1 THE GRAMMAR, HISTORY, AND DERIVATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE "WITH CHAPTERS ON PARSING, ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES, AND PROSODY BY THE REV. CANON DANIEL, M.A. PPJXCIPAL Off THE XATIOXAL SOCIETY'S TRAINING COLLEGE, BATTEESEA HON. CANON OF ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL NEW AND REVISED EDITION LONDON NATIONAL SOCIETY'S DEPOSITORY BROAD SANCTUARY, WESTMINSTER 1891 All rights reserved PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODB AXD co., NEW-STKEET SQUABE LOKDON TE HU PBEFACEo IT is COMMONLY ASSUMED that Grammar is a purely verbal science, in which the student is mainly occupied in learning definitions, paradigms, and rules of syntax, and that it is, consequently, far inferior as an instru- ment of mental discipline to natural history and ex- perimental science. The mode in which it has been too frequently taught gives some colour to this view ; but, rightly taught, grammar is as much a real study as botany or chemistry. Words are things, as well as the symbols of things, and are subject to definite natural laws to laws of growth and decay, to laws of inflexion and syntax, to laws affecting their signi- fication. The study of these laws affords room for just the same sort of independent effort as the study of physical science. The facts of language are still where the grammarian originally found them, and the learner may, under proper direction, find them for himself, classify them for himself, and reason from them for himself. It is obvious, therefore, that gram- mar affords room for original observation, for generaliza- tion, for induction and deduction, and that if it were taught in this scientific spirit, its value as a formative study would be very high. The distinguishing feature of this Grammar is set iv PKEFACE. forth in the opening paragraph. Starting with the recognition of the fact that all the truths of which the grammar of a language takes cognizance are to be found in the language itself, the Author has everywhere in- voked the co-operation of the student in the collection and investigation of those truths. The exercises are, for the most part, not mere echo-questions asking for the matter of the chapters to which they are appended, but questions based on specimens submitted for original examination, just like the specimens put before a class in Botany or Chemistry. These specimens have been carefully collected during a period of teaching extending over twenty years, and will be found to embrace most of the difficulties which the language presents. The Author has paid special attention to what are generally called the ' exceptions ' of accidence and con- struction, with a view to getting rid of them. The excep- tions of grammar are not infractions of law, but instances of laws that, in accordance with higher laws, are becom- ing, or have become, obsolete. It is of the highest importance to the student to recognize this truth, and to narrow, wherever he can, the area of knowledge that still remains outside the domain of investigated law. Thus only can knowledge be rendered scientific. Much has been done of late years (notably by Dr. Morris) to ex- plain the peculiarities of English accidence ; the Author hopes that, by reference to the syntax of Old English, he has himself done something to remove the anomalies of English syntax. PREFACE. V The method of the Grammar is not exclusively inductive. Wherever it is possible the student is called upon to apply, in deductive exercises, the knowledge which he has acquired. Mr. Fitch, in one of the admi- rable lectures on Teaching delivered by him before the University of Cambridge, says, on the subject of text- books : fi One good test of a grammar or delectus, or of a manual of any kind, is this : Does it, as soon as it has helped the student to know something, instantly set him to do something which requires him to use that knowledge, and to show that he has really acquired it ? E.g., if it explains a new term, does it require the learner soon to use that term ? If it states a rule, does it give him instantly occasion to put the rule in prac- tice ? If it points out a new logical or grammatical dis- tinction, does it challenge him forthwith to find new instances and illustrations of that distinction ? ' 1 The Author trusts that the Grammar now submitted to teachers and students will not wholly fail to give satis- faction under the application of this test. The history and derivation of the language are treated at greater length than in most school-books, but it is hoped that the importance of the subject will afford a sufficient justification for the course taken in this respect. In tracing the derivation of words the student will take care not to be deceived by mere coin- cidences of form and meaning. Dr. Donaldson used to say to his pupils, * Whenever you come across an ingenious 1 Lecture* on Teaching, p. 84. vi PKEFACE. derivation, distrust it.' Every derivation ought to be supported, as far as possible, by historical evidence, by the known laws of phonetic change, and, in the case of words widely separated in form, by the intervening forms by which the root and the derivative are con- nected. The tracing of the changes of meaning which words undergo should be similarly conducted. The study of words in this rational way will not only lead the student to important conclusions in the science of language, but will bring him into contact with the sense-distinctions, the notions, the ideas, the thoughts, the feelings, the history, and the morality which are enshrined in words, and will prove a valuable discipline in the collection and investigation of evidence. For the convenience of schools it is proposed to publish Parts I-IV. and Part V. separately : the former section under the title 'English Accidence, Parsing, Analysis, and Syntax ; ' the latter under the title ' The History and Derivation of the English Language.' These Parts will be complete in themselves, and inde- pendent one of the other. The Author has had mainly in view the wants of young students, and more particularly of students in Training Colleges, the upper forms in Secondary and High Schools, and candidates for the University Local Examinations, for the Matriculation Examination of the London University, and for other public examinations. He desires to record his great obligations, in writing this Grammar, to the excellent grammars of Dr. Morris, PEEFACE. vii Dr. Adams, Dr. Abbott, and Mr. Mason, to Bracket's ' Historical French Grammar,' to the philological works of Archbishop Trench, and to the dictionaries of Mr. Wedgwood and Professor Skeat. The scholarly dic- tionary of Professor Skeat he has found invaluable. He has made a large use of the ' Anglo-Saxon ' Gospels. Such Old English quotations as are not taken from Rask are drawn mainly from this source. Teachers will render the Author a great service if they will kindly forward to him suggestions for the improvement of this Manual. He is well aware that a good text-book is the result of much elaboration ; and, although he has had the advantage of long experience in teaching English, he is sure that he might derive much valuable help from the suggestions of teachers whose work has been of a somewhat different character from his own. EVAN DANIEL. ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, BATTERSEA : Mcvrcli 3, 1881. NOTE TO SECOND EDITION. THE AUTHOR takes advantage of the issue of a Second Edition to thank reviewers and correspondents for many valuable suggestions. A considerable number of slight alterations have been made in the text, but none of such an extent as to prevent this edition from being used in class with the previous edition. E. D, Janucvry 6, 1883. CONTRACTIONS. Dan. Danish M.E. Middle English Du. Dutch N. Norse Fr. French O.E. Old English Ger. German O.H.G. Old High German Gk. Greek Sc. Scotch Icel. Icelandic Skt. Sanskrit. Lat. Latin Cog. Cognate = of kin- dred origin PART I. ACCIDENCE. \ SENTENCES. 1. ALL the facts with which a Grammar deals are to be found in the language to which the Grammar belongs ; and it is in the language itself, not in books, that these facts are to be primarily sought. Grammarians do not impose rules on a language ; they merely collect from the language rules already in existence, and set them forth in an orderly way. 2. If we take any paragraph of a book and examine it, we shall find that it is composed of a number of separate statements or utterances. These utterances are generally divided in print by a full stop, and are marked in speech by a falling of the voice when they come to an end. They are called Sentences. In the following paragraph the sentences are marked off by vertical lines : ' Trade is stagnant. | The crops are drying up. | The sky is like brass. | The earth is like iron. | The peasants have com- menced to eat the nauseous dogroot in lieu of bread.' It is not always that sentences are so short as those in the fore- going paragraph. They may be enlarged in vaiious ways, and eztend to a considerable length. 3. A Sentence is a complete statement or utterance of a thought, e.g. John walked home. Love thou thy parents. Did he wish to go ? A sentence that contains an assertion is called an Assertive Sentence, e.g. He went to town] one that con- tains a command or entreaty is called an Imperative Sen- B SENTENCES. tence, e.g. Be kind to the poor- one that asks a question is called an Interrogative Sentence, e.g. Were you there ? one that expresses a wish is called an Optative Sentence (Lat. opto, I wish), e.g. May we be happy ! If we examine these sentences carefully, we shall find they each consist of two parts, viz. one relating primarily to some thing or person spoken of, or spoken to ; the other, relating to what is said of, or to, that thing or person. The former part is called the Subject of the Sentence, the latter the Predicate. (a) The Subject of an Assertive Sentence is the word or words denoting that about which the assertion is made ; the Predicate is the assertion itself. (1) Gold is heavy. (2) To err is human. ?3) He loves hunting. (4) That he is wrong is clear. Subject Predicate 1 2 3 4 Gold To err He That he is wrong is heavy, is human, loves hunting, is clear. (5) The Subject of an Imperative Sentence is the word denoting that to which the command or entreaty is given ; the Predicate is the command or entreaty itself. The Sub- ject of an Imperative Sentence is often not expressed. (1) Praise ye the Lord (Subj. expressed). (2) Go away (Subj. unexpressed). (3) Do thou likewise (Subj. expressed). Subject Predicate (1) Ye (2) ['Thou 'or 'ye' (un- derstood)] (3) Thou praise the Lord. go away, do likewise. SENTENCES. 3 (c) The Subject of an Interrogative Sentence is the word denoting that concerning which the question is asked; the Predicate is that part of the sentence which relates to what is asked. (1) Lovest thou me 1 (2) Did your father go to town ? Subject Predicate (1) (2) Thou Your father lovest me. did go to town. (d) The Subject of an Optative Sentence is the word denoting that concerning which the wish is expressed ; the Predicate is that part of the sentence which relates to the wish. (1) May he be prosperous ! (2) Long live the king ! Subject Predicate (1) (2) He The king may be prosperous, (may) live long. Sometimes the order of the sentence is inverted ; but whatever the order, the sentence must contain a Subject, expressed or understood, and a Predicate; e.g. Him we souyht in vain. Merrily goes the mill. Exercises. Arrange in parallel columns as above the Subjects and Predicates of the following sentences : 1. John ran to the bridge. 2. He was present at the inquest. 3. Oft on the dappled turf at ease I sit. 4. The stars of midnight shall be dear to her. 5. Low on his funeral couch he lies. 6. Tbn praise of Ilacchus then the sweet musician sang. 7. By fairy hands their knell is rung. 8. Then shook the hills with thunder riven ; Then rushed the steed to battle driven ; And, louder than the bolts of heaven, Far Hashed the red artillery. Campbell. B2 4 PARTS OF SPEECH. 9. Her wing shall the eagle flap O'er the false-hearted ; His warm blood the wolf shall lap Ere life be parted. Scott. 10. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds. Gray. 11. Come unto these yellow sands. Shaltspere. ] 2. That you have wronged me doth appear in this. Id. 13. Haste thee, nymph. Milton. 14. My days among the dead are past. Southey. PARTS OF SPEECH. 4. If we examine the separate words of which sentences are made up, we shall find that they discharge different functions, i.e. are used for different purposes. Let us con- sider the use of each word in the following sentences : The great black dog in the yard bit my little toother badly. Two furious lions attacked the three horses t and speedily killed them. He struck him angrily on the face, but did not hurt him. . The book was on the table, and the slate was under the chair. Some of these words, as dog, yard, brother, lions, horses, face, book, table, slate, chair, are clearly names of things. Some, as bit, attacked, killed, struck, hurt, tell us what things do. Some, as great, black, little, furious, describe things. Some, as badly, speedily, angrily, tell us how actions are done. Some, as the, my, a, point out which things we refer to. Some, as tivo, three, tell us how many things we are speaking of. Some, as them, he, him, are not themselves the names of things, but are used instead of names. Some, as in, on, under, point out certain relations be- tween things. Some, jia and, but, join sentences. PARTS OF SPEECH. 5 5. Words that discharge the same function in a sen- tence are said to belong to the same part of speech. To parse a word is, primarily, to say to which part of speech it belongs. The number of parts of speech depends on the number of functions which words discharge in a sentence ; but, as it is not woi-lli while to notice every petty difference of function, and thereby multiply the number of parts of speech, most grammarians group words into eight parts of speech. It does not matter whether we recognise seven, or eight, or nine, or ten parts of speech. What is of importance is 1. That we should have a sufficient number of parts of speech to enable us to classify all the words we use ; 2. That we should keep the parts of speech quite distinct ; 3. That we should not group together words having widely different functions, even though in some one respect they agree. The names of the eight parts of speech which we shall recognise are The noun, The adverb, The pronoun, The preposition, The adjective, The conjunction, The verb, The interjection. 6. Nouns are the names of things, i.e. of whatever we can think about ; e.g. Here are books, slates, pencils, and paper. Adjectives are words joined to nouns 1. To describe things, e.g. I have good, old, red wine. 2. To point out things, e.g. Put this book on that table. 3. To express number or quantity, e.g. Give me some bread and two or three apples. Verbs are words which tell us, or help to tell us, what is done by things or to things : The horse neigJis. The horse is beaten. Some verbs tell us what things ARE or BECOME: The 6 PARTS OF SPEECH, horse is an animal. The horse is tired. The horse grew old and became useless. Adverbs are words which tell us 1. How, when, and where actions are done, e.g. He behaves well when he stays here. 2. The degree in which a thing or an action pos- sesses a particular quality, e.g. He is very happy and enjoys himself exceedingly. Pronouns are words used instead of nouns, e.g. You and / saw him. Prepositions are words that point out 1. The relations between things, e.g. The book on the table by the window ; or 2. The relation between actions or attributes and things, e.g. The mouse ran over the chair, then under the table, then behind the clock, and at last got into a hole. The medicine is good for you. Conjunctions are words which join words and sentences. John and James sang a duet. (Words.) He went to town and bought a net; but he forgot to bring my watch. (Sentences.) Interjections are words of exclamation, e.g. 0, come ye into the summer woods. Alas ! the gratitude of man Hath oftener left me mourning. Wordmorth. Exercises. 1. Describe the use of the words in italics in the following passage Hark ! to the gentle lullaby, That through the trees is creeping, Those sleepy trees that nod their heads, Ere yet the moon comes peeping, Like a tender nurse, to see if all Her little ones are sleeping. C. Young. 2. Name the parts of speech to which the words in italics in the following passages belong a. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note. Wolfe. &. The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, Byron. NOUNS. 7 c. Alack ! there lies more peril in thine eye Than twenty of their swords. Shaltspere. d. His pity gave ere charity began. Goldsmith. e. And he was kind, and loved to sit In the Ion hut or garnished cottage, And praise the farmer's homely wit, And share the widow's homelier pottage* Praed. f. Alas, for the rarity Of Christian charity. Hood. g. O, Mary, go and call the cattle home. Kingsley. h. Ah, then and there was hurrying to and/r0. Byron. NOUNS. 7. Nouns are the names of things, and are so called from the Latin word nomen (French nom), a name. Under the word ' things ' we include 1. Objects that we know by means of our senses, as gold, horse, stone, London, Thomas. 2. Qualities considered apart from the objects in which they are found, e.g. truth, whiteness, beauty. 3. Objects of whose existence we can form some con- ception, although we do not know them by means of our senses, e.g. mind, spirit, God, conscience. 4. Relations between things, as cause, effect, purpose, resemblance, difference. 5. Actions or states, as walking, growing, existence, movement. ' Things ' are sometimes distinguished from ' persons ' and * places,' but in the definition given above the word * thing ' is used to denote whatever we can think about. 8. Nouns may be classified in various ways. Considered with reference to the extent of their applicability they are either Common or Proper. A Common Noun is a name which may be applied to all the individuals of a class. It is common to them all, e.g. man, river, port, city. A Proper Noun is a name which belongs to an in- dividual as distinguished from one belonging to a class, 8 PROPER NOUNS. and is so called from the Latin proprius, one's own, e.g. John, London, Broad Street, Prospect House. Thus the name man is common to all men ; the name Thomas belongs to a particular man. A common noun distinguishes one class from another class, as men from birds ; a proper noun distin- guishes one individual from another individual, as Thomas from John, London from Paris. Occasionally a proper noun is used to denote not a par- ticular individual but one or more of a class, and in that case it becomes common ; e.g. we sometimes speak of a cruel tyrant as ' a Nero.' In the following passage Macaulay used proper nouns as common : ' To put the Janes, the Souths, the Sherlocks into such a situation that they must either starve or recant, . . . was a revenge too . delicious to bo relinquished.' The historian does not mean by ' the Janes, the Souths, and the Sherlocks ' persons bearing that name, but persons occupying positions similar to those of the divines mentioned. When we speak of a family as the Tudors, the Howards we use a name which is proper as regards the family as a whole, though common as regards the members of the family. When we speak of ' The Queen,' meaning a particular queen, as Queen Victoria, we convert a common into a proper noun. 1 1 write to you,' said Bolingbroke to Prior, ' not as The Minister to The Secretary, but as Harry to Mat.' 9, Considered with reference to the mode in which things exist, the nouns denoting them are either Concrete or Abstract. A Concrete 1 Noun is the name of a thing which has a real existence outside our own minds, e.g. book, gold, feather. An Abstract 2 Noun is the name of a quality considered apart from the thing in which it is found, or of an action considered apart from the doer of it, e.g. whiteness, truth, motion. The only separate existence that the things denoted by abstract nouns have, is a mental existence. So there can be 1 From Lat. concresco, I grow together. 7 From Lat. abstraha, I draw away from. ABSTRACT NOUNS. 9 no action apart from the doer of it, though we may think of an action apart from the circumstances which attend its performance. Abstract Nouns are formed from () adjectives, e.g. goodness, redness, truth, justice ; (Z>) verbs, e.g. speech, tltnft (from thrive), shrift (from shrive)', (c) concrete nouns, e.g. despotism, Idngshij), knavery. The same noun may be concrete in one sense and abstract in another. Note the different uses in the following examples Truth is opposed to falsehood (abstract). This truth is indisputable (concrete). Our ideas of beauty are derived from beautiful ob jects (abstract). She was one of the beauties of the court (concrete). When an abstract noun is used in the plural, or restricted in its application by some adjective, as * a, ' the,' ' his,' . Confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom. E. of Chatham. c. Praise undeserved is scandal in disguise. Pope. (I. A little learning is a dangerous thing ; Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring : There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. Id. e. Forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances. Liturgy. f. The evil that men do lives after them : The good is oft interred with their bones. Shakspere. g. So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, Farewell remorse ; all good to me is lost : Evil 1 be Thou my good. Milton. h. My hopes are gone ; my worst fears are realized ; my goods are seized. THE INFLEXION OF NOUNS. 10. Nouns undergo various changes of form in order to express changes of meaning. Thus lion is changed into lions to express a change of number, into lion's to express posses- sion, and into lioness to express a she-lion. These changes are called inflexions from the Latin flecto, I bend ; the word that is inflected being regarded as bent from its simple form. GENDER OF NOUNS. 11. Nouns that are the names of males are said to be of the Masculine Gender, e.g. sailor, master, lord, Harry. The names of females are said to be of the Feminine Gender, e.g. wife, girl, queen, Harriet. The names of things that have no sex are said to be of the Neuter Gender (Lat. neuter, neither), e.g. book, London. 12 GENDEK OF NOUNS. The word Gender means kind or class, and comes from the Latin genus, a sort or kind. Thus Shakspere writes, ' Supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with many' {Othello}. In some languages the gender of nouns is, for the most part, independent of sex, and depends on the tefminations of the nouns. Thus in Latin, mensa, a table, is feminine ; oculus, an eye, is masculine. So in Old English, tunge, a tongue, was feminine ; dceg, a day, was masculine. In modern English both tongue and day are neuter. Gender should not be confounded with sex. Gender is a distinction between words, sex a distinction between things. Gender is not strictly an inflexion, except in those cases in which the gender is expressed by the termination, e.g. giant, giantess ; testator, testatrix. Nouns that admit of being applied without inflexion to things of either sex, as friend, parent, dove, cousin, bird, are said to be of the Common Gender. 1 12. When impersonal things are personified, i.e. when they are spoken to, or spoken of, as if they were living per- sons, we often attribute to them sex ; and the nouns which name them are then said to be of the masculine or feminine gender, according as masculine or feminine qualities are attributed to them. Thus we often speak of the Sun, Death, Time, as masculine; of Nature, Virtue, Religion, Law, as feminine. The gender of nouns denoting sexless things is, of course, arbi- trary. In O.E. sun is feminine, moon is masculine ; in modern Eng- lish the genders of these words are reversed. We, thinking mainly of the beauty and gentle motion of the moon, make moon feminine. Our forefathers, when they made ' moon ' masculine, probably thought of the moon as ' the measurer, the ruler of days and weeks and seasons, the regulator of the tides, the lord of their festivals, and the herald of their public assemblies ' (Max Miiller). The sailor in- variably speaks of his ship as feminine ; in a similar way the engine- driver speaks of his engine ; both giving expression, in this way, to a certain admiration and fondness for the things with which they are, respectively, so closely associated. 'It is curious to observe that country labourers give the feminine appellations to those things only which are more closely identified with themselves, and by the qualities and condition of which their own efforts and character as workmen are affected. The mower calls his scythe a she ; the ploughman calls his plough a she ; but a prong, or a shovel, or a barrow, which passes promiscuously from 1 Some nouns that were formerly of the common gender are now restricted to one sex. E.g. girl, hoyden, niece, shrew, courtesan, termagant, witch, wench, man, GENDER OF NOUNS. 13 hand to hand, and which is appropriated to no particular labourer, is called a Tie.' Cobbett. Many of our old English writers make the gender of English nouns correspond to the gender of the equivalent nouns in Latin and Greek. 13. The differences of gender are indicated in three ways in English, viz. (1) By different words : bachelor (Low Lat. baccalarius, maid or spinster a cowherd, from lacca, a Low Lat. form of racca, a cow) boar (O.E. Mr) boy (cp. Ger. tube) brother (O.E. brother) buck (O.E. bucca, he-goat) bull (Icelandic boll) bullock (dim. of bull) or steer cock colt or foal dog or hound drake ( = king of the ducks) drone (O.E. drdn, from the noise it makes) earl (O.E. eorl, a warrior) father (the feeder) gaffer (from grandfather') gander (O.E. gandra. The d is not a part of the root. See note on goose) hart (O.E. licort = the horned one) or stag (Icelandic steggr, a gander. The name is given to many male animals) horse (O.E. hors) or stallion (O.F. estalon) husband (O.E. hus, house ; bonda, proprietor) king (O.E. cyn-ing, son of the tribe. Cp. kin, kind) lord (O.E. hldford, from hid/, loaf ; rveard, keeper) sow (O.E. sugn) girl (dim. of Low Ger. gb'r, a little child) sister (O.E. sweostor) doe (O.E. da) cow (O.E. cu) heifer (O.E. heahfor, from heah, high, and fear, ox; =3 full-grown ox or cow) hen (fern, of O.E. hana, cock) filly (dim. of foal) bitch (O.E. Mcce. Cp. Ger. betze) duck ( = diver) bee (also used as of the common gender. Originally fern.) countess (fern, of count) mother (root ma, to produce); dam (Lat. domino) gammer (from grandmother) goose (originally contained an n. Cp. Ger. gam = goose ; gannet, the Solan goose, O.E. ganota = wild goose) roe (O.E. rd) or hind (O.N. hind, a female deer) mare (O.E. mere, a mare : wearh, a ho -se, was mas.) wife (O.E. nif= woman. Cp. fish- wife, goodwife [goody], house- wife [huzzy]. Also Ger. iveib^= woman) queen (from root gan, to produce Cp. O.E. crvcn-fugel = hen-bird) lady (O.E. hlcffdige, from Mdf, loaf, and da-ger, knead er") 14 GENDER OF NOUNS. man (originally com. gen.; cp. woman ( = wife-man) Ger. mcnsclC) monk (Gk. monacTios, solitary) or nun (Low Lat. nonna, mother ; friar (Lat. frater, brother) old fern, mynchyri) nephew (O.E. nefa. Cp. Ger. niece (Lat. neptis, granddaughter) neffe ; Lat. nepos = grandson. Cp. 1 Tim. v. 4, where 'ne- phews ' = ' grandchildren ') papa (root pa, to nourish. Cp. mama (same root as mother. Cp. father, Lat. ^ater) Lat. mamma, breast) ram or wether ewe (O.E. eonni) sir (Lat. senior, elder) madam (Lat. mea, my; domina, lady) sire (see ' sir ') dame (Lat. domina, lady) sloven (cognate with slop, slobber, slut (cp. slattern) slabber) son (Sanscrit su, to beget) daughter ( = milker. Cp. Gk.thu- gatcr and O.E. dug, a teat) uncle (Lat. avunculus, dim. of aunt (Lat. amita, a father's sister. avus, grandfather) Cp. ant, from O.E. tsmete) wizard (O.F. guise-art, a very witch (O.E. micce, fern.; micea, wise man; Icelandic, viskr, mas.) wise) In modern English ' servant ' is of the common gender. In Bible English it is masculine, the feminine being ' maid,' e.g. * nor his servant, nor his maid' (Ex. xx. 17, P. Book version. Cp. Ps. cxxiii. 2). (2) By distinctive terminations, mostly derived either directly or indirectly from Latin, e.g. -trix, as testator, testatrix ; executor, executrix. -ess (Norman French -esse, Latin -issa), as actor, actress; master, mistress; emperor, empress; duke, duchess; lad, lass (Welsh ttawd, a lad ; fern, llodes, a girl). It will be observed that some of these words undergo other modifications, besides taking the affix. ice, as improvisatore, improvisa trice (Italian). -ine, as hero, heroine (Greek) ; landgrave, landgravine ; margrave, margravine (German). en, the only instance of this termination in modern Eng- lish is vixen, the feminine of fox. Comp. the German feminine termination -in, e.g. Freund, a male friend, Freundin, a female friend. So Fuchs, Fuchsin. In Old English we find several distinctive gender terminations. Thus, all nouns ending in a were masculine ; most nouns ending in e were feminine ; e.g. ivuduwa, a widower ; wuduwe, a widow. The old feminine suffix -store still survives in spinster, though a spinster no longer means, as it did once, a female spinner. In many other GENDER OF NOUNS. 15 words this suffix survives, but is no longer distinctively feminine, e.g. punster, rhymester, huckster (originally a female hawker). It also survives in many proper names, as Bagster (contracted into Baxter) from baker; Brewster, from brewer ; Webster, 1 from webber, i.e. a weaver; Kempster, a comber; Whitster, a bleacher. By degrees -stcr ceased to be a distinctively feminine termination, and it became necessary to add the termination -ess. Hence such words as song-str-ess ; seam-str-ess. 2 (3) By using nouns or pronouns, having gender, as pre- fixes or affixes, as he-goat, she-goat; man-child, female- child; he-bear, she-bear; man-servant, maid-servant; cock- sparrow, hen-sparrow. TFomfm=wife-man. As a rule feminine nouns are formed from the masculine. The following are exceptions : gander from gans, the old form of goose; bridegroom from bride and #i47?i=man ; drake (=iduck-king) from ond, a duck (Norse) and ra&e=king (comp. rick in bishop-rick) ; widower from widow. Exercises. 1. Place in parallel columns the masculine and feminine nouns in the following passages, and state what considerations probably determined the gender in each case a. But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll. Gray. b. When Music, heavenly maid, was young, While yet in early Greece she sung. Collins. c. And Hope enchanted smiled and waved her golden hair. Id, (1. Next Anger rushed, his eyes on fire. Id. e. The meek-eyed Morn appears, mother of dews. TJwmson. f. Knowledge is proud that he has learnt so much, Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. Cowper. y. Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains We crowned him long ago. Byron. h. The river glideth at his own sweet will. Wordsrvorth. i. Overhead the moon sits arbitress. Milton, k. Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone Wi' the auld moon in her arme. ' Sir Patrick Spena. 1 1. Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God. Coleridge. 1 ' Need gars (i.e. makes) naked men rin and n-ebsters spin.' Scotch Proverb. ' In O.E. scamerc means a tailor. 16 NUMBER OF NOUKS. 2. What are the feminine nouns corresponding to : prince, steer, rarn, viscount, ogre, sorcerer, colt, buck, boar, abbot, marquis, step- son, pea-cock, gaffer, landlord, Jew, gentle-man, foster-father, czar, earl, sloven, black-cock ? 3. Give the gender of the following words : heifer, hart, witness, friend, tree, fairy, sylph, naiad, squirrel, pony, author, murderer, cousin, aunt, child, landlord, tenant, proprietress, nag, filly, tigress. NUMBER. 14 Number is that inflexion which nouns undergo to indicate whether they stand for one object or for more than one. That form which is used to denote one thing is said to be of the singular number, or, more briefly, singular, e.g. man, ox, tree, calf. That form which is used to denote more than one thing is said to be of the plural number, or plural, eg. men, oxen, trees, calves. 15. The plurals of English nouns are formed in the following ways (1) By adding es or s to the singular, e.g. brush, brushes; book, books. In O.E. many nouns formed their plurals in as, which was sub- sequently modified into es. As s was a common plural termination in Norman French also, the termination es came to be gradually applied to large numbers of words which originally formed their plurals in other ways. We still retain the termination es in the case of nouns ending in the singular in a sibilant, i.e. a hissing sound (s, x, z, sh, soft ch}, e.g. gases, kisses, boxes, topazes, fishes, churches. We also use it to form the plurals of some nouns ending in o, as potatoes, heroes. The following nouns in form their plurals by adding s only, bravo, zero, solo, tyro, folio, quarto. Nouns ending in y, preceded by a vowel, form their plurals by the addition of s, as keys, boys, days. If the y be preceded by a consonantal sound, 5 is added, and the y is changed into ie, e.g. ruby, rubies ; lady, ladies. In M.E. the singular ended in ie, so that the plural in ies was then regular. Soliloquy has for its plural soliloquies, the u before the y forming part of the consonantal sound cw. Many nouns of native origin ending in f or fe form their plurals in ves, e.g. calf, calves; leaf, leaves; knife, knives. NUMBER OF NOUNS. 17 Some nouns in /, of Norman-French origin, as chief, brief, relief; and some of native origin, as puff, ruff, stuff, roof, cliff, dwarf, strife, and fife, form their plurals in s. Fat the end of O.E. words had probably the sound of v, a sound which it still retains in of and in the Lancashire pronunciation of if. Comp. strife, strive ; wife, wive ; calf, calve ; half, halve ; shelf, shelve. Dwarf did not originally terminate in /, but in h or g, its old forms being dneorli and drceorg, and the final letter being gutturalized. Comp. genoh, the old form of enough, pronounced eniiff. (2) By adding en to the singular, as ox, oxen. In brethren and children we have double plurals, the old plurals being brothra or brothru and cildru. The termination en would appear to have been added when the old plural endings in ra and ru had become obsolete. In northern English the plurals brother and childer are still heard. Chicken (O.E. cycen from cock) was used in M.E. both as a singular and plural, but the original form of the plural was cycenu. Comp. Children and chicken Will always be picking. Old Proverb. Bracken is probably a plural of brake (a fern so called from its broken appearance) : kine, the plural of cow, is a double plural, the old plural being cy. (The Scotch still use kye as a plural.) Swine is probably connected with so?/', but is not the plural of it. In O.E. it is used as a singular as well as a plural. In our early writers we find treen (trees), fone (foes), eyne and een (eyes), been (bees), pesen (peas), toon (toes), fleen (flees). In the Bible we find hosen (Dan. iii. 21). In provincial English may still be heard ' eye-breen ' (eye- brows), housen, ' shoon and hone ' (shoes and stockings). (3) By changing the vowel sound, without adding any new ending", e.g. man, men (O.E. man, menn); woman, women (O.E. wlf-man, u-if-menn) ; foot, feet (O.E.fotyfet); mouse, mice (O.E. mus, >//*). The addition of a syllable in O.E. was nearly always accompanied hy a modification of the vowel sound in the root-word. In the foregoing words the change of vowel indicates that a syllable has lost. The O. Saxon plural of foot was/*///. The plurals of nouns directly borrowed from other Inu- c 18 NUMBER OF NOUNS. guages usually follow the laws of inflexion of those languages ; e.g. 1. Latin singulars in a form their plurals in ce, as formula, for- mula, minutia (not used), minutiae. 2. Latin singulars in us, for the most part, form their plurals in i, as radius, radii, ; tumulus, tumuli ; genius, genii. Genus, genera, and Matus, hiatus, follow other laws. 3. Latin singulars in urn and Greek singulars in on form their plurals in a, as addendum animalculum arcanum automaton corrigendum criterion desideratum minimum addenda animalcula arcana automata (Gk.) corrigenda criteria (Gk.) desiderata minima maximum memorandum phenomenon prolegomenon (not used) sanatorium spectrum stratum maxima memoranda phenomena (Gk.) prolegomena (Gk.) sanatoria spectra strata 4. Latin singulars in cs and Greek in is form their plurals in es, as analysis analyses (Gk.) parenthesis parentheses(Gk.) axis axes (Gk.) series series basis bases (Gk.) species species ellipsis ellipses (Gk.) superficies superficies 6. Latin singulars in ix or ex form their plurals in ices, as appendix appendices radix radices calix calices vortex vortices 6. The following are peculiar Greek', iris, irides; miasma, miasmata; chrysalis, chrysa- lides. Italian : bandit (Jeremy Taylor, ' bandito '), banditti ; ] dilet- tante, dilettanti ; libretto, libretti ; virtuoso, virtuosi. French : beau, beaux ; monsieur, messieurs ; madame, mes- dames. Hebrew : cherub, cherubim ; seraph, seraphim. Some foreign nouns have adopted an English plural without wholly losing their own. Thus we have vortexes and vortices; indexes and indices; formulas and formula?. Occasionally we take advantage of these double forms to express two different shades of meaning, e.g. 1 ' Bandit ' is from the Italian ' bandito,' a person placed under the ban of the law. The regular plural in -s is common, more especially after numerals. ' Banditti ' is generally used in a collec- tive sense, e.g. ' The country was infested with banditti.' NUMBER OF NOUNS. 19 formulae = general mathematical and scientific expressions, formulas = prescribed forms of words. indexes = the lists of contents of books, indices = the letters or figures in Algebra, which show the powers to which quantities are to be raised. geniuses = people of genius, genii = certain imaginary beings who often figure in Oriental stories. The tendency of the language is to make all foreign nouns conform to the general law for forming the plural. We retain the original plurals in certain stereotyped forms of expression, but employ the new in ordinary conversation. 16. Some native nouns have two plurals, e.g. brothers, used of brothers by blood. brethren, used of members of the same community. clotlis, kinds of cloth. clothes, articles of apparel. dies, instruments for stamping. dice, small cubes used in games of chance. pennies, separate coins, e.g. I have seven new pennies. pence, money valued in pennies, e.g. I have seven pence. peas (not a native word), used of peas considered sepa- rately. pease, used of peas considered collectively, as a vegetable product. The s is part of the root, the Latin singular being pisum. Cp. Welsh pys. 17. Some nouns have only one form for singular and plural, e.g. deer, sheep, grouse, swine, salmon, cod, trout, mackerel. Some are used as collective nouns, as fish, can- non, carp, but form regular plurals when applied indivi- dually, as fishes, cannons, carps. Cp. ' full of great fishes ' (John xxi. 11) with 'Bring of the fish which ye have now caught ' (v. 10). The names of measures, numbers, weights, &c., when preceded by a numeral, are frequently not inflected for the plural, as five yoke of oxen, a hundred head of cattle, four pair, six brace, seven atone, five hundred, three score, six gross, five fathom, two foot, ten year. c2 20 NUMBER OF NOUNS. The same rule holds in German. Comp. sechs Fuss\ zwei Paar\ drei Dutzend ; sieben Stuck ; vier Pfund ; ein Regiment von tausend Mann. See Becker's German Grammar, p. 127. Abstract nouns are invariably singular. "When they are used in the plural, they are converted into concrete nouns. See 9. ' It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.' Lam. iii. 22. Names of materials are ordinarily singular, e.g. wheat, gold, silver, timber, clay ; but the plural form may be used to denote various kinds of the material spoken of, e.g. sugars, silks, wines. 18. Some nouns are used in the plural, but not in the singular, e.g. bellows, pincers, pliers, tweezers, scissors, shears, snuffers, spectacles, tongs, trousers (all of which denote things composed of two ^>rfe), annals, archives, assets, aborigines, amends, dregs, entrails, hustings, lees, matins (in the sense of morning prayers), measles, mumps, molasses, nuptials, espousals, oats, odds, obsequies, premises, staggers, shambles, thanks, tidings, trappings, vespers, victuals, vitals, wages. * All which nature, or art, or habit has made plural, have no singular.' (Cobbett.) Amends is a plu. formed from the Fr. amende ; with bellows cp. Moeso-Gothic lalgs, plu. lalgeis, a wine-skin ; breeches and Greeks are double plurals, 'brech being the O.E. plural of broc = breeches, and formed like feet, pi. of foot ; Jin-stings is a meariingless plural of the Icelandic Msthing, from Ms, house, and thing, a council ; galhnvs is the plu. oE O.E. galga, a gibbet ; mean, Fr. moyen, is still used as a singular (as a mathematical term) ; measel was used as a singular in M.E.; odds is from Icel. oddi, a triangle, a point of land. Cp. oddamathr, the third or odd man who gives the casting vote. Politics, ethics, optics, logics, physics, mechanics, are plu- ral in form, to correspond with the equivalent Greek plurals, but are commonly regarded as singular. In Greek the science itself was denoted by a feminine singular, a treatise upon it by a neuter plural. 19. News, pox (pocks), and pains are really plurals, but are generally used as singulars. Alms, riches, summons, and eaves are really singular. Alms is from the O.E. aslmesse, which is from the Greek elee'mo- sune. liiches is from the Norman- French ricJiesse. Comp. largesse, noblesse, &<\ Eaves is from the O.E. singular, efese; which had the NUMBER OF NOUNS. 21 same meaning as our modern word eaves, but primarily meant a margin, edge. Comp. O.E. efesian, to trim. Summons is said to be from the Latin summoneas. Similarly capias, habeas corpus, scire facias, and other writs are called from the opening Latin words. Some derive 'summons' from O.F. semonce (Lat. submonitio), a warning. 20. Compound nouns usually attach the sign of the plural to the leading word in the compound, e.g. courts- martial, fathers-in-law, hangers-on, knights-errant. Occa- sionally the compound is treated as one word and the sign of the plural is affixed to the end, e.g. lord-chancellors, spoon- fuls, lady-friends. In men-servants and women-servants each element of the compound takes a plural form. ' The earth brought forth by handfuls,' Gen. xli. 47. In Matt. xiv. 20, and the parallel passages, ' twelve baskets full,' the word ' full ' is emphatic and not part of the compound basketful. The Greek is Sw5e/ta nofytvovs TrA^pets. See Mark vi. 43, Kev. Ver. 21. Collective nouns differ from ordinary plurals in de- noting a number of objects without being inflected. Comp. books with mob. To make book plural we add s to it. Mob may have a plural meaning in its uninflected form. Collective nouns may be used either in the singular or plural number. We have 771065 as well as mob, armies as well as army. When the plural is used the singular collec- tive is regarded as denoting a single unit. An uninflected collective noun may be regarded as singular or plural, according as the idea of singularity or plurality is uppermost in our minds. When the unity of the multitude is uppermost, we use the noun as a singular ; when the multitude of the units is uppermost, we use the noun as a plural. Comp. The mob are greatly excited. The mob was speedily dispersed. Exercises. 1. State the number of the nouns in the following passages a. Hills rise on hills and Alps on Alps arise. Pope. b. Try to make amends. c. Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high. Bil\e. d. We had to encounter fearful odds. e. The wages of sin is death. Bible. 22 CASE OF NOUNS. /. A fair day's wage for a fair day's work. g. Who'll buy my herring ? Scotch Ballad, h. A tanner will last you nine year. Shaltspere. 1. I lost all my valuables. 2. Give the plurals of hoof, wolf, valley, staff, hero, Dutchman, German, Mussulman, domino, index, radius, erratum, parenthesis, nebula. 3. Give instances of nouns that have () no singular, (J) a seemingly plural form with a singular meaning. 4. Some nouns have the same form for singular and plural, Give instances. 5. Give instances of Collective Nouns. 6. Correct or justify the following : a. Evil mere the news he heard. Z>. Ill news rides fast, while good news baits. c. How oft the means to do ill-deeds makes ill- deeds done 1 d. The odds are against us. e. Mathematics are useful. /. Behold the people is one, and they have all one language. g. The clergy were in favour of the measure. 7i. * The Pleasures of Memory ' was written by Kogers. i. By this means shall we sound what skill she hath. Tt. The College of Cardinals have elected a new Pope. I. The army was defeated. m. Full fathom five thy father lies. n. Surely the people is grass. o. The people are dissatisfied. p. Why do the people imagine a vain thing? q. It was six foot long. r. The odds against him is very considerable. 7. Give instances of nouns that have two plurals. Discriminate between the meanings of the two. CASE. 22. Case (from Lat. cado, I fall) is an inflexion of nouns and pronouns, for showing the relation which they bear to other words. Thus in the sentence 'John has CASE OF NOUNS. 23 James's hat,' the addition of the termination 's shows that the ' hat ' belongs to James. The term ' case ' is also em- ployed to denote certain grammatical relations of nouns and pronouns, even though those nouns and pronouns have no distinct forms to express those relations. The learner will be assisted in understanding the dis. tinctions of case by analysing a simple sentence. In the sentence ' John gave a book to James,' ' John ' tells us who it is of whom the assertion is made, and is called the ' Subject ' of the sentence. It is said to be in the Nominative Case. The word ' gave ' tells us what is said about the ' Sub- ject,' and forms what is called the ' Predicate ' of the sentence. The words ' a book to James ' tells us what was given and to whom it was given, and are called the Completion of the Predicate. After a transitive verb the word denotiDg the immediate object of the action is called the Direct Object, and is said to be in the Objective Case ; the word which denotes an object indirectly affected by the action is called the Indirect Object, and is also said to be in the Objective Case. In the sentence given above, 'book,' denoting the thing actually given, is the Direct Object ; ' James,' denoting the person to whom the book was given, is the Indirect Object ; both * book ' and ' James ' are in the Objective Case. 23. The Nominative Case is that form of a Noun or Pronoun which is used to express the Subject of the Sentence, e.g. Henry laughed ; 7 sang ; you wept ; he smiled. The term would appear to have been applied originally to that form of the noun which indicated merely the name (nomen) of a thing. When a noun stands for a person or thing spoken to, it is sometimes called the Nominative of Address. In Latin many nouns take a distinct form, called the Vocative Case, when so used, from Lat. voco, I call. In English the Voca- tive form is the same as the Nominative, e.g. John did it (Norn.) John, do not do it (Voc.) Sometimes we find in a sentence a noun or pronoun qualified by a participle, but having no connection, either as subject or object, with the finite verb in the predicate. Such a noun or pronoun is 24 CASE OF NOUNS. usually called the Nominative Absolute (Lat. ab, from ; solutus, loosened), because it is, as it were, loosed from- the main sentence The coach having gone, I was obliged to walk on foot. This being done, we went for a walk. On we marched, our companions following slowly behind. The function of the Absolute clause is to express time, cause, condition, or accompanying circumstance, and is, strictly speaking, adverbial. In O.E. the dative case was used in absolute clauses. Dr. Abbott prefers to call the Nominative Absolute the Subject Absolute. 24. The Possessive Case is that form of a Noun or noun which is used to show that the thing denoted is the possessor of something ; e.g. John's book ; the 'boy's clothes. The Possessive Case is the only noun-case in modern English which has a distinctive termination. It is usually formed by adding s with an apostrophe before it ('6-) to the Nominative ; e.g. John's, men's. If the Nominative singular or Nominative plural end in a sibilant, the Possessive Case is indicated by the mere addi- tion of the apostrophe, e.g. the boys 1 clothes : the girls' bonnets ; Moses' rod ; for conscience' sake ; for righteousness 1 sake ; Felix 1 room ; Phoebus 1 fire ; Lycurgus' laws. Milton writes 'for intermission sake.' The modern tendency is to use s, as well as the apostrophe, after Proper Nouns ending in a sibilant. Thus we say ' St. James's Church,' ' Cham- bers's Journal,' ' Bass's Ale.' In O.E. the Possessive Case was expressed in the singular by the termination cs, which was pronounced as a separate syllable. The apostrophe (from Greek apo, away, and strophe, a turning) stands for the omitted vowel. Even in Shakspere the vowel is occasionally sounded, e.g. ' To show his teeth as white as whales bone.' The use of the apostrophe is comparatively modern, and is some- what inconsistently restricted to the possessive case, as there has been a similar elision of the vowel in the plural of many nouns in which the apostrophe is not used' ; e.g. the plural ' smiths ' is a con- traction of ' smithes,' the plural ' days ' of ' dagdw.' In the 'Spectator' we find the apostrophe used in writing plurals, e.g. ' Purcell's opera's,' ' the making of grotto's,' but the practice has been abandoned except in forming the plurals of particles and of letters used as nouns ; e.g. ' There are too many who's in the sentence,' ' Dot your i's and cross your t's.' It was absurdly supposed by some of the old grammarians that the ending of the possessive case was a corruption of the pronoun CASE OF NOUNS. 25 his. Unfortunately for this theory, his is itself the possessive case of lie or hit (it), and the s in it would still have to be accounted for. Moreover, the theory would clearly not account for the possessive case of feminine and plural nouns. ' Jane's child ' could not be ' Jane his child ; ' nor could ' the men's swords ' be ' the men his swords.' In accordance with the theory we find in the Prayer Book ' Jesus Christ His sake;' and in the Bible (Ed. 1611), 'Asa Ms heart,' 1 Kings xv. 14; ' Mordecai his matters,' Esth. iii. 4; 'By Naomi her instruction lluth lieth at Boaz Ms feet,' heading to Euth iii. In the case of a compound noun the apostrophe is always appended to the last noun, e.g. ' the Lord Chancellor's wig/ ' the Lord Admiral's ship ; ' the two nouns being regarded as forming only one compound noun. When two nouns are in apposition, i.e. when one is used to define the other more closely, we generally place the sign of the possessive case after each, e.g. ' Smith's, the bookseller's.' In modern English the possessive case is chiefly used with reference to living things, e.g. John's hand, the bird's wing, the horse's tail. In speaking of inanimate things we generally employ the preposition of instead of the usual case- ending. Thus we say 'the weight of the stone,' not 'the stone's weight.' 25. The Objective Case is that form which a noun or pronoun takes when it is the Direct or Indirect Object in a sentence. (See 22.) In English grammar nouns are said to be in the Objective Case, even when they have no distinct form to express it, if they stand in an objective relation to the other words of the sentence. The word * used to express the Direct Object is some- times called the Accusative Case. The origin of this term, which is borrowed from Latin Grammar, is not clear. Dr. Abbott conjectures that ' possibly the Romans regarded the 1 In consequence of the loss of distinctive forms for the Objec- tive Case of nouns, we are now compelled to depend very much upon position to indicate the objective relation. In Latin the words, pater filiwni amat (the father loves the son), would convey the same meaning, in whatever order the words were arranged, the form of pater showing that it is the Subject of the sentence, the form of fiKum showing that it is the Direct Object of the sentence. But in the corresponding English sentence, * The father loves the son,' we are left to infer that ' son ' is the Direct Object from its position after the verb. We could not alter the order of the words without producing ambiguity. Cp. ' The father the son loves,' ' The son the father loves.' 26 CASE OF NOUNS. object as being in front of the agent, like an accused person confronted with the prosecutor.' The Indirect Object is sometimes called the Dative Case (i.e. the Giving Case, from Lat. do, datum, / give, being mainly used after verbs of giving). Some O.E. nouns had a form distinct from the Nom. for the Dir. Obj.; still more had a distinct form for the Ind. Obj. Thus the ace. of steorra, a star, was steorran ; of wylen, a female slave, was tvylnc ; of gifu, a gift, was gife or gifu. The dat. of leaf, a leaf, was ledfe ; of smith, a smith, was smithe. In modern English the Object, whether Direct or Indirect, takes, if a noun, the same form as the nominative, Compare The boy cried (Nora.). I heard the boy (Direct Obj.). I gave it to the boy (Indirect Obj.). English pronouns have distinct forms for the Nominative and Objective Cases, but not for the Direct and Indirect Objects. Com- pare J saw James (Nom.). James saw me (Direct Obj.). He gave it to me (Indirect Obj.). In order to determine whether a noun is in the Nominative or Objective Case we have to consider the construction of the sentence. If the noun be the Subject of the sentence, no matter whether the verb that follows be in the Active or Passive Voice, it is said to be in the Nominative Case. It is a mistake to say that the Nominative Case is used to denote the doer of the action. In the sentence ' John was beaten,' ' John ' is in the Nominative Case ; John was not the beater ; he was beaten. 26. The Direct Object is governed by a transitive verb. To find it out in a sentence, put whom or what before the verb, and the answer will reveal it. Thus, in the sentences * I struck John,' ' He praised the book,' the answers to the questions * Whom did I strike 2 ' ' What did he praise ? ' viz. John and book, are the Direct Objects. 27. The Indirect Object usually follows the preposition to or for, expressed or understood, e.g. ' Give the book to William ; ' < Give William the book ; ' ' This book is for you ; ' ' Tell me a story ; ' * He wrote me a letter.' As a rule the Subject of a sentence precedes the verb, but in interrogative, imperative, and rhetorical constructions it frequently follows it, e.g. CASE OF NOUNS. 27 wherefore come ye forth ? Macaulay. Be thou faithful. Bible. ' Where,' said he, ( are you going ? ' Still is the toiling hand of Care. Gray. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Bible. Few and short were \heprayers we said. Wolfe. After the introductory adverb ' there ' the Subject nearly always follows the verb There was no room. In interrogative and rhetorical constructions the Objec- tive Case often precedes the verb or preposition which governs it. Jesus I know, and Paul I know. Bible. Whom did you see ? Whom did you give it to ? In what are called adjective clauses (see 127) t&e Objec- tive Case always precedes the verb, but may precede or follow the preposition. This is the book which you sought. This is the book in which I was reading. This is the book which we were reading in. Grammarians sometimes distinguish other objects ; but, clearly, no other objects can be co-ordinate with the Direct and Indirect Object. Every object must of necessity be either Direct or Indirect. Under the head of Direct Objects should also be included 1. The Reflexive Object, an Object referring to the same person or thing as the Subject of the sentence, e.g. 1 injured myself. . Turn thee, O Lord. Bible. He who hath bent him o'er the dead. Byron. 2. Tlie Cognate Object (from Lat. ei, together ; gnatus, born), an Object akin in meaning with the verb, which is generally intransi- tive, e.g. I have fought a goodfaJit. Bible. He slept a refreshing sleep. He ran a race. Under the head of Indirect Objects should also be included 1. Tlie Factitive Object, a secondary object used with a Direct Object, or with the Subject of a verb in the Passive Voice, after verbs of making, creating, (i^jioinilng, thinking, believing, supposing, &c. It is so called because make (Lat./) is a type of the class of verbs which are used in this construction 28 CASE OF NOUNS. We made John (Dir. Obj.) our leader (Fac. Obj.). The king created him &peer (Fac. Obj.). We thought the gardener (Dir. Obj.) a capable man (Fac. Obj.). The verb to be ' is sometimes used to connect the Direct Object with the Factitive Object. 2. The Adverbial Object, an object used to express time, space, weight, price, age, &c. He walked two hours every day last week (Time). He never stirred an inch (Space). It weighed five pounds (Weight). It was worth sixpence (Value). He was six years old (Age). The government of these objects is sometimes explained by sup- plying a preposition before them, but no preposition was used before them in O.E., and no preposition is needed to explain their govern- ment now. The relations of time, space, &c., were expressed in O.E. by various oblique cases that were not governed by verb or pre- position, but were simply demanded by the idiom of the language. Cp. the ' accusative of time and space,' the ' ablative of measure, time, and place,' &c., in Latin. Nouns and pronouns attached to other nouns or pronouns, and denoting the same person or thing, are said to be in apposition (Lat. ad, near ; pono, I place) with the word which they limit. Did you know Turner, the painter 1 (Dir. Obj. in apposition with ' Turner '). He called at Smith's, the grocer's (Poss. in apposition with Smith's '). Jones, the head-boy, got the prize (Nom. in apposition with 1 Jones '). I gave it to John, the waiter (Ind. Obj. in apposition with 'John'). Nouns are also used in apposition after copulative verbs (Lat. copula, a link), as be, become, grow (intrans.), turn (intrans.), turn out (intrans. }, prove (intrans.), continue (intrans.), remain. Pie was a sailor. He became a merchant. He continued a soldier. He proved a l>adfello?v. 28. In O.E. there were five cases, the Nominative, Pos- sessive, Dative, Accusative, and Ablative. No English noun possessed a distinctive form for each case. The Nomi- native and Accusative of some nouns were alike ; the Dative and Ablative of other nouns were alike. Most of the old case-endings were lost in the three centuries which followed CASE OF NOUNS. 29 the Norman conquest. The declensions of two old nouns are subjoined by way of illustration Singular. Nom. smith steorr-a (a star) Poss. smith-es steorr-an Dat. smith-e steorr-an Ace. smith steorr-an Abl. smith-e steorr-an Plural. Nom. smith-as steorr-an Poss. smith-a steorr-ena Dat. smith-urn steorr-um Ace. smith-as steorr-an Abl. smith-urn steorr-um It will be observed that all the case-endings of ' steorra ' have disappeared, and that the possessive singular and the nominative and accusative plural, the only surviving case- endings of ' smith,' are contracted. Lady-day (i.e. our Lady's day), lady-bird (our Lady's bird), Sunday (O.E. Sunnan-daeg, i.e. Sun's day), Monday (O.E. Monan- daeg, i.e. Moon's day), Friday (O.E. Frige-dasg, i.e. Friga's day), contain old possessives. The poss. of Jdcefdige was hlcefdigan ; of sunne, sunnan ; of mona, monan. The s in Tuesday (Tiwes dseg), in Wednesday (Wodnes daeg), and in Thursday (Thunores daeg = the thunderer's day), is a remnant of the old possessive. So is it in daisy (day's eye), monkhood, Iridcsmuld, and in many names of places, as \V(iii$l>orou{jh (Woden's borough). In huntsman, bondsman, oarsman, &c., the s appears to be euphonic. In Witenagemote (the meeting of the wise men), the termination ~ena of the genitive plural is pre- served. With Lady-day (properly Lady day) contrast Lord's day. Exercises. 1. Pick out the Nominative Case in each of the following pas- I saw John. John saw me. We heard the men talking. The book is on the table. We have had enough of action. Where is John's book ? My son John is at school. Mary, go and call the cattle home. The butcher weighed the meat. The meat weighed six pounds. John is now a man, six foot high. a. There was no leaf upon the forest bare. b. Round the cape of a sudden came the sea. Brownintj. c. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. SJiah^ere. d. Thy joys no glittering female meets, No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets Grey. 30 CASE OF NOUNS. e. The love where Death hath set his seal Nor age can chill, nor rival steal, Nor falsehood disavow. Byron. 2. Pick out the nouns in the Objective Case a. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. Gray. b. His death, which happen 'd in his berth, At forty odd bef el ; They went and told the sexton, and The sexton tolled the Twill. Hood. c. Me this unchartered freedom tires. Wordsworth. d. And when the sun begins to fling His flaring beams, me, goddess, bring To arched walks of twilight gr jves, And shadows brown that Sylvan loves. Milton. e. Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car Wide o'er the fields of glory bear Two coursers of ethereal race With necks iii thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace. Gray. 3. Distinguish between the Direct and Indirect Object in the following passages a. Tell John a story. b. Grant your brother his request. c. Heaven send the prince a better companion ! SliaTt&pere. d. Heaven send the companion a better prince ! Id. e. Saddle me the ass. Bible. f. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate. Shaksyere. ff. Give sorrow words ; the grief that does not speak Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. Id. 4. State the case of each of the nouns in the following pas- a. Society, Friendship, and Love, Divinely bestowed upon man, O, had I the wings of a dove, How soon would I taste you again ! Cowper. b. I wish our friends joy. c. There's a pang in all rejoicing, A joy in the heart of pain, And the Wind that saddens, the Sea that gladdens, Are singing the self-same strain, .5, Taylor, PARSING- OF NOUNS. 31 d. Were England united, we might defy the world. e. Here rests his head upon the lap of earth. Gray. f. Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition. Shakspere. g. Where go the poet's lines ? ** Answer, ye evening tapers ; Ye, auburn locks, ye, golden curls, Speak from your folded papers. Holmes. h. That is the lord-high-admiral 's ship. i. Like driftwood spars, which meet and pass Upon the boundless ocean plain, So on the sea of life, alas ! Man meets man meets and quits again. M. Arnold. k. Order gave each thing view. Sliakspcre. I. Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. Id. 5. Give instances of (a) the Factitive Object ; (J) the Cognate Object ; (c) the Adverbial Object. 6. What is meant by the Nominative Absolute ? Give instances. PARSING OF NOUNS. 29, The complete parsing of a noun should show 1. The part of speech to which it belongs ; 2. Its inflexions in the sentence in which it occurs ; 3. Its syntactical relations with other words in the sentence. Case, with the exception of the Poss., is not, strictly speaking, an inflexion of modern English nouns, but is included with the inflexions in the subjoined scheme for convenience. SPECIMEN. And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels Than Ccesar with a senate at his heels. Word -Class Inflexions SyntacticalRelations joy Marcellus Caesar senate heels Noun, common Noun, proper Noun, proper Noun, common Noun, common sing., neut., obj. sing., masc., nom. sing., masc., nom. sing., neut., obj. plur., neut., obj. gov. by ' feels ' subj. to 'feels' subj. to 'feels' understood gov. by ' with gov. by ' at ' 32 PARSING OF NOUNS. Parse the nouns in the following passages a. Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow. Pope. b. Let bygones be bygones. c. Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue. Rochefoucauld. d. And raw in fields the rude militia swarms ; Mouths without hands ; maintained at vast expense, In peace a charge, in war a weak defence ; Stout once a month they march, a blustering band, And ever, but in times of need, at hand. Dry den. e. As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. Bible. f. The Kembles were remarkable actors. ff. Nobles and heralds, by your leave, Here lies what once was Matthew Prior ; The son of Adam and of Eve, Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher ? Prior. k. I think there be six Richmonds in the field. Shakspcre. i. Perhaps it may turn out a sang, Perhaps turn out a sermon. Burns. k. For my voice, I have lost it with hollaing and singing of anthems. Shalispcre. I. O, monstrous ! but one halfpenny- worth of bread to this in- tolerable deal of sack ! Id. m. Seeing is believing. n. Diamond me no diamonds ! prize me no prizes ! Tennyson. o. Who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter ? Milton. p. He laughed a hearty laugh. q. The being of God is a kind of law to His working. Hooker. r. Dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. Poe. s. Ethics is the science of morals. t. They sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. Bible. u. Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied. Sliakspere. v. There is much virtue in your ' If.' Id. w. E'en while I speak the transient Now is past, And death more near this sentence than the last. x. I did not know the ins and outs of the place. y. She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen. Pope't Homer. ADJECTIVES. 33 ADJECTIVES. 30. Adjectives are words joined to nouns 1. To describe things, e.g. I have good, old, red wine. 2. To point out things, e.g. Put this wine on that table. 3. To express number, or quantity, or order in a series, e.g. Put two glasses and some wine- on the second table. In other words, adjectives are used to qualify or limit nouns. Some writers confine the term adjective to words that qualify the noun, i.e. to the first class enumerated above; but the name adjective (Lat. adjectivus = admitting of being added to something) is equally applicable to words that merely limit the noun, i.e. merely restrict its applica- tion. 31. Adjectives of Quality are used to describe a thing, and are said to qualify the noun that denotes the thing, e.g. The old tree is still standing. When forming part of the predicate the adjective may qualify a pronoun, e.g. He is old. Beginners should be careful to distinguish between Concrete Nouns and Adjectives having the same form, e.g. White dazzles my eyes (Concrete Noun). The white chalk dazzles my eyes (Adj.). They should also be careful not to speak of adjectives as denot- ing the qualities of noting. Adjectives denote the qualities of the things designated by nouns. Some writers are very fond of using adjectives as Abstract Nouns. Thus they speak of 'the Beautiful,' 'the True,' 'the Sub- lime,' and so forth. Adjectives are also often used in the place of Concrete Nouns, e.g. The rich (i.e. rich persons) should not forget the poor (i.e. poor persons). 32. When an adjective, standing either before or after a noun, forms with it a kind of compound name, it is said to qualify the noun attributively, e.g. A blur sky. The white rose. A happy clay. , At length a K/mr ASV// hubbub irild. Miltnn. Or flecks or herds or human face f/iri //<-.- I,/. Full iiKiiiv n fern of purest ray serene. Gray D 34 ADJECTIVES. As a rule adjectives used attributively precede the noun which they qualify, but, as may be seen from the previous examples, they may also follow it. 33. When an adjective is used without a following noun to form part of the predicate of a sentence, it is said to qualify its noun or pronoun predicatively, e.g. The way was long, the wind was cold, The minstrel was infirm and old. Scott. Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call to-day his own. Dryden. Adjectives used predicatively usually follow the word which they qualify, but may precede it. Adjectives are often used predicatively after (a) verbs of seem- ing, (J) verbs relating to posture, (c) verbs denoting continuance : a. He seemed happy. b. He stood silent. c. He remained rich. (See SYNTAX.) Note the difference between ' He looked cold ' and ' He looked coldly.' 34. An adjective is sometimes used to supplement verbs of making and thinking, as make, create, render, think, be- lieve, call, deem, suppose, consider. He made us happy. We thought him clever. He was rendered miserable. The adjective in this construction is said to qualify the- word to which it is attached factitively (from Lat./acio, I make). Dr. Abbott would regard such combinations as * made-happy ' and ' thought-clever ' as compound verbs. Some adjectives can be used predicatively but not attri- butively, e.g. alone, well, afraid, unwell, aware, athirst. The learner should carefully distinguish between adjectives and adverbs that are alike in form. Cp. ' a lung pole ' with ' he lived long ; ' ' a fast runner ' with ' he ran fast.' These adverbs formerly ended in -c, but the e has been dropped, and now they can be recog- nised only by considering their f unct ion. 35. Adjectives of Quantity express number and quan- tity, and are said to limit the nouns to which they are joined. They include ADJECTIVES OF QUANTITY. 35 1. Definite Numerals a. Cardinal, e.g. one, two, three, four, dozen, &c. Cardinal numerals are so called from the Lat. cardo, a hinge, because they are the most important, the others being for the most part formed from them. Thus, three gives third ; four, fourth ; &c. One. O.E. an. Cognate with Lat. unu-s and Germ. ein. The indefinite article an, of which a is a contraction, retains the original form of one, but, except in a few instances, has lost the force of a numeral. Comp. 4 Two a penny,' i.e. two for one penny. ' All of a size,' i.e. of one size. ' They are both of a tale,' i.e. they tell one story. &lialt*perc. Two of a trade can never agree.' ' A' things hae an end (i.e. one end), an a pudding has twa.' Scotch proverb. l Ae ha'f o' the warld kens na how the ither ha'f lives.' Id. Two. O.E. f/rr/, fern, and neut. of the masculine form twegcn. Whence our word twain. Cp. tn-in, letn-een. Three. O.E. tlinj) masc. ; tli red, fern, and neut. Four. O.E./fW/r/-. Fire. O.E.fif; originally contained an n. Cp. G or. fiinf, Lat. quinque, Gr. />/>//,'. >SV./-. O.E. fte.r. Cp. Lat. sc,r, Gcr. ,svr//.s-. * frcrc/i, O.E. seofon. Cp. Lat. sejrfein, Gcr. sit-In u. "Eight. O.E. ealita. Cp. Lat. octo, Ger. wr/rf, Fr. Inrit, Welsh -//f// (pronounced ooitIC). Nine. O.E. nigon. Cp. Lat. novem, Ger. ??<>//. -~-Ten. O.E. fy. Cp. Goth, taihun, Ger. z^///?. Ten has lost the guttural sound represented by the h in Gothic and German ; but the lost sound reappears in twenty (O.E. twenti^), i.e. two-ten. Elt'ren. O.E. cndleofan. J'Jtul = one, leofan = leave. Cp. Goth. ti'nl'if. Some suppose leofan represents some old root meaning irn. If this view be correct, eleven would correspond to the Lat. n/t- c = tv?o, lf= leofan. Cp. Goth, tralif. See Elerei). Dozen. Fr. flmtzainr. From dim:,', twelve. Lat. dmnlccim. Thirtt-rn. Tin- sullix -1n-)i =ten. Tin nfi/. S.-c Ten. Score. O.JC. si-rrnn, to ml. Aoo^inits WCMV foniK-rly kept by cutting notches in a stick railed ;i tullii. from the Freiieh f,ii/l,-r, to cut. Twenty \vas probaldy th(> nuniher of notches which it was found convenient to cut on a single stick. < 1 p. - Whereas before our forefathers had no other books but the nmre and the tally, thou Vast caused printing to be used.' Hen . 1 7. J'f. II. 3G ADJECTIVES OF QUANTITY. Hundred. O.E. hund. Hund was originally prefixed to nume- rals from 70 to 120, e.g. hund-seofontig, seventy; hund-eahtatig, eighty ; hund-enlufontig, a hundred and ten ; hund-tnelftig, a hundred and twenty. It would appear to have been a contraction of the Gothic taihun, ten ; if so, the forms given above would mean ten times seven, ten times eight, &c. Wedgwood says that the termination raed in Old Swedish means a reckoning up to ten. Thousand. O.E. thusend. O.H.GL zenstunt ( = probably ten hundred). Million. Lat. mille, a thousand. 5, Fractional, e.g. half, quarter, third, &c. c. Multiplicatives. These are formed in two ways, viz. (1) by the English suffix -fold, as an-fald (=one- fold, now obsolete), two-fold, &c. ; and (2) out of Latin elements, e.g. simple (from si??i=one, cp. semel, once, and plico, 1 fold); duplex, duple or double; triple, treble ; quadruple ; quintuple ; &c. d. Both. O.E. Id, fern, and neut. of beg en. Later forms are bdtwd, fcft2==both, the two. e. None and No. Negative forms of an and a (one), e.g. l none occasion ' (now becoming obsolete), ' no hope.' Cp. mine and my. When, used without a following noun the Cardinal and Fractional Numerals should be parsed as Numeral Pronouns or Nouns. ' What ! all my pretty ones' (SJtak-spere'). 'They came in twos and threes' 'A half is sometimes more than the whole.' ' Two thirds of the people were English.' When used with Adjectives, Adverbs, and Prepositions, both definite and indefinite numerals may be employed adverbially ; as 'half timidly,' 'half bold and half sh}%' 'threefold greater abun- dance.' The slow wise smile that round about His dusty forehead drily curled, Seemed AaZ/"- within and half- without, And full of dealings with the world. Tennyson. 2, Indefinite Numerals. Any, all, few, little, less, least, enough, enow, many, much, more, most, several, divers, certain, who]e, some. Any. O.E. cenig. From a;?, one. E.g. 'any word,' 'any man.' All. O.E. eal. The genitive plural of this word, ealra, survived in the form of aWer as late as the 16th century. Shakspere write* ADJECTIVES OF QUANTITY. 3*7 alderliefest, i.e. dearest of all. For ' liefest ' cp. ' I had as lief. 1 Ger. lieb, dear. Few. O.E. fedrv : e.g. ' few men.' Little, less, least. ' Much cry and little wool.' Note the diffe- rence between the qualitative adjective little, the adjective of quantity, and the numeral pronoun. Cp. Little boats should keep near the shore (Adj.). A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump (Num.). Here a little and there a little (Num. Pron.). A little more than a little is much too much (Num. Pron.). Enough. O.E. genoh. Enow probably represents the old plural. Cp. ' meat enough and men enoiv.' Dr. Johnson says that ' enow ' is the only plural form of an adjective surviving in English. Many, much, more, most. O.E. manig. Several. Lat. separare, to sever. E.g. ' several persons.' The pri- mary meaning survives in the expression, ' a several house.' Certain. Lat. cerno, I separate. Note the difference between the uses of this word in the following sentences : ' I am certain ( = sure) he was here ; ' ' certain men of our company.' In the former it is an adjective of quality, in the latter a demonstrative adjective. IJirers, from same source as diverse. It is used both with a singular and a plural noun ; e.g. A divers posture. Bacon. Divers gentlemen. Slialtspere. Whole. O.E. hdl, healthy, entire. E.g. ' the whole number,' ' the whole city.' Some. O.E. sum. E.g. ' I have some money.' In 4 some eight or nine years ago,' some has the force of about. All these indefinite numerals may be used pronominally, e.g. Any of them will do. All is lost except honour. Many are called but few are chosen. Bible. There's little to earn and many to keep. Kingsley The least of them would suffice. Enough is as good as a feast. Several of them were good. Divers of them came from far. Bible. For before that certain came from James. Ib. I preserved the whole of it. 38 DEMONSTKATIVE ADJECTIVES. 36, Eemonstrative Adjectives are such as are used to point out, with greater or less precision, the things of which we are speaking, and include 1. The so called definite article 1 'the' (O.E. se, seo, thcet). The old definite article was inflected for gender, number, and case. The definite article is used a. To point out some particular thing referred to ; e.g. it was said of a great statesman that he was never in want of a word ; of his rival that he was never in want of the word; viz. the word which precisely ex- pressed his meaning. b. To point out that we are speaking of a whole species or class, e.g. ' the lion/ ' the ocean,' ' the good,' ' there is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.' In such constructions as the following, the represents thi, the old ablative of the article, e.g. ' the more the merrier/ i.e. by how many more by so many merrier ; ' the rather.' 2. Pronominal Adjectives, i.e. words which may be used for a noun or to limit a noun. In virtue of the former power they are called pronominal ; in virtue of the latter, adjective, e.g. these books, each day, either book, any boy, my tea, some food. These will be dealt with more fully hereafter. They may be classified as follows a. Demonstrative, this, these, that, those, such, same. b. Distributive, each, every, either, neither. c. Indefinite, other, some. d. Possessive, my, thy, his, her, &c. e. Interrogative, which, what. f. Ordinal Numerals. 1. Definite, as first, second. 2. Indefinite, as next, previous, last, former, latter, every other, alternate. 1 Article, Lat. articulns, a little joint. 'A name (#) correctly given by the Greeks to their " article " because it served as a joint uniting several words together; (&) then loosely used by the Latins (as was natural, seeing they had no "article") of any short word, whether verb, conjunction, or pronoun; (c) foolishly introduced into English, and once used to denote "the" and "a"' Dr. Abbott, Horn to Parse. EXERCISES ON ADJECTIVES. 39 It will be observed that when these words are followed by a noun they do not stand for that noun, but merely limit it. They are, therefore, clearly not pronouns in such constructions. Exercises. Classify the adjectives in the following passages a. When bad men combine, the good must associate ; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice, in a contemptible struggle. Burke. b. Sweet day ! so cool, so calm, so bright. Herbert. c. For who, 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 1 Gray. d. My sentence is for open war. Milton. e. There's but a shirt and a half in all my company ; and the half-shirt is but two napkins, tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves. Sliakspere. f. Three misbegotten knaves in Kendal green. Id. g. There be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pound this day morning. ... I am a rogue if 1 were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet ; four through the hose. Id. li. There were his young barbarians all at play, There was their Dacian mother he, their sire, Butchered to make a Roman holiday. Byron. i. Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the underworld, Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge ; So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. Tennyson. It. One sun by day by night ten thousand shine. I. Friend. Master Caperwit, before you read, pray tell me, Have your verses any adjectives ? Master Capertvit. Adjectives ! would you have a poem without Adjectives ? they are the flower, the grace of all our language A well-chosen epithet doth give new soul To fainting poesy, and makes every verse A bride 1 With adjectives we bait our lines When we do fish for gentlewomen's loves, 40 COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES. And with their sweetness catch the nibbling ear Of amorous ladies ; with the music of These ravishing nouns we charm the silken tribe, And make the gallant melt with apprehension Of the rare word. I will maintain it against A bundle of grammarians, in poetry The substantive itself cannot subsist Without its adjective. Friend. But, for all that, Those words would sound more full, methinks, that are not So larded ; and, if I might counsel you, You should compose a sonnet clean without them. A row of stately substantives would march Like Switzers, and bear all the field before them ; Carry their weight ; show fair, like deeds enrolled ; Not writs that are first made and after filled. Thence first came up the title of blank verse ; You know, sir, what blank signifies ? where the sense, First framed, is tied with adjectives like points, And could not hold together without wedges : Hang it, 'tis pedantic, vulgar poetry. Let children, when they versify, stick here And there these peddling words for want of matter. Poets write masculine numbers. Shirley. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES, 37. Various objects may possess the same quality in dif- ferent degrees. Thus they may be all white, but one may be whiter than another, and one may be the whitest of them all. To mark these different degrees the adjective which denotes the quality is inflected. 38. The simple form of the adjective is said to be of the Positive Degree, e.g. 'a bright day/ a large tree.' That form of the adjective which is used to show that something possesses the quality denoted by the adjective in a higher or lower degree than something else, is said to be of the Comparative Degree, e.g. * This tree is larger than that,' Choose the less evil.' Some adjectives denoting qualities that do not admit of compari- son are not compared. Such are adjectives denoting a. Material) as golden, wooden. b. Figure, as square, triangular. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES. 41 c. Time, as monthly, annual. d. Place, as European, insular. e. Other qualities which exist only in the Itigliest degree, e.g. ex- treme, top, bottom, perfect, eternal, perpetual, everlasting. In some cases, however, these adjectives are no longer strictly used in their literal sense, and in such cases are often compared. Thus we have ' extremest,' ' more perfect,' &c. That form of the adjective which is used to show that a thing possesses the quality denoted by the adjective in the highest or lowest degree, is said to be of the Superlative De- gree (Lat. super, above; latus, carried), e.g. 'This is the largest tree/ ' Choose the least evil.' 39. Formation of the Comparative Degree. 1. By the addition of -r or -er, e.g. * a wiser man/ ' a fairer scene.' If the positive degree end in y, the y is changed into i before the termination -er, e.g. holy, holier. If it end in a consonant preceded by a short vowel, the consonant is doubled, e.g. red, redder. 2. By placing the words more or less before the posi- tive form ; e.g. more extraordinary, less distinguishable. As a rule the only adjectives that form their comparative degree witli the help of ' more ' are words of two or more syllables. Some adjectives have the comparative form, but do not take than after them. They include 1. Certain English adjectives, some of which would appear to be formed from prepositions, e.g. hinder, latter, nether, inner, utter, outer, &c. 2. Certain Latin adjectives which have been adopted in their comparative form, e.g. exterior, interior, junior, senior, major, minor. 40. Formation of the Superlative. 1 . By the addition of -st or -est to the positive degree, e.g. * the wisest man/ ' the fairest scene.' 2. By the suffix -most, e.g. ' the foremost/ ' the in- most/ ' the utmost.' This suffix is supposed to be com- pounded of two elements. In O.E. there were two superlative endings, viz. -ema and -est or -ost. The fol- lowing are specimens of the former - O.E. O.E. innema (inmost) forma (foremost) utema (outmost) oeftema (aftermost) nithema (nethermost) ufema (uppermost) hindema (hindmost) midema (midmost) 42 IRREGULAR COMPARISON. Compare the Latin superlatives exiremus, infimus, supremus, optumus (old Latin), postumus. It seems probable that the termination -st was added when the force of the old termination was lost. We find in O.E., in addition to the above, such forms as innemest, ytemest, nithemest, &c. 3. By placing the words most or least before the positive degree ; e.g. most musical, most melancholy, least worthy. Extreme and siipreme are Latin superlatives, but are often used in English as of the positive degree. 41. Irregular Comparisons 1. By change of vowel, as in old, elder, eldest. 2. By contraction, as in late, latter, last. 3. By taking one degree from one root and another from another, as good, better, best. 4. By forming the comparative and superlative from adverbs or prepositions, e.g. neath, nether, nethermost. Late, latter (later), last (latest). The duplicate forms in the comparative and superlative degree have now distinct significations. Old, elder (older), eldest (oldest). The distinctions between our use of ' older ' and ' elder,' and of ' oldest ' and ' eldest,' are very nice. Dean Alford says : ' We cannot say " Methuselah was the eldest man that ever lived;" we must say, "the oldest man that ever lived." Again, it would hardly be natural to say " his father's oldest born," if we were speaking of the firstborn. If we were to say of a father, " He was succeeded by his oldest son," we should convey the impres- sion that that son was not the eldest, but the oldest surviving after the loss of the eldest. And these examples seem to bring us to a kind of insight into the idiomatic difference. " Eldest " implies not only more years, but also priority of right [Qy. in time] ; nay, it might sometimes even be independent of actual duration of life. A firstborn who died an infant was yet the eldest son. If all mankind were assembled, Methuselah would be the oldest, but Adam would be the eldest of men.' Queen's English, p. 140. It may be added that we do not apply * elder ' and ' eldest ' to things or places. We should not say of one of two cities that it was the elder of the two. Nigh, nigher, nighest (next). Near, nearer, nearest. The positive form in O.E. was neah, so that our present positive form near is really a comparative, and nearer a double comparative. Cp. IRREGULAR COMPARISON. 43 To kirke the narre (nearer) From God the J urre (farther). Old Proverb. The superlative next is contracted from nighest, the gli having been gutturalized. So ' highest ' was contracted into hext. Cp. When bale is hext, boot is next. Old Proverb. i.e. when trouble is at its highest, then the remedy is nearest. Bathe, rather, rathest. Of these forms rathe survives only in poetry; rather has ceased to be used as an adjective, and is now used as an adverb, but still in the sense of sooner ; and rathest is obsolete ; e.g. Twin buds too rathe to bear The winter's unkind air. CoUridge. The men of ratlie and riper years. Tennyson. Hathe-iipe fruit (i.e. early fruit). Suffolk dialect. His ratliere wyf (i.e. his former wife). Robert of Gloster. Good, better (O.E. betera), best (betest). The root of better is O.E. lot, boot, remedy, compensation. Cp. O.E. bet (adv.), better ; bctan, to make better. Set is said to be still used in the sense of good in Herefordshire. Bad, Evil, 111 worse, worst. The origin of the positive form is obscure. Bad does not occur in O.E. Worse and worst are formed from O.E. wear, bad. The -se of the comparative = -re. Much, Many more, most. O.E. micel, mdra, incest. The root is mag-, great. Micel is a diminutive of much. More is now used both as an adjective and adverb. In O.E. mdra was the com- parative of the adjective, and md of the adverb. 1 Little, less, least. O.E. lytel, Icessa, la-sest, tost. The root is lite. Cp. Moche and lite (i.e. great and little). Chaucer. Little is a diminutive of lite. Less and least are from a root las, meaning infirm : they are, probably, cognate with loose, and with the suffix -less. Far, farther, farthest. O.E. feor, fyrra, fyrrest. The th in farther has been inserted from a false analogy with the adverb further, which is the comparative of forth. The old comparative of far was/yrrff, which subsequently was modified intofarre andfarrer. In the West of England people still speak of the narrer side ' and the ' farrer side.' See quotation under ' Near.' After, a comparative of af=of. Cp. tf/for-math, rt/frr-thought. First, a superlative of fore. The old superlative was forma, which appears in former and foremost. 1 Cp. ' Gyf thar mare byth, thaet byth of yfele ' (If there be more, that is of evil), Matt. v. 37. 'And hig thais the md betweox him \vundredon ' (And they wondered at this the more among themselves), Mark vi. 61. 44 EXERCISES ON ADJECTIVES. Hinder, coxnp. of hind. Cp, < the land wheels.' Inner, comp. of in. Cp. ' the Inner Temple.' Utter, comp. of out. Cp. the utter bar.' Nether, comp. of neath. Cp. beneath, nether-stocks, nether lip. Over, comp. of O.E. vfan = above. Cp. < Over Leigh.' Upper, comp. of up. PARSING OF ADJECTIVES. The first person I met said that he had seen my two youngest brothers. Word Class Inflexions Syntactical Relations first my two youngest Ord. Num. Poss. Adj. Card. Num. Qual. Adj. Super, of fore 1st per. sing. Super, deg. limiting ' person ' ' brothers ' ' brothers ' ' brothers ' Exercises. Parse the adjectives in the following passages a. O, welcome pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings. Milton. l>. Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burns brightest, old linen washes whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest. Webster. c. If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. Poj)e. d. Small service is true service while it lasts. Wordsworth. e. The more we are the merrier. /. Of two evils choose the less. g. Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies. Milton. h. More matter with less art. Slialtspcre. i. The next day they came to Bath. h. The ripest fruit first falls. Shaktp&re. 1. That was the most unkindest cut of all. Id. m. Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of f olfy, Most musical, most melancholy. Milton. n. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. Bible. o. And He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. Ib. PBONOUNS. 45 PRONOUNS. 42, Pronouns are words used instead of nouns or the equivalents of nouns. They differ from nouns in not being names ; they resemble nouns in referring to persons or things. E.g. * John told me that he would call for us before we went to see them' Pronouns enable us to avoid a tedious repetition of nouns, but they do much more than this. ' I,' for instance, not only stands for my name, but identifies me as the speaker. ' Thou ' not only stands for the name of the person addressed, but points him out. ' He ' not only stands for the name of the person spoken of, but also identifies him with some person previously referred to. When pronouns are used to define or limit nouns, they clearly cease to be pronouns. In the sentence ' John brought this book,' * this ' does not stand for the noun ' book,' and is not a pronoun, but a demonstrative adjective. Such adjectives are called sometimes adjective pronouns and sometimes pronominal adjectives, but the learner should distinctly understand that, though they are pro- nominal in origin, they are not pronominal in function, and that it is function alone which determines the part of speech to which a word belongs. As pronouns may be used instead of the equivalents of nouns, it follows that they may be used instead of 1. An adjective used as a noun, e.g. * The good are happy, but they are not always successful.' 2. A numeral, e.g. ' The first three won prizes, and they richly deserved them.' 3. A verbal noun, e.g. ' He was fond of fishing, and it agreed with his health.' 4. A gerundial infinitive, e.g. l It is pardonable to err' 5. A noun sentence, e.g. ' That two and two are four is indisputable, and no one will deny it. 1 Pronouns are divided into : 1 . Personal, 2. Demonstra- tive, 3. Possessive, 4. Emphatic, 5. Reflexive, 6. Relative, 7. Interrogative, 8. Distributive, 9. Reciprocal, 10. Quanti- tative, 11. Numeral, 12. Indefinite. Exercises. 1 . Point out the pronouns in the following passages 2. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. Shafopef*. 46 PERSONAL PRONOUNS. b. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players ; They have their exits and their entrances ; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. Slialtspere. c. I myself saw him. d. They loved each other warmly. e. Some one said that I gave each of them something. /. Which of the three did he give to the boy who hurt himself? 2. What do the pronouns in the following passages stand for ? a. For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these : 'It might have been.' Wliittier. I. That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter It is most true ; true, I have married her. Sha lispcre. c. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child. Id. d. To be or not to be : that is the question. Id. e. That he is mad, 'tis true. Id. f. He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend. Eternity mourns that. 'Tis an ill cure For life's worst ills, to have no time to feel them. Taylor. PERSONAL PRONOUNS. 43. Personal Pronouns are used to denote 1. The person speaking (the First Person) ; 2. The person spoken to (the Second Person) ; 3. The person spoken of (the Third Person). There is one important difference between pronouns of the first and second person and pronouns of the third : the former have no inflexion for gender, there being no necessity to indicate the sex of the person speaking and the person spoken to ; the latter, however, are inflected for gender, and, in this respect, resemble the demonstratives. Some gram- marians classify personal pronouns of the third person with the demonstratives. 44. INFLEXION OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS. Case First Person Second Person Third Person Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur. Nom. Poss. Obj. My Mo We Our Us Thou Thy Thee Ye or you Your You He She It His Her Its Him Her It Thov Their Them PERSONAL PRONOUNS. 47 I originally ended in c or ch, of which traces long survived in provincial English. Comp. "C%'ill pick your teeth, Zir.' [A speech put into the mouth of Edgar, who has assumed the character of a Somersetshire peasant, in 'King Lear.'] ' 'Ch was bore at Taunton Dean ; where should I be bore else ? ' (Somersetshire proverb.) Cp. Lat. ego, Ger. ich. My (O.E. rniti), thy (O.E. thin), our (O.E. 'Are'), and your (O.E. eorver) are not now used as personal pronouns but as demonstrative adjectives, i.e. they cannot stand by themselves, but require to be fol- lowed by the noun which they limit. They were, however, originally used as personal pronouns. They should be carefully distinguished from the corresponding possessive pronouns, mine, thine, ours, yours, which not only can be used without a following noun, but can them- selves be used in the Nominative or Objective case, e.g. * Mine is thine ; ' ' You take mine, and I will take yours? Before a vowel and the aspirate the older forms mine and thine are still used in poetry in preference to my and thy. Comp. an and a ; none and no. The learner should be careful to observe that mine is not formed from my, but my from mine. Me (O.E. me) is used both as a Direct Object, e.g. 'He struck rncS and as an Indirect Object, e.g. 'He gave me the book.' It is as an Indirect Object that it is used with the impersonal verbs, e.g. Methinks [i.e. it seems to me, from O.E. thincan, to seem,' not from thcncan, to think], and after certain interjections, eg. ' Woe is me.' We (O.E. wc\ Comp. Ger. n-ir. Us (O.E. us). Used both as a Direct and Indirect Object, e.g. ' He trusted us ' (Dir.) ; ' He gave us some food ' (Ind.). Thou (O.E. thiT). This pronoun is now rarely used except in poetical and elevated language. Its old use will be best illustrated by the following passage from Fuller : ' We maintain that thoit from superiors to inferiors is proper as a sign of command ; from equals to equals is passable as a note of familiarity ; but from inferiors to superiors, if proceeding from ignorance, hath a smack of clownish- ness ; if from affectation, a tone of contempt.' Comp. If thou tlwtist ' him some thrice, it shall not be amiss. Shaksjtere. All that Lord Cobham did was at thy instigation, thou viper I for I thou thee, thou traitor. (Lord Cohe, addressing Raleigh.) Prithee don't thee and thou me ; I believe I am as good a man as yourself .Miller of Mansfield. Vou began to be substituted for thou in the 13th century. Thee (O.E. the) is used both as a Direct and Indirect Object, e.g. ' I love tlti'c ;' ' I gavn Ilicc my word.' Ye (O.K. i/c. probably pronounced i/e comp. y-clopt, i.e. ge-clopt, called) was exclusively used formerly a,s the Nominative Case, but 1 Coinp. the use of the French verb tutoyer, i.e. to use tit and toi in speaking to a person. 48 PERSONAL PRONOUNS. is now so used only in elevated language, having been superseded by the objective form you, e.g. ' I know you not whence ye are ' (J5z'JZ 3rd per., sing., nom. 1st per., sing., nom. 2nd per., plu., obj. 1st per., plu., obj. subj. to 'saw' gov. by ' saw ' gov. by ' at ' Exercises. 1. Parse the personal pronouns in the following passages a. O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers. Shakspcre. 5. O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil. Id. EMPHATIC PRONOUNS. c. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. Bible. d. They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. 75. s. In their death they were not divided. Ib. f. His nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. ff. That my hand may be restored me again. Bible. h. Lend not unto him that is mightier than thyself ; for if thou lend him, count it but lost. Ib. 1. I told him to give it you. 2. Give examples in which 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' 'them,' and 'you' are used: a. As Direct Objects ; b. As Indirect Objects. EMPHATIC PRONOUNS. 46. The Emphatic Pronouns are compounded of some part of the personal pronouns and the word self (O.E. silf ), e.g. myself, thyself, himself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. They are generally used in apposition, but may be used independently, e.g. ' He himself promised to do it ;' ' We our- selves are to blame.' Himself hasted to go out. Bible. We should expect, following the analogy of myself, thy- self, &c., that in the third person we should find his-self and their-selves ; but himself and themselves are used both as Nominatives and Objectives. 47. The Emphatic Pronouns are similar in form to the Compound Reflexive Pronouns ; they should not, however, be confounded with them. Compare the use of se (Reflexive) and ipse (Emphatic) in Latin. The Possessive Case of the Emphatic Pronouns is formed with the help of own (past part, of owe), e.g. my own, thy own, &c. Self was originally an adjective, meaning same, its plural being sijlfe. In process of time it came to be used substantively, and then formed its plural in -res. Shakspere used it as a noun, e.g. 'my single self.' Cp. ' one's self,' ' a man's self.' It is thought by some that my, thy, &c., in the compounds my- self, thyself, &c., are corruptions of the datives me imdthce. Certain it is that in O.E. we find such combinations as ic me silf I myself, thi't the s?Z/ = thou thyself, &c. The Irish, who have retained many archaic forms that were taken over to their country by Strongbow and his successors, invariably say is-self . Comp. moi-meme, toi- meme, &c., in French. POSSESSIVE PEONOUNS. 51 REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS. 48. Reflexive Pronouns are used, with certain verbs, to show that the action denoted by the verb is, as it were, reflected or bent back upon the agent, e.g. 'He washed himself.' They are either simple, as me, thee, him, &c. : I gat me to my Lord right humbly. Bible. I'll lay me down and dee. Scotch Ballad. He sat him down at a pillar's base. Byron. or compound, as myself, thyself, &c., e.g. You wronged yourself to write in such a case. Shakspere. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Bibk. RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS. 49. Reciprocal Pronouns denote a mutual relationship or reciprocity of action, e.g. ' They are related to each oilier] 4 They love each oilier] ' Little children, love one another.' Each other is used with regard to two things ; One another with regard to more than two : e.g. John and James love each other. We should all love one another. If these compound forms be decomposed, it will be found that each and one are in apposition with the subject, and that other and another are objectives. Thus the foregoing examples mean respectively, John and James love, each [loving] the other. We should all love, one [loving] another. Prepositions are used before the compound form, but govern only the second element in it, viz. other and another : e.g. ' They ran after one another ' = f they ran one after another.' POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS. 50. Possessive Pronouns differ from possessive cases ! of the personal pronouns in form and construction. The latter can only be used with some following noun ; the possessive pronouns can be used alone and have cases of their own. 1 These cases are clearly adjectival, being never used alone. We cannot say ' This is my ' or ' This is thy. 1 E 2 52 DEMONSTEATIVE PKONOUNS. Compare ' my hat,' ' your horse/ with * this is mine, that is yours' The Possessive Pronouns are mine, thine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs. It should be observed that the possessive pronouns discharge a double function : they stand for the name of the possessor and of the thing possessed. Hence they have a twofold ' person.' So far as they stand for persons, they are of the same grammatical person as the pronouns from which they are formed. So far as they stand for things, they are invariably of the third person. In the sentence ' mine is good,' mine is etymologically of the first person, syntactically, as is clear from the verb, of the third. Ours, yours, theirs, and hers are double possessives, the r being part of the old plural possessive suffix, and the s being part of the singular possessive suffix. They are not found in O.E. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS. 51. Demonstratives are used to point out the things to which they refer. When used with a noun following, they should be called Demonstrative Adjectives, e.g. < This book belongs to that shelf; ' when used independently, they should be called Demonstrative Pronouns, e.g. ( This is mine : that is yours.' The demonstrative pronouns are this, that, such, same, the before comparatives in such constructions as ' the taller the better,' yon, yonder. This (O.E. mas. thes, fern, theos, neu. this) and its plural these (O.E. tfids) refer to objects near the speaker, or to the latter of two things mentioned, e.g. ' This tree (one near the speaker) is larger than that? Some place their bliss in action, some in ease ; Those call it pleasure, and contentment these. Pope, Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul ; Reason's comparing balance rules the whole ; Man, but for that, no action could attend ; And, but for this, were active to no end. Id. That (O.E. thcet) and its plural those (O.E. thds) refer to objects at some distance from the speaker, or to the former of two things mentioned. See the quotations under ' This.' Hence this and these may be called the Proximate Demon- stratives ; that and those the Remote Demonstratives. Such (O.E. swilc) is a compound ofswd=so and Kc=like. DEMONSTRATIVE PBONOUNS. 53 Comp. thilk=ihQ like. It may be called the Demonstrative of Comparison, e.g. Such as go down to the sea. Bible. Let me have men about me that are fat ; Sleek-headed men and snch as sleep o' nights. Shafoyere. Such were the notes thy once loved poet sung. Pope When followed by a noun, such is a demonstrative ad- jective. Before a singular noun it is often followed by a : e.g. In such a night as this. ShaJtspcre. The ordinary correlative of the demonstrative adjective ' such/ is ' as,' but occasionally ' such ' is employed, e.g. Siich mistress, su-ch Nan, Such master, such man. Tusser. Same (M.E. same) is usually preceded by one of the de- monstratives, the, this, that, self, and followed by its corre- lative as. It may be used pronominally or adjectively, e.g. He is the same as he ever was (Pro.). That game day in the following year, and on the sett-same hour, the mysterious stranger appeared again (Adj.). Self was formerly used as a demonstrative adjective, e.g. Shoot another arrow that self way. SJiakspere. At that self moment enters Palamon. Dry den. Same and selfm&y be called Demonstratives of Identity. The before comparatives is the O.E. thy, the ablative of the so-called definite article, and = by that, e.g. ' The more the merrier,' i.e. * By that more, by that merrier.' 1 fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear, And weep the more because I weep in vain. Gray. Yon, yond, yonder (O.E. geond, adv., comp. beyond) are used as pronouns in provincial, but not in standard English. Yon flowery arbours, yonder valleys green. Milton. Comp. Ger. jener=fh&t. The d is probably no part of the original word, but has been added to strengthen the word. Comp. spend, lend, sound, Word Class Inflexions Syntactical Relations ourselves each "\ other/ each other themselves Pron., emph. Pron.,recipr. Pron.,distrib. 5J Pron., reflex. 1st, plu., nom. 3rd, sing., obj. 3rd, sing., obj. 3rd, plu., obj. in apposition with ' we ' in appos. with * them ' gov. by 'to' gov. by 'pluming' these mine yours Pron., dem., prox. Pron., poss. > 3rd, plu., nom. 1st, 1 sing., nom. 2nd, 1 plu., obj. subj. to 'are' after verb ' to be ' gov. by ' with ' Exercises. 1. Parse the pronouns belonging to the foregoing classes in the following passages a. This can unlock the gates of Joy, Of Horror that and thrilling fears. Gray, b. Yonder is a book of mine. c. Theirs but to do and die. Tennyson. d. Virtue is its own reward. e. I do repent me. /. Mark ye how close she veils her round. Keble. g. Little children, love one another. Bible. h. And Elisha said, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. Ib. 1. Why should that name be sounded more than yours ? Shaltspere. 2. Distinguish between the possessive case of the personal pronouns and possessive pronouns, and illustrate your answer by examples. 3. Distinguish between Emphatic, Keflexive, and Reciprocal Pronouns. 1 See 50, p. 52. Syntactically considered, these Pronouns are of the 3rd person. RELATIVE PRONOUNS. 55 RELATIVE PRONOUNS. 53. Relative Pronouns stand for some noun, or noun- equivalent, previously expressed, and, at the same time, con- nect adjective clauses with principal sentences. (Seep. 142.) The boy that threw the stone is here. Here that stands for the noun boy, and at the same time connects the adjective clause * that threw the stone ' with the principal sentence ' the boy is here.' The noun, or noun-equivalent, for which the relative stands, is called the Antecedent. The antecedent may be 1. A noun, e.g. * This man, who was once rich, is now poor.' 2. A pronoun, e.g. ' /, who speak to you, am he.' 3. A gerundial infinitive, e.g. ' To err, which is a weakness incidental to humanity, is pardonable.' 4. A noun clause, e.g. ' That he should in every case be consulted, which is what he demands, is unreasonable.' The names relative and antecedent are not happily chosen ; for all pronouns relate to some noun or noun equivalent, and the so- called antecedent sometimes follows the relative, e.g. To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Bible. A preferable name to antecedent would be correlative. The antecedent is frequently omitted, e.g. How shall I curse A whom God hath not cursed ? Bible. Who steals my purse A steals trash. SJuikspere. The relative is also frequently omitted, e.g. The man A I saw was tall. There is a willow A grows askant the brook. Sttatopere. Men must reap the things A they sow. Shelley. Let all the ends A thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's, and txrib'^ 54. The Relative Pronouns are that, who, which, what, whoso, whoever, whatever, whichever, ivhosoever, whichsoever, ivhatsoever, as, but-. That (O.E. thai) was originally the neuter singular demonstra- tive, but is now used without regard to gender or number, e.g. * The 56 RELATIVE PRONOUNS. boy tliat did it is here,' ' The little girl that was lost is found,' ' The flowers that were gathered are on the table.' That differs from mho and which in two respects 1. It cannot be used as a relative after a preposition. 2. It is exclusively used when the adjective clause that it introduces is logically part of the subject or object on which it depends, e.g. ' The house that I built is for sale.' We could not say 'The house, which I built,' without ambiguity, for the adjective clause introduced by 'which' does not limit the subject, but is, as it were, thrown in parenthetically. This nice distinction is ofien disregarded even by good writers. ' That ' may be called the defining relative. (See Bain's English Grammar, p. 23.) Dr. Abbott says : ' Who introduces a new fact about the Antecedent : that completes the Antecedent. This is the general rule, subject to a few exceptions arising from the desire of euphony.' (How to Parse, p. 307.) That is often used in our old writers without an antecedent, e.g. ' Take that thine is, and go thy way.' (Bible.) ' We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen.' (/#.) ' That ' and ' what,' when used without correlatives, are sometimes called Compound Relatives, and parsed as equivalent to ' that which.' It is one thing, however, to treat them as equivalent to ' that which,' and another to parse ' that which ' instead of them. If the corre- lative be not supplied, the double function of the compound relative should be pointed out. The Compound Relative may be equivalent 1. Two Nominatives : This is what he was. 2. Two Objectives : I have what I want. 3. Nom. and Obj. : This is what I want. 4. Obj. and Nom. : I know what he is. Who (O.E. hwa) was originally an Interrogative Pronoun, and was not used as a relative before the 16th century. Ben Jonson (1574-1637) recognises only one relative, 'which.' 'Whose' and 1 ' whom ' came into use as relatives much earlier. E.g. ' I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds ; which in time past was to thee unprofitable.' (Bible, 1611.) 'Who,' however, is of common occurrence as a relative in the Bible, e.g. ' God, who at sundry times,' c.; 'and deliver them, who through fear,' &c. ' Who ' is declined as follows Sing, and Plu. Nom. Who Pass. Whose Obj. Whom Whose (O.E. hwcBs) is used of all genders, but there is a notice- able tendency to substitute ' of which ' for it, when we speak of inanimate objects. Whom (O.E. hwdm) was originally a dative. It is now used both as a Direct and Indirect Objective, e.g. ' This is the man whom I saw, 1 EELATIVE PEONOUNS. 57 ' This is the man to whom I gave it.' 'Whose ' and ' whom,' like ' who,' were originally interrogatives. The old accusative was hrvone. Compare the substitution of him for hinc. (See 44.) Which (O.E. hwilc) is compounded of hwd = who and lie = like. Comp. such from swa-lic, thilk (provincial) from the-lic. Which was originally an interrogative and used of any gender and both numbers. It is now restricted to the neuter gender. Which is sometimes preceded by the, e.g. 'Twas a foolish quest, The which to gain and keep he sacrificed the rest. Comp. Fr. le-quel, la-quelle, &c. It is declined as follows Sing, and Plu. Norn. Which Pass. Whose Obj. Which Which is sometimes used adjectively, e.g. Which thing I hate. Bible. What (O.E. hrvart) is the neuter of mho (O.E. hwa), and was ori- ginally an interrogative. In modern English it is never preceded by a correlative, but is sometimes followed by one, e.g. This is A what it was. I have A what I want. What he hath won, that hath he fortified. Shakspcre. What thou wouldst highly, that wouldst thou holily. Id. 1 What ' should be treated as a simple relative, whenever its correla- tive is expressed. ThQ combination ' that what ' sounds harsh to modern ears, but it is common enough in our early writers. See remarks on That. That what we have we prize not to the worth. Shaltspere. What' is sometimes used adjectively, e.g. Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox In bis loose traces from the furrow came. Milton. ' What' is here equivalent to 'at that (time) at which! It is also used adjectively in exclamatory sentences with the force of how great, e.g. 0, what a fall was there ! Shahspere. O, what a falling off was there I Id. What a piece of work is a man ! Id. What . . what is sometimes used adverbially in the sense of partly, e.g. What with one thing and what with another I am nearly driven wild. Ben Jonson calls it, in this construction, an ' adverb of partition.' 58 INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS. What is declined as follows Sing, and Plu. Norn. What Pass. Whose Obj. What Whosoever follows the inflexion of who; poss. whose-soever, obj. whomsoever. Whoso, whoever, whatever, whichever, whosoever, which- soever, whatsoever, are generally used without any expressed corre- lative, e.g. Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, [he] shall be guilty, &c. Bible. These compounds may be called Indefinite Eelatives. As (O.E. alswd = s\l so) is used as a relative after such, same (cp. Lat. idem, qui), so much, as many, as much, that, &c. Such as sleep o' nights. Shahspere. Tears- such as angels weep. Milton. Art thou af eard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire 1 Sliahspere. That gentleness as I was wont to have. Id. These hard conditions as this time Is like to lay upon us. Id. I have as much as I want. You can have as many as you like. With this construction compare also the use of the correlative pronouns, tantus, quantus ; talis, qualis ; tot, quot, in Latin. But is frequently used after negative prepositions with the force of a relative and an adverb of negation, e.g. There breathes not clansman of thy line J3ut would have given his life for thine. Scott. i.e. who would not have given, &c. Cp. Lat. quin = qui non. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS. 55. Interrogative Pronouns are used in asking questions, e.g. who, which, ivhat, ivhether, whoever, whichever, whatever. Of these which and what may be used adjectively, e.g. * Which book do you want 1 ' ' What voice was that 1 ' Whether (O.E. hwd, and suffix -thcr' 1 ) means which of the two, e.g. Wliether of them twain did the will of his father 1 Bible. 1 The suffix -ther appears in various forms in most of the Indo- Germanic languages. It carries with it the idea of duality, or of INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. 59 DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS. 56. The Distributive Pronouns are each, every, either, neither. Each (O.E. alc = d, ever, or call, all, and lie, like). Every (O.E. cver-celc = ever-each) is used pronominally in early English, e.g. Every of your wishes ' (Skaktpere), but is now used only as an adjective. ' Each ' and ' every ' are both singular, but * each ' refers to individuals considered separately, ' every ' to indi- viduals considered collectively. Either (O.E. tsg-hwd = whoever + the dual suffix -ther} means literally whoever of tlie two, e.g. ' Which of the two will you have 1 Either: Either is sometimes incorrectly used in the sense of both, e.g. on either side.' Neither (O.E. ndther) is the negative form of either. It is pro- perly used as a singular, e.g. ' Neither of the two was satisfactory,' but is sometimes used as a plural, e.g. ' Neither are correct.' The justi- fication of the latter use is to be found in the fact that by excluding each of two things we exclude both. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. 57. Indefinite Pronouns are so called because they do not indicate specifically the individuals to which they refer. They are any, certain, divers, whit, aught, naught, other, somebody, one, any one, anything, anybody, something, some one, somewhat, nothing, no one, nobody. Any (O.E. cenig) is formed from an = one. Cp. ullus from iinus. Any may refer either to number or to quantity, e.g. Have you any of the apples ? Have you any of the flour ? When followed by a noun any is used adjectively. Certain, e.g. There came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said. Mark v. 35. Divers (Lat. dirersus, different ; O.F. divers) But when divers were hardened. Acts xix. 9. Whit (O.E. iviht t a creature, a thing) occurs most frequently with 'a ' before it, e.g. 'not a whit,' but it is also used without ' a,' e.g. Our youth and wildness shall no whit appear. ShaJispcre. one thing considered in relation to another, e.g. other, father, mother, brother, sister, either, neither. Lat. ut er = whether ; alter = the other of two ; neuter = neither, &c. 60 INDEFINITE PKONOUNS. Aught (O.E. dkt = a whit, anything). Naught (O.E. n-dht = no whit, nothing). Bearing in mind the derivation, the spelling augM and naught seems preferable to ought and nought. Other (O.E. other = one of two). The o probably represents one, -ther is the dual suffix. (See footnote, 55.) Some (O.E. sum = certain) is used either of number or quantity. With numerals some has the force of about, e.g. ' some four or rive,' and should be parsed as an adverb. One is said to be a corruption of the French on, which is itself a corruption of the Latin Iwmo. But we find man = man * used in the same sense in Eobert of Gloster, and man is used in the same sense in German. Cp. Ici on parle fran^ais. Hier spricht man Deutsch. One can do what one likes with one's own. In spite of the analogy of French and German, it is difficult to believe that one is a corruption of mon or on. It seems more pro- bable that the indefinite pronoun grew out of the numeral one. One is also used indefinitely in other combinations, and some- times even qualified by an adjective, e.g. What, all my little ones 1Sliakspere. The great ones eat up the little ones. Id. I am not one to beg and pray. None (O.E. ndn = ne dn = not one). The adjective form is no, e.g. Have you no bread ? I have none. High stations tumult, but not bliss, create : None think the great unhappy but the great. Body is sometimes used pronominally, e.g. Gin a bodie meet a bodie. The foolish body hath said, &c. Something and Somewhat are also used adverbially, e.g. He is somewhat clever. He is something better. It will be observed that these compound indefinite pronouns are all formed in the same way Any, any-one, any-body, any-thing, any- whit. Some, some-one, some-body, some-thing, some-what. No, no-one, no-body, no-thing, no-whit. Of these, somewhat is, perhaps, a corruption of somewhit. 1 Man is apparently used in the same indefinite way in Zech. xiii. 5 : For man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.' So again in Mark viii. 4 : ' From whence can a man satisfy these men, * &c,, where the Greek is Sw-fja-frai ns, EXERCISES. 61 PARSING OF RELATIVE, INTERROGATIVE, DIS- TRIBUTIVE, AND INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. 58. ' Who are those whom I see, each holding a flower in her hand ? Some are old and others young. Tell me ivhat they seek.' Word Class Inflexions Syntactical Relations who Pro., interr. 3rd, plu., nom. subj. to 'are ' whom Pro., rel. obj. gov. by ' see ' each Pro., distrib. 3rd, sing., obj. in appos. with ' whom ' some Pro., indef. 3rd, plu., nom. subj. to 'are' others what Pro., rel. 3rd, sing., obj. gov. by ' seek ' Exercises. 1. Parse the pronouns belonging to the foregoing classes in the following passages a. If any one say anything to you. Bible. b. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Ib. c. There is no one but knows how noble he is, d. Whoever is first shall get the prize. e. He is the same as ever he was. f. I will take such as you have. ff. What man dare I dare. Shakspere* h. What's in a name ? Id. i. What is one man's poison is another man's meat. 1;. One that feared God. Bible. I. Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. Gray. in. A woman's nay doth stand for naught. ShaJi2>erc. n. Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea- change Into something rich and strange. Id. o. Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice. /. The ages roll Forward ; and forward with them, draw my soul Into time's infinite sea, 72 PARTICIPLES. And to be glad or sad I care no more : But to have done, and to have been, before I cease to do and be. Lord Lytton. q. If such there be, where'er Beneath the sun he fare [i.e. go] He cannot fare amiss. Id. r. It were all one That I should love a bright particular star And hope to wed it. Sliakspere. s. If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work. Id. t. I do not give you to posterity as a pattern to imitate, but an example to deter. Junius. u. [He had not] the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute. Id. 7. In what respects does the simple infinitive differ from the gerundial infinitive ? PAETICIPLES AND VERBAL NOUNS. 69. A participle (Lat. participo, I take part) is a word which partakes of the nature of a verb and of an adjective, e.g. a living creature, a defeated general. There are only two simple participles in English, the Imperfect Active and the Perfect Passive. The former ends in -ing (O.E. -ende),e.g.'the rolling waves/ 'the heaving tide.' The latter generally ends in -en or -ed, e.g. ' a spoken word,' ' a slighted suitor,' and sometimes is identical in form with the Infinitive, e.g. ' a cut rose,' ' a plant put in the ground.' In O.E. many participles had a distinctive prefix, viz. g% which survives in a disguised form in yclept ( = ge-clept, from clepian, to call). With the help of the verbs ' have ' and ' be ' we may, in the case of transitive verbs, have six participial forms. Active Passive Imperfect Writing Being written Perfect . Having written Written Having been wrtten Perfect Progressive Having been writing PARTICIPLES, 73 70. Simple participles can be used either attributively or predicatively, e.g. * A rolling stone/ ' A river gleaming in the sun,' ' A defeated general/ ' Defeated again and again, he at last beat a retreat.' The compound participles are used only predicatively, e.g. Having lived, in the East, he was familiar with oriental customs. Having been writing all the morning, he was fatigued. His money being exhausted, he returned home. The tree, having been felled, was cut up and carted away. Many adjectives are compounded of participles and pre- fixes, e.g. unforgiven, unpremeditated, ill-shaped, well-born, misbegotten. These should not be treated as participles, there being no such verbs as unforgive, unpremeditate, &c. In O.E. the perfect participle of a transitive verb was inflected, and agreed with the noun which it governed, e.g. He hsef th man gcweorhtne ' (he hath man created). Here ' geweorhtne ' is the Accu- sative Case of ' geweorht.' It will readily be understood how such an expression as ' I have my hands washed ' might be changed into ' I have washed my hands.' 71. The student should carefully distinguish between the imperfect participle, which always qualifies a noun, either attributively or predicatively, and the Verbal Noun, which also ends in modern English in -ing (O.E. -ung). Comp. 'A running sore' (Part.) with 'In running along' (Verbal Noun). The Verbal Noun denotes action or state. It may be used as the Subject or Object of a sentence, and may itself govern an objective case, e.g. Seeing is believing. He loves hunting the hare. He was fond of hunting. In hunting the deer he was injured. In such expressions as 'a hunting whip,' 'a fishing rod,' the verbal noun forms part of a compound noun, the parts of which ought properly to be joined by a hyphen. ' A glittering stream ' means a stream that glitters ; but 'a hunting whip ' does not mean a whip that hunts ; it means a whip/or hunting. In Shakspere and the Bible we find such forms as ' a dying/ 'a preparing,' 'a brewing.' The a in these expressions is a corrup- tion of on or in, and governs the verbal noun which follows. In modern English this preposition has been dropped. Johnson wrote * My " Laves " are reprinting,' i.e. are in reprinting. In still more modern phrase we say are being reprinted,' 74 EXERCISES ON PAETICIPLES. Exercises. 1. What is a participle ? 2. Distinguish between simple and compound participles. 3. Classify the participles of (&) A transitive verb. (J) An intransitive verb. 4. Classify the participles and verbal nouns in the following a. Forty and six years was this temple in building. Bible. T). All friendship is feigning ; All loving is mere folly. Shakspere. c. The rolling stone gathers no moss. d. Gothic architecture is frozen music. e. ' Finis,' an error or a lie, my friend ; Of writing foolish books there is no end. /. I go a fishing. Bible. g. It is the bright day brings forth the adder And that craves wary walking. Slialtspere. Ji. Doubtless the pleasure is as great Of being cheated as to cheat. Sutler. i. I see men as trees walking. Bible. k. I saw her threading beads. I. Call you that backing of your friends ? A plague upon such backing ! SliaUspere. ) that thou give me,' &c. Mark iv. 25. The auxiliary ' will ' is used to express determination in the first person, but mere futurity in the second and third. These distinctions will be re- membered by means of the following doggrel rhymes : In the first person simply shall foretells, In mill a threat or else a promise dwells ; Shall in the second and the third does threat, Will simply then foretells the future feat. It follows that we cannot use either ' shall ' or ' will ' to form the future tense in all three persons. The proper future tense runs as follows : I shall write Thou wilt write He will write. 1 We occasionally, however, find the compound future as in modern English, e.g. 'Genyton on hwylcere tide eower Hlaford cuman rvyle ' [Ye know not at what hour your Lord will come] Matt. xxiv. 42 ; ' The mannes Sunu wyle cuman ' [The Son of man will come] Matt. xxiv. 44. 78 NUMBER. In interrogation, however, we use ' shall ' in the second person, for ' will ' would then appeal too strongly to the determination of the person addressed. Comp. Sludl you go ? Will you go after what I have said ? There is another peculiarity connected with the use of ' shall ' which ought to be noticed. Shall is used to express absolute certainty on the part of the speaker. Hence it is used in the predictions of Holy Writ, and in the state- ment of the necessary truths of geometry, e.g. Heaven and earth shall pass away. Bible. The two sides sluill be equal The Future Perfect Tense denotes an action or state which will be completed before some other future action or state, e.g. We shall have departed before you will arrive. In colloquial English we often use the Future Imperfect for the Future Perfect, as we use the Present Imperfect for the Future Imperfect : We shall go before you arrive = We shall have gone before you will arrive. NUMBER. 74. The Number of a Verb is that form which it assumes to indicate whether its Subject is singular or plural, e.g. ' I am,' ' we are ; ' ' thou art,' ' ye are ; ' ' he is,' ' they are ; ' 'I was,' 'we were,' &c. Many of our distinctive plural forms are now lost. Thus we say, ' I write,' ' we write,' * I wrote,' 'we wrote,' making no difference in form between the singular and plural. It is customary for sovereigns, editors, and preachers to use the plural of the first person when speaking of them- selves in their respective official capacities, e.g. Rich. We are amazed ; and thus long have we stood To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, Because we thought ourself thy lawful king And if tve be, how dare thy joints forget To pay their awful duty to our presence ? Shahspere, Eich. II., iii. 3. Given under our hand and seal. PERSON. 79 PERSON. 75. The Person of a verb is that form which it assumes to indicate whether its subject is the person speaking (the first person), or the person spoken to (the second person), or the person or thing spoken of (the third person), e.g. I am (1st pers.) ; thou art (2nd pers.) ; he is (3rd pers.). The person-endings of verbs were originally pronouns which, in- stead of being placed before the verb, as our present subject pro- nouns are, were placed after it. The ending of the first person singular was originally -m,ot which the only trace surviving in English is found in a-m. Cp. Lat. SUM, (I am), amewfc (I may love), Greek eimi (I am). This m was undoubtedly connected with the m in our existing pronouns of the first person, me, my, mine. The ending of the second person singular is now -st, but was originally -t, e.g., thou hast, thou writest, thou lovedst, &c. This termination, which has been lost altogether by the subjunctive, is probably a degraded form of a pronoun of the second person. Cp. the th in thou, the t in the Latin pronoun tu, and the s in the Greek pronoun su. Traces of the original ending are to be found in art, wilt, and shalt. The ending of the third person singular is -th, of which -s is a softened form, e.g., ' He piayeth best who love^Abest,' 'He loves me.' It represents a pronoun of the third person. Compare the th in t/iat and t his. In O.E. the indicative present plural ended in -th in all three persons ; the plurals of the past indicative and the subjunctive tenses ended in -on. In M.E. the termination -en was used in the plural of all the tenses, e.g. But whanne the bischopis and mynystris haddew seen hym thei criedtftt and seidew, Crucifie, crucifie hym. John xix. 6, Wicli/'s Version. Ye Vfitcn not whanne the tyme is. Mark xiii. 33. Ben Jonson says : ' The persons plural keep the terminations of the first person singular. In former times, till about the reign of Henry VIII., they were wont to be formed by adding -en : thus, loven, sayen, complainen. But now (whatsoever is the cause) it hath quite grown out of use, and that other so generally prevailed, that I dare not to pre- sume to set this afoot again : albeit (to tell you my opinion) I am persuaded that the lack hereof, well considered, will be found a blemish to our tongue. For considering time and. person be, as it were, the right and left hand of a verb, what can the maiming bring else, but a laming to the whole body?' 80 CONJUGATION. Exercises. 1. What is meant by the Perfect Tenses? 2. Classify the tenses, 3. Show that this classification is applicable to the progressive or continuous forms of the verb. 4. Name the tenses of the verbs in the following passages : ft. There rolls the deep where grew the tree. Earth, what changes hast thou seen I Tennyson. I. lie was speaking as I entered. c. Shall you go to see him ? d. The gale had sighed itself to rest. c. I will listen to your song. /. Will you permit me to go 1 ff. Shall you go yourself ? h. He had learnt his lesson before he went to school. i. He leaves school next Christmas. /,-. We had been strolling on the moor when we met him. I. He was come now to the gate. M. 1C thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Bible. n. Men are wo, and must grieve when even the shade Of that which once was great is. passed away. o. We shall have been waiting there an hour before the coach comes in. p. Ye shall see my face no more.