[Lecture Five] Principles of Grammar
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 2 hours, 21 minutes
Course summary: In this course, Dr. Peikoff explores the epistemological roots of the science of grammar. In it, he illustrates how an understanding of the basic methods of combining words into sentences is essential to clear thinking and writing. Each lecture contains student exercises that should be completed prior to the end of the lecture. Read more »
In this lecture: Dr. Peikoff concludes his discussion of verbs in this lecture, with focus on the infinitive form, its uses, and how to properly apply tense considerations to it. He also explains how to avoid dangling verbals. The lecture continues with a discussion of pronouns, their types, uses, cases, and number. Dr. Peikoff stresses the need to be sure that antecedents are clear, and he concludes with a brief explanation of relative pronouns and the rules that apply to them. The homework from the previous session is reviewed.
Study Guide
This material is designed to help you digest the lecture content. You can also download below a PDF study guide for the entire course.
| What is the role of infinitive verbs? Why are they called such? |
| Give examples of different tenses in the use of the infinitive in an original sentence. |
| What is the objective approach to dealing with the question of split infinitives? |
| What is a dangling verbal? Provide an original example. |
| How do dangling verbals betray clarity? |
| Describe and explain the use of the four types of pronouns. |
| Why is the case so important, cognitively, in using pronouns? |
| What are the two common mistakes when using pronouns? |
| What is an objective approach to differentiating between “that,” “who,” and “which?” |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 2:11:59 | Have we officially named each of the eight parts of speech? |
| 2:12:29 | Are there any heroes in the history of grammar, someone who first identified parts of speech? |
| 2:13:09 | Do you think the progression would have been to identify the way people were speaking and then to codify that? |