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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmds en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbole V signifie "FIN ". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film6s d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour 4tre reproduit en un seul clich6. il est film6 d partir de I'anyle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. ,T THE ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR BY ALFRED S. WEST, M.A. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIIJGE, FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. TORONTO : THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED. Re III I PREFACE. T^HIS book contains the Elements of English Grammar the English Language. Boys and girls from thirteen to seventeen years of age are the readers whose wants it has been written to supply. For a treatise intended to meet the requirements of older students, a different choice of materials would often have been made, and the materials chosen would have been treated in a different fashion. HcLce It Will be found that in the following pages no mention is made of some of the questions which are discussed in larger works; that other questions are touched upon but not probed to the bottom; that here and there a definition lacks completeness, logical accuracy being sacnficed to mtelligibility : and that the details of eariy English accidence have been inserted only when modern forms would be inexplicable without them. There are elementary books which furnish information so copious that young readers cannot see the wood for the trees One who undertakes to instruct boys and girls needs much the half is greater than the whole, in order that as vi PRE FACE. % he may avoid 'the human too much/ Ihe things which have been deliberately left out of this small volume would have made a big l)ook. WluMi we reflect that of every hundred bo)'s and girls now learnmg English C.rammar probably not more than one will ever read a page of any English author who wrote before the age of Elizabeth, it seems needlessly cruel to the remamnig ninety-and-nine to inllict upon them the exhaustive study of historical English accidence. 'I'he average pupil, for whom the English (Grammar lesson means mastering lists of strong verbs in half-a-do/en con- juguions,— or learning tliat the comparative of near has assumed such diverse forms as vyra. nearra, nerre, mn nener, or that the word which has at different times been wruten hwilc, whulc. whuich, wuch, "wUi, and ivhilk,-^ deserves our sympathy when he complains that En-lish (irnmmar is rather dull. Tell him that " English Grantmar without a reference to the older forms must appear alto- gether anomalous, inconsistent, and unintelligible." and he will say that, if it is necessary to encounter grim l>attal.ons of these older forms on every page, the subject h;id better be left severely alone, since it is hardly worth while going through so much to get so little. Hull, no doubt, some parts of English (Grammar, and of any other grammar, inevitably are, but the subject as a whole is far from being so dull as teachers and treatises frequently succeed in making it. A good teacher, who takes an mterest in the matter himself, will secure the interest of a chiss of quite small boys,-~not merely of the good boys at the top, but of the rank and file, of all, mcfeed, save the hopeless residuum who * have taken the whole of science ' for their aversion,— while he sketches for them the gradual growth of our language, or talks over N s PREFACE, ^ with them the difference between Common and Proper nouns, or iclls them the derivation of curious words l.ke iuiuonce, or treacle, or rhubarb, or supplies tiiem with faulty s^MUences wiiich are to be pulled to pieces and put right Yet even these topics may be so handled as to produce de])ressing results. An hour a week is the time usually allotted to the study of Lnghsh Grammar at those schools in which the conflict of studies allows it a place in the educational routine. A class reading every week seven pages of this book will work us way to the end in the course of the school year No attempt has been made to divide the contents into l^essons,' since the number of pages suitable for senior students would be too many for juniors. As each chapter usually completes the treatment of some important and distinct branch of the subject, the chapters vary greatly in length, and the amount to be prepared for each lesson must be determined at the discretion of the master Of the Questions at the end of the Chapters, most have been chosen from the Cambridge Local Examination i'apers of the last twenty years; the Oxford Local Exami- nation 1 apers and the Papers of the Royal College of Preceptors have furnished others, and a i... have been r. ' " f h'I^ T'"' ^"^P°^^- ^^^y ''' «^ very different degrees of difficulty. Occasionally they raise points which cussiorir?h ':' "°V^"^P-^-' --gh to deserve dis- cussion m the text of the chapter to which they are attached. In such cases solutions or helps towards soLi'n have been added. At the close of a protracted exposition ot an abstract principle, the practical teacher often has cause .o feel that he has been beaung the air, ^hen th use ot a concrete example enables him to driv; his pc^n! home at once. To meet his needs, a good supply o vni PREFACE. sentences for corroction has been added to the concluding chapters on Syntax. There is reason to hope that the boy" and girls who attack these problems will find the benefit not merely m the confidence with which they will face the t.xammer. whom most young seekers after Truth nowadays expect to meet round the other side of the Tree of Know- edge, but also in the formation of the habit of thinking ^or themselves. In this case the English Grammar lesson will prove to be a means of education and noi simply an opportunity for instruction. The matter contained in these pages has but slight claims to ongmality. The writer of an elementary text- 2lu T^^^ ^"""^ well-trodden by many predecessors, would probably go astray, if he endeavoured at any cost to be ongmal. Many of the following chapters owe some- thmg and occasionally they owe much, to Mr Mason's English Grammar and to Prof. Bain's Higher English Grammar. Use has been made also of Dr Gow's sugees- tive Method of English, of Dr Angus's Handi,ooh of the Engltsh Tongue (in which the principles of syntax are discussed with more than the ordinary detail), of Mr Low's English Language, of Prof. Meiklejohn's English Language, L " ' ^'"^ '' ^""'"'^ °^ ^^' ^^^^>t^- « Manual ^f our Mother Tongue., of Dr Morris's Historical Outlines of English Accidence, and of Prof. Skeat's Etymological Die tionary. Acknowledgment of indebtedness to these and to other writers has in seme places been made, but much of the well-worn material, of which an elementary work on English Grammar must be composed, is the common property of all who choose to write upon the subject. My cordial thanks are due to several Cambridge friends for criticisms and suggestions which have enabled me to improve m many respects the original draft of this book PREFACE. J, Among , hem T must mention Mr A. W. W. Dale, Fellow and Tutor of 7.,„„y Hall, Mr R. T Wright, late Felloe and Tutor of Chrt.fs College, and N. J. H. Flather, of Emmanuel College. To Mr Flather I am un.ler e pecitl obhgat,ons for his sacrifice of many hours of the Lo ' Vacanon to the task of revision. At the same time I must be clearly understood that, for the shortcomings of the following pages, the re.,,,o„.sib.lity .-ests entirely with me. ALFRFD S. WEST. 38, Baih Road, CntswiCK. Nnember utt 189,^, VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX, XXV XXVI. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Historical Survey 11. Constituents of the English Vocalnilary* IV tk' I"^'"-.' '"'•"^^'■'=^" ^' Aryan Fau.ily of Language's IV. 1 he Divisions of (Jrainn.ar . . V. Elementary Sounds in Enghsh VI. Signs or Letters . . . [ Etymology ....*.* Nouns Inflexion of Nouns. I. Gender '. Inflexion of Nouns. 11. Number iLriexion of Nouns. HI. Case . Adjectives . Inflexion of Adjectives Pronouns Verl)s . • • . Inflexions of Verbs Auxiliary and Defective Verbs Adverbs Prepositions ... Conjunctions and Interjections . XXI. Compounds and Derivatives XXIL Analysis of Sentences and Parsing* XXIIL Syntax of Nouns . XXIV. Syntax of Adjectives and Pronouns Syntax of Verbs .... Syntax of Adverbs, Conjunctions. Ind Prepositions Appendix I. Definitions ot Grammatical Terms Appendix II. Passages far Analysis . Index ... ' * PAGE I 9 21 29 36 53 61 68 78 84 91 J 00 108 "4 129 »35 164 171 m 182 189 197 217 228 240 2.54 269 283 THE ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. CHAPTER I. Historical Survey. 1. Britons and Englishmen. The people who lived in our island fifteen hundred years ago were not Eng- lishmen, nor did they speak the English language. When, m our flights of rhetoric or poetry, we declare that we glory in the name of Britons, or sing that Britons never shall be slaves, our intentions are patriotic, but our language is apt to be misleading. Britons we may indeed call ourselves, if m doing so we mean nothing more than this, that we are inhabitants of Britain. But when we speak of ourselves as Britons, or as a British race, let us bear in mind such facts as these :— that we are in the main of English origin ; that our English forefathers conquered the T/itons, deprived them of their lands, and made many of them slaves; that the English settled in the country belonging to the Britons, and that their descendants have remained here ever since. Firmly grasping these truths, we may, if we like, apply the name of Britons to our fellow-countrymen, just as we apply the name of Great Britain to our country. No danger of misconception lurks in the use of the word W, £, Q, d ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. •Britain' as the geographical name of our island, for our island remains the same: it is the population which has changed. 2. The Roman Conquest. As the result o^ his invasions in b.c. 55 and the following year, Julius Caesar exacted from the British tribes the payment of an annual tribute to Rome. His advance into the country reached only as far as St Albans, and nearly a century passed before the Romans returned. In the year a.d. 43, the Roman legions were sent to Britain again, and in the course of the next forty years the country was reduced to subjection as far as the Tyne. Half a century later, the limit of Roman conquest was pushed further north to the Clyde. The Romans held the country as we hold India to-day. They did not intermarry with the Britons as they intermarried with the natives of Gaul or of Spain. Their occupation of Britain was a military occupation, and the Britons preserved their own language, though it was not until a.d, 410 that the Romans, after a tenure of nearly four hundred years, finally left the island. 3. The Britons were a Keltic race, and in some parts of our islands a Keltic language is still spoken. Welsh is a Keltic dialect; so is Manx; so is the native Irish, or Erse ; so is the dialect of the Highlands of Scot- land'. If we wish to have a notion of the sort of language which an ancient Briton spoke, we must remember that it was like <';e Welsh of to-day and therefore ' very different from English. The people of South Britain called them- selves Cymry, as the Welsh call themselves now. Cambria and Cumbria preserve for us this name *Cymry' in a Latin form. 4. The English Conquest. In the year a.d. 449, a gene'-ation after the departure of the Romans, Hengist 1 Lowland Scotch is an English dialect. I, for our ^hich has It 0^ his IS Caesar n annual ' reached ed before : Roman 'se of the action as f Roman de. The '^. They :rmarried pation of Dreserved 410 that 2d years, in some spoken, le native of Scot- language jr that it different id them- Cambria a Latin \.D. 449, Hengist ■.■im HISTORICAL SURVEY, the Jute settled in Kent anri ;« fu people. no/,„ ^^0^^:^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ two quest,o„s an answer ought to be gC heref "'" /' ,7^?° "^^""^ tl'^se settlers ? (2) Where did they come from ? (i) Tliey were Teutonic tribes Tho „. 1 we call Germans call fh^m. . „ P*°P'^' '"'"'"' v-iiuaub, caji tnemselves Deuturh tj,^ j • familiar to us in the form Duhh Th% "'"'^ '" near as they could to ,T. „ J'''=3°""»^. getting as tribes called'them el4s, madTX word r '. ""^ ?'""'" a Latin declension. F om this we d^ T ""^ ^'''' " term Teuf,,,,;. If we nZ„ f '^ "'^ convenient of ZJ«/-../J with Ihefrn '' "■' ''^'"^ °f ^'*^<"«and blance is close We di,!"^'' J""" '°'""^'' ">« 'esem- to the vowe, ^ th^totr^^^ ^stiTof 1^'^'"^ rce^r^un:; ifw?:- :: k^?^"-^ '" Flemish, was a 'German' a guag Ih! t " ''"f ' " misleading, as we comm^.i ^"""f' ">« 'erm might be a narrower sensT to Tni? ^.."T °^ "'" ^"^'^ ^-«''« i" Berlin and tau^lt'^rsSto E g,fsrbr''°'T "-'^^ '" are said to be 'learning German "tI-^T ' ^'* *''° strd[:;:r^"' -^ - oermaii's^sr^;-: and it was the ol^enf/ ''"'"' ™' "'='° '° ^utch Keltic race andlTr """• '^''^ ^"'""^ ^ere a ace, and then: lai.guage was as different from the I— a 4 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. language of their Saxon conquerors as the Welsh language of to-day is different from our modern English. (2) To find the district from which these tribes came, we must turn to the map of North Germany and Denmark. The Angles are believed to have come from the duchy of Schleswig. Crossing its northern border we pass into Jutland, which is part of Denmark. The south of Jut-land was probably the home of the Jutes. If we move southwards again into Holstein, we find on the west coast two rivers fo'-ming respectively its northern and southern boundaries, the Eider and the Elbe. From this neighbourhood it is supposed that the Saxons c^ ne. Neglecting these details, we may remember that the English people came from Schleswig- Holstein, or th-'.t the English people came from the country to the north of the mouth of the Elbe; that they came between the years a.d. 450 and 550; and that having come they stayed. As the district from which these invaders came is a low-lying, flat part of the continent, we call them Low Germans, to distinguish them from their Teutonic kins- men living in the interior of the country, where the ground is higher. What we call to-day the 'German' language is High German. Dutch, Flemish, spoken in parts of Belgium, and Frisian, still spoken in the districts from which our ancestors came, are Low German dialects. Thus the terms High and Low, as applied to German, have a geographical origm. No stigma of inferiority is attached to us when we are described as a ' Low German ' race. 5. What became of the Keltic race, the Britons ? They were driven into the west and the north of the island,— into Devon and Cornwall, into Wales, into West- HISTORICAL SURVEY, 5 moreland and Cumberland. Those who remained in the parts which were under English rule were made slaves. Their Keltic language was spoken only amongst themselves. Henceforth the language of the country was English. Does* it'^fn-"""' ^^ °'''" '°'"' '*^^°^^ '^^ ^"^^ Anglo.Sa.ron. BJlft7o:strn^::L'' ^'"^ ^"'^^ ^^'^ ^^^ P-"P^> -"'- - Germanyr'"' '^ ^"■^^^''"'^' *' ^'^^^"g^'shed from Saxons of North To this question no decided answer can be given, nor is it a matter Sax';;:!..;;?'? ?'' '° ''"^^ '^' P°'"^ °"« ^'^y °r\he other. When Saxons and Angles were united in England against a common enemv heycalledthemselyes 'Englishmen.' If the useof theword kads peo7e o thmk that the 'Anglo-Saxons' were of adifferent race from ourLTve^ t ml be well to drop the term. If on the other hand it is unders^' that the so-called Anglo-Saxons were our forefathers, there is so^ convenience m keeping the word Ang/o-Sa^on to denot^ a sta J in thi history of the English language. ^ ^"® 7. Roman missionaries. Our English forefathers were heathen. We preserve relics of their worship i„ the names of the days of the week. Roman missionaries were sent to this country in the year a.d. 597 to teach them Christianny. Latin became again one of the tongues of Britain the language of its worship and of its literature. Trade brought m other words from a Latin source. 8. The Northmen. During two and a half cen- uries. from about a. d. 800 to 1050, England was exposed to frequent inroads of the Danes, or Northmen, inhabitants of Scandinavia and not merely of Denmark. These North- men, from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, were a Teutonic race, so they were akin to the English whom they harassed : but we place them in a group apart from High or Low Germans and call this group the Scandinavian .c. t 7?^^°'""^" Conquest. The xNormans, who established themselves in our country in a.d. 1066 were ongmaUy, hke the Danes, Northmen or Scandinavians. 6 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, But they had been settled on French soil for about ico years and had acquired a French dialect, the French of northern France, called the lansue d^otl. The word oiL the same word as oui, signifies yes. The langue d^oU was the f .t'lh'"/" vf '?'' '''^ "' '"^ y''^ '' distinguished f.om the /^;/^«"" ^' <=^" 'heirs the Scandinavian branch. M.\ "f '°^^ '° '*°°- '^^^ Normans were also origin- ally Scandinavians, but they had adopted the language of France during their occupation of that country for .50 years before they conquered England; and for .50 years afte their conquest of England.-until the deati, of John and the final severance of England from Normandy.-great efforts 8 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. were made to extend the use of the French language of Latin, though the Gauls were a Keltic race nr I J^^ •^^''''^''' ""^ ^^"^"' °'' °^ Classical Learning fi^K ^ I . ^ '^! '"^ ^^ ^^^""^^^ I'^ '•e'g"> '>. during the i6th and the first half of the 1 7th century. ^ t M MAH. mguage lain a form Learning, he time of during the CHAPTER II. CONSIITUENTS OF THE ENGLISH VoCABriAR?. 13. In the previous chapter we mentioned the leading events in the history of our country which have exercised an influence upon the formation of our language as it exists to-day. In this chapter we shall answer the question,— What sorts of words do we owe to these events in our history? 14. I. Keltic words in English. The Keltic words in our ordinary English speech are few. Of Keltic names of places there are many, such as Aber-, Fen-, Llan-, Caer, but geographical names have no claim to be reckoned as a part of our ordinary vocabulary. The En;^lish invaders no doubt adopted some of the words which the Britons used, names of things with which as slaves the Britons would have to do, words belonging to the farm or kitchen. Of these, darn, mop, pool, glen, are perhaps examples. But more of our Keltic words came to us through the Norman French ; for, as was said in the first chapter, the Gauls were a Keltic race, who adopted the language of their Roman conquerors, but preserved some of their old Keltic words in their French speech. The Keltic words wnich passed into English through a Nor.-ian French channel are r , numerous nor dignified. Basket, cabin, hog, paunch, t. ' will serve as examples. Again, in later times, when we .0 SlE.^fE^;7s or English grammar from their Keltic dialect From l^TTl'' " ^^^ ''°«'» words ./„„, kill; fr„n, , t Irkh '^"f""^'' *« 'ook the gcher our ir,at the Romans never !-T„^ j^"' " "'"^' '"^ 'emembered after the English had e^^r u .^"T"' *'"' ""= English Romans too.^ t h'eir 1 tSrl't'fr ''"^- '''^^ - rL""'^h:-Kor' '^^ '/f «- -^■^sir:;trmt:t' words into t^e l^ r o^f' b' '^ """k"'^ '"»>' ^-" contributed very few wordf tl ':','■ *"" ""= ^"'""^ those .vhich they dW cent ibu,r' "' "" ^"^'^^''' =""> "^ Latin origin, w^ can Z'tCZZ ofT"' '° "^ °^ Pation however in sever-l names „f f"""^" °""- we meet with a word n, ZZZrJc"" """" C/;«/^r, we recognise tho t ,, ' '^"■'■''" ■"^'"'' or places were onc^ Ron a„ mf, >" '"'"'''■ '""^ '"'°" "'■■''' ^""^ appears in disgmse. ^1 t^ 1.", , "^ •^''*-^' """"" a place called 'Cheste 'thlv t ^^"™d and found ^ntstex, they would continue to call it MMAR, ''otland, after a few words we took the mrock. Alto- 'it. VVe may part of our the original fie Norman I the Scotch ^- Though ir hundred bulary as a imembered fie English 'ere. The •o, and it settlement I any Latin e Britons :h, and of to be of m occu- ■ When cestcr, or he'll thfie Lin -coin , vallum id found 3 calJ it CONSTITUENTS OF THE VOCABULARY, i, •Chester,' just as when we occupied New South Wales and found a place called ' Wagga Wagga / we continued to call It ♦ VVagga-Wagga,' and in this way we may say that the Romans have left their mark upon our language. But their mfluence is seen only in i few geographical names. This Latm element is sometimes called the Latin of the First Period. 16. In A.D. 597, St Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory to teach Ch-istianity to the English, and in the course of the next tour centuries several Latin words connected with the Christian faith and ritual, were introduced into the language. Translations from Latin originals brought :n others. Commerce was extending also between England and other European nations, from whom were borrowed terms of Latm origin, new names for new things Let us picture to ourselves the influence which a missionary settle- ment would have to-day upon the language of a tribe of African savages. From the Christian teachers they would borrow such words as bible, liymn-book, chapel, and add this English element to their African speech. Then after a while the trader would follow, and the language of the natives wou d be enriched with such words as rijle, gunpowder, ^in. In like manner, between the years a.d. 6oo and looo, Roman ecclesiastics introduced words of which altar, creed, font preach are examples, while, in consequence of enlarged knowledge owing to expended trade, such words as cheese, cook, linen, poppy, pear, lound their way into our language. This Latm is called the Z^//« ^///,, 6'.,^«^/'./'/^^. ^ 17. We saw that Norman French, though it con- ttiined a considerable Keltic element, was in the main a fenguage of Latin origin. Hence we may say that fie words which we owe to our Norman conquerors are ».atin words which have come into the language indirectly atin words ' once removed.' This Latin element is called le Latm of the Third Period. il„. |.,, 1. , ' M".ik u>-i«l II'. Un.l-. In-,,, „!,„ I, |.;„.|i.sl, ow„cT,s l,.,i |,„.„ ,;,,,, '', ;:"'';::;■: ■■■^•''^' '- -^'r ^^^^^^^ into Vend r; "'"","": "'"""^ ''^"' '" "'^" '-^"in ' « nUi. \ ct n, s|„„. „( all, ,.; (j,,, ,„ , , ,...'" ,s U,c l,ss „| ||„, |, ,,,,,„,,, ,„„,„^i, ■ . '" l'.,.sl:,.,.l at k.„K,l, ,i,e„ i„ ,|„,i, ,,,. ^..,1, ' ; ' " ami crasec to be I'Vcnch r ■ ., '" " •• '-iWisli n ll„s ,e,(.„ l,oys «o,o no longer ,o,|„ia.,l lo <.>nst, ,. ihd,' .. feudalism : .,,. .|,„n,nKO,' fron, /,„„,„„, fo, , ...j, Pro,x.,ss the vassal l,e,a„,o the lonls n,a„'. •cal,y,M,.leli>y'; 'os,,uire' ami ..scutrheo,,; trom scutum, 'a sliidd.' 2. law: .,,. ' attorney/ 'assize,' 'plnintirtV 's„c/ from r.at. r./,.,-, 'to hinu'), '<,tK,rry,' „u-aning 'game' ;iy fed some I not a French lords or<:iipic(i 1 I'ccn ejected. '\uToT%f°" °^C''"^«-"ity among the Eng- onri ,h ?^' ''"'°'' ^""^"''^ from A.D. 600 to ,oof and the character of the words is mainly ecclesiistica /^' relating to the chnrrh n., • 1 c^i-'t.siasticai, z.^. were bro^^rin 1 T ""^ ^^^ '^"'"^ ^'"^« other words were brought in by hterature and commerce 3. Norman Influence, a.d 1066 r.nr. i .■ • h.l/V .f "'T^' °'' L«'«'-s. the i6th century and first half of the ,7th, or the period extending from the Tudors to the Commonwealth. Words of all kinds. othef nnim''°''f ''"""^ "'" ^""^J^" "^ ™"^' touch on a few take a dic,i„,„ry an "i , h- ".T-""'!"' ^""'■''" "''''•'' "■- fi.Hl that L.a,i„ iL f nX ^T ' 'i ",'""''" "' """'"• "^ »!■"« En«,is., „.o„,„ a,„;„„^;;':r ;: iryTLTTr'^^ ""'* "'- contains eighteen words Of tlu,J u. ^'"'^ ^'^'^ sentence ongin,theLrcIsrrnd/?i TllXr;' ""'^^"° "^ °^ ^atin in eighteen is a triHe ove; pet cent H "'" "'^'7 ^'"^'^'^^- '^^o examine a sentence taken nf m , . r ^ "^^^ '''^ contrast let us proceed., .o„ ..^ u.Jrsi.ies, anri/Urtird-reraS^X" DAMMAR. ^sequence of the to debt, vitaille form the results it in modern lese : A.D. 43 to 410. e.g. Dorchester, mong the Eng- D. 600 to 1000, :clesia.stical, i.e. ne other words 400, Latin in- eiidaUsm, law, Uury and first the Tudors to ouch on a few Latin element contains more mean that, if we words, we shall ainc'd from our itin words than is last sentence o are of Latin Enirlish. Two contrast let us thew Arnold's: >»e examination E" examination, ^ CONSTITUENTS OF THE VOCABULARY. 15 customary and admitted already, were generalised and regularised, it would be sufficient for the purpose." Here we have thirty-five words, and thirteen of them come from the Latin source. This gives 37 per cent, of foreign origin as compared with eleven i)er cent, in the former passage. One more sample, this time a verse of Wordsworth's : "Six feet in earth my Emma lay, And yet I loved her more — For so it seemed,— than till that day I e'er hail loved before." These six-and-twcnty words are all native English : the Latin element is altogether absent. Now, how is it that the dictionary proportion of Latin words in English anil the proportion in use are so dlilercnt? Because (1) in the dictionary every word counts once and only once. That, amiJJ\ count as one English word each, and re}rnlanse, generalise, secondary, count as one word each. But we can liardly make a sentence without bringing in such words as that, and, if, whilst we may pass months or years or a life-time without bringing into our sentences such words 7\.'^ regularise, generalise, secondary. We should find it a trouble- some business to make a sentence ten words long without using a single native English word, for the I'nglish words are the mortar, so to speak, by which the sentence is bound together. Take these words away, and the sentence tumbles to pieces. Take away the classical words, and we can m most cases substitute for them words of English origin. Again, (2) by far the greater number of the words in the dictionary are words which we never use at all,— words which we should never meet with, unless we chanced to see them when we were looking in the dictionary. How many words there are in the English language, it is not an easy matter to say. Some persons would give 50,000'' as the number, others 100,000, others 150,000. These startling'discrepancies do not imply any incapacity to count correctly on the part of the people who furnish the estimates; they arise from a difference of opinion as to w'hat constitutes a word. Suppose we accept the middle estimate of the three totals mentioned above, and say that there are 100,000 words in our language; we might then roughly distribute them thus without any great error in the proportion: Latin 60,000, English 30,000, Greek and other sources 10,000. _ But how many of these words are in ordinary use? To this question It IS impossible to give a definite answer. Shakespeare employed twice as many words to express his thoughts as anybody else, and he said all that he had to say with about 15,000 words. Milton needed only half that number. An educated man of to-day has a vocabulary of some hve or SIX thousand words. Two thousand suffice for an average mechanic; one thousand for a schoolboy; half that number for an " ^^^^-^^^-^ OJ^ MNGLISff GRAMMAR. agricultural labourer. We mxo H.«« bably they are not very wide of he n,"7^'f ^^ conjecture, but pro- say this, that for every wo dwM K .k u ^^ ^' ^"^ ^^^^ ^^ may safely there are at least teTprhl .w^^^^ ^'^^^^ -- -akes'use of' uses at all. And most^f IseTe "^'rd r^'f ""''■^' "^"^'^ ^^ "«ver question may be asked -Whl. u ""^ ^°''^'g" extraction. The them ? Vast'numtrs'^f Tm are wo!? "r"'^. '°^' ^^ ^ --r Z character; they belong to Sen .w , '^}^' ''' '^^^ ^ technical used by the men who fo.bt^C a a'nl Tf ^"^,— es. and are nobody else. Thus the doctor emn] f'"^"^' ^nd sciences and by used by the rest of us; thenrher7a fthe'wn!?' '^^ '^.^'"''^^^ "^^^ -' chem,stry; the words of mining "ft, ildinrof.r"''\^'° '"^^"^ ^"^ Every occupation furnishes its con r • ttrf' f .'^'"^'^'-^"^h.p, and so on. Pi-ly unknown to people genS/^'r^ m1n7w:4^^:? ^1 -,- of J^i:h^t:;itws^;L'm^^^^^^^ ^^ -^^-y us. words the subject in hand, the more d^es th^' r ,T', '''"P^" ^"^ ^^-^ihar The words which denote T hfn " neteft"? d /^'"""^ Predominate, which we have known from eur c liM^T ^"^.l^^'-est to us, the things are English words. And h^nTe J Ts 1 v^' T'' T' ^^^-these old man's feeling about his daugh er' d a h nTt "n'"'' '"'^"'^'"^ ^" Lnghsh diction as best suited to hi! ,. ' "^/"''^"y "ses an unmixed paraphrase would sound b^theskle ^V' "°^ ^^^'^^^ ^ ^^tinized go home to our hearts" ' ' °^ '^" '""P^^ ^^g^'sh words which "And yet I loved her more- than'? "Z^Z:^ X:.C^%^r^^ a«.ction ^r her gone, and the sentence refds asTf it wire takT f"' '\ P^"^^^ ^^^ third-rate novelist. On the other L f u " ^'"""^ ^^^ P^ges of a Arnold abounds in LaVin words beC^r.' '^' f''''^''' ^^^m Matthew subject -.nd resorts to s L7fic ikn^u "e' n' p'' '"^ ^"^ ^ ^"-tific nothing of 'regularising' anf^enSl.^'f^"^'"'/"^'^'^-- ^-^y 'universities.' We should be pEzTed In ^^' °^ f^^^^ary schools ' and English origin. Thus the Latin etL ?■""' ""' P'^^'^'^ ^" ^'"^^s of accordingtohissubject. IfL Vr 1 '" ^.'^^^'^ style will ya^. proportion of Latin' words m nl ess!2\f I'T^''^^^ ^"^J^^^' ^^^ will not provide him with the vocabuhrt \ t u^^' ''^'^"'^ ^"Shsh writing a story or a poem abouMnv ^ 7 '? ^' '"^^"^'^s- ^^ he is Latin words will be low Tecause Fn r u ""^l^^ ^'^'' '^' Proportion of for his purpose. But I^weverhi^lf tt ""'"'' ^'" '^ more^ffective never come across a passage Lt^estn^rS S a^^ ^ ^jj "0i MMAR. jecture, but pro. te we may safely an makes use of, I which he never •xtraction. The f we never use call a technical cit.ices, and are sciences and by nical words not r to botany and li'P, and so on. ich are as com- of Winchester lary use, words e and familiar predominate. > us, the things rigin. Father mcon,~these describing an ;s an unmixed e a Latinized words which ction for her passage has e pages of a m Matthew ' a scientific "athers knew schools ' and in words of le will vary subject, the ise English >• If he is oportion of re effective ', we shall e as many CONSTITUENTS OF THE VOCABULARY. 17 Latin words as there are words of native origin. When we say of a man that he writes a Latinised or classical style, we mean that he often prefers to use a Latin noun, verb, or adjective, when an English noun verb, or adjective would express his meaning. The other words in his sentences are for the most part English and must be English, since about these no choice is possible. It is sometimes said that we ought always to use an English word instead of a Latin word if we can. But a hard and fast rule of this sort IS not to be laid down for universal application as a maxim of style. The Latm word may sometimes be the more effective or exact, though an English word might also serve the purpose. A good writer will select the best word regardless of its derivation. Still, half-educated persons have such a hankering after Latin words in preference to Eng- lish words for the expression of common-place notions about things l{ every-day life, that there is safety in laying down the rule, at any ra^e for them, that the English word should always be taken, and the lIuh word should be left. The habit of saying « Allow me to assist you o potatoes,' instead of «Let me help you to potatoes,' or 'Let me give you some potatoes'; of using 'period' or «epoch' instead of 'time'; 'indi- vidual mstead of 'man'; ' commence ' insteaH nf < h.„;. - o„,7 L __ •_ detestable ^ commence instead of ' begin,' and so on, is 21. III. Greek words in English. The Greek element in English is important, and its amount is rapidly increasmg. In date of introduction it corresponds with the Latm of the Fourth Period. There are indeed a few ecclesiastical terms of Greek origin, which reached us through a Latin channel before the Norman Conquest, e.g. deacon monk, apostle, bishop, hymn. But v,ith the exception of a score of words like these, belonging to" the vocabulary of the Christian church, the Greek which we have in modern English has been adopted since the Revival of Learning for purposes of scientific nomenclature. Greek is a language which lends itself readily to the formation of compounds. So was old English, but this power of making new words by he combmation of other words seems to have perished through the mfluence of the Norman French. At any rate our language possesses it no longer. If we consider the ease with which long compound words can be formed in W. E. G. 1 See Abbott and Seeley's English Lessons, p. 105. 2 I i8 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, modern German, it seems curious that our own Teutonic language should lack the same facility. But such is the case. And as compound terms are increasingly necessary to express the complex ideas of science, we fall back on Greek to sui^ply our needs. TdcpJione, microscope, ther- mometer, photopaph, are examples of Greek compounds, and, if we translate these words into their English equivalents, the advantage which we gain from the use of Greek is apparent. 22. IV. Scandinavian words in English. It is not always an easy matter to determine what words we owe to the Norsemen, as the Norsemen belonged to the Teutonic race, and their vocalnilary resembled that of our own Low-tJerman dialect. Still, there are some words which we can identify as Scandinavian in their origin. We may trace the Danes on the map of England by the ending -by, which means 'town,' as in Derby, Whitby: the same word IS preserved in bychnu. This ending occurs for the most part in the district once occupied by the Danes, called the Danelagh, in the north and east of England. Fell, as in 'Scawfell,' force, 'a water-fall,' as in 'Stockgill-force,' are other examples of Danish geographical names. To the Danes we owe also the word are, which took the place of the English form of the 3rd person plural of the verb am. Other addiiionj which they made to our vocabulary are seen in the words //^7£/, sky, scold, ugly. The common termina- tion -^t;« in names of persons, e.g. 'Johnson,' 'Anderson,' is Danish. Words meaning 'son of,' Patronymics as they are called in grammar, were formed in Old English by the addition of the ending -ing, e.g. 'Athelin"-.' 23. V. Words from various sources. We have now completed our account of the chief sources from which the vocabulary of modern English has been enriched. MAR. n Teutonic >uch is the y necessary .11 back on scope^ ther- 3uncls, and, :quivalents, f Greek is glish. It words we ;5ed to the hat of our ords which We may ending -by, same word • the most les, called . Feil^ as -force,' are To the the place I verb am. ■y are seen n termina- derson,' is s as they ish by the We have om which enriched. CONSTITUENTS OF THE VOCABULARY. 19 Words have been borrowed from a large number of other languages, but no great advantage will be gained by burden- ing the memory with lists of terms for which various foreign countries have been placed under contributioa The stu- dent who is asked to mention a word which we have taken • from the Turkish, or Indian, or Chinese, should think of something peculiar to Turkey, or India, or China, and examples will suggest themselves. Thus/^^ or odausk may occur to him as Turkish words ; curry, pundit, pariah as Hindu ; junk and tea as Chinese. A few illustrations are added of common words borrowed from miscellaneous sources. Modern Yx^ncYi-— bouquet, etiquette, programme. \\.dX\^n~bandit, gazette, regatta. Spanish— ^rwaa^i?, cigar, don. Portuguese — commodore, caste, marmalade. Modern German— rf'rt//^, meerschaum^ nickel, Dutch — schooner, yacht, sloop. Russian — czar, knout, drosky. Hebrew— r/^^r«<^, seraph, sabbath. Arabic — admiral, alcohol, zero. Persian — chess, lilac, orajtge. Malay— amuck ('to run amuck'), bantam, sago. North-American— j^aaze;, tobacco, tomahawk. Questions. 1. These six Latin words occur in names of places and are marks or the Roman occupation of Britain :-.a./ra, 'a camp': colonia, 'a colony ; fossa, 'a ^i\.z\i'; partus, 'a harbour'; strata, 'a paved road'- vallum, 'a rampart.' Mention names in which these Latin words survive. 2. The following Latin words furnish us with pairs of derivatives which came mto our language (i) indirectly through the Norman- ^rench, (2) directly at the Revival of Learning. Give the pairs of derivatives:— /m^/7ij, pamtentia, securus, pauper, conceptio. 3- What other forms have we of the words privy, royal storv blame? Which of the forms came into the language first? Why do you think so? »*"y uo ao £L£AfENTS OF F.musif GRAAfMAR. 4- ''ick .m, ,hc. words of U,i„ ..risin i„ .h^ ,,,h ,.,,,„ .•nn;«,,..:r;:::;,!;t;,S't?;*:itr;"^°"-^''^-'«-- period. ^ ' ' '"•^'a»C'^s of words introduced at -jach the l^^^^^^^Sr^ ^^^ ^^ voca„u,ar,. v^ieh rit^ lo what European dialects is English „K,st nearly akin? [W^v. is a Keltic woni fof^rrvr-'d T7 ''[^'^'"'''^ bourhood, would be preserved hv L ir , ^'"'^ "''"'•' '" ^is neigh- "invards of a do^e„^t•.s allJd .A^n ' '^^f'^^ "^"'^'^ ^^ '>-e various disguises is even more co™:^.. ^- ,^^''''^",^' -'Z' 'I^x' in haps (;.v.ford. ^/a-bridge, U,k e2 n,'^ « ''If', '•/•^-'"'"ster, per- >^'^".V//r'tW delt^jir^ ^""^^''"''"^ -^''« of English 'llicoM man trusts wliollv i,> tl,,„. , . • gression. The youth ex, J,sT„ Lt ,,i .''" ■■""' «=""'"••" l'">- --U, of ,„u,h, .uu ,ou,h w,;;r::t4ro:T,:';s:;';ur':^'.rC! Johmon, \fMAR, {in were largely utluced at -jach se which most on, ridiculous, ''ility, virtuous. y. which is (i) n? of each of the the name of The name in his neigh- ence we have •ind 'Ex' in minster, per- hn's English « "f English ^ladual pro- vigour, and th commits 'ger on the >ity of age.' Johmon, '4 ^1 CHAPTER III. The Indo-Europkan or Aryan Fam.lv of Unguaoes. 24. When we are learning Greek or Latin, French or (.erraan, we come across some words that are the same in form as their English eciuivalenls and many more words hat are very hke them. Take the English words .«, M.„, r^' p^'7'^°^>' '^^'^ ''<= 'he resemblance of these word to the French un, trois, me, est; to the Latin unus, ires, me, est; io the German ««, drei, mich, ist; to the Greek iy, rp.:,, /«., .o-n. A knowledge of other languages of Europe would enable us to carry the comparison further with the cc -intv of fmdmg m them corresponding resemblances. From the fact that these smiilarities exist we are not to draw the inference that our English ancestors derived the word «! from the Latm, or that the Romans derived their wo7d supply us w,th a necessary word like me, nor were the Romans without .t until they took it from the Greeks r 3 fh "h 'r"'^' ""* ""• '-"' -• «'. ^"d ">« G"»l^ adopted .n the mam the language of their conquerors. But «/„as good Enghsh before the Normans cam'e to England Such from • the iT' '"""f' ''"^"'"' '""'' l'^™ '-"y '-o-e from the Latm : >,e borrowed them directly. But it would be . g.eat mistake to suppose that wherever we find a 22 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. likeness between words in two languages, there has been any borrowing at all, direct or indirect. Now resemblances such as we see between words like one, three, me, ts, in a number of different languages, are too many for them to be the result of chan( e. If then the similar words in one language have not boen taken from those in another, '^ow are we to account xor the similarity ? 25. The explanation is this, that tiie various lan- guages have proceeded from a common source. Suppose that many of the nations of Europe and Asia are descended from a tribe which existed some thousands of years ago. Suppose that, as this tribe increased in numbers, it became a difficult matter to supply the growing population with food. We know what happens in our own time and country when men find a difficulty about getting a liveli- hood in the place of their birth. Tiiey go somewhere else. Sometimes they move from the country districts and settle in the large towns. Sometimes they leave the old country and seek their fortunes in a new one. The men who cut themselves adrift from their old moorings are, as a rule, the younger, more vigorous, and more enterprising members of the community. 'I'he old folk stay on at home. In much the same fashion we may imagine that this primitive nation witnessed long ago the exodus of many of the more hardy and energetic of its members. With their tents and their cattle, these younger men would wander away from the family settlement, until they found a district which seemed attrac- tive as a permanent resting-place, a district with a river at hand and pasture for the herds. And here the descendants of these emigrants would remain until in their case was repeated the history of what had happened to their fore- fathers. The pressure of an increasing population would make a fresh migration necessary, ard a part of the tribe would again set out to found a new settlement. Suppose ARYAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. 23 that, three or four thousand years later, a traveller came upon the descendants of the original tribe, scattered abroad through Europe and Persia and India, he would find that, in spite of the changes which removals and the lapse of many centuries had brought about in their languages, these languages contained beneath the surface many points of resemblance. Now this supposition that from an early race of men there started forth, at different times, parties of emigrants from whom have si)rung a posterity which occupies a jjortion of Asia and almost the whole of Europe, is a supposition only. Historical records on the subject we have none. We cannot therefore speak of these migrations with the same certainty which we feel when we speak of the English coming from Schleswig-Holstein, or of the Normans coming from France. In proof of these invasions of Saxons and Normans we can produce written testimony. The migra- tions of our supposed primitive tribe are matters of in- ference, but the inference is one which we feel justified in drawing, because it enables us to explain the existence of these similarities between many of the languages of Europe and Asia. A comparison of most of the languages of Europe with many of the languages of India discloses to us the fact that, instead of being totally different, they present many points of resemblance, — so many indeed that we are driven to the conclusion that these languages have proceeded from a common source. This collection of languages we call the Indo-European or Aryan Family of Lan- guages. 26. It is believed that three or four thousand years ago there lived, somewhere between the Hindu-Kush mountains and the Caspian Sea, a tribe, or tribes of the same race, called Aryans. Though we have no written memorials of these Aryans, the habits and character of the people are /*, 24 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. known to us as inferences from facts revealed by philological research. Experts in the Science of Lan.^uage fell us that these Aryans lived m towns, kept cattle, ploughed the ground, used metals, made boats, could count up to a hundred, recognised family relations, and had various names for God. And the line of argument by which they establish these conclusions is of this kind :-If, say they, we find existing ,n various disguises, in a number of different lan- guages the same word to express 'horse,' 'sheep," plough ' spear, then the tribe from which these modern races hU sprung must have had a word for horse, sheep, plough, spear, and if they had the word, they must hav." been ac^ quainted with the thing. Language comes to our help again in fixing the original abode of the primitive Aryan tribe. If we find Aryan names for certain plants and animals, we infer that the Aryans had their home in a district where these plants and animals would flourish. Other reasons there are for placing the Aryans where the majority of the authorities on the question have agreed to place them, but this is one reason, and it shows us once more how language throws a light upon history, or even reveals to Uo history which is otherwise hidden'. 27 Of these Aryan languages some are more closely allied than others. The more closely allied languages we arrange m classes which we call Stocks. Then again we subdivide a stock into classes of still more closely allied languages, and these subdivisions we call Branches Let us treat our own language in this fashion. In the first place. It belongs to the Teutonic stock. But many other lan- guages belong to this stock, some of which resemble English more closely than others. Dutch, Flemish, German, Ice- landic, Norwegian, Swedish. Danish, are all of them Teutonic » See Max Mailer's Lectures on the Science of Language, ist series MAR. >hilological ell us that ughed the t up to a ous names y establish U we find ferent lan- ' ' plough,' races have ), plough, been ac- our help ve Aryan ants and )me in a flourish, vhere the agreed to us once or even e closely Jages we again we ly allied is. Let ■st place, :her Ian- English an, Ice- ?eutonic rst series, ^age, II. ARYAN FAAf/rV OF LANGUAGES. 25 languages, but they fall into difTcrent groups. English we said was a Low-German language : so is Dutch ; so is Flemish. It was pointed out that 'Low' and 'High' are geographical terms, signifying that the people of whom they are used lived on the lowlands near the coast, or on the higher ground of the interior. Modern (lerman is a High- German language. Then again the languages of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, form a third group, which we call Scandinavian. The Teutonic stock is thus sub- divided into three branches, viz. Low-German, High-German, and Scandinavian, and it is a full designation of the English language to say that it is a member of the Low-German branch of the Teutonic stock of the Indo-European or Aryan family of languages. We might describe Dutch and Flemish as sister languages of Flnglish, and German and Norwegian as its first-cousins. Another stock of considerable interest to us is the Romanic, or Italic, since to this stock belong the Latin, from which we have borrowed largely, and the modern representatives of the Latin, — Italian, French, Spanish, — Romance languages as they arc called, Romatice because they come from a Roman source. Then again there is the Hellenic or Grecian stock, which is represented by the Modern Greek. The Keltic stock also has peculiar interest for us, because the inhabitants of our island before the arrival of our English forefathers were Kelts, and Keltic dialects are spoken at the present day in parts of Great Britain and Ireland. The Keltic siock falls into two branches, the Cymric and the Gaelic. Under the former head are placed the Welsh language and the Armorican, a dialect spoken in Brittany. The old Cornish, which died out two centuries ago, belonged to rhe same branch. In the Gaelic group are included the native Irish or Erse, the Scotch Gaelic of the Highlands, and the Manx of the Isle of Man. 26 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GR \MMAR, 28. The language brought to this island in the fifth and sixth centuries by our English forefLithers was a pure or unmixed Teutonic speech. An unmixed language in the main it long continued to be. Contributions of words from foreign sources came in slowly at first. On the other hand, although Modern English i^ in its essentials a Teutonic language, it contains a large Italic element, has received considerable additions to its vocabulary from the Hellenic 'source, and possesses a slight Keltic in- gredient, 'i bus four different stocks have contributed to its formation: it is a mixed or composite language: its words have been borrowed from many different sources. 29. Two groups of European languages remain to complete the list of stocks into which the European members of the Aryan family are divided: these are the Slavonic, of wiiich Russian is an important example, and Lettish, which is represented at the present time by dialects in Eastern Prussia. As the name Iitdo-Europcan implies, some of the lan- guages of Asia belong to this family. These languages fall into two groups. One group is the Indian, which includes Sanskrit, a dead language with an important literature ; the modern dialects of India which are sprung from Sanskrit, such as Hindustani, Bengali, and others; and Cingalese, the dialect of Ceylon. The other group is the Iranian or Persian. There are thus eight stocks into which the Aryan or Indo-European family is subdivided, two of them Indian and six European. It must not be supposed from the use of the word 'Indo-European' that all the languages of India and all the languages of Europe belong to the same family. The languages of India we will not discuss in further detail, but it must be borne in mind that the following Euro- pean languages ar<;; not members of this great familv : — Turkish. Hungarian, the language of the Laps ARYAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. 27 in Lapland, the language of the Fins in Finland, and the Bas(iue, spoken in the Pyrenees. 30. Of the other families of languages, the Semitic is the most important. To it belongs Hebrew, in which the greater part of the Old Testament is written, and it contains also Arabic. Besides the Aryan and the Semitic Family, other distinct groups of languages spoken in various parts of the world have been recognised, e.g. the languages of China, of Farther India, of Japan, of South America. Many languages have not yet been studied with the view of tracing their relationships. 31. The Table on the next page shows the relation- ship of some of the principal members of the Indo-Euro- pean or Aryan Family of Languages. The names of dead languages and dead dialects are printed in italics. 28 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. c c a. rt rt ^ eS t^H •>-* (J •'-; c S S2 o — £ )— 1 (-1 M ^ Indian stock Sanskrit Hindustani Bengali f\ •H tf p c ^ « H •^ g-i^ !2 ►.• C >4 O J §i ilandic wegian eH ish uiish hJ Romanic or Italic stock Latin 1 Romance Language viz. Italian o c o in "S !8 3 3 S hN fe a ti <2 ;i3 o -f; rS e « C .' - a rt r ra rt — >-< d iJi -•2 o O^ ^o^ (^^ \ll_3lal g a h u I \ c is V "S le besides the United States it bids fair to ief commercial t our English t not to rest iild give some and character. ■ will give. fuage, and iage, as we n words are ongly, as a I French or le correct Orthoepy. eal besides lire what is ur English We shall )me of the id look for tich of the sometimes sounds. as well as wrongly. J correct ography. deals with THE DIVISIONS OF GRAMMAR. 33 37. If we are asked, — Are Orthography and Onhoepy essential or necessary parts of Grammar? we may answer in this way : If a language is spoken but not written, as is the case with the languages of savage tribes, its grammar will contain Orthoepy but not Orthography. If a language is a dead language, — if it is written but no longer spoken, — its grammar will contain Orthography, but its Orthoepy will be uncertain or impossible. But either Orthography or Orthoepy a grammar must contain, for a language must be either written or spoken, if we know it at all. 38. After examining the sounds and signs, or letters, of which spoken or written words are composed, we shall pass on to consider words themselves. We shall show that the words contained in the vocabulary of our language may be arranged in classes according to their meaning, as nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc. Then we shall inquire what changes of form, or inflexions, any of these words undergo, and what is the effect of these changes on the meaning of the words. We might also push our investigation further, and discuss the relation of English words to words in other languages, and determine the channel through which they passed into our own. As an example of these different operations, take the word mother: Of this word as it stands by itself, we can say that it is a noun, in the singular number ; that it makes a possessive case singular tnoiher's, and a plural number mothers ; that compounds can be formed from it such as mother-country, and derivatives such as motherly ; that it is connected with, though not borrowed from, the Latin jjiater^ Greek ^-qTrip, German mutter, and so forth. Now that part of grammar in which we treat of words taken sepa- rately, classifying them and considering their origin and form, is called Etymology, and a very important part of the subject it is. 39. But when we speak or write, it is rarely the case that words stand alone in this fashion. It is true that sometimes W. E. G. a « tefli I'll 34 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. they occur thus : for example, we may say ' Mother !' as an exclamation, or if we are asked 'Who gave you that book?' we may answer, * Mother,' which is a short way of saying 'Mother gave it me,' or 'Mother did.' But usually words occur in sentences, and then we can describe what is the relation in which each word in the sentence stands to the rest. The part of grammar which treats of words when they are regarded in their relation to other words,— of words when they form parts of groups of other words,— is called Syntax. So far as Grammar is studied as an Art,— as a subject of practical usefulness to prevent us from making mistakes in speaking or writing,— Syntax is the more important department. But in so far as we study grammar in the spirit of scientific curiosity, for^the sake of learning something about our English tongue, Syntax is of no more importance than Etymology. In the following pages however no attempt has been made to keep the treatment of Etymology rigorously distinct from that of Syntax. For in discussing the forms of words it is often an advantage to deal with their uses when they are related to other words. 40. When we have dealt with the sounds of our speech, the signs or letters which represent them, the words taken separately, and words arranged in sentences, our treatment of the subject will be finished. Recognition is indeed freciuently given to another department of Gram- mar, called Prosody. The aspect of this word must not mislead the reader into thinking that Prosody has to do with prose, for prose is just what Prosody does not deal with. Prosody has to do with Verse, with compositions in metre. Now it is clear that Prosody is not an essential department of grammar, for there might well be a language in which there were no compositions in verse, no metre, and therefore no Prosody. As a fact there is probably no language without metrical compositions of some sort, such as hymns to the gods or chants before going into battle, and if there is metre, then there are principles which regulate the employment of the metre, and these principles constitute Prosody. But there is no necessity for the existence of metrical com- positions in every language. Most of us pass our lives and express our- selves only in prose. We may conceive that an entire nation expressed itself only in prose, and had never expressed itself in anything else. THE DIVISIONS OF GRAMMAR. 35 But as suor as a language presents us with compositions in metre, Prosody bee )mes possible. And most languages do contain composi- tions in metre amongst their oldest literary possessions. This is natur- ally the case, since verse is easier to recollect than prose, and is often better worth recollecting. Consequently, in an early age verse is handed down, while prose perishes. The common blunder must be avoided of supposing that rhyme is the same thing as verse, or that poetry is the same thing as either. Verse is the name applied to the arrangement of words in metre. In modern English verse, this arrangement is such as to allow the accent, or stress of the voice, to fall at regular intervals, like the beats in music. This regular recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables is called rhythm. A study of metres helps us to appreciate and enjoy the skill which our poets have shown in devising varied and appropriate measures for their verse. But the adequate discussion of this subject would occupy too much space in our book. Moreover, as grammarians we are con- cerned not with the effective use of language but with its correct use. Questions of style are appropriate to treatises on Composition or Rhetoric rather than to a treatise on Grammar, and the metrical arrangement of words is a matter of style. 41. It will be convenient if we bring together the chief results which we have reached in this chapter. Grammar has sometimes been desc: bed as the Art of speaking and writing correctly. But people may possess the Art of correctly using their own language without having any knowledge of grammar. We define it therefore as the Science which treats of words and their correct use. It contains the following departments, — Orthoepy, Or- thography, Etymology, and Syntax. Orthoepy deals with the correct pronunciation of words. Orthography deals with the correct spelling or writing of words. Etymology deals with the classification of words, their derivation and inflexion. Syntax deals with the combination of words in sentences, their government, agreement, and Jl h^fl 3—2 CHAPTER V. Elementary Sounds in English. 42. We have assumed that the English dictionary contains 100,000 diftcrent significant sounds or words, five or six thousand of which are in use as the vocabulary of the average well-educated man. These different sounds are composed of a very limited number of simple or elemen- tary sounds. Just as chemistry teaches us that out of sixty-three elements are formed th»„ boundless varieties of substances, which nature and man's art present to us, so an examination of the sounds which we utter in pro nouncing English words shows us that they are made by combining about forty sounds which are simple or elemen- tary. Take, for example, the words bat and but. Each word contains three simple sounds in combination, but two of the simple sounds, b and /, are the same in each. 43. Vowels and Consonants. Our first business will be to ascertain the dififerent sorts of sounds which we make in speaking. The ;y, not grammar. Our business is to distinguish the sounds when produced, not to determine 'he mode of their production. 45. Classification of Consonantal Sounds. Let us now take the consonantal sounds and consider some broad distinctions between them. Compare the four sounds ot d\ t\ dh\ th\ as represented in the words din, tin, thine^ thin, remembering, as before, to make these sounds by beginning to utter the words and stopping short before the vowel is reached. Now in these four sounds, there are two important distinctions to be noticed : 46. Sonants and Surds, (i) In the first place, if we compare d' with f and dh' with ///', we shall observe that although the d' and dh' are not audible at the ordinary pitch of the voice, still they can be just heard, if an effort is made, while the /' and th' are scarcely to be heard at all. The same contrast may be noticed in other pairs of sounds : ^, if pronounced when isolated from its vowel, is audible, k is less so. The sound of f in jest is audible when it stands alone; ch' in chest is less so. The sound of b' is just audible ; /' is almost silent. Various names have been used to express this distinction. Some writers call one set of sounds Hard and the other Soft; others call one set Sharp and the other Flat. Let us compare once more ^' and f and ask ourselves which is hard and which is soft, which is sharp and which is flat. If it strikes us that the application of these metaphors is obvious, — if these terms at once convey their appropriate meaning to our minds, — by all means let us continue to make use of them. Possibly however we may not be struck by the suitability of the 40 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. epithets, and in that case the old words Sonant and Surd will express the difference more plainly for us. Sonant means sounding, surd means noiseless. Supposing that we fail to see the fiiness of calhng / hard or sharp and b soft or flat, we can see the fitne.,s of calling/ surd and ^sonant, for we have only to pronounce both letters and observe which of the two we can hear most of. By continu- ing the experiment, we can distribute all the sonants and surds in their right classes, and this is a much better plan than learning the lists by heart and then putting the wrons names at the top. If we pronounce gj, d,% dh, ., ./,, ^, without an accompanying vowel, we can hear them These we call sonants. If we pronounce their correlatives k, ch A A th, s, sh,f, without a vowel, they are almost inaudible Inese we call surds. To make this distinction clear, we will give these pairs of sounds in two columns with a word to illustrate e^.ch. They are variously distinguished as— Sonants. Flat. Soft, Voiced. Surds. Sharp. Hard. Breathed. g^ h dh, zh, gat, gate do bin jest thine maze azure, pleasure vat (wanting) th, S/ly cat, Kate to pin chest thin mace shine, sure fat hat Now let us return to our four sounds d, t, dk, ih, and observe what other distinction can be drawn between them, besides the distinction of sonant and surd. 47 Mutes and Spirants. (2) The sounds d and / are sudden, abrupt, instantaneous, explosive: it is impossible ELEMENTARY SOUNDS IN ENGLISH. 41 to prolong them. The sounds dh, th (as in thine and thin^ for we often make the sound of dhy though we never use this sign for it) are continuous : they can be prolonged if we keep on breathing. Hence they are called Spirants, (from the Latin spiro, 'I breathe.') Such letters as d, t, p, b, g, k, are called Mutes, because the sounds are silenced with a sudden halt. From the same circumstance they are also called Checks, or Explosives. Grammarians have exer- cised much ingenuity in finding a variety of terms to express the same distinction, thereby rendering the matter more difficult than it naturally is. We will now make a second list of consonantal sounds, classified according as they are Mutes or Spirants : Mutes, Checks, Stops, Explosives. Spirants, Breaths, Continuous. g, k, d, t, i>,p,j, ch Vyf, zh, s/i, z, s, d/i, t/i, h 48. The sounds /, w, «, r, and ng (as in sing^ are called Liquids, or 'flowing' sounds. A few other terms aic: applied to differences in the clas- sification of consonantal sounds. The letters / and r are called Trills, because there is a vibration in the sounds, 01 in some part of the vocal apparatus by which we pronounce them. Roll out an r as a Frenchman does, rrrr, and this will be recognised at once. Sibilants are hissing sounds. They can be picked out easily from among the spirants ; they are 5, 0, sh^ zh. 49. Classification of Consonantal Sounds according to Vocal Organs. These consonantal sounds may be classified on quite a different method. Hitherto we have dealt with them according to their characteristic difierences as sounds. But it is customary also to arrange them ac- cording to the part of the vocal organism chiefly concerned in their production. Consider the various parts of the apparatus by which sounds are produced. These are lips, teeth, tongue, roof of the mouth, throat, and nose, and from the Latin equivalents of these names we form adjectives and speak of labials, or lip-letters, dentals, or teeth-letters, Unguals, or tongue-letters, palatals, or roof of-the-mouth letters, gut- turals^ or throat-letters, and nasals, or nnsp-lfitfftr?;. To nhvsioHfrififo I 42 ELEMENTS OJF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. p, b, f, V. t, d, th, dh 1, r. j, ch. g.. k, h. m, n, ng. this classification is of more importance than it is to grammarians, but it is a matter of some interest to observe how the different vocal organs are brought into play in varying degrees in the pronunciation of different sounds. We must not expect to find some sounds made entirely by one organ and other sounds made entirely by another,— some all tongue and others all teeth. Tongue and teeth may frequently combine in such a fashion as to render it difficult to say whether the sounds are to be put down as linguals or as dentals. However, some sort of rough classifica- tion may be made on this physiological principle. An indication of it is given here, not with the object that the student shall learn it by heart, but in order that he may test each sound under its proper heading for himself, and observe how the organ of the voice from which it derives its class-name is brought into play in its production. Lip-letters, Labials . . Teeth-letters, Dentals Tongue-letters, Linguals Roof-of-mouth-letters, Palatii Throat-letters, Gutturals Nose-letters, Nasals . 50. Besides vowels and consonants there are two classes of sounds called semi- vow els and diphthongs. Semi-vowels. These are la and y. Pronounce a word beginning with a w followed by a vowel, such as wii or 7vet, and let the voice dwell upon the w. In the sound given to the w you may delect a close resemblance to the vowel-sound of oo in cool or of u in rude. Try the pronunciation slowly of oo-it, oo-et; then increase the speed as you repeat the word, and you will find that you are saying ivit, wet. Again, take a word beginning with a y, such as yes, pronounce it slowly, and you will recognise in the sound of its first letter the long e sound oi feed. If we listen carefully to a person who gives us a hesitating ' yes ' in reply to a question, we shall hear that he says ee-es. In such cases as these, when w and y stand at the beginning of words, the vowel-sound glides -->,to a closely allied con- sonantal sound. When w and y cur after other vowels, they help sometimes to represent pure vowel-sounds, as in draw^ dray, and sometimes to express diphthongs, as in ELEMENTARY SOUNDS IN ENGLISH. 43 how, buy ; that is to say, a pure vowel-sound or a diphthongal sound is given to the combination, but the w and y have contributed nothing as sounds to the result. The w is. not sounded in draw nor the y in dray : these letters merely indicate which of the sounds of the over-worked vowel sign a is intended in each case. The sound of 02u in //ow is a blend, not of 0-^ w, but oi + u, as in house : the sound of uy in buy is no blend of 11 ■¥y or of anything resembling these vowels; it is the same sound as the sound of /in bittdy a blend of the a in father with the / in pin. It must be borne in mind throughout this chapter that it is the sounds in English which we are classifying and not the signs or letters : sounds which are identical with other sounds are not to be regarded as distinct because they happen to be represented by entirely different signs. 51. Diphthongs are blends or combinations of two vowel-sounds which are run together in pronun- ciation. At this point great care is needed not to be misled by the diphthongs of print, cs, ce, neither of which, in our English pronunciation, is a true diphthong at all. The cz of Cczsar is no diphthong in sound ; it is the pure vowel long e. So is the (b in fa;iid. The ai in fair, ea in kad, ie in field, ei in receive, are none of them true diph- thongs ; they are only more or less clumsy ways of showing the length of an elementary vowel-sound. The true diph- thongs in English, those in which two vowel-sounds are run into one, are four, or perhaps five, in number, viz. / in fiiie = « (in father) -f / ( i n pin\ oi in noise =a {in fa/I) +e (in feed), ou in house = a i^n father) -<- u (in put), u in mute = i (in //;/) -1- 00 (in coot). These are true blends, and to them is sometimes added as a fifth the broader form of/ in fine, viz. the / oi aye, when 44 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. it is said 'The Ayes have it.' In a drawling pronunciation it is jiossible to detect tlie elementary vowel-sounds which form the diphthongal blend. An imi)erfectly educated per- son will say ' What a bee-utifiil na-ice ha-use ! ' in such a way that we can actually recognise the component parts of the diphthongs as they tumble to pieces. It should be specially observed that though the i in pine is a single letter, it is diphthongal in sound, and the same is true of the u in mute. Most of these diphthongal sounds can be repre- sented in other ways. Thus oi is expressed by oy in boy^ by uoy in buoy. Ow is frequently used instead of on. Ew {few), ui {suit), ue {hue), eau {beauty) are various ways of representing the diphthongal u. 52. The enumeration of the different kinds of sounds which we make in pronouncing English Vv^ords is now complete. We will close this chapter with a classified list of those sounds which are simple or elementary, i.e. which cannot be resolved into component parts. I. Vowels. Of these we have in English fifteen, though there are only five letters with which to represent them. The following words illustrate the pure elementary vowel-sounds in English : Six a sounds : fat, fate, father, fall, fare, want. Two e sounds : fed, feed. One / sound : pin. Two sounds : tiot, note. Four u sounds : but, pull, fur, fool. II. Consonants. 1. Mutes or Explosives : g, k, d, t, b,p. 2. Spirants or Continuous : h, z, s, zh, sh, dh, th, v,f. 3. Liquids : /, m, n, r, ng. A reference to the list of Sonants and Surds on p. 40, or to the list of Mutes and Spirants on p. 41, will show that ELEMENTARY SOUNDS IN ENGLISH. 45 we nave there enumerated seventeen sounds, while here, under the two heads of Mutes and Spirants, we have enumerated only fifteen. The reason for the discrepancy is this. We are now enumerating only the simple or elementary sounds, and ch and/ must be rejected from the list as compounds. Ch, pronounced as in church, =^t-\-sh, tshurtsh, andy, as m jest, = d+ zh, dzhest. The objection may be urged -that we have inserted in our list of simple sounds other sounds represented by two letters, zh in azure, sh in shiiie, dh in thine, th in thin. But in reply we must say once again that we are discussing sounds and not our way of writing them. The sound of z in azure is different from the sound of z in zebra. To mark that difference we have written it zh, but it is not a com- pound oi z + h; \\. \% really an elementary sound. The same remark is true of the sh in shine. We have no single letter or symbol to express it, but we ought to have such a symbol, for the sound is elementary. The sounds of dh in thine and of /// in thin are different, but they are both of them elementary: they are not compounds oi d+h and of t + h; we need a separate letter for each, but we do not possess such a letter for either. % III. Semi-vowels. The letters w and y, when a vowel comes immediately after them in the same syllable, represent sounds which are almost consonantal. IV. Diphthongs. We saw that a diphthong was a blend or combination of two simple vowel-sounds which run into one. Now it seems a curious thing that gramma- rians, setting out to give a list of the simple or elementary sounds in the language, should include in their list diph- thongal sounds which they tell us are compounds or mixtures. We should be surprised, if a writer on chemistry added to his enumeration of elementary substances air, IT""" 46 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. water, earth, and coal-gas. We should raise the objection that these can be broken up into constituent parts, and that they are therefore not entitled to a place among elementary substances at all. But custom is too strong for us in the matter of the diphthongs, and we set them down in our list of elementary sounds, adding the proviso that they have no business to be there. We saw that there are these four, the sound of / in fine, oi in noise, ou in house, and u in mute, to which is sometimes added the broader form of the / m fine, viz. the / in aye, or the provincial pronunciation of the / in fine, which we hear from uneducated people who talk of a 'faine taime.' We are under no obligation however to recognise mispronunciations of vowels and to add these to our list. It is only in the word aye, as in the phrase 'The Ayes have it', thqt this broad sound is uttered in any word by people who can be said to speak correctly. The following statement gives the results in a slightly different form : Elementary or Simple Sounds in English are /is Vowels, viz. da, 2e, i /, 20, 4 «. \ 20 Con- ( Sonants, g, d, b, dh, z, zh, v. \ Surds, h, k, t, p, th, s, sh,f. ng. sonants J ":""7' "' "' ''-^' '""^ \ Liquids, /, m, n, r, To which the usage of grammarians constrains us to add, 2 Semi-Vowels, w, y. 5 Diphthongs, /, ai, oi, ou, eu. This table gives us 15 vowels and 20 consonants, making a total of 35 simple indivisible sounds in English. If we add the two semi-vowels to the list, there are 37 such sounds. If to these we add the five diph- thongal sounds, there are 42. Most writers on the subject state the number of simple sounds as 42 or 43, though there are slight differences in the lists. Thus some writers ELEMENTARY SOUNDS IN ENGLISH. 47 omit the ng sound in king, which has been inserted above. On the other hand, we have left out the sound of wh in what. With regard to this sound, it should be noticed that when the aspirate is sounded, as it is by Scotchmen and Irishmen, and as it ought to be by everybody, the aspirate comes before the w and not after it, and in this order the letters used to be written in Old English, hwat and not what. If this is regarded as a simple and not as a com- pound sound, it must be added to the list. 53, If we run over the letters of the alphabet, we shall see that some of them find no place in our classification. The following letters are absent from the list :— c, q, j, x. Why is this ? The letter c\% absent because it represents no sound in English not already represented by k, s, or sh. Cat is pronounced precisely as kat would be pronounced, city as sity, special as speshaL Thus the letter c is superfluous. The letter q occurs only before u and, in combination with it, represents the sound oi k + w, a compound, as in queen, or, more rarely, the simple sound of k, as in quay, cheque. For a different reason we reject the other two letters. They do not stand for simple or elementary sounds at all, but represent compounds. So j is a combination oi d+zh, ^ k + s in excel, or oi g + z \n exert. j> >> >> Notice that not only can these sounds be represented by a combination of letters, but they ought to be represented thus. For it is the business of the alphabet to furnish us with separate signs for simple sounds but not for compound sounds. There is no more reason why we should have a shorthand symbol in one letter to express k + s than there is reason v,hy the alphabet should supply s 1 il ll 4S ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. us with a shorthand symbol for and. Such a symbol we do indeed possess in the form &, but we do not regard this symbol as a letter of the alphabet, and nobody but an American humourist would employ it in spelling other words, writing *h&some' for handsome and *underst&' for under- stand. The like criticism applies to the compound sound rei)resented 1 y/ The objection may be raised that, if ^ is rejected because it can be represented by /^4-^, we ought to get rid of/ because it can be represented by/ + //, and tiiat we might spell //"^, phiphe, just as we ?>\}€i\ philosophy with ^ph. But the cases are quite different. The sound of/ is not a compound oi p + h. It is a sin)ple sound, and it is entitled to a separate letter. It is the use of the ph for / which is open to censure from the alphabetical stand-point. We use the /// because the words containing it come from the Greek, but if we spelt according to sound, the ph would disappear, and we should write filosofy instead oi philosophy. 64. The following points connected with the subject of sounds in English deserve attention: (i) Two mutes of unequal degrees of sharpness and flatness cannot be sounded together in the same syllable; or, if we employ the terms which we saw reason to prefer, a sonant and a surd in juxtaposition cannot be pronounced in the same syllable. We may write them together, but to sound them both as they are written is impossible. It is important to notice this, because sonants and surds often are thus written together, when we form the plurals of nouns or the past tenses of verbs. The ordinary way of making plurals is to add -s to the singular. Now J is a surd mute. Add j to a noun ending in a surd sound, e.g. pat, and the result can be pronounced as it is written, pats. But add s to a noun ending in a sonant sound, e.g. pad, and the result cannot be pronounced as it is written, pads. What we do pronounce is padz, two sonants. We naturally make the ending s give way and turn it into z, instead of preserving the s and changing the last letter of the word into /, as this latter course would alter the meaning of the noun. If we try the experiment with other nouns ending in sonant letters, e.g. hog, slab, v.'e shall find that it is beyond our power to keep the sound of the g or b and at the same time to give its proper sound to the tinal s. We must say either hogz, slabz, or hocks, slaps. The same principle is seen ELEMENTARY SOUNDS IN ENGLISH. 49 at work in the past tense of verbs when an ed is added to the present. Take the word walk and add ed: >t is a siud sound, d is a sonant. One or other of the sounds must give way, if we pronounce them in the same syllable. The d gives way, otherwise the root itself would be changed, and we pronounce the past tense as if it were written with a suid /, rvalkt. The same thing happens with such words as slap, hiss, ctijO\ in which we write slapped, hissed, cuffed, but give these forms the sound of slapt, hissl, ctifft. (2) Our natural laziness induces us to save trouble in the pronuncia- tion of sounds. Accordingly we find — i. Ti.at sounds which involve a good deal of efTort in their utter- ance tend to disajipear from words. Thus if was formerly gif, day was daeg, godly was godlic. We no longer sound the gh in light and similar words, though we continue to write it. Many words wliich now begin with a^ began in old English with ^ g. Again, words have in many instances lost a syllable, sometimes at the beginning, sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the end. If we compare bishop with episcopal, we see that the word has been shorn of its initials: s,o diamond i^ adamant without the initial a: bus is omnibus after a double decapitation. Palsy is the same as paralysis with the -ra- dropped out: proxy is procuracy in reduced circumstances. Examples of the tendency to cut words down at the end occur in cab, which used to be cabriolet, in miss, which is a curtailed form of mistress, and in consols, \s\\\c\i represents consolidated stocks. School slang supplies illustrations of the same process of abridgment in the words exam for examination, trans and con for translation and construe. ii. But, curiously, letters have in some cases crept into words, apparently to render the pronunciation easier. If we compare with the Latin numerus, tener, camera, the English number, tender, chamber, we notice the insertion of a ^ or a 'ty .. liberty. In nuKiern English the tendency is to throw the accent near the beginning of the word, but this tendency is counleracled. sometimes by our desiie to lay the stress on the root of the wortl rather than on a mere prefix, ami sometimes by foreign inlluence, many French and Latin words prcservmg their own accentuation. The accent rarely goes further back than the thirtl syllable from the entl ot the woril ; when it guc further back than this there is a secondary accent, an echo of the tirst, as in tthnporary, hctiroddx, heteroj^eneuits ; but usually its [ilace is on the third syllable from the end, as in ,vi<'Vc;^% extnivagant, miscc//d/i,L>//s, inioniprchiiisiblc. We do nol throw the accent as f;ir back as we might in disorder, interference., liivcrsion, and many similar words, perhaps because we wish to lay stress on the important part of the word and not on its prefix; but no general prmciple can be slated respecting our usa^^o in this matter. '1 here is no ct)nsistency in our practice, lor the accent is carried back to the pretix in these word^, — innocent, controversy, deference. In the loUowing worils the accentuation is due to loreign inlluence; — crusdde, cazaiier, balloon, routine, antique, are l-'renchj robust, mordse, benign, humane, are Latm. The words senator and drator have become thoroughly naturalized, and we lay th." stress on the first syllable, in conformity with the general teiulency of accentuation in English. The less familiar curator and testator preserve the accent which they had in Latin. iMany words in Engli.^h differ in meaning acconling to their accent. There are upwards ot htiy pairs of nouns and verbs like decent and accent, heart and escort, rebel and rebel, in which the noun has the accent on the first syllable, and the verb has it on the last. Almost all these words are of Latin origin. In the words absent and frequent we have verb and adjective distinguished by the accent : in compact ar.d expert noun and adjective are thus di^^linguished. Other examples are given in the Questions at the end of this cliaplcr. ELEMENTARY SOUNDS IN ENGLISH. 51 Questions. 1. Say whether the sounds corrt-sponding to the following letters are (i) sonant or surd, (2) mute or spirant, (3) labial, dental, guttural, or palatal ;—vt, 4 is not the/ sound o{ photograph : it is the/>4 of uphold. The th is not the sound w hich we have in thin : it is the sound which we have in at home. The kh is the Greek x, not the sound of ch in church or loch. The sounds of ph, th, ch, as we pronounce them are not Mutes at all: they are Spirants or Breaths. See Abbott and Seeley's English Lessons, p. 283.] 8. Distinguish the true from the false Diphthongs in the following words:— /a««, noise, new, people, yeoman, build, now, found, eye, clean, rough. ^r: '\% g CHAPTER VI. Signs or Letters. 65. How may our 100,000 words or significant sounds be represented best in writiag? One way would be to have a different symbol or picture for every word, after the fashion of the Chinese. But con- sider how awkward and troublesome such a method of representing our words would be. Think of the burden on the memory of associating even five hundred words with as many distinct pictures. To learn the meaning of five thou- sand such pictures would require years of study. Try to realise our difficulties if, instead of representing numbers by a combmation of the digits o to 9 and by using the device of place, we employed a different symbol for every different number. Our means of numeration would in this case be of a very imperfect character. Now, although roo,ooo distmct sounds may exist in English speech, these distinct sounds are formed by the combination of about forty simple or elementary sounds; and a corresponding number of syn"- bols, or signs, or letters, combined together, will enable us to represent all our existing words and as many additional words as our language may hereafter receive. Suppose that the words gun, rod, were represented by p'ctures, and that a person had never learnt these pictures, or having learnt them had forffottpn th^ir rv,Qo„;r,a. i,„ i^^mUj v.- .. - 1 . <=> ' ...^,c>lI•ilg, liv; WOUiu Dc UL a loss ro understand the sense of a passage in which they occurred. ;i B U\ i ' ■ '■ ! 54 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. But when he has once learnt the meaning of the signs ^, u, «, r, o^ d, he can combine them so as to represent these words, or can interi)ret tlie words when he sees them in print, as rapidly as he can write down the sign for three- hundred-and-twenty-seven, or recognise the meaning of 327, when he has once mastered the use of figures. 56. We saw in the preceding chapter that in pronounc- ing EngHsh words we make use of 15 distinct simple or elementary vowel sounds and of 20 simple or elementary consonantal sounds. To these we adtled the two semi- vowel sounds and, out of respect for the opinions of other writers, five diphthongal blends, making a total of 42 sounds for which we require 42 signs. If we had a perfect alphabet, it would fulfil these two conditions : 1. Every simple or elementary sound would have a separate sign : 2. No such sound would have more than one sign. And then, if we always used our perfect alphabet con- sistently and employed its proper sign for each of these sounds, it would be as easy a matter to spell a word when we had learnt our ali)habet, as it is to write down a number when we have learnt the use of figures. Such a system of spelling would be phonetic, that is, spelling according to the sound. Our spelling is far from being phonetic. The chief cause of this is the imperfect aature of our alphabet. We ^aw that of the twenty-six letters which it conutins, four are useless, c, J, q, and x, so our twenty-six letters are reduced to twenty-two, ty means of which we have to express forty-two simple sounds. The alphabet is open to the twofold criticism that it is (i) Deficient, to the extent of nearly half the requisite number of letters, and (2) Redundant, in possessing four letters which are of no use. S/G/VS OR LETTERS. 55 The deficiency is best seen in the vowels, of which we enumeiated fifteen : these are represented by five signs, so ten signs are lacking under this head. Of the twenty ele- mentary consonantal sounds, five are without corresponding separate signs,-.^/^ sh, dh, th, ng. This brings up the deficiency to fifteen. If signs are supi)lied for the five diphthongal sounds, the total number of new letters which we should retjuire amounts to twenty. We saw that the available signs in our present alphabet are twenty-two in number. Add to these the twenty signs which are wanting, and we obiain a perfect alpliabet of forty-two letters with which to represent the forty-two simple sounds in our language. 67. A phonetic system would be of immense --1 vantage in saving the tmie which we spend clming our early life in learning liow to spell lo master an alphabet of forty-two letters would of course take longer than to master an alphabet of twcnly-six letters. But the alphabet once learnt, mistakes in spelling would be almost as rare as mistakes are now m writing down numbers. Spelling-books and dictation would be almost unnecessary. This is what we should gain by adopting the system. The drawback to the introduction of the system would be this, that our printed books would be out of date. To the generation which had learnt the new system, our existing literature would be un- intelligible until It was reiirintcd according to the reformed method. Ins disadvantage would nut however be very serious. Ail the books which are worth reading by the ordinary man might be printed in the revised version at a small cost, and the student who used our present libraries of English works for purposes of resea-ch would soon over- come the difliculties of our present spelling well enough to read existing books. ** But the system stands no chance of being adopted because of two obstacles m the way. (i) People who have learnt our present mode of spelling will never consent to begin reading over again with a new ABC at middle-age. And (ii) a uniform pronunciation must be adopted throughout the country before a phonetic system can be introduced. If a Lancashire man reverses the vowel sounds in put and butter and spells phonetically, the words put and butter would be written with their vowels reversed in the north and in the south of England. On the other hand, if these words are written in the same way throughout the country while the pronunciation varies in different parts, the spelling is no longer phonetic. ill i '■ ' ■ 56 E1.F.MENTS OF ENGLTSH GRAMMAR, It is sometimes urged as an objcclion ajrainst a phonetic mode of spolliiii;, tliat the t-tymoloj^y, or dorivation, of many words would he ohscmi'il l)y its ado|)lion; tliat tiie word city, for example, if spelt siti^ would fail to sni^gest to our minds the I>atin ci7>itas ami its train of cnnohlinj; assoi i;vtions. Hut lliis line of olijcction seems a little in- sinnre and ]H'(lanlic. To the student of iMiijlish, reflexion and reseaieh would reveal the meaniu}^ of llie word however it might he si>ell, and as for the ordinary man, we may be quite sure that when he goes uj) It) town in his omnibus he is thinking of l!ie C'ily in (juite other connexions than its ennoiiling associations with the I-atin civitas. It is urged again that a phonetic system would obscure woriis pro- nounced alike but written dillcrenlly, such as chord, cord ; pear, fair, fare; hair, hare, and so on. Ihit this seems a somewhat childish objection. /A'.r and post have various meanings, but the context shows us which is the right one, and if we can understand a man who uses the word luirc in conversation, without his stopjung to explain that he means an animal, no one but a person i)f ]iains- taking stupidity would fnul any and)iguity in the word when he met with it in print. 58. As otir alphabet is defective to the extent of twenty out of the forty-two letteis which it ought to contain, extra duty has to he peilbrined iiy some of the twenty-two avaihible letters. Thus to show that a vowel is long or short, various devices are employed, which arc called ortli(h grapJtical iwptu/icfi/s. We show that a vowel is long — 1, by adding a nnite c at the end of the word ; a^ !^ati\ rote, site. 2, by inserting an a alter the vowel, as fic\ough, by no means exhaust the list of various sounds. "* ' Of the English alphabet we may therefore say that it is (i) Defective, (2) Redundant, and (3) Inconsistent. 60. Why is English spelling so difficult ? 1. Because the alphabet is defective, and its defici- encies are supplied by ditTerent devices in different words. 2. Because our spelling has been pretty well fixed for nearly three hundred years, since the translation of the Bible in James I.'s reign supplied a standaid of orthography throughout the country, whilst the pronunciation has probably changed largely in the interval. 3. Because our words have come to us from Jp ■ 58 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. n any sources, and we have kept the si)elling which they had in the languages from which we took them but have given the words an EngUsh pronunciation. Thus we spell city with a c, not with an s, because it comes from civitas; ///iloso///y with a ph and not with an /, ^//emistry with a ch and not with a k, because of their Greek origin ; virtuals has a c because of the Latin vidus, from vivo ; dou^t has a b because of the Latin dubito\ syntax ixom the Greek would be obscured in the guise of sintaks, and phlegm would be changed from its original beyond recognition if we wrote ity/tv//. 6L Where did our English alphabet come from, and how did we get it ? Our alphabet came from the Latin alphabet, the Latin from the Greek, and the Greek from the Phoenician. During the Roman occupation of Britain, the Britons picked up the Latin alphabet, and the English learnt it from the Britons. Before their migration to tiiis country the English had an alphabet which was in use among the Teutonic tribes, called Runic. Inscriptions containing these runes still exist on stones and crosses in Norway and Sweden, in the north of England and in parts of Scotland. When the English settlers adopted the Roman alphabet they preserved two of their own runes, the letters called wen and thorn. Wen or w was written p; thorn or th and dh was written ]) and afterwards 5. The letters w and th took their place after the Norman Conquest. The word the would in Old English characters be written y. Hence has arisen the notion that in Old English it was written y" or ye and so pronounced. People who devise programmes for foncy fairs, in what they conceive to be the Early English style, have the idea that the frequent use ol y for the and the addition of an e at the end of every word which ends in a consonant will convert 19th century Eng- S/GJVS OR LETTERS. 59 lish into 9th century English. But this is a mistake. Our forefathers said the as we say it, though they wrote it with a single sign for the th, and correctly so, for the sound is a simple one. The letter j was originally used merely as a different form of i, an i with a tail to it. The sounds which we now represent by i and j were not distinguished by symbol till the 17th century. Rather earlier than this, a distinction was made in the use of the letters u and v so that they re- presented resi)ectively vowel and consonant. The word alphabet comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha, beta. 62. This seems to be a suitable point at which to give an answer to the question,— When are Capital letters to be used ? 1. At the beginning of every sentence. 2. At the beginning of every line in poetry. 3. At the beginning of quoted passages: e.g. He said, " Let us go and see." 4. For Proper names. 5. For the various names of God. 6. For tides of office and officials: — Secretaryship of the Treasury, Lord Chancellor: but capitals are often dis- pensed with in these cases. 7. For the pronoun I. 8. For the interjection O. Questions \. What is meant by Orthography? Point out any orthographical irregularities in the spelling of convey, inveigh-, proceed, precede; sovereign; before, therefore. [To show the inconsistency of spelling convey, inveigh, as we do, give their derivation. They come from 7ieho. How then can the g have any business in inveigh ? Again, proceed and precede contai" the Latin 6o .ILEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. cedo. Why should this be diflerently represented in the two words? Sovereign has Lten spelt thus owing to a mistaken idea that it comes ixovci reign. It should be Ji?&ra«. Therefore ?\\o\\V\\i& therefor.'] 3. Give examples of the different pronunciation of these letters:— i, u, ie, ti, ch. 3. In what other ways do we represent the sounds of a« in haul, xnfond, g in ginger, x in Xenophon, sc in science? 4. Mention words ir which the following letters are written but not sounded :— /, b^ gh, /, /. CHAPTER VII. "PlXYMOLOGy. 63. A language is a collection of articulate and s gnificant sounds. If we listen to a baby, we find that his utterances consist u, sucli sounds as »/-«/.«/, ,.„.„« «»■«», sounds wliicl, are merely poises, like tl,e barking of a tZ Z ."T':"^ °^ " '°'^- S'g"ifi^='"ce, or meaning, they may mdeed have, and the observant mother or nurse Ms' hntH ""Tl"'"' °"' "°'"' ■' """^^ "''^" 'he baby wants has got .t. But to persons outside the family circle these vlrd "T^ ,"" "T "''■'"'"8 "'an the crie. of the farm- si 'na'""" "' ''"''"'^ ^'' ""'■ When the baby to alk „ T'-"", '"""^ "'* '"'* 'h»' he is beginning poinftot ;''t-- J'"' ^P'^^^"' --"-S-these tern' pomt to sounds which are significant and articulate, and such sounds m English form the subject-matter with >vhich we have to deal in English grammar. In our daily lives we commonly use words in connexion with other words to form sentences, but we can consider them by themselves though we do not use them by themselves. The part of |ammar which treats of words taken separately is'called ^iTr^yV " '''" "'""■' '''''' °f ""■■'l^ '^ foxing w^r °, ^ ''"?"" '^ ''^'"^ Sy"'^''- I" dealing with Etymology we shall often find it useful to cross the confines of Syntax. t I 62 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 64. Etymology deals with the classification of words, their derivation, and inflexion. There are various ways of classifying words. In the dictionary we arrange them in alphabetical order; in the speHing-book we arrange them according to their number of syllables. Now as language is employed by us for the expression of our thoughts, and our thoughts are usually expressed in sentences, for the purposes of grammar we shall group the words of the language in classes according to their different functions in the sentences which we form with them to express our meaning. By 'different functions' we mean the special work accomplished by different kinds of words. The function of a pump is to raise water; of a balance to weigh things ; of a noun to serve as a name of things ; of a verb to make assertions about things. Small differ- ences of function may be neglected in the classification of words, (just as we classify a machine as a pump, whether it is a force-pump or a common-pump), but we cannot use- fully reduce the number of classes of words in grammar below eight, and these eight different classes we call the Parts of Speech. 65. The Parts of Speech are the classes into which the words of a language fall, when t'ley are arranged according to their separate functions in a sentence. The following sentence contains eight words, and the part played by every one of the eight is different : "Oh ! and was he in good health yesterday?" Oh is an interjection, a sound expressing sudden feeling. We could omit it from the sentence without disturbing the construction: as the derivation of the name impli.s, it is something 'thrown in.' And is a conjunction: it joins on the words which follow it to the previous sentence. Was is a verb. % iiilii iiTYMOLOGY. ■«-' ^^ - cametunU,ling«//; ' t i"a' ^ ^ '^^' /^ is a preposition : in 'Jill has the force^o/a con- uct^n S ''f '^'"' ''^^^'' >^'" ^^^^' " functions in dilferen SenSs ^n 'S'" ' ^'^ ""^^ ^'^'" ''^^ ^'--"^ in 'ile threw a ./...' i" noun in Tr '" '" '^^^'^'' '' '^ ^ ^-^ = adjective. Once more the vvn "/ . ' '' '" '''"' ^^'"^'"V it is an ^^iany are called. JL;r,;"Mtirr " ""^^ "''^'^^^''^^- ^" are chosen,' where /.«. signif.es 'on ' ' t i, T"r'''""= '" '^'"^ ^^^ were drowned,' where ^^./^il.u il'^ UepT ' IHs 1 " '^^^^^'^^^n 'There is no one /././ thinks yot, m^.l ' S^ ' 1 "^ P'-epo-^Uion: in pronoun with a negative a ached n-h/ ' '^' ^'°'''^ of a rdative you niad.' ^ attached, 1 here is no one za/io does not think Dartf nf"^"'"'?' ' ^'''' ^''" "^^^^ ^° ^^d^^e these eight parts of speech to a smaller number of gronn. T words have been arranged m the follov^:.g1our;.Sions ». Names of Thingo . j^- 11. 111. Expressing Attributes )4 Expressing Relations /5. (7- Nouns. Personal Pronouns. Adjectives. Verbs. Adverbs. Conjunctions, between sentences. ^Propositions, between things. discussmg th.s or any sm„lar scheme in detail. Front the T li i :ili 64 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. purely graiiimaticai point of view, it is more important to notice that some cf the parts of speech are inflected an;' others are not. 68. inflexion is a change in the form of a word to mark a change in its :;neaning. Thus -s m fathers denotes that we are speaking of more than one father-, it is a sign of the plural. iSo -ed in walked denotes that the action occurred formerly : it is a sign of the past tense. Again, -er in taller denotes the presence of a qualify in a greater degree than is implied by tall: it is a sign of comparison. Again, -ess in authoress denotes that the person to whom the name is applied is a female : Jt is a sign of gender. Al] these modifications of form,— j-, ed\ er, m,— are in- flexions. Someiimes we have inflexion without the addition of anything to the word at ali. Man makes its plural men, goose makes geese, drink makes its past tense drank, fall makes fell, by inflexion. There is change of form though nothing has been Iticd. Now applying the possibility of inflexion as a prmciple of division to the parts of speech, we shall find that the two groups are composed thus : 5' 6. Non - Inflexional. Prepositions Conjunctions Interjections. Inflexional. 1. Nouns 2. Adjectives 3. Pronouns 4. Verbs Of adverbs, some are inflected lo mark comparison and others are not. The same remark is true to a smaller extent of adjectives, but our classification is in the main correct. 69. The English language has but few in- flexions. A Roman could say lapidi, lapide : we have to use prepositions and say to a stone, by a stone. A Roman could say amavisset, amarentur : we must employ pronouns JHYMOLOGY. (,. and auxiliary ve-bs, and say /,e 7m,M /,ave /m;d, tluy would oe lor.d In Old English there was a fair su.„ly oft^ flo .ons but these were in great measure destro'y'ed'by the fus,on of Norman and Englishma,.. The Nor„,a,'co„c,'ero had to learn our vocabulary, but use our grammatical forms he would not. We po.nted „ot in an earlier ^ ,1 that though , ur English vocabulary contains twice as n.any Laun words as nafve words, we u,. fo.r or five of thu atter for one of the farmer in ou. ever.daj peech sit^ce pronZt T"" "'■ "^^"'^°=^"^ '" -'-^^ sentence ''ud SEn 1,^'h °"'"""'°"^' »'^ J ^"-'■''''•■■y verbs, are exclusively no, ^; p "^''-•"^'"8 °" '^ngU'-'ge as tn Engl sh and not as a Romance language. We now see that the.e is a nearly all of the survivu j mflexions, which constitute an A language like ours which has but few inflexions is harzr T' ""''^*''=- ^ '^"•''"^«^ """^ ^a"" "I -" IS an imr ^ '"°"' u '"'"'^ ^y'hetic. The distinction nflexZI '"' ?,'■ ''"' "'^ '"'"^ inflexional and non- innexional would express it equally well and convey the proper meanmg to ,ur minds at once. 70. The sum-total of the inflexioi s which the words in a language undergo const! .tes its Ac- F,„r?*' ^f ''^f ^ i= """^ narrower in its n,eanin_- than Etymology. Accidence, (from Latm <,.««-,«, ',o happen') comprises the hanges of form whi< , happen to wordi' E ymology deals w.h these ch nges of form and also '^'tn the classihcation and derivation of words. Eng- lish grammar has but little accidence, because its inflexions are few, but there is much to be said on the subject of Its etymology. L-J ■ Is 66 ELEMENT OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, The sum-total of the inflexions marking num- ber and case of a noun or pronoun is called its Declension. The sum-total of the inflexions of a verb is called its Conjugation. 71. Before leaving the subject of inncxion, let us note the principal consequences of the loss of our inflexions in English. (i) We employ prepositions in place of case- endings, and auxiliaries instead of inllex ns in verbs. (2) The order of words in a sentence admits of very little variety in modern I-lnglish. Brutus occidit Cacsarem coulil be arranged in six ways : Bnitus kilhd Caesar can be arranged in only one. Why? Because to a Roman the form of the ending would show that Brutus was the subject and Caesarcm the object, whether either word stood fust, second, or third, in the sentence. Thus for purposes of emphasis a Roman was able to vary the order of his words. With us the place of subject and object is fixed. (3) There is nothing in the form of our words to show whether they are one part of speech rather than another. Hence one i)art of speech is often used for another. We can turn a noun into an adjective and talk of an 'iron bar,' or into a verb and say 'Iron the clothes.* We can make adjectives into nouns and speak of our equals^ or betters, or inferiors. We can manufacture adverbs out of other parts of speech and say ' Crack went the whip,' « I am going home,' ' He came safe,' ' He is not a bit surprised.' We also find such expressions as 'But me no buts,' 'Uncle me no uncles,' signifying ' Don't say but to me,' * Don't call me uncle' The sense indeed is plain, but such forms would be impossible in a synthetic or inflexional language like Latin. ETYMOLOGW 67 case- QUESTIONS. phrLsr.:nSr/ '""'' "^ "^^ ^"'^^ •" '^^'ics in the following the /a./ I^IIie;. ^"'^ "'^ Kate-1 forget the past~l forget Get up sua,n-stea,n up the river_A ...a^; tram. them. '*- ""^ '''°'^ i.<-iUcnce to illustrate each use of ^ VVhat is an inflexional language? -sweilVrmpleT"' '"^^ ''^ '""''^^'^^ - ^-^''^h? Illustrate your twothiry„Vt;;:it'ros;T" '"/'^ ^'"^^ °'-^'''-'-^- Underline the which you'consirleasT^Zr"'-"' '"""^ ""^^'''^ '^e two your opinion. important, giving reasons in each case fo. H'. , . 7 — '»—»-c ^umainmp at le and point out in it one example of each. u CHAPTER VIII. Nouns 72. A noun is the name of anything. The word noun is derived from the Latin nomen, which means 'a name.' No sentence can be formed without a noun, or something equivalent to a noun, expressed or imphed, and a verb, also expressed or implied. ' Hirds fly,' ' Politicians wiangled/ are examples of the simplest form of sentence. Each contains a noun which indicates the thing about which the statement is made, and a verb by means of which we make the statement. The word verb is derived from the Latin vcrbum, *a word,' — the word without which the sentence would collapse. But to discuss whether noun or verb is the more essential to a sentence seems as useless as it would be to inquire which of the two blades in a pair of scissors does more of the cutting. Sometimes, no doubt, it looks as if we could have a sentence without a noun or without a verb. When I say 'Go,' the sense is clear. But the noun, or rather its substitute the pronoun, is understood, and in giving an analysis of the sentence we should supply it and say that the subject is You and the predicate ^o. And in older English it was often so supplied, and people said f:.%r,r'rif :;?:•;£ .0 >ha. whe„ I say .The moo,, is round, V„„„,y1 Lme oftrion ' To tlus objccuon the answer may be pven tha. in such ^sTlSe ; 7o ELEMENTS OE ENGLISH GRAMMAR. adjee ive qualifies a noun which is understood. When I say 'The moon L round,' I mean 'The moon is a round moon' or 'a round thing.' Moreover it is only when the adjective is used as a part of the predicate that Ihls ellipsis of the noun is possible. As the subject of a sentence the adjective cannot stand alone. I cannot say ' Round rotates on its axis,' but must say 'A round object rotates on its axis.' In any case it is the noun which is the name of the thing: the adjective marks merely a quality of the thing. 74. Different classes of nouns.— Common and Proper. Compare the words river and Henry. What irnportant difference is there between them? Not this, as is some- times said, that river can be applied to an indefinite number of objects and Henry to only one, for Henry can be applied to an indefinite number of objects also : eight Henrys sat on the throne of England. The dift'erence lies in the fact that, when we use the word river, it has for us a certain uniform sense. The word suggests to our minds the conception of flowing water, bawks, source, ouifall, and so forth. If we found a piece of water in a park and were inclined at first sight to call it a river, but afterwards dis- covered that it contained neither inlet nor outlet and that we could walk all round it, we should say ' This is not a river ; this is a lake.' The word river has a meaning, and its meaning does not suit a stagnant sheet of water. But a person called ' Henry' might equally well have been called 'John,' for the name 'Henry' has no meaning. We say that the Thames is a ' river,' because it has certain qualities which the word river suggests to our minds. But ' Henry ' is merely a mark, arbitrarily set upon a person to dis- tinguish him from other people. Any other mark would have done just as well. And for one reason or another such marks or names are often changed. Thus, Sir Robert Walpole became Earl of Orford. During the greater part of his life he was known by the mark Walpole: ibr the last few years he was known by the mark Orjord. Walpole S n K ai rr ni ai I ^OUJVS. The 71 and Or/ord^r^ names without meaning, so if we once know to whom they are to be attached as n arks, Tr^^l no dtircrence which name we choose for the pu pose If a football club changes its colours, the teom is ndicated '.' "7,""'<- W'>^" Walpole became Orford h wis .nd,cated by a new mark. But if we called a ri eVan elephant' or a 'bedstead,' we should talk nonsense, because pr ent edr"'"'' '" :\° ""^ ^""^"""'^ ^"^ '"e qualitfc n „ e td'a ^ nin/rnd""" ^ 'T' "° ''°"'"' '^°P'^'^ , "'waning and were bestowed upon them because people possessed certain qualities. The orig na Redhead may have got his name from the colour of hi ha>r, he ongmal To„,son from the circumstance that he was the son of Tom. But Redhea.l's posterity perpetuate e ded";*™' ' "7 ""^ "^ "^^-'---d boys or W^ nnmelo e "'hr^' ^'""'°" °' '""^'^ "'^^ ''-■= ''''ken 'he name to enable him to receive a legacy, though his name pressed m grammar by the wor are ahke, or possess some quality in common, whereas a proper noun though it may be applied to severa IbfectT po"' '"" ;° ""' °'^^"^ ''^'^^"^ "-'^ - °«k - possess ««; -juality in common. There are some nouns which contain a meaning but Singular In the n,outl> of a Christian or of a Jew the name God .s a Smgular noun, for Christians and Jews recognise only one God. Wm,uss ,« a .Smgular name, for although the quahty which we call ■ whiten, ss' is found ,n many objects, t,.e <,ual,ty is one and the same. Several nouns present the peculiarity of bemg so,„.times Singular and sometimes Common. If J say -.Sp^x- is inilnit" rime flies, the nouns are Singula : f I say ' This space is n:il III r I > I|i 72 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. larger than that/ * I have seen him several times,' they are Common. The reader will perceive on reflexion that Proper names are really a special class of Singular names. When we make use of a Proper name, we apply it to some particular individual only. But Singular nouns with a meaning are few and hard to find in any language, whilst meaningless Singular nouns are many, and they meet us at every turn. Hence it is that, in a classification of Nouns for the purposes of Grammar, we usually distinguish between Common and Proper nouns, and not between Common and Singular nouns, of which latter kind Proper nouns are a sub-class. We may define these three classes of nouns thus : A Common Noun is one which can be applied to an indefinite number of things in the same sense. A Singular Noun is one which cannot be ap- plied to more than one thing in the same sense. A Proper Noun is a singular name assigned to an individual as a mere distinguishing mark. 75. We may notice that (i) Proper Nouns are some- times used as Common Nouns, and (2) Common nouns are sometimes used as Singular nouns, that is, as names possessing a meaning, but applicable to only one incUvidual. (i) Proper nouns become common in two ways : {a) When they indicate a class resembling the individual denoied by the proper name. *A village Hampden' means a village patriot: of an ill-tempered woman we may say 'She is a regular Xanthippe : ' we may speak of promising young cricketers as 'youthful Graces.' When parsing words thus employed, describe them as proper nouns used as if common. Note however that when m '•*«»«l^'€?s^fl^ NOUNS. 73 we speak of *the Browns' or 'the Smiths,' meaning all the people called 'Brown' or 'Smith,' without implying that they have any common quality besides the possession of the same name, these words, though plural, are still proper. But if we mean by ' the Marl boroughs and Wel- lingtons ' not the people called Marlborough and Wellington, but great soldiers like Marlborough and Wellington, the proper nouns have passed into common nouns. {b) Proper nouns become common also when things are named after the persons or places which bear these names. Atlas, boycott, tnacadam, phaeton, brougham, come from names of persons; cypress, guinea^ worsted, landau, from names of places*. (2) On the other hand a Common noun may be used with such qualifying epithets as to become Singular. 'The last of the Tudors,' 'the present Lord Chancellor,' 'the highest mountain of Europe,' are compound names which can be used correctly of only one object. And even without the qualifying words we sometimes interpret the meaning of common nouns in a restricted sense. A child who says ' Father told me to do this,' narrows the meaning of ' father ' and uses the noun as if it were a singular noun. Similarly, by 'the Queen' we signify Victoria, by 'the Prince,' the Prince of Wales. These words are like Proper nouns in this respect, that they can be applied to only one individual in the same sense : they are unlike them in this respect, that they have a meaning, while Victoria and Albert Edward have none. 11 76. Names of Materials. Nouns denoting certain materials, e.g. mnd, zinc, gold, rice, arsenic, are never found ^ Interesting lists «,, words derived from names of persons and places are given in Meiklejohn's English Language, pp. 138—144, and in 'Tewitt's Manual of Our Mother Tongue, pp. 347—357. 74 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, in the plural : others of precisely similar character occur in the plural, but alwnys in some special sense. Men means more than one man, but tins does not mean more than a certain quantity of tin, nor s//i;ars more than a certain (piantity of sugar. Tt'/is means cases made of tin ; coppers means coins made of copjier ; ironSy fetters made of iron ; slates^ tiles made of slate ; suj^ars, fms, ca/iroes, icines, incan ditferent sorts or varieties of these commodities, and in these plural forms the nouns arc common nouns. 77. A Collective Noun is one which denotes a number of things regarded as forming a whole. Such nouns as mo/>, re}:^iment, flock^ cou^rei^ation. are col- lective. Hoth i>h!ials and collectives denote a number of things : boys, crickdcrSy soldiers^ sailors, are i^lurals. liut collectives denote a number of things taken in the aggregate and viewed as iorniing a single group; sc/iooly team, army, crna, are collectives. Collective nouns are mostly conunon : there are several se//oo/s, teams, armies, crercs. Sometimes however we use them in a restricted sense as applicable to only one object. Thus, if I say *'ihe Queen opened Parliament, ' the common collective noun parliament has its application narrowed down to one assemblv, ji'st as the common noun queen has its api)lication narrowed down to one person. Collective nouns are also called Nouns of Multi- tude, and in using them we sometimes think of the in- dividuals included in the group rather than of the group as a whole. Hence these nouns are found with either singular or plural predieates. We may say ' Parliament was unanimous,' if the thought uppermost in our minds is the assembly as a whole, but we may say ' Parliament were all sixes and sevens,' if we are thinking of the assembly as divided into ditferent parties. NOUNS. 78. Abstract and Concrete Nouns. Consider the qualiiies of the boy sitting opposite. 75 , _ , - . —-o -,,...,.... You say he is handsome or plain, clever or stupid, industrious or lazy, thin or fat, tall or short, and so on. To these qualities we give names and speak of the handsomeness or plainness cleverness or stupidity, etc., of the boy. Not that the quali- ties can actually exist apart from the boy, or from some other subject which possesses them. We cannot separate the boy's stupidity or fatness and say 'There is the boy, and here I have got his stupidity.' But though the quali- ties have no separate and independent existence we can consider them separately. We can abstract our thoughts from the boy's other qualities and can think and speak of his stupidity ; and then, abstracting our atten- tion from the other points ot int.'rest which he presents, we can tlunk and speak of his fatness. The names of the qualities which we isolate from the rest by this process of abstraction are called Abstract Nouns : the names of the things which possess the qualities are called Concrete Nouns. A Concrete Noun is the name of a thing re- garded as possessing attributes. An Abstract Noun is the name of an attribute or quality of a thing. For many ciualities or attributes no abstract names exist If a boy is brown haired or fust man out of the eleven, he has the qualities of brown-hairedness and of first man-out- oi-thc-elevcnness ; but when there is seldom occasion to speak of qualities, such qualities have not received names, especially if the names would be long and awkward. We can speak of sc^uarencss and redness; not of od/ongness and vermilionuess. 79. Many nouns are abstract in one sense and concrete in another. When we say ' His industry ) ; ■'■s. 4i 76 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. % is remarkable,' the word industry is abstract ; it denotes a quality or attribute. But when we say * The cotton industry is carried on in the north,' industry is concrete. We can use it in this latter sense in the plural and speak of * the cotton and iron industries.' Now an abstract noun while it remains abstract cannot be used in the plural. It seems, no doubt, as if it could be so used sometimes. Thus the Prayer-Book has the expression ' negligences and ignor- ances.' But these plurals signify acts or instances of negligence and ignorance, and the words have become con- crete. If we say * Beauty is a perishable gift,' beauty is an abstract noun ; if we say * The baby is a little beauty,' it is concrete. Length is abstract when we speak of 'the length of the course ; ' it is concrete when we say that * Oxford won by two lengths.' 80. Modes of formation of Abstract Nouns. {a) Most abstract nouns are formed from adjectives by adding -ness^ as goodness from good: some are formed by adding -///, as ixwth, slo///, from true, slow : these forms are of English origin. Latin abstract terminations are seen in -ty or -ity, as honesty, stupid/Zy, and in -ce^ as justi^^*, tem- peranrr fenunine no a;. ^' ^ns the Latni for 'mountain is Kiscuhne; res, «a thing,' is fominine; animal, 'an animal' Gabei a fork/ is k . .. ; J/,,,^, .,, knife,' is neuter, i'rench lias no ne uter ; consequently all its nouns are of the masculine . .f the feminine gender. Our English method IS simi Icr a.,.i more rational. '>«,./,„. ,,,„■. ll"nKsass„c,.,lc.,lwill,il,cWc,-.oferace,orollc,i V arc |>c,s„™(,c,i as fcnial.-s, „„,| ,l„.i, ,„„„,, „,,, fi,?„'',°.'"V , ! ,^' or riiclMical, hut n „i,r ordinary nionionls wc ii.,|,l„y ihc ntulcr nrn AKaiu (2) wc oltcn disrcRard the sex when we are speakinir of chil- den an, ,l.e l„wer animals, and use the pronoun /,. SoThe illction of mascuhne and fe,„inine is of very narrow application tn EnKlisI, 2. Another point of contrast between English and I-at.n or German is this. Tl,ese languages possess inflex- ions ntarktng gender in the adjectives : our adjectives have no mllexions of gender, number, or case. We sav good man s„.,J nu.,n„„, good thins. Hence for a foreigner earning Rnghsh there are only two points requiring atten tton tn reference to gender; one, to use the fit^inine form of a noun, where one exists, to denote a fe,>,ale; the other, to use he, she, ,t his, her, its, correctly, according as t.,ese nTur:rn: "'^""^" -^'^^ '° ^ ''^-"'-' ^-'"-. «: 81 Gender is the form of a noun or pronoun iHl I 1 l"? 1 . . . 1. : - ; /t ■ ' • V." i*-,"-'^**-'' % iSi: # \T ^^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 IS I? a 1^ 1^ 2.2 1.4 IIM 1.6 V] cP^ c^ / e". e2 % ^> ^^ /A W Photographic Sciences Corporation m. %< '^ fV^ :\ \ % ^ m ^' 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 87i2-4503 V- So ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, corresponding in English to the sex of the thing named. We have in English three ways of making a distinc- tion in language corresponding to the difference of sex in ihe objects themselves : 1. By Inflexion. 2. By Composition. 3. By using an entirely different word 85. (i) Gender marked by Inflexion. The suf- fixes, i.e. the terminations, or endings, of words indicating gender may be classified thus : r\c r2 V \. • • C "Ster, in spinste*' Of English origm { . . ° ( -en, m vixen ^ -ess, Norman French, countess -trix, Latin, testatrix -ine, Greek, heroine; German, land- gravine -a, Italian or Spanish, signora, in- fanto- Qi Foreign origin I 86. Remarks on these forms. The native English suffixes -ster and -en survive with their feminine force only in the words spinster and vixen. Spinster properly signifies a female spinner, but now means 'an unmarried woman.' In proper names, such as Webster and Brewster (feminines respectively of weaver and brewer) the form still exists, as it does in the words tapster, maltster^ but the signification of the suffix has disappeared. In trickster, yowtg- ster, gamester, it is employed with an idea of depreciation or contempt. So completely has the original force of the ending been lost that to the feminine forms songster and seanister we have added the inflexion -ess^ making songstress and seamstress, words which are open to the twofold objection that they are [a) double-feminines, {b) hybrids, i.e. they con- tain elements borroved from different languages, the original words being of English origin and the suffix -ess coming from the French. In vixen two things are to be noticed : {a) the appearance of fox in the form vox: to this day a Somersetshire labourer uses v in place of/ in many words ; the Authorised Translation of the Bible preserves for ( / h n n INFLEXION OF NOUNS.-/. GENDER. 8i h^lZ^^^Jtt'' T'^^'V''^ "°^" '^^^^ °"^'^d ^y the form rvine-vat. rotTwel ? ^°"\'^-'" d'alect of Engl,sh : (^) the modification of the root vowel from oiot: this is due to Umlaut. See p. 40. Fr.fr'^^" ^."^«>^^--The use of the suffix -ess, borrcnved from the French -m., is the only method of formation which is emplovecrvl en we make a new feminine word at the present A^yTtZuth^^^ ^omen. If we wish to mark the female sex of the persons following these occupations, we must either use compounds and sayl^JX^ :;s - x,"ix;i^ '^^ '-' -^^ -= --Vs- Frequently, when this ending is attached to a word there is on omission of a vowel or of a syllable: ..^. «.,...., i;:^;';";:,;; «.;.- m, ..n-.^.„. AM,ss=aMoU-ss. Duchess comes ffom thf French rtS^oHhis w' ^"^"'"^°^ --V-> or ...;-,..„ is .narch!^! it root of this word occurs m marches, meaning 'boundaries'or 'confines'^ Lord of the Marches: In mistress we have'the feminine o^U^^th the vowel weakened as in the pronunciation of Mr. Tiie femm ne of laJ, laddess, has become lass. 'cminme ot The remaining suffixes do not exemplify A;;^//.^ modes of formation of feminme nouns at all. The words which contain them are borrni^H directly from foreign languages and therefore illust a c no pro e^ss of iln;;lish grammar. piucess 01 87 (2) Gender marked by composition. When we make a new word by joining together two or more existmg words we call the process composition and the resulting word a compound. Thus /..-,..«^ J. sparro7v maid-servant are compounds : each part of the words has a meaning by itself. Compare with these the word authoress, formed from author by adding -ess. Now ^ -ess has a force only when added to another word; by itself It IS without any meaning; it is a mere suffix, not a word we call such a word as authoress a derivative. The distinction marked by these two nrocesse.; nf Tnfl. • matica, p,„ce., b„, w. can bl,g \L IplTL'L^SrhfJZ W. E. G. 6 ^iJH 82 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. four corners of the definition. The remaining method is not a gram- matical process: in such pairs of words as brother, sister', boy, f^rl\ bull, cow, the difference of gender is marked, not by a modification in th. form of one of the words, but by the use of words wholly unconnected with each other. 88. (3) Gender marked by the Use of Different Words. As examples of these correlatives, or pairs of words not grammatically connected, take the following in addition to those given above: — boar^ sow; buck, doe; bullock or steer, heifer ; colt, filly ; drake, duck; earl, countess; drone, queen-bee ; gaffer, gammer ; gander, goose ; hart, roe or hind ; monk, nun ; ram, ewe ; sire, dam ; wizard^ witch ; sloven, slut; bachelor, maid or spinster. These words deserve notice: Drake was once end-rake ; the end was the significant part, meaning duck, as Ente does in German to-day, and the rake was a mere suffix, meaning 'lord' or 'male.' Thus two-thirds of the important part, the root, have been lost, and one-third, a single letter, has been kept, with the whole of the masculine ending. It is as if the word actress were decapitated and reduced to tress. Lord is loaf-ward, 'bread -guardian': lady contains the same root loaf, with possibly the word ^//;^as a compound element, *loaf-kncader.' Gaffer is a corruption of 'grandfather,' gammer of 'grandmother.' Sir = sire = senior; madam = mea dotnina, 'my lady.' Wizard comes to us from the O. French guiscart, ' a very wise man,' not from the English witch, though both words have originally the same root. Wofuan = wife ■\- man, not 'wife ^/" man,' but 'wife-person.' 89. It is evident that in almost all cases the feminine is formed from the masculine. In the following words this order is reversed : Bridegroom, the masculine of bride, was originally bryd-guma, or ' bride's-man,' in German brdiitigam. Guma meant 'a man' in Old English. Gander comes from the same root as goose, the German for which is guns. The d has crept in between the n and the last syllable, as in tender and cinder (Latin tener, cineres). Widower has been formed from widow. I IJ^FLEXION OF NOUNS,^!. GENDER. 83 ;i 1 Questions. /-x, «,r/. • °^'' f "'""''' """•?»". "Won czar, lullan. «' """'""'ed'; it has not ye, pro„?nc"lSrT; W't"f ,L??/ '" T""^' 7, °^- ^« ' ™ ending in a sonant eii hlr fl « ^ '"''' "^ '" ^^'^*^'' »» a word must be altereS Bo h T ' , '"^''T ' ^'^ ^'^^ ^^'' ^'''^' °f 'he noun otherwise it is impo sible to' """' ' '°"u"' °^ '"^'^ must be surd ; Thus we writl r^r. S /It^hT""'" ^^"" "^ ^^^^ ^^"^^ 'y^^^^^^- Podz, ho^r,. To nronom.t: f," ' f '"" P'-onounce these wordJ slaiz, sound oahe.wSrt::^:s^^^3l;:^i.i;r^^ This inflexion in . is a survival of the older form of the plural II. in -es. make thl^plurat'of noun! ' r^' •'*' '^"'^'^ ^^ "^'=^«-"'y retained to to words with Tl ^f'^r l^'^^'r '°""'^- ^°^ if -- -'d ^ have'seen i is an abb eviation of 1 """'h '^ P-""""'^^^' ^^ - - The .:^ of which we speak hi ; 'I Z T^'/"^ '"i " ^^^">' ^"^ '" really a compound o7t^sh\nZ \ ! ° "'''^' '^'^^^' ^"^ '« reducible to three v^z t t S tk 'f"? ^""merated above are takes.. ' ' '' ^' '^'' T^^ ^^ f°""d in the Scotch loch imp:;si.L°Vo"stttT"cotr!;'rf i^'T'if r^"^ '^ ^"^-"^' -^ - Therule,aswehavesta"Sl i^ ..^^ 'Y^ ^°^^' ^" •"^'^"^^s. evade it Thl f 11 ' '^ '■^^^^'" complicated, yet some words or, if short, the/rpr 2ded b„/ On .h"'T "',;'' ',''\™"'=' '= '°"S' *"A», are exception, also: they add ,, though they arc of EnguS 86 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. origin and their vowels are long. Brief, chief, proof take s conform, ably with the rule, as they are not of English origin, but come from the 1-rench. But beef \% exceptional in making beeves, as it is a French word. Wharf dwarf scarf, turf are found with plurals in both forms. fs and ves. 3. There is hardly anything in the nature of an exception to the rule respectmg nouns ending in y. A word like soliloquy, which makes Its plural in les, looks as if it were an exception, but it really follows the rule, for the combination qu has the force oi kiv, which is a consonantal sound. Perhaps the only established exception is flys, meaning carriages, and inn-keepers can scarcely be blamed for refraining from advertising ^ Flies on hire.' Some words in ey are occasionally found with their plural in ies, e.g. monies, but it is better to spell them accord- ing to the rule. 4- With regard to nouns in o, it is difficult to discover any principle which determines whether their plurals are in s or in es. Many of our words m are of Italian origin, and these take s, as do all nouns in io. I he nouns in o which take es are usually of earlier introduction. Car^o, echo, hero, potato, negro, take es'. canto, solo, alto, piano, folio, oratorio. Observation and practice are required to enable us to form the plurals of nouns in/ or in correctly. Rules are of little or no use for the purpose. Still it is our business in dealing with grammar to search out the principles, if such there are, on which the rules are based, although the rules when we get them may be insufficient guides. III. Old English forms, other than es and s, which survive in modern English are i&^. 1. Oxen is the only modern English word which presents us with the form en simply. Chicken is not a plural form, though it is used as such m country districts. Kine is a double plural : cow in Old English modified its vowel to form the plural and became cy, as mouse becomes mice, and the plural inflexion en was also added. Swine however is not the plural of sow. In Old English several neuter nouns of one syllable, such as swtne, sheep, deer, folk, underwent no change of their singular form when they were used in the plural number. 2. Child-er-en is a double plural, the er being one sign of the plural and the en another. No other woid preserves for us the inflexion er with a plural torce. Brethren is a double plural, brother having already modified Its vowel to mark the plural, before en was added. But the •r.xn brethren, unlike the r in children, belongs to the original word, and is not an inflexion. 3. There are only six nouns, in addition to the double forms men- tioned above, which change their vowel to mark the plural: man, foot, tooth, goostt mouse, louse. INFLEXION OF NOUNS -n. NUMBER. 87 nouns from dead languages can now be used with Ssh^lu^l LIT we can ^^y formulas, memorandums, do^rmas as well .«>!, / ^.noran,a, ,o„nata, Chcrulnm and laa^lUml^^J^r^ of babt' '" ''%'"^^"'';?^'^'"''^''"" '''-' - "- these form . ' We s ' ak of babieo as 'plump lutle cherubs,' not 'plump little cherubim 'nnH say of a chorus of girls that they sing 'like LrapL' not 'Sr^^hrm ' The forms cherubnns, seraphims, are double-plurals. seraphim. 93. The following paragraphs contain illustrations of various kinds of anomaly in the number of nouns Anomaly means ' unevenness,' or ' irregularity ' chanie'oTform."" '" ""' '" '"^ ""^' ""•«'"* soJtf 'r^^r'"^, ""™"'Pl« = *''•. ^-i"-/. gr'n.!', th. names of several ular ^°""^ *''''''' ^^^"^ ^'"''^' *""* ^'^ "^"y ^'"- r™if""\'"^°:. ^' "''""■■"'• borrowed through (he Latin from the theSjl:i;e":::;;t°Eng"r'"'"*^ ^''"=" "*"'• "-=•- - "=«' Owing to a mistaken notion respecting the s in *hesf» wnr^c fu are treated as plurals: 'If riches incrL.. s'et n^t y^urtart ^pl'^!^? (3) Some nouns Plural in form are sometimes treated as Singulars. adiea1"e.''Th'; T" ' ''"^"''^ "f"" ^"^ ^ ^'"^ular demonstrative YanZ's i^Thl n] ^^ "/°' ''^'' "°' "^'^^^^ "^^'^ ^^^ '^^t true.' vet ««^j 1, the plural of nc7a just as much as bona, 'goods ' is the np„^ 1 ^ .^'^'^r "^^ '^^^^ the singular in chicken-tock. Yet we never use a plural verb with j;«a//-/^;r. Z' ^- >;ecwe Kin.,!?'^''''^'' T'"' '''"'f '''' ^''''''' ''^''''' ^^^^^•^' are treated sometimes as singular, sometimes as plural. To decide whether we are acting mo« iiiti • [' m i I I 88 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAAfMAR. in accoulance with usage \t we regard them as singular or as plural, we should place a veri) after them and also observe uliether they are more appropriately qualified by this or these, much or many. Does it scnind more natural to say 'This odds is too great,' or These odds are too great ? to say 'Much pains has been taken,' or 'Many pains have been taken '? The usage of different people may vary. Mathcmalics, physics, statics, and several similar words are plural forms taken from Greek adjectives. A century ago they were followed by a verb in the plural, and politics continues to tnke a verb in the plural. Rut, with the exception of the word politics, these nouns are now used as singular words. (4) Some nouns change their meaning in the Plural. Domitto means 'a mask,' dominoes 'a game': z/^/o«r means 'steam,' vapours 'ill-humour': compass 'a mariners compass,' compasses 'instru- ments for measuring': vesper 'c^;tulng: vespers 'evening service': good means 'anything gooii; goods means 'chattels.' (5) A few nouns have two forms of the Plural with different meanings, the ordinary form being plural and the anomalous form having a collective force. ^ Pennies means separate coins, pence is collective: 'Can you give me SIX pennies for this sixpence?' Brother has the collective plural brethren, moaning members of the same community. Vie, 'a stamp,' makes a plural dies, 'stamps,' and a collective dice, 'cubes' used in gambling. C/o.'h makes cloths, si-nifying different kinds or different pieces of cloth, and also clothes, the collection of one's garments. Fish has for its plural /v/,<.j: «The multitude were fed with a i^vf fishes'-, but for Its collective/^//: 'He brought home a large basket of fish.' The word pea has lost the s in the singular by mistake: in the French pots It IS still visible. Bur in its reduced form it has a plural peas, 'This pod contains six peas,' and a collective /^-aj^, as in 'pease pudding.' Index and gettius have different plural forms, neither of which is however collective. Indexes means 'more than one table of contents'- gejimses'moxG than one person of genius.' But indues means certain algebraical signs,' and ^wwV Eastern spirits.' (6) Some nouns have no Plural. This is because their meaning excludes the idea of plurality. We saw that abstract nouns, while they remain abstract, cannot be used in the plural. Many of these nouns do occur in the plural, but they have then ceased to be abstract and have become concrete general names. Observation alone will show us which nouns are used in this double way good rNFLEXION OF NOUm-ll. NUMBER. 89 We nol.cfd also that though the names of many substances or dTSVo^Iionfonh^'^ f ^^' -r'"' ^^^y'^^ ^^^ o finn J Po-^t'ons of the material, there are some names of this descrir>. tion wh.ch custom forbids us to use in this way. GranUe, c' ^ /S always smgular, r^. ^^«^, consumption, rheumatism. (7) Some nouns have no Singular. r^uTT^ T""%'^1"°'*' ^'''"SS composed of separate parts, and the com- plex character of the object makes the plural form appropriate Iv scissors, t7o,ezers, trousers, entrails. ^l propuate. t..g. (8) Plural of Compound nouns. i. When the combination of parts is so complete that we recard the compound as a single word, the sign of the plural is added at hfind of the compound, although the last part of the word may be an adjective when they are taken separately. ^ <'«v«« .,c I!* 1?"\"'^^" 'he fact of composition is brought prominently before grooy/.t/e-c/mmh-rs, the prmcipal noun and not the qualifyin^r ad junct usually takes the inflexion. Our practice however in thi rnat'ter by no means uniform. In spite of the hyphen in .tt^^^^^a/ ofTcaT ar: r ^'^'"'7?""'^''' ""' ^^^o, ..rs-general, though th^t otlicials are not .^v;;^ra/j but attoruevs. Again, /a;-/«/..i„,r1rough te wo.ds are unconnected even by a hyphen. Notice that the '/of he possessive case .s added at the end of the compound word Thus we t:^-::^2:?z:^:r ^-'----^ -^ ^ - -ying i :i^:i:: «,Vn"!;f i" ^ r'^/'^'^ instances, both parts of the compound take the mfv rL ^ J'u"'"^'' '''^«-— '^^' lords.justices, ^nigJ.tem/.taT wl may regard this as apposition. / •>• we iv. In a few instances, in which the noun comes before the adiec tjve^only the noun takes the sign of the plural : ..«...-. J^U'l^^' t^.H* ^?''"' compounded with man form their plural in men, with wifhT^ °;-°^^"'''"'"- ^""'''^ h^^^^^"- 'hat several proper nouns with his ending are not compounds of man at all, and the^r plurals are which T'V" '' .^'""'" P^^hably comes from a Keltic word which s-.gnmes «one who shouts.' Bra/iman, Ottoman, Turcoman Mussulman, are unconnected with man. ^rcoman, 90 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. (9) How shall we form the Plural o({ii) Mis3 Brown, and of (/>) Mr Smith ? (a) We may say (1) The Miss Brmvm, or (a) The Misses Brown, or conceivably, though as a fact we never do say so, (3) The Misses Brmvns, 1 he usual form is the first, 'The Miss BrJ. town towns It is clear that the pronoun Ac is bette'r'off than the noun m its supply of case-inflexions. //., /„,, /„„, Z three genume cases, just as much as url.s, urbis ur'Jn are genume cases. But it is otherwise with tlie noL tZI nomtnanve ,s mdistinguishable in form from ..„,„, objec! or ,ts context, shows its relation. We must not how- ever mterpret our definition too rigorously. If we found ourselves wuhout the means of drawing [he fundamental d s„„ction between subject and object, because of the absence of an nXlexion, oarsing and analysis would be reduced to absurdity. The fact is, the definition suits an mllextona language like Latin much better than it suft" a nonMnflex,onal la„gu.,ge like English. Even in Latin there are many nouns in which the strict application of the Pou th Declension, hke c,n,u, have an inflexion only in the gentfve of the stngular number, «„... ,„ ,,, o.her it^gut forms are the same as the nominative. Yet we si.eak of the accusative, dative, and ablative cases of ..,;„l and in 1 ke manner we speak of the nominative and objective cases of English nouns, though there is but one forr^ to express two relations. 97 The Nominative case is the form of a noun when It stands as subject of a verb ' m town admitted the ct emy : ' « The town was taken.' 94 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. In each of these sentences the subject is town, though in the first sentence town represents the doer of the action, in the second, it stands for the thing to which the action is done. When the noun represents a thing spoken to, we may call its case the Vocative, or the Nominative of Address. ' Waiter ! ' * Come here, John ! ' * O death ! O grave ! ' are examples. The Objective case is the form of a noun when it stands as object of a verb, or follows a preposition. * The enemy took the town : ' ' The enemy are in t/ie town.' Town is said to be in the objective case, in the former sentence because it represents the object which the enemy took, in the latter because it comes after the preposition in. Some verbs take two objects : ' Give fne the tKOok-.' * He told us a story : ' 'She tauglit him music : ' ' Get them a cab: In these sentences, me = to me, us = to us, him = to him, thetn =for them. These words jne, us, him, them, are called Indirect Objects ; book, story, music, cab, are called Direct Objects. Formerly a dative case with distinct in- flexions was used in English to express Indirect Objects, but through the loss of these distinct inflexions the dative case has been merged in the objective, and we need not employ the fiction of such a form in our language at the present day. But we cannot understand the impersonal verbs methoiight, 7?ieseems, unless we remember that the me in these words is a survival of a true dative case. The Possessive Case is the form of a noun when it stands for a thing to which something else belongs or with which it is connected. The King's cro7vn: the King's execution. The noun King assumes the form King's because it stands for a thing {e.g. Charles I. or Louis XVI.) to which a crown belongs, or with which an execution is connected. ; f INFLEXION OF NOUNS.— III. CASE. 95 This relation may be expressed by the inflexion 's or by the preposition of. We may say the King's crown, the Kings execution, or the crown of the King, the execution of the Kng. The form King's is a possessive case : the expres- sion of the King is no case at all, any more than to, from, by, with, in, round the King are cases. The apostrophe before the s is no part of the inflexion or case: it is merely an orthographical device to show that a letter, e, has been thrown out, or turned away. {Apostrophe means * a turning away.') In Wednesday the e is still present : Wednes-day = Wodin's day, 98. Formation of ike Possessive case. —To form the possessive case singular add V. To form the possessive case plural add V if the plural does not already end in s: if it already ends in s, add the apostrophe only. So, sing, town, town's; plur. torvns, towns'. Thus in sound town's, towns, towns' are indistinguishable. But if we add the 's to a singular noun endmg in the singular in an s sound, or sil)ilant, we pronounce the J as a separate syllable: thus actress's is pronounced just like actresses or actresses'. The possessive singular of a noun ending in a sibilant is frequently formed by adding the apostrophe without the -j, in order to avoid the recurrence of the s sound : but no hard and fast rule can be laid down. We say 'Jesus' brothers,' 'Sophocles' tragedies,' 'for goodness' sake,' 'for conscience' sake.' But we more commonly (i) sound the s and (2) write either 'St James's Square,' 'Mr Jones's,' 'St Thomas's Hos- pital, or 'St James' Square,' 'xMr Jones', 'St Thomas' Hospital.' Compound nouns take the possessive inllexion s at the end of the word: son-in-laiv's, man-of-war's. When we use several words to form a name, we put the s after the last, treating the name as a compound word, though it has no place in the vocaljulary as such. Thus we say ' The prime minister of Enoland's residence,' 'I got this at Marshall and .Sncl}^rove's,' ' He is in Price, Waterhouse 6- Co.'s office.' Even nouns in apposition are dealt with in the same fashion. When one noun is used to explain another, it is put in the same case, generally m the same number, and if possible in the same gender. In the ex- pressions Queen Victoria, Turner the baker, the noun Fietona explains queen, and baker explains Ttirner. But when we use these expressions m the possessive case, we almost invariably drop the apposition and convert the two nouns into a compound. We might indeed say 'This IS Victoria's,^ the queen's, crown : ' ' I buy my bread at Turner's, the bakers, shop'; these forms illustrate apposition and are perfectly "ram- 'til ■in i 96 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, matical But as a fact we should all say 'This is Victoria the gueen's crown, I buy my bread at Turner the baker^s shop.' ^ The reader may find the following examples of the declension of nouns of some service in recalling to his mmd the details contained in this section. Nom. Obj. Possess. Norn. Ohj. Possess. Sing. l^lur. ox oxen ox's oxen's Sing. conscience conscience's, Sing. mouse Plur. mice mouse's mice's or conscience' Nom. Obj. Possess. Sing. Nom. Obj. James Possess. Jauifs', or James's Sing. son-in-law son-in-law's Plur. consciences consciences' Plur. sons-in-law sons-in-law's Sing. Henry Vllf. Henry VIU.'s Sing. The last of the barons The last of the barons' 99. Can we always use at pleasure the inflected torm of the possessive in 's or the preposition of} No: a few trials will show that the preposition e^ can always be employed, but that there are narrow limits to he use of. We can say either 'the boy's cap,' or he cap of the boy,' 'the horse's bridle,' or 'the bndle of the horse, 'nat. ., s forces,' or 'the forces of nature,' friendships garland,' or 'the garland of friendship.' But we cannot say, 'the ink's colour,' 'grammar's laws,' 'the kettle s hd,' ' the station's platform.' Speaking generally we may say that the inflected term in s is reserved for the names of living things and of personified objects, though our usage does not entirely conform to tliis principle : we use the form in '. in such phrases as *a year's absence,' 'a month's delay,' thou-h there is no personification to justify these idioms. iNFLEXlON OF NOUNS.— III. CASE. 97 100. I. Old Lnghsh presents us with the possessive form in es but show^ ,1,. !."■ T''f ""^^'""^ ■"">' """^ " "^^'Pf"' 'n determining To discover the — Nominative, put who 7 or «/to; before the verb The enemy took the town.' 'Who took the town .? ' < The ta"ke7p ' : T,:: ;:::.''" ^''^" '^ '^^ ^^"^^^^ • ' ^^^^^ -^ Objective : (^) Direct Object, put wJwm ? or what? before the verb and its subject. ' The enemy took the town. What did the enemy take ? ' ' The town ' {b) Indirect Object, put to or for whom or what? Give me the book.' < What do you give ? ' ' The book • ' this IS the direct object. * To wliom do you give it ? ' * To me.' 'Me' is the indirect object. Possessive, look for the sign of inflexion s. 'i Questions. Tnhn\-;if ^iTu *^^ ""^Z °^ ^^'^ "°"" '" the following sentences •- John killed Thomas. Thomas was killed by John. Thomas the coarh man s brother, was killed by John the gardtner. Thomas' the co.ch' ^^:^:^^^l:^~ call me a friend. .J^t^^, W. £. 0. P'!?r 9S ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, • ^'c J^"'® *^^ possessive case singular and plural, (where the mean- ing of the noun admits a plural), oi goodness, Socrates, Burns, Debenham and Freebody his sister Mary, his sisters Mary and Rose, hero, goose, the Prtnceof Wales, the Duke of Beaufort, child, sheep, footman, Norman, Englishman, ' 4. Give the feminine of songster, marquis, beau ; the masculine of witch, roe, slut; the plural of sheep, sheaf cargo, cameo, 5. How did the termination es or s come to be the usual mark of the plural m English nouns ? Mention other ways of forming the plural, and give examples. Is there anything anomalous in the use of the words brethren, riches, chic ken st [Norman French influence contributed to the general use of es or s for the formation of plurals in English. The sibilant plural suffixes in t'rench, es, s, or z, owe their origin to the accusative plural forms in as, OS, es, or us, of masculine and feminine nouns in Latin. In Old English, nouns had several plural suffixes, the commonest of which was an.] 6. How does the possessive case differ both in form and in use from the old genitive ? State and illustrate the rules for it^ use in the singular and in the plural. [Our possessive inflexion V has come to us from th. Old English termmation es, which was the genitive ending of some masculine and neuter nouns, but not of feminine nouns, nor of nouns in the plural. The sm plurals like oxen's, mice's, has been attached through the influence of nouns with plurals regularly formed in s, as such nouns have the s in the possessive, sons\ duchesses.' The uncontracted es is still visible in Wedn-^j-day and is sounded in many words ending in a sibilant, such as duchess , Thomas', ass's. One of the old genitive plural endings is preserved in Wit-fwa-gemot, 'meeting of wise men.' The absence of the J from Lady-day, Friday, is due to the fact that feminine nouns in Old English did not take this inflexion. The relations expressed by the old genitive were much more numerous than those expressed by the modern possessive. The posses- sive inflexion is now generally limited to names of living beings and of personihed objects. The preposition of enables us to express the rela- tions indicated by the old genitive: e.g. partitive relation, 'door of the hou.e," half of his fortune'; adjectival relation, 'act of mercy,' 'manot virtue ; objective relation, ' love of money.' For a fuller treatment of this question the student may consult Bain's Sftgher English Grammar, pp. 79—82, and 135— 7.J INFLEXION OF NOUNS.-III. CASE, 99 7. Give the definition and derivation of the word Case theifu^L!""'' ^'''' "'' •^'"■^ '" ^"^''^h=* ^^^- ^hem and describe i^at. Abl. explains the origin of some of our terms connected with case: thus, 'case' itself is irom the Latin casus, 'a falling': 'oMgug cases are 'slopings-away' from the nomi- native : when we enumerate the cases of a noun, we dec/ine it or give its decUmion, tlui: is, its 'iaiibgs.'J % 7— a CHAPTER XII. Adjectives. 102. An Adjective is a word which is used with a noun to limit its application. The name sheep is applicable to all sheep. If we join the word black to the noun sheep, the name black sheep is applicable only to those sheep which possess the quality of blackness. The application of the name sheep has been limited to a smaller number of things'. In like manner, if we say some sheep, twenty sheep, or these sheep, those sheep, we narrow, or restrict, or limit, in every instance the applica- tion of the noun. We can mak this limitation in other ways :^ we can say * the sheep which v/on the prize at the show,' or 'the squire's sheep,' restricting the application of the word sheep by the use of a subordinate clause, or by the use of a noun in the possessive case. But a subordinate clause is not an adjective, though it may be so used as to have the force of an adjective, and squire's is a noun in the possessive case, though it limits the application of the word sheep like an adjective. Squire or any other noun in the possessive case does the work of an adjective, but it is only when it is in the possessive case that it performs this func- tion. Squire is not an adjective, nor is its possessive squire's an adjective. ADJECTIVES, lOX 103. Adjectives and verbs resemble each other in this respect, that they express attributes or qualities of things, but there is a difference in their way of doing it. In the expression 'the prosperous merchant,' prosperity is assumed .as an attribute of the merchant : in the sentence 'The merchant prospered,' prosperity is de- clared to be an attribute of the merchant. In the expres- sion ' the victorious army,' the connexion of victory with the army is impHed : in the sentence 'The army conquered,' this connexion is formally stated. So again, when we say 'the black sheep' we assume, or imply, or take for granted the connexion of the attribute blackness with the thing a sheep. When we say 'The sheep is black,' we explicitly state this connexion. The word black in the former case is said to be used attributively, in the latter case predicatively, since it forms, together with the verb is, the predicate of the sentence. 104. Bearing in mind that the function, or special work, of an adjective is to limit the application of a rtoun, let us arrange adjectives in groups, or classes, according to the kind of limitation which they effect. Qualitative: What sort i Ans: black, good, big. Adjectives are ^ I. Quanti- tative 1. many? Ans : Car- one, Definite : How dinal Numerals eight, ii. Indefinite : How much ? How many ? Ans : all, some. Demonstrative: Which? Ans: this, each, third. This classification is open to criticism, but for practical purposes it will probably serve our ends better than one more exhaustive. A few words are required to meet objections and to remove difficulties. These questions may be asked : — I J' i ^1 loa ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, nJr, .^'^y '^'■«.«"<=J ^^ords as big, ^-.at, large, small, placed amona quahtativt adjectives ? Do they not mark quantity} ^ They mark size, Uit not amount : they indicate the dimensions of the thing, but not how much of it w»- refer to. uimcnsions of the a. Where are the Ordinal NumeraIs.>j/.,,^^«^,M;V^,,/,.y Their place is among the Demonstrative adjectives, which point out a thmg l,y markmg its relation to ourselves or to some other "hin^ What .s ths to me is that to you. and vice versd. A thine is /f^ifn' relation to other things which arc fourth and ixth T^e^wofl/M answe. the question Wkich? not the questions Uo^ m^ryTtfl 3. If we say 'blind Milton,' 'patriotic Mampden,' 'the resounding ocean,' do these adjectives limit the application of the nouns? ^ No, for the nouns already name ol)jects which are single or individual •Mdton- or 'Hampden' is the name of one thing: there i oily one ocean. We must understand these expressions as condens-l fo L of saymg 'M. ton who was blind,' 'Hampden who was pat iotic"the ocean which is resounding.' ^''"'""i., me 4- Why should all and half be classed as Indefinite ? Because they are clearly lacking in numerical definiteness. All mav be five or fifty: the same thing is true oi half. They exuress a dlfin^! proportion, but not a definite number. ^ ^ "^^^"'^^ On the other hand none and both must be placed amongst the Definite Quantitative Adjectives, for though all is Indefinite, since it does not express how many, none is as Definite as possible, since it expresses the absence of any. Both, again, means two. but tv;o taken togeE 105. The student may find it helpful towards a clear understanding of the classification of adjectives, if he reads the examples given below in their respective groups. 1. Adjectives of Quality : thick, wise, sad, tall, magni- ficent, modern, holy, native, senior, 2. Adjectives of Quantity : (i) Definite; Cardinal Numerals, one, two fiftv no, no fie, both. > jj J'y (ii) Indefinite; man^, any, some, all, few, half several, most, "'* \ ADJECTIVES, 103 3. Demonstrf'^ve Adjectives: (i) A and the. (ii) Pronominal Adjectives of various kinds : this, what, any, each, his. These we shall deal with in Chapter xiv. (iii) The Ordinal Numerals, first, twentieth, thou- sandth. 106. Some Adjectives are used as Nouns. {a) 'The good, the true, the beautiful,' may be sub- stituted for 'goodness, truth, beauty.' We describe these words as Adjectives employed as Abstract Nouns. {b) 'Tiie wise,' '■rich and poor,' sifjnify 'wise people,' 'rich and poor people.' We describe these words as Ad- jectives employed as Concrete Nouns. (c) Several adjectives have become nouns so completely that they take a plural and a possessive inflexion. Thus, we say Romans, Germans (not however Frenches or Dutches, probably on euphonic grounds, because of the sibilant ending of the adjective), Giadstonians, Jacobites, seniors, elders, betters, ancients, blacks, whites, '(oxm fours t' 'things are all sixes and sevens,' others. 107. Remarks on the Forms of the Numerals. I. Cardinals indicate the number of things spoken of. They answei the question How many? One appears with a negative prefix in none— no one : in the possess- ive case as an adverb in once: as a noun in the pknal, 'her little ones.' Five has lost before the t/ an « which is kept in «Jermany««/, Latin qmnque. Ten supplies the ending -teen to numerals from 13 to 19, and -ty to multiples of 10 up to 90. Elez'cn is composed of e or eyt, meaning 'one,' (compare German ein), and lev or ///which is really the same as dec- in decent, the Lati" for 'ten,' though its identity is wonderfully disguised. Yet we see ho\ /can take the place of r^/r^ similarly contains two + l^, duo^decim, ^o,,a. Do not «.il pose however that ./,^.« and /.../^.. are derived from the G cek o Lam u^rcls: .Av.: and /«../.. are ,he forms as-umed. aV^/a peop^ oJ thf^ Icutonic stock, by old Aryan roots uhich are founrl in ,li r ' ! forms in Ian,.,a,es iK.lon,i„K to the other stocks " ^"^"'"* /'ozL-ft IS from i/onz,, Latin ditoi^eciin llnr» «« *u have a case of borrowing-from the French '^' '""''^'^ ^« W is from an Old Kn^/.h word, meaning 'to scratch or notch'. >t IS used now as a verb signifying 'to keep an arrnnnf ' a • 2. Onlmals mrlirale Ihe position in a S"iesoftlie(hin« spoken of by i^,;a„t 'trr;'"" ^'"' '"""' •" '"■"■■ "■= - '^'-^ ''-"'^^ 7-^m/ was once Mm/, retained in tlie word A¥A„-= Thridi,,^- .rSSL %:;:';'. r • "' ^'°*''''- ^-U .ransposuiorttXd It should be noticed that with the pxrpn iV^n ^r .u ^«,», „„■//,.„, .,«,„„, ^.,. our rler:i:ro';En;n:^o™if '""'"'• 3. Multiphcatives indicate how many times th^ f],m„ . 1 exceeds some other thing. They are forC bVadd Ll ^rto"the Cardinals; e,g. hvcntyJolU, hundred/old. ^ ^ ^° '^® 108. The so-called Articles. The words M. and an or a are Demonstrative adjectives. In parsing we may describe ///. as a demonstrative adjective commonly called the definite article, and an or « as a demonstrative idjective commonly called the indefinite article. In Old English the was a demonstrative pronoun de- clmed m three genders, singular and plural. That wis its neuter singular. An is another form of the numeral adjective one. The n IS thus part of the root. We have .ot added n to «, but have dropped the n before words beginning with a con- sonantal sound. ADJECTIVES, »o5 109 Points of interest connected with the words the and an or a are discussed in the following paragraphs. I. Do the and an differ so widely from Adjectives as to justify grammarians in regarding them as forming a separate Part of speech ? Let us inquire, first, in what respects they resemble the adjectives that and one, and secondly, in vhat respects they differ from the adjec- tives that and one. ill the first place, what are the points of similarity? (l) Ihey resemble that and one in their force: 'the book' is a weaker form of 'that book,' *a book' of 'one book.' (a) They are connected with that and one in their origin : that was the neuter oi the, an was the older form i^i one. On the other hand, what are the points of diderence? ( 1 ) That and one are used as adjectives and as pronouns, the and an are used only as adjectives. Thus we can say 'Give me that book,' •Give me one book,' using that and one as adjectives, or we can say 'Give me that,' 'Give me one,' using that and one as pronouns or substitutes for nouns. But although we can say 'Give me the book,' 'Give me a book,' using the and a as adjectives, we cannot say 'Give me the,' 'Give me a,' using the and a as pronouns. (2) An ordinary adjective can be used either attributively, as in the expression, 'the black horse,' or predicatively, as in the expression, 'The horse is black.' Now the Articles can be used only attributively. We can say 'Sovereignty is one and indivisible,' but we cannot say 'Sovereignty is an and indivisible.' Wo can say 'John is lazy: James is that also,' but we cannot say 'James is the a] so.' But this restriction about the use of the and an affords quite in- sufficient reason for constituting a new Part of Speech which shall con- sist of these two words. For there are other adjectives which do not admit of being used to form predicates. We cannot say 'This is my, that is yo:ir,' any more than we can say 'This is the, that is an.' But this peculiarity does not prevent us from calling my and your adjectives. Why then should the and an be differently regarded? 2. When is an used instead of a ? Before words beginning with a vowel, or a silent h, as in hetr, honest; but words beginning wiUi a y, or witn a u which has the sound of > betore it, take a: thus we say 'an utter failure,' but 'a useful machine. To speak of 'o« university' or *an historian' sounds rather pedantic. 106 El.F.MENTS OF ENC.rJSn GRAMMAR, 3. What arc (lie cliief uses of Mz-f l.lJkl.nc.'"'" '"" " "''"'^" '^'''^ '"' "'' '"'"k.-not the re! one, M. (-*) to Hprcify ..I.jniH whirl, arc wril |<„.,wn t<. us: 'l.ct us Imvc « walk in M,- KMhln.' ; •///.• villuj..-.' '//v rlu.ah.' Alps. t., Athn.lir. 'M. Tli.uuos,' ||,.,>a, ulsu will. Minn lativoM. V^^moancst ol n.anki.ul.' 'M. In.hoM ,.uin,,' as .lu-sc a.i ..^JS (./) I.> sicnify a das«, with nouns \^^ ||,r sinK.ilar uuuii.er or with mlnvl.vos: W/,- Iumm.."M. auf; V//. rid..' V/4. wi.sc.' W in rullu.|uial laujiuaur will, nuplmsis ..u ll.r wonl thf, lo Hve IruW.' ' "''"''''"^'"' *»'<^'<^-""c-sM,.cmkc,c.Vn.nuuuK'thcLl (/) us an mlvnl. will, cuuparativos: V//^ u.oie ///<- l.ciicr.' Tlii. y/. a..,U. ///, ,s ho.-c a survival ol .!,<■ l)h| |.;„,,lish al.laiivc or in- Mru...c,.ial c«.so. //«. iron, tl.c dclinitu ariiclc or dnnou.st.ativc pronoun 4- VVhat are the chief ust>s of an or a i (.») to signify ,,«,: Ml...... men in a l.oal '. Mwo of a Ira.l,.'. • [n a year or two ho w.U rou.i. y one, Like the (irHl of u thinidct lIiowci. 4. Ih it liyhl to say that 'i'ative adjective n;dK.ater,;eT;res nee o'f '::"''"• ^ m the thing of which we a,e siKaki ^ if ' ''" "^ sheep is black,' we assert dnt h ^^ ! "''' ''"'' ^ ^''^ au-ouut t Se ifiiZ^,:;'::- ^T^i^ r '^^ -b,ac.es/^^'X--~-~;^^.;2 I INFLEXION OF ADJECTIVES. 109 these difTerent qualities are presented to us by making a comparison of the objects, and we record the resuhs of our observaiion by modifying the adjectives which are attached to the names of these objects. This modification is called Comparison of Adjectives. An Adjective in the Positive Degree expresses the pre- sence of a quality without reference to the extent to which that quality is present in something else. An Adjective in the Comparative Degree expresses the presence of a quality to a greater extent than that to which it is present in something else, or in the same thing under other circumstances. An Adjective in the Superlative Degree expresses the pi-esence of a quality to a greater extent than that to which it is present in anything else with which we make the contrast. Thus we say 'John is younger but taller than his brother : Mary is the cleverest of the three children.' 112. Do all Adjectives admit of Comparison ? Clearly not. The Demonstrative Adjectives, — thisy that, a, the, firsts second, — express no quality which varies in amount. Then again of the Quantitative Adjectives, those which are deji>iite, like the Cardinal Numerals and none, both, have meanings which do not admit of variations of degree. And it is only a iew of the indefinite adjectives of quantity which admit of comparison. We can compare many, much, little, fezv, but not any, all, some, half, several. Nor is it possible to form comparatives of all even of the Qualitative Adjectives : for — (1) The adjective in the positive degree may already express the presence of the quality in the greatest con- ceivable extent : thus, extnme, universal, full, efnpty, top, infinite, perfect, if literally used cannot be compared. When we say *This glaus is sinptisr than that,' 'Ycurs is a more I no ELEMENTS OF ENGLISIT GRAMMAR. perfect specimen,' we are evidently employing the words «//■/>• ami A^>r/ in an inexact sense. ^ S '"« »°'--^, containing the two superlative inflexions -vi- and -st. But the fact that the -;;/- re^nesented an earlier superlative suffix was forgotten, and from Jurem-ost, as if it were a snnple superlative, the comparative y^;-,,,-,-;- was coined. Hence the word y^;-///r;- breaks up into these elements; root >-^, superlative sulhx -;«-, comparative suffix -er. First represents the superlative oi fore, forest, the vowel of the root being changed by Umlaut. Further is a comparative of >r, formed by adding a comparative suffix -///.v. It was wrongly looked upon as a comparative of >■/// to which the regular comparative ending -er had been added, and, owing to this mistaken notion, the th was retained in the superlative furth-est farther ^nd Jurt/u-r are used indiscriminately now, but their meanings were originally different ; y-/r///^r meant 'more distant, more far awav ' Jurther, ' more in front, more to the fore.' Yet we see no contradiction tWs wa^''^''"^ '" '''^""" '^'''"'^ ^"''^^' °^'' '^^ '^ ''°'"'"S farther //inc/ occurs as an adjective in 'the hind quarter,' 'hind wheel ' (/tteris used as a comparative in the law-courts in the phrase 'the utter hcLi; in contrast with the 'inner bar.' 116. Examples of Double Comparatives are seen in Uc'arer,ksser,2vorser: examples of Double Superlatives in foremos/, inmost, upmost, etc. Such expressions as more better, more brav&, most worst, most unkindest are frequently rnet with in Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers. When we use such expressions as chiefest or most universal, we are employing adjectives which are double superlatives I ;aks of 'the rr, which we than not go, require par- ; tliem to be leir meaning irlier period by the com- li-sh, several oiii adverbs, s was added •unded with ut most the ived from a ng the two represented ost, as if it ed. Hence superlative of the root omparative oi forlh to and, owing 2 flirt h-est. ir meanings far away,' ntradiction ing farther /heel.' ihrase 'the are seen rlatives as more equently writers. (niversalj 'crlatives '1 INFLEXION OF ADJECTIVES. 113 in meaning though not in form. But this arises from our laxity in tht» choice of words : we use chief slS if it meant the same as important^ and universal as if it meant the same as general. 117. Superlatives are sometimes employed to denote the presence of a quality in a high degree, without any suggestion of comparison. When a mother writes to her son as *My dearest boy,' she does not mean that his brothers occupy a lower place in her affections : • dearest ' signifies in such a case * very dear.' 118. There are some comparative adjectives which we cannot use with than. Thus the following adjectives wiiich have been borrowed directly from the Latin in the com- parative form do not admit than after them : senior, junior, exterior, (which take to after them); major, minora interior. The following adjectives of English origin have the same characteristic ; elder, inner, outer, latter. We can say older than, later than, but not elder than, latter than. Questions. t. Adjectives of two syllables having certain terminations may be comj,;.v;d wiihuut tlic use of more ami most. Specify three of these ternimations, and mention adjectives which contain them. 2. Give the com]i:irative and superlative degrees of sad, i^ay, free, nigh, bad, old, hateful., ha/fy, out, awry, fore, laic, sly, hoiy, fur, virtuous. 3. Make sentences which illustrate the difference in our use of oldest, eldest; latest, last; nearest, next ; farthest, furthest. 4. Point out the difference in meaning between {a) 'later' and Matter,' {b) -elder' and older,' {c) 'further' and 'farther.' Account for the presence of the th in 'further' and in 'farther.' I. yf. £• G- 8 i) M w 'I'M CHAPTER XIV. Pronouns. 119. A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. The definition of a Pronoun is usually stated in this form It has the merit of being short and easily under- stood, and It calls attention to an important function which most Pronouns perform, namely, that of saving the repetition of the noun. Thus, if no pronouns existed, instead of saying John gave Mary a watch on /icr birthday, and s/w lost //' we should have to say 'John gave Mary a watch on J/aJs birthday, and Mr;y lost tiie 7C'a/cVi.' for "uns f "' '''''"' '"" '"■''"°""' '^"' P'°'''"y °^ ^"^'"g ^-^^ substitutes A good deal of in-enuity must be exercised if we are to brine within the scope of the definition (,) the Personal Pronouns of the f'r and becond Persons, and (2) the Interrogative Pronouns. (i) For if the pronouns / and ju>u were abolished, and nouns were niaUt all oui statements ni the third person. nn„l'\ ^'^^^'\'"'/^'^'*-^" ^^« ^'^ ' 11'^"^ J»oke the window?' what is the stituic? \\e must maintain that the pronoun ly/^o here stands for the noun which the answer supplies, but this seems rather farSed For uppose that the re,.Iy to the question is not ' Brown,' nor • he boy ' bu I don t know,' where is the noun? ^' The characteristic feature of Pronouns is rather this :-Pronouns are PRONOUNS. "5 :ad of a d in this ly undcr- on which 'cpolition of saying e lost //,' n Mary's substitutes "iiig within First and louns were Uircly and hat is the es as sub- ds for the hed. For ; boy,' but nouns are uames of things only in relation to other things. According to circum- stances, /, you, he, this, that, either, can be applied to any objects. / means Jones when Jones speaks, Zeus when Zeus speaks, z. ghost when a ghost speaks; but horse is the invariable name of things belonging to a particular class and of those things only. In certain situaiioiTs any- thing can be /, you, or he, but only one set of things can be horses. This is the essential peculiarity which distinguishes ijronouns Irum nouns, — their capacity for universal application. 121. Pronouns axe of different kinds, (i) Some are used exclusivtly as substitutes for nouns. (2) Others are used both as substitutes for nouns and as adjectives limiting nouns. (3) A few so-called pronouns are used only as adjectives, but they are usually dealt with under the head of pronouns because they are connected with pronouns in their origin. Thus (i) he and 7t>/to are used only as nouns. (2) T/iat and lu/iataxe used both as nouns and as adjectives. In the sentence, '1 like t/tat book,' i/iat is an adjective : in ' I like t/iai,' it is a substitute for a noun, (though we might also regard it as an adjective with a noun understood, just as we understand the noun 'horse' to be implied with the adjective ' black ' in the sentence * I like the white horse better than the l>lack'). In the sentence • W/iat did he do ?' 7i>hat is a noun : in ' What work did he do?' it is an adjective limiting the meaning of 7mrk. On the other hand, he or who cannot be used as an adjective to limit the meaning of a noun. We cannot say • He man ' or • Who boy.' In such expressions as ' I, the master,' ' Vou, the pupil,' • He, John,' we have a noun in apposition with the pronoun: John explains he; he does not limit the application of John. Lastly (3) some words treated of under the head of pronouns are purely adjectival in their use and cannot be employed without a noun. We can say • This is my book,' but not ' This is tny.' Basing our classification on their capacity for being used (i) exclusively as true pronouns, i.e. as substitutes for nouns, 8—2 w %m xi6 ELKAfENTS OF KNGIJSII GRAMMAR. or (ii) as pronouns and also as adjectives, we arrange these words in the lollowing groups. Tai!I,e of Pronouns. l^sfd only as Nouns, I. riCKSONAI. I, wc : lliuu, you, ye II. Dkmonsirative— he, she, it, they III. ki'.l-i.KXlVK— myself, your- self, himself IV. Rki.ativk that, who V^ iNrKRROCATIVK— who VI. iNnKKlNlTIC — anylnxly, anytliMii^r, aught, naught, somebody, something, nobody, nothing VII. DisiKiHuriVE Used as Aiijectives alsOt this, these ; that, those what, which what, which one, any, certain, otlicr, some each, every, either, neither Used only as Aiijectives. VIII. PossKssiVE— my, our; thy, your; her, its, their. The Possessivcs ours, yours, hers, (heirs, arc used when no noun follows them, and in this respect lliey resemble nouns, but their force is purely adjectival. The same remarks apply to mine and thine in modern diction. Jlis admits of use either with or without a noun following. The Distributive pronoun erery is now used only as an adjective, e.xcept occasionally in legal phraseology. 122. Defluitions of the different kinds of Pronouns. 1. Personal. The Pronoun of the First Person is used in the singular to denote the speaker alone and in the plural to denote the speaker and others with whom he is associated. The i'ronoun of the Second Person is used of the person or persons addressed. 2. A Demonstrative Pronoun is one which points out a thing. 3. A Reflexive Pronoun denotes the object of av: iction when the object is the same as the doer of the action. 4. A Relative Pronoun is one which refers to some other noun or pronoun and has the force of z. conjunction. i n MAR. ange these PRONOUNS, 117 es also. )se ler, some leither len no noun their force is lul t/iiih- in lout a noun m adjective, ar to denote r and others n or persons a thing. on when the her noun or 5. An Interrogative Pronoun is one by means of which we ask a question. 6. An Indefinite Pronoun is one which does not point out precisely the ol)ject to which it refers. 7. A Distributive Pronoun is used when there are more things than one, to denote tiiat the things are taken separately. 8. A POBsesBlve Pronoininiil Adjective denotes that the noun which it limits is the name of a thing l)eloiiging to some other thing. With the exception of the word Relative, the adjectives by which the kinds of pronouns are desirihcd convey a dearer notion of their characteristio features than these (ielinitions will afford. The student should carefully notice the examples of pronouns given in the Table under their respective heads and observe the appropriateness of the names by which the various classes arc distinguished. We will now consider the different classes in detail. 123. I. The Pronouns of the First, Second, and Third Persons are declined thus : Pronoun of Proiwiitt of Pro noun of ■yd Person \st I er.^on 2nd J c/son Siu'^. Plur. Si»g. Pliir. Sini;^. Plnr. M. F. N. Norn. I we tliou ye, you he she it they Cbj. me us thee ye, you him her it them Possess. r'"y _mme our thy your his he I- its their " ours thine yours hers theirs^ 1 124. Remarks on these Pronouns. (i) There cannot be a plural of / at all, strictly speak- ing. We does not mean /+ /, as horses means horse + horse : there is in the nature of things for each of us only one /. PFe signifies really I+jou, or /+ they. (2) Why should the pronouns denoting the ist and the 2nd Person have no distinctions of (iender, while the pro- noun denoting the 3rd Person possesses a set of inflexions to mark Gender ? Because when / am addressing you, our sex is not a matter of doubt, as we are both of us present; but when we are speaking of a third thintr, it is desirable for ereater i' S I "I iiR r/FArr/vrs of rxcr isti (!h\'i.v>y,th\ ccH.mily l«) iiuluaii- wluMlin ii possesses %vx or not, aiul wliat sex, as It may lu* absent. (j) The rr«)Houn ol ilie Tliiiil rerson is sometimes ealleeltei \n riass it with tlu- Denuinstiativi-s. .S'//r- was not ^>ll^in:lIly llie feminine ol" //r-: .v//f was the lemimne «)l the old l.nghsh delinilc aitiele «)i demonsUative a»lie•, f/ic>n\ The / in if is a sign of the neuter, hke the ,/ in i/Zud. Jts is a modem word, oet:uriiMg raielv in Sh.ikespiMiv, at the l)egim\inn of the i 7th eenlury, and luM|ueiilly in Diydeii, ut the end of it. It appears once in lhi> Authorized Version of the Hihle {i rrit. wv. 5) as it is now piinied. hut not in the original edition of i(>i 1. //ix was lormerly the genitive ease of hoth /ic and //: 'If the sail h.ive lost /lis savour.' (4) The forn\s of thesi> I'ronoims in the Tossessive case are useti no longer as Personal Tronouns, hut only as Possessive Adjectives. 'Thus my and Mr ari> eipiivalents of the Latin mens ant! funs, mn o( met and ////. I\irs met must he rendered 'a p.irt ol me," not 'my p.irt ,' 'forgetful- ness of you ' is not e-, pressed by saying 'your torge'.fuhiess,' nor 'envy t>f them' by s.iving 'their envy.' 'This is the reason why we have eiu losed these lorms in braeki'ts : they belong to the lVrst>nal Pronouns by oiigin, but have become purely ailjectival in force. (5) /'//('// is used oidy in addressing (loil and in the flights of poetry or rhetoric. Put half a century ago tlie Quakers eujiiloyeil fhoii and thee in ordinary speech. In the Kli/.abelhan age ///('// and thee expressetl affection or 1 I ' In Oia Kn^li^h tlio Tronoim i^f the Third IVis,mi w.is dcch"nc«l in the noniinativo raso tlnis: ninso. /•• . fVm. h<\\ luut. 'lit. C')!" those forms we liavo lot.uiu-d h<- .\\\y\ (//)//. hut have homnvcd tlio lonuniiio she from the loniiniuo .v.'.i ut tho Demonstrative, niaso. se, lem. .»>•<>. ncut. \\ct ('that"). rhe i-oUoquial V/;/, as in 'Cive it 'em,' is a suivivrd ot hem, the old dative pUual of //<•, not a comnuiou of them. IR r not, and sonifliincs Inss it with 1' iVniinini; sh (Iflinitc 1(1 IIS also (/in i7/ni/. I'spiMiv, at in I )i)(U'n, I'd Version l)ul not in w muiiivc avoiir.* Possessive )nt only as 'tpiivalents /'//.v ffi('i ' forget ful- ;e'. till I less,* liis is the kets : they vo beeoinc lul in tlie y agi) the ceeh. In Vection or declined in these forms ine s^ir from . iieut. \uct wvA of //y analogy we should expect the forms //m,//' and their- selres Is there any nv ay of explaining the forms himself and them- seli'i-s ? In the first place, self mn%i still be regarded as a noun, for it forms a plural sehes. In the secoml place, ///;;/ and thrm are pronouns, or the e(iuivalenls of nouns, in the objective case. Now the relation of the nouns hun and .,: /; them and selves, not being one of dependence, {for if It were, one of the words would be in the possessive case, which it is not), must be one of apposition. Therefore the entire words must be compo>ed of two nouns in the objective case sfuuling in apposition And this explanation lits in very xvell uith the reflexive use of himself themselves, 'He struck ///;,v.,//,' 'Tluy hurt themselves,^ where nouns iii the objective ca^e .are rcquire.l. Bui then we can also say emphatically He himself iM it,' 'They themselves said so,' using /./;«.r// and them- selves as subjects. Here the explanation breaks down. We can assume if we like, that people lost sight of the original objective force of these > nds and came to use them as nominatives, just as we use me as a nominative, when we say 'It's me.'' Applying these conclusions to the forms one's self and oneself xvftmtvf say that both can be justified : the former shows us one's in a relation of dependence on the noun self, and therefore in the possessive case • the latter exhibits the two words one and selfxn apposition. ' This is the simplest explanation which we can ofter of these com- pounds oi self as we find them existing now. The reader must not suppose however that the earlier history of these obscure forms aifords any foundation for this mods of treating them. PRONOUNS, 121 128. IV. Relative Pronouns. The characteristic feature of the Relative Pronouns is this: they have the force of conjunctions. 'J hus, the sentence ' I met the policeman 7vho said there was a disturbance' contains two sentences rolled into one : 'I met the policeman. He told me there was a disturbance.' 'This is the book that you lent me' may be resolved into 'This is the book. You lent it me.' The name rchu'tve is not a happy one, as it does not call attention to this connective function. These pronouns might more appro- priately be called conjunctive or connective pro- nouns. Several other pronouns might with equal reason be called relative in this sense, that they relate or refer to an antecedent : thus, in the sentences * I saw John : he was looking very well,' ' Here are your pens : they are all broken,' he refers to John, and they refers to petn, but he and they have no power to unite the sentences in which they occur with the sentences which precede them : this power belongs to the so-called Relative Pronouns alone. If we substitute ivho and which for he and they, the two sentences become in each case a single sentence: *I saw John who was looking well,' 'Here are your pens which are all broken'. The name Relative Pronoun is established too securely among grammatical terms, however, to allow us to replace it by another more suitable word : the student must there- fore pay particular attention to the concluding part of the definition of a Relative Pronoun as one which refers to some other noun or pronoun and has the force of a con- function. The noun or pronoun to which the Relative refers is called the antecedent, i.e. that which goes before. The relative usually comes after the noun or pronoun to which it refers, but the order of the clauses containing the relative and antecedent is sometimes inverted. Thus 'Whom I honour, him I trust ' is equivalent to ' I trust him wl lom ^'1 122 ELEMENTS OE ENGLISH GRAMMAR, I honour:' him is the antecedent, though the relative whom precedes it. The relative is often omitted when, if expressed, it would be in the objective case. Thus 'The man I met told me so is an elliptical form of expression for ^The man whom I met;' 'I have lost the book you lent me' is elliptical for the book which you lent me.' Similarly, *the man you gave It to; IS a condensed way of saying 'the man whom you gave It to', or 'the man to whom you gave it'- 'the book I asked for' represents 'the book which I asked for' or 'the book for which I asked'; 'the day I came' stands for 'the day which I came on', or 'the day on which I came'. But this omission of the relative can occur only - when the relative is in the objective case: we cannot suppress the relative, if it is in the nominative or possessive. Thus from the sentence 'The man who met me told me so ' we cannot leave out who, nor from the sentence 'The man whose horse ran away was thrown off' can we leave out whose. The antecedent is sometimes omitted. Thus we may say ' Who breaks, pays.' When what is used as a relative the antecedent is always omitted: 'I understand what you mean.' It is contrary to modern idiom to insert that in such a sentence before what. The Relative Pronouns are that, who, what, which, as. As a relative, that is always used as a noun. Beginners who find It puzzling to determine whether, in any sentence, that is a Demonstrative or a Relative, may find help in applying tests such as these : (i) Try who, whom, and which, and notice whether by the use of any of these words the sense is preserved. If so, that is a Relative. Thus 'The man that met me," The man that I met,' * The man that I spoke to,' might be expressed with who in the first sentence, whom m the second and third. (2) Try this instead of that: if sense is made, though not precisely the same sense, that is a Demonstrative. Thus in the sentence ' Lend me that tive whom i, it would :t told me lan whom iiptical for man you lan whom i it'; 'the sked for', e' stands which I ccur only t suppress e. Thus le so ' we lan whose >hose. we may relative, uhat you t that in vhich, as. ners who nee, that applying lich^ and he sense 'he man I spoke :e, whom that', if ', that is me that fa, PRONOUNS. 123 wnf h/^T, ^^'^^°"^>^ °"^ ^^'-^ I haven't read,' the reader will be able to identify the first that as a demonstrative adjective limiting the noun book; the second that as a demonstrative pronoun ; and the third that as a relative It is true that the substitution of which for the second that would still make sense, and the application of the first of our two tests might therefore lead to the mistaken description of thjs word as a relative. But this error will be corrected by the use of the second test which shows that this can rep ace M«/ The difficulty of identifying that is increased by the fact that it is also a conjunction. If we meet with tiiat m a context where who, 7vhom, and this, will none of them make sense as its substitute, the word must be a conjunction. The reader can experiment upon the sen- tences 'He said that you were here,' 'I work that I may 129. V. The following are both Relative and In- terrogative Pronouns. H^ho is used only as a noun : we cannot say who man. It has three cases, who, whom, whose, in singular and plural. What IS the neuter of who and can be used both as "/^rr/f ''"';. ^'''"' " "^^^ ^' ^" Interrogative in What did he say?' Here it has the force of a noun usld ""P ; '•' '^ "^'^'' ^^'^ '' '^ ^^^^' "is used as a Relative in 'I don't know what he said.' Here It has ^the force of a noun. ' I don't know what remark he made. Here it is adjectival. neut^t /' "°^^^^l^"^d• ^^^J^en used as a noun it is neuter, but as an interrogative adjective it ca, be used with wnTA" -P'T'^ '^^'' "^'^"' ^^^' ^^°"^-"' -hat child would believe this statement ? ' Which is a compound equivalent to 7vhom^like, as such tive, both as Interrogative and as Relative. ' Which will you 124 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. have?' ''Which hook will you have?' 'I know which I will have,' ' I know which book 1 will have.' 'I'hcrc is a slight dilTcrcMire in our use of which and of who or 7vhaf as interrogativos. Which implies that the choice is restricted to a known group of things. 'I'luis we say '//7/r?/ shall we have for dinner?' when the selection is unlimited, but '""niere's only turbot or salmon to-day; which shall we have?' as the selection is to be made from a definite number. Which as a Relative pronoun is no longer used of ])ersons, though it was so used formerly : e.g. * Our Father, which art in heaven.' From who, what, 7vhich, we have formed comixnmd relatives 7vhosonrr, whichsoevery whatsoever. JFhosoarr is declined as follows : Nom. ivhosoercr, Obj. whomsoever. Possess, whoscsoe^^er. 130. The differences in our use oHhat and o( ivho or 7vhich as relative pronouns must be carefully noted. (i) That is used of persons and things, whilst who is used of persons only and 7vhick of things. (2) That cannot follow a preposition : if that is used as the relative, the preposition is tacked on at the end of the sentence. Thus *The man /;/ tvJiom I trusted' becomes 'The man that I trusted />/;' 'The house of ivhich you told me' becomes 'The house that you told me of\^ 'The means by which he did it' becomes 'The means that he did it by.^ (3) That has a restrictive force which renders it unsuitable sometimes as the substitute for ivho or which. I can say ' My sister that is abroad is ill,' because I may have several sisters, and the clause introduced by that limits the application of the noun to one of the number. But I cannot say * My mother that is abroad is ill,' because the restrictive that would suggest that I have more mothers PRO Norms. '25 than one, which is absurd. I must say * My mother w/tc is abroad,' which signifies * My mother, and she is abroad, the word 7v/io having a coordinating force in uniting twc coordiiKite statements, «My mother is ill,' 'My mother if abroad.' 131. As and /.'/// occur with the force of Relative Pronouns. ^.r is the corrdativc of same and s,i,/t: 'Mi.u' is not the sami- as yours Mils hchuviour is not such us will secure f... him many friemls. We still hear as ust.l lor rv/wm or //ia( in rural districts: 'The man as I saw,' 'The man as told me.' These are vulgarisms now, hut they were ^rood Knglish once. As is entitled to a place amonir tlic relative pronouns. />'///• has the force of a relative pronoun in ccitain nef,Mtive construc- tions. Thus iu 'There is nohody h„( thinks you mad,' '/„(( thinks' means 'who does not think:' in 'Who is there Imt hopes for hapiH- ness? '/atl hopes' means 'who does not ho])e.' We are not however to call but a relative pronoun here, tliout;h it serves as the sul.sliuite for one: It is a conjunciion, and tliere is an ellipsis of a proiunm which should follow it : 'There is nohody but he thinks you mad,' ' Who is there but /if iiopes lor happiness?' 132. VI. Indefinite Pronouns. One is an indefmite pronoun: it is used vaguely, re ferring not to any particular individual, but to persons oi things generally : ' Que hears strange rumours of a rupture in the party.' It has a possessive case, one's: 'One must be sure of one's ground.' 'l\vo views have been held respecting the oiigin of this word: (i) that it is simply the cardinal numeral, used as a pronoun; this is probably the right view: (2) that it is from I'rench on, as in Um dit,' one says,' where on^-/wmnie Latin /lonw, 'man,' just as in German we have the eciuivalent expression 'man .sagt.' One has the meaning *a certain' in such expressions as 'one Simon a tanner.' A?iy contains the numeral one in its root an. Aught contains the word w////,— preserved in our expres- sions 'not one whit/ 'not a ..vhit, '^meaning 'thing.' 126 ELEMENTS OE ENGLISH GRAMMAR. Nau^^ht is ' ne + aught.' of which the adverb not is merely a shortened form. Ifi< I; I I III 133. VII. Distributive Pronouns. Each is a corruption of 'ever-Uke.' It can be used both as noun and as adjective: 'Give one to each' "'■ive one to each boy.' Every is a corruption of ' ever-each,' and is ....ed only when more than two are referred to. It is not employed in modern English as a noun, but must always be followed by a noun. Either contains as its elements *aye-whether'; in its constituent part whether^ the suffix -ther marks duality or comparison, as in other, further. Either means ' one of two,' but sometimes occurs with the meaning 'each of two;' e.g. 'on either side of the river w\ts there the tree of Ufe.' (Rev. xxii. 2). Its negative is neither. Each other and one u..Aher are used after a transitive verb to express reciprocity of the action. When we say 'They hate each other' we mean thai the feeling is mutual. Each other is used of two agents and objects, one another of more than two. The construction of the two parts of these compound expressions is different : each and one stand for the agents or subjects, other and another for the objects; thus — ' They hate each {subject) the other {object)^ * They hate one {subject) another {object),' each and ore being in apposition with the subject they. But the grammatical relation of these Reciprocal Pronouns has been lost sight of in common use. If we still recognised their original construction, we should say 'They gave a present each to the other,' or ' one to another,' instead of saying, as we do, 'They gave a present to each other,' or *Tiiey gave presents to one another.' PJiONOUNS, 12^ 134. VIII. Possessive Pronouns. The forms my, thy, its, were dealt with when we dis- cussed the pronouns of the First, Second, and Tiilrd Persons. Mine and thine contain a genitive inflexion n : this n has been dropped in my and thy, which are shortened forms of mine and thine, just as tz is a shortened form of an. The r in our, your, their, is a genitive plural inflexion. Our, your, their, her, give rise to secondary forms ours, yours, theirs, hers, containmg s which was originally an inflexion of the genitive singular only. They are thus double genitive forms, just as children is a double plural, nearer a double comparative, and inmost a double super- lative. ^ The Possessives fall into two groups : My, thy, her, its, our, your, their, are used only as attributive adjectives: they require a noun immediately following them. Mine, thine, hers, ours, yours, theirs are used only as possessive pronouns: the noun which they limit does not follow them. Bis is used both as possessive adjective and as possessive pronoun. Thus we say 'Give me my book and take yours,' not Give me mine book and take your: But we say 'This is his book and * This book is his: In the diction of poetry, mine and thine occur with nouns followmg them, if the nouns begin with a vowel sound : ' mine eye,' ' mine ear,' ' thine honour.' 135. Before leaving the subject of Pronouns, the reader should notice how inflexions, which have disappeared from nouns and adjectives, have survived in words belonging to this part of speech. Bi-m preserves the form of the dative smgular, the-m the form of the dative plural ; the r m our, your, her, is a sign of the genitive; the / in it, whaL that, marks the neuter gender. * I [28 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, Questions. 1 1 1. Classify the pronouns in the following sentence:— 'Who is the owner of the horse which you and I were admiring to-day?' 2. How far may he, she, and it, be correctly classed as personal pronouns ? In what respect do they differ from / and thou ? 3. What is a pronoun ? Distinguish between the use of a personal and a relative pronoun. Illustrate your explanaiion by reference to the two sentences: 'My brother who came is gone,' 'My brother came, but he is gone.' 4. Write three short sentences in which the nominative, possessive, and objective cases of who, used as a relative pronoun, respectively occur. 5. ' A gate which opened to them of his own accord' (Acts xii. 10). Why is his used here P CHAPTER XV. Verbs. • is human. 136. A Verb is a word with which we can make an assertion. We make assertions about things. The word which stands for the thing about which we make the assertion IS called the subject of the verb, or the subject of the sentence. As the names of things are nouns, the subject must be a noun or its equivalent, such as a pronoi.n, a verb in the mfinitive mood, or a noun-clause. Thus we may say Error {Noun) It {Fronomi) To err {Infinitive) That one should err {Noun-clause) ^ When we make an assertion about a thing, we are said in Grammatical language to predicate something about the thmg. As no assertion can be made without the use of a verb, the verb is called the Predicate of the subject, or of the sentence in which it occurs. Wiiat is asserted is either action or state. Action is asserted when we say 'The prisoner stole the watch' «The watch was stolen by the prisoner,' "Ihe prisoner ran away.' .State IS asserted when we say 'The prisoner was glad,' Ihe prisoner continued unrepentant,' 'The prisoner slept soundly.' *^ w. E. a 9 2 30 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAIi. V'n Ml .1 \ I ;^i 137. The action denoted by some verbs is conceived as being directed towards, or piissing over to, a certain objecl. When we say 'The boy kicked the dog, and the dog scratched him,' we assert actions the effects of wliich were not confined to tlie agents performing them: the boy's action passed beyond the boy, and the dog's action passed beyond the dog. But when we say ' The boy sat down and cried, and the dog barked and ran away,' we assert actions which terminated with the agents performing them. This distinction is expressed by tlie words Transitive and Intran- sitive: it is of the greatest importance. A Transitive Verb is one which indicates an action directed towards some object. An Intransitive Verb is one which indicates (i) an action not directed towards some object, or (2) a state. The student may occasionally be puzzled to deteiii"-".e whether a verb is used transitively or ir, transitively, for many verbs are used in both ways, though not of course in both ways at the same time- He must ask himself whether the action expressed by the verb produced an effect upon something outside the doer (or, in the case of a re- flexive verb, upon the doer itself). He will usually find a word representing the object to which this action passed, but occasionally the object is not menti(jned. The verb kicked is clearly transitive when the dog comes after it to indicate its object, and so is scratched when it is followed by him. But how are we to describe these verbs when we say 'The boy lay on the floor and kicked aad scratched'? If we mean that he kiclced and scratched people at large, the verbs are both transitive, though the recipients of the actions are not specified. But do we necessarily mean this? If the verbs signify that he merely threw his legs and arms about in r' , fruitless endeavour to reach an object, kicked and scratched are not transitive verbs here any more than ivalked or ran would be, though they become so, if we suppose that an object is implied. 133. As we shall have occasion to make frequent mention of the word Object in connexion with Transitive Verbs, the reader must notice that this term has unfor- tunately to do a double duty, standing sometimes for the VEHHS. ,3, //«V .-.ffcctcl by an aceion and somelimes for the word wh.ch represents tins thing. The following definition ,„ay ?ro*: t:'X:::'' "" """ '''" "' -'"- --^ forTh! ?i^^"* °1^ ""^ '^ ^^^ "°'-d «''^i'=h stands S'eUte^d^ttrve'r'b': '^ '"'' ""^^^ °^ *^^ -^'°" vJ-,'/"'""^u''^*-'"'"'''"^ fiescription of a Transitive Verb to say that it .s a Verb that can take an Object 139. Intransitive Verbs are used as Transitives m these ways: ...J* f" ^^'^^ "'"^"^ intransitive, is occasionally employed with a transitive force: ^"ii^ioyca Ordi.Ku-ily Intransitive. Used Transitively. l\]^or,e 7oa//:s. I Z£W/v^ my horse. I will .V... there. I will r,n the boat aground. The sh,p>«/,. Hey?.^/../ the ship, ^irds^j The boys are/jvV/,. their kites. The mother ..,W. The mother .r;odi her son's ieart. 2. Prepositions following Intransitive Verbs may be regarded as forming with them compound verbs is the 01 • \ r^;'^"' (transitive) him,' where the /.. Ln be tmilo^ ^ ' 'j'' ^''' ^^"^^^ construction can then be employed, and we can say 'He was laughed-at ' ' This conH " "' ''" ""'^""^ ' '^^""^^ ^" ^^- P--ve Ihis conclusion was arrived-at': 'They came to thi. decision 'becomes 'This decision was con" '^" Verh/''?°^'^'°"^ prefixed to some Intransitive ItcoZflT :^^^"^^^-- Thus the intransi i^: //^becomes the transitive 07>er//e ; sttind, understand- run outrun; wee^, beweep ; moan, bemoan. ' ''''' 9—2 ''II Hi 132 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, 4. From a few Intran^itive Verbs, Transitive deriv>.- tives are formed called Causatives, signifying to cause or produce the action indicated by the original verb: thus from sit we obtain set, meaning to 'make to sit'; from lie, lay, ixomfa/i,/ell; from rise, raise; from drink, drench. The student must be on his guard against supposing that an Intransitive is Transitive whenever a noun follows it. A noun of kindred meaning to that of the verb accom- panies many liUransitives, not as an of'Jeit but as an ad- verbial modijicati'jn. In Latin Grammar this construction is called the Cognate Accusative: ludum ludere, *to play a game,' vitam vivere^ * to live one's life,' are ex- amples in both languages. * To run a race,' ' to walk a mile,* 'to dream a dream,' 'to fight a good fight,' 'to sleep the sleep of death ' are illustrations of this construc- tion. We describe these nouns as Cognate Objectives. 140. Conversely, some Transitive Verbs are used Intransitively. Compare the following: Transitive. He broke the. glass. They moved the chair. I slammed the door. He opened the lid. The sun melted the snow. We reformed the criminal. Intransitive. The glass broke. The chair moved. The door slammed. The lid opened. The snow melted. The criminal reformed. Some writers regard these intransitive uses as apparent rather than real, and consider the verbs to be Reflexives with an object itself understood. 141. Verbs of Incomplete Predication. Many intransitive verbs make no sense as predicates, unless they are followed by some noun, adjective, or verb in the infinitive mood. To say ' He is,' * They can,' ' We became,' * You will,' ' She seems,' is ftieaningless until we add some word to complete the sense. Thus we give significance to these VERBS. n'S :i: incomplete assertions, if we say 'He is good,' 'He is captain,* 'He is killed,' 'He is come,' 'They can si)eak French,' 'We became rich,' «We became partners,' 'You will win,' 'She seems vexed.' Such verbs are called Verbs of Incom- plete Predication, and the word or words which are added to make sense are called the Complement of the Predicate. The verbs grozv^ look, feel, in some of Hieir uses are intran- sitives of this kind. Certain transitive verbs require, always or in some of their uses, a similar complement. If we say 'The king made a treaty,' the sense is complete: but if we say 'The king made VVali)ole,' the sense is incomplete until we add the complement 'a peer,' or 'angry,' or 'continue minister.' The verb ' called ' is a complete predicate in ihe sentence 'The master called his valet,' meaning 'summoned him to his presence': it is an incomplete predicate if it signifies 'applied a name to him,' until the name is added; 'The master called his valet a thief,' or 'lazy'. «I think you' requires 'a genius,' 'a fool,' 'clever,' *mad,' to complete the sense. The name Neuter is appli«\l in some books to Intransi- tive verbs generally, in others to Intransitive verbs of incom- plete predication. As there is this ambiguity in its meaning, the best course is to dispense with its use altogether. 142. Auxiliary and Notional Verbs. When we come to the conjugation of the verb, we shall see that most of the different forms are made by means of other verbs, which are therefore called Auxiliaries (from Lat. auxiliiim, 'help,' because they help to conjugate the verb). The different parts of the verbs be, have, will, shall, may, are employed as Auxiliaries, and when so employed are the substitutes for inflexions of which in our English conjugation very few survive. Thus ' I shall have written ' is in Latin expressed in one inflected form, scripsero, ' you were being loved,' amabaniini. 134 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. But the vcrl)s have^ will, shall, tfioy, possess meanings of their own which are dropped when the words ?.re used as auxiliaries. * He 7vill do it' may mean 'He is determined to do it,' as well as * He is going to do it.' In the former case ivill is not an auxiliary, in the latter it is. JliJi'e signifies possess when I say ' I have a bicycle,' but it is merely auxiliary when I say * I have lost my bicycle.' May means permission in *You may try if you like;' it is auxi- liary when we say * You won't find out, though you may try your best.' Verbs which are used 7iiith a meaning of their 07i>n, and not merely as s///>s/i/a/t's for inflexions in the conjugation of other verbs, are called Notional Verbs. 143. An Impersonal Verb is one in which the source of the action is not expressed. A true Impersonal Verb therefore has no subject. Onlv two examples of true Impcrsonals occur in modern Eng- lish, methinks and nieseetns, and these belong to tiic diction of rhetoric rather than to every-dav speech. ]\Le is a dative case: hence it cannot be tiie subject. The meaning of the two I m personals is the same, viz. ' It seems to me.' Thinks in methinks comes from the Old English thynkan, ' to seem,' which was a different verb from thenean, ' to think.' * It rains,' *it freezes,' and similar expressions are com- monly called Impersonal, but they have a grammatical subject, it. If we are asked however, 'What rains?' * What freezes ? ' we cannot specify the thing for which the it stands: the grammatical subject repicscnts no real source Oi the action. are CHAPTER XVI. Inflexions of Verds. the 144. Veriis undergo changes of form to mark differ- ences of Voice, Mood, Tense, Number, Person. As inflexions have ahiiost entirely disappeared from English verbs, we have recourse to auxiliary verbs and pronouns to express these diff-»ences. Amaverimus, ama- himiir are inflexions of the Latin verb aino : we shall have loved, ive shall be loved, their English e(|uivalents, are not inflexions of the verb love; the required changes in the meaning of the verb are effected by the use of auxiliaries. Amo has over a hundred of these inflexions: love has seven, viz., love, lovest, loves, loveth, loved, lovedst, loving, and of these seven, the three forms lovest, lovethy lovedst, are no longer employed in ordinary speech. Voice is the form of a verb which shows whether the subject of the sentence stands for the doer or for the object of the action expressed by the verb. Mood is the form of a verb which shows the mode or manner in which the action is repre- sented. Tense is the form of a verb which shows the tin:c at which the action is represented as occur- 136 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 'ilfj I'!' ring and the completeness or incompleteness of the action. Number is the form of a verb which shows whether we are speaking of one thing or of more than one. Person is the form of a verb which shows whether the subject of the sentence stands for the speaker, for the person addressed, or for some other thing. We shall treat of these modifications of the verb in order. 145. I. Voice. In English there are two Voices, an Active and a Passive Voice. The Active Voice is that, form of a verb which shows that the subject of the sentence stands for the doer of the action expressed by the verb. The Passive Voice is that form of a verb which shows that the subject of the sentence stands for the object of the action expressed by the verb. Thus in 'Brutus stabl:)ed Caesar,' Brutus, the subject of the sentence, represents the doer or agent of the act of stabbing expressed by the verb : stabbed is in the active voice. In 'Caesar was stabbed by Brutus,' Caesar, the subject of the sentence, represents the object or recipient of the act of stabbing : was stabbed is in the passive voice. Now as the subject of the sentence, \-'i->en the verb is in the passive, stands for the object or recei ^r of the action, it is clear that, unless the action denoted by the verb passes on to some object, the passive construction will be impossible. Accordingly, only Transitive verbs admit of a passive use. INFLEXIONS OF VERBS. m 9 The parts of the auxiliary verb be are used with the perfect participle of a transitive verb to form the passive voice: *I am injured/ 'You were beaten,' 'He is captured,' * They will be assisted,' * We have been turned out' 146. The reader may easily be misled by such forms as *I am come.' 'You are arrived,' 'He is gone,' 'They are fallen,' in which the verbs are intransitive, and their perfect tenses therefore are not passive, though they look as if they were. In 'I am injured,* 'You were beaten,' the participles injured and beaten are passive : in ' I am come,* ' You are arrived,' the participles come and arrived are active. There is a slight difference of meaning between the forms ' He is arrived,' * He is gone ' and ' He has arrived,' ' He has gone.' ' He has gone ' lays stress on the action, ' He is gone' calls attention to the fact that he continues in a certain state, namely that of absence. We can say ' He has come and gone,' but not * He is come and gone,' as is becomes unsuitable in connexion with come, when he no longer continues here, but is gone. 147. Verbs which take a double object admit of two forms of passive construction according as one object or the other is made the subject of the passive verb. A few illustrations will make this clear. m Active. Passive. He told me a story. ( ^ ^^^'"^ ^^'^^ ^^^^ "^^ ^^ ^''^' \. I was told a story by him. You granted him f Permission was granted him by you. permission. ( He was granted permission by you. They awarded him f A prize was awarded him by them. a prize. \ He was awarded a prize by them. The reader may construct further illustrations for him- self, using the verbs promise, ask, refuse, show, offer, forgive^ for the purpose. Fir ,t « 138 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. The secondary forms, in which the Indirect Object, originally in the dative case, becomes the subject, are harsh in sound and illogical in their nature, but there is much of laissez-faire, or 'go as-you-please,' about ICnglish syntax, and we find such ex[)ressions even in good writers. This object after the passive verb is called the Retained Object. Whether it is the Direct or the Indirect Object that is thus retained the reader can easily determine, by shifting the position of the two objects in the etjuivalent sentence expressed in the active voice and noticing which of the two recjuires a preposition when it comes last. The object which requires a preposition is the Indirect (Jbject. So, ' I forgive you your fault,' becomes * I forgive your fault to you'; *1 will allow you your expenses,' 'I v/ill allow your expenses to you'; 'I have got you the book,' ' 1 have got the hook for you.' In each example you is the Indirect Object. 148. There is a curious use of certain transitive verbs in the active form with a passive meaning. In Latin (irammar, verbs of active form and passive meaning are called Quasi-passive : 7'aJ)uio, * I am beaten,' exuio, ' I am banished,' are exam[)lcs. Some of our English Quasi- passive verbs express sensations : we say of a thing that it ^fci'/s soft, fas/cs nice, sme/ls sweet,' whereas it is really we who feel, taste, and smell the thing. In like manner we say that a sentence 'reads badly,' that a book 'sells well,' and that a house ' lels readily.' 149. II. Mood. The Moods, or changes of form assumed by a verb to show the different ways in which tlie action is thought of, are four in number : (i) The Indicative Mood contains the forms used (i) to make statements of fact, (2) to ask questions, 4R. Object, ire hiirsh much of itax, and etained t Object nine, by jiiivalent ig which St. The t Object, our fault low your luive got Indirect ive verbs n Latin iiing are 'xulo, ' I \\ Quasi- ing that is really manner jk ^ sells INFLEXIONS OF VERliS. >39 verb to )ught of, used (i) istions, fk and (3) to express suppositions in which the events are treated as if they were facts. (ii) The Imperative Mood contains the form used to give commands. (iii) The Subjunctive Mood contains the forms used to represent actions or states conceived as possible or contingent, but not asserted as facts. (iv) The Infinitive Mood is the form which denotes actions or states without reference to person, number, or time. 150. (i) Uses of the Indicative Mood. The Indicative Mood is used (i) to slate facts; 'The man stole the watch,' 'He will be punished': (2) to ask (juestions; 'Which man stole the watch?' 'Will he be i)unishcd?' (3) to express suppositions in which the conditions are dealt with as if they were facts; 'If it is fine to-morrow (the condition may be fulfilled, or it may not, but assuming that as a fact it is,) we will go for a pic-nic' 151. (ii) Use of the Imperative Mood. Com- mands must be addressed to the i)erson who is to obey them. The person addressed is the second i)crson. Accordingly tlie Imperative Mood can be used only in the second person singular and plural. Such expressions as '6V we forth together,' or ' Let us };o forth together,' in which we utter a wish or exhortation res[)ecting the first person, are not instances of the Imperative mood : they are substitutes for it. Go 7V(' is subjunctive : let us j^o is a circumlocution, or roundabout form of expression, whicli contains an im- perative of let in the second person and an infinitive ^v : expanded it becomes you let, or alloze/ (imperative) us (object) go, or to go (infinitive). 152. A tense which is expressed by a single word is called a Simple Tense : a tense which is expressed by the help of an auxiliary verb is called a Compound Tense. te i I40 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. m English verbs contain only two simple tenses in the Indica- tive and Subjunctive moods, namely, the Present and the Past Indefinite. The verb to be possesses a fairly complete set of distinct forms in the two tenses of these moods, but in other verbs a difference of inflexion is seen only in the 2nd and 3rd persons singular of the present subjunctive as compared with the indicative. Now as the 2nd person singular is used to-day exclusively in the language of prayer and of poetry, the difference of form between the indicative and the subjunctive mood can be detected in ordinary speech only in the 3rd person singular of the present tense, so long as we confine ourselves to the simple tenses. Thou stealest, Be steals, are indicative forms : If thou steal, if he steal, are subjunctive forms. But as we no longer employ thou in the language of every-day life, the sum-total of inflexional differences in the simple tenses, according as the mood is indicative or subjunctive, is represented by the forms he steals and if he steal. 153. The student should make a careful study of the tenses conjugated below : Plur. 1,2,3. are To Be Indicative Subjunctive Present Past Prese.U Past am was be were art wast be wert is was be were were be were To Steal Indicative Subjunctive Present Past Present steal stole steal stealest stolest steal steals stole steal steal stole steal There are no separate forms for a Past Tense in the subjunctive of any verb except the verb to be. Conse- quently, to illustrate the uses of the subjunctive we have recourse to this verb. In other verbs the inflexions are reduced to two, one of which, as we said, has no place in ordinary speech, while the use of the other is passing away irom modern English. The subjunctive mood has decayed 'MAR. the Indica- mt and the ly complete moods, but only in the subjunctive 2nd person anguage of etween the detected in liar of the the simple forms : If But as we lay life, the pie tenses, unctive, is idy of the UBJUNCTIVE Present steal steal steal steal use in the f. Conse- 2 we have ^xions are 3 place in )sing away s decayed INF. EXIONS OF VERBS. 141 till it is almost dead. It is really alive only in the Past Subjunctive of the verb to be, especially in its ist person singular. A speaker who employed the Present Subjunctive of to be, and said, quite correctly, 'li I be there, I shall see him,' would be supposed by many people of average educa- tion, (unless their education had included the facts of English Grammar,) to be making the same blunder as a labourer makes when he says ' I be here ; I be just going home.' Let the reader ask himself whether he would be more likely to say * I shall play tennis this afternoon, if it be fine,' subjunctive, or 'if it is fine,' indicative: *I shall stay in, if it rain,' subjunctive, or 'if it rains,' indicative. There is a quaint formalism about the employment of the subjunc- tive which makes us avoid it in every day conversation. 154. (iii) Usesof the Subjunctive Mood. There are cases however in which we still use the subjunctive mood, and there are other cases in which its use would be legiti- mate, though it has been ousted from its place by the indi- cative. We still say ' If I were you,' not ' If I was you,' and we ought to say * If he ti'cre you,' though * If he ims you' is to be heard quite as often. Of these actual or possible uses a book on Grammar must take cognisance. The Subjunctive Mood may be employed to express (i) a wish : * O that I were dead ! ' ' Perish idolatry I ' * God save the Queen ! ' or an exhortation : 'Go we forth,' 'Tdl me he that knows.' This latter use of the subjunctive is almost obsolete, even in poetry. We should now say 'Let us go,' *Let him tell.' (2) a purpose : 'Work lest thou lose the prize,' 'Mind that the letter be written.' (3) uncertainty : •' I'll tell him so, whoever he be: (4) supposition : ' If 1 zvere you, I would go.' There is thus a scarcity of inflected forms in the Subjunctive, and we manifest a growing reluctance to use those which we still possess. Of 142 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. the ten or tvyelve tenses with which the Subjunctive mood is credited in the Conjugat.oncf an Active Verb, as set out in many works on En.Ii h Grammar, some are identical in form with the tenses of the Indicative, and others which d.fTer. differ only in the form of the auxiliary. If we are asked whether any particular tense-form, which is identical in appear- ance :n bo h moods, is subjunctive or indicative in a certain contexfthe answer will be suggested, if we substitute for the tense-form in question an equivalent expression compounded with the verb /. be, as the? verb/" ^. marks the d.lference between subjunctive and indicati;e by a vlria- t.on in Its mflex,ons. Thus, suppose we wish to determine the mood of AX., in 'The master aske/.v, we will approach the treatment of them without any historical encumbrances and will endeavour to give such a description of them as shall be appropriate to their character at the present day. Let us take the sentence — ( 1 ) ^ To heal the sick is a noble work.* In wjiat other ways can we make this assertion, employ- ing some form in -ing of the verb heal for our subject and leaving the rest of the sentence unchanged? We can say — (2) ' 2he healing 0/ the sick is n noble work-,' — and (3) * Healing the sick is a noble work.' And whether we say lo heal, or Ihe healing of, or healing, the meaning is the same as if we said * The cure of the sick.' AR. itive. W« though the hed to the le meaning jssary to be , or similar Gerundial him hear.' '. ' ' These re is water come to plexiiy to very form opose to 11 existing ping with lish. To xisted six nit as the history of t of them eavour to )priate to INFLEXIONS OF VERBS 145 I, employ- bject and ' — and )r healing, f the sick.' Now citre is a noun. So it is clear that these various forms of the verb heal are e(iuivalcnt to nouns. We have seen that to heal is the simple infinitive. 1 i the hcalinii '/. healiNi^ is evidently a noun : it takes the article before it, and it is followed by a noun dependent on it in the possessive case. Thus only healifii;; in the third sentence remains for con- sideration. What are we to call it ? {a) Some say a noun, liut is it exactly like an ordi- nary noun? No, for it takes an objective case after it instead of being followed by a possessive. {i)) Some say an infinitive. * I/en Iwg the sick' means just the same as * to heal the sick': * to heal' is infinitive, therefore healing is infinitive. {c) Some say a gerund. The Gerund in T,atin grammar is a verba! noun, occurring in certain cases, and possessing this peculiarity that, although a noun, it governs another noun just as the verb from which it is formed governs a noun. This description seems to agree very well with the character of the word healing when we say * Healing the sick is a noble work,' for healing is followed by the sick in the objective case. Now if a person chooses to call healing in this context an Infinitive, or a Noun, or a (ierund, he is at liberty to do so, and it really is a matter of small importance which name he selects ; for the Infinitive is a noun, and the Gerund is a noun. But as we aheady have two forms of the Infini- tive wilh to on our hands, there is an advantage in not pressing the name 'Infinitive' into service to describe the form in -ing. And as we already have another form of the verbal noun, with the before it and of after it, there is an advantage in refrain-ng from calling this form in -ing also a noun ; so we may as well agree to call it a Gerund, and we will give its definition thus ; W. E. G. lO ..*!»' 146 ELEMENTS OE EAOVJS// GRAMMAR. A Gerund is a verbal noun in -ing which, when formed from a transitive verb, can take after it an object. 159. Entirely different from all these noun-forms is the Participle in -ing. Participles are adjectives. To confound one of the preccdipi^ forms with a participle in ■i/ij; is to confound a noun with an adjective, a name of a thing with a word which Hmits the application of the name; and this is a very serious confusion iiuiecd. A Participle is a verbal adjective. The active participle of a transitive verb differs from an ordinary adjective in taking an object. Thus in the sentence ' I saw a doctor healing his patients,' healing refers to * doctor,' limiting the application of the name, and at the same time takes an object his patients^ just as the verb in its finite forms would take as an object his patients: e.g. ' He healed his patients.' Why are beginners inclined to describe every verbal form in -ing as a participle ? Because, as a fact, we do make use of a large number of present participles in the conjugation of our verbs. All the tenses expressing incomplete action are formed by the aid of this participle in -ing ; ' I am writing,' 'You were speaking,' 'He will be waidng,' 'They will have been seaiehing,' are examples, and the reader will realise on reflexion that they illustrate a very common form of ex- pression. Except in conjugating the imperfect tenses of our verbs, however, the participle in -ing is not largely used. Thus, though we might possibly say ' Meeting Smith and hearing you were in town, I came to see you,' yet we should be more likely to say ' I met Smith and heard you were in town, so I have come to see you.' The Participle in -ing is an active participle. It is usually called the Present Paiticiple, and we shall give it INFLEXIONS OF VERBS. 147 this name, though it would be more properly termed the Imperfect or Incomplete Participle, as it denotes not time but unfinished action, — action ?,ti"l in progress : writing, healing. Our other Participle li tiie Perfect Participle, denoting action whi'.h is completed and no longer in jirogress. This is usually called the Past Participle, and we shall employ the ordinary though less accurate name for it. It ends in -en, -n, beaten, shotvn., or -ed, -d, t, hailed, loved, slept. If the verb is a transitive verb, this Participle is passive. 160. Notice these points connected with the Participles: (i) The Passive Participle combined with the verb have forms tenses of the active verb : t^us, * He has stolen the watch,' * I had eaten my dinner.' The explanation of the construction is this : * He has stolen the watch ' was once expressed thus, ' He has (or holds, or possesses) the watch stolen,' stolen being originally in agreement with ivatch. So, *I had eatei) my dinner' was once * 1 had (or held, or pos- sessed) my dinner eaten.' Then came a lime when the real force of /uiTe in this connexion was lost, its notional mean- ing disappeared, and it became a mere auxiliary, so that no contradiction was apparent, as it would formerly have been apparent, in saying 'I have lost my watch,' though it is obvious that, if the watch is lost, we cannot correctly say * I have (or hold, or possess) my watch lost,' as in such a case I hold or possess it no longer. (ii) We have adopted this use of have with the Past Participle of intransitive verbs, and we say ' I have been,' *I have stood,' T have dreamt,' 'I have slept,' though we cannot say ' I am been,' ' I am stood,' ' I am dreamt,' * I am slept.' The Participle of intransitive verbs is Perfect, or Past, but it is not Passive. 161. The results of this discussion of the Verb Infinite may be summarized in a convenient form thus : 10 — 2 148 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. [I. Simple Infinitive: |2. Gerundial Infinitive marking Purpose: 3. Verbal Noun with M^... ^.. 4. Gerund. I. Present Participle Active in -ing. The forms of the Verb Infinite are Nouns fwith to- Un -tng- Adjectives • (2. Past Participle in -en, -«, -ed, -d, -t. 162. Illustrations of these form<5. 1. Simple Infinitive : ' To work hard is the way to get on.' * I can go. ' • We heard him ca/L ' ' Better dzae// in the midst of alarms 'Than reign in this horrible place,' 2. Gerundial Infinitive : 'The sower went forth to sow.' 'Bread to eat,' i.e. 'for eating.' 'Ears to hear,' i.e. ' for hearing.' 3. Verbal Noun: 'They brought flowers for the decorating • Tongue^ INFLEXIONS OF VERBS. 155 The duplicate forms given above belong to verbs of the Strong Con- jugation. The following are instances of a similar distintition in Weak Verbs : ^ '^''"'"^ ^oe The foe was dreaded. A lighted candle The candle was lit, ^^'"^ '"^^t The meat was roasted. On bended knee His knees were hent. (/) The following orthographical modifications, or changes in spell- ing, in the inflexion of verbs should be noticed. 1. An <£■ at the end of the verb is dropped before another vowel : so lm>e, lov-ing; shape, shap-ing, shaken. (:,..tice, however, singeing from singe, to avoid confusion with singing from sing.) 2. To verbs ending in a si!)ilant, es is addecf in the 3rd person singular of the ])rt'sent indicative and sounded as a distinct syllable: so pass-es, pnsh-es, tonch-es. 3. After a consonant, y becomes ie when -s or -d follows : so, rel-ies, rel-ied: but after a vowel, y is kept: so, play-s, ' 'ay-cd. (Compare the founation of plurals of nouns in -y, e.g. lady, boy, and of comparatives of adjectives in -y, e.g. merry, gay.) 4. In some verbs -ayed is written -aid: so, laid, paid. said. 5. A final consonant, preceded by an accented short vowel, is doubled before e and /, to mark the pronunciat ' m as short : so, shop-p-ino-, bid-d-en, excel-l-ed, prefer-red ; but differ-ed, bffer-ed. ** 170. In the following lists of Strong and Weak Verbs, with their Past Tense and Past Participle, the student will find only those about the principal parts uf which he is likely to feel any uncertainty. For convenience of reference the arrangement is alphabetical : a distribution of Strong and Weak Verbs in classes, according to their mode of forming their Past Tense and Past Participle, is of no value except to those whose researches carry them back to the earlier stages of our language. In the Questions at the end of this chapter, many of the verbs omitted from these hsts will be found. The reader should test his knowledge of their principal parts and mark those in which he makes any mistake. He will get at the Past Participle most easily by thinking of it in its combination with / have to form the Present Perfect tense : thus, supposing that he is asked to give the principal parts of spring, he may blunder in the ■M 156 ELEMENTS OF EXGTJSH GRAMMAR. principal parts, if he tries mechanically to repeat xpring^ sprangy sprioii^, and may say spring, sprung sprang, but if he thinks of the forms as he is in the habit of using them, I spring, I sprangy I have sprung, it is much less likely that he will go wrong. The forms given below in brackets are those less fretiuently used, or used only in special phrases. The letter IV. prelixe.l to forms in the list of Strong Verbs indicates that those forms are Weak. 171. List of Strong Verbs, rn-s. Past P. Part. Pres. Past P. Part. abide abode abode lade laden awake awoke awoke W. laded laded //'. awakeil awaked lie lay lain bear bore born mow mown (carry) bore borne W. mowed mowed behold beheld beheld (beholden) ring rang rung bid bade, bid bidden, bid rive W. rived riven bind bound bound (boundcn) seethe sod sodden blow blew blown \V. seethed seethed chide chid chidden, chid sew W. sewed sewn, sewed choose chose chosen sow \V. sowed sown, sowed cleave clave cloven shake shook shaken W. cleft cleft shear (shore) shorn crow crew W. sheared sheared W. crowed crowed shine shone shone dig dug dug shew W '. shewed shewn IV (digged ) (^ligged) show W si lowed shown draw drew drawn shrink shrank shrunk (shrunke drink drank drunk sit sat sat eat ate eaten slay slew slain fly tlcw down slide slid slid (sliddcn) forbear forbore forborne sling glung slung forget forgot f-^rgotten slink slunk slunk forsake forsook . forsaken smite smote smitten get got got (gotten) stride strode stridden grow grew grown strive strove striven hang hung iiung swear swore sworn JV. (han}ie( i) (hanged) swell swollen hew hewed hewn, hewed W . swelled swelled 1R. t spring, f:, but if ig them, ;cly that y used, or i indicates INFLEXfONS OF VERBS. tS7 t. 1 id ;n ed , sewed sowed Ml I cd (shrunken) Islidden) Pres. Past P. Part. tear lore (tare) torn thrive tliruve thriven throw threw thrown tread trod trodden (trod) wake woke woke Pns. ■ Past II'- waked we.ir wore weave wove win won wring wrung P. Part. waked worn woven. won wrung 172. List of Weak Verbs. The following verbs show a departure from formation of the Past Tense and Past Participle Pies. bend bereave beseech l)etide hired blend breed cast catch clolhe dream dwell dee gird have Past bent bereft bereaved beso)ight betid bled blended bred cast caught clothed clad dreamed dreamt dwelled dwelt fled girded girt had P. Part. lient bereft bereaved besought betid bled blent blended !)red cast caught clothed clad dreamed dreamt dwelled dwelt fled girded girt had Pres. Past kneel knelt kiy laid lean leaned leant learn learned learnt leave left light lighted, make made pen(conrme) penned pen (write) penned read rend rid seek shoe speed weep work read rent rid sought shod sped wept wrought worked the regular in -d or -/. /'. Part. knelt laid leaned leant learned learnt left lit lighted, lit made penned, pent penned read rent rid sought shod sped wej)! wrought worked m ■' !1 C ten (lea en n len led /A'// has a Strong V. Part, hogpen: 'He hath holpen his servant Israel.' Lose had a P. Part, lorn preserved m forlorn. Had and made are contracted from //a?Wand inaked. ll'rou^/U from Wur/i shows metathesis, or transposition of con- sonants. 158 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. Go (P. Part, gone) sut^plics its I'ast I'ense went from wend, which is now inflecteH as a \\ en verb, wended- Yclept is Irom an Old En„-. verb meariing 'to call.' The > is a cor- ruption of the pi. iix ge-, which occur« in the P. Part, in modern German. 173. Conjugation of the Verb. The collection of all the forms of a Verb, by which we mark its Voice, Mood, Tense, Number, and Person, is called its Conjugation. We have already seen that our supply ot intlexions is quite insufficient to mark many of the distinctions of voice, mood, and tense, which we wish to express. In conjugating our verbs we therefore make use of other verbs called Auxiliaries. These Auxiliary Verbs will be discussed in the next chapter, but as the reader possesses a practical knowledge of his own language, it will be no embp/rassment to him, if we complete our treatment of the verb generally, by inserting at this point illustrations ot the conjugation of a verb, although to do this will involve the employment of those Auxiliaries to the treatment of which we are to come later on. First we will give the conjugation of a Weak and of a Strong Verb containing all their simple forms (that is, those not made by the aid of auxiliary verbs), both inflected and uninflected. The reader should notice (i) that the con- jugation when confined to the simple forms is of very limited extent, and (2) that the inflexions of Strong verbs are the same as those of Weak verbs except in the Past Tense and Past Participle. Take as the Weak verb want, and as the Strong verb break\ * Low's English Language, pp. 129, 148. m. * INFLEXIONS OF VERBS, 159 Verb Finite. Prese-.t. Indicative. Sr^T'" • riVE. Sirr. t. want break want 1 eak 2. want-est hreak-est wani nreak V want . break -s want breiik PI », a, 3. want break want break Past. Swg, 1. wanted bioke [wanted brol< 2. want-edst brok-c-st wanted broke 3- want-ed broke wanted broke PI' 1, 2, :,. want-ed broke wanted broke] Imperative. X^pl'V'^^'"' break Verb Infinite. Infinitive (to) want, buak Gerund: w.int-ing, break-ing Participles 1^^*-''^^^= w. .t-ing break-ing (Past: want-ed, brok-en Next let us take the conjugation of the verT^ Weuk^ m. ing use of Auxiliaries. To bring out, where possible, the distinction between Indicative and Subjunctive forms, the Third Person Sii. ilar of each Tense is gr en, he or it being understood as a bubjecu i6o ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. > U > (/I (/I e c v ^■^ -^ 2 2^ c-^ c (U ^ rt lb ^ 2 J5 ^. D rt rt > W u Q C u u. -• o a; J3 (4 u c ■ FN tr>c Si c > H U I I— t H W CL, 5?; Pi w o < en w w ii s Is g wjg V C o OJ rj 3 z ^ rt \ c "g rt > > », 01 rt rt p2 CC O U tS I- o o c B '" y ^ HH O. P^ Present ^♦v„%,^ a c 8 c ■ *4 ^ rt -, c ^ UJ ^ C c V u eet p. 175, (2) JJraell is the infinitive to divell used as subject of is understood : 'To dwell in the midst of alarms is better than to reign in this horrible place.' The omission of /^ Ijcfore the infinitive as subject of a verb was not uncommon formerly.] 5. In the expressions (i) I had to go, (2) I had rather go, by what mood is //^;./ followed, and why? 6. Give four verbs which have only one form for present tense, past tense, and past participle; also four which have two forms; and four in which all these three parts are different in form. 7. How do you distinguish between transitive and intransitive verbs ? To which of these classes does the verb in the following sentence belong? — 'Not a drum was heard.' What are the transitive verbs corresponding io fall, lie, sit, rise! 8. Is any alteration necessary in the following sentence? — 'Stand the gun in the corner.' [If stand can be used transitively, signifying 'make or cause to stand,' the sentence is right. We do use it in this way in conversation, but in the more formal literary language, the transitive set or place would be employed. ] i62 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 9. What class of verbs may be put into the passive voice? Change the verbs in the foUovirig sentence int<. thi- passive voice :— 'The Persians attacked the (J reeks again, but ihey did not make any impression on the Uttle army.' , , , u o How have the subjects and ol)jccts been affected by the changer" 10 Distinguish clearly between the meanini; of It is deslroyoi. He is dfcnvecU on the one hand, and that of It is fallen. He is risen, on the other. 1 1. What does the infinitive mood expresa? Parse fully the verbs in the following :— 'It is laughable to see beginners play.* 11. State the various ways in which the inliniiive mood ^ay be used, (live illustrative sentences. 13. Correct the mistakes in the following sentences :— ♦The lion, having laid down, roared loud.' ^ ' As he lay down the weigiit, it slipp-od and has broke his arm. ^ 'The look of unmoval)le endurance which underlaid his expression. 'He lay himself down.' 'Thou dashest him to earth— there let him lay.' '1 would not like to say that the pistol laid yesterday as it lies now. 'Will you lose that knot for me?' Comment on any grammatical peculiarity in the lines— 'And while his harp responsive rung, 'Twas thus the latest minstrel sung,' 14. Is it correct to say that the Infinitive Mood does not mark differences in the time of the action? Consider the forms to 7vritc, to have 7i,' ' There zvas a Palmerston.' 7.. A Copula, connecting the terms of a proposition : *Th€ hoy is lazy,' 'A griffin is an imaginary beast.' This account of is belongs to logic rather than to grammar however : in the language of grammar we should describe is here as a verb of Incomplete Predication. 3. An AniXr ary of Voice and Tense: 'He is beaten,' * He is beating,' ' He is come.' 176. Have shows contraction in some of its forms, — hasl for havcst, has for haves, had for havcd. It is used as — 1. A Notional Verb, meaning 'to possess,' and then admits of a passive use: *'l'his suggestion has long been hcid in mind.' 2. An Auxiliary of Tense to form the Perfects : 'He has written a letter/ ' He will ha7)e finished his work,' 'They had missed the train.' CHj this construction see p. 147. u i66 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, 177. Shall was originally a past tense, meaning 'I have owed,' hence, 'I must pay,' 'I am under an obligation, or necessity.' The German word for * debt,' Schuld, shows the same root. The idea of obligation is still conveyed in such expressions as 'You sJwuhi do your duty,' 'He should not say so.' Shall acquired the sense of a present, and a weak past was then formed from it, but the absence of the end;ng -s from the third person singular shall is due to the fact that it was formerly a past tense. The same circum- stance explains the fc ms can^ may, will, must, in the third singular, instead oi cans, mays, wills, wusis. Compare these forms : * Present. Sing. I. shall ■2. shal-t 3. shall n. I, 2, 3. shall will wil-t will will Past. can may can-st may-(e)st can may can may Sing. I, 3, /v. I, 2, 3. should would could might Si:ig. 2. should(e)st would(e)st could(e)st might(e)st 178. Will as an auxiliary contains only the tenses given above. As an independent, notional verb it can be conjugated regularly throughout : ' I did this because you ivillfd it so,' ' It has been unlled by the authorities.' Old English had a negative form nill, meaning 'will not,' as Latin has volo and nolo. Nill survives in the adverb 7villy- nilly, i.e. will he, nill he, — 'whether he will or won't.' 179. Shall and will express the contrast between doing a thing under compulsion fiom outside and doing a thing from one's own inclination. Used as auxiliaries they express (i) futurity, (2) determination. To express futurity, shall vs, the auxiliary of the first person, ivill of the second and third. To express determination, will is the auxiliary of the first * Low's English Language , p. 143. AUXILIARY AND DEFECTIVE VERBS. 167 person, shall of the second and third. More will be said on the subject of this distinction in dealing with tlie Syntax of these verbs. An Englishman never uses them wrongly : an Irishman or a Scotchman seldom uses them without trip- ping. Why was it absurd of the Irishman in the water to say, according to the venerable story, ' I will be drowned and nobody shall save me'? Because 'I will' and 'nobody shall' indicate the resolution, or determination, of the speaker, and not simple futurity. : 180. May formerly ended in ^^, which is still written, though not sounded, in might. As a Notional Verb it expresses permission, ' You may go out for a walk,' or possibility, 'He may pass his examination': in the latter case, emphasis is usually laid upon the word. As an Auxiliary it occurs as a sign of the subjunctive mood: 'Give him a book that he may amuse himself,' 'They have locked the door so that he may not get out.' 181. Must was a past tense but is now used as a present indicative. It has no inflexions but can be used of all persons. It expresses the idea of necessity : ' You must work,' ' I must get that book,' ' This must be the case.' 182. Can was the past tense of a verb meaning 'to know : ' compare the German, kciinen^ ' to know,' and tlie English, con^ ' to learn ' ; also cutming, originally ' knowing.' What a man has learnt, he is able to do, so can came to signify 'to be able.' The / in could deserves particular notice. It has no business to be there, but has been inserted owing to a mistaken notion of a:i.ii0'.y with should and would, in which words the / is righrly present as part of the roots, shall and will. Uncouth, ' unknown,' and so * odd,' or ' awkward,' shows the correct spelling without the /. i • ! ! i68 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 183. Dare is (i) an Intransitive Verb, meaning *I venture,' and (2) a Transitive Verb, meaning 'I challenge.' (i) The Intransitive dare was originally a past tense which came to be treated as a present, and a past tense durst was then formed from it. The ^ of durst is part of the stem, and not of the inllexion of the second person singular, which would be durstest. As dare was a past tense, the third singular of the present indirative properly takes no -j, *He dare not say so.' lUit the Intransitive Verb has been confused with the Transitive, and before an Infinitive with to the form dares is used : ' He actually dares to say so.' (2) The Transitive Verb is regularly conjugated: *He dared me to do this.' 184. Ought was originally the past tense of the verb 07ve which meant, first, 'to have,' aiid tiien 'to have as a duty,' ' to be under an obligation.' Shakespeare often uses owe in the sense of 07im^ or ' possess.' It seems a little odd that * I owe a thousand pounds' might signify in the Elizabethan age either ' I possess a thousand pounds,' or « I am a thou- sand pounds in debt,' but our modern words 07vn and owe express the same contrast, and the notion of possession is the older meaning of the two. As ought is now used with the sense of a present, we have to express past obHgation by altering the tense of the dependent infinitive. Thus we render non debet hoc facere, 'he ought not to do this,' non debtiit hoc facere, ' he oughtn't to have done this,' which is less defensible logically than the vulgar form of ex- pression, 'he hadn't ought to do this.' 185. Need is used without the final s in the third singular present, when it means 'to be under the necessity': 'He need not go.' The reason for the omission is not clear, as need\va.s not originally a past tense which has acquired a present force. Hence we cannot explain the absence AUXILIARY AND DEFECTIVE VERBS, 169 of the ^ from need as we explain its absence from can, may, shall, laill, dare. ^' 186. Do represents two verbs originally distinct. Do nieanmg 'to be good for' (Latin valere), which occurs in such expressions as 'This will do nicely,' 'How d'ye doV had no connexion originally with the do of general use ' to make, perform,' \.^imfacere. The former verb was confused however m its conjugation with do, meaning 'make,' and assumed its inflexions, did, done. Do ^(Latin facio) forms compounds, don, ' to do on " to put on, of clothing: doj^, 'to take off': ^ douse^ or ^'dout to put out,' of a light or fire : dup, ' to do up,' or ' fasten,'' of a door. ' In the Present Tense, doest, doeth have contracted forms dost, doth. The uses of do are important : .w'"^-/u-'' ^,°'^"^^ ^''^' "'"^"^"g '"^^'^^^ perform': He did his work.' 2. As an Auxiliary — (^) in place of the present or past indefinite: 'I do repent Tor I repent ' ; ' He did rejoice ' for ' He rejoiced ' ; lliey did eat' for 'They ate.' The auxiliary do is here unem])haiic. {b) to emphasize our meaning : n do think so • ' 'He ^/^a' try hard'; 'They ^zV/ eat.' {c) in interrogative sentences : *Z>^ you think so?' 'Did he go ? ' {d) in negative sentences: 'He does not think so'- 'I did not go.' * The verb dependent on the auxiliary is in the infinitive mood. 3- As a substitute for other verbs, except 'be'- 'He reads more than you do (.ead)'; 'I said I wouldn't take the I70 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, money and I didvi\ (take it) ' ; ' You play well and so does (play) your brother.' 187. The following vertjs are practically obsolete : Wit, ' to know,' had its Present Tense ivot, and Past Tense ivist, without inflexions marking person : * I'll find Romeo to comfort you : I wot well where he is ' ; 'He wist not what to say.' The infinitive to wit now signifies * namely.' Worth is all that remains of an old verb signifying to be or become. * Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day ' means ' Woe betide,' or ' befal' Quoth is c Past Tense, the Present of which appears in the compound bequeath. It occurs now only in the first and third persons singular and always precedes the i ronoun : ''quoth I,' 'quoth he.' Questions. 1. Explain the term Copula. Make the copula explicit in the sentence 'The firo burns.' [The word coptda belongs to Logic rather than to Grammar. In Logic, the proposition 'Man is mortal' would be described as consisting of two terms and a copula : the term man is the subject, the term moiial is tlie predicate, and the word is, which connects the two, is the copula. In Grammar, mortal is not the predicate, but together with is it forms the predicate. To bring the sentence 'The fire burns' into the form of the proposition in Logic we must say 'The fire w burning.' We have then made the copula explicit.] 2. Explain the meaning of subject, predicate, and coptda, and point out each of them and their expansions in the following sentence:— 'Is this a dagger that I see before me?' 3. Give in outline the history of the Auxiliary Verbs. Discuss the following constructions : — (i) I did come. (2) I have come. (3) I ought to come. (4) I ought to have come. I*tf CHAPTER XVIJl. Adverbs. These vanations i„ Jr;!: ttr:, -'h ^ '"r takes place are expressed by a.lvcrbs Ti ,'"" asserted in the sentence ' He bo vied ' ^« ^ "'e ac„o„ limited or modified, as regards th° \' '^^""'^^'^ as if I say -yesterday, a^ ':^, t 7,; ^^ " ---d. as regards the manner, if I say 'l.adlv' T ^ ''"" ' the statement 'He oowled ' 'ha ' en '"t ™*''"^""' "^ removed when I sav ■ v. . , ''"'S'^ measure Just as adject" -e's Zt .If ^^ ,L t'o^'' '''' '''^>-' so adverbs limit the application of I ■- '° """^s, as the words 'clever ho! ' , ' '° ''"'°'"- J"s^t tl«n the word • bov ■ so "^he ' 'T''^'^'" '" '''''' "''i'^s applicable to fewer act on tl ™^. ^""'^"^ yesterday ' are Again, Adje; esn ;:;'., ;::f'' 'f-'^'!' are such as. in many instances bt'y'nrlt:i„"'f "'^^ 1^:^ °r "'' "' '"'^'^""^ ">'^ " "^ - " ^ er panson : another is bv the im*- nf ^^ u , • ^ "' decrvpf^ u-^u J -^ °* adverbs vvh ch denof^ ^egree. If the reader will refer to the chinter J^ 1 r flexion of AdiectiveQ h^ « n ciiaptei on the In- AQjectives, he will see that the Demoostrative * 172 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, Adjectives, e.g. f/iis, that, first, second, do not admit of Comparison at all; that the same thing is true of the definite Quantitative Adjectives, like notic, both, and the Cardinal Numerals ; and that even of the Qualitative Adjectives there are several which cannot be compared. Hence it is only to some adjectives that adverbs can be applied. Moreover it is only some adverbs which are applicable to adjectives. Ad- verbs of time, place, manner, cannot be used to qualify adjectives, though they qualify verbs. The same remarks apply to the qualification of adverbs by other adverbs. We can say * very bad,' ' very badly,' but there is no meaning in saying 'here bad,' 'hither badly,' 'aiiyhow bad,' 'then badly,' for though these words may possibly occur together in sentences, reflexion will show that in such cases it is the verb, and not the adjective or adverb, which is modified. 189. We may classify Adverbs on three different principles. I. As Simple and Conjunctive. Most adverbs are simple. They contain a meaning in themselves: * He thinks so noWy '1 live here^ 'We were greatly pleased.' A few however have a meaning only when they are taken in connexion with another clause. ' He came when,' ' I waited while,' 'They are sitting where,' are meaningless assertions until the sentences are completed: 'He came when I called,' ' I waited while he wrote a letter,' ' They are sitting 7vhere we left them.' These adverbs have the force of conjunctions in joining clauses together. Hence they are called Conjunctive Adverbs. The reader will observe that in possessing this connecting force they resemble the so-called relative pronouns. In 'I know 7vho it is,' the clauses 'I know,' 'it is,' are united by the relative pronoun who : in ' I know where it is,' they are united by the con- junctive adverb where. : e taken ADVERBS, 173 190. 11. 1 xording to their Meaning. V? now, to-day fhen. vrsterday, soon, to-morrow I. Time I 'w Ivn^if} always, ever I ^;i/ nfun ? twice, 'arly, rarely I -wherei here, near, bcli a. Place < '^"^""'^^ hence, thence I whither} hither, thither I in what' ord, secondly, lastly 3. Degree, or Quai. ; ty .u.w muck ? scarce'.y, quite, little, exactly 4. Maxmor, or Quality hoxvl well, ill, and adverbs in -ly 5. Certainty certainly, not, perhaps 6. Season and Consequence 191. Yes and No. Yes and No ? w^ therefore, thus What are we to call the words They are usually classed as Adverbs of Affirmation and Negation, or, to use the term employed in our table, Adverbs of Certainty, Yet they are not exactly adverbs, for we cannot use them to modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs: we cannot say 'Hej^j did it,' 'He i^yes good,' 'He acted _j'^w deep.' ^ SlHl ADVERBS. 175 Pronouns for adverbs: ^ someivhat steep,' ^mne the v.orse.' Verbs for adverbs: 'It went crash through the window,' ^ Sviack went the whip. (b) Adverbs are sometimes used with nouns as if the adverbs were adjectives: The then prime-minister,' «The «^^f^ remarks,' 'My arrival here,' • His journey abroad: ^ o yivx^^ ^^^'^ any difference of meaning between 'He arrived ja>' and 'He arrived sajr/y'} ■^ rr.J^\f^^'''^T -f^/^ marks a quality of the agent he, the adverb safely marks he mode of the action arrived. If his horse ran away, and he narrowly escaped being upset, he might arrive 'safe,' but he certainly would not arrive 'safely,' that is, 'in a sa^e manner.' ^ sweS '?' """^ c^^ection required in-' It not only smells but tastes Sweetly is right : sweet is right too. With regard to this alternative use of adverbs and adjectives in certain connexions, we may say that the adverb qualifies the action indicated by the verb and the adjective de- notes a quality of the agent. But we employ the adverb or the adjective without giving any heed to this subtle distinction. Whether it is adverb or adjective or both that we make use of, seems to be very much a matter of idiom. We say 'I feel queer,' 'He seems disagreeable,' 'You look unpleasant, using adjectives. We say ' I ride clu.nsily,' ' F^ speaks rapidly,' 'You play capitally,' using adverbs. And we say 'I speak plain, or plainly,' 'He looks splendid, or splendidly,' 'You came quick or quickly, using adjectives or adverbs indifferently. Questions. 1. What difficulty would arise in conversation, if there were (a) no adjectives, [b) no adverbs ? [Illustrate the difficulty by an example of this sort. By the aid of adjectives we can distinguish different varieties of things, each of which distmctions would require a separate noun, if we had no adjectives Ihus, if we take wine as our noun, and good, old, and red, as its limiting adjectives, with these four words we can mark eight distinctions: viz (putting initial letters to represent the words) W, GW OW Rw' GOW, GRW, ORW, GOR W, and for these eight distinctions we should need eight nouns. This gives a very inadequate idea however of tlie economy of words which adjectives enable us to effect. For if we take the same three adjectives good, old, and red, and change the noun from wme to velvet, we shall need another eight nouns to express the varieties of velvet; another eight would be required to express the varieties of curtains, and so on. The three nouns wine, velvet, and curtains, in com- bination with the adjectives good, old and red, would need twenty-four words instead of six. 176 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, i.; f The same point might be illustrated as regards verbs and adverbs. By combining rvrite, :riue, -walk, with gracefully, slowly, well, we express by means of six words twenty-four distinctions. If we had no adverbs and wished to mark these distinctions, we should do so either (i) by using phrases composed of a preposition and a noun, e.g. ' with grace,' 'in a slow manner,' 'in a good style,' or (2) by adding twenty-one verbs to our vocabulary.] 1. Parse the word above in the following sentence:— 'The above remarks, as we noticed above, apply above all to the third class.' 3. What parts of speech may an adverb modify? Parse fully the words alone, almost, in each of the following sen- tences : — (a) He almost succeeded alone. {b) He succeeded almost alone. (olh...and, either... or, so... as, so... that as... so, whether... or, are examples of Correlative Con- junctions. Hsh^^^^i^'^'"'^^^^**^^^'^ -■"^'"war, § 290, and Gow's Method of Evg. MUB-iMW "\.i 1 88 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 211. Interjections. An Interjection is a sound which expresses an emotion but does not enter into the construction of the sentence. As Interjections have no connexion with the gram- matical structure of the sentence, their claim to recognition among the Farts of Speech is a small one. O I ah ! pooh 1 psha I like the barking of a dog or the lowing of a calf, are noises, not words. If there were any advantage in classify- ing these sounds, we might group them according to the feelings which they express, as Interjections denoting joy, disgust, surprise, vexation, and so forth. Interjections which are corruptions or contractions of words, or elliptical forms of expression, may be referred to the parts of speech to which they originally belong. So, adieu is * to God (I commend you),' goodbye is * God be with you,' hailJ is 'be thou hale' or 'healthy,' laiv 1 or lawks I is a corruption of ' Lord !' and tnarry! of ' Mary !' kl « 5 Ml 1. 1 ■v i iR. sses an ruction e gram- ognition : / pooh 1 calf, are classify- g to the ting joy, :tions of ferred to ng. So, i be with • lawks I CPIAPTER XXI. Compounds and Derivatives. 212. If we were to read down a column o. words on a page of an English dictionary, we should find that the great majority of these words have been formed from other words, either by joining two words together, or by adding to a word a sound which by itself is without meaning. Thus from man in combination with other words there have been made freeman, matikittJ, midshipman, footman, while, by the addi- tion of an element which has no significance alone, man/y, unman, mannikin, have come into existence. The former process is called Composition, the latter Derivation : words made by the former process are called Compounds, by the latter, Derivatives. The terms 'Derivation' and 'Derivative' are not well chosen, as their meaning is here narrowed down from the sense in which they are generally used. When we speak of the dcnvaiion c^ a word we usually signify the source from which it comes : thus we say \\\-x\phenomenc?t is of Greek 'derivation' and vertex oi Latin ' derivation,* though as these words have been trans- ferred ready-made from foreign languages they are not, in this special sense, English derivatives at all. But the em- ployment of the terms derivation and derivative, in contrast with the terms composition and compound, is too well estab- lished to allow of our making a change, and the student must therefore bear in mind that when used in this connexion ipo ELEMENTS OE ENGLISH GRAMMAR. I.'i: lib they indicate an important distinction in the mode of the formation of words. Composition is the formation of a word by joining words together. Derivation is the formation of a word — (i) by adding a part not significant by itself, or, (2) by modifying an existing sound. The part not significant by itself when attached at the beginning of a word is called a Prefix ; when attached at the end, a Suffix. A Hybrid is a compound or derivative contain- ing elements which come from diff"erent languages. 213. Unlike Greek and German, modern English does not lend itself readily to the formation of long compounds. If the reader cares to turn to his Greek lexicon and to look up the word beginning SpdpocjiotTo- or the still more formid- able Ac7raSoT6/xaxo-, he will see this facility for making com- pounds burlesqued by Aristophanes. A humourist of our own day, Mark Twain, deals with German compounds in a like playful fashion. In compound words, the first word usually modifies the meaning of the second. A ring-Jinger ii, a particular kind of finger ; a finger-ring a particular kind of ring. In true grammatical compounds there is usually a change of form or of accent. spoonful is a true grammatical compound of spoon full. Poorhouse and Newport carry an accent on the first syllable as compounds : as separate words each of the two is accented equally. Compare 'a poor house by the new port' with 'the poorhouse at Newport.' Words joined by a hyphen with no change of form or of accent are merely pi'nters' compounds. 214. Words disguised in form. The appearance of some words is deceptive, suggesting as it does that they are compounds when they are not, or COMPOUNDS AND DERIVATIVES. 191 that they contain elements which do not really belong to them. Examples of this are seen in cray-Jis/i, really from ecrajisse, «a crab,' and quite unconnected with 'fish': causeway, from c/iaussee; kickshaws from quehjues-chose's, goodbye from God be with you/ shame-faced for shamefast, like steadfast^. 215. Derivatives are generally formed by means of prefixes or suffixes: a few however are formed without the addition of a new sound by the change of an existing sound. Thus from glass we get glaze; from sit, set; (xom fall, fell; from drink, drench; from gold, gild In these cases we have modification but not addition. Prefixes and Suffixes once possessed a meaning and existed as separate words. Thus the ending ly represents the word like: godlike and godly contain elements originally the same, but godlike is now described as a compound, and godly as a derivative. 216. A few of the more important Suffixes are given here for the purpose of illustration. They are distinguished accordmg to (i) iht\r force, (2) their origin. In the following list. Suffixes derived from the Romance languages are described as of Classical origin. Noun Suffixes. Diminutives: (a) Of English origin : maid-^«, cock-e-rel, pock-^/, lass-?V or bab-^, farth-m^^ (small fourlh part), duck-/-/«^^, l^mh-kin, thimb-/., stream-/,?/, hiW-ock, mead-^w. (3) Of Classical origin : glob-«/^, animal.r«//, god-Z/tv?*/, dark-«(xr, friend- ship, tru-/'//, gif-A (/') Classical : bond-tii'-^r, inf;im-^', matri-w^/y, jiist-»Vr, opin-w/, forti-///(/(-, liber-/j', c\\\{-Hre. ADJKCTIVE SUl-M'IXKS. Possessing a quality : (rids, since talent comes from the Creek and moHi-y from the I.atin. lUit the same objection might be urged against the past participle of every weak verb of foreign origin in the language, from />;vv/(7/.'./ down to tchgraplh-d. Other adjectival endings of English origin occur in the following words : (piarrel-.^vwts god-/j', wood-f'«, thirst -r. (/') Classical: leg-.//, mund-<7«f, \\n\-ar, div-/;/<;, tim-/V/, aens-tA/e, hag iu: Possessing a quality (i) in a high degree: (a) English : care-/«/. (i) Classical : \erh-ose, gloii-ousf and (ii) in a low degree: (a) English: black- wA. 4R. )rcs.sc(l by It is prob- laiiUaincd, •on (a big , (Greek) COMPOUNDS AND DERIVATIVES. '93 j\r, friend - ling of the )s lo form cat outcry >in'i\/, and liko parti- f however we sliould ;ht against imes from I might be n origin in following sens-id/e, Vkku Sukkixks, Causative : {a) Knglish: swect-«i. (/') Classical : niagni-y> (Latin fan'o). isoftM-eekongm: critic-»s^, theor-/j^. ** ^, oi tu. Frequentative : {a) English: hat-f-.r (from /vv./), crack-/r (from rrari-). Hybrids. As our vocabulary is composed of words from latin ^rcek, and nat.ve sources, hybrids are naturally nunu-rou IndlMj' as the gran.mat.cal forms of our language arc ain.ost entirely of vtu^ origM., any wonl fron. a Latin or (Jreek source which iak^Z E d sh mllex.ons might m strictness be called a hybrid. ^ 1 he term is usually reserved however f<,r words which obtrusive-Iv present a con.bination of different elements: such ..li^^^^ /.-<;../., l>ecause Ms) .s Latin anX/ " con.buK-s 1 atm and Greek, ,.o„.oru/ar Cireek and Latin; .^Xl'^ •-Mghsh and French, i^yvz, ,./,/;,//,.,•, Erench and I.:nglish. /u/sl-ToJ Latm and I.ngbsh; un-jommate, English and Latin. ^ ' 217. The following are a few of the principal Prefixes classihed as English, Latin, or Greek, according to their origin \ '^ Enc.msii: a-, usual meaning 'on': r?-live, rt-board verb 'i hold TT'r^ ''^'= ^'^ ''.'"^"^ '^'' '"'^''^"'"S of a transitive veil), o-ho Ujc-siii : (u) converts an intransitive to a transitive, /v-moan /'^-wa.l : (n.) has an intensive force, /..-daul,. /..-praise. for-, not the i)reposition 'for': (i) intensive force, /^/--give : (ii) nri- T2o^CA'T'\ ''f''' ^^^^Me.,o, Cto'g;, without %"- do. should bey.;-go,y.;-.do: the verb/.n-go means 'logo before.' fore-, as in l)e/;;v' : /m'-tell, >n-see. mis-, with sense of 'a-ww' : w/s-deed, mistake. or.T^'r^ '""'''"'r^' '"°''= ''"■"'''^' ''"■^'^^''^f- (") "^'irking the reversal ol an action; «//-fa.sten, //«-wind. with-, meaning 'against': zwV/^-stand, 7oU/i -^le, ., ' Fo"- complete list see Low's /i„j^/isA Language, pp. ,57-164 or Morns' Htstoncal English Grammar, Chap. xv. * ^' W. E. G. 13 Ill III 194 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, ante-, 'before,' ««/<•■ chamber. bi-, Wb-, 'twice,' /-/ped, his-c\x\\.. contra-, 'against,' rf^/nr-dict, cotmter-m'\xc)\. l»l-, (i) 'in': j«-fuse, »V/-pel, (f«-rol : (ii) 'not': /«-sensible, im- possible, «>-respi)nsil:)le. minus-, 'w/V-chief,' with meaning of English prefix mis-^ but of different origin. non-, 'not': //t;M-conformity. per-, 'tlnough': /tv-secute, /wr-sue, /.?r-jure, (compare 'yi^r-svvear'). re-, 'again,' 'back': re-c\\x, re-Xwxxv. super-, 'over': j///tr-fine, j//r-vive, sirAovcu vice-, 'instead of: vice-xoy, vis-conni. Greek: an-, a-, 'not': a«-archy, ir-ho\\ca\. meta-, 'change': tneta-\>\\or. mono-, 'single': mono-\>o\y, vion-arch. pan-, panto , 'all': / ^o" answer by wi,L- ro'f s isTrat'tHritTh'^ °^ ':,™- <'-^" -■ -»■ name ?J '"^ ""^ ^'^^ ^^C shops, and whence does it get its lablS, ^nT^^p^nZj^ach s^^^^^^^^^ into syl- words. "^ "'''^ ^^'^^ «>'"aWe contributes to the meaning of the ^ See Angus' Zrw^,,.^,y,^,^,^^^.,^ ^^^^^^^^^ pp. Ill— 2. 13—2 if in I 196 ELEMENTS Of EAC/JS/I UKAMAfAR. (,. i;ivo llif (Uiivalion ami liisluiy ..I ilio l..lluwiiij.; wn„U; uiid mention .my i.isi- «»! .loul'lo iiRMiiiiin, <'i o( (•ll,m^;.• ol iiiciiimt; : - ahiiinhin, ,l,],at, ,ii;tk,\ Ui'>t, iimilnh ittvoln; knhiM.o/',; middle, ttUi^titu, ttii'td', oii/i.nd, pl^i^rint, m/io/iv, nihoiith. 7. Wliiil are the diiel nmstitiieiit eleiiicnls of tlio Kiit;lish Ian- (iivc the ilerivalioii ol tlie fullowinn words, pointiiii;; out any change of nieaiiiiit; ; .;//»'. ./-.v/r, dysfffXic, x"'^> Jonnhtl, lord, />,r.u>n, oniitho- io^^ht,/H>isoii, trml, sli.rry, uily, soinasault, tflt}:;r,i/'h, villain, volunif. S. C.ive the «lcrivalioii i){ the followin}^ wonls. showing' from wliat lan^iaj^es iliey were taken: <<»////, curdiiuil, Jiriizy, n-raph, ni^^htin- ji;iili; urli-iii. i). (live the etyn\oloL;y of the following wonU: ~i,'azt://c, tinsel, 1)1,1 i>n\ li'val, is/ii>/>, s/hriff. 10. Whii-h is the ri^;ht place for the liyplien in the followini; words? Why? sni-ddc in siih-idi-; huoin-o/iiY or hno inotr.'c; viiidiul i)r via- dii.t; aposlli- or npos-tle; c/>iit;-y(ii/i or (■/'/x',i//t; d,r-linr or dc-diiir; sus-ffit ox sitsp-iYt ; kin-dnd ox ktiid-ird) Liih-,t or laiiut; tiioriiitr^ ox inoniiiii^; hil-lo,lox iiill-o,k\ tiiiiv,rf-ify ox univtT-sity; siininary or .uini fiiity', nitas-tivp/ic ox aila-s(ro/'/tc. 11. What is llie force of each of the following' prefixes, and from what lanj;viage does it eome? (live a wonl in illustration: — w/V//-, (Oiitia-, dill; suh-, />tT-, sym-, : 12. Point out the prefixes in the followin},' words and i;ive 'heir force: -£•.»//(/(it/i, l('7':: [By a Primary Derivative is here meant a word formed from another word as its root, by the addition of a sound not significant alone, or by the modilication of an existing sound. Thus from sfivii^t,'- is formed stn-iii^t/i, where we have both addition and modilication; from iiiass is ft)rmed }:!tjze, where we have modification only. Now if, from the Primary Derivatives, fresh words are formed by similar processes, these words are called Secondary Derivatives. So, froiii the Primary Deriva- tive shriigth we form strciiglhi-ii ; from glaze, glazier. Sire/igl/wn and glazier are Secondary Derivatives.] uikI sh lan- CTIAPTKR XXII. Analysis of Skntkncks and Parsing. 219. Syntax deals with the combination of words in sentences, their government, agreement, and order. In the course of our treatment of Rtymolot,7, many points helon^in/^r strictly to the i)rovince of SyntMx have been aheady touched upon. The reniainin-,' chapters will contain a brief rec,i|)ilulation of these points, with the addition of such details as are reriuired to complete the information, on the subject of Syntax, which may fairly be looked for in an elementary text-book. When, in dealing with Conjunctions, we explained the difference between a Compound and a Complex Sentence, our transition from Etymology to Syntax was complete. The student is recommended to read again the remarks on this difference which were made in Chapter xx., as they form a suitable introduction to the concluding section of this book. Syntax has to do with the relations of words to each other in sentences. To enable us intelligently to discuss these relations, it is essential that w should -learly understand the nature of a sentence, the elements - which it is composed, and the varieties of form whi v, assumes. 220. We described a Sentence as a collection of words by which we say something about a thing. ''I iJll n'f! nil ■i!i ir 198 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. This account of the nature of a sentence served our purpose at the time when we made use of it, but as a d tinition apphcahle to sentences generally it is clearly incomplete. A Sentence may express — {a) A JudguK.it; 'Birds fly,' 'The Hill will not pass,' * Brutus killed Caesar.' In such cases we do 'say someching about a thing,' or ' make assertions,' and sentences of this kind we took as the type of sentences in general. But in other sentences we give utierance to — {b) A Command j * Come,' * Give it me.' {c) A Question ; * Will he come ? ' ' Did you go ? ' {d) A Wish ; * Would he were here ! ' ' May you grow wiser ! ' * (lod save the Queen !' These four varieties of sentences may be called (i) De- claratory, (2) Imperative, (3) Interrogative, (4) Optative. Shall we say then that a ^'entence is a collection of words expressing a statement, command, (lucslion, or wish ? This would be an enumeration of different kinds of sentences rather than a definition of a Sentence itself; just as it would be no definition of a triangle, if one were to say that a triangle is an equilateral, isosceles, or scalene figure. Perhaps a better as well as a shorter definition is this : A Sentence is the complete expression of a thought in words. In defining the Subject and the Predicate of a Sentence, for the sake of simplicity and conciseness we shall t.ilre cognisance only of sentences in which statements ar expressed : The Subject of the sentence is the word which stands for the thing ab'^ut which the assertion is made. The Predicfite is the word by which the asser- tion is madp, ANALYSIS AND PARSING. 199 221. The following points rcHjuire careful notice : (i) The Subject of a Sentence is a word, but the assertion is made about the thing. When we say' The sun shines,' the word sun is the subject of the sentence, but we do not assert that the word shines. (2) Our definition of the Subject of a Sentence, as the word which stands fo the thing about which the assertion 13 made, has been attacked on the ground that, when we say 'Brutus killed Caesar,' we make an assertion about Caesar as much as about Brutus: yet 'Caesar' is not the Subject. To this criticism we may reply that, in the sentence Brutus killed Caesar,' our assertion is made directly, or explicitly, about Brutus, but only indirectly, or by impli- cation, about Caesar. The assertioh implied about Caesar IS given m a direct form when we say 'Caesar was killed by Brutus.' (3) Cannot a sentence be formed by a single word? Is not ' Go ' a sentence ? Here the subject is understood, though not expressed. Go is equivalent to 'Go (you),' and in analysing a sentence in the Imperative mood, we must supply the subject which IS ornitted in modern English. (4) The Predicate i > a verb or contains a verb. The sentence 'Birds fly' contains a complete predicate 'fly.' But m 'They are,' 'I shall be,' 'You became,' ' Walpole was created,' something is wanting to make sense; the verbs are incomplete predicates and lequire a complement to produce a meaning: 'They are happy,' 'I shall be there' 'You became secretary,' 'Walpole was created Earl of Orfoid.' Again, some verbs need another verb in the Infinitive mood to carry on, or complete, their construction. Thus, I wish,' ' You must,' are meaningless unless we supply, in thought or expression, some complement; 'I wish to -i?,' -it ii^tti III I?: 200 Er.H.UEXTS OF rXd/./S// r;A».'/.iAV.'/A». 'Von imist rrmdin' * \Vc> arc able to f>(i\\' ''i'lu-y ow^hi to /rn7r.* Those infiiutivos arc called Prolative, Ixrausc thoy 'carry on' (Lai in f^t'Oj\'to^ prohUtun) the meaning of ihc preceding verb. 222. Different kinds of subjects. As the subject of a sentence is thi' name of the thing abt)iit which wo make an assertion, the subject i)f a sentence must bo a noim or the otjuiNwIent of a noim. I'lio following sentences illustrate ditforent kinds of subjects; 1. Noun : '/>V/vA- lly.' 2. Pronoun : ' lluy wori* defeated.* 3. Iniinitive : — 'To read good books improves the niiml.' 4. Adjective with nt)im understood •.—''Rich wwd poor live together.' 5. Noun-clause : — * 'r/uit he diJ it is certain.' 223. When we jcMii an adje• suggests to our minds more attributi>s than /iorst\ but is applicable as a name to only a smaller number of objects. As the adjective thus ji)iiK(l on to the noun attributes to the thing represented by the noim tin- possession of some iiuality, wo call the adjective ati attribu- tive adjunct to the noun, and the noun which stands as the subject of a si-ntcnce is saiil to be enlarged or expanded by the attributive adjunct. So, in the sonlenco 'White horses are never driven in hearses,' the subjoet /lorscs is t-n/or^t'ti or cx/o/h/i;/ by the attributive atljunct white ; for though the nund>er of things to which we could apply the name horse has been limited, or restricted, by the addition o{ the woril white, the signilkance of white hotse is greater than the signilicance ol horse: horse denotes more things, but white fwrse in^plies more qualities. ought to I)t'pply the addition is greater re things, The enlargement or expansion of the Subject is efTected by adjectives ;iii(l th( ir c(|nivalents : — 1. Adjective :— -* (h>oil www. luids no luish.' 2. Noun in Apposition :—' Hrunel, the ni\^inee,r, d signed the i)ridgc.' 3. Noun in the Possessive case :— ' ///ry'.v l(»ve restrained hint,' or its etiuivaicnt willi oJ\ ''I'hc love oj Liuy restrained him.' 4. Adjective-clause: -''{'he man who stole the money was arrested.' 5. Adjective-phrase: 'The man, h suspicious of any ehorj^e 'st hi/n, leli llu; town.' 6. Participle :— «'l"hc eandidiile, fuuiini; and heoten, addressed the crowd.* 224. The student must not ire the word Phrase wliieh is intro(hi(i(l here for the first time. Our vocahiilary piovides us wiili three words, Sentence, Clause, and Phrase, of which we shall avail ourselves in this hook in the followin'^ mantier. A Sentence we have already delined and have distinguished three varieties, — Sim|)le, Compoimd, and Com- plex. A Clause is a i)art of a 5. jntcce containing a finite verb: thus a C!omi)ound sentence nnist contain at least two CO ordinate clauses : ' We stayed, but he left.' A Complex sentence nmst also contain at least two clauses, one prin- cip;d, the other subordinate: 'We stayed, after he left.' A collection ot words without a finite verb we shall call a Phrase. In the sentence 'The boy got the jjrize,' we may enlarge the subject 'boy' by an adjective, 'the intiustrioi/s boy'; by an adje(Uive-cIause, 'the boy laho 7vas industrious'; or by an adjeclive-i)hrase, 'the hoy, possessed 0/ inilustrious hal'its.' Similarly we may enlarge the predicate by an adverb and say ''1'he boy got the prize easily*; by an adverbial- clause, ^iuiause nobody else ivent in for it* \ or by an adverbial- phrase, ^ in a very easy fashion,' I'-fi i 202 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 225. The Object of a verb is the word which stands for the thing towards which the action indicated by the verb is directed. There are the same possible substitutes for a noun as Object as there are for a noun as Subject in a sentence, and the Object can be enlarged in the same ways as those in which the Subject was shown to admit of. enlargement. With a little reflexion the rea ler should be able to make his own sentences illustrating five different kinds of Object, and to enlarge the Object in six different ways. Many verbs take two Objects, one the Direct, the other the Indirect or Dative-like Object. The verbs teach, te/l, give, lend, show, provide, refuse, get, are examples. The noun which represents the Indirect Object might be construed with a preposition : thus, « Give (to) me the book,' 'Show (to) us the way,' 'Provide (for) him accommodation,' * Get (for) me a cab.' See pp. 97, 138. 226. By attaching an adjective to a noun, we increase the meaning of the noun and limit its application. In like manner by attaching an adverb to a verb, we increase the meaning of the verb and limit its application. * Sings sweetly' cannot be affirmed of as many individuals as simply 'sings,' but it signifies more. When we say of a prima donna 'She sings sweetly,' our statement goes further in the way of conveving information than the state- ment that 'she sings.' We may therefore describe the adverb sweetly as an enlargement or extension of the Predicate sings, because it adds to the meaning of the Predicate, though it narrows or restricts its application. The 01)ject of a Transitive Verb has really the force of an Adverbial Adjunct. If we say ' He loves ' and then add •music,' 'Mary,' 'his country,' 'virtue,' and so on, we limit in each case the application of the Predicate, but we increase, or enlarge, or extend, the information which it contains. The relation of the Object to the Transitive Verb is one of ! J ANALYSIS AND PARSING. 203 such importance, however, that our analysis of sentences recognises it as distinct from the other adverbial adjuncts by which the Predicate is enlarged. The principal Adverbial Adjuncts by which the Predicate is extended or expanded are these :- Adverb :— ' She dances beautifully: Adverbial clause :— ' He left when I arrived: Adverbial phrase :— ' She dances in a beautiful I. 2. 3- style: 4. Nominative Absolute:— '77/^ door being open, the steed was stolen.' This last is a particular kind of Adverbial Phrase. 227. Elliptical Sentences. In our ordinary use of language we save ourselves the trouble of making two sen- tences when one will express our meaning, and effect this economy by the use of conjunctions. Thus 'John and James preached m Jerusalem and Judaea' contains four sentences in one : 'John preached in Jerusalem,' ^ohn preaclied in Judaea,' 'James preached in Jerusalem," James preached in Judaea.' ' He is either a knave or a fool ' is equivalent to 'Either he is a knave, or he is a fool.' «He writes fast and weir means 'He writes fost, and he writes well.' Again, we frequently contract our sentences, not by leaving out precisely the part which has been expressed already, but by leaving out a part which is naturally sug- gested by what has gone before, though different from it So, we say * I like you better than he,' which means ' I like you better than he likes you,' vvheteas 'I like you better than him ' would mean ' I like you better than / like him.' ' He is sharper than you ' is an abbreviated form of ' He is sharper than you are sharp: ' I would rather incur death than dishonour' is an abi)reviated form of 'I would rather mcur death than I would incur dishonour.' 204 ELEMENTS OF ENCfJSTI GRAMMAR, Tn nil siK h instances there is an omission of a word or words necessary to the complete grammatical structure of the sentence. This omission is called Ellipsis, and in analysing sentences of this ellipiical character it is necessary to make them complete by supply- ing the missing words. 228. The student is now in possession of all the infor- uistion which is re(|uisite to enable him to attack a sentence and break it uj) into its conij)oncnt parts. Analysis is a capital exercise for the wits, as it cannot be effected by the use of a set of rules mechanically ai)i)lic(l. Nor is it to be learnt by merely reading a book on the subject, any more than by reading a treatise on swimming or cricket one could become proficient in the side-stroke or the cut. Hooks may furnish useful directions, but practice is the only way o^ ac(piiring these arts. And so, after giving a few suggestions to the reader as to how he shouUrset to work, and supplying examples of analysis to guide him on points of form, we shall pass on to the treatment of other questions of Syntax. 229. Hints for the Analysis of a Sentence. I. Take a large slicct of paper and divide it into columns by riilinp vertical linos. At the head of these columns write 'Sentence, Kind of Sentence, Sul.ject, Adjuncts of Subject, Predicate, Adjuncts of Predicate. Uhject, Adjuncts of Object.' Instead ,.f using the term A.ljuucts, you can use the term Extension, Kxpansion, or Limitation, for. as we saw, the ellect of an Adjunct is to produce an extension or enlargement ot the information whieii we obtain Irom the word to which the Adjunct is attached, and a liniitauon or restriction in the number of tilings to which the word is applicable. Again, instead of making one column for 1 redh-ate, you may, if you like, make two, in case you have to distin- guish between an inc.miplete Preilieale and its Coiiiplement. Similarly you may have separate columns ft)r Direct and Indirect objects. But this excessive sulxlivision makes the sheet jiresenl a very complicated appearance and has few compens.uing advantages. These distinctions may be indicated equally well after the words which require them in the columns headed 'Pretlicate' and 'Object'. MAR. f a word Timatical I is called clliinical by supply- tho infor- a sentence alysis is a ted by the s it to be any more ickct one the cut. s the only ing a few t to work, on points questions ence. IS by ruling :;e, Kind of f Predicate, IjuMcts, you as \vc saw, rf^emcnt ot Adjunct is l^ to which .'ohmin for e to distin- Siniilariy jects. lUit implicated listinctions hem in the ANALYSIS AND PARSfNG. 205 Tliere are other forms in which the analysis ni;iy he worked out, but the tabular form is certainly the neatest, and it possesses this clear superiority over the rest, that the person uiio corrects the exercise can see at a glance whether the essential p..in;s have iieen correctly grasped. T.. Read the passage over and consider carefully whether it is a Snnple, a Compound, or a Conii)lex Sentence, with which you are dealing. Descnbc it accordingly at the top of the page. Remeudxr that wherever you (md a hnite verb you have got a separate clause. Supposing that the Sentence is Complex, make sure that you pick out the Princiiial Clause correctly: a mistake here will turn the whole into nonsense. Tiien determine what is the relation of the different Subordinate ( lauses to the parts ol the Principal Clause. This general outline is the element of real value .n the entire product. An elaborate analysis, briml'ul of detads, crowded with subdivisi.jus, and elegantly executed, is absolutely worthless, if it starts wrong and represents subordinate clauses as principal clauses. 3. Write down the I'rincipal Clause at the head of your analysis. Find its Subject; then fmd its Predicate; then, if the verb is transitive, set down the Object. 4; Next look for the Adjuncts of each. The Adjuncts of the Predicate will be adverbial. 'i"he Adjuncts of the Subject or Object uill generally be adjectival, but not necessarily so: they may be nouns or noun-clauses in apposition. Thus in each of these sentences, ''i'lie statement that //<• has resii^ncd is not true,' 'I don't believe the statement that he has resii^ncd: the subordinate clause is a noun-clause in appo- sition with the subject and object respectively. Subordinate clauses must be dealt with in the same fashion as the Principal clause,— subject, i)re^Q3LrQd, and rapidly obtained a popularity which has lasted down to our own time. C. As tjiro' the land at eve we went And pluck'd the ripened ears, We fell out, my wife and I, And kiss'd again with tears. And blessings on the falling out That all the more endears When we fall out with those we love And kiss again with tears ! Observe that the two clauses, When we fall out with those 7ve love And kiss again with tears, may be regarded as adjectival adjuncts of falling out, instead of being taken as adverbial adj-ncts o{ endears. 2o8 elements; of ENGLISH GRAMMAR, A. C'onlaiiis two C'nmplL-x SciUciu<.'s ; rriiicipal ('lause of (I), In Hnit;cs tow n is many a street, rrincipal Clause of (II), Tlicre heard wc a Iiarp. Hi'' :,;1i i r, * 'f. ■ A. Sentence or Clause Kiiiil 1)1 Sentence Complex (I.) In Unices town is many a street pavement liead Whence busy life Adj. CI. hath lied limiliiif^ .v//v'tV Where without Adj. CI. hurry... tread limilint: slrccl (II.) There heard we...lhrilliny; power Tliat tuneful prelude made to a voice of thrilling; power Complex Adj. CI. limiting harp Siiliji'ct street life led we that I. W'hile the ft)urth ...appeared While the fourlh... ...booksellers 2. The ]"uar of /nz/v/rVA/ rapidly ob- tained. ..our own time Which has lasted down to our own time Complex Adv. CI. limiting ap- peared Complex Adj. CI. limiting popularity The Vi- car of Wahc field edition Ther/- car of JJWJe- field which Ailjuncts of Subject 1. many a 2. whence busy life hath tied x^, where... pave- ment tread busy noiseless halting in the shaile flung from a con- vent tower 1. the fourth 2. of the Trai'el- Icr ANALYSIS AND PARSING. 209 B. A Compound and Complex Sentence. Principal Clauses, i. The Ficar of Wakefield ajipeared. 2. The Vicar of VVakefeld obtained popularity. Predicate Adjuncts of Predicate Object Adjuncts of Object • is Incompl, \ in Bru{^'es town Compl. hath fled whence tread without hurry pavement grass-grown heard there a harp that tuneful pre- lude made lo a voice of thril- ling power made prelude tuneful, toavoic of thrilling power 1 appeared while the fourth... booksellers 1 ■ ivas Incompl. on the coun- ters of the booksellers Compl. obtained rapidly popularity which has lasted ...time has lasted down to... time 1 1 W. E. (; 14 210 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. C. Contains two Sentences, (I) Compound and Complex. (II) Complex. Sentence or Clause ■ tl!« (I.) I. As through the land... my wife and I •As through the land at eve we went (As we) plucked the ripened ears 2. As through the land... (we) kissed a- gain with tears (II.) Blessings (be) on...v.Uh tears That all the... with tears When we fall out with those we love (Whom) we love (When) we kiss again with tears Kind of Sentence Complex Adv. CI. limiting fell out Adv. CI. limiting fell out Complex Complex Adj. CI. limiting falling out Adv. CI. limiting endears Adj. CI. limiting those Adv. CI. limiting endears Subject Adjuncts of Subject we we we we my wife and I Blessings that we we we ANALYSIS AND PARSING. Principal Clauses of (I), i. We fell out. 2. We ki.ssed again with tear«. Principal Clause of (II), Blessings on the falling ouL 211 Predicate Adjiinct.s of I'ledicate Object Adjuncts of Object 1 fell out 1. as through the land... we went 3. as we plucked ... ears went through the land, at eve plucked ears ripened kissed again with tears also adjuncts I & 2 as above be Incompl. on Compl. falling out that all... with tears endears I. all the more 2. when we... with tears fall out with those we love 1 love whom 1 kiss 1 1 . L. 1. again 2. with tears 1 14 — a 212 elements; of English grammar. 231. Directions for Parsing. In analysing a sentence, we break it up in such a manner as to show how it contains the essential constituents of every sentence, Subject and Predicate, and round these elements we group the remaining words, phrases, or clauses, as adjuncts: to one of these adjuncts of the predicate we assign a place apart from the other adverbial adjuncts and call it the Object. In parsing, we deal with every word in a sentence separately, stating its Part of Speech, its inflexion, if it has any, and its syntactical relations with other words in the sentence. Thus parsing is concerned with both the etymo- logy and syntax of v;ords, whilst analysis takes no cognisance li etymology. Unless the student is directed to give a history of the forms of the words, in addition to stating their parts of speech and particulars connected with their accidence and syntax, he may feel satisfied that he is carrying out his instructions to "parse fully" when he furnishes the following information : — I. Noun and Pronoun. Give kind of noun or pronoun, its gender, number, case, and slate why the word is in liiat case. The gender of a pronoun cannot always be determined. 1. Adjective. Give kind of adjective and its degree, and state what word it limits. As adjectives (except this and that) undergo no in- flexions of number, gender, or case, it is better to speak of them as •limiting' nouns than as 'agreeing' with nouns. 'Agreement' suggests inflexion. 3. Verb. Give kind of verb, its voice, mood, tense, number, person; the su])ject with which it agrees, and its object, if it has one. Participle. Give kind of verb of which it is participle, its voice and tense, and show which word it limits ; also its object, if it has one. The participle used in combination with auxiliaries to form a compound tense need not be parsed separately, though it may be parsed in this way. So, shall have been beaten, were beating, viay have been beating, are adequately parsed as compound tenses, but the student should under- stand the conotruction of the separate words. 1 AR. I such a istitucnts nd these r clauses, licate we nets and sentence if it has Is in the le etymo- )gnisance ry of the parts of 2nce and ; out his following its gender, gender of state what ■go no in- )f them as t' suggests , number, has one. , its voice t has one. compound 1 this way. ^ating, are aid under- AI\rALYS/S AND P/lRSrJVG. 213 4. Adverb. Give kind of adverb; decree, if adverb nf n...i . •taS''" tI''^, "■™"^'-^-- name'the'woV whth ?t tZtt quahCcs. Th. latter .s the term generally used of adverbs. 5- Preposition. Name the noim which it 'governs.' thit is fo «n« the relation of which to other words it shr,ws. ^* 6. Conjunction. Say whether it is co-ordinate or subor.linate. ^ Abbreviations may be used with advantage, but not m such a way as to cause ambiguity. The particulars should be given m uniform order and as concisely as dhections ' ^'^''•'''^"S examples of parsing illustrate these I. Can I for^ret the dismal night that gave My soul's best part for ever to the grave! Hoiv silent did his old companions ^read, By midnig/d lamps, the mansions of the dead. ^^r^^Z^ ^^ ^^'■^^^- j"''"-^- "^ ^"'^""ipl- pre.lication,-acl. indie, pres. sing, ist.— agreeuig with /. ' / pers. pron. of ist pers.— sing, nom.— subj. o{ can. x^IZ'Lr^"' T'f \''"""-''^^-'- '"«»• Pres.-prolatwe infin. de- pending on can: has for object niirht. that pronoun relat. -referring to anteced. night, subj. of P-az^^. souls noun com.-neut. sing, possess.-dependent oixtart. ever adv. of time, used here as substitute for noun : 'for ever ' = ♦ for all time. ""^ how adv. of degree— qualif. j/7^;//'. silcHt adj. of quality, posit.- ised as adv. of manner qualif. tread, ox a.?, ^A].\\n\\img companions. midnight noun sing.-neut. sing.-used as adj. limiting lamps, mansions noun com— neut. plur.,— object of ^/-m^. 11. For 7vho, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind? 'ill 214 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. For conj. suhonl. (Some writers take it as co-ord.) •who pron. intcrrog.— masc. or fern., sing.— sul)j. c{ resi^iifd. forgetfidness noun abstr. — neut. sing, olijcctive, — gov. Ijy to. a demonst. adj. (or indef. art.) — limiting /r^j. frey noun com. — neut. sing. nom. — in appos. with who. this pronom. adj. demonst. — sing.— limiting (.:ng. being noun alistr. — neut. sing. — ol)jc;ct o{ resigned. e'er adv. of time — qualif. resigned. left verb, weal<, trans. — act. indie, past indef. sing. 3rd, — agreeing with wlio\ has for '])jec\. /reeinets. precincts noun com. — neut. plur. — object of /^/. one adj. quant, card. num. — limiting look. longing pres. part. act. of verb /^«^,— used as adj. limiting look. look noun com. — neut. sing. — object of cast, behind adv. of place — qual. «raj/. If l\ ^% ■ III. He had laid him lo7if. It 7uere best let alone. C/ioose whom you will, we will pay him respect. laid participle past, passive, of trans, verb May,' limiting him. (If had laid were parsed in combination, it would be described as verb, weak, trans. — act. indie, past perf. sing. 3rd, — agreeing with he^ low adj. of qual. used as adv. — qualif. laid, were verb defect, of incompl. predication, — act. subj. past, indef. sing. 3rd, — agreeing with it. best adj. of qual.— superl. — complement of predic. were and limit- ing it. let participle past passive, of trans, verb let, — limiting it. alone adj. of qual. — limiting /V. choose verb, strong, trans. — act. imperat. plur. 2nd, — agreeing with you understood: has for obj. ////// understood. whom pronoun relat. — referring to suppressed anteced. him, masc. sing, object of will (choose), the full constr. being choose you him whom you will choose. him pronoun demonstr. of 3rd pers. — masc. sing, objective, — indir. obj. of pay. QUFSTIONS. What is a sentence? AVhat aie the necessary parts of every sentence? Write down the shortest sentence you can compose, and show that these necessary parts are comprised therein. Give examples showing how each part may b expanded. AR. ANALYSIS AND PARSING, 215 ifd. 'to. —agreeing ig look. him. (If I as verb, le.) ist. indef. md limit- :eing with im, masc. Mm whom jective, — ; of every pose, and examples a. What is the subject in the following sentence?— « It makes no part of my present subject, to detail how the success of a few ballads had the effect of changing all the purpose and tenour of my life.' 3. What is the subject in each of the following sentences? 'Who is this?' 'Give me your hand.' 'There is said to have been a battle,' 'His horse being killed, he was taken prisoner.' 4. Define the subject of a sentence, and give one example of each of five different kinds of subjects. 5. In what cases may the subject be omitted in English? Explain the construction of methought in the sentence: 'Methought the billows spoke and told me of it.' [The subject may be omitted (i) With verbs expressing a command : 'Go' (you); or (2) a wish, *(I) Would it were so !' (3) The antecedent to the relative is sometimes omitted: '(He) Who breaks, pays.' (4) Im- personal verbs of course have no subject.] 6. Point out the subject, predicate, and object, with their ex- tensions, in the following : — 'At once his trusty sword the warlike chieftain drew.' 7. Make use of the words horse, kirk, man, as subject, predicate, object, respectively, to form one sentence in which {a) the subject is en- larged by an adjective clause, (p) the predicate is enlarged hy a.n adverbial clause relating to cause. 8. Distinguish between a. phrase and a sentence. •The Saxons invaded England.' Write out this sentence {a) with the predicate extended by a prepositional phrase, {b) with the predicate extended by an adverbial clause relating to time. [A 'prepositional phrase' is a phrase composed of a preposition and a noun. As the prepositional phrase here is to extend the predicate, it must have an adverbial force, describing how, why, when, or where, the Saxons invaded England: e.g. 'in pirate-boats,' 'with a fair wind,' 'from a desire for pillage,' 'after the departure of the Romans,' 'on the coast of Kent.'] 9. Write a sentence containing two extensions of the predicate, and let one of these contain an object with two enlargements of different kinds. 10. Name the three kinds of subordinate clauses. Explain why an aujective clause is so called. State to which kind each of the sub- ordinate clauses in the three following sentences belongs, and give your reason ; — . 2l6 ''If ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, ' I asked where he lived.' ' I have often seen the house virhere he was born.* • I shall sit where you wish.' r I. Write three sentences, introducing in the first a clause equivalent to a noun, in the second a clause equivalent tc an adjective, in the third a clause equivalent to an adverb. f ^2'cc '^'""-';*!'"*;^ •'^ complex sentence with two subordinate clauses of different kinds, and state the relation of each to the princioai clause. ^ *^ , ' ^- To what Parts of Speech do the following words belong l—fiftv fnv, kill, cavalry, their, those, sheer, pell-mell, as, 7vhy, bravo. 14- Parse these sentences :—' In the front of the eye is a clear transparent window, exactly like the glass of a watch.' •When a man falls from his horse, he is often seriously hurt.' • He rushed into the field, and foremost fighting fell.' ' Life has passed • With me but roughly since I heard thee last.' 15. Parse the italicised words in the following sentences :— • Have you any-i ' No, I have none: ' When did you come?' ' Whv is he here ? « Me went away rejoicing. ' ♦ This is talking at random: • It is not true that he said that. ' ' I saw the sawe as he did * fAR, ; equivalent in the third ate clauses e principal ^^gl— fifty, is a clear urt.* 3 : — ' Have Why is he dom: 'It CHAPTER XXIII. Syntax of Nouns. 232. Syntax deals with the relations of words when they are arranged so as to form sentences. Most of these relations come under the heads of Concord and Govern- ment. By Concord we mean the agreement of two or more connected words, as regards their gender, number, case, or person. By Government we mean the influence exercised upon the case of a noun or pronoun by another word • thus a transuive verb or a preposition is said to 'govern' a noun. Owing to the scanty supply of inflexions in modern English, the relation of a word to other words in the sentence is often indicated by its position. Hence we may say that cyntax has to do with the Order or Arrange- ment of words, as well as with their Concord and Government. The principles of Syntax might be enumerated under these three heads, but the student will obtain a clearer view of the subject, it we deal with the Syntax of the different parts of speech in succession, as we have already dealt with their Etymology. In our treatment of the meaning and use of words, we discussed many points which belong strictly to Syntax. What remains to be done in this section of the book IS to give a short summary of these and to supdIv other" "')-«iW« ^'' 1 ' rf J Ill 218 ELEMENTS 01: ENGLISH GRAMMAR. Syntax of Nouns. Our remarks on the Syntax of Nouns may be grouped most conveniently under the different cases. Nominative Case. 233. The Nominative case is used — (t) When a noun stands as the Subject of a sentence, whether the verb of which it is the subject be active or passive : ' He works,' ' 1 have been wounded.' The concord of the verb with its subject is discussed under the Syntax of Verbs. (2) As a Vocative, or Nominative of Address : 'Milton ! thou shouldst be living at this hour.' (3) To complete the predicate after certain intran- sitive verbs of incomplete predication : such verbs as to be, become, continue, seem, feci, often require a complement : ' He became prime minister,' *I continued secretary,' 'He seemed and felt a hero.' (4) With certain transitive verbs in the passive to complete the meaning : ' He was made secretary,' * I was appointed treasurer,' ' You were called John.' Such transitive verbs are called factitive or 'making' verbs, because the verb ' to make ' (Lat. facio) is a type of the class. (5) When a noun is in apposition with another noun in the nominative. (6) When the noun or pronoun, combined with a participle, is in the absolute construction. Thus, '•The door being opefi, the steed was stolen,' ^ My partner having returned, I shall go for my holiday.* {Abso/utus means in Latin * set free ' or * untied ' : an absolute phrase can be detached without affecting the con- struction of the sentence.) It is disputed whether the case of the noun in the absolute construction is really the nominative in modern AR. syntax of nder the sentence, active or i concord le Syntax ddress : in intran- i as to be, mt : ' He ,ry,' 'He passive ecretary,' 1.' Such g' verbs, 3e of the her noun i with a lus, * The ".r having ied ' : an the con- 1 in the I modern SYNTAX OF NOUNS. 2x9 English. In old English it was the dative. As the dative ending has disappeared from our nouns, it is only when one of the personal pronouns is used that we can still see what the case actually is. Should we say ^He excepted' or ^ Him excepted'? '/returning' or ^Afe returning'? It scarcely admits of doubt that the nominative would be preferred to the objective as the absolute case at the present day. 234. The following sentences illustrate a very common blunder in connexion with the use of the participle in a construction which is meant to be absolute but is not. ' Walking across the common, my hat was knocked off by a cricket-ball.' As the sentence stands, walking is a participial adjunct of hat, and the construction is therefore ' My hat walking across the common was knocked off by a cricket-ball,' which is absurd. The required correction may be mlde m various ways : (i) By completing the absolute phrase. Add the missing pronoun and say 'I walking across the common, my hat was knocked off.' This makes the syntax regular, but the expression would be unusual. (2) By substituting 'I had my hat knocked off' for 'my hat was knocked off.' / is then the subject, and ivalking across the common is quite rightly the adjunct of /, instead of being the adjunct of my hat a? before. (3) By converting the participle into a past imperfect tense indicative. Say ' As I was walking across the common, my hat was knocked off.' 'Going into the garden, the grass wetted my feet.' We may correct this by substituting (i) 'I going into the garden (absolute phrase), the grass wetted my feet,' or (2) 'Going into the garden, I wetted my feet in the grass,' or (3) ' On my going (gerund) into the garden, the grass wetted my feet' The first expression is one which nobody would ever employ, but it is grammatically correct. A captious cridc I 5{ ftiij}^ 220 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, may raise the further objection that, as ny feet were wetted probably after I had reached the garden and not on my way thither, having gone is more likely to suit the facts than going. 235. Apposition. This is a suitable point at which we may bring together remarks on Anposition that n-ould otiicrwise be scattered in various pa \q book When one noun is used to >.ain the mean- ing of another, it is put in the same case, usually in the same number, if i^ossible in the same gender and is said to be in Apposition. The following sentences contain nouns in apposition : 'Turner, the baker, lives here»: Ttirner is the subject the baker is in the nominative case in apposition. *I saw Turner, the baker': both nouns are in the objective case. 'This is Turner's, the baker's, shop': both nouns are in the possessive cr'e. In practice we rarely employ the last form of expression Instead of saying ' This is Turner's, the baker's, shop,' we should say * This is Turner the baker's shop.' Here there IS no apposition, but Turner-the-hakcr is treated as a com- pound noun. Identity of case is essential to appo- sition. *^ The noun in apposition usually agrees in number, but not necessarily : a collective noun in the singular may be used in apposition with a noun in the plural, and vice versa- 'Four hundred boys, the whole school, turned out to receive him': 'This year's team, eleven well-tried 7nen, will give a good account of themselves.' ^ _ Owing to the absence of any appropriate feminine form. It is often impossible to mark a concord of gender between the noun in apposition and the noun to which it refers. Thus we have to say 'Scott the novelist,' or 'writer,' and SYNTAX OF MOUNS. „, 'Mi« Kvnns the novelist,' or -writer/ as no feminine of ««./„/ or uuarr exists. But we shoul.l say -Scott tl,e let ' "Is ;r.:LM:';o"d;"r'"°" ^^^^^' ^-^ ^-'-''^ ^-*' ^'^-^ Cas?' T?'"'''r°^ ^''^ ^°"" '" ^^^ Nominative case The subject precedes il,e verb, as a general rule, but comes after a — ' i_. in qucslions: 'Did yon say so?' |i. in commands: ' SccMhou'io that.' "I- in certain uses of the subjunctive mood- 'Wpr^ h. ^. would not say this, ' ' Would I co^l find hrm ' '. Al^y " .-osTe'r '^ IV. when nor precedes the verb- 'T <=nir1 T , i , P'osper! I.' 'Pie u.nted o',y . p.ete.:.^ was h:'!!. ^r^r/^e^^^' ^"^ V. in the p rases Vsaiti I,' .,uoth he,' ^ansu.redt,> tc M. when the sentence is introduced bv M,-iv -,. «ti who deny this.' "uucca uy i/u/e, as Tiiere are some vii. lor emphasis: 'Great is Diana,' 'Indeed will I. quoth Findlay.' Possessive Case. 237. Possession is only one of the relations indicated by nouns in the possessive case: 'John^s hat means 'the hat possessed by John- 'the master's cane means 'the cane possessed by the master.' But Byron s poems' does not mean 'the poems possessed by Peir V' T ' •''^' ''" "" "^^'^" ''''' ^'' P— ^d by i^eel ; Cades msurrection ' does not mean 'the insur- rection possessed by Cade'; 'an hour's detention' does not mean ' the detention possessed by an hour.' The term possessive is therefore inadequate as a description of the functions performed by this case. What feature is common to all these uses of the so- nonn ^""'T'"' ""''■ Th^ common feature is this: the noun in the possessive has the limiting force of ot hat, so Lyron's poems ' are a particular kind of poems, 222 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, 'Cade's insurrection' is a particular kind of insurrection, and ' an hours detention ' a particular kind of detention. The Latin word for 'kind' is genus, and we might therefore call the case which marks the kiiul the gen.nc case. Perhaps this is what the Roman grammarians thoiiglit they were doing when they called it the gemttvc case. IJiit 'genitive ' in its proper sense has a much narrower meanuig and signifies 'heloiiging to hirth or origin.' It is appropriate to descni)e the case o{ Jathers when we speak of 'the father's son' because the son derives his birth or origin from the father; but it is not appropriate to describe the case o{ son's when we speak of 'the son's nuher,' l)ecause the father did not derive his birth or origin from the son Now the term 'generic' would describe the case equally well in both instances : ' the father's son ' is a particular kind of son, ' the son's father' is a particular kind of father. We cannot however displace either the term 'possessive' or the term 'genitive,' though each is insuf- ficient as a description of the relations often marked by words in the possessive or genitive case. With these criticisms on the terms we will go on to consider the syntax of the so-called possessive case. 238. The Substitute for the Inflected Posses- sive Case. The preposition of, with the objective case of the noun which follows it, takes the place of the inflected possessive and is used in many instances in which the inflected form would be inadmissible. Thus instead of saying 'the master's cane ' we can say ' the cane of the master ' ; for * Byron's poems/ 'Cade's insurrection,' 'an hour's detention,' we can say 'the poems of Byron,' 'the insurrection of Cade,'' ' a detention of an hour.' It is only the inflected form hovv- ever that is to be called a possessive case : ' of Byron ' must not be parsed as the possessive, but 'Byron' must be parsed as the objective governed by the preposition of. For if •of Byron' is entitled to the name 'possessive case,' 'to Byron' has an equally good claim to the name 'dative,' and 'from Byron' to the name 'ablative.' But if 'to Byron' and 'from Byron' are cases, on what ground are we to 1 See Max Muller's Lectures on the Science of Language, ist series, p. 105. 'AR. urrection, :ntion. ere fore call his is what ey called it ;ii narrower ippropriate Lher's son,' lut it is not 'the son's 11 from the illy well in ' the son's it displace ch is insuf- )rds in the ms we will rosses- the noun ossessive ted form ng ' the er'; for itention,' DfCade,' irm hovv- )n must e parsed For if ase,' *to ' dative,* > Byron' e we to 1st series, SYNTAX OF NOUNS. ^^ refuse to describe as cases the combinations 'abo.tt Byron ' ''l..ough Byron; -in Byron,' 'on Byron,' and so forth?' 239. Subjective and Objective Genitive The genitive case is described as subjective or obtctlve accordmg as the noun in the genitive stands for the !ub m Ik "J"^''"' °' *^ ""'o" denoted by the word on s^fect^of ,h' ' ^'"""^ son.ebody: here Carfy,. if the or 'So' !, P7°^".'°": ^"d tl,e genitive is subjective: obiec o^Z ' "-"'"^ ^^''>'^" ''"^ C-,,./,./. is .he Object of tl e proposition, and the genitive is obioctive ■CarlWer"" " ""' '" "" '"'"''^ ^^ when ve ay Ca,Iyles p a.ses were rarely bestowed': it is used ,„ he latter way when we siv 'f.,ri„i„'. ■ 'U„ 11 , y Lcirlyle s praises were loudlv sunL> ' is o";^ ;;:: x^hat '"'''''--' ;"™'^ ^^--^ ^^' ujectiye. Not that we can combine the two inflectfd .onus .„ the san,e sentence and say ' Ravaillac's HelTv 's denot:\he J ?"" 'T- '° ^""'"^ "^ P-Posi.ion ]/ to of Hen iv^f?r r >'"" '"' "^ ' '*='™'"-'^ ™"der generallv we ;;. ,"' T'''' "^ ^'^''y'«' Speaking "em Kngl [h'^T :'fo'^ '""'Tt '"''" '" ^""J^"- the oreDosi inn /■ / T """^^ ^^ combination with tne preposition c^ admits of the same double use- 'the persecution of the Purifnno- ;» „i,- •• """"'= use. tJie iiic 1 uricans is objective when wp civ *'ru^ rrsSvt 'r '^'"-^ '''''''-- - MarZet s' Iff/ ^ . 7 '" ""^ '""y '^^'^ Q^^kers of New En^^land suffered from the persecution of the Puritans.' ' noveTof ^rZ ''! ^''. '"^ ''P^^^" ^"^h expressions as 'a novel of Scott s,' *a play of Shakespeare's '? redundlL^'r exLsfoTexor^st'^ "n" T^'' ^'^^>' ^° ^^ -"^-^ -X a noun being left ou on wh ch th" °" .''^\^-^^-'T they are elliptical' The complefe expression loud t """" '", ^he possessive case depends! Shakespeare's nlavT' H "" "°^^^ of Scott's novels,' 'a play of though'wTcVnt;^;a b?orr:f%^oZ?r^^^^ / oroiiier ot John s, for ' a father of John's fathers ' 224 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. would be absurd. As a fact however we do employ this elHptical con- struction for purjiost's of oun in the objective usually come after the governing noun : ' the praise of Carlyle/ 'the cane of the master.' But for em- phasis this order may be inverter' : ' Of the spoil each man received a share/ ' Of virtue a great part consists in this.' Objectrve Case. 243. The objective case in modern English marks relations which are expressed in Latin by the accusative and by the dative. It is the case both of the direct and of the indirect object. The following are its chief uses. MAR. lliptical con- led, in cases reputable old ich ought to ve to supply to 8t Paul's ' ,' 'St Paul's id ' a picture ) supply the o Agnew,' in ns as *tlie 1 the genitive depends, the nth of June,' , 'the month lin ' is a par- might have ely a matter The Latin to say 'city issessive case ays stands s's praise,' s i}oun in oun : ' the it for em- spoil each consists in lish marks sative and ind of the SYNTAX OF NOUNS, 225 The objective is the case — (i) of the direct object of a transitive verb: ' Brutus killed him.* (2) of the factitive object : 'They made him consul; Mle called her Mary, Wt thought him a lioiatk: (3) of the noun of kindred meaning whidi sometimes follows in- transitive verbs : ' I dreamt a dream : 'He slept a sound sUct. ' Tliis is called the cognate ojjjt-etive. See p. 132. (4) of the noun in apposition to another in the objective: 'They slew hin , their archbishop.' (5) of the adverbial adjunct of the predicate, marking limitations as regards time, space, or manner : ' We stayed a jta/-,' ' The ditch is three yards wide,' 'This is worth half-a-cnnm: (6) of nouns governed by prepositions : ' He plays for money.' (7) of the indirect ol)ject : the noun in this case stands for the thing to or on behalf of which the thing is done. The verb 'to give ' may be taken as the type of verbs which are followed by an indirect object: Give vie (indir. obj.) the book ' (dir. ohj. ). (8) of the pronoun in the two surviving impersonals, methinh, meseenis, (9) after the adjectives iih, worth, and near: 'like wf,' 'worth us two together,' 'near him.' (10) of the person for whose advantage a thing is done, or by whom It IS regarded with interest : tiiese uses correspund with the Dativns Commodi and Dativus Ethuus of the Latin Grammar. ' Do me this favour IS an example of the Dativus Commodi, or Dative of Advantage • vie signifies Jor me. 'Just as I was approaching, he whips me out his dagger : here me marks merely the fact that the speaker had an interest in the action : it gives a lively touch to the nanalive. Ale is called the Ethical Dative. The Retained or Adverbial Object. The reader will remember that many transitive verbs which take two objects in the active voice, may retain either of these as its object in (he passive. Thus 'He taught me music' converted into the passive be- comes either ' I was taught music by him,' or ' Music was taught me by him. In the first form, music, in the second, me, may be described as the Retained Object after the passive verb. Or we may describe music and me as adjuncts of the predicate, or adverbial objectives. Just as we call 'three miles,' 'three hours,' adverbial objectives when we say He walked three miles,' ' He walked three \ioms: -objectives because they are in the objective case (though there is no inflexion of the noun^ Jrom which we can see this) and adverbial because they limit or qualify the statement that 'he walked,'— so we may call music an adverbial objecttve limiting the statement that he 'taught me,' or me an adverbial objective limiting the statement that he 'taught music' Wi £< Gi *M Ill I 826 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 244. Order. The noun in the obiective rase usually follows the verb or the preposition by which it is governed. But— (i) When the word in the objective case is a relative or interrogative pronoun, it comes before the verb : * The book which you gave me,' ' Which book did you give me ? ' (2) When that is used as a relative and governed by a preposition, the preposition comes at the end cf the sentence : ' This is the book that you tokl me of: When who or which are used as relatives and governed by pre- positions, they may stand before or after the i)repositions : • This is the man of whom and that is the book of which you told me,' or 'This is the man whom you told me of, and that is the book which you told me of.' (3) For emphasis the noun in the objective case ^^, some- times placed before the verb: 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye ? ' ' Silver and gold have I none.' 245. Correction of Sentences. In his school exer- cises the student is sometimes required to alter the construc- tion of faulty sentences. His aim should be to make them formally correct by the introduction of the smallest changes which are necessary for the removal of obscurity or error. A free paraphrase of an ungrammatical passage suggests evasion of the difficulty. Thus 'I went into the garden and wetted my feet in the grass' expresses grammatically the meaning which the sentence 'Going into the garden, the grass wetted my feet ' was intended to convey. But this new version raises a doubt whether the nature of the mistake has been grasped by the pupil. To take another illustration ; the sentence ' Shakespeare is greater than any dramatist ' is corrected, if we say ' Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist,' but this correction might be made by one who had failed to see anything amiss with th other dramatist,' we intro- duce the minimum of alteration and put our finger on the faulty spot. in f?t*; ,,^''?'"P'^^ of fhe erroneous use of the participle are furnished in the following sentences. Rew.ite them correctly. •Being a fine day, I went out for a wain.' [To correct this sentence we may either— (i) Complete the absolute phrase and say ' It being,' or— {2) Substitute an atlverbial clause for /ym/,-and say'' As it was.'] •Sailing in a yacht, the coast seems to move faster than we.' caree^"""'"^ '^'^ '^^'"'"'' ""^ "^'''''''' """^ "°'' P"°'' ^"''""^ attended his 'Foiled and disgraced, his candidature was abandoned ' .»bj^rr:ww" ""' "*"" " ^"^ "■""• ''"' "''"S a bad rule, hi. ::i CHAPri:R XXIV. Syntax of Apjkctivks and Pronouns. I , tf *»! ■ i I I. Adjectives. 247. Adjfctivfs limit nouns attributively and pre- dicatively. When wc say 'a clovjr l)oy; liio use of the ailJLVtive is attributive: when we say 'Tlie boy i:. clever,' it is predicative. With certain transitive verbs of incomplete predication, such as /////•, cci//, iV/zsu/cr, an adjective is used factitively tc complete the statement: 'They made, or thought, or called, or considered, him clever.' Some adjectives can be used only predicatively. We can say 'The man is afraid, or awake, or well, or ill,' but not 'the afraiil man,' 'the awake man,' 'the well or ill man.' Sometimes an adjective changes its meaning when it is used attributively: 'lie is a sorry fool' does not signify the same thing as ' The fool is sorry.' '(;iad ' can be used attributively in only a few connexions : 'glad tidings,' *glad heart' 248. Concord. To speak of the agreement of the Adjective with its Noun in modern English is to use a term which seems scarcely appropriate, for the inflexions marking gender and case have disappeared entirely from English adjectives; and the demonstratives ///is and t//at are the only adjectives which admit of the inflexion of number. and pi*e- iise of the clever,' it ncoinplcte adjective It: ''I'hey ever.' ^ely. We H, or ill/ le well or ning when does not id ' can be J tidings,' nt of the use a term s marking 1 English t are the liber. 5iYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES. 229 Collective nouns in the singular are often followed by verbs in the plural, but they cannot be preceded by these or tlum'. It is a common error to say 'these sort,' 'those kind.' 'Tliosc sort of tilings do not aCfccI me al nil.' The best \vav of comTtin^r this is to say 'Thint;s of thai sori ,h, not.' TIktc is a harshness whclhc-r wc; say 'That sort of thini-s ,lo n..t.' or ''I'hal sort of th.n>|.s (I,H.-s not,' though cithi-r expression a.iniils of (h^fcncc, if sort is a collcct.vc- noun siKnifyin^; 'class.' I{„| if ,,;./ js ;u, ai.strart noun cc|u.valcnt n. nR'anin^ to '.!c-scri,.tion.' rad, ofth.-s,- forms of cxnn-ssion IS Illogical, for It is tJR. things, and not the description of the ihinus, by which the effect is produced. ^ 249. The constructions of viany arc curious. We may use many as an adjective and say 'many roses,' or 'many a rose,' with the idea of i)lurality in both instances. We can also si)cak of 'a great many roses,' where the adjective .i,v-m/ lumts the adjective many, unless we supi)Ose that many is here a noun and that the .^.H expression would be ' a great many ^/ roses.' Many is used as a noun when we talk of 'the conflict between the /tw and the many: Notice the diflerence of mean ing between ' few ' and 'a {aw: Few means 'not many': a few moans 'some.' Less is often wrongly used where feivcr would be the right word. Less denotes quantity, fewer denotes number. Hence we ought not to say ' No less than twenty persons were present.' 250. Each, every, either, neither, are distributives, and their construction is therefore singular. Hence the following are wrong : • Each of the boys read in their turn. ' We may alter each of to all, malung turn plural, or we may alter their to his. 'Tliey followed each in their turn.' This sentence is not on precisely the same footintr as the last, for if we substitute his for their, we may be makinj,' a mistake, as they may mean women, or both men and women. Supposing that 'they' refers to both men and women, are we to say 'his or hcrlurn respectively'? ills phraseology is suggestive of a legal document rather than ot 230 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. if' 11 ordinary diction. In such a case two courses are open to us, — to say simply 'in turn,' or to dispense with the each and say all. The use of adjectives as adverbs has been dealt with on p. 175, and of adjectives as nouns on p. 103. 251. Errors in connexion with the use of the com- parative and the superlative degree are illustrated in the following passages: 1. Use of the superlative when fewer than three things are compared — •Of London and Paris the former is the wealthiest.' •Which is the most learned of the two scholars?' and of the comparative when more than two things are compared — •The town consists of three distinct quarteirs, of which the western one is by far the larger.' To object to speaking of the division of a town into three quarters would be hypercritical: when used of a town, 'quarter' means 'a part,' not necessarily 'a fourth part.' In like manner we may speak of 'a weekly journal,' though originally a journal must have been a publica- tion issued &\Qxy jmcr or 'day.' 2. Confusion of the comparative and superlative forms of expression — •Of all other nations England is the greatest.' Unless we have already specified one nation as the greatest and are making a comparison between all the remaining nations, this sentence is faulty. To say •America is the greatest nation, and of all other nations England is the greatest' is correct. But if this is not our mean- ing, we must say either (i) 'England is the greatest of all nations,' or (2) 'England is greater than all other nations.' To blend the two expressions produces an illogical result, for England is not one f all other ; our mean- nations,' or id the two t one ause the ;le thing, with the the noun the New 3;' 'the ular and SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES. 233 ry mean- B'-t 'the : piebald )se which led, there misinter- ,' or • the ban all the ng the past Nile is one in 'a// the he western the eastern use? why? 1 what verb ind near m: 'The boy near me made a disturbance.' Like is used also as an adverb; 'like as a father pitieth his children,' meaning 'in like manner as.' But it should never be used as a con- junction, followed by a nominative case and a finite verb. Such solecisms' as 'like you said,' 'like I told you,' though in common use, are peculiarly grating and offensive. 'These sort of men are sure not to speak true like we do.' Here we have (i) 'these sort,' already commented on: (2) 'speak true' instead of 'truly' (or 'the truth'): 'true' can be defended however on the ground that the adjective is used as an adverb, p. 175. (3) ' like' used as a conjunction instead of 'as.' Like would require //j after it, but we cannot make us the subject of do, therefore like must be discarded, unless we say ' like as we do,' employing like as an adverb. But such an expression is out of date. 255. Order. A single adjective used attributively generally stands before the noun, but in poetry sometimes comes after it, e.g. 'tempests fierce,' 'shadows dark,' and in certain phrases it always occupies this position owing to Norman French influence: e.g. 'knight errant,' 'heir apparent,' ' malice prepense,' * sign manual' When several adjectives are attached to one noun they are sometimes placed after it for emphasis: 'We reached the town, dull, dismal, and deserted.' II. Pronouns. 256. Concord. In so far as Pronouns possess in- flexions, they may be said to agree with the Nouns for which they stand in Gender, Number, and Person: their Case is regulated by their relation to their own clause. Thus we say 'Your sister borrowed my dictionary yesterday: I met her this morning, and she gave // back to me:' 'Let us divide the books : you take these and I will keep those' * By a solecism is signified a violation of syntrix or of idiom. The people of the Athenian colony of Soli in Asia Minor spoke Greek with many blunders. Hence an error in grammar or pronunciation was called aoXoiKifffjios, from which we borrowed the word solaism. i.-^ s:^:-aai!^^ggU : ; i 11 . 9m> It 234 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. The anticipatory // is used however of masculine and of feminine nouns, and of nouns both singular and plural : 'It IS the prince and princess.' You, the pronoun of ordinary address, though applied to single individuals, is followed by a verb in the plural : ' You- are old, father V/illiam.' 257. Great care is needed in the employment of pro- nouns : the promiscuous use of them is frequently a source of obscurity'. The historian Clarendon is a notorious trans- gressor against clearness in the use of the pronouns. In the following extract from Goldsmith's History of Greece, the numbers i, 2. 3, inserted after the pronouns of the Third Person, refer respectively to Philip, Aristotle, and Alexander : '//. 124. If who and which were used purely as co-ordinating relatives, and that as the restric- tive or limiting relative, ambiguity would sometimes be avoided. Thus 'His friends who lived in London missed him greatly,' in the mouth of the ordinary speaker, n»ay signify either (i) His friends missed him greatly and his friends lived in London, or (2) Those particular friends living in London missed him though his friends in other towns may not have done so. In this latter sense the use of the restrictive that instead o{who is recommei.ded, but the distinction is not carried out in modern practice. Similarly, 'I will give you my books which are at my •lodgings' may signify either 'all my books, and my books are at my lodgings,' or 'those particular books at my lodgings out of my entire .stock.' If that were reserved for the latter meaning, the expression would be free from risk of a v^rong interpretation.] 6. E.xplain the term Attribute, and give instances of five different ways of enlarging or qualifying the subject of a sentence. [An attribute is a quality attrilmted to a thing: when we say 'The horse is white,' we explicitly assert the presence of the attribute or quality whiteness. When we speak of 'the white horse,' we implicitly affirm the presence of the attribute. See p. loi. As the adjective marks the presence of the attribute or quality in a thing, the adjective attached to a noun is sometimes called the attribute of the noun, but this misuse of terms should be avoided. For the enlargement of the subject, see p. 20 r.] 7. State the rule for the agreement of the relative with its antece- dent. When may the relative be omitted? Give an example. Correct :— 'Let him and I settle who we will invite.' 8. When the words either, such, one, as, are used as pronouns, to what classes do they severally belong? Write down one example of the pionominal use o( as. Parse the italicised words in:— 'Go, g^i you to your house;' *IIe did it himself:' '■Such a lovely dry!' SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. 239 9- Correct the following sentences. Each sentence contains .nore than one error ; some contain several. it was hT.' ''''^ '''"''^' ^ """^'^ "°* "'''^^ ^^" ^*^"'"' ^"'' ^'"'^^' I '■"""'i in^Z^'" '?!!"^' '"^^^'^ themselves to me; but neither of these, or mdeed any other seem acceptable to the President, whom people think IS one of the most mcompetent men that has ever occupied the Chair ' My niece, whom it was supposed had been murdered, is a girl of ten years old.' ^ A ',^r y^Vu^'"'""^^'' "^y *'°""'" '^'^«'" ^e thought had settled in Australia ? There is some talk of him returning.' 10. Is any correction required in the following sentence?-'! he and you can go.' ' ' [In this sentence there is nothing formally wrong, hut usage enjoins a different arrangement of the pronouns. From motives of politeness the first place is given to the person addressed : from feelings of modesty the speaker mentions himself last. Hence we should say 'You, he and I ran JO. When a speaker joins others with himself and uses the plural liumber, considerations of courtesy and modesty are no longer applicable and the pronouns occupy their natural positions, we standing first. v^«' second, and they thud : ' We, you and they can go. 'J CHAPTER XXV. M Syntax of Verbs. 1. 1 i .1! 260. Concord. The Verb agrees with its Sub- ject in Number and Person. Thus we say ' He is,' ' They are,' ' Men work,' not * He are,' * They is,' ♦ Men works.' Observe, however, that— 1. Collective nouns in the singular may be followed by a verb in the singular or plural, according as we are thinking of the aggregate, or of the individuals composing it. We may say ' The Committee zvere divided in opinion,' or * The Committee was unanimous.' a. Several nouns whi h are plural in form are usually construed as singular, since their meaning is singular or collective : thus, ' The news is true.' Other examples are given on p. 87, (3). The same explanation applies to our employment of a singular verb with a plural noun which forms the title of a book : the book is singular though the title is plural. We say therefore 'Johnson's Lives of the Poets has been edited afresh'; 'Macaulay's Biographies is a reprint from the Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Two or more nouns in the singular jomed by and require a verb in the plural ; * He and I were astoniGhed* But il tS Sub- not hat- He lowed by thinking it. We or * The e usually igular or iples are gular verb is singular ives of the iprint from a? require ' Butil SYNTAX OF VERBS. 341 the nouns are names of tht same thing, the verb is singular : so we say 'The secretary and treasurer has absconded,' when one man holds the two ortic^e.. And on similar grounds when the dififerent nouns together express one idea, the verb IS frequently in iue singular: «Two and two is four': 'Early to bed and early to rise 'Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise' But if we employ 'with' or 'as well as' in the place of and, the verb is not plural, unless indeed it would be plural without the addition of tliese words and the noun which follows them. Thus, 'The minister, with his private secretaries, was present'; as ivith is a preposition, it is impossible that secretaries shouM be a nominative to the verb, for secretaries is in the objective case governed by «vM. Again, 'Veracity, as well as justice, is to be our rule, not are, for the elliptical clause 'as well as justice' IS introduced as a parenthesis. _ Nouns in the singular joined by or or nor require a verb in the singular: the force of these conjunctions is to present the subjects as alternatives, not jointly. Hence the following are wrong : • Nor want nor cold i.us coiuse delay.' 'Death or banishment were the alternatives placed before him.' If or or nor connects two Pronouns of different persons, it is doubtful what the construction of the verb should be. Perhaps the safest rule would be to make the verb agree with the pronoun which immediately precedes It, but even this arrangement produces very harsh effects, ohould we say — « ' Either he or I arc going,' * Either he or I am going,' * Either he or I is going ' ? The usage of different people may vary. A good many would say are, although as or is an alternative conjunction W. E. G. 16 h I'. . .In PJ .ill III" ,» li 242 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, and indicates that the subjects are to be taken separately, the verb must at any rate be singular. If we say am, the verb agrees wiih the subject /but not with the subject he\ it we say is, it agrees wiih he but not with /. In practice it is easy, and also desirable, to avoid this difficulty by modifying the sentence thus : ' Either he is going or I am.' Grammatical blunders often arise by mistaking for the subject a dependent noun of a different number from that of the subject, owing to its position immediately before the verb. The following are illustrations of this error : 'To Marat, and Danton, and Robespierre, are due the honour ol having made it universal.' The subject of the verb is honour, and the verb should be singular. ' His knowledge of French and English literature loere far beyond the common,' The writer is misled by the words 'French and English literature ' which come next the verb, and forgets that the noun ' know- ledge ' in the singular is subject of the verb. When words take irregular constructions owing to the influence of other words, they are said to be attracted. 261. Government. The Direct Object and the In- direct Object are dealt with on p. 97, the Cognate Object on p. 132, the Retained Object in the Passive construction with verbs which take a Direct and an Indirect Object on pp. 138, 225. Note that, when both Objects follow the verb, the Indirect Object precedes the Direct Object. For if this order is reversed, a preposition is required before the In- direct Object, and the noun or pronouu is then the object of the preposition and no longer the Indirect Object ot the verb. So, 'Get me a cab' becomes 'Get a cab for me ' : ' I gave him a book ' becomes ' I gav(* a book to him.' 262. Moods. The uses of the Subjunctive are set out on p. 141. The constructions of the different parts ol the Verb Infinite, Noun and Adjective, are given on pp. 14^ — 8. The student is advised to read these passages 4R, :parately, af?i, the bject he : practice culty by ir I am.' g for the from that lefore the honour ol «r, and the far beyond .nd English )uu 'know- ig to the ■ted. i the In- Objcct on ::tion with :t on pp. the verb, For if this e the In- ;he object Object ot » for me ' : im.' /e are set It parts ol in on pp. : passages SYNTAX OF VERBS. ' 243 again and then to consider carefully Questions 6 to 20 at the end of this Chapter. 263. Future Tense. In the Chapter on Auxiliary Verbs, it was pointed out that Shall and Will, used as auxiliaries, express (i) futurity, (2) determination. A more detailed statement of the different uses of Shall and Will is given in a con- venient form in the following table': To express 1. Futurity 2. Question •3. Determina- tion 4. Promise 5. Compulsion I St pers. and & 3rd pers. shall shall will will shall will shall, will will shall shall ExamplaE. ( I shall come to-morrow (H ou loill get back late. e ivill arrive fust. ( Shall I pass? \ Shall you pass? ( Will he pass? ( I Tvt'll have my own way. . You will have your own way. [ He rvill have his own way. I will pay you to-morrow. You shall be paid to-morrow. He shall be paid to-morrow. He says I shall do it. Thou shall not steal. He shall surely die. ^ Adapted from Sir E. B. Head's Shall and Will, p. 119. The student should learn the first column of this table containing the list of different notions under wl ich cur uses of shall and zvill are classihed. 1 hen, if he grasps the meaning of the terms employed, he can easily make his own examples and write down exiher shall or tailU^ appropriate to the different persons, by the exercise of his intelligence. This will be a much better course for him than burdening his mind with a table of details mechanically got by heart. 16 — 2 \lf ' H' }■ ii II' kl i I ti I 244 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 264. In like manner we can make a table of the uses of Should and Would. To express I St pers. and & 3rd pers. Examples. I. Contingent Futurity 1. Hypothesis 3. Determina- tion should should would would should would ( I should be surprised, if it rains, < Vou would be surprised, if it rains. ( He would be surprised, if it rains. ( If I should f,QQ him, I will tell him. } If you should see him, tell him. ( If he should see you, tell him. ( I ivould go, if I could. \ You would go, if you could. ( He would go, if he could. 265. Sequence of Tenses in a Subordinate Clause. What is the rule for the sequence of tenses, when a principal sentence is followed by a subordinate one? In general terms we may say that in English, as in Latin, Primary Tenses follow Primary, and Historic Tenses follow Historic. More explicitly — Principal Clause Subordinate Clause Present ) ^ „ , , \ Present or Future Indicative, or Future \ ""'^ ^""""^^"^ ^^ i Present Subjunctive. Past is followed by Past. Primary follotoed by Primary. Examples : — He says that he is working hard. He says that he will work hard. He works hard so that he may pass. He has worked hard so that he may pass. He will tell you that he is working hard. He will tell you that he will work hard. He will work hard so that he may pass. Past folloxved by Past. He said that he would come. He hoped that he might pass. le uses if it rains, d, if it rains. I, if it rains. ivill tell him. , tell him. tell him. could, uld. rdinate when a ? ;h, as in c Tenses ve, or SYNTAX OF VERBS. He could do it if he liked. He had said that he would do it. 245 fnr ^l,}'^^^''^iy^^ dependent clause affirms a proposition which is true for all i.me, the present tense is generally used, though the principal danse contain a past tense: so, ' Shakespeare affirmed that cowards ./.> many mies, ' CaHyle asked if virtue is a gas.' But the past also would be quite admissible. Is thtre any inaccuracy in saying *I intended to have written'? u^l.iH^'-^'r?"^ ^' >^^A,^^/^^rA desire, intend, command, the import of which IS future, require the present infinitive of the dependent verb if it denotes an action simply subsequent in time to the time of the action of the prmcipa verb. Clearly I cannot hope or intend now to have done something already, for hope or intend implies futurity. But if we wish to express the co.npleteness at a future date of the action denoted by ihe dependent verb the perfect infinitive is appropriate. Though I cannot say I hope to have written,' when I mean merely that I hope to write 1 can say ' I hope this morning to have roritten ten pages by to-nich^ ' where the /^ have written does not imply that the writing is prior to the hoping, which would be absurd, but implies that it will have been com- p eted at a certain future time. In the same way we may legitimately say 1 intended yesterday to have xvritten to you before you called to-day.' 266. Reported Speech. In reproducing the precise words used by a speaker we quote his speech directly. But if we introduce his remarks with ' He 'said that,' or an equivalent expression, it is necessary to alter the pronouns and tenses, and the speech is then reported indirectly, or in 'obUque narrative.' This distinction was denoted in T.atin by the terms Oratio Recta and Oratio Obliqua. As an illustration, take the following passage : "I wish you would play up," said the captain: "why are you all so slack ? Do keep the ball low. They will get another goal directly, if you don't look out." Here we have the speaker's own words given in direct narrative. They may be indirectly reported in three ways : (i) by the speaker himself; ** *i t Mm i m * gm mtm rn lli! f 240 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, (2) by one of the team to whom the speech was addressed ; (3) by an outsider. Now notice the differences in the three indirect reports : 1. {I said) I wished they would play up : {I asked) why were they all so slack ? (/ said) I wished they would keep the ball low : (/ said) the other fellows would get another goal directly, if they didn't look out. 2. {He said) He wished we would play up. Why were we all so slack ? He wished we would keep the ball low : they would get another goal directly, if we didn't look out. 3. {He said) He wished they would play up. Why were they all so slack? He wished they would keep the ball low : the other fellows would get another goal directly, if they didn't loci: out. After a present tense of the principal verb, {He says)^ the tenses of the reported speech will be different from those given above. The student can make the necessary altera- tions for himself, observing, as he does so, the working of the law of the Sequence of Tenses. When no directions are given to the contrary, a passage for conversion to in- direct narrative is supposed to be introduced by the past tense, {He said), and the reporter is supposed not to form one of the persons addressed. Copious examples for practice in the conversion from the direct to the indirect form, and from the indirect to the direct form of narrative, are furnished by the daily news- papers in their parliamentary reports. As a further exercise let us write in the third person the following speech of King Richard, taking care to make the meaning plain, and commencing with King Richard said that : — ' I wish I may forget my brother John's injuries as soon as he will forget my pardon of them.* ;ch was reports : ked) why ild keep another Hiy were )all low: 3k out. ). Why ceep the directly, ays), the m those •y altera- irking of irections )n to in- the past form one on from ct to the ly news- irson the nake the ard said I as soon SYNTAX OF VERBS. 247 This becomes — 'He wished he might forget his brother John's injuries as soon as John would forget the King's pardon of them.' To avoid obscurity of expression some such substitution for he and hts as we have introduced in the latter part of the passage is necessary. To have recourse to parentheses containing the namcs'is a clumsy ex- pedient : e.g, ' as soon as he (John) would forget his (Richard's) pardon of them.' Questions. 1. What rules aliout Concord are still observed in English? [Concord occurs in the following instances : (1) The verb and its subject in number and person. (2) The adjectives i/iis and t/ta^ in number. (3) The noun in apposition in case. (4) The pronouns in gender, number, and person.] 2. Give rules respecting the concord of verbs with their subjects, when subjects differing in numl)er, or jK-rson, or both, are connected by a conjunctive or alternative conjunction. 3. Comment on the following constructions from Milton and Shakespeare : 'Bitter complaint and sad occasion dear ^Co7npels me to disturb your season due.' *No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, 'Not the King's crown, nor the depu d sword, 'The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe ''Become them with one half so good a grace 'As mercy does.' 4. Correct the following sentences : — 'This and that man was born there.' * Honour as well as profit are to be gained by this.* 'Homer as well as Virgil were studied by him.' ' But the temper as well as knowledge of a modern historian require a more sober and accurate language.' ' The happiness or misery of men's lives depend very much on his early training.' ' Neither Thomas nor John were there.' ' I, whom nor avarice r or pleasure move.* 'Neither you or me are invited.' 'The diligent study of classics and mathematics prepare the mind for any pursuit in which it may engage.' 'Nothing but misfortunes have been the result.' mm. mn i iH 248 ELEMENTS OF ENGIJSH GRAMMAR, 'Bacon's Esmys are the most important of these two works.' 'Three spoonsfull of water to one of wine is not near sufficient.' [Notice here, (i) the compound noun in the pUiral i^ spoonfuls : in spoons full we have two words, spoons, a noun, and J ull, an adjective limiting the noun. We may say either 'three spoonfuls' or 'three spoons full.' Here tiie former is more suitable, as it is a quantity of liquid that is s|K)ken of, not a number of spoons. (2) The singulars may be (lefunded, as tlie sul)ject, though plural in form, represents a whole. Similarly we say 'Twice two is four,' 'Twenty years is a long time,' 'Two-thirds //(W been lost.' (3) A'ear} Can this be justified?] 5. Explain the term Indirect Object. Write two short sentences in illustration of its use after verbs, and one of its use after an adjective. Give instances, one of each kind, of words (r) governed by, (2) agreeing with, (3) qualifying, other words. \Like, unlike, near, will furnish the construction of the Indirect Object required after adjectives.] 6. Explain with full examples the uses of the different moods of the verb. Notice especially the cases when //can be followed by the indicative, and when it must have a subjunctive. [For an answer to the former ]iart of the question see p. 139. The latter part is dealt with below, Q. 8.] 7. Give a dehnition of the Subjunctive Mood, distinguishing it from the Indicative. State the Mood of the word may in— (a) You may go. {f>) I give that you may give. (c) May good digestion wait on appetite. Give reasons for your answer in each case. [In (a) may has its own meaning as a notional verb: *Yoii may go* signifies ' You are at liberty to go.' In {b) it has parted with its own meaning and become a mere auxiliary of give, marking the subjunctive mood. The same is true of its use in {c) where, as an auxiliary of wait, it serves to express a wish.] 8. What is the general rule for the use of the indicative or the subjunctive mood in dependent sentences? Illustrate this rule by an example. [If the condition expressed by the verb in the dependent sentence is assumed as a fact, but without our wishing to imply that we think it likely or unlikely to be fulfilled, the indicative should be used ; but if the condition is stated as something conceived by the speaker either as unlikely or as actually impossible, the subjunctive should be used. As we remarked before however (p. 141), the indicative has ^ ery largely 9m s.' :ient.' ni fills : in adjective or ' three uantity of singular is presents a s is a long ustified ?] ntences in Ijcctive. d by, (2) e Indirect oods of the ndicative, [39. The uishing it SYNTAX OF VERBS. 249 11 may go * :h its own ubjunctive •y of waitf ive or the ule by an entence is e think it 2d ; but if r either as used. As ry largely taken the place of the subjunctive where the use of the latter would be more appropriate. This distinction may be illustrated thus : •Jf he is in the garden, I will find him,' (H-^ may be or he may not for anything that I know; but assuming that lie is, I will find him.) 'If he be in the garden, I will find him,' (I am doubtful: it is unlikely that he is.) 'If he were in the garden, I would find him,' (I de'ny that he is.) Hence the subjunctive is the right mood in whicli to express a wish, 'I wish he were less idle,' which he is not; and a purpose, 'Mind that you be ready by one o'clock,' for as the event is future, it must be regarded only as conjectured, not rea' ed.] 9. Give examples of the different ways in which is can be altered into the subjunctive mood m laglish. Give a classification of the various uses of the subjunctive mood. [Take the sentence ' He /- lie.' We may convert this from indicative to subjunctive in these ways: (i) Though he be idle, he will pass his examination : (2) Though he may be idle, he will pass: (3) Though he should be idle, he would pass : (4) Though he were idle, he would pass. The answer to the latter part of the question is given on p. 141.] 10. Write out the past tense of the subjunctive mood of the verb to be, and give an example of the use of the 3rd person singular of this tense after the conjunctions if, that, though, respectively. [For the conjugation see p. 140, * If he were here, you would not say so.' * I wish that he were here.' * Though he were here, I should say just the same.'] 11. How is future time indicated m the subjunctive mood? [As the subjunctive has no future tenses, the present tense is used. ' We shall be sailing up the Channel to-morrow ) .^ , •We shall have passed Dover to-morrow \ " ^"^ ^'"^ ^^'^P 'We shall reach the Nore to-morrow ) favourable.'] 12. Correct: — 'If he don't know, I am sure I don't.' [Consider what don't is a contraction of. Don't is 'do not,' so the sentence is ' If he do not know, I am sure I do not.' On a suitable occasion ' If he do not ' is correct English, the verb being in the sub- junctive mood. But this is not a suitable occasion on which to employ the subjunctive. ' If ' is not used in this sentence with its ordinary con- ditional sense. On the contrary it signifies rather ' assuming as a fact.' Hence the indicative should be used both in the antecedent and in the consequent clause, and we ought to say ' If he doesn't know, I am sure I don't,' our meaning being this, — ' Seeing that he is certainly ignorant, A sni ccrtsiitiy i^nor3,nt tOOi j I 250 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. \s 13. Wliat pnrts of the Verb may l)e used as {a) nouns, (/;) afljccfivcs? Apply your answer !> tlie vcrl) speak, by making short sentences in wliiih tliis verb is uscil in the dilTereht ways you have mentioned. 14. Wliat is the subjerl in tiic followinc;;: lo pcrfoyin is better than to piiuiiise} Write this witii a verbal noun tor sul)ject. Give not more tlian tlnce exani|)les of noun sentences as objects to / remember, and show liow to e.\i)ress the same ideas witli verl)al nouns instead of verlis, usiuj^ as far as ])ossible the same wo/ds. Comment on any peculiarity of grammar in — ' lie cannt)t choose but hear. ' [What part of speech is but ? Think what word would be substituted for it. What mood is heart What might we expect to find with it ?J 15. Parse the infinitives in the following sentences : — ' To tell the Irutli I think you are to blame for going to sleep to kill time.' 'To think tliat any one, who can help it, sliould be content to live with nothing to do ! ' [Consider carefully the uses of the gerundial infinitive specified on p. 144 and the examples in illustration of them.] 16. Give the derivation and definition of the term Participle. Shew how your answer applies to the participles in the following sentence : — ' In idaying tennis he was always forgetting that a ball returned by his opponent, if it touched the top of the net dividing the courts, was likely to twist.' ['Participle,' from the Latin pars, 'part,' capio., 'take'; Participles are so called because they participate in the character of both adjective and verb. Like adjectives they limit tlie application of nouns ; like verbs (when formed from transitive verbs) they are followed by an object.] 17. Carefully parse the words ending in ing in the following sentence — 'Fearing that the load was injuring the horses I felt no more pleasure in travelling through that entrancing scenery.' [Notice that entrancing, though originallv a participle describing an act, has here become an adjective dcscriuing a quality. Like an adjective, therefore, it precedes the noun which it limits : as a participle, its position would naturally be after the noun, as in the phrase ' the scenery cniiancing our eyes. ' As an adjective it can be qualified by very, but our English idiom does not allow us to qualify participles by very. We can say 'very entrancing scenery,' but not 'the scenery entrancing our eyes very.' There are indeed a few past participles which usage permits us to qualify by the use of very, — participles of such common occurrence that they are tri ated as adjectives; 'very pleased,' 'very tired.' But uiuch is used with past participles icgaided as past par ticipicSt 'A'X iR. SYNTAX OF VERBS. 251 fljccfivcs? iitences in led. lettir than l)jccls to / l)al iiniins :hoose Vmt ;iibstitiitc(l with it ?J eep to kill cnt to live jccified on iple. following ;turned by ;ourts, was Participles ti adjective like verbs jbject.] following It no more scribing an Like an participle, hrase ' the ed by very, cs by very. entrancing hich usage h common ied,' 'very poxtlCipiSSt we say • mncli hurt,' ' niucii applauded,' ' much abused,' not ' very hurt,' 'very applauded,' ' very abused.'] 18. What is a (keuten, unless you support us.* 24. Krrors of seijuence of tenses occur in the following sentences correct them. ' lie said he won't give me any.' •I said that I will try a^ain.' 'She told you and me that she will cone.' 'As soon as he has gone away, he wrote and told you and me to come directly.' ' I intended to hiive houj^ht a nioderate-si/ed microscope, hut was told that these miuuie organi>-nis can he seen only unJer the best instru- ments.' 'I was going to have written him a leltor.' 25. State what changes in mode of expression are made when a speech is nportcd in the indirect form. Deduce (Vom the following import the words used by the original speaker: — 'lie urged them to tell him of a single enterprise in which they had succeeded, and, if they could not, to give him some better reason than their own word for believing that they were blameless, lie would ini[uire into the facts and judge for himself.' 16. Point out the ambiguities in the following sentence: — 'Ethel told Mary that it would not be her fault if she did not succeed.' [This report in oblitpic narrative may represent four different state- menls of Ethel's in the ducct form. Give ihem.j 27. Correct the following sentences: ' Snapping at whomsoever laid in its way, the police siezed the dog, on account of it not only being dangerous, but also unmuzled according to law.' [This sentence teems with errors of vari' is kinds. First, there are two words misspelt. Secondly, there are grammatical blunders, zu/iom- soever, laid, and it. Thirdly, there are mistakes of arrangement, whereby nonsense is made. Put the participial phrase 'snapping at whomsoever laid in its way ' next to the word of which it is the adjunct: at present it appears as if the police were snapping. The order of the words not only being must be changed. And was it * according to law ' that the dog had its mouth open, or that the police captured it ?] S( w- '* SYNTAX OF VERBS. iR ill. Why I be com- W, giving IS.' sentences: 253 'They had awnke him, he h.-arned, to be told that the river had ovcrliown its l>aniis.' [Notice tlu t^onfiision of two constructions here: 'They had awoke him to tell him,' and * lie had awoke (or been awaked) to be told.' A roiifusion of two constructions is called Aniuolnlhon. from a Greek wonl which means * not lolU»wing alon^, 'nut in se(|UtMce with' something else.J ' lie li.id two sisters, the one a wealthy 5pi;;i 'tci, the other i married sister is llic wile of a 1 umcr.' md me to ■, but was lest instru- le when a e original 2 in which me better ;lcss. He :— 'Ethel 1.' lent state- :1 the dog, according , there are rs, zuhom- t, whereby lorasocver at present words not ' that the 1 CHAPTER XXVI. Syntax of Advkrhs, Conjunctions, and i^repositions. U' ■ 267. Thkre are some words which are variously used as Prepositions, as Adverbs, and as Conjunctions. The following sentences illustrate this threefold use of hif, before^ since. Prepositions. I saw nobody but him. Songs before sun- rise. Since Easter. Adverbs. I have but one. He went before. I have not seen him since. Conjunctions. I saw him but not you. He went before 1 arrived. 1 will do so since you wish it. How are such words to be distinguished ? If the word in question governs a noun or pronoun, it is a Preposition. Bear in mind the fact that the preposi- tion frequently comes after the relative pronoun which it governs : ' I gave the book 'hat he asked for to the man 7ohoni I spoke to' \ 'This is the place which you told me of And this relative pronoun is often dropped out altogether : the words tJiat, wJioni^ and 7vhich, would probably be omitted from these sentences in conversation. Nevertheless, /i^?*, tOf and of are still prepositions, for they govern these pronouns understood. SYNTAX OF ADVERBS, ETC. ass >SITIONS. usly used ns. The of but, ACTIONS. Ill bid not nt before ed. 3 so since ibh it. ronoun, it J preposi- which it the man Id me of.' :together : Q omitted sSjfor, tOf pronouns But to distinguish Adverbs from Conjunctions is oKcn a difficult matter, for there are many adverbs which join sentences and therefore do the work of conjunctions. For identifying an adverb there is a rule-of-thumb which directs us to move the word about and observe whether the gram- matical structure of the passage in whicii it occurs is destroyed by the process : if it is not destroyed, we are to conclude, according to this rule, that the word is an adverb. Thus the sentence 'Meanwhile the mob continued shouthig' would retain its grammatical structure unimpaired, if the word meanwhile were placed after moby or after continued, or after shouting. But though this freedom of movement on the part of adverbs is a feature which deserves noli( e, it is quite useless as a i)ractical test in precisely those instances in which the stutlent miglit find a dilhculty in deciding wiiether the word in question is to be called an adverb or a conjunction, for in those instances the word cannot be moved about, and yet it would frequently be rightly described as an adverb. Take the sentences ' I know where he lives,' 'I saw him whe7i he called,' 'I as certained hoiv he escaped.' The words ivherc^ when, how, cannot be shifted to other places in the sentence widiout making nonsense of the whole. Hence a student applying this test in his uncertainty would say they were not adverbs. Yet they are adverbs : ivhere cjualifies lives, when qualifies called, how qualifies escaped, just as much as the adverbs there, then, and so qualify these verbs when we say ' He lives there,' ' He called then,' ' He escaped so.^ It is true that where, when, and how also join the clauses 'I know.. .he lives,' * I saw him. ..he called,' * I ascertained... he escaped.' But though they join clauses, they do not therefore cease to be adverbs, any more than the relative pronouns cease to be pronouns because they also join clauses. The co- ordinate clauses *I know the man., he did it/ are united in one complex sentence by who, when we say ' I know Ft" 256 ELEMENTS OE ENGLISH GRAMMAR. the man who did it ' ; still we do not call who a conjunc- tion. 'Conjunctive' or 'connective' pronouns we might indeed call ihem, and the name would be more appropriate than 'relative' pronouns; and 'conjunctive' or 'connective' adverbs is the proper name for words whicli, while acting as adverbs, also join clauses. Ask the question therefore,— Does the word about which I am in doubt not only join two clauses but also qualify some verb or adjective m the clause which it in- troduces? If it does, it is a conjunctive adverb : if it does not, it is a conjunction. 'Huis in the sentences ' I will go //you wish,' '1 know that he died,' the words //^ and ///a/ connect two clauses without modifying any word which follows them ; but in the sentences * 1 will go when you wish,' 'I know where he died,' when and where connect two clauses and also modify the verbs wish and died respectively. However, the student, who finds this distinction too subtle to serve him as a practical criterion, will commit no serious error if he describes a conjunctive-adverb as an adverbial-conjunction, and writers on grammar can be quoted in his support, whichever term he adopts'. 268. The meaning affected by the position of the Adverb. Though tire grammatical structure of the sentence may be unimpaired by the shifting of the adverb from one place to another, the meaning will often be atfected by the change of position. Consider the difference in the information conveyed when we say ' Only John passed in Latin,' 'John only passed in Latin' and 'John passed only in Latin.' Errors in the position of only are of constant occurrence. At one of the large London Clubs, members are informed ^ Cf. Mason's English (Jrammar, % 263, and Bain's IJigher English Grammar, p. 101. ir:'' 4Ii. conjunc- e might )ropriate inective' icting as d about but also :h it iii- f it does [ will go and t/iat d which hen you connect nd died :ion too nniit no b as an can be tion of ice may ne place ! change rmation ,"John Latin.' jrrence. iformed ' English SYISTTAX OF ADVERBS, ETC. 257 that 'Smoking is only allowed in tliis room after 8 o'clock.' This notice, strictly intori)rcted, imi)lies that the nuthorities go so far as to allow, but would by no means encourage, smoking after 8 o'clock. 269. Construction with 'Than.* 77m« is classed in some bo(;ks as an Adverb, in others as a Conjunction. In an earlier stage of the hmguage it was an adverb and meant 'when': so, 'He is bigger than you' originally meant • He is bigger when you are i)ig.' liut it may now be treated as a conjunction siini)ly. As a conjunction it should be followed by tne same case as the case of the word denot- ing the thing with which the comparison is made. Thus, *I like you better than he,' and 'I like you better than him ' are both correct, but with diOcrent meanings. Sup- plying the ellipses, we get in the former sentence ' I like you better than he likes you', in the latter '1 like you better than I like him.' 'Thia' and a Relative. Wluni than is followed by tTie rohtive ifho, we ijcnerally I'md the ol)jeclive case whom: Milton's 'l{eelzel)ub, tlian ■liiliom none higher sal, perceived ' is the classical example, and we should probably employ the same form of expression to-day: 'Grace, than whom nobody can speak with more authority on cricket, says so'; * Gil)ln)n, than ivhom a more lal)orious student camiot be found, maintains.' Is it right ? Hefore answering the (juestion we may put another — Is it right to say ' It is vw '? If whatever nearly everybody concurs in saying is grammatically right, we nnist admit that wliom and mc are right. Defensible however from the standpoint of grammatical principles they are not. If they were, we might say 'It is her,' 'Nobody can speak better than him.'' Vet we condemr. these expressions as ungramniatical. 270. Construction of 'As.' As is a conjunctive adverb : it not only joins clauses but (lualifies a word in the clause which it mtroduces. 'He is not such a fool as he looks' means 'He is not to so great an extent a fool to what extent he looks a fool.' As is used also as a demonstrative antecedent to this conjunctive as. ' He is as good as (he is) clever.' Another antecedent to as is so\ 'You are not \v. E. c. 17 3iS8 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. so silly ns you seem.' So is only a deinonstrative adverb, not a conjunctive adverb like as. The nouns or pronouns connected by as must be in the same case. *Is she as tall as me}' is therefore wrong: it should be ' Is she as tall as / (am tall) ?' ' You could have done it as well as him ' should be * You could have done it as well as he (could have done it).' 271. 'As follows' or 'As follow'? Ought we to say 'The words are as follows' or 'The words are as follow'} If as is here a relative pronoun, the relative should agree with its antecedent in number. Now the antecedent to as is words, therefore as requires a verb in the plural, /^//ow, not follmvs. Yet we always say as follows, regardless of the number of the antecedent. Perhaps however as is here a conjunctive adverb, and there is an ellipsis of the subject it before follows : 'The words are as it follows.' A I any rate, the phrase as follows has now become an adverbial expression. In like manner we say 'Your remarks so far as concerns mt,' where concern would be the right form if the ellipsis after the conjunc«iv« adverb as is \<, be supplied by they, 'Your remarks so far as they concern me.' In this instance again, we may maintain that the construction is really impersonal, and that it, not they, is the word omitted : ' Your remarks sc far as tt concerns me.' Similarly as regards is used in the singular whatever the number of the noun to which reference i? made: 'Your intentions as regards me.' 272. Construction of 'No.' No is both an adjec- tive and an adverb. As an adjective it is the equivalent of none, as an adverb, of not. Now it is contrary to English idiom to qualify verbs with the adverb no. We say *I will not go,' ' Do not say so,' not ' I will no go,' ' Do no say so.' Hence the expression 'whether or no' admits of defence only when there is an ellipsis of a noun : ' Whether he is a knave or no I cannot say ' may be explained as an abridg- ment of ' Whether he is a knave or no knave^ whereas •Whether he is a knave or nof is an abridgment of 'Whether he is a knave or is not a knave.' When a verb is suppressed, 'whether or not' is the only admissible expression. That it is wrong to say 'Whether or no he did it,' we may see by S'yWT.^X OF ADVERBS, ETC. 2!59 resolving the sentence into its component parts : 'Whether he did it, or he did it iiot' 273. Ellipsis arising from the desire to be brief is a frequent cause of error. We say ' You are as good or better than he,' where as is required after ^ood to make the sentence formally correct. So again in the sentence ' You work harder but not so successfully as he,' harder requires than. To supply these missing words and to say ' You are as good as or better than he,' ' Vou work harder than but not so successfully as he,' would be to employ modes of speech too elaborately precise for everyday purposes. We can steer clear of an error of syntax on the one hand and of pedantry on the other by saying ' You are as good as he, or better,' 'You work harder than he does, but not so successfully.' Ellipsis is seen in the following sentence : — ' He did it without intending to.' Sentences of this type are usually condemned as un- grammatical, on the ground that the missing words, required after to for the completion of the sentence, are not did it iMit do it. It seems pedantic however to object to such a form of expression. If it is allowable to say ' He is taller than j^u,' where we supply * are tall ' to make the construc- tion cofi^>5te, it ought to be allowable to supply in thought *do it' as suggested by 'did it.' Such expressions may be justified as constructions Kara o-vVco-iv, that is, 'according to the understanding,' which supplies what is needed, by appropriately modifying what is already given. The following example is too .sIip-shrrection here : ( i ) neither. . . nor are correlatives, not neit/ur...or\ (2) pdthey and nor must be placed before the words denoting the things or act which we wish to exclude. Hence we must say («) ' You honour neither your father nor your mother,' or {h) 'You do not honour eitlier your father or your mother.' Neither placed before honour suggests some other vcrl) to which nor should apply : ' Vou 262 ELEMENTS OE ENGLISH GRAMMAR, fiim ncitlier honour itor obey your father or your mother.' This misplace- ment ol neither may olten V)e found in the best writers, but this fact docs not make it U-j^ilimate. 277. Idiomatic use of particular prepositions. Particular i)repositi()ns are appropriate after certain verbs, nouns, and adjectives: tiie use of a ditiferent preposition is a violation of idioni. Thus we say * conform to,' but ' con- formity with'' ; 'dependent on^ but 'independent of; 'part from a person,' 'part with a thinp;' ; 'disapi>ointed of some- thing' which we cannot get, 'disappointed in something' when we have uot it. 'Dilfer' and 'different' are often used with the wrong preposition. When we disagree with a person we differ from him. Persons fieiiuently say ' I beg to differ with you,' when they mean ' to differ from you.' If A and B ; gree in differing from C, we may say that A differs ivith B, but in no other sense is the use of with correct. Again, it is a conmion mistake to say 'cHf- ferent to' \ 'different from' is prescribed l)y our idiom. We can sjieak however of ' a difference wit\ a person ' and of ' a difference between two things.' 'Plie student can test his famiharity with EngUsh usage by combining with suit- able prepositions the words given in Question 5 at the end of this chapter. Errors both of pleonasm and of ellipsis occur in the use of prepositions, esi)ecially in connexion with relative pronouns. Pleonasm, or redundancy, is seen in these sentences : ' It is to you to whom I am indebted for this favour.' • It is to this last new feature of the game laws to whieh we intend to confine our notice.' In the following, there is omission : ' My duellijig pistols in rosewood case (same which I shot Captain Maiker), £10.^ * H.ad T but served my (lod with half the zeal *I served my king, he would not in niine ajje *Have left me naked to mine enemies.' SYNTAX OF ADVERBS, ETC, ' Participles express action with the time it happens.' 'And virgins smiled at what they i)lushed heforc' 2-6^ Questions. 1. Distinguish between an adverb and a conjunction. Parse the word as in imth places in ' V'ou are not as rich as he is.' Classify adverbs according to their lorniation, giving examples. Classify conjunctions. Write three short sentences in which the word />it/ occurs as a ix)njunclion, a preposition, and an adverb re- spectively. 2. What three jiarts f)f s])eech ni;iy //la/ be? Construct three sen- tences to illustrate your answi-r. 3. What is a preposition? Distinguish between the uses of pre- positions and conjunctions, (iive two examples of //f;-«.f^-arf?wAf and phrase-prepositions. \Phrase-aiivabs : 'of a truth,' 'nowadays,' 'by no means,' 'at times,' ♦in front,' 'for ever and ever,' 'in a canter,' 'head over ears.' Phrase-prepositions : ' by means of,' ' in accordance with,' ' in conse- quence of,' ' in reply to,' ' with a view to,' ' for the sake of.'] 4. Correct :—' Should the frost continue as sharp as last week, which I do hope it may, the large pond will bear.' (How can we compare a frost with a week ?] 'They know that as well as me.' ' She had a very fair complexion, and which was quite different to her sister's.' ' Many an emigrant have regretted the domestic pleasures from which they have been dei)rived, and which were impossible to be carried to their new country.' ' I hope to see y>n " I will II V .uul p>/ I riu> i"oU«»ijuu>l use of .iv,/ n\N(Oi«>l >»! ,'.• i> vommon \\\\\\ such vriK* «» ^#T, .v««»A ,o'« ^**" •' v';»i\uoi Iv lu•«^it^<^^ l«»jjivunv u\ the ortse ol' the vrib /•♦■. Kov thodijh \\w o\pi^'sM>M\N 'l\>»\u" .\u»l >«v.' 'l»v>;\iul i\sk " \nul tluit two viotinvl ;»\tions .uc co s«v, to ^\» :««il to .\sk. »>nlv «>uc ;n is ovMunuuuh>l *h»"»\ «c >;\v ' V\\ a\\k\ >;x> ' ; wc n>v-.»n ' I'w in \>i\lci th;U vou nwy Hx>.'l 14. Shxnv thiU in the loUowinn mmucuivs thoic »> rii>M\Asm. that in «r\h»n»lrtn\"\ oi ov^'ov. »i| c*\jMo>si>>»\. • I'ljucUoi, lixnn whonvc von\o>t thou .^ ' ' HolvMvn vou Anil mo, I IjUU'v their will l>r nolunh oKo thoic but y\»« A\\\\ luo." 'The livei >>t Kishon >wept tlieni ;»\\.u, th;it .iniient uvci. the luer Kishon ' ' Al\ei the mo>i stiaiteM vtvl ot .>\n irh};i\»n I liv«'»l ,i rhaiisev." • He lvhAM>J with i;ixMt in;ii:i\.ininmv »*l nun»l." ' Ue M\H>JH\i vioWll to pivk up .» •.UMIO." • The trrtn>\MixMU*y ot lu> motive is eleav to e\ci\ >ine.' • It is not noi it eanuot voine t»> j;v>«vl.' ' I ilo iu>t like llio hou>e in whivh I h\e in.' H'>l tlie tuv ot the kno\\It\li;e v'l !;ovhI ;\iul e\il thv^u >h;»h not e^t ol it." • Aiiil. |vi]i.n\s. it ni.n- be worth ix-\e.\hnj; tlie t.ut th;\t inv ilistiust ot vnu pix">ent soouil ;ui.inj;emeiU> \v.\> vUvply iiun\\M\l hv .\ mvoiuI visit to the I'nite.i St;Ue>.' • I wvniUl Iv the \oiie>t vlem;ii^\>i:ue it" I sui;^^e-ti\l th.it I \\.\\\ louiul A jMiiiUO;! t'oj the mimi\li;itv' le^m^^y vvvi.il eMl>.* iWhiU »Uh>. /vav.j.Ai me.\n ?) 15. t.«i\e a tew simple uiles tv>i runetU;Vtion. (It is eustomrtiv \\^ use ^l) ;i Vull stv^p w the en^l v>t' a sentenee .uul Attei ;\bbix«via- tK>ns.- .-.A. M.r.. I? .\. {i\ A t.\>lon or ;\ Semio»>K>n Kmwniuvievi \\\ sense aiul nv>t wry lonj;. These stops aix' nv>t ust>l evteuiivelv bv mo>t wiiieis At the present il.iy. KApul n"A«lei-s like to h;ue tlu-ii >enteiKVs ehopjwl up Nhort, so tlut the mean- ing niAv Iv lAken in At a i^lAiwe. y \\ A c'ommA {.i\ to sejurAte nIioh eo i>ivhnA(e Neuteiue> ; ' I CaIUhI. but \ou weir out': V.') to >ei\viAte sulHMxiuiAte tivmi pnnc»i>al clAUsci: .V) / IX or )VEtn pl;uTs wlinc !ly \v<'ll. Slnnc in (he last mote, itin|«-tl, nicltiiiclioly, s|o\ -nil] luM ' (^ , a I >.isli, to M'p.ii.iii Stnip wiitcrs liiiv«- a lomliif lui .\ the (III iMia III M iiiiiMiloM wonlil > ( ciMitmy .tiitl Mt Hcsaii' ni our own make fivf iisr o| (In- dash (.f) liH' ted I mas, to iiil lodticc and to end a ipiolation. (0) a N .lr ol , ,,i(iiii|4alion allci diiccl (pii-stions. (7) a Note ol l'Aeriy of the printer in the nialli r ol stops. Ileiu . it seems a waste ttf time to huiilen the menioiy with claliorale prin ules ol piiiutuation. 'I'hese will he louiid slated in liewill's Manual c/ .'///■ Motho I'oH^^iif^ VV- f.'iy 5'm< '" Mason's lui^^/is/i lliainmiir, pp. ao6 iot>, in Anj;us' llatiiihook, yy. \,U) \,^\, or in Main's lli^hrr Enyjish Utammar, \'V- }>Sh S^'^)^ ^^ useful snnunary is given inCiow's Method of Eu}ilisli, Pi'- «M 5-1 if), runrluilc and inseil capitals in the lollowinj; passajjc: No one venerates the peeraj^e mure than I do hut n>y lords 1 nrust s.iy that the peeraj;e solieileil me not I the peeraj^e nay more I ean say and will say that as a peer of |iarliann'nl as speaker of this rij^hl hoiiour- ahle house as keeper of the ^jreal seal as (guardian of his majesty's con- science as lord hi^^h chancellor of en^;land nay even in that character alone in which the nolile duke would tliiuk it an allVont to he considered as a man 1 am at this moment as respoctahle I he^' leave to add I am at this moment as nuich respected as the proudest peer I iu)w look 'lown »l"J«>. Thutlow. RApid IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) A // f??/ /. f/. .<5 1.0 I.I ■-IM ■^ in IL25 ill 1.4 M 1.6 P>5 <^ /). Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 <^ 4^ m A \ ^6^ .. '^'^\ %^^<^ &.■'>' A wmmmmmH^m M- ' r i' I ll APPENDIX I. DEFINITIONS OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL GRAMMATICAL TERMS. Grammar is the science which treats of words and their correct use. orthoepy deals with the correct pronunciation of words. Orthography deals with the correct spellinij or writing of words. Etymology deals with the classification of words, their derivation and inflexion. Syntax deals with the combination of words in sentences, their government, agreement, and order. Parts of Speech are the classes into which the words of a language fall, when they are arranged according to their separate functions in a sentence. Inflexion is a change in the form of a word to mark a change in its meaning. The Accidence of a language consists of the sum-total of the in- flexions which the words in a language undergo. Analytic and synthetic are terms applied respectively to languages which have few or many inflexions. A Noun is the name of anything. A Common Noun is one which can be applied to an indefinite number of things in the same sense. A Singular Noun is one which can be applied to only one thing in the same sense. A Proper Noun is a singular name assigned to an individual as a mere diitinguishing mark. f 270 elements; of English grammar. . A Collective Noun is one -which denotes a number of things regaided as forming a whole. A Concrete Noun is the name of a thing regarded as possessing attribii'es. An Abstract Noun is the name of an attribute or quality of a thing. The sum-total of the inflexions marking number and case of a noun or pronoun is i:alled its Deslension. Gender is the form of a noun or pronoun corresponding in English to the sex of the thing named. Number is an inflexion which shows whether we are speaking of one thing or of more than one. Case is the form of a noun or pronoun which shows its relation to other words in the .sentence. 1 1 a< ii An Adjective is a word which is used with a noun to limit its application. A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. A Relative Pronoun is one which refers to some other noun or pronoun, called its antecedent, and has the force of a conjunction. A Verb is a word with which we can make an assertion. A Transitive Verb is one which indicates an action directed towards some object. An Intransitive Verb is one which indicates a state, or an action which is not directed towards an object. A Reflexive Verb is one in which the subject and the object are the same. A Verb of Incomplete Predication is one which rcquirer. the addition of some other word to complete its meaning. The word which is added to complete the meaning of a verb of Incomplete Predication is called the Complement of the Predicate. An Auxiliary Verb is one which is used to supply the place of inflexions in the conjugation of another verb. A Notional Verb is one which has a meaning of its own. An Impersonal Verb is one in which the source of the action is not expressed. gs regaided possessing of a thing. ! of a noun in English king of one relation to to limit its er noun or ction. ted towards r an action ject are the he addition a verb of dicate. le place of ction is not ArPENDIX J. 271 The sum-total of the inflexions of a ve -b is called its Oonjugatlon. Voice is the form of a verb which shows whether the subject of the sentence stands for the doer or for the object of the action expressed by the verb. The Active Voice is that form of the verb which shows that the subject of the sentence stands for the doer of the action expressed by the verb. The PaSBl' Voice is that form < )f the verb which shows that the subject of the sentence stands for the object of the action expressed by the verb. Mood is the form of a verb ^vhich shows the mode or manner in which the action is represented. The Indicative Mood contains the forms used (i) to make statements of fact, (2) to ask questions, and (3) to express suppositions in which the events are treated as if they were facts. The Imperative Mood contains the form used to give commands. The Subjunctive Mood contains the forms used to represent actions or states conceived as possible or contingent, but not asse u'i as facts. The Infinitive Mood is the form which denotes actions or states without reference to person, number, or time. A Gerund is a verbal noun in -ing which, when formed from a transitive verb, can take after it an object. A Participle is a verbal adjective. The active participle of a transi- tive verb differs from an ordinary adjective in taking an object. Tense is the form of a verb which shows the time at which the action is represented as occurring and the completeness or incompleteness of the action. A Simple Tense is one which is expressed by a single word. A Compound Tense is one which is expressed by the help of an auxiliary verb. Perfect and Imperfect are terms applied respectively to tenses denoting actions which are completed or in progress. A Weak Verb is one which forms its past tense by adding -ed, -ne wiiich juins a de|>endcnt clause to the principal clause. A Sentence is the complete expression of a thouf^ht in wonls. A Clause is a part of a sentence contain:nj» a finite vtrl). A Flirase is a collection of words without a finite verb. A Simple Sentence contains (mly one subject and one finite verb. A Compound Sentence contains iwo or more independent clauses joineil by co-ordinatii\j; conjunctions. A Complex Sentence contains two or more clauses, of which at least one is dependent. It niiglit also be defined as a sentence which contains a clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction. The Subject of a sentence is the word which stands for the thing about which the assertion is made. The Predicate is the word by means i>f which the assertion is made. The Object of a verb is the word which stands for the thing towards which the action indicated by the veib is directed. Concord is the agreement of two or more connected words as regards their gender, number, case, or persim. Qovernment is the infiuence exercised uj.on the case of a noun, or pronoun, by another word. Order is the arrangement of words in a sentence. l)jf(i of the ir fur some of a vcrl), |)n)nnnn, to or conjunc- )r.ther, They do consume the thing that feeds their fury: Though little fire grows great with little wind, Yet extreme gusts will blow out tire and all. 82. There at the foot of yonder noflding beech That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch, And pore upon the brook that babbles by. S3. As travellers oft look l;ack at eve When eastward darkly going, To gaze upon that light they leave Still faint behind them glowing,— So, when the close of pleasure's day *l'o gloom hiUh near consigned us. We turn to catch one fading ray Of joy that's left behind us. 3*. But whilst, unconscious of the silent change Thus stol'n around him, o'er the dying bard Hung Wolfram, on the breeze there came a sound Of mourning moving down the narrow glen; And looking up, he suddenly was ware Of four white maidens, moving in the van Of four black monks who bore upon her bier The flower-strewn corpse of young Elizabeth. 86. Once on a time, an emperor, a wise man, No matter where, in China or Japan, Decreed that whosoever should oftend Against the well-known duties of a friend. Convicted once, should ever after weai JJut half £i coat, and show his bosom bar$. fA\ APPENDIX 11. 379 M< The swallow stopt as he h . i»ed the bee, The snake slipt under a spiay, The wild hawk stood with the down on his heaV, And stared, with his foot on the prey, And 'he nightingale thought, ' I have sung many bongs, 'But never a one so gay, *For he sings of what the world will be *Vvhen the years have died PAvay.' ST* Daughter of Jove, relentless power, Thou tamer of the human breast. Whose iron scourge and torturing hour The bad afiright, afflict the best! Bound in thy adamantine chain The proud are taught to taste of pain. And purple tvant'- vainly groan With pangs unielt before, unpitied and alone. 88* Orpheus with his lute made tri -s And the mountain tops that freeze Bow themselves, when he did sing; To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung, as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring. 89* ^Ve leave the well- beloved place Where first we gazed upon the sky ; The roofs, that heard our earliest cry. Will shelter one of stranger race. W^e go, but ere we go from hume, As down the garden walks I move, Two spirits of a diverse love Contend for loving masterdom. 40. If this great world of joy and pain Revolve in one sure track; • If freedom set will rise again. And virtue flown come back ; Woe to the purlilind crew who till The heart with each day's care; Nor gain, from past or future, skill To bear and to forbear. W» I" such a place as this, at such an hour, li ancestry in aught can be believed. Descending spirits have conversed with man, yVnd told the secrets of the world unknown. 28o ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. ifil W ^ ¥. 'I I*.) 51 42. Those who reason in this manner do not observe that they are setting up a general rule, of all the least to be endured ; namely, that secrecy, whenever secrecy is practicable, will justify any action. 43. To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. 44. Being angry with one who contioverts an opinion whic.- you value, is a necessary consequence of the uneasiness which you feel. 46. This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope ; to-m< rrow blossoms. And bears his blushing honours thick upon him: The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a-riptning, nips his root, And then he falls, as I do. 43. Wide through the landscape of h's dream The lordly Niger flowed; Beneath the pain, trees on the plain Once, more a king he strode. And heard the tinkling caravans Descend the mountain road. What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted? Thrice is he armed, that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. Deaf to King Robert's threats p.nd cries and prayers, They thrust him from the hall and down the stairs; A group of tittering pages ran before, And, as they opened wide the folding-door. His heart failed, for he heard, with strange alarms, The boisterous laughter of the men-at-arms. And all the vaulted chamber roar and ring. With the mock plaudits of ' Long live the king.' 49. But when the sun was sinking in the sea He seized his harp, which he at times could string And strike, albeit with untaught melody. When deem'd he no strange ear was listening: And now his fingers o'er it he did fling, And tuned his farewell in the dim twilight. 60. They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung. Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 47. 48. R. APPENDIX IL 281 hat they namely, ;tion. ^ic.'- you id. %* 61. So cheered he his fair spouse, and she was cheer'd; But silently a gentle tear let fall From either eye, and wip'd them with her hair; Two other precious drops that ready stood. Each in their crystal sluice, he ere they fell Kiss'd, as the gracious signs of sweet remorse And pious awe, that feared to h-'ve oflcntled. 62. Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made a pause, When I spake darkly what I |nirposed ; Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face. As bid me tell my tale in express words; Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me. 63. Long time in even scale The battle hung; till Satan, who that day Prodigious power had shown, and met in arms No equal, ranging through the dire attack Of fighting seraphim confused, at length Saw where the sword of Michael smote, and felled Squadrons at once. 64. Long time they thus together travelled, Till, weary of their way, they came at last, Where grew two goodly trees, that faire did spred Their amies abroad, with gray mosse overcast ; And their greene leaves trembling with every blast, Made a calnie shadow far in compassc round. 66. While some on earnest business bent Their murmuring labours ply 'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint To sweeten liberty. Some bold adventurers disdain The limits of their little reign And unknown regions dare descry: Still as they ruu they look behind, They hear a voice in every wind And snatch a fearful joy. 66. Though a scholar must have faith in his master, yet a man well instructed must judge for himself; for learners owe to their masters only a temporary belief, and a suspension of their own judgment till they are fully instructed, and not an absolute resignation or perpcUial captivity. 282 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR. ! $2 w 57. Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise, That last infirmity of noble mind, To scorn delights and live laborious days, But the fair guerdon when we hope to find And think to burst out into sudden blaze Comes the b&itxi Fury with th' abhorred shears And altts the thin-spun life. 6t. Since words are only names for things, it would be more con- -vwiient for all men to carry about them such things as are necessary to express the particular business they are to discourse on. M. Bless'd are those Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled, That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger To sound what stop she please. Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee. 80. Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High ; whom although to know be life, and jo> to make mention of His name, yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him not as indeed He is, neither can know Hina. ii': jH m j 1; * % '\m INDEX. A, sounds of, m; feminine suffix, 80; and ati, 105 ; form of ou, 107 ; as pre- fix, 193 Abbess, 81 • . Absolute nominative, 218 ; error with participle in, 219 AJMtnrt voMis, see Noons Accent, 50 Accidence, definition of, 65 Address, nominative of, 94 Adjectives, definition of, 100; compared with verbs, loi ; classified, loi ; used as nouns, 103; inflexion of, 108: not admitting comparison, 109; comparison of, no; suffixes forming, 192; followed by objective, 225, 232 ; used attribu- tively and predicatively, lot, 228; factitive use of, 228 ; agreement of, 228 ; order of, 233 Adjective clauses^ 184 Adjunct, attributive, 200: adverbial, 203 Adverbs, definition of, 171 ; classification of, 172; formation of, 173: used as adjectives, 175; as nouns, 181; show- ing case-endings, 174 ; simple and con- junctive, 172; j/ex and uv, 173; from Ae, who, the, 174 ; compound, 174 ; modify certain parts of speech, 171; syntax of, 255 : distinguished from pre- positions, 180; distinguished from con- junctions, 255; meaning affected by position, 256 Adverbial adjuncts, 203; clauses, 185; object, 225 After, different parts of speech, 63 Agency, suffixes marking, 192 Alms, 87 Alphabet, the English, 54 : deficient, re- dundant, inconsistent, 54 ; origin of, 58 ; requirements of a perfect, 54 ; phonetic, 55 Alternative conjunctions, syntax of, 241 An, a, origin of, 105; uses of, io6; syn- tax of, 231 Anacoluthon, 253 Analysis, tlireitions for, 204 Analytic languages, 6i And, redundant use of, 259 Angles, original home of, 4 Anglo-Saxon, meaning ot, 5 Anomaly, in number uf nouiu, 87 Antecedent to relative, lat ; Mippressed, 122 Any, 125 Apostrophe in poti Be jiii i ir, 95 AppoHtMin, sao; poiwei>Mve of nouns in, 95 . Archaic plural forms, 86 Are, 165 Arrangement, see Order Articles, 104 ; not a separate part of speech, 105; chief uses of, 106; syntax of, 231 Articulate sounds, 61 Aryan race, origi;ial home of, 23; family of languages, 23; its divisions, 25; European languages not belonging to, 26 As, relative pronoun, 125; adverb, syn- tax of, 257, 2O1 'As follow' or 'As follows,' 258 Aspirates, 52 Asyndeton, 261 Attraction, 235, 238, 242 Attribute, meaning of, loi; misuse of term, 238 Attributive adjunct, see Adjunct; use of adjectives, loi, 228 Aught, 125 Augmentatives, 192 Auxiliary verbs, 133, 164 Aye, sound of diphthong in, 46 Hasque, 27 Ke, conjugation of, 140; test for subjunc- tive, 142 ; verb of incomplete predica- tion. 132 ; uses of, 165 Beef, 86 Better, best, in Breaths, 41 Brethren, 86 Bridegroom, 82 Britain, Roman conquest of, 2; English conquest of, 3 Britoris, a Keltic race, 2 ; language of, 2; what became of the, 4 But, as relative, 125 ; meanings of, 63 C, redundant letter, 47 Cambria, 2 Can, 167 Vapitftl letters, wheii used, 59 284 INDEX. l!i: Case, definition of, 92 ; derivation of, 99 ; in English and Latin compared, 02; in nouns and pronouns compared, 93; how to determine, 97 ; possessive, 94, substitute for, 95 ; formation of, 95 ; syntax of, 221 Causative suffixes, 193 Checks, 41 Cherubim, 87 Chicken, 49, 86 Children, 86 Cingalese, 26 Clause, definition of, act Cognate objective, 132 CollcLtive nouns, 74; syntax of, 229, 240 Common, proper and singular nouns, 70; gender, nouns of, 78 Comparatives not followed by than, 113 Comparison of adjectives, io8 ; modes of marking, no; irregular, in ; errors of syntax in, 230; pleonasm in, 112, 231; of adverbs, 174 Complement of predicate, 133 Complex sentence, 184 Composition marking gender, 81 Compounds and derivatives, 189 Compound nouns, plurals of, 89; posses- sive of, 95: elation of parts in, 190; gerund form.., 148 Con, 167 Concord, definition of, 217; of pronouns and nouns, 233 ; of relative with ante- cedent, 234 ; of verbs and subjects, 240 ; rules observed in, 247 Concrete nouns, 75 Conjugation, definition of, 158; of he, 140; of simple tenses, 159; of verb with auxiliaries, 160 Conjunctions, definition of, 182 ; join sentences and words, 182; classihca- tion of, 183; co-ordinate, 186; sub- ordinate, 187; derived from other parts of speech, 187; correlative, 187; alter- native, syntax of, 241, 254 Conjunctive pronouns, 121; adverbs, 172 Conquest of Hritain, Roman, 2 ; English, 2; Normaii, 5 Consonants, definition of, 38; cl plica- tion of, 39 Co-oi-dinate conjunctions, 183, 240 Co-ordinating use of relative pronoun, 125, 206 Copula, 170 Could, 167 Cumbria, 2 Cunning, 167 Cyuiry, 2 Danish element in English, 18 Dare, 168 Dative in old English, 94 ; 01 infinitive, 143 Dativus Comuiodi, 225 ; Ethicus, 225 Declension, definition of, 66 Defective verbs, 164 Deficiency of alphabet, 55 Definite article, see Article Demonstrative pronouns, 119 Dentals, 41 Derivation and composition, 189; gender marked by, 80 Deutsch, the same root as Teutonic, 3 Did, 154 Diminutives, 191 Diphthongs, 45 Direct nar. alive, 245 Distributive pronouns, 126; syntax of, 229 Do, formation of past tense, 154; uses of, 169 ; compounds formed with. 169 Double femniines, 80 ; comparatives, 112 ; superlatives, 112 Dozen, 104 Drake, 82 Dual number, 84 Duchess, 81 Dutch words in English, 7, 19 E, sounds of, 44 Each, etymology of, 126; every, either, syntax of, 229 Eaves, 87 -ed, as adjectival suffix, 192 Either, etymology of, 126; syntax of, 229 Elder and older, in Elevtin, 103 Ellipsis, definition of, 204; a cause of error, 259 Emphasis, definition of, 50 -en, plural suffix, 86; feminine suffix, 80; verb suffix, 193 ; adjective suffix, 192 ; past participle suffix, 153 English Conquest of Britain, 2 English, who they were, 3 ; whence they came, 4 ; old language pure, 26 ; modern language mixed, 26 ; its con- stituents, 9 Enlargement of subject, 210; of predi- cate, 203 -er, comparative suffix, no; masculine suffix, 192; plural suffix, 86; verbal suffix, 193 Erse, 2, 25 -es, plural suffix, 85 -ess, feminine suffix, 81 Etymology, definition of, 33 Euphonic changes, 49 Events affecting the formation of English vocabulary, 7 Expedients, orthographical, 56 Explosives, 41 Extension, meaning of, 200, 204 Every, etymology of, 126; syntax of, 229 F, plural of nouns ending in, 85 Eai;titive verbs. 218; object, 225; use of adjectives, 228 a^ INDEX. 285 Family of latigiinges, Aryan, ij,; Sje- mitic, i-/ Farther, 112 Feminine, r^? Gender; donWe forms, 80 'Few' and 'a few,' 229 Fewer and less, 229 Finite and Infinite applied to forms of the verb, 142 Finnish, 27 First, 112 ' First two' and 'two first,' 231 Five, 103 Fly, plural of, 86 -fold, 104 -for and -fore, prefixes, 193 Foreign plural forms, 87 Former, 112 French influence on English language, 7 Frequentative suffix, 193 Friday, absence of possessive s, 98 Further, 112 Future, how expressed in subjurctive, 249 ; table of forms, 243 ; predictive and promissive, 166 Gaffer and gammer, 82 Cinder, 82 •ge \n yclept, 158 Gender, comparison of English and other languages as regards, 78 ; distinguished from sex, 78; defitution of, 79; modes of marking, 80; in pronouns, 127; of nouns in apposition, 220 Genitive, see Possessive ; meaning of word, 222; relations expressed by old, 98; subjective and objective, 223 Gerund, definition of, 146 ; compound forms of, 148 Gerimdial infinitive, 143 Go, 158; not an auxiliary, 150 Government, definition of, 217 Grammar, definition pf, 35 ; divisions of, 35 ; an Art or a Science, 31 Greek words in English, 17 Gutturals, 42 Have, uses of, 165 ; with past participle, 147 He. she, it, 118 Hebrew, a Semitic language, 27; plurals in English, 87 Hellenic stock, 25 Here, 174 High German, meaning of name, 4 Hight, shows reduplication, 154 Him, 127 Hind, 112 How, 174 Hungarian language, 26 Hybrids, 193 Hyphen, where placed, 195 I, pure vowel sound, 44; diphthong, 43 I, personal pronoun, 117 Imperative mood, 139 Imperfect, meaning of, applied to tcn»eb, 151 ; lenses, 149 Impersonal verbs, 134 Incjptive verbs, 150 Inconsistency of alphab^'t. 57 Indefinite quantitative adjectives, loi ; pronouns, 125; article, see Article; lenses, 149; present, uses of, 151 Indicative mood, 138 Indirect object, 94; narrative, 245 Indo-European f.imily of languages, 21; languages outside of, 26 -ine, feminine suffix, 80 Infinitive mood, 143; eqni\alent to a noun, 143; without /(», 143; simple and gernndial, 143; prolative, 200; syntax ot, 250 Inflexions, definition of, 64 ; in English only few, 64; mostly of English origin, 65; cons luences of loss of, 66; mark- ing gender. So; number, 84; case, 93; Comparison, no; retained in pronouns, 127; in adverbs, 174 Inflexionalaud non-inflexional languages, .65 -:ng, patronymic suffix, 18 ; diminutive suffix, 191; verbal suffix, 144; origin, 251 ; errors of syntax, 251 Intentional tenses, so-called, 150 Interjections, 188 Interrogative pronouns, 123 Intransitive verbs, 130; becoming tran- sitive, 131 Iranian, 26 Irish, or Erse, 2, 25 It, pronoun, 118; anticipatory subject, 206 Italic stock, 25 Its, 118 J, redundant letter, 47; distinguished from /, 59 Jutes, original home of, 4 Keltic dialects in Britain, 2 ; race, Brit- ons a, 2 ; words in English, 9 Kine, 86 Kitten, 49 I^abials, 42 Lady, 82 Lady- day, absence of possessive s, 98 Languages, table of liido-Eumpean, 28; spoken and written, 29 Langiie d'oil and languc d'oc, 6 Lappish, 27 Lass, 81 Last and latest, 11 1 Latin element in English, 10; words of ist_ period, 10; 2nd period, n; 3rd period, 11 ; 4th period, 13; proportion of, in vocabulary, 14; in use, 15; pre- fixes, 193: juffixcs, ICJl Less, 1 1 1 Less and fcvc, , 229 286 INDEX. leilers Runir, 18; Ciipiul, 591 inseiltd or rl nipped, 49 Like, uses oi', ^3J LiiiKuals, 43 Liquids, 41 Lord, 82 Low Cierman, meaning of, 4 •ly. '74 Madam, 82 Manx, 2, 35 Many, syntax of, 229 Marchioness, 81 May. 167 Mediae, 52 Meseenis, 94. 134 Metathesis, 50 Mcthinks, 94, 134 Metre, definition of, 35 Might, 167 Million, IU4 Mistress, 81 Moods, 138 More and most, iio, iia -most in superlatives, iia Multiplicatives, 104 Must, 167 Mute e final. 56 Mutes, 41 My, 127 Myself, i.!0 Nasals, 42 Naught, \it Near, iii Need, 168 Neither, error in use of, 261 Neuter gender, 78; verbs, 133 News, 87 , No and yes, 173; and not, syntax of, 258 Nominative, how to determine, 97; ab- solute, 218; of address, 94; m analysis, 206; uses of, 218 Norman Conquest, 5 — ,. • Norman French words in English, 12 ; contained Keltic element but mamly Latin, 6 ; influence on the formation of compounds, 17; alphabet, 58 ; inflexions, 65, 108; formation of plurals, 98 ; com- parison. 110 Notional verbs, 133 . . ... Nouns, definition of, 68; distinguished from pronouns, 69; from adjectives, 69; common, proper, and singular, 70; proper becoming common, 72; common becoming singular, 73; collective, 74; syntax of, 229, 240 ; abstract and con- crete, 75; names of materials, 73: for- mation of abstract, 76; gender of, 78; number of, 84 : table of plurals of, 84 ; without change of form in plural, 87 ; apparently plural really singular, 87; really plural used as singular, 87 ; syn- tax or 240; changing meaning m plural, 88 ; having two forms of plural with different nteaning^, 8R ; with no plural, 88; with nii singular, 89; i;om- pound, 190 . plural of, «t) ; case of, ^«f Case; verbal, 145; used as adverbs, 174; suffixes of, 191 ; syntax of, 218 Noun clauses, 184; how to deal with m analysis, 206 Number, definition of, 84; in nouns, 84; in verbs, 152 Numerals, cardinal, 103; ordinal, 104; multiplicative, 104: mostly of Lnglish origin, 104 O, sounds of. 44 : plural of nouns ending >"' 86 ... ,. , . Object, dehnmon ot, 131 ; direct and in- direct, 94, 202; ret;iined. 138, 225; of verb an adverbial .uljiinct, 202; en- largement of, 202 Objective case, how to delerniine, 97 : syntax of, 224; I rm of in nouns and pronouns, 93; coi^nate, 132: adverbial relation of mmn in. 202 Oblique narrative. 245 : cases, 9(9 Older and elder, 1 1 1 -om in seldom, 174 . -on, oon, -one, .niKiiientative suffix, 192 One. numeral adjcciive, 103; indefinite pronoun, 125 Only, place of, 256 . Order, a part of syntax, 217 '. .of '"'"" !" nominative. 221 ; in possessive, 224; in objective, 226; of .adjective, 233 Orthoepy, definition of, 3:: Orthography, definition of, 32 Orthographical exiiedients, 56 Ought, 1 68 Our, ours, 127 0.\en, 86 Owe and own, 168 Palatals, 42 Parsing, directions for, 212 Participles, definition of, 146; present, 146: distinguished from other verbal forms in -/>V. 146; used as prepositicm, 179; used absolutely, 179; common error of syntax in use of, 219, 227 ; past, 147; with havf, 147; adopted with in- tr.insitives, 147 Parts of speech, definition of, 62; reduced to four groups, 63 ; the same word oc- curring under dilTerent, 63; inflected or not inflected, 64; the arucleii not separate, 105 Passive voice, 136 Patronymics, 18 Paulo-post future tenses, so-called, 150 Peas, 88 Pence and pennies, 88 Perfect tense formed by reduplication, 153 Perfect and Imperfect as applied to tenses explained, 151 Person in verbs, 152; origin oi" inflexious marking, 152 IXPEX. : with no , 89 ; i;otn- :ase of, see s adverbs, ; of, V18 :al with in fioitns, 84 ; linal, 104; of English iins ending :('t and in- j8, 225 ; of , 2oi!; en- irniine, 97 : notnis and : adverbial . 9") suffix, 192 ; indetinitc of nciun in live, 2^4 ; in .6; present, ither verbal preposition, 9 ; common 9, 227 ; past, itcd with in- 62 ; reduced nc word oc- 3; inflected anicleii not called, 150 eduplication, lied to tenses or inflexions Personal pronoun*. 117 Personification affecting gender, 79 Phonetic s{)ening, 55 Phonology, 32 Phrase, defined, 201; absolute, 306 Pleonasm, 223, 231, 266 Plurals of^nouns, see Nouns Polysyndeton, 260 Possessive, forms of, 94 ; of nouns in ap- position, 95; of compound nouns, 95; s not corruptinn of his, 97; expressed by <2/", 96 ; nmctions of, 94 ; syntax of, 321 ; pronouns, 137 Predicate, definition of, 198 ; complement of, »33, 199; enlargement of, 203; logical and grammatical, 170 Predicative use of adjectives, loi, 228 Prefixes, definition of, icjo; list of, En- glish, 193; Latin, 193; Greek, 194 Prepositions, definition of, 177 ; compared with case-endings. 92 ; need not precede nouns, 178; classification of, 179; dis- tinguished from adverbs, 180; relations expressed by, 178; idiomatic use of, 262 Present Indefinite, uses of, 151 Pronouns, definition of, 114; distinguisheil from nouns, 69; characteristic of, 114; diflferent uses of, 115; classification of, 116; personal, 117; demonstrative, 119: reflexive, 119; relative, 121 ; how iden- tified', 122; compound, 124 ; co-ordinat- ing and restrictive uses oi, 124; inter- rogative, -123 ; indefinite, 125; distribu- tive, 126; reciprocal, 126, possessive, 127; retain inflexions, 127; used as adverbs, 175; concord of, 233; syntax of relative, 2^4 Prosody, definition of, 34 ; not a part 01' grammar, 35 Punctuation, rules for, 266 Q, redundant letter, 47 Qualitative adjectives, 103 Quantitative adjectives, loi Quasi-passive verbs, 138 Quoth, 170 Rather, 112 Redundancy of alphabet, 47, 54 Reduplication in the perfect,' 153 Refl-xive pronouns, 119; verbs, 130 Relative pronouns, characteristic of, 121 ; that, who, ivhich distinguished, 124, 238 ; and antecedent, 121 ; omission uf, 122; syntax of, 234 Renaissance, 6, 13 Reported speech, 245 Restrictive use of relative pronoun, 134 Retained object, 138, 225 Revival of Learning, 6, 13 Rhythm, 35 Riches, 87 Riding, 50, 104 Roman Conque-tt of Britain, »; arics to England, s Romanic stock, 25 Runic characters in alphabet, ji 287 iniMiion* S plural suffix, 85 's possessive suffix, 9s, 98; disguised in adverbs, 174 Sanskrit, 26 Saxons, original home of, 4 Scandinavian group of langiiagCK, »5j words in English, 18 Schleswig-Holstein the home of Jutes, Saxons, and Angles, 4 Score, 104 Scotch, Highland, a Keltic dialect, 2; Lowland, an English dialect, 2 m Se, seo, thajt, 118 « Second, 104 Self, 120 Semi-vowels, 42 Semitic languages, 27 Sentences, definition of, 198 ; simpTe, compound, and complex, 184; what is expressed by, 198; how to correct faulty. 226; elliptical, 303; errors in, 259 Sequence of tenses, 244 Sex distinguished from gender, 78 Shall and will, 166 : syntax of, 243 .Sh.irps and flats, 40 She, 118 Should and would, 166 ; syntax of. 244 Sibilants, 41 Singular nouns distinguished from com- mon and i)rc)pcr, 71 ; number, net Number Sir, 82 Slas'onx language?,, 26 So, adverb, syntax of, 258 Solecism, definition of, 233 Sounds, elementary, in English, 46; consonants, 38 ; vowels, 38 ; mutes, 41 ; sonants and surds, 40; not soundeil together, 48 ; spirants, 41 ; sibilants, 41 ; trills, 41: thin, middle, and aspirate, 52 ; classified according to vocal organs, 41 : dropped or added to save trouble, 49; transposition of, 50; significant, or words, represented in writing, 53 Spanish Influence on English language, 6 Spelling in F^nglish, difficulties accounted for, 57 ; phonetic, 55 Spinster, 80 -ster, 80 Stocks, meaning of, 24 Subject of sentence, definition of, 198; different kinds of, 200; enhtrgement \ii. 201 ; ellipsis of, 68, 199 Subjunctive mood, forms of, 140; uses of, 141, 248 Subordinate clauses, 184 Such, 123 Suffixes, definition of, 190; listof impor* tant, 191 288 INDEX. I s I Superlatives, Hniible, \\i\ not siiBgcsling comparison, 113 Swine, 86 Syllables, division of words into, 194 Syntax, definition of, :i4 Synthetic languages, 65 Table of IndD-F.uropepi. lanijtiages, 28; feminine suffixes, 80; plural forms, 84; adjectives, 101 ; pronouns, 116; infini- tive forms, 148; tenses, 149; conjuga- tion, 159, 160; adverbial forms, 174; shall and will, 243; should and would, 244 Ten, 103 .... Tense, see Verb; future in subjunctive, 249 Tenues, 52 « j Teutonic tribes, Jutes, Saxons, and Angles were, 3; meaning of name, 3; stock, English belongs to, 25 Than, syntax of, 257; with relative, 257 That, the / in, 119; how to determine its part of speech, 122: its restrictive use as relative, 124, 238; conjunctive, 123; omission of, 261 The, 104 ; uses of, 106; adverbial us»? of, 174; syntax of, 232 -ther, comparative suffix, 112, 126 There, with verb preceding subject, 20O Thi, 174 Third, 104 This, 119 Thorn, the letter, 58 Thou, old uses of, 118 Thy and thine, 127 . . r To, before infinitive, 143 ; oir.itted from some verbs, 143 Trills, 41 -trix, feminine suffix, 80 Turkish language, 26 Twelve, 104 U, vowel sounds of, 44 ; diphthongal 43 ; distinguished from letter v, 59 Umlaut, 49 -un, prefix, 193 Uncouth, 167 Utter, comparative adjective, 112 Verbs, definition of, 129; transitive and intransitive, 130; intransitive used as transitive, 131; converted to transitive by preposition, 131 ; converted to causa- tive, 132; transitive used as intransi- tive, 132; causative, 132; of incomplete predication, 132; neuter, 133; auxil- iary, 133, 164; notional, 133; neuter, 133; impersonal, 134; inflexions of, 135; voice, 136; active and passive, 136; alternative passive constructions, 137; retained object with passives, 138 ; quasi-passive, 138; mood, 138 ; indica- tive, 139; imperative, 139; subjunctive, decay of, 140: nsps of, 141, 248; tests for, 142; infinitive, \t,\: resembles noun, 143; simple and gtaundial, 143; forms in -ing, 144 ; gerund, 145 ; Parti- ciples, ia6, fable of forms, 148; tenses, 149; mark tim<; and completeness, 149 ; simple and compound, 139 ; table of, 149 : perfect continuous, 150; so called, 150 ; mode of formation of, 150 ; perfect and imperfect, 151 ; advantages of our mode of m.-»rking, 151; uses of present indefinite, 151; weak and strong, 153; used as adverbs. 175; number, 152; person, 152; conjugation of, 159; de- fective, 164; suffixes of, 193; syntax of, 240; concord of. 240; with collec- tive nouns, 240; with plurals used as singulars, 240 ; implying futurity, syn- tax of, 245 . , . . , Verbal noun, the infinitive a, 143; forms in -ing, 144 Verse, definition of, 35 Vixen, 80 . • _« Vocative, 94, 218 ; in analysis, 206 Voice, 136 Vowels, definition of, 38; enumeration of, 44 W, semi vowel, 42 Weak verbs, 153 Wednesday, the es in, 95 Welsh a Keltic dialect, 2, 25 Wen, the letter, 58 What, 123; the t in, "9 Which, 123 . , . Whoand which as co-ordinatingrelatives, 124 Why, 174 Widower, 82 Will, 166; syntax of, 243 Wit, defective verb, 170 Witenagemot shows old genitive plural form, 98 Wizard, 82 Woman, 82 . Words, definition of, 61; number in dic- tionary, 15; in use, 15; Keltic, 9; Danish, 18; Latin, 10; from miscella- neous sources, 18 ; ways of classifying, 62 ; disguised in form, 190 Worse, III Worth, defective verb, 170 X, a redundant letter, 47 V, semi-vow el, 42 ; plural of nouns end- ing in, 86 Ye and vou, 119 Ye for the, 58 Yes, 173 You, 117 Your, yours, 127 Yourself, 120 248 ; tests resembles dial, 143; 45 ; parti- 8 ; tenses, ness, 149 ; table of, so called, o ; perfect ;;es of our of present rong, 153; iber, 152 ; ■, 159". de- 3; syntax •ith coUec- Is used as Lirity, syn- 143; forms 306 lunicratton g relatives, itive plural iber in die- Keltic, 9; m miscella- classifying. ' nouns end-