here is the boy. We saw him yesterday.
Here is the boy whom we saw yesterday.
—Select an inset from the insets used for drawing.
Select an inset from those which are used for drawing.
Select an inset from those that are used for drawing.