63 Stricken is also used as a participle in a figurative sense. Thus we say, “The community was stricken with pestilence,”—but “The dog was struck with a stick.”[↑]
64 It is a remnant of the old past plural. In Anglo-Saxon the principal parts of begin were: present, beginne; past, began; past plural, begunnon; past participle, begunnen.[↑]
65 The adjectives are usually pronounced blessèd, cursèd. Compare also the adjective accursèd.[↑]
66 Both forms are in good use.[↑]
67 Both forms are in good use. The adjective is pronounced learnèd.[↑]
68 The main rules of punctuation are well fixed and depend on important distinctions in sentence structure and consequently in thought. In detail, however, there is much variety of usage, and care should be taken not to insist on such uniformity in the pupils’ practice as is not found in the printed books which they use. If young writers can be induced to indicate the ends of their sentences properly, much has been accomplished.[↑]
69 It is not meant, of course, that an American or Australian of the present day should exert himself to imitate the speech of a modern Londoner. The point is, that what we now call “English” is, in most respects, the direct descendant of the London dialect of the fourteenth century.[↑]
INDEX
[References are to pages; f. signifies “and following page”; ff. signifies “and following pages.”]