Exercise.
Select other words from the dictionary, and analyse as we have done
above, giving some explanation for every peculiarity found in the
printing and marks. Continue this until there is no doubt or hesitation
in regard to the meaning of any mark that may be found.
CHAPTER II.
WORD-BUILDING.
English speaking peoples have been inclined to exaggerate the
irregularities of the English word-formation. The fact is, only a small
number of common words and roots are irregular in formation, while fully
nine tenths of all the words in the language are formed according to
regular principles, or are regularly derived from the small number of
irregular words. We use the irregular words so much more frequently
that they do indeed constitute the greater part of our speech,
but it is very necessary that we should master the regular principles
of word-building, since they give us a key to the less frequently used,
but far more numerous, class which fills the dictionary, teaching us
both the spelling of words of which we know the sound, and the
pronunciation of words which we meet for the first time in reading.
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