Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/135

* GRAMINE^. 113 GRAMMAR. the group consists of a blade and a prominent sheatli, at the junction of which ajjpears the outgrowth called the ligule (q.v.). The inllores(enee of the grasses consists of spikes, racemes, or panicles, and is always com- posed of an aggregation of secondary inflo- rescences called spikelets. Each spikelet usu- ally bears several (lowers, and also a number of bracts. The two lowest bracts (sometimes three) of each spikelet are sterile, that is, they do not have llowcrs in their a.xils, and are known as glumes. Above these are a varying number of bracts subtending flowers, called flowering glumes (formerly outer or inferior palea'). It is these flowering glumes which are often prolonged into the bristle-like tips known as awns. Opposite each flowering glume on the short flower-stalk there is a bractlet known as the palet (formerly superior or inner palea), which is always awn- less. Upon this same short flower-stalk there often appear also two minute scales, known as lo- dicules, whose morphological character has caused considerable discussion. The flower consists usu- ally of three stamens, each with an oblong or linear anther attached below the middle to the apex of the slender fllament (versatile), and a single ovary bearing a style with two, rarely three, stigniatic branches. Tlie various glumes are set so close together upon the axis of the spikelet that they overlap and are only partly visible, completely protecting the flowers. At the time of pollination the glumes separate and the dangling an- thers and feathering stigmas become vis- ible. After fertiliza- tion the pericarp ( rip- ened ovary wall) ad- heres so closely to tlw seed that it seems to be an outer skin, form- ing the characteristic fruit ( the grain ) of the group. The em- bryo is peculiar in that it lies close to one side of the .seed, so that it is complete- ly exposed by the splitting of the thin skin which covers it. In this case the single very large seed-leaf, cotyledon, is not un- folded nor removed in germination, but re- mains as a broad, shield-like absorbing organ, with its back against the starch deposit. Tliis peculiar shield-shaped absorbing cotyledon is called the scutellum. The grasses appear in the most varied situations and numbers. Their chief display, however, is in meadows and pastures, where they form the principal vegetation. The meadow grasses occur almost everywhere ; the most important of the cereal grasses grow in temperate regions ; cer- tain cereals, as rice, etc. are cultivated in the tropics and subtropics: the arborescent grasses, such as the h.nmbon and its allies, form extensive groves in the tropics, and the small forms grow in the shade of the primitive forest. For fossil forms and forms of economic interest, see Gbasse.s. BBOMUS MOLLIS. GRAMMAR (OF., Fr. grammaire, from Lat. gruiHimtliva, from tik. )/;«yU/^«r/Auv, (/raiuinuti- kos, pertaining to writing, from jiiu/i/xa, ynunma, letter, from )i)(u,>vv, gruiihcin, to write; ulti- mately connected with Ger. yraben, Eng. grai'e). That brancli of linguistic science which investi- gates the forms of s]H'cch in a language or group of languages and treats of the mutual relations of those forms. Grammar may be divided into normative or didactic, historical, and comparative. Normative grammar deals with the phenomena of a given language at a single period, establishing the linguistic usage for that epoch, any deviation from the standard there set being considered 'bad granmiar.' As exam|)lcs of normative grammar may be cited the ordinary treatises on the Latin of the Ciceronian period, the Attic Greek of the Periclean age, and most grammars of modern French, German, English, and the like. Histori- cal grammar, as its name implies, discusses the historical deveIoi)ment of a given language, usual- ly from the earliest traces of the language in question down to the present time. Here no norm is set. The purpose of such a work is mere- ly to present facts, not, as in the normative grammar, to lay down canons of usage. For in- stance, normative grammar of modern English states that two negatives are equivalent to an aflirmative. Such a sentence as "he didn't hear nothing' as equivalent to 'he heard nothing' is stigmatized as 'bad grammar,' i.e. as deviating from the norm. On the other hand, historical grammar observes that at present two negatives are equal to an affirmative. In Early English, however, as in the Proverbs of Hendyng (thir- teenth century), this is not true, for we have such constructions as: Zef J)o« art riche & wel ytold, Se he ]>(>» noht parefore io bold, Ne wax ]>ou nohl Io iiilde. ( If thou art rich and well accounted, Be thou not therefore too bold. Nor wax thou not too wild.) In like manner we find in Anglo-Saxon of the best period, as in Alfred's translation of Boethius, such sentences as on ttuiiuin m§nn nytoii iiUne arc (literally, they don't show no honor to no man, i.e. they show honor to no man). Histori- cally there is no inherent correctness in the use of one negative or more than one. The best usage forms the only law. Historical grammar may, however, explain the origin of a usage, without transcending its limits. Thus in the ex- ample before us the double negative is based on a desire for emphasis (if one negative is good, two are better), the use of the single negative, on a sense of logic (one negative annuls another). Comparative grammar, which is usually histori- cal rather than normative in type, groups dif- ferent languages together for a comparative study of their forms and the rekations of such forms. We thus have comparative grammars of Romance, Germanic, Indo-Germanic, Dravidian. or Semitic languages, and the like. Here the discussion will be only of normative and of historical gram- mar, the subject of comparative grammar being treated under the title Philology (q.v.). Hl.STORY OF NORM.ATIVE Gr.mmar. Until the nineteenth century the history of griimmar is confined to the normative type. Only with the introduction into Europe of the knowledge of Sanskrit did the impulse come to study language