Bi GRAMMAR AND ITS REASONS GRAMMAR AND ITS REASONS FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS OF THE ENGLISH TONGUE By MARY HALL LEONARD i FORMERLY TEACHER OF ENGLISH IN THE BRIDGE- WATER (MASS.) NORMAL SCHOOL AND IN THE WIN- THROP NORMAL COLLEGE OF SOUTH CAROLINA NEW YORK A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 1909 Copyright, 1907. by A. S. BARNES & COMPANY All rights reserved CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Present-Day English Grammar . . 1 II. Historic Growth of Grammar ... 5 III. Grammar in America and Reactions Against Formal Grammar . .13 IV. Grammar and Logic . . . .20 V. Universal and Particular Grammar . 25 VI. Object and Method of Grammar . . 28 VII. The Sentence Unit .... 32 VIII. Parts of Speech 37 IX. The Verbal Element of the Sentence . 43 X. Verb Complements . . . .48 XI. The Objective Constructions . . .52 XII. Subject and Predicate Nouns . . 58 XIII. Inflections 62 XIV. Government and Agreement . . .66 XV. Person 70 XVI. Number 73 XVII. Gender 78 XVIII. Case 85 XIX. The Possessive Case . . . .90 XX. Comparison . . . . .97 XXI. Voice 101 XXII. Mood 107 v 239422 CHAPTER PAGE XXIII. Tense 112 XXIV. Nouns and Noun Relations . . .118 XXV. Adjectives 122 XXVI. The Articles 126 XXVII. The Personal Pronouns . . 130 XXVIII. The Adjective Pronouns . . .138 XXIX. The Numerals ... .143 XXX. The Interrogatives . . .146 XXXL The Relatives 148 XXXII. Verbs and their Principal Parts . . 154 XXXIII. The Two Conjugations of English Verbs . 158 XXXIV. Auxiliary Verbs 164 XXXV. Verb Phrases 167 XXXVI. The Modal Auxiliaries . . .171 XXXVII. Shall and Will, Should and Would . . 176 XXXVIII. The Subjunctive Mood . . 192 XXXIX. Participles . . .199 XL. Infinitives 20:* XLI. Verbal Forms in ing . 20S XLIL Adverbs 213 XLIIL Prepositions . . . .219 XLIV. Conjunctions 224 XLV. Interjections ... . 2'JD XLVL Sentences and Clauses . . . 2:^5 XLVIL Phrases 2,39 XLVIIL Abridged Clauses . . . .211 XLIX. Word Order 216 L. Good Usage 2r,i LI. Idioms 25$ LII. Impersonal Verbs and Sentences . . 2r>2 LIIL Had rather, Had better, Had as lief . 267 vi CHAPTER PAGE LIV. Case Shifting of Pronouns , . ' . 272 LV. Words of Peculiar or Varied Uses . . 280 LVI.-r-Intermediate Grammatical Constructions 286 LVIL The " Split Infinitive' 1 . . .292 LVIII. Disputed Points in Grammar . . .296 LIX. Changes in the Grammar of English . 301 LX. Grammatical Characteristics of English . 314 PART SECOND I. Relation of Grammar to Other Kinds of Language Study .... 321 II. Relations of the Study of English Gram- mar to the Study of Foreign Grammars . 325 III. Place of Grammar in the School Course . 329 IV. Definitions in Grammar . . . 333 V. Analysis and Parsing .... 337 VI. Sentence Diagrams and Other Devices . 343 VII. Some Words to Teachers . . .347 VIII. Some Words to Writers . . .351 Bibliography 363 vii The lady Gramer in all humbly wyse Dyd me receyve into her goodly schoole. From Stephen Hawes's Allegory (Time of Henry VII) 5th chapter. "How Science sent him first to Cramer/ 5 FOREWORD A wise abstinence as well as a wise selection is essential to success. W. D. WHITNEY. This is not a text-book of English grammar in the ordinary sense. It has no set lessons or exercises to be given to a class of learners, nor does it attempt fully to cover the ground of grammatical science. Such omissions as those of the rules for irregular plurals, the principal parts of strong verbs, the declen- sions of the personal pronouns, and similar grammatical details have been freely made. All of these are easily accessible in the common school text-books of grammar and their introduction would add nothing to a student's resources. This is a series of essays, dealing with the more important parts of English grammar, and also to some extent with the development of grammar itself as a science, and with the grammatical changes that have taken place in English since the invention of printing and the growth of modern literature gave a degree of fixity to language forms. It is a free discussion of the present day status of English grammar and of the relations of this science to other forms of language study. The "ins and outs" of grammar, those related ideas that in most modern text-books are made the subject of fine-print footnotes, are here a fundamental part of xi xii Foreword the text itself. The aim has been in a condensed and readable form to throw light from various sources upon the difficult parts of this very technical and somewhat unpopular subject, and also to show some of the reasons why English grammar has been cast in the mould in which we find it. Some comparisons of the grammar of English with that of other languages are also included, with the emphasis, however, laid always upon the English side. There has been no effort to adapt the book to the needs of very elementary students. For this reason illustrations have been somewhat sparingly used, but it is thought that enough are included to make these discussions easily intelligible to those for whom they are chiefly intended. While this cannot take the place of a text-book of grammar for lower grade schools, it is believed that it will fill an important place as a book to be read and studied, not only by teachers of grammar, but also by students in colleges, normal schools, high schools, and academies, who are looking forward to the teaching of English, or who are specially interested in the study of the English tongue. Yet the English language belongs to all who speak, and read and write it. Journalists and other writers have their own special relations to the matters here discussed. And there are many general readers whose training and trend of thinking have given them an interest in these subjects. To all of these classes and to the many foreign students of English who have Foreword xiii felt the need of some compendium of English grammar prepared on a more general plan than that of the ordinary text-books, this book is offered in the belief that it will fill a place hitherto unoccupied as an aid to the comprehensive study of the English language. The book had its immediate beginning in a series of "Talks on Grammar," written for the New England Journal of Education. Similar articles, contributed to The School Journal and other educational papers, were added, and thanks are due to all these periodicals for permission to republish these in book form. Yet none of these chapters are in their original shape. The whole was afterwards re-written, and much new material was added in order to make a complete and consistent whole. A few chapters addressed to spec- ialists as teachers of grammar and writers and a bibliography of the subject, have been added, and constitute "Part Second." In the preparation of these chapters many text- books, both ancient and modern, have been consulted, and quotations from some of these grammars have been freely used, as chapter headings or in the text itself. The quotation headings do not always agree fully with each other or with the chapter below. They are intended not always to present the author's own view of the subject, but to serve as side lights, showing how the phases of grammar have been variously treated by different writers and in different ages. The selection of these significant extracts from other writings on grammar has occupied many pleasant hours, and xiv Foreword it is believed that the introduction of this feature will add greatly to the value of the book. Many other quotations of nearly equal interest might have been chosen, and there has been a temptation to extend this element of the book to larger limits. But some restraint seemed to be needful here, as this is not intended as a "gram- mar of grammars" after the Goold Brown pattern, but as a presentation of the best modern thought on the subject of English grammar. Some of the quotations used are the gatherings of a teacher's notebook through many years of teaching, and it has not seemed possible in every instance to trace the quotation to its original source. Most of them, however, have been freshly selected as the direct result of the extensive reading required by the prepa- ration of this book. The author wishes to acknowledge many kind and helpful suggestions from personal friends engaged in normal school, college, and editorial work, who have taken an interest in the preparation of this book. Special thanks are given to Professor E. S. Joynes, of South Carolina College, who read the book in manu- script, giving much valuable and critical help. Acknowledgments are also due to Professors F. A. Blackburn and A. H. Tolman, of Chicago University, for material included in certain chapters. Secretary G. H. Martin, of the Massachusetts Board of Educa- tion; Principals A. G. and A. C. Boyden, and the teachers of English and of foreign language in the Bridgewater Normal School; Dr. William Hayes Foreword xv Ward, editor of the New York Independent; Miss Sarah L. Arnold, Dean of Simmons College, and other competent critics have also given personal attention and helpful comments to the manuscript of this book. Finally, to her pupils in English grammar, whose thoughtful questions and interest in the subject have stimulated research, the thanks of the author are due for the invaluable aid thus given. GRAMMAR AND ITS REASONS PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH GRAMMAR There is an ever increasing class of persons, so heterodox as to advocate that English which hitherto has sat with ex- ceeding humility in the lower seats of the synagogue shall be bidden universally to come up higher. WELSH. Some superfluities have been expunged, some mistakes have been rectified, and some obstacles have been removed. GOOLD BROWN. We are freeing ourselves from the tyranny of Latin models and are substituting a grammar which deals simply with the vital facts of the English tongue. CHUBB. In offering to the public a new presentation of an old subject, one faces two practical questions: Is the subject itself of vital interest to the present age ? And does the new treatment really add anything of value to the older writings on the subject? The first question, as applied to English grammar, would be answered by many persons in the negative. The revelations of natural science are giving a new interpretation to the universe. Philosophy, theology, and psychology are changing their points of view and making conquests in hitherto unexplored fields. The 1 fcr and Its Reasons development of art in America is opening new vistas to the esthetic imagination. History is re-writing itself upon new basic principles, and social science is grappling complex problems of vital importance to the practical welfare of mankind. How then can such an abstract or unpractical subject as the theories of grammatical relationships gain a hearing from this busy age? Furthermore, is there anything new to be said on the old and hackneyed subject ? When Goold Brown's Grammar of Grammars was published at the middle of the nineteenth century it seemed as if all that had ever been thought or that could be thought regarding English grammar had been gathered into that volumi- nous compilation. But of making many grammar books there has been no end in the years that have passed since then. Yet in spite of all this, we venture to think that English grammar has not been worn threadbare; that it has a sort of perennial value to an important, even if limited, class of the world's thinkers, and that with all the other sciences, it has its new message for the new age. In the famous " Report of the Committee of Fifteen on the Correlation of Studies in Elementary Schools/ 1 published in 1895 by the National Educational Asso- ciation, Dr. W. T. Harris, the author of the report, uses these words: "Grammar is the science of lan- guage, and as the first of the seven liberal arts, it has long held sway in school as the disciplinary study par Present Day English Grammar 3 excellence. A survey of its educational value, sub- jective and objective, usually produces the conviction that it is to retain the first place in the future. Its chief objective advantage is that it shows the structure of language and the logical forms of subject, predicate, and modifier, thus revealing the essential nature of thought itself, the most important of all objects because it is self -object." Yet with this high estimate of the value of grammar comes the word of limitation and of caution. The same report well says: "No formal labor on a great objective field is ever wholly lost, . . . but it is easy for any special formal discipline when continued too long, to paralyze or arrest growth at that stage. . . . Grammar, rich as it is in its contents, is only a formal discipline as respects the scientific, historic, or literary contents of language, and is indifferent to them. A training for four or five years in parsing and grammatical analysis, practised on literary works of art (Milton, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Scott), is a training of the pupil into habits of indifference toward, and neglect of, the genius employed in the literary work of art. . . . Your Committee is unanimous in the conviction that formal grammar should not be allowed to usurp the place of a study of the literary work of art in accordance with literary method." Grammar has other deficiencies as a language study which literature alone cannot supply. The habit of mind which grammar induces is critical and this always impedes fluency of expression. Although gram- 4 Grammar and Its Reasons mar is one of the important aids to composition, yet in the act of speaking or writing, grammar itself and its hampering rules should be forgotten, while the mind gives itself up to the spontaneous expression of its own thought. Grammar is able to achieve its own ends perfectly only when it is pursued side by side with literary study and practical composition, each of the three aiding and supplementing the other two in the united effort to produce genuine language power. But after all its limitations have been conceded, and the claims of other branches of knowledge pro- vided for, there still remains a clear field of perpetual human interest in the subjects that grammar deals with. In this territory new mines of great depth and richness have been opened during recent years. Com- parative and historical grammar has added much to the older material. The English language has been gaining in powers of expression, and in prestige among the languages of the world. In this process it has cast off some old restraints and has added new logical relationships, which require grammatical interpretation. Much interesting material has been brought forward by writers on grammar within a generation, and this needs to be sifted and classified, and to find clear and permanent expression for the general public. And so it does not seem an ignoble or valueless task to bring together these newer thoughts that have presented themselves to thinkers, and to set forth in a new book in these early years of the twentieth century, the status of Present-Day English Grammar. II HISTORIC GROWTH OF GRAMMAR In science, a phenomenon is explained by its antecedent phenomena. A tree is explained, not by its full-leaved glory, but by the states and forms through which it has suc- cessively advanced. WELSH. Under the light that has come from the advance in Eng- lish philology the old notion that the best approach to Eng- lish grammar is through the Latin grammar, has vanished forever. ALLEN. The real history of grammar is little known, because the story of the systems most generally received has never been fully told. GOOLD BROWN. { Grammarians are the guardians, not the authors, of language. TRANSLATED FROM SENECA/ The history of a science often shows peculiar phases, but perhaps none has had more marked mutations than have been felt by English grammar. The form which the science has taken bears curious marks of the history through which it has passed, and the present grammar ideals are to be interpreted in part by the early history. In tracing these changes one needs to bear in mind the important distinction between Universal or General grammar, and the particular grammar of an individual tongue. Long before the specific grammar of English was thought of, the principles of general grammar 5 6 Grammar and Its Reasons were wrought out through the Greek and Latin lan- guages and were applied to English by the classical scholars of England. The history of English grammar cannot be given without tracing this earlier develop- ment of general grammar. The earliest traces of grammatical study that we have anv record of, come from Chaldea. The scholars of f;hat ancient kingdom compiled dictionaries to aid themselves in learning the language of a still earlier people who occupied the same territory. Fragments of these ancient writings have been found in the ruins of the royal libraries of Sargon and Assurbanipal. This purpose of acquiring foreign languages, rather than of understanding or perfecting the use of one's own tongue, was the dominant one in early grammatical studies, and it still holds as an important reason for the study of grammar to-day. It was among the Greeks that the doctrine of the Parts of Speech first appeared. Plato began it by dividing words into nouns and verbs, but without defining either. Aristotle, for rhetorical purposes, added conjunctions and articles, but by the latter lie meant chiefly pronouns or relatives. Protagoras, Aristophanes, and other Grecian writers advanced certain grammatical ideas, but the science of grammar did not advance very far within the borders of ancient Greece itself. The critical study of language was really begun by Greek scholars at Alexandria about 250 B. C. In this city about 10,000 students were gathered from Historic Growth of Grammar 7 all parts of the world to make use of the famous libraries where all languages having any claim to literature were represented. Zenodotus, the first librarian, pointed out personal pronouns as a class of words, also the singular, dual, and plural numbers of sub- stantives. About a hundred years B. C., Aristarchus founded in Alexandria a celebrated grammatical and critical school. It was he who discussed prepositions for the first time, and the Alexandrian students made other contributions to the growing language study. Later it became fashionable for young Roman gentry to learn Greek. About 29 B. C., Dionysius, who had been a pupil in the Alexandrian School, went from Asia Minor to Rome as professor of Greek, and the lectures which he gave there were finally reduced to book form. This was the earliest European treatise on grammar and it is still extant. During the Gallic War Caesar wrote in his tent a treatise on grammatical matters, and invented the term "ablative case." In the first century A. D., Quintilian wrote a complete system of rhetoric in twelve books, in which verbs, nouns, and adjectives are recognized, but not the other parts of speech. By the writings of Dionysius, Quintilian, and their successors, the Latin language was finally pressed into the mould of Greek grammar, much as in later ages the languages of modern Europe have been interpreted through the forms of Latin. The form of grammar as taught during the middle ages was finally fixed by Priscian, who was master of a famous school 8 Grammar and Its Reasons in Constantinople, and who, about 525 A. D., wrote a very famous book on grammar. His rigid attention to grammatical correctness gave rise to the phrase "breaking Priscian's head," which was applied to the violators of grammatical rules. By thus fixing the form of grammar for the Middle Ages, he laid the foundations for modern grammar. The first manuals of grammar used in England were not English grammars in any sense. Most of them were written in Latin. Others were simply translations of the Latin "Accidence," written to aid British youth in gaining a knowledge of the Latin tongue without any thought of accuracy in their own. Of the early Latin grammars that were in use in England before English grammar originated, much might be said. One of these, called the Minerva of Sanctius, is thus described by Dr. W. T. Harris: "This Minerva of Sanctius is a wonderful collection of deep studies on Latin declensions and conjugations, the logical basis for the distinction of the parts of speech, a valuable treatise on syntax. When one first studies Sanctius he is amazed to find how much philosophy of grammar has really been forgotten or has never found its way into English grammar." The idea of applying grammar to English does not seem to have dawned until the time of the Tudor kings. Even then it was not English grammar that was directly taught. It was still the grammar of Latin, written however with the added idea that all grammar could be taught through the medium of Latin. Historic Growth of Grammar 9 But the grammar of the highly inflected Latin, with its large syntax dependent on inflection, proved to be a gigantic mould for the vigorous English which had cast off most of the old Anglo-Saxon inflections and agreements, thus making its word relations mostly logical, rather than dependent on grammatical forms. It is little wonder that the later history of English grammar has presented many phases and has had curious reactions, both in its aim and in the methods by which it has been pursued. Most famous among the grammars of England during this Latin-English period, was that of William Lily, the first high master of St. Paul's School. Parts of this grammar were written expressly for use in this school and so gained the name of "Paul's Accidence." Lily died of the plague in 1522, and his grammatical writings were not published in collected form until twenty years later. About 1543, by order of King Henry the Eighth, Lily's book was put into final shape and ordered to be the standard book on gram- mar in the English kingdom. It soon became known as the grammar of King Henry the Eighth, though Erasmus and other scholars took part in the revised work and John Colet wrote for it an introduction which was the first attempt to write a formal treatise on English grammar. The author treated English as in all respects like Latin or Greek, with no laws of its own. This famous grammar of William Lily or King Henry the Eighth, was written in English, but applied directly to the Latin tongue, 10 Grammar and Its Reasons and was intended as a general work on the science of grammar. It named eight parts of speech, though not precisely the same ones that are recognized to-day. For two hundred years Lily's grammar was a standard text-book in England. Another interesting ancient grammar was Pals- greve's remarkable French grammar, composed for the use of the Princess Mary, and printed in 1530. It contained a French Accidence and Syntax, with idioms and vocabulary. The book was written in English and it illustrated the French by comparison with English; so it has been of high value in showing the authorized forms of English of that date. Colet's Introduction to Lily's Latin Grammar is now recognized by scholars as the first genuinely English grammar. Yet this honor was claimed for that of William Bullokar, who published in 1586 A Bref Grammar for English, which he declared was 16 The first grammar for English that ever waz except my grammar at large." Of the "Grammar at large," no trace can now be found. After this, various gram- mars of English were prepared, though some of these were still written in Latin, like that of John Wallis, in the time of William and Mary. Among the eighteenth century grammar makers we find the names of Sir Richard Steele and Dr. Samuel Johnson. In Steele's grammar, which was published in 1712, the distinguished author tried to make his subject more interesting to pupils by putting many of his rules and principles into verse, a device which has Historic Growth of Grammar 11 been adopted by many later writers on the dry subject of grammar. Thus Steele wrote: Grammar do's all the arts and knowledge teach According to the Use of every speech, How we our Thoughts most justly may express In Words together joined in Sentences. One of the most important text-books of the eight- eenth century was Dr. Robert Lowth's Short Intro- duction to English Grammar, published in 1763. It had a wide use and is recognized as having been the chief model for the still more famous Lindley Murray's grammar a generation later. In issuing his grammar near the close of the eighteenth century, Murray acknowledges for his materials books by Harris, Johnson, Lowth, Priestley, Beattie, Sheridan, Walker, and Coote. Several other English grammars that were issued previous to Murray's are not included in this list. The most interesting and curious of eighteenth century books on English grammar is that of John Home Tooke, who published in 1786 his famous Epea Pteroenta, or Diversions of Purley, in which, under the form of dialogue, he advances various ingenious grammatical theories; such as, that all the little connecting words (or particles) of language are relics of once active nouns or verbs. Home Tooke made many mistakes and was a most imperfect guide, yet his astute discussions are still read with some interest by students, and throw considerable light, 12 Grammar and Its Reasons not so much on the facts of grammar, as on the varied history through which the science has passed. But among the names of English grammarians before the nineteenth century, there is none that can rank in point of popular favor and influence with that of Lindley Murray. He was a Pennsylvanian Quaker, who, removing to England, published about 1790 the first of the many school-books which have borne his name. The multiplied copies of these books are said to have reached a sale of five millions or more in England and America. Murray's grammar was professedly a compilation and has been criticised by Goold Brown and others as not being a work of original scholarly research. But while other grammatical treatises may have been more profound and original, the work of putting into popular form the approved thought of the age on a subject of universal interest is not one to be treated with light appreciatiDn. It was Lindley Murray's grammar more than any other influence, perhaps, that has fixed the form and nomenclature of modern English grammar. From the time of Ben Jonson until a few years ago the text-books in grammar included five stereotyped divisions: Orthoepy, Orthography, Etymology, Syn- tax, and Prosody. But modern thinking has con- siderably reduced the range of the subject, and only a part of Etymology (dealing with grammatical in- flections) and Syntax, are now usually reckoned as legitimate parts of grammar. m GRAMMAR IN AMERICA AND REACTIONS AGAINST FORMAL GRAMMAR | The varietie of teaching is divers yet and always will be for that every schole maister liketh that he knoweth and seeth not the use of that he knoweth not. GRAMMAR OP KING HENRY THE EIGHTH. Two generations ago the watchwords of the parties into which the educational world was divided were "Grammar thorough and systematic," and "No teaching of grammar in the schools." F. H. DALE. It is only too easy to overdo the teaching of formal gram- mar. LEWIS. The uselessness of "make-believe grammar" was respon- sible for a marked reaction against all formal teaching of English grammar, which was very noticeable for a time. A. H. TOLMAN. Sir, the English language has no grammar at all. DR. JOHNSON. The well-known facts brought out by R. G. White and others do not show that English is a grammarless tongue; but only, so to speak, a concordless tongue. The objection holds good against the old conception of grammar, but has no weight against the modern conception of grammar. CARPENTER, BAKER_, AND SCOTT. Near the close of the eighteenth century an impulse to grammatical activity began to show itself in America as well as in England. In some old libraries may be 13 14 Grammar and Its Reasons found an interesting little book in board covers called A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, by Noah Webster, Jun., printed at Boston in 1790. This was one of a series of three school-books by Webster, of which the famous blue-backed speller was one. In his Grammatical Institute, the author modestly says, "I have attempted to simplify a very complex subject and shall always feel indebted to the man who shall suggest any improvement." Noah Webster had a unique place as a grammarian. lie was very learned, but an iconoclast, and somewhat changeable in his views. In one of his books he names eight parts of speech, but in another he follows the lead of Lowth and others, and recognizes only six. His grammatical writings would perhaps have had a larger influence but for the overpowering circulation of Murray's grammar that appeared very soon after- wards in England and was for half a century a standard text-book in Great Britain and America. In 1799 Caleb Bingham (the author of two other ancient school-books, The American Preceptor, and The Columbian Orator,) issued the first edition of The Young Lady's Accidence, which was "De- signed principally for the use of young learners, more especially of the Fair Sex, though proper for the other. " It had upon its title page the familiar couplet: Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot. This was the first English grammar used in the Boston Grammar in America 15 public schools, though this, as well as Webster's Grammatical Institute, was soon superseded by Mur- ray's grammar. But as interest in the subject increased, other gram- mars were published in America, following more or less closely Murray's plan, until the work of elaboration culminated, about the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury, in that great thesaurus of rules and exceptions, Goold Brown's Grammar of Grammars, a closely printed volume of more than a thousand pages. This phenomenal book for a long time went begging for a publisher who would dare to undertake such a pub- lication. But at last the Legislature of Massachusetts became its patron. The book was printed and a copy given to each of the members of the Legislature. Busy people of to-day have little use for this great grammar of grammars, but the book remains in libraries as a monumental piece of human labor and a standard encyclopedia of grammatical information up to the time when it was written. Meanwhile the methods of grammar used in the schools were also becoming much elaborated. An important step in the history of grammar method was made about 1823, when Kirkham's grammar was published, containing a carefully developed "System- atic Order of Parsing." Elaborate parsing models were given and the parsing of standard literature became an important school exercise. In 1847 another important innovation in grammar method was caused by the publication of Samuel S. 16 Grammar and Its Reasons Greene's English Analysis. A few years later this book was extensively used in grammar classes all over the country and had added to the older parsing practices some elements of real value. But in the midst of all this development of the science and method of grammar, for many years during the nineteenth century a counter movement was taking place. A strong opposition was developed to English grammar itself, as well as to the ideas that it had become burdened with. The fact that English grammar had been founded upon the forms of Latin had brought into the text- books distinctions which did not really exist in the language. It was not that scholarly men really be- lieved that English had all these grammatical dis- tinctions, but it was still felt that English must be interpreted by the principles that had been wrought out through the study of Latin. But during the first half of the nineteenth century, thoughtful men began to sift the Essentials of Eng- lish Grammar from the heterogeneous mass which had been gathered. In 1833 William B. Fowle, a Boston teacher, put forth A Rational Grammar, declaring" that verbs have no voice, nor mood, and only two tenses, with many other radical changes. Especially after so large a showing as was made by Goold Brown's Grammar of Grammars, it was not to be wondered at that the pendulum should swing rapidly toward the other extreme. It began to be whispered in various quarters that Grammar in America 17 the ends for which grammar had been pursued were not realized by this means. Grammar had not suc- ceeded in making people "speak and write correctly." Another idea that dawned upon educators was that the scope of grammar was narrower than had hitherto been accorded to it. Students decided that Orthoepy, Orthography, Prosody, and a part of Etymology itself were not really a part of grammar, that only the inflections of words, and the word order and relations of the sentence were legitimately to be included. Between 1860 and 1880 there was a great descent in the size of grammar treatises and various thin booklets came into being, each claiming to contain "all that there is of English grammar." Yet, when that bold iconoclast and keen verbal critic, Richard Grant White, published Words and Their Uses, with its chapter on "The Grammarless Tongue," and a few years later, Every Day Eng- lish, in which he declared that "there really is no such thing as grammar in the English language," no little buzzing was heard in the hive of busy grammarians. When the natural opposition to such ultra sentiments had somewhat subsided, the effect of the whole mixed discussion became manifest in an epidemic of books of "Language Lessons," books large and small, good, bad, and indifferent, all specially recommended for schools as ignoring the distinctions of technical gram- mar. Towns and cities began to question the advisa- bility of having any formal grammar taught in their schools, and even the Connecticut State Board of 18 Grammar and Its Reasons Education discontinued the State examinations in English grammar, giving the following reasons:* "(1) The study of grammar or analysis does not help us either to speak or write our language. (2) As a study, technical grammar is hateful to any child and belongs to an advanced course, if anywhere. Its use in an elementary school is contrary to all approved pedagogical theories. (3) There is not time for such work, and for other subjects that belong to our civi- lization. (4) We are convinced that the discipline said to be derived from the study of grammar can be secured by the study of other subjects, for instance, natural science, which of itself furnishes practical knowledge." But even at this stage of the history there were not wanting those who declared that "the new departure in language study was an unfortunate one," that the text-book makers had "gone to the opposite extreme, ruling out those parts of English grammar which are absolutely indispensable to a knowledge of our lan- guage," and that "sentence-building can never be a substitute for solid grammar." The writings of the late Professor Whitney, a few years ago, marked an important advance in the right understanding of the place and value of scientific grammar. The tendency of recent educational thinking has been toward the strengthening of grammar as a school study as well as toward important modifications in the way the subject is to be treated. Within a few years an unparalleled number of grammar text-books *Cited in F. A. Harbour's History of English Gramme Teaching. Educational Review, December, 1896, Grammar in America 19 (or of series of language lessons, always culminating in a course of scientific grammar), have been published, of differing degrees of excellence, yet all of them showing improvements upon the grammars of the older type. Historical grammar and comparative grammar are throwing light on idiomatic English con- structions, and students and teachers are recognizing the value of English grammar as a disciplinary study, and also as an aid to correctness in the use of our own language, and to the acquirement of foreign tongues. The status of English grammar in the schools, however, is still somewhat chaotic. Yet it is no longer a question whether grammar shall be studied. The questions now are those of detail; when shall it be studied, and how, and what ends are to be held in view in the study of grammar? A truer recognition of the educational value and also of the limitations of gram- mar has been gained. "Language lessons" have come into the schools to stay, and their value is unchal- lenged. Yet grammar will not again be displaced in the school curriculum. It holds a central position in formal language study, and with all its limitations it is able in its own way to give elements of linguistic training that can be arrived at by no other means. IV GRAMMAR AND LOGIC Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the gram- mar of reason. MAX MULLER. Study of the sentence includes study of the thought, a sort of unconscious psychology, the more unconscious the better. E. S. JOYNES. A boy who is intelligently analyzing language is analyzing the processes of thought, and is a logician without knowing it. S. S. LAURIE. Grammatical analysis cannot be committed to memory; it is a direct exercise of all the logical faculties. F. A. BAR- BOUR. While these two sciences mutually illustrate each other a clear separation between them would probably have the effect of elevating the latter (i. e., grammar) into an impor- tance not hitherto assigned it. THOMSON'S OUTLINES OF THE LAWS OF THOUGHT. Certainly while logic derives such help from grammar the reverse should be true and our grammars placed upon a direct logical footing. C. C. EVERETT IN SCIENCE OF THOUGHT. Consider for a moment what grammar is. It is the most elementary part of logic. It is the beginning of the analysis of the thinking process. The principles and rules of gram- mar are the means by which the forms of language are made to correspond with the Universal forms of thought. JOHN STUART MILL. 20 Grammar and Logic 21 In the reactions against grammar during the last century it was sometimes said that the analytical study of sentences, except to a very limited degree, is not really grammar at all. Grammar relates to the inflectional forms of words and the agreement of these forms. But modern English has lost most of these inflectional forms, thus becoming "a logical rather than a grammatical language." Hence the analysis of English sentences and most of what is known as parsing, was said to be an exercise in logic rather than in true grammar. This is a question of terms and their definition. Modern linguists and logicians would by no means restrict the term grammar so as to exclude the study of word relations, even when these dre not definitely pointed out by inflections and agreements. Much of English grammar is really included in the domain of logic. From the modern point of view grammar includes all the analytical study that is needed to make plain the structure of the English sentence, including its logical relationships as well as the grammatical forms of words and the government and agreements of these forms. Thought controls the forms of language, and neither the thought nor the sentence can be really studied except in connection with each other. The grammati- cal forms that are still retained in English cannot be understood except through a knowledge of the logical relationships of the sentence. And on the other hand these grammatical forms, even though few in number, 22 Grammar and Its Reasons are material aids in gaining a knowledge of the logical relationships. Yet the logical relations cannot be fully understood if studied simply in connection with these small remainders of grammatical forms. It needs a far larger analytic study of sentences to enable the student to deal intelligently with the abbreviated grammatical facts that still belong to the English tongue. John Stuart Mill once said that "a system of logic must be based on a sound system of grammar." It is also true that a system of grammar finds its neces- sary foundation in logic and cannot be studied without entering somewhat freely into that domain. But while the field of thought is in a measure com- mon, the manner of approach to the given facts is different. In the study of logic, as well as in the act of expression itself, the form is approached from the thought side. But in the analysis of sentences the order is reversed and the thought is approached from the form side. Grammar looks first at the sentence and passes from that to the elements of the thought expressed by it. Logic takes first the thought and then decides how the sentence structure is made to fit this thought. A conspicuous illustration of the difference between grammar and logic in dealing with the same set of objective facts, comes at the very beginning of the study of grammar, in the two natural views that may be taken of the sentence, that is, the two-part and three-part theories of sentence construction. Both ways of looking at the sentence need to come before Grammar and Logic 23 the mind, and to be reconciled if the student of either grammar or logic is not to be thrown into mental confusion. But while the study of logical relationship and grammatical form must proceed side by side, each illustrating and aiding the other, great care should be taken never to confound the two points of view. In the treatment of Case, for instance, a grammatical writer must never permit a confusion to arise in his own thought or in that of his readers, as to whether the inflectional form or the logical relationship of the substantive is the point on which the mind is to be centered. So closely are the relations of thought and of its expression intermingled that it is a matter of no small difficulty, sometimes, to avoid confounding the one with the other. That they have often been confounded is the cause of many of the disputes that have arisen among grammarians. But although the logician and the grammarian have different ends in view, there are many facts which they must deal with in common, and so far as the structure of language is concerned they must not antagonize each other. More than a hundred years ago the celebrated Home Tooke made the first serious and avowed effort "to introduce logic into grammar." He was an able and ingenious writer, but linguistic thought has made large advance since his period, and there is little of value for the present age in the curious Diversions of Purley, which he wrote. Other writers have attempted (though in different literary form) to 24 Grammar and Its Reasons straighten out the relations of logic and grammar, which still remain somewhat perplexing and difficult to handle consistently. The best result of the study of grammar, however, is a logical habit of mind. The effort to analyze a a difficult passage leads to a fuller appreciation of its meaning, and this in turn cultivates accuracy both in one's own thought and in its final expression. Nor does the advantage end here. Through the keen perception of clearness of construction thus gained, the student not only gains a mastery over his native language, but he finds in it also a firm basis for the right understanding and rapid acquirement of foreign tongues. UNIVERSAL AND PARTICULAR GRAMMAR English grammar is but a branch of the general science of philology, a new variety or species sprung up from the old stock long ago transplanted from the soil of Greece and Rome. GOOLD BROWN. Philology in its larger sense includes all that is or can be meant by Grammar. EARLE. Whatever harmony is possible between English grammar and the grammar of other languages should be sought if the value of grammatical study is believed to lie in any degree in making easier for the student the approach to other languages. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. The grammar of a given language may in theory be divided into two parts, one treating of general gram- mar, or the universal principles that belong to the grammars of all languages, the other dealing only with the particular grammar of the individual language. But while the idea is a suggestive one, the plan has never yet been carried out in a manner that seems entirely satisfactory for class use. The original idea of grammar was that of a universal science in which different languages shared in varying degrees. We have seen that the earliest grammars issued in England were books of general grammar, written however in Latin and applied directly to that language as being the one that best exemplified the 25 26 Grammar and Its Reasons principles of grammar. It was felt that English had little of real grammar and that all that it contains could easily be learned by the study of general grammar through the medium of Latin. Something of the same idea is still prevalent in schools and colleges to-day. And there is some justification for this thought. Every one must agree that a knowledge of Latin gram- mar throws great illumination upon the structural study of English. Yet there are not many modern educators who would admit, either that a knowledge of general grammar is sufficient for one's understand- ing of English, or that an adequate knowledge of English grammar can be gained through the medium of Latin. It is only by the study of English itself that a true knowledge of English can be acquired. A certain amount of distinction between the universal and the particular, however, is advisable in a course in grammar. The idea of case, for instance, belongs to general grammar. A student gains this idea most fully if it can be illustrated by examples taken from several different languages. But to know the specific cases belonging to a given language, to be familiar with all the words having case properties, to under- stand all the sentence relations which these cases can hold, and to form the habit of using them correctly in all these relations, constitutes a much larger bulk of grammatical acquirement than the mere knowledge of the primary case idea. So many are the details of specific grammar that cluster around each universal idea, that even in English, which of all modern Ian- Universal and Particular Grammar 27 guages is most free from grammatical fetters, it is still true that "universal grammar constitutes but a very small part of the particular grammar of a language." A knowledge of English grammar, then, implies some knowledge of the principles of universal gram- mar, the recognition of the ways in which these prin- ciples are applied in making the forms of English, and also a recognition of all the departures from general grammar that have gained an authorized place in either spoken or written English. This knowledge is to be acquired chiefly by the student's own examina- tion of the current language and literature of the period in which he lives. Yet historical and comparative methods of grammar study are also needed to secure that knowledge of general grammar which is implied in a true knowledge of English grammar. r Vi OBJECT AND METHOD OF GRAMMAR The duty of the grammarian is not to invent or create \ but to state and classify the facts as he finds them. RAMSEY. The lafws and principles which underlie the construction of sentences are all embodied in sentences, and the student may study them directly, first-hand, just as he studies the flower in botany, or the rock in geology; and if he forgets the rule he has only to examine a few sentences and restate it for himself. WISELY'S STUDIES IN THE SCIENCE OF ENG- LISH GRAMMAR." Whereas we learn a foreign language through and by means of its grammar we must learn and discover English grammar through and by means of the language. FITCH. Elementary oral correctness and an elementary sentence sense should be the first objects of grammar study. LEWIS. The aim has been to present in compact and orderly sys- tem the cardinal facts of the English language to feed the mind as well as to train it, and thus give to the study of] English no inconsiderable place in general culture. WELSH. Grammar is a reflective study of language, for a variety of purposes, of which correctness in writing is only one and a secondary or subordinate one, by no means unimportant, but best attained when sought indirectly. WHITNEY. In teaching grammar it ought not to be the teacher's object to enable the pupil to speak English but to under- stand it. ABBOTT 28 Object and Method of Grammar 29 Two widely different views of the object of grammar study have prevailed among educators. Some text- books affirm definitely, or in substance, that "the design of English grammar now is, and always has been, to teach the art of speaking and writing the English language with propriety," and that "Gram- mars should be guides plain and direct to correct writing and speaking." That grammar will give, and ought to give, prin- ciples of criticism whose application will conduce to correct writing and speaking, no one will deny. Yet, as an offset to this class of grammarians who pride themselves on making grammar "an entirely practical subject," there are others who maintain that a still higher purpose in grammar is the gaining of reflective power, and that mere correctness is a secondary object. W. D. Whitney once wrote: "Grammar will be ready, by-and-by, to do its part in correcting and polishing our usages, but only in its own time and way. We* may turn it at once into an apparatus for discovering and eliminating errors of speech but only at the risk of sacrificing more legitimate objects. The real aim of grammar is to turn the lights of intelligent reflection upon the instrumentality of thought, to see what is its structure in word and phrase, to look at the familiar facts in their resemblances and differences, their connections and relations; and this partly for its own sake, partly for what it leads to." These opposing views of the aim to be sought in the study of grammar, are the cause of the chief differ- 30 Grammar and Its Reasons ences in the methods used. Grammar pursued for the second and higher end is necessarily an analytical subject. The analytic method will develop some principles that will conduce indirectly to the "art of speaking and writing cornectly,"; yet it is now univer- sally conceded that power in the use of language is gained more directly by constructive methods than by the analysis of language forms. Through practice in using language under wise direction the child comes to an understanding of what correct English is, and gains the habit of using it. The later analytical study will indeed give him more sure and final tests which he can apply to his language and so confirm the good habits which he has acquired. Yet most of his knowledge of the requirements of English conies to the child at an earlier age, and in other ways than through the study of formal grammar. Nor are the final tests of correctness best gained by making them the direct end and aim of the grammatical study. The power of discriminating criticism is subtle and far-reaching, and demands an intimate knowledge of all the language facts. In other words, the so-called "practical aim of grammar," that is, the discovering and eliminating of errors in speech, can never be fully attained except through the pursuit of its higher end, namely, the gaining of reflective power. The facts of language with which grammar deals should be acquired by the same inductive methods that are used in all modern scientific study. The student of English is an explorer in language fields, Object and Method oj Grammar 31 searching out language facts by his own investigations, and forming his own conclusions. Dogmatism is one of the most serious as well as most frequent faults in grammatical treatises. As r has been well said, "The grammarian is not to take \ the position of one who lays down the law of the lan- guage, saying, ' You should say this or that, or you vio- late a rule of grammar/ but rather 'You see that we (you and I and all who speak good English) say thus and so/ Therefore we hold this as a principle of our language/'* There is a peculiarity in grammar as a study that needs to be taken full account of in the method pur- sued. The native student comes to the study having already a good command of the facts with which he is to deal. He knows the forms of words and phrases and can in general tell bad English from good. If his environment has been so unfortunate that he has not the power of doing this, the analytical parts of his language work should not be omitted. They should be fully supplemented, however, by a large amount of constructive work as well. Yet it is the student that can already "speak and write correctly" who is in the best position to get the highest benefits of a course in f grammar. For such a student the chief object to be * gained is a clearer and more exact sense of the relations Jot thought. Out of a good grammatical drill one who is seldom or never guilty of a grammatical solecism may gain a fine culture which it is idle to depreciate v and which will yield rich results in increasing the perfections of thought and its expression. * Professor Whitney, in Journal of Education. vn THE SENTENCE UNIT "First the whole, afterward the parts." A sentence must be looked upon as the first creation of language. HISTORY OF LANGUAGE, BY STRONG, LOGE- MAN, AND WHEELER. The thought is the unit in thinking, hence the sentence is the unit in speech. BOYDEN. The sentence is the structural unit in the use of language. A knowledge of its elements and their relation one to another must logically precede any detailed study of words and their forms. S o UTH WORTH. The larger elements of sentence-structure are the founda- tions of grammar, and these must be familiar before the pupil is ready for the study of separate words. BUEHLER. Psychologists and logicians in all times and almost with- out exception, have insisted that the sentence must have three parts corresponding to the three elements 'of the judg- ment. WISELY. One would naturally expect the sentence to correspond as to number of parts with the judgment which it expresses; but since we commonly find the copula and attribute com- bined in one symbol, it is convenient to include these two offices under the term predicate, and so to divide the sen- tence into two parts only. IRENE M. MEAD, IN THE ENG- LISH LANGUAGE AND ITS GRAMMAR. The distinction of the noun and the verb as the two essen- tial constituents of the true sentence, the one naming some- 32 The Sentence Unit 33 thing, the other asserting something about it this was the first distinction successfully made in the historical develop- ment of our speech. WHITNEY. The study of the grammar of a foreign language begins naturally with the study of words and their inflections. So also the older treatises on English grammar usually begin with the parts of speech. But the newer views of the purpose of the study of grammar have changed the point of beginning. The very name ''parts of speech" emphasizes the fact that there is a whole of speech that is larger than the classes of words to be studied. Speech is made up of sentences, and words con- sidered in their relation to sentences, are "parts of speech." The essential facts of the sentence as a whole and of the parts of speech which compose the sentence, these are the fundamental elements of grammar. The best modern grammarians are united in the view that some knowledge of the general plan of the sentence must precede any attempt to deal with words on a grammatical basis. The sentence is the expression of a thought and is therefore the unit of connected speech. It has two parts, a subject and a predicate. The subject is the part of a sentence which represents the person or thing of which something is said. The predicate is the part which expresses what is said of this person or thing. The subject therefore is naturally the name of a person or thing, or will contain a name with other modifying words. The predicate must contain 34 Grammar and Its Reasons a word which has the power of asserting or stating something. The verb, therefore, is an essential element of every sentence. The introduction of the ideas Sentence, Subject and Predicate, Noun and Verb at the beginning of grammatical study is now considered needful by the best grammarians. In logic a sentence is also called a proposition, and the thought expressed by a sentence or proposition is shown to be the comparison of two ideas, whose agreement or non-agreement is expressed by a connect- ing term called the copula, as The apple is red. The apple is not red. A sentence, therefore, has logically three inherent elements, the subject, copula, and predicate term or attribute. There is much difference of opinion among scholars whether the recognition of two parts in the predicate i. e., the copula and attribute, is needful in grammar. These ideas are much harder to grasp than those of subject and predicate. Students of logic have usually contended that the copula and predicate term must be recognized in every sentence. Other students, looking wholly from the grammatical side, and seeing how few are the cases in which the copula is really distinct from the idea to be predi- cated, have declared the distinction to be not only needless but false, and have spoken slightingly of the "pretended copula of the sentence." Thus John Stuart Mill tells us that " It is of the utmost importance The Sentence Unit 35 that there should be no under-estimation in our con- ception of the nature and office of the copula"; while other writers have declared with equal vehemence that the theory of two parts in every predicate is irra- tional and untenable. Logic and grammar cannot really be antagonistic in their views of the nature of the sentence. Yet for the grammatical understanding of most sentences the attempt to separate copula from attribute is not essen- tial, and for young students it may even be objection- able. There are some sentences, however, such as "God is good," "Washington was made President," which cannot be grammatically studied without recog- nizing the distinct offices of the two parts of the predi- cate. Unless the true view of this class of sentences is gained early in the course in grammar, many predi- cate constructions will fail to be understood. It is perhaps only the predicates containing copulative verbs which the ordinary grammar student needs to consider as composed of copula and attribute. Yet with advanced students the thought should be carried farther. The logical idea that in every predicate, whatever the form, there is always an idea to be predicated, and an assertive element which may or may not be distinct from the former, is certainly an illuminative one and will aid in the interpretation of many othei*wise diffi- cult predicate constructions. Although the general plan of the sentence requires early attention in grammar, the complete study of 36 Grammar and Its Reasons sentences, including the clauses and phrases which compose them, cannot be fully undertaken until a knowledge of the parts of speech throws light upon the sentence relations of these larger component elements. VIII PARTS OF SPEECH "The chief result of grammar .... is the doctrine of the parts of speech." The mind proceeds from the whole to its parts and their relations. This is the logical order; that is, the order ac- cording to the laws of thought. This gives scientific knowl- edge. BOYDEN. We need not inquire what a word is, but we must ask what it does. MEIKLEJOHN. The defining of parts of speech is a serious office. The whole future of grammar rests upon the classifying of words according to their function in the sentence. BAIN. To be a noun or verb or adjective is a function which a word discharges in such and such a context, and not a char- acter innate in the word and inseparable from it. EARLE. A firm and consistent application of the principle that the part of speech is determined by use and not by form, will do more than any other one thing to simplify English grammar. HARPER AND BURGESS. The classifying of words as parts of speech is largely arti- ficial. CARPENTER. The fundamental parts of speech are four in number substantives, predicatives, modifiers, and connectives. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. Parts of speech sometimes shade off into one another so subtly that we can no more distinguish them than we can distinguish the colors of the rainbow. SNODDY. 37 38 Grammar and Its Reasons Not to this day has It been settled what sort of a difference in words shall entitle them to a separate rank as parts of speech. HORNE TOOKE. The number and character of these recogni/eil classes of words have varied at different eras. The earliest Greek grammarians named a few parts of speech which attracted emphatic attention, and others were added later. At last Dionysius carried "eight parts of speech" from Alexandria to Rome, and from that day to this the mystic number eight has been perpetuated. Yet the claimants to a place in the list have varied. The participle, included by Dionysius, was afterwards added to the verb. The Greeks, wiser than we, omitted the interjection, which indeed is not a part of speech, but a "whole speech," though vague and undeveloped. The infinitive has sometimes been called a part of speech. Pronouns have sometimes been classed with nouns; and again the personal pronouns have been treated as a part of speech distinct from adjective pronouns, which were classed with adjectives or articles. Lily's grammar (known as the grammar of King Henry the Eighth) included the adjectives with the noun, declaring "In speech be there eight parts following: noun, pronoun, verb, participle, declined; adverb, conjunction, preposition, inter- jection, undeclined." This was also the platform of some of the old Latin grammarians, though others maintained that the adjective ought not to be called a noun. Numerals have sometimes been considered Parts of Speech 39 one part of speech. The articles have often been so treated. Murray's old grammar does this, thus giving to English nine parts of speech, or one more than belong to Latin, which has no article. Not a few of the ancient grammarians divided words into three classes, which, according to Vossius, were nouns, verbs, and particles. This view also found advocates among the early English grammarians, who seem to have supposed that grammar would be rendered easier by reducing the number of the parts of speech. Murray's reply to this view, however, was as follows: "Every word in the language must be included in some class and nothing is gained by making the classes larger and less numerous. In all the artificial arrangements of science, distinctions are to be made according to the differences in things, and the simple question here is what differences among words shall be at first regarded. To overlook in our primary division the difference between a verb and a participle is merely to reserve for a sub-division or subsequent explanation a species of words which most gram- marians have recognized as a distinct sort." Recent grammarians have pointed out that whatever be the number of classes recognized, they are reducible to four main types, substantives, verbs, modifiers, and connectives. The diversity which has prevailed is shown by a curious dialogue in the Diversions of Purley, by John Home Tooke. One of the characters is made to say, "You have not informed me how many parts 40 Grammar and Its Reasons of speech you Intend to lay down." The reply is, "That shall be as you please, either two to twenty or more." In Noah Webster's grammar of 1790, he says that eight is the best number of parts of speech that can be found. Yet in another of his grammars, he reduces the number to six, following the example of Lowth and others, who class adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions together under the common name of abbreviations or particles. Home Tooke tells us, however, that "Particles is a convenient name for all the little words that we do not exactly understand." The number and names of the parts of speech have at last crystallized into the eight that our grammars generally recognize, and perhaps this list is as con- venient as can be made; though several of the most distinctive sub-classes, such as participles, infinitives, articles, and the different classes of pronouns, need to be taught early in the grammar course and with nearly as much distinctness as the fundamental eight classes. When all these are clearly known, and the student is able to assign each word of a sentence to its proper part of speech, the stronghold of grammar as a science may be said to have been conquered. In thus assign- ing words to their parts of speech it will be noticed that the nouns and verbs of a language are practically numberless; adjectives and adverbs of quality are also numerous, and their number is often increased by new word formations; but articles, pronouns of various classes, auxiliary verbs, modal adverbs, prepo- sitions, and conjunctions are limited classes, seldom Parts of Speech 41 added to but constantly repeated as the connective and filling-in material of all sentences. The basis of the classification of parts of speech is the function which the word performs in the structure of the sentence. For this reason there can be no logical definition of any part of speech, except by giving its function. The old definition of a verb as "a word which means to be, to do, or to suffer," ignored wholly this functional element. In teaching that "a noun is a name," the student should not omit to notice the fact that this gives to the noun the gram- matical quality which admits of its being the subject term of a sentence. But the quality of belonging to a part of speech in English is a very variable one. It is more a habit of the word than a fixed and innate quality. In a highly inflected language like Latin, the word is ticketed, as it were, by its form as belonging to a given part of speech. In the newly invented language Esperanto, the part of speech is shown by the termination of the word. But in English it is the sense of the sentence that must decide, and there are only a comparatively small number of words that belong always to the same part of speech. The pronouns are the most habit- bound among our words, but with some of these there is variation. For these reasons it is even more true in English than in some other languages that the sentence and not the word must be regarded as the primary unit of form as well as of thought. This fact receives added 42 Grammar and Its Reasons emphasis from the name which has been given to these grammatical groups of words. Standing alone a word is incomplete and its meaning is uncertain. It is only by the right connection of the " parts" that we can get the whole, which we call "speech." IX THE VERBAL ELEMENT OF THE SENTENCE The apparently simple question "What is a verb?" has been from of old the subject of the most ferocious contro- versies. HOBNE TOOKB. The verbal notion as such is nothing but a copula. TRANSLATED FROM GRAMMATIK VON CONRAD HERMANN. Every verb admits of being taken apart or analyzed into some form of the copula be, which expresses the act of asser- tion, and a predicate noun or adjective (especially the verbal adjective, the present participle) expressing the condition or quality or action predicated. WHITNEY. The definition of the verb (as the word which asserts) does not provide for interrogative or imperative sentences. In- deed it is probably impossible to define the verb briefly and clearly, so as to include such sentences. The interro- gative and imperative forms, however, may be so easily changed into declarative that this definition will not be found seriously inadequate. HARPER AND BURGESS. The verb makes the speaker responsible. If we say "The boy" we utter merely a name. But the minute we add a verb to the name, as, "The boy lies," we are held responsible for a statement. LEWIS. We cannot assert or deny without a finite verb. BAIN. It is a quaint saying of that quaint, and yet wise, people, the Chinese, that verbs alone are living words. M. SCHELB DE VERB. 43 44 Grammar and Its Reasons The distinction shown to the verb in giving it a name that means the word of the sentence, seems to require that its definition should make plain its super- iority as a sentence element. Yet the statement of many grammars that the verb is "a word which ex- presses being, action, or state," misses the essential fact. In some of the older grammars we read that "the verb is a word that signifies to do, to be, or to suffer," and that "it may be distinguished by its making sense with one of the personal pronouns or the word to before it." Such statements are inade- quate as definitions of the verb. Among ancient grammarians the tense variations attracted attention as one of the most distinguishing features. So Aristotle defined a verb as a word that can express time. For a similar reason the common German word for verb is Zeit-wort, or "time-word." Some grammarians have thought the power to denote action the most conspicuous feature and have given names expressive of the idea of "deed -word." AJ truer thought than any of these, however, is expressed by Madvig, the German author of a celebrated Latin grammar, who designates the verb by a word meaning " ouisayings-word," because it "outsays, asserts, or] delivers the judgment of the mind." The force of this definition is best shown by the logical rather than the grammatical view of the sentence. This is, that the ideas expressed by the subject and predicate terms in every sentence are brought into comparison and the mind asserts or denies the agree- The Verbal Element of the Sentence 45 ment of these ideas. The word which expresses this mental decision is the copula, or true verb. It is the assertive element in every sentence and the presence of this assertive power in any word is the only thing that gives it a true verbal character. In any simple sentence there is only one word in which this assertive , power is lodged. A verb may be logically defined, therefore, as the word which is the copula, or which contains the copula of the judgment. When the verb be is used to express an unchangeable or a general truth, it is a pure copula. In the sentences, "God is good," "A triangle is a plane figure," we find the copula stripped of all extraneous ideas and standing alone as the verb of the sentence. Yet the verbal element is seldom found thus in its naked simplicity. The idea to be predicated has many ways in which it can unite itself with the copulative element. There are also many accessory ideas of mood, tense, etc., to be conveyed, so that the verbal element is frequently almost lost sight of in the host of related ideas with which it is attended. In the sen- tence, "He sings," the verb contains not only the assertive element, but it expresses the action to be predicated as well, with the accessory ideas of time, and the person and number of the subject. But although the student of advanced grammar should recognize the essentially copulative character of the verbal office, the idea that the verb is an " assert- ing" or "stating" word will be sufficient for elementary classes. Even the youngest students can recognize the 46 Grammar and Its Reasons word in the predicate whose omission would remove all power of assertion from the sentence. The objection has been raised that to define a verb as "a word which asserts or states something about a person or thing," is not logical, since in the inter- rogatory or imperative sentence no assertion is made. As a substitute for the assertive idea, some grammarians have proposed the definition, " A verb is a word which when placed with a subject can form a sentence." But this transfers the difficulty of definition to the word sentence. It also excludes the copula is and all cop- ulative and transitive verbs, which cannot form a sentence without the aid of an attribute or object fol- lowing. The seeming impossibility of defining the "verb," without falling back on the logical rather than the grammatical view of the sentence, is an illus- tration of the difficulties that are often encountered in forming accurate, and at the same time simple, defini- tions of grammatical terms. In the verb-phrases which constitute the great major- ity of our English verbal forms, it is the first word alone which has a true verbal character. All the other words are participles and infinitives, which although derived from verbs are grammatically of a different nature. In the sentence " The house might have been burned," the assertive element is wholly within the word might. The predicate idea, however, is distrib- uted throughout the verb-phrase, though centered principally in the participle burned. The logical relations of the words of the predicate The Verbal Element of the Sentence 47 are often difficult to deal with. Yet these difficulties are greatly reduced if the true character of the verb is clearly understood. X VERB COMPLEMENTS The thought imposes its form upon the sentence. WISELY Complements which must be added to make the predicate complete are to be carefully distinguished from words that may be added to make the meaning more precise. BUEHLER. Now, my dear James, if I have succeeded in making clear to you the principle out of which the use of these words . . . . has arisen, I have accomplished a good deal. COBBETT'S GRAMMAR (1818). The three fundamental types of predicate construc- tion may be illustrated as follows: 1. Dogs bark. 2. The child seems happy. 3. John has cut his finger. In the first all the essential elements of the predicate are in the verb itself. Other words may be added but they are simply modifiers and not necessary to the sen- tence construction. In the second and third sentences the verbs cannot be used as predicates without the completing word or "complement"; such verbs are sometimes loosely classed together as "verbs of incomplete predication." But the two types differ essentially both in the character of the verb itself and in the nature and relations of the complement. 48 Verb Complements 49 In the second sentence the verb "seems," though not without some attributive idea, is chiefly a connec- tive or copula for the outside attribute " happy. " Such a verb is called a "copulative verb," and the verbs which are most frequently used in copulative relations are be, become, seem, appear, taste, smell, look, feel, and a few others. There are also a large number of passive verb phrases which (although they contain in them- selves a kind of copula and attribute) are yet used as copulas for an outside term which is the real attribute of the sentence. Such are "is made," "is chosen," is thought," etc., as, "Washington was elected Presi- dent of the United States." Attribute complements are of many kinds. Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, participles, infinitive phrases, and clauses, may all be used in this relation, as follows : He is a man. This is he. She seems happy. He was greatly admired. This is to be deplored. The fact is that it is impossible. The attribute complement is always subjective in character. If it is a noun or pronoun it means the same thing as the subject. If it is an adjective, it ex- presses a quality or attribute of this thing. In the first and third types of predicate, the verbs bark and has cut alike contain the copula and the chief part of the idea to be predicated. But bark is a com- plete verb. Has cut differs from bark in being also 50 Grammar and Its Reasons transitive; that is, it expresses an action which is car- ried over from the doer to a passive recipient that must also be named in order that the meaning shall be com- plete. Some grammarians distinguish between a "true intransitive verb/' by which they mean one that never takes an object, and a "transitive verb used absolutely;" that is, one usually transitive but used in a given case without an object. But grammatical classification is according to the function of a word in the sentence where it occurs. The omission of the object changes slightly the character of the verb itself, making it more general in meaning. It seems most logical to follow the classification made by those grammarians who would call all the verbs intransitive in such a sentence as "The man eats, laughs, and sleeps." A verb usually intransitive may also be made transitive with an object of kindred signification called the "cognate object," as "He laughed a loud laugh." The complement of a transitive verb is always ob- jective in character. After a reflexive verb, as " I hurt myself," it means the same thing as the subject, but this is still thought of as outside and objective. The object complement ranks higher than the adverbial modifier since it is necessary to the predicate construction. All verb complements belong to the basic part of the sentence. The subject, verb, and complement are all needed to make the sentence structure complete. Object complements as well as attributes, vary greatly, and the different types of objects will be considered later. Verb Complements 51 Both object and attribute complements offer many stumbling blocks to beginners in grammar. But if the three essential types of predicate construction are thor- oughly mastered early in the course, many of the diffi- culties of grammatical analysis will already have been conquered. XI THE OBJECTIVE CONSTRUCTIONS Many verbs take two substantives; the proper object, or the accusative, and an object of reference to which the action is directed, or the dative. TRANSLATED FROM MADVIG'S LATIN GRAMMAR. The dative denotes in general the person or thing more remotely connected with an action. TRANSLATED FROM CURTIUS'S GREEK GRAMMAR. There is hardly anything more interesting than to see how the laws of grammar, which seem at first sight so hard and arbitrary, are simply the laws of the expression of logical relations in concrete form. EVERETT. The word object in grammar has many varieties of technical meaning. The noun or pronoun that completes the meaning of a transitive verb by naming the receiver of the action is the object of the verb. Participles and infinitives share with verbs the power to take objects. Objects are the most important verb modifiers. They belong to the basic part of the predicate. The term object also is applied to a noun or pronoun connected by a preposition as a subordinate to some other word. Objects of verbs and objects of prepositions are alike in one respect they must be in the objective (i. e. the accusative) case if the word used has such a case. Both of these kinds of objects are easy to recog- 52 The Objective Constructions 53 nize. But there are related constructions that are more difficult. There is the indirect or "dative" object, as "I give you my hand." It has many subtle marks which may or may not all be present in a given case. If the indirect object follows the direct, it requires the preposition to, or for, as " I give my hand to you." In a few cases the preposition is required even when the in- direct object precedes the direct, as "I accepted for you the invitation." The direct and indirect objects are sometimes spoken of as the primary and secondary objects of the verb. In, "They sent him a book," book is directly related to the verb, but the relation of him is rather to the whole predicate; that is, the sending of the book was to him . The indirect object usually denotes a person, while the direct object usually means a thing. The indirect ob j ect is not always a personal word however, as, Give thy thoughts no tongue. SHAKESPEARE. There are also cases in which the object denoting the person is nearly direct, and the one meaning the thing becomes indirect (or nearly adverbial) with the pre- position of. Thus, "They told me the circumstances," by a slight change becomes " They told me of the cir- cumstances." If either of the two objects is used without the other it is direct, as, "I paid John wages." " I paid John." " I paid wages." But in most instances the indirect object could not be used without the other. 54 Grammar and Its Reason* The indirect object in I^itin and some other languages takes the dative case, and this was formerly true in English, but in modern English the objective case covers both the accusative and dative uses. The verbs ask, teach and a few others in Latin give the accusative form to the object denoting the person as well as to that de- noting the thing. For this reason, Kimball's grammar and a few others call both objects after teach direct in English as well as in Latin, saying also that teach has a different meaning with the two objects. Yet there is little in English to distinguish the two objects after teach from the usual construction of direct and indirect objects. It is true that in comparing the two sentences, "He taught John the lesson," and "He gave John a book" we feel that the thought relation of John to the verb is closer in the first sentence than in the second. Yet in the first sentence John and lesson are not co- ordinate objects, nor equal in their relations to taught. The object denoting the person after teach has a measure of indirectness in English, even though in Latin such a word would take the accusative case. The truth seems to be that there are many degrees of indirectness in the objective relation of a noun. The indirect object may be thought of as an intermediate construction shading all the way from an object that is nearly direct to one which is scarcely different from an adverbial phrase, so that it is sometimes difficult to see precisely where the line should be drawn on either side. An indirect object can follow a passive verb, the noun that would be the direct object of the active voice being The Objective Constructions 55 made the subject, as, "An apple was given me." In the case of a few verbs the indirect object can also be made the subject of the passive voice, while the direct object remains as a "retained object," after the verb, as "I was given an apple." This construction is pecu- liar to English, and even in English it is not usually so good as the regular form of the passive sentence. The use of the indirect object as the subject of the passive seems to have come into English through the medium of such verbs as ask, teach, etc., which in Latin and other languages take two accusatives. But the usage has extended itself to a few other verbs as well. A pronoun is sometimes added to a verb as an in- direct expletive object, referring to some person that may be supposed to be interested in the action, as, He kills me six or seven dozen Scots at a breakfast. He claps you an iron cap on head. CABLYLE. This construction was common in early English. There is another important kind of objective con- struction that is unfortunately known by many names, among which are factitive object, and objective comple- ment, predicate or attribute. The factitive object follows a direct object and sustains to it an attributive or predi- cate relation, so that both parts are necessary to com- plete the meaning of the verb. The name double object has sometimes been given to the direct object with this complementary (or attributive) objective term. This factitive object (or objective attribute, predicate, etc.) may be a noun or pronoun, an adjective, a participle, 56 Grammar and Its Reasons an infinitive, or an infinitive copula followed by an adjective or noun. Examples : They made him captain. They thought him wise. They saw him running. They asked him to stay. They begged him to be merciful. In changing a sentence containing an objective at- tribute to the passive voice the verb becomes a copula- tive phrase, the direct object is made the subject and the objective attribute becomes the attribute of the sen- tence, as He was made captain. In such sentences as "They begged him to be merci- ful," him is in a sense (and is often called) the subject of the following infinitive, but it is its relation to begged rather than to the infinitive that determines its case form. The sentence "They asked him to stay" is not very different from "They asked him a favor." The line between the construction of direct and indirect object, and that of objective attribute is not always very dis- tinct. The objective attribute may be thought of as filling out the meaning of a transitive verb which is not of itself able to express fully the action performed on its object. Thus, "Ice keeps the water cool" i. e. "Ice keeps cool the water." The objective constructions present many difficulties The Objective Constructions 57 to students of English. But if the main types are well understood a careful comparison with these types will usually show clearly to which class a given construction belongs. XII SUBJECT AND PREDICATE NOUNS Position does by no means necessarily conform to the order of thought. WELSH. Welcome from the student the widest range of interpreta- tion of the sentence under examination. The syntax may often assume several different aspects as the thought ia capable of being conceived in different shades of meaning. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the subject and predicate nouns of a sentence. Such a case seldom occurs, however, except in interrogative and inverted sentences, or where a rhetorical element pre* vails. In a purely definitive sentence the predicate noun ha^ the relation of a genus to the species named by the subject, as "Dogs are intelligent animals." In manj other cases the subject represents an individual and the predicate term shows the species to which it belongs, as "Caesar is a dog." In all such sentences the predi- cate noun has a meaning which is wider in its extent than that of the subject, and the two are clearly differ- entiated. But there are cases where the two terms are equally specific or equally generic, and therefore of equal extent in their meaning, as "A mirror is a looking-glass." 58 Subject and Predicate Nouns 59 In such cases the presumption would naturally be in favor of making the first term the subject. Yet in poetical or highly rhetorical sentences there is some- times a chance for difference of opinion. The general principle to be applied seems to be that the subject represents an idea in the speaker's mind that is supposed to be unknown to the hearer or regard- ing which some unknown fact is to be communicated. In "The wages of sin is death," is the speaker trying to show what constitutes death, or is it the wages of sin whose character is to be revealed ? If the latter, then wages of sin, being the unknown term, is the subject of the sentence. An interrogative pronoun which introduces a ques- tion may stand either as the subject or the predicate term. Who will be our messenger? James will be our messenger. Who was Plato? Plato was a Greek philosopher. The answers to these questions show that who is the subject in the first interrogative sentence, but the predi- cate term in the second. But there are sentences in literature in which either term might be construed as subject, though the thought would differ slightly in the two cases. In "Alfred Austin is the Poet Laureate," a change in emphasis would change the relation of the subject and predicate terms. 60 Grammar and Its Reasons A similar ambiguity between the subject and the object of a verb sometimes occurs. An inversion which places the object in advance is sometimes admissible. Yet (especially if both words are nouns) it may create an uncertainty as to the true relations. In the words of Professor Bain, "It is by this construction that we can practice oracular ambiguity, as *The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose.' Several years ago the New England Journal of Edu- cation published an article by Paul Standish, giving the opinions of noted persons as to the subject and object in a well-known line of Gray's Elegy : And all the air a solemn stillness holds. In presenting the question to his readers, the writer says, "Don't be too positive in your reply. Wiser > heads than ours differ in their opinion, and always will. If you are sure now that it is air that holds the stillness, the probability is that in five minutes you will be inn clined to believe that it is stillness that holds the air and you are liable to get into a frame of mind where you have no opinion whatever on the subject." Of seventy-six replies to this question from high authorities in the educational and literary world, thirty-nine favored stillness, twenty-six favored air, and eleven were in doubt. One noted Massachusetts judge after expressing a positive opinion, added : " P. S. On further reflection I am on the fence." Such instances as these may well remind the gram- marian not to be over positive in his opinion. Both Subject and Predicate Nouns 61 interpretations may sometimes be correct. Many a writer has written sentences of larger import than he himself knew in penning them. In the discussion of the subtler questions of syntax, it is not the decision reached that is of chief importance. It is the power of thinking gained by the effort to compare and discriminate the relations of a thought that is of truest educational value. XIII INFLECTIONS The old wealth of forms is now thrown aside as a dis- pensable burden. SCHLEICHER. " The exhibition of the system of English inflection must constitute the main part of an English grammar. But we are not to import unreal distinctions out of a foreign tongue or theoretical distinctions out of a system of logic." How bare whether too bare is another question we have stripped ourselves. TRENCH. The English, which from the mode of its formation by a mixture of different tongues, has been stripped of its grammatical inflections more completely than any other European language, seems nevertheless, even to a foreigner, to be distinguished by energetic eloquence Yet it cannot be overlooked that this copiousness of gram- matical forms [in Greek] and the fine shades of meaning which they express, evince a nicety of observation and a faculty of distinguishing which unquestionably prove that the race of mankind among whom these arose was character- ized by a remarkable correctness and subtlety of thought. .... In the ancient languages the words with their inflec- tions, clothed as it were with muscles and sinews, come forward like living bodies full of expression and character, while in the modern tongues the words seem shrunk up into mere skeletons. OTFRIED MULLER'S LITERATURE OP GREECE. The chief ideas now expressed by English inflection are seven: number, person, time, comparison, ownership, the 62 Inflections 63 subject relation and the object relation. No one word con- tains all these ideas. LEWIS. The most elaborate system of inflection still leaves some- ' thing unexpressed. BAIN. The Anglo-Saxon, which is the basis of the English tongue, was a highly inflected language. But the Nor- man Conquest, besides bringing into English a large vocabulary of new words, inaugurated the long process by which the structure of the language itself was radi- cally changed. It has been said that "A French family settled in England and edited the English language." Perhaps the truer statement would be that the Normans found it too much trouble to learn the Saxon inflections and so ignored them. At any rate most of the old Saxon terminations gradually disappeared, and with these some of the "governments and agreements" that de- pend upon inflection disappeared also. By the end of the fourteenth century the process was nearly com- pleted, and the invention of printing during the follow- ing century established the general fixity of forms that has prevailed since that era. Inflection is the general name for all grammatical changes in the forms of words. These changes are produced as a rule by adding various terminations to the stem or root; but changes within the words, as mouse plural mice, are also called inflections. Inflectional phenomena are of two kinds, living and dead. Certain inflections have become fixed for specific words, but are no longer used in making new forms 64 Grammar and its Reasons as, who, whose, whom. Others are freely used to make forms of new words after a prescribed pattern as the plural in s, or past tenses in ed. The name Declension has been given to a tabulated statement of the inflectional forms of a substantive. The word comes from a fanciful device, that seems almost childish to modern minds, in which an upright line represented the nominative case, and declining lines the other cases, as A summary of the inflectional forms of a verb is called its " conjugation." There is very little of conjugation belonging to modern English verbs. The name of each specific inflection, as person, case, mood, etc., has had a somewhat indeterminate value in grammatical usage, and has been variously defined as a form, property, distinction, condition, etc. That there is some inherent reason for this lack of unity in defini- tion must be acknowledged. Some of the so-called inflections seem to extend themselves to cover subtle relations where the true inflection is wanting. It need not be thought strange that there has been wide divers- Inflections 65 ity among grammarians regarding the treatment of the inflections. But the sensible way of dealing with the subject is that which is adopted by most modern text-books. Case, number, mood, etc., are regarded as genuine in- flections, that is, as true grammatical changes in the forms of words themselves. Only such are named as are really to be found in English words. The student should be an investigator in this field, searching for all the traces of these inflectional forms which he can find. Yet, as he discovers certain "agreements" where the form of the governing word is non-committal, the idea of a subtle property that goes beyond the formal inflec- tion is awakened in his mind. A knowledge of Latin, or some other inflected lan- guage, though not a substitute for the English study, is of great help here. As the student grasps the larger knowledge which historical and comparative grammar can throw upon these questions, the remnants of the English inflections gain a wider interest and are appre- hended with truer value. XIV GOVERNMENT AND AGREEMENT The repetition of the inflection of a head-word in its ad- junct-word is called concord, and the words are said to agree in whatever grammatical form they have in common. SWEET. Rules are the elastic expression of the custom of a language. Independent. Rules have been laid down which never had any existence outside of the minds of the grammarians and verbal critics. LOUNSBURY. Concord is not a necessity of language; while in the de- gree that it prevails in Latin and in Greek, it is a serious in- cumbrance. BAIN. The verb needs not, and generally does not, agree with its nominative case in number and person, active verbs do not govern the objective case or any other, prepositions do not govern the objective case or any other. RICHARD GRANT WHITE. To parse agreement whenever a distinct form of the verb marks a particular number (as in are and were) or when- ever a distinct form marks a particular person and number (as in am, is, and loves) and to say nothing about agreement when there is no such distinct form , is the simple rule that we would urge upon teachers. TOLMAN. A verb must not disagree with its subject in number and person. LEWIS. In an abridgment of Murray's grammar that 66 Government and Agreement C7 extensively used in the earlier half of the nineteenth century, after the twenty-one rules of syntax, with their numerous notes and exceptions, we find a " Synopsis of Syntax" divided into the two sections of "Concord" and "Government." Under "Concord" are given rules showing that articles, substantives, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have "agreement" with other words to which they relate. Under "Government" it is shown that substantives, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, participles, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections all of the parts of speech, in fact, except adverbs may govern other words. Doubtless all of these rules have an element of truth in them. The first rule under "Concord" states that "Articles agree with nouns in number, " which seems to be a large generalization from the fact that a or an because of its meaning, belongs always to a singular noun. Another rule states that "Adjectives and adjective pronouns generally agree in number with the substan- tives to which they belong"; which is also a very com- prehensive statement, for the fact that this and that have plural forms; and that few, several, many, and some other adjectives because of their meaning belong to plural nouns, while each and every belong to singular nouns. But the modern grammarian feels that it would be better to state the specific fact in relation to these words, than to try to cover these individual points by a universal statement. 68 Grammar and Its Reasons That the English language has something of govern- ment and agreement should be made clear. In the sentences, "The man laughs," "The men laugh," the noun "governs" the number and person of the verb, and conversely the verb "agrees" with its subject. Full recognition of all such facts should be given in grammar. The facts of government that can be stated as princi- ples are these : A copula takes the same case after it as before it. In the case of a finite verb this will be the nominative; in infinitive phrases it is objective. Transitive verbs and prepositions "govern" the objective case. An antecedent governs the number, person, and gender of the following pronoun, and a subject governs its verb in number and person. Conversely, the facts of concord are these: Verbs agree with subjects in person and number, anJ pronouns agree with their antecedents in number and gender. An attribute complement (except in im- personal sentences such as "It is they") agrees with its subject in number, gender, and case. But while each of the foregoing statements is someJ times true, it is only applicable when the word to be governed has the requisite properties that make it gov-< ernable, and in modern English these occasions are sol rare that they are the exception rather than the rule! of the language. The older English had far more of government aiul Government and Agreement C9 agreement than modern English has. Latin and Greek and the modern European languages also have more. The relations of words in Latin are shown by these agreements, but in English the logical relations are discovered by other means than word forms. Ar- rangement and emphasis have large, though subtle, effects in fixing these word relations. We must still recognize "concord" and "govern- ment" as facts of the English language. But we may wisely forbear to use so large a mould for holding our grammatical truths as the rules of agreement in the older grammars. XV PERSON Person is the foundation of the conception of the pro- noun. It can only be attributed to nouns, of which it is no proper function. It belongs to verbs only by transfer from pronouns, the personal endings of the verbs being all orig- inally affixed pronouns. JOYNES. The want of the so-called verbal inflections for number and person can hardly be considered an imperfection in the English language; for inflection, though it may reduce the number of words, gives us no greater precision, but, on the contrary, less force in these respects than may be obtained by the use of auxiliary pronouns and other determinatives. MARSH. It is no real wealth to a language to have needless and superfluous forms. TRENCH. In an abridgment of Murray's Grammar in com- mon use in the earlier half of the century, the subject of grammatical person is briefly treated as follows : " / is the first person. Thou is the second person. He, she, or it is the third person." This little text-book of a past generation has some elaborations which seem to darken counsel by an ex- cess of grammatical illumination. But in the sim- plicity of its treatment of person, we believe that it might point a moral for some modern grammarians who wrestle with the disputed question whether per- 70 Person 71 son is an "accident," a "distinction," a " proper! \ an "inflection," or a what-not of certain parts of speech. After all, what is there of person in English besides the name of a small class of pronouns, and a few verbal forms which agree with these pronouns ? We might add that since the third person of the verb is also used with noun subjects and with the in- declinable pronouns, there is a remote sense in which these words also may be accredited with something of grammatical person. The three persons of the pronoun are not really an inflection of a part of speech. They are distinct words with which this personal idea is associated. The only inflection of person that exists in English is the small remnant that is found in verbs. There are two forms for the third person singular in the present tense, a modern form ending in s, and an ancient one in th or eth. There is also a second person singular used with the subject thou in all tenses. Though too archaic for common use, this is still the approved form for prayer and for poetry, and should be thoroughly familiar. The verb be has more of person than other verbs; yet the number of its personal forms is not large. They are very important, however, as they are in constant use both as principal verbs and as auxiliaries. The syntax of the subject of person is chiefly con- tained in the following rule: "A verb and its subject must agree in person and in number, when both have 72 Grammar and Its Reasons the requisite person and number." The rule is an im- portant and rigid one, but its applications are com- paratively few, as verbs seldom have "the requisite person and number." There is another rule of syntax (or perhaps of polite- ness) less important than the other, which as-i^ns the following order of precedence to the grammatical per- sons in compound phrases: You, and he, and I. There is also a principle of agreement in case of a compound antecedent, which is illustrated by the following sentences: You and I will take our books. You and he will take your books. But the inflection and syntax of grammatical per- son is a short subject if we do not weigh it down by unnecessary rules and definitions. XVI NUMBER To Singular Nouns we always add an (s) When we the Plural Number wou'd express; Or (es) for more delightful easie sound Whene'er the Singular to end is found tin (x) or (z) (ch) (sh) or (s) (Ce) (ge) when they their softer sound express. SiR RICHARD STEELE'S GRAMMAR, 1712, DEDICATED TO THE QUEEN. As there is a common gender so there ought to have been a common or neutral number. BAIN. "Grammatical phenomena are of two kinds, living and dead. The living are still freely used to form new inflected and derived words on the pattern of those already existing, as the plural s." English like most other languages has two numbers, the singular which expresses one-ness (or else leaves the number indefinite, as "The lion is the King of bmsts") and the plural which expresses more-than- ono-ness. A few languages have also a dual number r< \ssing two-ness, and this was true of Old English. In languages having a dual number the plural expres inorc-than-two-ness. Thus in Old English the plural we implied at least three persons, "we-two" being Dressed by an ancient dual form "wit." A remnant of the old English dual number is found in the word 73 74 Grammar and Its Reasons twain and its contracted form twin, the latter having a newly formed plural twins. Another trace of the distinction between dual and plural is found in the reciprocal pronoun phrases "each other" and "one .mother." Number is the most widely extended of all the in- flections. It belongs to most nouns, to the personal pronouns, to soim verbal forms, and to the adjectives ////* and that. This range does not seem very large, however, and beyond tliis we look in vain for the gram- matical inflection of number. The regular plurals in English now end in s. To conform to certain laws of spelling or of euphony the termination is often es, as, ladies, taxes. After x 9 sh, ch, s, and other sibilant sounds this must be pro- nounced as a separate syllable. The so-called irregular plurals are mostly survivals of old Saxon regular forms. They are not to be thought of as defects but should be explained and classified. There are the strong plurals formed by an internal change, as teeth, mice. These were formerly more numerous than at present. Another form of Saxon plural is found in oxen. Some plurals in n that v> ere formerly in use may still be heard in some parts of England and Scotland, as hosen, shoon. A few forms >how the results of mixed processes, as children, brethren. Thus child had an old plural childer, and the present form combines this with the plural inflection in n. Notwithstanding its larger extent, number seems, Number 75 at first thought, to be the simplest of the inflections. Certainly, the main rule for plurals of nouns is easy to' be understood and can be learned by children at an early age. Yet when the specific and exceptional rules have also been mastered, the teacher may well feel that a large territory has been covered. There are nouns ending in y, o, f, and fe to be considered. There are old English plurals, and foreign plurals, nouns with two plurals and with no plurals, nouns which are com- pound words, and those consisting of a title and a name together, all of these requiring special In -at merit. Among the nouns ending in /, it will be noticed that those that retain the / in the plural are mostly Norman French, as chiefs, while those that have ves are Saxon in origin, as wives. Beef, however, is an exception. Its plural beeves suggests an analogy with the Latin bor News and tidings, now singular, were originally treated as plurals. Thus Roger Ascham wrote (15.50) "There are many news." Wages, dregs, pains, ashes and other words have all been treated in both ways. A large class of plurals is made up of the names of par as tongs, reins, snuffers, etc. These are sometimes called false plurals. It is often well to use the word pair with these and give the phrase its true singular construction as, "A pair of scissors." Many foreign words introduced into EiurliMi have brought their plurals with them, as phenomena, foci. The grammar student should classify these foreign plurals according to the principles of the languages from which they come. 76 Grammar and Its Reasons But it is no part of the purpose of this book to set forth specifically the irregularities of English number. These are included in every text-book in grammar and are discussed minutely in the orthographic chapters of the dictionaries. The subject is an important one, but the forms are to be learned chiefly in the constructive lessons of elementary language teaching rather than as a part of the science of grammar. After the study of number forms, comes the syntax of number. Verbs must be kept in proper agreement, with special attention given to cases where the subject is a collective noun, or is accompanied by a modifier. The agreement of the pronoun with its antecedent requires careful consideration, especially when the possessive forms are used, as "Each of them took his books." In some instances the number form of the verb is determined by the general sense to be conveyed, rather than by the number form of the subject, as " Bread and milk is good food for children." This is especially true when a collective noun is limited by a following phrase, as "A large number of the men were disappointed." There are many words and phrases that contain a hovering sense of either singular or plural, so that per- sonal judgment is sometimes a factor in determining the form to be used, as " Already a train or two (has ? have?) come in." But such questions should usually be avoided by a change in construction. Many passages in literature might be quoted in which the number agreement is different from that Number 77 which modern English requires, as "How many num- bers is in nouns ? Two. ' ' Shakespeare. Shall we say "Twice two are four," or "is four?" Is "Measles are prevalent," or "is prevalent/' correct form of speech? These and kindred qi. tions are often presented to the grammarian, v sometimes has to fling himself free from the tendency to hair-splitting and belittling discussions, and enter larger fields of linguistic thought. What is the plural of tailor's goose? Is it geese or gooses? This is an example of a class of grammatical questions that are often asked. The story is told of a tailor who avoided the question by writing his order for two of these useful implements as follows: Wanted one goose. Also another goose. And was he not right ? " Good style" avoids even the appearance of grammatical incongruity. Yet another has rightly said, " The plural of tailor's goose is goose- irons. 9 ' Number is a grammatical property that must be dealt with, and many specific points must be noted. Yet the wise student will not linger too long over its minute details but pass on to larger investigations of more broadening grammatical truths. xvn GENDER English surpasses in the simplicity of gender all other languages, and has established its claim to be the most philo- sophic among idioms. M. SCHELE DE VERB. Latin has the English gender distinction by sex, and in addition to it (but not in conflict with it) the system of gen- der by endings. Only those nouns which have no gender according to the English Syntax, are divided into masculine, feminine, and neuter endings. HARPER AND BURGESS. "Young nations, and those having a lively imagination impute sex to many lifeless objects. Thus the Algonquin tribes, as well as the German nation have many facts of gen- der that come from the imaginary world in which the people are inclined to dwell. * * * But English is a practical business-like language." Sex, whether fanciful or real, has no proper connection with gender. STRONG, LOGEMAN AND WHEELER. Gender is no natural distinction in language. PEILE'S PHILOLOGY. Nothing hinders us from supposing that grammatical gender originally meant something quite different from sex. JESPEBSEN. "In Germany, a gentleman writes a masculine letter of feminine love to a neuter young lady, with a feminine pen and feminine ink on masculine sheets of neuter paper, and encloses it in a masculine envelope with a feminine address to his darling, though neuter, Gretchen. He has a masculine head, a feminine hand and a neuter heart. A masculine 78 Gender 79 father and a feminine mother have neuter children. They eat neuter bread, feminine butter and masculine cheese." Those who are born to the English idiom and are blessed in the absence of nominal gender in their mother tongue cannot help looking at its existence in other languages as a useless complication of linguistic machinery. STARCK. The lack of grammatical gender in English has enriched the language with poetical gender. The figure of personifi- cation is denied to languages having nominal gender. JOYNES. Gender in modern English is a very different gram- matical property from that which belongs to most inflected languages. The office of gender forms in English is to show sex. Yet in general grammar, gender is usually a matter of the form of a word and of its agreements with other words, and seems only remotely connected with the idea of sex. Many scholars believe that the gender forms of general grammar were originally sex forms, and that they came into use by poetically attributing sex-qualities to inanimate objects. This is a matter of conjecture, however, rather than of proof. Jesperson and some other recent writers on language have expressed doubts as to whether this is the true origin of grammatical gender. If gender in English be considered strictly as an in- flection it belongs exclusively to a very small number of nouns, such as actor, actress. Even these might per- haps be ruled out as being two words having the same root, rather than grammatical forms of the same word. Somewhere in the English language course, whether under the head of grammar or of word formation, the 80 Grammar and Its Reasons student needs to become acquainted with the feminine suffixes. The most important of these is ess, used in certain titles of nobility for a wife who shares the honors of her husband, as baron, baroness; also in a few cases it indicates a woman who holds in her own right an occupation or character that may belong to either sex, as prophetess; heiress. Ine in heroine, a in sultana, trix in executrix, are also feminine suffixes that have come into English from various sources, but are not used in new formations. Ess is the only living feminine suffix, that is, the only one that can be used to make new word forms, and this is very rarely done. Most of the sex ideas in nouns are expressed by "gender-equivalents" a name sometimes given to the large class of words that denote sex by the use of different words, instead of by a change in termination. Such are boy, girl; youth, maiden; cock, hen; uncle, aunt; father, mother; and most important of all, the singular pronouns of the third person, he, she, and it. To these must be added various titles that have sex signification, and also the various compound words which are made to serve the same end, as he-goat, she- goat. The use of the personal pronoun with a noun to show gender is peculiar to English; but the awkward- ness of the construction has led to its gradual abandon- ment. The older writers used it frequently. Such combinations as he-friend, she-condition, may be met with in the older English writings. Thus Fuller speaks of a she-saint, and she-devils, and Shakspeare writes " Be brief, my good she-Mercury." Gender 81 Early English uses many gender-forms. But his- torical changes have so modified the language as almost to justify the sweeping declaration of Richard Grant White: "There is no vestige of gender in English. We simply do not call a woman a man, or a bull a cow." Historical grammar shows many interesting facts of changes in English gender. In old English masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns were marked by different endings, and articles and adjectives had agreeing gen- der forms. Some of these old gender nouns have come down to us, but bearing no longer any gender distinc- tions. Nouns in dom as freedom, were originally mas- culine. Ung, nes, (now ing and ness) were feminine endings, as in greeting, goodness. Some diminutives in en as maiden, chicken were neuter. But en was also a feminine ending, as found to-day in vixen. Ster was another old feminine ending that has come down to us in spinster. Many words were formed with this suffix, as : Mas. Fern. seamer seamster baker bakester brewer brewster. In the fourteenth century ess began to replace ster as a feminine suffix and ster began to acquire a masculine signification, as in huckster, songster, teamster, and youngster. New feminines were then formed from some of these words, producing such hybrids as song- stress, seamstress. By the Elizabethan period ess had become the com- 82 Grammar and Its Reasons mon feminine suffix. Most of the feminines com- pounded with ess have now gone by, one form being used for both genders. The grammars of the early part of the nineteenth century give many such feminine forms as, teacher ess, doctor ess, sculptress that are now wholly obsolete. Even during the last generation the words authoress, poetess and negress have fallen into disuse. Most of the names of classes that are formed on mental or moral qualities have no gender distinc- tions, as saint, sinner, thief, friend, genius, schemer. In very ancient English writings, however, such words as saintess, synneress, occur. The modern practice is to ignore the feminine form whenever sex is immaterial to the character or office itself. On this principle such words as authoress, postmistress, executrix seem to be unnecessary. Actress is justified, however, by the habit of engaging women for women's parts. One important part of the teacher's work in dealing with gender is to show the present usage with regard to such words, so that those forms and those only, may be em- ployed, which belong to the reputable usage of the mod- ern age. Although the etymology of gender includes many facts about nouns, the syntax of gender belongs almost exclusively to the three little pronouns he, she, and it, and their relations to other words. In regard to these pronouns, gender, though not an inflection, is an import- ant "grammatical distinction," denoting the natural distinction of sex which belongs to living objects. Yet the neuter pronoun is as much "a gender" as the Gender 83 others, since it also shows a grammatical distinct!* H regarding sex. The word "common" as applied to gender since there is no common sex is omitted from many modern grammars. Yet it is a convenient term to apply occasionally to such words as cousin, fricml, culprit, etc., which can stand as antecedent to pronouns of either gender according to the application of tie word. An obsolete term, epicene, found in ancient grammars, was applied to animal names, which, while strictly of one gender, were made to cover both sexes. The English language claims the right to apply the terms he and she to inanimate objects, and personifica- tion is a frequent and forceful rhetorical figure both in speech and writing. Nouns have a small share in the syntax of gender since they require the pronouns to "hark back" to them- selves as antecedents for the justification of their gender-forms. This is as true of the nouns which are not "gender-words" as of the others; so in a sense, most nouns may be said to be of the neuter gender. The syntax of gender, though not large, requires careful attention. The rule for the agreement of the pronoun with its antecedent is the only important gram- matical rule that belongs to gender. But the appli< a- tions of this rule involve some knotty points. One of the chief of these is the choice of pronoun when singular antecedent applies equally to the two sex Usage in this case generally takes the masculine as tl e representative of both. There are cases, however, when the feminine is used, as being most representative 84 Grammar and Its Reasons of the class; as "The teacher instructs her children." But there are other cases 111 which each pronoun seems objectionable. For these, common (or vulgar) usage often employs the plural pronoun, which is ungram- matical, although some writers have contended for it as the best that can be done. Others have seriously proposed the introduction of a new pronoun to fill this "felt want." But new grammatical words must be a "language growth" and not a cunning invention. Some writers try to avoid the difficulty by the use of one as a pronoun that may have either gender, but this, if often repeated, will easily become tedious. In the sentence "John or Ellen has lost his or her pencil," both ambiguity and grammatical inaccuracy have been avoided. Yet the awkwardness of the construction is certainly a rhetorical if not a grammatical fault. The fact remains that English, with all its virtues, is not a perfect language. It has its own limitations, and when we are brought face to face with them, we are constrained to make a circumlocution, thus avoiding the point at issue; or else " among several evils to choose the least." xvm CASE Case is the subject, perhaps not of the greatest difficulty in grammar, but of the greatest confusion. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. The Finnish language has fourteen cases, but I do not suppose that it can do more or indeed as much with its fourteen as the Greek is able to do with its five. TRENCH. Case classification is of necessity in some measure arbi- trary, and should be made as the best practicable compromise of thought analysis on the one hand and of form analysis on the other. In this view it seems best to limit the English cases to four. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. The objective case in English does duty both for the ac- cusative and the dative of other languages. MASON. There is no noun in our language which really has an ob- jective case. Still, partly by analogy with the pronouns, and partly because many other languages related with Eng- lish and even the English itself in earlier times, do distin- guish the object from the subject in nouns as well as in pro- nouns, we usually speak of nouns as having an objective case. WHITNEY. The objective of nouns is not merely a figment as regards the speech of to-day; it is something which the language has rejected. It represents the Egypt from which we have come out. It is, therefore, not a harmless fiction; it is a harmful falsehood. TOLMAN. We should treat English as precisely what it is, not as it would be if it were Latin or any other language. WHITNEY. 85 86 Grammar and Its Reasons There are only seven words in the English language which show any difference between the nominative and the objective case. These are I, we, thou, he, she, they, and who. When we remember that two of these are plurals of another two; that thou has only a limited or archaic use; that he and she may be regarded as gender forms of the same pronoun; and still further, that the change from / to me, we to us, etc., is not a true inflection since it is not made by adding a new suffix to a common root we are forced to acknowledge that the inflection of case in English has a very limited extension indeed. The languages of the world differ greatly in the number of their cases. Professor Whitney notes that the Scythian tongue had from fifteen to twenty cases. The French language, on the other hand, has advanced even further than English in the rejection of case forms, Even the possessive case of nouns is lacking and the preposition de is used instead. Old English had six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, vocative, accusative, and instrumental (similar to the ablative, using by or with.) These were distin- guished by case-endings, and the definite article and adjective had also a declension of agreeing case forms. Case in those days was no trivial matter in English. All the relations that belonged to these cases are slill found in English syntax. But the dative and instru- mental cases have lost their case-endings and become for the most part prepositional phrases. The vocative case is now merely the name of the person addressed, Case 87 with perhaps the interjection O prefixed. Even the accusative case is not distinct from the nominal i except in the seven little pronouns aforesaid. Ancient grammarians, however, following the analogy of the old English, or perhaps that of the Latin gram- mars, contrived to recognize more cases than the in- flectional forms gave evidence of. Thus the "greatly improved grammar" of Thomas Coar, published in London in 1796, had diagrams like the following. Declension of house: Sing. Plu. Nom. a house. houses. Gen. of a house. of houses. Dat. to a house. to houses. Ace. a house. houses. Voc. O house. O houses. Abl. with a house. with houses. Modern grammars have shown great differences in their treatment of case. Some avoid a strict definition of the term. Thus one grammar says : " Case denotes the relation which a noun sustains to other words in the sentence, expressed sometimes by its termination, and sometimes by its position." The number of cases given in different English text- books varies all the way from zero to the original six. Even the recognition of the possessive as a case of nouns has been thought by some to be unnecessn That nouns have a "possessive form" no one would deny, but the appropriateness of the word "case" for this adjective form of the noun is not universally 88 Grammar and Its Reasons conceded. Wallis and some other grammarians dis- tinctly call the possessive form of a noun or pronoun an adjective. It is certainly easier to teach children the meaning and use of the termination 's, than to teach the idea of case, and to justify the term by its application to the possessive. Many grammarians, following the analogy of English pronouns, have fixed upon three cases for nouns, not as the necessary fact, but as the most convenient number. Thus Goold Brown writes, " It was a subject of dispute how many cases a noun shall be supposed to have. Public opinion is now clear that it is expedient to assign to English nouns three cases and no more." The relations which a noun can hold must be fully studied. But this is another subject. These relations are many, but since they are not distinguished by dif- ferences in form the attempt to define the case idea in connection with these noun relations can only lead to confusion. The illustrations of case in English must be drawn mostly from the pronouns. Personal pronouns have, as a rule, three grammatical case-forms. These should be fully known, as well as the relations which each may hold. This gives a cer- tain amount of "syntax of case" which, however, belongs to the pronouns rather than to English nouns. The question whether there can be any "property" of case which does not show itself in the form of the word is too subtle to be discussed abstractly with young students. In the sentence " He gave it to the minister, him with the long white hair," it will be seen that the Case 89 case of the appositive pronoun is determined by the objective relation of the preceding noun. But surli usage is rare in English and it can be treated simply as a matter of relationship without ascribing an "object! case" to the noun itself. To sum up our conclusions: If the element of visible form were wholly lacking we should not speak of "case" in English. The only cases that the elementary student needs to consider are the three case-forms of seven little pronouns, and the possessive form which belongs to nouns. When the student is sufficiently advanced to deal with abstract questions and is familiar with other languages in which case has a somewhat different bearing, he may perhaps profitably discuss the question whether case is (as it has been variously defined) an "inflection," a "property," a "relation," or a "con- dition;" or whether, as one grammarian has laboriously informed us, "Case is the medium of distinction u to describe by the relation of a name or a substitute to other words, the relation of an object or idea to some fact or event, or of one object to another." XIX THE POSSESSIVE CASE The Possessive Case is really another part of speech. It does not represent the noun in its strict use, as the subject or object of a sentence. It is purely a qualifying word, and makes the nearest approach to the Adjective, although we may also view it as having passed through the stage of the adverb. BAIN. The s interposition seemed likely to derive great assistance from the concurrence of the his construction. To the popular feeling the two genitives were then identical or nearly so, and as people could not take the fuller form as coming from the shorter one, they naturally supposed the s to be a short- ening of the his. JESPERSEN. The extreme range of the possessive gives rise to ambiguity. For many of its remote extensions the preposition of is bet- ter. BAIN. The "signs of possession" (not in a demoniacal but a grammatical sense) have received some curious treatment at the hands of writers on language. The most common genitive termination in old English was es, which was pronounced as an additional syllable and sometimes was written apart from its noun. It belonged at first to the singular of some masculine and neuter nouns, and was afterwards extended to the feminine. Other forms of this termination were as, us y ys, is, and simply s. 90 The Possessive Case 91 These genitives in s were not found in the oldest English, but made their appearance in the Northern dialects first and are due to Scandinavian influence. These genitive forms continued down to the fifteenth century. As late as 1420 such phrases as "vynes rootes," "strengthes qualitie," were used. Later came the elision of the vowel and the introduction of the apos- trophe which marks our modern possessive case; but this sign did not come into general use much before the end of the seventeenth century. Indeed, Lowth's grammar of 1763 speaks of the use of 's as "a late Refinement, and what I really think a corrupt custom," adding, "The genitive case in my opinion might be much more properly formed by adding s, or when the Pronunciation requires it es, without an apostrophe." Before the 's became established as the final form of the possessive, some other experiments were also tried. As the Anglo-Saxon endings dropped out of use a genitive value was sometimes given to a noun by simple juxtaposition without any added termination, as, Venus beauty. This method is still practically employed to avoid sibilants, though in the printed form we indicate the possessive character by an apostrophe, as "for righteousness' sake," "Moses' law," "boys' hats." Thus the Bible of 1611 had "Mars Hill/' while later editions have "Mars' Hill." Another way of indicating possession that came into frequent use, was by placing the pronoun his after the noun. Thus Shakespeare has " Mars his guan 1 - let." A similar idiom is found in other languages, 92 Grammar and Its Reasons though in English the usage may have been strengthened by its similarity to the original genitive termination when written apart from its noun, as in the line: "And preysed Reynard is (his) wysdom." The use of his after the noun appeared in early printed literature and continued for several hundred years. The older English literature abounds in such phrases as, "the egle hys nest." In the eighteenth century it was a common practice for the owner of a book to write his name upon the fly-leaf thus, "John Smith, his book." A well-known example of this use of the pronoun occurred in the English Book of Com- mon Prayer, in which the last phrase of the Prayer for all Conditions of Men was formerly printed "for Jesus Christ his sake." From the time of Ben Jonson to that of Addison, the theory prevailed that the *s (which was also in use) was a contraction of his. Ben Jonson did not himself favor the theory, but declared in his grammar that the idea that 's was a contraction of his would be "mon- strous syntax." But the idea seems to have taken deep root, and has even been repeated in modern text-books. Although the Anglo-Saxon genitive in s belonged only to singular nouns, modern usage has established 's as the plural possessive termination also, with the apostrophe alone when the plural already ends in s. A rule at one time crept into the grammars for the placing of the apostrophe after the s as a means of dis- tinguishing the plural possessive from the singular in The Possessive Case 93 nouns whose singular and plural are alike, as "a sheep's tail," "four sheeps' tails." But this is not sustained either by modern usage or by historical reason. When there is danger of ambiguity it can be avoided by the use of a prepositional phrase. Since 's is the modern possessive termination, it is well that the exceptions to the rule should be as few as possible. Usage is not entirely uniform on the question of adding 9 s to a singular noun that already ends in s. But the general practice and tendency seems to be wholly in favor of the regular termination. There is usually no difficulty for either the ear or the eye in adding 9 s to a noun ending in s, though it must usually be pronounced as a separate syllable, as James's hat, Thomas's baU. The possessive sign is seldom added to names other than those of persons. A few special combinations have become in a measure stereotyped as "a day's work," "the sun's rays," "life's end," etc. Modern journal- istic writers are also fond of adding the termination to the names of places, as "New York's new mayor," "Boston's grain shipments." Such expressions are concise and vigorous but are generally avoided in prose literary writings. The possessive sign is sometimes added to a phrase instead of to a single noun, as "Longfellow the po< home." An ambiguity that may arise from such usage is suggested by the old conundrum, " Since Moses was the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he was the daughter of Pharaoh's son, wasn't he?" 94 Grammar and Its Reasons In certain English dialects the practice of making a whole phrase possessive has been carried very far, as in the following attributed to Somersetshire: "That's the woman-what-was-left-behind's child." Occasion- ally both a noun and its appositive have received the possessive sign, as "We left the card in Mr. Gary's, the secretary's, hand." There are also instances in lit- erature where an uninflected noun is made an apposi- tive to a noun with the possessive termination, as, "Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant general." In phrases containing the adjective else, usage has varied in regard to the possessive sign, as, They were more in Pendennis's way than in anybody's else. THACKERAY. I took somebody else's hat. DICKENS. On the whole, the weight of usage seems to be in favor of "anybody else's," though the position in the sentence, (whether at the end or not), and euphony, seem to have some effect in the decision. In ques- tions the preferred form is "whose else?" Yet here, also, usage varies, as Whose else's do you think? DICKENS. Yes, who else's daughter should I be? GOSSE (TRANSLATE ING FROM IBSEN). The distinctions of joint and separate ownership in the use of the possessive sign may be learned by the comparison of such phrases as, The Possessive Case 95 Reed and Brown's Grammar. Reed and Brown's Grammars. Reed's and Brown's Grammar. Reed's and Brown's Grammars. An element of confusion for possessive forms is made by the occasional use of 9 s as a plural termination for letters, signs, and the names of words, when the addi- tion of s alone would give ambiguity, as, "There are two 1's in skill," "There are four Ye's and three We's on the page." But if such exceptional plural forms be allowed they should be made as few as possible. In the last century the forms of the genitives and the plurals w r ere often confounded. Thus Addison in the Spectator wrote of "Purcell's Opera's." The possessives of the personal pronouns never con- tain an apostrophe but represent other types of the old Saxon inflections. (See chapter on Personal Pro- nouns.) In addition to the possessive forms of nouns and personal pronouns, English has one other word in the possessive case. Whose is the possessive of who both as a relative and an interrogative, and is occasionally used also as a possessive for which, especially in poetry. The old genitive case covered some word relations that do not belong to the modern possessive case, and that are usually expressed in modern English by the preposition o/, as, "The siege of Paris." The substi- tution of these phrases for the older genitive is due to French influence. In some similar cases where the possessive is allowable there may be ambiguity of mean- 96 Grammar and Its Reasons ing. Thus the phrase, "My brother's picture," may mean a picture belonging to my brother, or one that represents him. Although usage allows this phrase with either meaning, yet in general it seems desirable to limit the possessive to the idea of ownership and to use of in other cases. Thus " The roar of the waves," is better in prose than "The wave's roar," although in poetry the latter form is sometimes used. An idiom in English that is peculiar and sometimes difficult to explain is the use of the possessive case in an objective relation after of, thus making a double or cumulative genitive form. In the phrase "This book of John's" the simple and natural meaning is "one of several which he owns." Yet usage allows the same form in cases where there may be only one, as, "This child of ours is ill," "He is a servant of the General's." In the expression: "A Discovery of Sir Isaac Newton's," the use of the possessive makes the idea subjective, that is, the discovery was by him. If the simple (or nominative) noun form were used it would be Newton himself that was discovered. There has been much grammatical history connected with the possessive case. An English writer (Mr. Serjeant Manning) has written an entire pamphlet on this subject under the elaborate title, "The Character and Origin of the Possessive Augment in English and its Cognate Dialects," XX COMPARISON We should hold apart true comparison of adjectives and the mere combination of adjective and adverb. WHITNEY The rule requiring the comparative where two objects are compared is strictly true for Latin but not for English. ALLEN. The inflection of comparison belongs to some adjec- tives of quality and to a few adverbs. The forms are three in number and are called "degrees," though one or two modern grammars object to that term and prefer simply the word "forms," which indeed seems to cover all real needs. These forms or "degrees" are said to express degrees of quality, but must not be supposed to do so in any absolute way. The comparative simply shows that one of two objects compared has more of the quality than the other. It does not show " more of the quality than the positive" as many grammars have stated. Indeed, in more than half the cases where the comparative is used, the quality is not present in a very marked < while there must be a prominent and positive quality to justify the use of the positive form of the adjective. I may say " John is taller than James," when neither of them could be called tall. In a similar way the superlative does not show " the 97 98 Grammar and Its Reasons greatest degree of the quality," but only the greatest to be found in the group of objects that are compared. Even when we use the positive degree there is a subtle comparison of the object with an assumed average that is held in mind as the standard. If I say "These are large apples," I mean that they are relatively large as compared with the average apple. The comparative form is exclusive, separating the objects compared, and is usually followed by than. The superlative is inclusive, and is usually followed by of. The superlative may be correctly used in the com- parison of two objects when these constitute an entire class. Terms of approximate comparison are sometimes used in English as "rounder," "more perfect." The idiom rests on a lower conception of the quality named, and is equivalent to "more nearly round," "more nearly perfect." The phrase "My Dearest Mother" has in it an absolute superlative without any real comparison. With long adjectives the adverbs more and most take the place of the inflectional forms of comparison; and with long and short adjectives alike, less and least are often used to express a negative kind of comparison. A whole phrase may sometimes be treated to such modification, as "This is more to my mind than that." Very, exceedingly, rather, highly, and other adverbs are frequently employed to denote degrees of quality, but in these cases there is no such specific comparison as is expressed by the comparative and superlative Comparison " TWELFTH NIGHT. To the student of general grammar both of these con- structions suggest the so-called "middle voice" of 104 Grammar and Its Reasons Greek and some other languages, used sometimes in sentences which in modern English would have an active verb with a reflexive object. Thus "The book sells well" seems to have come from a reflexive form "sells itself." In the older English reflexives were commonly used when the actor was unknown, as "The door opens itself." Later the reflexive form was changed to the passive. Thus : Collect yourself be collected. Prepare yourself be prepared. "I persuade myself" is much like "I let myself be per- suaded" (middle voice). But "I persuade myself" and "I am persuaded" also mean nearly the same thing. "I am persuaded" may sometimes be a true passive, though it usually has a merely intransitive sense in which the subject is not thought of either as representing an actor or one acted upon. From the comparison of such sentences as the fore- going it will be seen that intransitive, reflexive, and passive verbs have close relations to each other. His- torically passive verbs seem to have developed out of a kind of "middle voice" which was closely allied to the old reflexive forms. Latin has the remains of a kind of "middle voice" in the deponent verbs which unite a passive form with an active meaning. To the student of advanced grammar such comparisons of the English idioms with the constructions of other languages are most helpful. Voice 105 Get is occasionally used as an auxiliary in English in such a way as to bring the activity of others to the front, as " You will get punished. " " He got himself elr< -t < < 1 . " Such expressions belong to colloquial idiom but ;m- seldom met with in literary English. They might be thought of as a kind of "middle voice" if it were Worth while to adopt such a classification in English. It is better, however, to avoid needless classification and keep our grammatical nomenclature more simple. Progressive verb phrases belong mostly to the active voice of the verb; yet the idea of continuous action is not wholly foreign to the passive. To express this the older writers used an active form with a passive mean- ing, as, "The house is building," which was perhaps a modification of the more strictly grammatical form of old English, "The house is a-building." The apparent incongruity in such phrases is increased by the fact that they cannot be used with all verbs. We cannot say for instance, "The boy is whipping," with a passive meaning; although Bolingbroke once wrote, "The crime, which was committing, etc." In recent times a new progressive passive phrase has come into use, such as " is being built," " is being don The earliest known instance of the use of "is }nn^ built" is found in a letter by Southey dated 1 7f).>. But this form of phrase is open to other objections lx -idrs that of its recent origin. In the sentence " The house, being built of stone, is cold and damp," the phrase "being built" signifies that the house is "done built," rather than in a continuous building state. But the 106 Grammar and Its Reasons chief objection that has been raised to "is being built'* is that is is made an auxiliary to its own participle being. Outside the present and past tenses also, this con- struction never occurs. "The house had been being built for ten years" would be intolerable. In spite of these objections, however, "is being done" and other like phrases seem to be fairly good English and have evidently come to stay. They are displacing the older form "is building." Yet this is not obsolete and when it can be used without confusion, it is preferred by many writers as being less clumsy and more forcible, and also as having the sanction of long-continued and classic English usage. No new phrases like "is build- ing," however, seem likely to come into the language, while the other form is extending its use to other verbs as well. Although the passive voice is no true inflection of English the passive verb phrases give an important varia- tion to sentence forms. The conveniences of the pas- sive voice are these: The agent may be unknown so that the active voice cannot be used except with an in- definite subject, as " Some one has broken the window"; that is, "The window has been broken." The passive voice also makes the object emphatic by putting it in a leading place. Sometimes the interest is entirely con- fined to the object, the agent being unimportant, as "The church was burned to the ground." Merely as an alternative form, also, the passive phrase sometimes gives a pleasing variety to sentence constructions. XXII MOOD I have met with no satisfactory definition of Mood or Mode in Grammar and am unable to give one. RAMSEY. "Mood gives one the color of thought that the speaker desires to create. Sentences have moods because people have moods." There are infinite shades of doubt and contingency, of hope, and fear. WHITNEY. Mood is the change in the simple assertive form of the verb to express degree of certainty or doubt. The indica- tive is really no mood at all. Moods are changes from the unmodified form of assertion. BROWN AND DEGARMO. The imperative and subjunctive have no forms not found in the indicative. HARPER AND BURGESS. The enumeration of the so-called compound tenses amongst the tenses proper is due to a confusion between logic and grammar, only slightly removed from the fiction which gave us the still lingering potential mood (I can write) or which might with equal correctness have given us an obligatory mood (I must write), a desiderative mood (I like to write), an obstinate mood (I am determined to write), etc. STRONG, LOGEMAN, AND WHEELER. Mood, or mode, as it is sometimes called, is the change of form in a verb to show different ways in which the assertion is made; that is, as expressing a fact, a poOSF bility, a command, the condition of another event, etc. It is a property of the verb that must be recognized even 107 108 Grammar and Its Reasons though it has so little of the inflectional character that in defining the term it is not easy to find clear illustra- tions that can show the real character of mood in English verbs. A comparison of the sentences "He was here," and "If he were here he would do it," gives an idea of difference between the indicative and sub- junetive moods. Again, the sentences "Thou goest," and "Go thou," illustrate a difference between the in- dicative and imperative moods. The subjunctive and imperative are not really dis- tinct inflectional forms. They are, howver, modifica- tions of the assertive form that require explanation. The verb be has more of mood than any other verb : yet even in this, the most important and irregular of all verbs, the modal inflection is slight. The right classification of moods is by no means universally agreed upon. Some ancient grammarians reckoned as many as ten different moods. A few years ago five moods were usually named in English grammars, the indicative, potential, subjunctive, im- perative, and infinitive moods. Some grammarians added a sixth mood, would and should being separated from other potential auxiliaries as the distinguishing marks of a "conditional mood." The optative mood, or "mood of wishing" has sometimes been recognized, 'May you be happy." A few grammarians have car- ried the classification of moods further still; and elective, determinative, compulsive, obligatory, re- guisitive and vocative are all names which have been applied to moods of verbs. Mood 109 The infinitive no longer has any standing as a modal form of the verb. Instead of showing the " manner of the assertion" it makes no assertion and is a verbal noun. The potential mood is also omitted from most modern grammars. The forms are not made by inflection and they have varied uses. The potential auxiliar however, need careful study in regard to their peculiari- ties of meaning and use. This is a difficult task for foreign students of English and it affords a large field for study even with the native-born among Engli speaking peoples. The potential forms may be dealt with simply as a class of phrases similarly formed rather than as a true mood of the English verb. The subjunctive mood fills less space in the grammars than formerly, since subjunctive forms are less used and the indicative form with a conjunction of doubt prefixed is no longer called subjunctive. Modern grammars clearly recognize that the essence of the subjunctive mood lies in the verb itself rather than in the accompanying conjunction. The few facts of i subjunctive that are left in English grammar are of much interest and importance, however, and must be care- fully treated by grammarians. The imperative mood is said to be the form of 11 ic verb used in a command. But if we compare the sen' tences Present arms. Pass me the bread, please. Give us this day our daily bread. 110 Grammar and Its Reasons we see that from a superior to an inferior the impera- tive expresses a command ; between equals it denotes a simple request; and when used from an inferior to a superior, or in man's address to God, it becomes the language of supplication and prayer. We also see that the imperative mood is characterized rather by the absence of inflection than by any positive inflectional element. It is simply the common form of the verb used as a sentence word as, "Come," "Try." By im- plication the second person is its subject but the verb seems independent of any sentence agreements. The dividing line between the imperative and some of the other modal forms is hard to draw. Verb phrases with let as "Let me go," are sometimes classed with imperatives, sometimes with potential forms. The subjunctive of desire as "Long live the king" has an affinity with the imperative. Shall as a modal aux- iliary has an imperative meaning. The question whether the Ten Commandments are in the imperative mood has been argued. But most grammarians limit the imperative mood to the formal imperative sentence, as "Bring me the book." The classification of moods in English, as has been seen, is in a degree arbitrary. Some modern gram- marians have proposed to reduce all moods to two, the Objective (corresponding to the indicative) which deals with events as outside the speaker's own person- ality; and the Subjective (including the potential, subjunctive and imperative) which shows the relation of the speaker's own mind to the thought expressed. Mood 111 It seems to be true that most of the facts of modal inflection are covered in English when a clear
  • ] to the tenses. But he should know the different terms in order to deal intelligently with the text of various grammars, and with the facts of comparative grammar that throw light upon the structure of the English lan- guage. XXIV NOUNS AND THE NOUN RELATIONS Grammarians, anxious to give some easy rule by which the scholar might distinguish nouns from other words, have devoted time to put the words the good before any word, and have told him that if the three words make sense the last word is a noun. This is frequently the case, as "the good horse," "the good dog," but "the good sobriety" would not appear to be very good sense. You must employ your mind in order to arrive at the knowledge here derived. FROM COBBETT'S GRAMMAR. Published in London, 1818. Called by Bulwer "the only amusing grammar in the world." The difference between common and proper nouns is tho logical difference between universals and particulars and has no place in grammar whatever. FITCH. "Grammar deals with thought relations." The lack of inflection is the student's best opportunity in thought analysis, and in study of language tendencies and of the necessary relation of thought and speech. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. Nouns are recognized by the fact that they are name* words. But the basis of classification for parts of speech is the use of the word in sentences, and the fact that the noun (by virtue of being a name) is the natural subject of a sentence, should also be pointed out. In subdividing a part of speech, we should ask what grammatical purpose is to be served by the classification. The division of classes of nouns is less a grammatical 118 Nouns and The Noun Relations than a logical distinction. But it has some gram- matical bearings as well. The common noun is the name of a class of objects. It is only common nouns, as a rule, that can take an accompanying restrictive adjective or that permit a plural form. In the singular, a common noun usually takes the indefinite article unless some more distinct: adjective term is used with it. A proper noun is the name of an individual and may be meaningless or arbitrary in signification. A proper noun seldom takes an article or accompany i adjective. The article the, however, accompanies many geographical proper names, as The Mississippi, The Sahara. This was less the case formerly than now. In the Bible, for instance, Jordan, Euphrates, etc., are used without the article. If made plural or limited by the indefinite article a proper noun loses a little of its "proper" character and becomes in a sense a class name, as, "The Henrys," "A Daniel come to judgment." An abstract noun denotes a quality or sonx circumstance considered in general terms, as coolness, life, motion. Its grammatical properties are similar to those of the proper noun, and like that it bee- kind of class name if pluralized or preceded by an in- definite article, as, "The hopes of man," "A virtue." A noun denoting material (as wool, leather) is closely allied to abstract nouns in meaning and in seldom taking a plural form. Collective nouns are class names and therefore com- 10 Grammar and Its Reasons mon nouns. But they can take either singular or plural agreements, according as the thought is centered on the group or on the individuals composing it, as, "The herd is large," "The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea." (For Verbal nouns see Chapters 40 and 41.) The amount of inflection belonging to nouns is far less in modern than in early English. Nouns to-day have number, and one change of form for case. A few nouns also show a trace of gender inflection. The distinction between the cases of a noun and the relations in which the noun may be used, should be held clearly in mind. Although the inflection of the noun is meagre the relations in which the simple or nominative form may be used are numerous. The more important of these may be illustrated as follows: The boy is here, subject. He is a boy, attribute, or predicate noun. Boy, come here, independent (or vocative). John, the boy you wanted, is here, appositive. He saw a boy, object of a verb. He spoke to the boy, object of a preposition. He gave the boy an apple, indirect object. It will make him a good boy, factitive object. (Also called objective complement, attribute, or predicate.) The boy being gone, we waited. Used subjectively in an absolute phrase. He being a good boy, we trusted him. Used attributively in an absolute phrase. To be a good boy is his desire. Used absolutely in an infinitive phrase. A few nouns of distance, time, etc., may be used adverbially after a verb, as, "He walked a mile," "He Nouns and the Noun Rela'ions 121 waited two hours." Such a noun is sometimes called an adverbial object. Certain colloquial idioms fall into this class, as, "It is only skin deep," "I don't care a snap." Most of the noun relations are shared with pronouns also. At least there is no hard and fixed principle that forbids the use of pronouns in any substantive relation. Practically, however, pronouns are seldom used in several of the rarer or more difficult noun constructions. The independent (or vocative) construction cannot well be filled by a pronoun. Pronouns are seldom (if ever) found in the position of factitive object or as the absolute attribute after a copulative infinitive. In general, however, it may be said that a pronoun may fill any noun relation when it can be done without ambiguity, or violation of any other principle of good rhetorical style. XXV ADJECTIVES "A word united to a class noun to narrow its range and increase its meaning." The phrase "assuming adjective" is a happy substitute for "attributive adjective." But why not also say "assert- ing " instead of " predicate " adjective? Assuming and assert- ing almost seem to have been foreordained from before the foundation of the world for this use. TOLMAN. Each period or generation has one or more social adjec- tives which may be used freely and safely. Such adjectives enjoy a sort of empire for the time in which they are current. Their meaning is more or less vague, and it is this quality that fits them for their office. EARLE. The adjective is the greatest chatterbox and the veriest gossip that ever lived. FROM GRAMMARLAND, OR GRAMMAR IN FUN. NESBITT, 1878. It is a good rule to be frugal with adjectives; to select them carefully and to apply them so happily that they will add an effective descriptive element to composition. MANLEY AND HAILMANN. An educated gentleman may not know many languages, may not be able to speak any but his own, may have read very few books. But whatever language he knows he knows precisely; whatever word he pronounces he pronounces rightly. Above all, he is learned in the peerage of words, knows the words of true descent and ancient blood at a glance from words of modern canaille, remembers all their ancestry, their intermarriages, distant relationships, and the extent to which they were admitted and offices they held 122 Adjectives 123 among the natural noblesse of words at any time and in any country. RUSKIN. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. KING SOLOMON. An adjective is a noun modifier. The articles many of the numerals, demonstratives, possessives, in- terrogatives and relatives are included among adjec-j tives. The possessive cases of nouns and pronouns andj the participles of verbs are also of the adjective class. All of these are treated explicitly in other chapters oi this book. There remains, however, one large division of adjectives, which represents the idea generally sug- gested by the term adjective. It includes those words of descriptive meaning which limit a noun by expressing a quality of the object named by the noun. Qualities vary in degree and a word expressing a quality has usually a relative meaning. It is only these qualifying adjectives with a few denoting quantity and the adverbs that are allied to them, that have the in- flection of comparison. In old English the adjective was declined to agree with its substantive. As late as the fourteenth cen- tury the ending e was used to mark a plural adj But, except in the case of the demonstratives this and that, all number forms of adjectives have disappeared and the amount of pure grammar that belongs to adj < tives is very small. In the fields of diction and of rhetorical style, the adjective demands more extensive treatment. Students of etymology give much attention to the forms 124 Grammar and Its Reasons that adjectives assume. Many Latin suffixes, as ate, ent, ary, ive, ose, and al, also a few French and Greek suffixes, as esque and ic 9 distinguish large classes of adjectives. There are many prefixes and suffixes that are freely used to form new adjective terms from other English words. Among these are the prefixes un, sub, and super; also the suffixes ful, less, able, some, and others. Some of these are added to nouns to form adjectives, as in fruitful, troublesome, senseless, rainy. Others are added to verbs, as in movable, active. Almost any noun can take an adjective use, as in horse rake, coal oil, mineral soap, mosquito bite. Com- pounds are common among adjective terms, as four- footed, high-spirited, life-like, new-born. 1 Adjectives are of two classes according to the posi- rtions they occupy. Those which accompany the noun (usually preceding it) are often called attributive adjectives. When several adjectives limit the same |l noun the one expressing the most inherent quality I stands nearest to it, as, "a feeble old man." An ad- jective may also be used after a copula as a predicate term. The use of an adjective implies an act of judg- ing, so the predicate use of an adjective is a primary office, as, "The sky is red." Many of the predicate adjective terms, however, are participles, as, "The book is written." Since the use of an adjective implies an act of indi- vidual judging, a careful speaker often feels a sense of modesty in using a descriptive adjective, except for the more obvious qualities of objects. A wise writer or Adjectives 125 speaker will be discriminating in his use of adjectives, and avoid over-coloring, or exaggerated statements as weakening to style. Yet the restriction should not so great as to make the style bald or prosaic. One should do justice to his own impressions of objects. There are many adjectives of rather vague meaning which express not so much objective qualities as subjective impression which objects give to the ob- server's mind. Such adjectives as nice, elegant, quaint, refined, coarse, splendid, beautiful, and horrid, belong to this class. These adjectives owing to their lack of defmiteness are put to many uses. They are conven- tional in application, and sometimes change their meaning from one generation to another. They are also difficult to translate into the idiom of other lan- guages. For these, and other reasons, the rhetoric of adjec- tives is an important and difficult subject. Precision and propriety of style depend very much upon the writer's choice of adjective terms. An abundant vocabulary of adjectives to choose from, is a part of a good writer's stock in trade. The free command of such a vocabulary, with good taste and careful observa- tion, and a desire to tell the truth, will enable a writer to add much strength and beauty to style through his appropriate use of adjective terms. XXVI THE ARTICLES 1 Three little words you often see Are Articles a, an, and the. RHYME IN OLD GRAMMAR. "It is manifestly incongruous to give a whole part of speech to three such little words regardless of the dispropor- tion of dictionary space." Two adjectives require special attention, the articles a or an and the, the one being historically a numeral, the other a demonstrative. EMERSON. The rare and judicious use of the article in English is one of the points in which its beautiful simplicity is best shown. In its proper omission, especially whenever the sense of the noun is not limited or determined, lies an excellence of Eng- lish, even over Greek where it is often used without giving additional weight or conferring a clearer meaning to the noun which it accompanies. M. SCHELE DE VERB. The older text-books not only made the article a part of speech in English, but placed it first in the list. There are modern grammars which in their effort to reduce grammar to a minimum leave out all reference to this class of words. But in spite of their diminutive size, and the paucity of their grammatical properties, there are interesting and important ques- tions that relate to the meaning and use of articles. The articles are to-day classed with the adjectives and 120 The Articles 127 properly so, but they differ from all other adjectives in the closeness of their relation to nouns, a relation so close as hardly to allow of their being uttered as dis- tinct words, but rather as a kind of prefix to the sub- stantives which they accompany. The origin of these little words throws some light on their general adjective character. The is a weakened form of the demonstrative adjective that, while an or a is a modified form of ane or one. The expressions "a one," "a union," illustrate the fact that it is the initial sound of the word rather than the initial letter which guides the choice of form for the indefinite article. Before an unaccented syllable begin- ning with h, the form an is sometimes used, since the consonant character of h is not distinctly marked, as "an historical novel." In the older English an was used before h, in some cases where we now use a, as, " When they had sung an hymn they went unto the Mount of Olives." Articles have no inflection and therefore no agree- ment. The old rule, "Articles must agree with their nouns in number," simply means that the indefinite article is singular in meaning and accompanies a singular noun. In the oldest English the article was declined with five cases, as is to-day the fact in German and some other languages. There are many delicate questions of grammar or of rhetoric that relate to the use or omission of the article. Some of these are suggested by comparison of such expressions as, 128 Grammar and Its Reasons A cotton and a silk umbrella. A cotton and silk umbrella. or, The northern and eastern boundary. The northern and the eastern boundary. The northern and eastern boundaries. While the omission of a necessary article is a frequent grammatical error there are not wanting cases of its meaningless and erroneous insertion, as, "A rare kind of an eagle," for "a rare kind of eagle." By comparing "There are a few" and "There are few/' we see that the second admits deficiency and is really negative in meaning. The before an adjective converts it into a noun of generic meaning, as " None but the brave deserves the fair." But the omission of the article sometimes gives a noun a wider generic meaning. Man is a wider term than " a man " or " the man." Most nouns, however, cannot be used ab- stractly in this way. Table and book, for instance, do not admit of this generic application. If a noun is limited by both an article and another adjective, the article usually precedes. Yet there are idiomatic phrases containing pronominal adjectives where the article follows the other, as, "What a story," "Such an action," "Half an hour," "Both the hands," " Many a man." Although a usually follows many, the phrases "a great many," "a good many," are in com- mon use. When an adjective is modified by an adverb The Articles 129 of degree it often precedes the article, as, " So difficult a task." There are words that resemble articles, whose unlike character should be recognized. In " Daddy's gone a-hunting," a is an old preposition, a contracted form of at. In "The more the merrier," the is an adverb, though the idiom is said to be derived from the in- strumental case of the old English inflection. Latin differs from modern languages in having no article. The recognition of articles by grammarians led to the enumeration in the early English grammars of nine parts of speech. Later opinion, however, has relegated the articles to their true position as a small, though important, sub-class under adjectives. xxvn THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS Venerable relics of language. M. SCHELE DE VERB. The pronouns are among the oldest parts of speech, and consequently have undergone much change, so that their original forms are greatly altered. Yet they have preserved more relics of the older inflections than any other part of speech. MORRIS. A pronoun is as instantly discredited by any doubt about what it represents as an ambassador. ARLO BATES. "Pronouns are the most general kind of name, and depend on the circumstances of the sentence for their meaning." / Pronouns in general are words which without being names and without being limited by an article are used in the relations of nouns. There is far less distinctive- ness in pronouns as an entire class than belongs to the great divisions of pronouns taken separately. The personal pronouns especially are a definitely marked class of words, and these are usually meant when one speaks of the pronouns. The other classes of pronouns adjective pronouns, interrogatives and relatives have a mixed character, and contain ele- ments that ally them to other parts of speech. The personal pronouns are so named because they have grammatical person, the only other English words that have this property being a few verbal forms that take personal agreements with their subjects. 130 The Personal Pronouns 131 They are used not so much to " avoid repetition of the noun," as to express personality. It is a marked step in a child's development, when he recognizes his own personality and begins to say "I." Although the personal pronouns are small in size and few in number, they seem to contain in themselves and in their agree- ments a most disproportionate part of the difficulties of grammar. There is no other group of words of equally diminutive size that require so full and careful treatment at the hands of grammarians, as the personal pronouns. Almost all that there is of case and of gender as well as of person belongs to the personal pronouns. It has been said that if five small words, she, her, hers, it and its, were blotted out of the language there would be no longer need to recognize gender in English grammar. He, his and him would then have a common sex sig- nification, as is now the case with the plural pronouns and we should be saved all discussion of gender forms and agreements. Each of the personal pronouns has some peculiari- ties of its own and requires separate treatment. Writers on rhetoric sometimes object to the use of the first person in written composition as savoring of ego- ism. A good writer will usually veil his own personality and express his thoughts in an impersonal way. Yet in epistolary writings or when the writer's personal ex- perience is the fitting theme, there is no reason for ex- cluding the simple pronoun, and it is a false modesty that resorts to unnatural devices in order to avoid it. 132 Grammar and Its Reasons \ We is not exactly the plural of J, since there is usually but one / in the group referred to as we. We is some- times used in a representative sense; as the editorial We, which expresses the sentiments of a paper rather than of an individual editor ; or the royal We, which refers to a king as the head of the nation rather than in his personal capacity. It is said that the royal We was first used by King John who " thus found out the art of multiplying himself." We is also used for human beings generally, as, " Here we have no continu- ing city but we seek one to come." When a writer is expressing his individual sentiments I should generally be used. The second person singular is not used in modern English except in the formal language of prayer or of poetry. Yet for these two purposes it ought to be thoroughly familiar to the English student. The Dutch language has gone even farther than the Eng- lish in ignoring the second person singular and uses the plural form for both poetry and prayer. The substitution of the plural for the singular in English began about the thirteenth century and seems to have been made at first for the monarchs and the nobility. The Quakers gave religious testimony to the equality of all men by retaining thee and thou. They would not render reverence to one and withhold it from others. Thus Charles Fox wrote in 1648, ' When the Lord sent me into the world, I was required to thee and thou all men and women without respect to rich and poor, great or small." The Personal Pronouns 133 But it seems to have been difficult for Quakers to retain the inflectional form of the second person, espe- cially the verbal form, after it went out of common use. So colloquial Quaker dialect came to contain such anomalous expressions as "thee does," "thee is," which were afterwards retained by educated Quakers as a mere conventionalism or a means of giving dis- tinctiveness to the Quaker sect. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century thou was used to express familiarity toward friends, superiority toward inferiors, and anger or contempt toward strangers or enemies. Thus Coke's historical insult to Sir Walter Raleigh was, " Thou viper, for I will thou thee, thou traitor." In the writings of Robert de Brunne (1303) a conversation between husband and wife is given, in which she says Ye to her lord, but he calls her thou. In the German and French languages, the second person singular is made to express familiarity, whether it be that of endearment or of contempt. The English student of these languages needs to be mindful of the proprieties of a situation or he can easily give offence either by exceeding or withholding the familiarity that is felt to be due. " Ach," said the sentimental German maiden who had lately acquired a lover, " That first du\ How sweet it is!" Ye was originally the nominative plural, you being the objective or dative form. Afterwards ye was some- times used as an objective, as, 134 Grammar and Its Reasons The more shame for ye ; holy men I thought ye. KING HENRY VIII. You is now the form for both cases. But in King James's version of the Bible the original case distinc- tions of ye and you are carefully preserved, as, " I have piped unto you and ye have not danced." He and she have been used as nouns by Shakespeare and other writers, as, " The fairest she," "The proudest he." He was frequently used in old English where ii would now be employed. Thus Lily's grammar says, "The Subjunctive Mood has commonly some con- junction joined with him." An old dialect form of the third person was a, as, " A brushes his hair a mornings." The colloquial use of em, as " Give 'em to me," is not a contraction of them, but a survival of hem the old plural dative of the pronoun. The pronoun of the third person singular is the one example in English of three gender-forms. The only genuinely neuter word that the language contains is the pronoun it. Its original form was hit, and it had the same possessive form as the masculine, his, which was employed, with sexless signification, as, "If the salt have lost his savour. " Occasionally also her was used in this way as, "Let patience have her perfect work." In the writings of Shakespeare his is often used with sexless signification, as in the Bible. Shakespeare also uses the nominative form it as a possessive in simple juxtaposition, as, "Go to it grandam, child. Give grandam kingdom and it grandam will give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig." The Personal Pronouns 185 Its is comparatively a modern word. Spenser never uses it. The single instance in which its occurs in the King James version of the Bible (Lev. 25, 5) is a com- paratively recent substitution for the original form it, "That which groweth of it own accord," etc. The introduction of its seems to have been retarded by the idea that if an object became the owner of something it was personified, so that his or her was the proper term to employ. The use of the pronoun it is extended to refer to young children and to the lower animals when the distinction of sex is not observed. The very multiplicity of gender forms in the third person of the pronoun gives us a sense of incompleteness. There is no singular pronoun that applies equally to the two sexes. To supply this lack the masculine form has sometimes been adopted. But none of the ex- pedients that have been tried are totally without objec- tion for all requirements. In the text-books on grammar two forms are given for the possessive of most of the personal pronouns. Of these, the first forms, my, our, thy, your, her and their are used only as noun modifiers, and by a few gram- marians they are called adjectives. The second forms hers, ours, yours, and theirs are often called absolute or independent possessive pronouns, since they are never used with an accompanying noun. Its has no corresponding absolute pronoun. His is used inter- changeably "in the two relations. Mine and thine are usually absolute or independent, but were formerly used 136 Grammar and Its Reasons in the true possessive or adjective relation and are still so used in poetry, as, " Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." My and thy formerly occurred only before consonant sounds, but gradually came to be used before vowels as well, mine and thine being reserved mostly for the absolute functions. Hers, ours, yours and tlicirs are really double genitive forms, the s having been added to words already gen- itive in form. These words are not found in the oldest English, but made their appearance with the other genitives in s, first in the Northern dialects. The forms in the Southern dialects were hire or hir, oure, etc., and sometimes ouren, youren, etc. The remains of these old possessives are sometimes met with in provincial dialects, as, ourn, hern, him, etc. In addition to the simple personal pronouns there are a few compound personal pronouns, formed by adding self for the singular and selves for the plural, to the pos- sessive case of the first and second persons, and to the objective case of the third person. The objective forms himself and themselves seem inconsistent with our sense of grammatical idiom. Hisself and theirselves were formerly in use, and children, reasoning from analogy, are inclined to form these compounds. Chau- cer uses also an old objective form, " Full wise is he that can hinselven know." ^Acompound personal pronoun is not used as a sub- ject, except rarely in poetry, as, "Myself will guide thee on thy way." The Personal Pronouns 137 It is usually either an appositive giving emphasis, as, "God himself will go with thee," or the reflexive object of a verb or a preposition, as, " I hurt myself." The last being the most frequent and important use of the compound personal pronouns, they are often referred to as the reflexive pronouns. The identity of form for these two uses of the compound pronouns is a remarkable peculiarity of English, which, unlike most modern languages, has no genuinely re- flexive pronoun, so the compound personal pronoun has been substituted for it. Double emphasis is sometimes given by the insertion of own, as " My own self." All the personal pronouns, whether simple or com- pound, and including the pronoun possess! ves, whether adjective or absolute in their function, may have pro- nominal agreements with an antecedent in gender, number and person, and this relation to an antecedent is one of the most important characteristics of personal pronouns. XXVIII THE ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS Care must be taken not to make too many classes in ele- mentary grammar; lest the important ideas be made to take rank with the unimportant, and the unity and simplicity of the movement in the study of the subject be destroyed. BROWN AND DEGARMO. "Although successful classification is the main thing, the work of classification can easily be overdone and made burdensome enough to frustrate its own aim by the multi- plication of fine drawn distinctions and of technical rules designating them." The indeclinables confirm the English characteristics. They are structural or functional, largely formless and with free interchange of function. JOYNES. All things considered, it does not seem desirable to recog- nize the relation of agreement in English. In the case of this and that the agreement exists, but has a logical basis in the inflection of these words as pronouns. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. I leave many of these indeterminate pronouns. To notice every one individually in a particular manner could answer no purpose except that of swelling the size of a book a thing which I most anxiously wish to avoid. COBBETT'K GRAMMAR, 1818. There is a lar^c class of words of somrwlmt related meaning, which may be used inlcivhan^c;iMy ;i. s adjec- tives or pronouns according as the nouns to which they relate are expressed or merely understood. To these 138 The Adjective Pronouns 139 words the names adjective pronoun and pronominal adjective have been given by different grammarians, according as the emphasis is laid upon one or the other of these word functions. In their adjective character these words do not ex- press definite qualities, but they usually point out ob- jects previously mentioned, or else they have a some- what indefinite meaning referring generally to number or quantity. Among these pronominal adjective words many sub-classes have been noted, but the classification is by no means perfect or entirely consistent. Among the sub-classes are the possessives and the numerals. This and that are known as the demonstratives, each and every as the distributives, the phrases each other and one another as reciprocals, and there is a large class of words which from their general lack of specific meaning are known as the indefinites. Other terms of classifica- tion have sometimes been given. Much and little and their related forms (more, less, etc.) are quantitatives. All and some are collectives. Some interrogative and relative words, as, what and which, are also both ad- jective and pronominal in their use. The name adjective pronoun, first given by Murray, is the one most commonly applied to the general group. Yet for some of these words the adjective office is more important than the pronominal. Indeed, some of these related words cannot be used interchangeably in the two offices. Thus the distributive adjective every cannot be used in a pronominal relation. On the other hand 140 Grammar and 7/.v Reasons some of the indefinite pronouns, as none, are never adjective in their use. Certain nouns of similar mean- ing are generally thought of in a half-pronominal sense. The line between these and the indefinite adjective pronouns is not very distinctly drawn. Such are aught, naiujht, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, and even "a body," meaning one, as, "Gin a body meet a body comin' through the rye." The earlier English contained some words of this class that are now little used, as in " All and sundry," " I have somewhat to say unto thee," "Divers came from far," "There were certain that said," etc. While the gen- eral similarity of all such words is to be noted, the grammarian must deal with each word as pronoun, noun, or adjective according to the function which it fulfils in any individual sentence. Most of the adjective pronouns are without inflection of any kind. A few of them can take plural or pos- sessive forms, but are then (with the exception of thi* and that) like nouns in their character, as, "Here are the ones I meant," "Each can feel the other's grief/' Any and none are generally used with plural mean- ings. Any, however, was formerly singular, as, " If any, speak, for him I have offended." An old idiom, "this many years," shows a blending of numeral characteristics. In addition to the adjective and the strictly pronomi- nal use, some of the indefinites and numerals may be The Adject ice Pronouns 141 limited by adjectives or articles and are therefore allied to nouns in their sentence relations, as, a few, the other , such a one, a good many, the little one, the first. Some of the adjective pronouns are often used in pairs, as, this, that; the one, the other; the former, the latter; the first, the second; the /irs, the Zos, etc. This and . Thus " may have been done" is a phrase of the verb do, but the first auxiliary may is the asserting word. But while the auxiliary retains the power of predica- tion, its original meaning has been greatly modified and 164 Auxiliary Verbs 165 is sometimes almost or entirely lost in the combined verb form. The following participle or infinitive also loses some of its distinctive character in the blending of forms. A participle loses some of its adjective character and an infinitive is not preceded by to. The amount of specialized meaning that is retained, however, differs greatly in the different auxiliaries. For this reason they are treated in very different ways by grammarians, some of whom restrict the term auxiliary to those having no distinctive meaning of their own, but whose office is entirely structural or functional. It seems convenient, however, to consider together all the verbs that have more or less of the auxiliary character. The verbs used as auxiliaries are be, have, do, shall, will, may, can, must, might, could, would, and should. Let, and sometimes also need and dare, resemble the auxiliaries in not requiring to before the following infinitive. Ought retains to but is similar in meaning to some of the auxiliaries, and like them is defective in its principal parts. Be, have, do, and will are used also as principal verbs with definite meanings. They have participles and infinitives of their own and can themselves take auxil- iaries. May and can also retain to some extent their own meanings when in combination. May, can, must, might, could, would, and should, are often called the moHaT^TTTtiafieirsince they take the place of a mood inflection. Must is usually indicative, expressing a necessary fact rather than a contingent one. The 166 Grammar and Its Reasons other modals are potential, and some of them are often subjunctive in character. Be is the most important and most widely used of all the auxiliaries. It occurs in all passive and pro- gressive verb phrases. Have is also very extended in its use, occurring in the perfect tense forms, but with its original meaning almost wholly lost. In the older English, be was used with intransitive verbs where wo now use have. The idiom is still sometimes used, as, " I am arrived." Do as an auxiliary has lost its original meaning. Its chief use is to supply an auxiliary to a phrase that seems to need one, either for emphasis, as, " I did make the effort," or for reasons of word order, as in interrogative and negative sentences. In the older English, did was often used as an auxiliary without emphasis, as," The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat," " It did address itself to motion." HAMLET. The use of auxiliaries is a modern form of language growth. It is most highly developed in English. Ger- man and the other Teutonic languages, however, have similar sets of modal auxiliaries, though these differ considerably from those of English in their idiomatic usages. Auxiliaries have been one of the most potent factors in the change of English from an inflectional to a highly analytic language. They give great freedom and wide range of expression and also furnish many of the idiomatic mysteries that make English difficult to foreigners. The study of the auxiliaries gives a large and interesting field for philological investigation. XXXV VERB PHRASES What is the use of teaching the child that successions of words, each of which has its own meaning, and any two of which may be separated at pleasure by the introduction of other words, each of which has also, no more and no less, its own meaning, are voices, moods, and tenses? RICHARD GRANT WHITE. A conjugation of the verb can hardly be said to exist. We have laid aside not only the passive and middle voice, the optative and other moods of Greek verbs, but we have abandoned also the many tenses of the Latin verb which the Romance languages still retain. And after thus strip- ping the verb of all power to express tense and mood the tendency of our day is to free it more and more even of its connection with person. M. SCHELE DE VERB. We should draw a distinct line between the genuine in- flection of the verb and those verbal phrases, "compound forms," by which the scheme of conjugation is in part filled up. WHITNEY. The amount of true inflection that belongs to the verb in English is exceedingly small. There are in- flectional changes for the past tense, the third person singular of the present tense, and each of the two parti- ciples. There are ancient forms used with the subject thou in all the modes and tenses. If we add several irregularities of the verb be we have well-nigh covered the true inflection of English verbs. 167 168 Grammar and Its Reasons To state the same thought in another way: An English verb with the one exception of the verb be can have only eight distinct forms, as, write, writest, writeth, writes, writing, wrote, wrotest, written. Three of these (writest, writeth, and wrotest) are practically obsolete. In regular verbs only four forms are in common use, as, sail, sails, sailing, sailed. Most of the so-called verb-forms are phrases made by uniting participles and infinitives with the auxiliary verbs. In any verb phrase the first word has the asser- tive power and is the true verb, though the last word expresses the most significant idea and gives the name to the phrase. Thus, "I have seen" is a phrase of see, but have is the asserting word. The phrase can also be separated by adverbial words which are no part of the phrase but have their own distinct mean- ing and use, as, " He will probably be elected." The method of the older grammars in conjugating a verb with various subjects through all the phrase forms of the moods and tenses had little value as a school exercise. Pupils should be able, however, to recognize all the classes of verb phrases. These may be grouped as follows: Passive formed by the auxiliary be with the past participle. Perfect known by the auxiliary have and found in both voices. Future having the auxiliary will or shall. Potential known by the potential auxiliaries, may, can, must, might, could, would, and should. Verb Phrases 169 Progressive formed by the present participle with the auxiliary be. Emphatic or Interrogative containing the auxiliary do, and found in the present and past tenses. Students should be able to name verb phrases, ap- plying these terms. Thus "shall have been seen "is a future perfect passive verb phrase. "May have been running" is a perfect potential progressive verb phrase. Although most of the verb phrases are formed after some regular pattern of a given voice, mood or tense, idiomatic phrases of more or less irregularity are of frequent occurrence. There are intransitive forms with the verb be, as, "He is gone," "The tower is fallen," also progressive phrases of passive meaning, as, "The house is building," and "The house is being built." Many other irregular verb phrases are also in use, as, " I was going to do it," " I am about to write," " This is to be seen." The power to make new verb combina- tions is very largely developed in English. For ordinary purposes of classification a verb phrase may be treated as a whole. Yet the practice of looking at each word in its individual relations is also of value. A full knowledge of the grammatical structure requires that the student should sometimes analyze the phrase completely. In the sentence, "He might have been seen," the verb phrase may be analyzed as follows: This is a perfect potential passive phrase of the verb see. "Might" is the true verb. "Have" is an in- finitive, originally the object of "might." "Been" is 170 Grammar and Its Reasons the past participle of be. "Might have been" is a copulative phrase connecting the past participle "seen" with the subject. A synopsis of verb phrases, including one form for each mood and tense, gives a good general view of the verbal forms, and is useful in comparing English verbs with those of other languages. XXXVI THE MODAL AUXILIARIES Six little words do claim me every day, Shall, must, and can, with will and ought and may, ' Shall is the law within inscribed by heaven, The goal to which I by myself am driven, Must is the bound not to be over-past, Where by the world and Nature I'm held fast. Can is the measure of my personal dower Of deed and art, science, and practised power. Will is my noblest crown, my brightest, best, Freedom's own seal upon my soul imprest, Ought the inscription on the seal set fair, On Freedom's open door, a bolt 'tis there. And lastly May, 'mong many courses mixed The vaguely possible by the moment fixed. Shall, Must, and Can, with Will and Ought and May, These are the six that claim me every day. Only when God doth teach, do I know what each day I shall, I must, I can, I will, I ought, I may. TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN FOR The School Journal. The Modals, can, may, must, shall, will, show special de- fects of verb forms. They have no personal endings, no infinitive, no participle, and hence no compound tenses, except by special idiomatic phrase (can have done, etc.). They cause special difficulty in the study of other languages where such forms are relatively complete and regular, the difficulty being chiefly in the English idiom. This is per- haps the chief difficulty in English. JOYNES. A mere declaration of ability is indicative in mood. To 171 172 Grammar and Its Reasons term this potential would be parallel to asserting that "there are thirty sheep in the pasture" is in the thirty-steep mood. If, however, the assertion of ability is made doubtfully, it goes into the subjunctive not because it is an assertion of doubtful ability, but because it is an assertion of ability made doubtfully. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. Whether we call the contingent mood potential or sub- junctive is not material. BROWN AND DEGARMO. There is an interesting group of verbal phrases in English with wide diversity of meanings, which are variously expressed in other languages by the condi- tional, optative, obligative, and subjunctive moods. In English these phrases have often been classed together as a potential mood. The German language is nearly allied to the English in having a set of verb phrases with modal auxiliaries that are similar to our own. The two languages differ widely, how- ever, in the subtler shades of meaning which these can convey. But the English potential forms are rapidly being withdrawn from classification as a distinct mood. They are always used with either an indicative or a subjunctive force, and may always be classed in one of these moods. Yet it is often convenient to treat this class of phrases together, under the name potential phrases, even if these are not called a distinct mood of the verb. The chief modal auxiliaries are the present and past 1- uses of the defective verbs, may, can, shall, and will. The present tenses of shall and will are also the aux- iliaries of the future tense, and arc commonly called The Modal Auxiliaries 173 the future auxiliaries. Yet the second form of the future (used to express will power or compulsion) is as truly a modal form as any of the phrases which are called potential. Ought, must, dare, let, need (and a few others), have some similarity with these in meaning and use. Ought, originally the past tense of owe, differs from the others in that it requires to with the following infinitive, thus making a less compact verb phrase. Let is used in the imperative to produce a kind of third or first person, as " Let him go," " Let us go." It is interesting for the grammar student to search through the older literature for instances where poten- tial words are used as principal verbs, and in their original sense, as I will no reconcilement. HAMLET. I would that thou wert cold or hot. BIBLE. What can man's wisdom In the restoring his bereaved sense? KING LEAR. May is sometimes used with the force of must, as Whose loves I may not drop. MACBETH. In negative sentences cannot is generally used rather than may not, as "May I go to the city?" "No, you cannot go to-day. You may go next week." An ancient form of might was mought, as That mought not be distinguished. SHAKSPEARE. Might, could, would, and should are often used sub- junctively, especially since the older subjunctives have 174 Grammar and Its Reasons mostly disappeared. Yet the older literature also has many potential phrases used as subjunctives, as Would I might but ever see that man. THE TEMPEST. O, could I speak the matchless worth. OLD HYMN. O, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes! KINO RICHARD III. If an angel should have come to me And told me Hubert should put out my eyes I would not have believed him. KING JOHN. Should is especially the subjunctive auxiliary. (See Chapter 38.) The potential phrases are sometimes classed as pres- ent and past, according to the tense form of the auxiliary itself. There are also present perfect and past perfect tense forms, made by adding have to the other aux- iliaries. Yet the time signification does not usually correspond with these names. When used as sub- junctives these auxiliaries often refer to future time. In, " How could I thus forget myself yesterday ?" could is indicative and refers to past time as the tense form indicates. But in "How could I atone to-morrow for the fault of yesterday?" could is subjunctive, and re- fers to future time. An interesting contrast between indicative and subjunctive uses of auxiliaries is shown in the following : " Look, what I will not, that I cannot do." " But might you do't, and do the world no wrong?" To obtain complete command of the modal auxil- iaries is one of the most difficult tasks for the foreign The Modal Auxiliaries 175 student of English. It is only by long usage and care- ful discrimination that he learns to grasp all the deli- cate distinctions which the " native born" seem to ar- rive at almost intuitively. The idiomatic mysteries of the potential phrases are increasing in number as the evolution of language gives new occasions for the use of these auxiliaries. The intricacies have never all been formulated in gram- matical statements and cannot be, but by a careful comparison of the potential forms in literature a feel- ing of the "genius of the language" in respect to their use can be cultivated. XXXVII SHALL AND WILL, SHOULD AND WOULD In the first person simply shall foretells, In will a threat or else a promise dwells, Shall in the second and the third doth threat, WiU simply then foretells a future feat. QUATRAIN FOUND IN AN OLD GRAMMAR. It must be admitted that there is no absolute rule (for shall and will) given by any grammarian that will apply to all cases without leaving room for doubt. M. SCHELE DE VERB. Learn to say, "I shall, I should, we shall, we should." This rule guards the switch, where pupils most easily get off the track. TOLMAN. "English-speaking people of Celtic origin are seldom per- fect in these idiomatic usages. An educated Celt would not indeed be guilty of the Hibernianism "Will I do it?" Yet even Sir Walter Scott sometimes showed his Scotch national- ity in his use of would and should. 1 * The distinction in the use of shall and will in forming the future tense is less carefully observed by intelligent writers and speakers of to-day than it was by those of the middle of the nineteenth century or earlier. SOUTHWORTH. The exact and forcible use of these two words is one of the niceties of English style a nicety that not only furnishes a peculiar difficulty to foreigners but is also a stumbling- block to the great majority of those whose mother-tongue is English. BLACKBURN. Historically, shall is the more ancient and universal, will the more modern and at least primarily more rare peri- 176 Shall and Will, Should, and Would 177 phrastic form. With some weakening of both, the primitive meaning has not perished. The glimmering through of the latter gives to the modern tongue on the one hand occasion to avoid ambiguity, on the other to express more delicate shades of thought apart from the conventional distribution of the auxiliary verbs among the several persons. TRANS- LATED FROM MATZNER. The great Shibboleth of modern speech; the peculiar use of the auxiliaries will and shall. JAMIESON. In the oldest English there was no distinct form for \ the future tense, its place being supplied by the present. This usage is still found in modern English, as "He goes (or is going) to town to-morrow." But from the thirteenth century shall and will have been in com- mon use to denote future time. These words are used, however, as modal auxiliaries, as well as signs of futurity, and various grammatical distinctions must be observed regarding them. In simple prediction (the true future tense) the aux- iliaries are used in the following order for the three persons : I shall, you will, he will. To express the speaker's determination (the most common modal use) the order is as follows: I will, you shall, he shall. In expressing the determination of another person one uses the same auxiliary that the person himself would use, as He means that I shall go. He will do it, and I cannot help it. In expressing mere futurity by indirect speech, usage 178 Grammar and Its Reasons varies. Sometimes the auxiliaries follow the usual agreement of persons, as He seems to think that I shall be the last to leave. You hope that you will be elected. But there are cases where such use would convey ideas not intended. Thus, "You say that I shall regret it" gives the idea of compulsion. "He says that he will go" gives the idea of promise or purpose. In most cases, to express another's thought, for sim- ple futurity as well as purpose, we use the same auxil- iary that he himself would use. As You hope that I will succeed. He fears that he shall be misunderstood. He fears that you will be misunderstood. Yet no absolute rule can be given that will cover all cases of indirect speech. Common sense, or the speak- er's sense of idiom must be the final arbiter in many cases. In questions, mere futurity is usually expressed by, Shall I? Shall you? Will he? "Shall he?" asks for authority. "Will you ?" asks for a promise. Will is not used with the first person in interrogative sen- tences. The forms in common use may be summarized as follows: Pure future I shall be invited of course. in a You will be invited of course. statement. He will be invited of course. Pure future Shall I be invited? in a Shall you be invited? question. Will he be invited? Shatt and Will, Should and Would 179 I will have my own way. Volition. You will have your own way. He will have his own way. I will pay you to-morrow. Promise. You shall be paid to-morrow. He shall be paid to-morrow. Compulsion He says that I shall do it. or Thou shalt not steal. Command. He shall suffer for this. The most common mistake in usage is in the first person, and consists in using will when no special voli- tion, but mere futurity, is to be expressed, as "I will probably be there." The checking of this tendency in those who have a weak sense of idiom is a practical part of the teacher's work. Yet there are instances where only a slight element of volition or purpose is intended; and in these cases persons of unlike temperaments may differ in their choice of the auxiliary. A person of straightforward, positive nature, may say "will," where one with a more suave or yielding disposition prefers "shall"', as " I will be there if the weather is fine"; or, "I shall be there if the weather is fine." HISTORICAL CHANGES IN USE The foregoing statements cover the important prac- tical rules regarding shall and will. Yet students will be aided in keeping these grammatical distinctions by noting the original meaning of the words, and know- ing something of their history as signs of the future tense. For the benefit of those who would enter more 180 Grammar and Its Reasons deeply into this difficult subject, some account of the historical change in usage is here appended. Shall mean^f Jo owe, to be obliged, and its subject usually names one who is controlled by outside in- fluence. The original idea in shall was more of duty than of command. Chaucer used the word in the original sense : " For by the faith I shal to God, etc." A curious outgrowth of the meaning of shall is found in the word "Shilly-shally," which is applied to the action of one who cannot make up his mind, but asks continually, "Shall I?" "Shall I?" The word may perhaps be traced to an old sentence from Congreve: "I don't stand shill I shall I; if I say't, I'll do't." Will means to determine, and its subject originally named one who controlled the action. The primary sense of the two words is closely followed in a sentence by Gibbon: "If you will call, my servant shall show you the book." It will be seen that neither of the two words is entirely colorless as a mere future auxiliary. The idea of voli- tion in will, and that of compulsion in shall, argue against such use. The German language is fortunate in having an auxiliary werden, that can express mere becoming without any extraneous idea. While the original meanings of shall and will greatly affect their use in modern English, the words vary very much in their force, and sometimes seem to be used without any special force. Thus will in the third person, unless emphasized, is entirely void of any meaning except that of a mere future, as Shall and Will, Should and Would 181 * } "Christmas will soon be here." It may even be used without the sense of futurity. Thus, " He will often go to the river at the hour of sun- set," denotes a customary, rather than a future action. Yet, in spite of the modern weakening of the idea of volition in will, the general verdict of English-speaking people has usually been that shall is less inconsistent than will with the pure future meaning. The idea of compulsion includes that of fate or destiny, and a pre- destined event is not very different from a future event. v , At a very early date shall began to lose its original 3f ( meaning, its inflectional forms, and its use as a princi- % - < pal verb. Will, on the other hand, is still in use as an J *\ independent verb with past tense and participial forms, and in its auxiliary use the original idea is more dis- / tinctly retained than is the case with shall. At a very early date shall became the common future auxiliary except for cases where volition was to be expressed. -^ But there is also some counter argument to this ( preference for shall. In both the second and third - persons the compulsive idea proves a bar to the use of shall as a mere future auxiliary. So a rule prescribing ^ such use presents the curious phenomenon of having i the exceptions twice as numerous as the regular cases; and for all these exceptions will is the auxiliary em- ployed. Also, since a voluntary choice is likely to be carried out, will at an early day began to be employed not only when choice was intended, but sometimes when little or no volition was really exercised. There have therefore always been two opposing 182 Grammar and Its Reasons lines of thinking, each having some foundation in reason. Although the one giving will the right of way in cases of doubt has never been generally sustained by scholars, certain modern writers on grammar have openly favored it. (See Ramsey's Grammar. Putnam's Sons. 1892.) I will, they tell us, is more direct and frank than I shall. Shall, they would say, is an im- perious word. Let us not use shall when a better word can be found. So they would make the volun- tary future "I will arise and go to my father, the common future, reserving the involuntary future, as, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me," for those cases where lack of volition is conspicuous. Although this position has never been endorsed by most grammarians, it is supported by a considerable amount of current usage. The people of Scotland and Ireland often use "I will" where grammarians would say "I shall." And in different sections of America to-day people variously say "I will be in Cleveland to-morrow," or, "I shall be in Boston to-morrow." Professor Tolman, of Chicago, has suggested that the large German element in the population of the Western States, may partly account for the fact that will and would have become in some localities the words of all work. In the historical development of the English lan- guage there have been some curious and marked changes in the usage of these words at different periods; but the history clearly shows that shall has, at least his- Shall and Will, Should and Would 183 torically, the right to be considered the primary auxiliary in pure future phrases. The changes in use have been carefully traced in a pamphlet by Prof. F. A. Blackburn, of Chicago, entitled The English Future; Its Origin and Development. Leipsic (1882). Before the Norman Conquest shall and will were occasionally used, but only in their original meaning. A little later, phrases began to appear in a sense 'ap- proaching that of the future tense, but shall occurs more often than will. By the thirteenth century the new future phrase had mostly superseded the old present tense usage. But for more than a century shall became more and more the prevailing word. In some writings of the fourteenth century it is three or four times as frequent as will. It is used in all persons, but especially in the second and third persons. In the third person shall seems to have been nearly twelve times as frequent as will. The latter auxiliary, when found, is almost always in the first person, where a sense of volition can easily be understood, though it is often difficult to determine how much volition it was intended to express. During the fourteenth century people began to see a logical consistency in the use of will for the future, especially as offering a distinction from the compul- sive force of shall in the second and third persons. So the floodtide of shall was gradually in a measure swept away by an influx of will. In the time of Wycliffe, shall was at its height as the 184 Grammar and Its Reasons future auxiliary, though in Wycliffe's gospels will urs sometimes with an indefinite future force. T^mdale's version shows an increase in the number of times will is used. But this increase is mostly in the first person, showing the gradual establishment of two forms in the first person, a mere future, and a voluntary future. In Tyndale's Testament, shall is still the ordinary word in the third person future. Our common version of the Bible is founded largely on Tyndale's version, and in it "I shall" is a very un- common phrase. Yet the Bible abounds in shall phrases for ah 1 future events, as "It shall come to pass in the last days, etc." "Nation shall rise against nation." "Neither shall they learn war any more." "Thou shalt endure, and thy years shall not fail." This use of shall in the third person, though orig- inally an ordinary future (to be replaced mostly by will in a later age), has been called by modern grammarians the "shall of prophecy." Even after will had to some degree supplanted shall, Shakespeare and later writers continued to use shall in all three persons to denote inevitable futurity, as My country shall have more vices than it had before. MACBETH. Whoever shall practice physicke not having these afore- said sciences shall kill more than he shall save. BREVIARY OF HEALTH. 1575. Sir Thomas More, in one sentence declares six times Shall and Will, Should and Would 185 that Christ "shall" do certain specified things. The "shall of prophecy" is still to be found in modern English, and poets continue to use shall in some cases where the prose writers say will. It seems evident that in the historical development of future forms it was shall that first lost its original meaning and became the future auxiliary, afterwards dividing the ground with will in the first person, so as to enrich the language with two forms, a pure future, and a mixed, or indefinite future in that person. It was at a much later date that will, having become weakened in force, replaced shall as a pure future for the second and third persons, leaving to shall its original modal office of expressing compulsive action. A very different explanation of the shall and will usages has, however, found its way into modern thought. It is sometimes said that "the extreme modesty of modern times" forbids the use of "I will," except in extraordinary circumstances, as expressing too much self-assertion. "I shall," however, gives us a phrase by which we may shirk all responsibility. In other words we are permitted to say "I shall," and avoid the question of egoism suggested by "I will," since the speaker is merely the humble instrument of events. The fallacy in this reasoning is that "I will" is assumed to be the original and natural first person future, whereas we have seen that this is not the case. But while this cannot be taken as the explanation of our future phrase forms, the principle here suggested 186 Grammar and Its Reasons throws some light upon certain delicate points of modern usage. The principles to be employed, it may be said, are not merely those of grammar, but also of politeness. Will in the first person must always have a touch of volition, and shall in the second person gives emphasis to authority. But courtesy demands that both au- thority and self-assertion be avoided whenever need- less. The person in command does well to say, not "You shall," but "You will please do this"; as if predicting that it will please you to do it of your own accord. The euphemism deceives no one. ' You will please" is known to be "merely the glove that covers the hand of power." But we like the princes and potentates better if they make their authority unob- trusive. So the conventional form for a military order has become, "You will report to the headquarters of the commanding general," etc. Without denying the true history of the idiom of the future tense, one may agree in a sense with the thought expressed by Archbishop Hare, that " the pres- ent law of the future may be interpreted on ethical grounds. When speaking in the first person we speak submissively, but in the second and third persons we speak courteously." As a delicate application of the same principle in interrogative sentences, it is sometimes felt that "Shall you?" belittles the person addressed by assuming that he has no volition in his own acts. " Will you ?" how- ever, gives the appearance of a request. But if anyone Shall and Will, Should and Would 187 considers these two forms as the opposing horns of a dilemma, he has the alternative of falling back upon another interrogative form that is more colorless than either. Instead of saying " Shall you be at the meeting to-night?" or "Will you be at the meeting to-night?" we may use the present tense as in Old English, and say, "Are you going to the meeting to-night ?" SHOULD AND WOULD The intricate principles that govern the use of shall and will are applicable also to should and would. Yet these latter words have some additional distinctions that are all their own and that make the uncertainties even greater than those of shall and will. Should and would are primarily the past tenses of shall and will, as, I think I shall. I thought I should. I think I will. I thought I would. But should (far more than shall) retains the original idea of ought. "You should do it" means "You ought to do it." Perhaps the most important use of should, however, is in such conditional clauses as "Should you do so, you will regret it." In modern English conditional clauses with should have largely taken the place of the old subjunctives. Would often gives the idea of habitual action, as "The squire would often fall asleep in his pew." 188 Grammar and Its Reasons It may also denote a wish. This is sometimes called its optative or subjunctive use, as "Would to God I had died for thee." Should and would are sometimes merely softened forms of shall and will, as I shall like it if you will go. I should like it if you would go. "I should be cautious," etc., merely means "It is well to be cautious." "It should seem," and "It would seem" are both modestly used in the sense of " It seems." An interesting distinction in the use of should and would is disclosed by a comparison of the sen- tences: If I should go there, I should return soon. If you should go there, you would return soon. If he should go there, he would return soon. We see that in the principal or indicative clause, the auxiliaries follow the law of the future tense, while in the hypothetical clause should is used in all three per sons. The use of these words in questions also presents some slightly different considerations from those which apply to shall and will. The confusions in their use are greater than those of shall and will, and they seem to be increasing, as apparently antagonistic principles seem to be controlling the language development of th<-M> idioms. An attempt to summarize the principles that control the use of should and would may be made as f ollows : Shall and Will, Should and Would 189 When should and would are used as true past tenses for shall and will (that is, when they express either mere futurity or a definite determination in some past time) they follow the same order for the three persons that belongs to shall and will, as I feared I should fall. I hoped you would succeed. I expected that he would have it. But if a hypothetical or subjunctive idea is to be introduced should becomes the preferred auxiliary, thus If I should. If you should. If he should. Yet the principles of euphemism or of courtesy that can modify the choice of shall and will (leading us to avoid needless egoism in the first person as well as needless compulsion in the second and third) while they affect also the choice of should and would, are felt to be less strenuous in their application to these derived forms. Thus "I thought I would fall," while held to be incorrect by a person of keen grammatical sense, carries less of emphasis on the unintended idea of willing than is given by "I will fall." For this reason many persons, in expressing actions which may be the result of a degree of volition (though without intending to lay special emphasis on this idea) use would where others prefer should, as "I thought I would (or should) go to Boston before the end of the season." ' 190 Grammar and Its Reasons Should, in the sense of ought is used for all three persons, as I know I should do it. I think you should do it. He should do it, but he may not. In such cases the word is often emphasized. Although these principles seem complex, the num- ber of cases in which native-born users of English can go grammatically wrong is not numerous. Whenever a sense of obligation or of compulsion is to be made promi- nent, one naturally uses should, and if volition is to be emphasized, would is used intuitively. If one can learn to use "I should," "we should," in those instances when it is not desirable to lay emphasis on one's own volitions, he can scarcely make a serious grammatical error. It is true that there remains a large area of cases in which certain persons use should and others would, (as in the second person of questions, " Should you like to go ?" " Would you like to go ?") but the difference is not so much due to disregard of gram- matical principle as to a difference in people's prefer- ences on the question of hiding or obtruding the slight element of volition that is involved. If an action is voluntary at the moment the speaker must be allowed a certain degree of choice in the matter of bringing tliis volition into notice. So long as even the "native born" are not entirely agreed as to the idiomatic use of these four auxiliaries it is not strange that for foreign students of English the difficulties go deeper. The mistakes made by Shall and Will, Should and Would 191 foreigners often remind us of the merry tale of the Frenchman who declared, "I will drown; nobody shall help me." Yet the absurdity lies not so much in the blundering use of the English idiom as in the inconsistencies of the language itself which lead to this confusion. It is impossible for the ordinary grammar text-book to deal with these four auxiliaries exhaustively. One English writer, Sir E. W. Head, has written an entire book on the subject of "Shall and Will." Yet the impor- tant points can easily be mastered and applied by one who has a sense of grammatical idiom and will give the matter discriminating attention. A good exercise for grammar students consists in searching for these words in literature and interpreting their use by the original meaning of the words and the historic changes in their application. A suggestive quotation on the subject may be taken from the writings of Richard Grant White, who says: "I do not know in English literature another passage in which the distinction between shall and will, and would and should, is at once so elegantly, so variously, so precisely, and so compactly illustrated as in the following lines from a song in Sir George Etheridge's She Would if She Could (1704). "How long I shall love him I can no more tell Than had I a fever when I should be well. My passion shall kill me before I will show it, And yet I would give all the world did he know it. But oh, how I sigh, when I think, should he woo me I cannot refuse what I know would undo me." XXXV111 THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD* "The subjunctive is not a simple mood, but a composite form, the wreck of two moods." In English the distinctions between thought forms and fact forms are to a great extent levelled. SWEET. Just how rare this usage now is may be seen from the fact that in ten representative volumes by recent writers of high reputation, containing approximately 900,000 words, there are said to be only 269 instances of the subjunctive use of the verb be and only fifteen instances of the subjunctive of any other verb than be. FROM The Author. London, 1897. The same feeling of doubt or indeterminateness that char- acterizes the subjunctive is often conveyed to the form now assigned to the indicative. The conditional force in the two differs in degree rather than in kind. SOUTHWORTH. The subjunctive mood has so nearly died out of every-day English that it becomes a questionable and hazardous pro- ceeding to give to the subjunctive idea a distinct meta- physical existence, and then to use this fictitious entity to conjure with. TOLMAN. If we lose the subjunctive verb it will certainly be a grievous impoverishment to our living language, were it only for its value in giving variation to diction, and I make bold to assert that the writer who helps to keep it up de- serves public gratitude. JOHN EARLE. The discriminating use of the subjunctive lends a grace and delicacy to the expression of thought, of which the most finished writers of to-day gladly avail themselves. SOUTH- WORTH. *AUen's School Grammar (Heath and Co.) gives a full treatment of the uses of the subjunctive mood. 192 The Subjunctive Mood 193 "The poet will not relinquish the subjunctive mood. He knows its value too well." It is not many years since text-books in grammar conjugated the subjunctive mood like the indicative with the conjunction if prefixed. These older gram- mars also added a subjunctive form, but the student was left to infer that the essence of the subjunctive mood lay somehow in a conjunction. No text-book or teacher in good standing to-day would endorse this absurdity. In the treatment of the subject at present, many grammars lay chief empha- sis upon the fact that the subjunctive mood is seldom heard in modern English. Both teacher and text- book sometimes say virtually to the young student, ' The subjunctive mood is so nearly obsolete that it is scarcely worth our while to consider it." Yet the subjunctive were is still a required form of the English language. It is used to express a pure hypothesis that is known to be contrary to facts, as Would that he were here. If I were a Frenchman (I am not) I might think differently. Another subjunctive form that is less common than were, but is not going out of use, is the present sub- junctive be in the hypothesis of a scientific demon- stration. Our text-books still say: "If the triangle A be superimposed on the triangle B," etc., and "If a pendulum be drawn to one side it will swing to the other." The verb be has another old subjunctive form, wert 194 Grammar and Its Reasons (the indicative being wast\ used with a subject of the second person singular. But this, like its subject pro- noun, thou, only occurs in the solemn style or in poeti- cal wirings. Other verbs have a subjunctive form in the third person singular, as, " If it rain to-morrow, you cannot p>." But this is now exceedingly rare in spoken Eng- IMi, and even in prose writings it is seldom met with, It is still, however, the preferred form of poetry. Although the subjunctive were (the only common subjunctive in spoken English) has the form of the past tense, it has, when thus used, no reference to past time. To express a similar hypothesis in relation to past time, had may be used either with or without the con- junction if, as Had the boat capsized, all would have been lost. If the boat had capsized all would have been lost. Had, with if, has sometimes an indicative sense, however, as If he had already left the room that alters the case. ' A subjunctive verb is generally found in a subordi- nate clause following one of the conjunctions, if, though, until, lest, or that. It may express (1) A condition or hypothesis, as If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither. I HENRY IV. The Subjunctive Mood 195 (2) A purpose, as "Gather up the fragments thai nothing be lost." (3) A tuture contingency, as "Come down ere my child die." "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" (4) An indirect question, as "Ye shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." In some of these instances the subjunctive would now be replaced by an indicative or a potential form. But although the subjunctive is most frequently found in subordinate clauses, it is not confined to these. It is used in principal clauses to express a consequence, of which the hypothesis may or may not be expressed, as It were madness to attempt it. It had been so with us, had we been there. Returning were as tedious as go o'er. MACBETH. Modern English generally uses would instead of these subjunctives of consequence. But the most frequent use of the subjunctive in principal clauses, occurs in a class of sentences that have a general exclamatory character, and are used with either an imperative or an optative force, as Heaven forgive him! Thy kingdom come. Strike we a blow for freedom! Come one, come all. 196 Grammar and Its Reasons Sit we down, and hear Bernardo speak of this. Be it resolved: Sentences of this class which express a wish, have sometimes been classed together as an optative mood. Modern English generally uses may or let for sentences of this kind, as "Let us strike a blow for freedom!" Other grammarians would class these sentences with the imperatives, yet the true imperative is usually con- sidered as belonging only to the second person. It seems reasonable to group together all the peculiar thought forms of the verb (as distinguished from the indicative or fact forms), and there seems to be no serious objection to making the term, subjunctive mood, cover these optative and exclamatory phrases also. The tendency of modern English is against the sub- junctive in many cases where the bias of the older English was in favor of its use. Both the indicative and the potential forms have been extended in appli- cation as the subjunctive has dropped out of use. Modern English uses the indicative in most cases where the hypothetical or doubtful character of the statement is not clearly and emphatically marked. In the expression of future uncertainties, there are still cases where either the indicative or subjunctive may be considered legitimate, yet in which the potential (or conditional) auxiliary should is to be preferred to either. Thus, " If he go " is correct in poetry, and " If he goes" is the common spoken form; but " If he should go" (since it expresses moredoubtthan "If he goes"), is the best substitute for the older subjunctive mood The Subjunctive Mood 197 The reasons for the rarity of the subjunctive in mod- ern English are chiefly two : (1) A growing carelessness in discriminating be- tween thought-form and fact-form, which has led to the actual loss (in some cases) of the subjunctive forms themselves. (2) The large development of the auxiliary forma- tions. These being more specific than the subjunctive have in large measure taken its place. But although the subjunctive is rare in modern English, the student should remember that the occa- sional and peculiar forms of language still in good use, are those which it is most needful to study. So long as Shakespeare and the King James's version of the Bible retain their present value, it is going to be need- ful for the grammar student to understand the sub- junctive mood. Nor is its modern literary use unimportant. There is many a line in modern poetry and hymn literature that would become prosaic if the mode of the verb were changed to the indicative. As examples of this literary use we may quote : Then Heaven tries the earth if itjje in tune. LOWELL. To fight were deadly peril. SCOTT. For if the flour be fresh and sound, And if the bread be light and sweet, Who careth in what mill 'twas ground? LONGFELLOW. If happiness have not her seat And center in the breast We may be wise, or rich, or great But never can be blest. BURNS. 198 Gram mar and Its Reasons As we look back into the earlier English literature we find more abundant examples, not only in poetry but in prose as well. The student of grammar should explore the fields of literature for illustrations of the subjunctive mood. He will find instances, however, which were properly considered as subjunctives by the older grammarians, but which it is hardly worth while to class with these at present. The forms of the indicative and the subjunctive in some tenses, werfc never distinct. In advanced classes it may be worm while to try to distinguish the subjunctive from the indicative by historical and logical tests, even when the forms are identical. But for the ordinary purposes of elementary grammar it is enough for the student to recognize the peculiar subjunctive forms in the Englisri which he studies and uses, and to see the principles which have led to this use. The intelligent use of the subjunctive is one of the niceties of expression, even in modern speech and writing. It often gives a slightly different meaning to a phrase. A striking example is shown in the lan- guage of formal acts and resolves, as "Resolved, That the Superintendent be, and is hereby instructed to do" so and so. The teacher of grammar should recognize the loss .f subjunctive forms in modern English. But he should not forget that it is possible, by unduly empha- sizing the fact, to hasten its departure, causing real impoverishment of the language. XXXIX PARTICIPLES Buehler treats infinitives and participles as separate parts of speech. Will this prove to be an application of the maxim "Divide and conquer"? TOLMAN. The participle is the most delicate part of speech in the language, and as such is the one most frequently abused or maltreated. ARLO BATES. Pronouns and participles both elusive, and both re- quiring most careful supervision to prevent their establish- ing with other parts of speech relations which cannot for a moment be allowed without scandal. ARLO BATES. In verb phrases compounded with have, the participial form has lost its proper force and cannot always be ex- plained grammatically. In all other verb phrases the par- ticiple has its proper adjective force. HARPER AND BURGESS. The participles are words which are derived from verbs and may take the limitations of the verb, yet which have the nature and use of adjectives. Neither the participle nor the infinitive is usually considered a distinct part of speech, yet the place to teach the definitions of these is in connection with the parts of speech. Until these are both known the phrase forms of the verb cannot be understood, and it is impossible to name the parts of speech in miscellaneous sentences. There are two simple or primary participles and several phrase forms. The first primary participle 199 Grammar and Its Reasons < nds In ing, and belongs to all verbs except a few of the auxiliaries. Its adjective character even when used in verb phrases, as " He is running," is plainly seen. It is usually called the present participle, though as its time signification is only relative and depends on the vrrb with which it is connected, some grammarians prefer to call it the imperfect or simply the active participle. This verbal form in ing has also an infini- tive use. (See Chapter 40.) There is another primary participle that is variously known as the past, the perfect, or the passive participle. Its use and meaning vary greatly. It is one of the prin- cipal parts of the verb, and enters into a larger number of verb phrases than any other verbal form, being used in making the perfect tenses of the active voice and all the tenses of the passive voice. The true participial character of the past participle does not always seem evident. Been, the most com- mon of all the past participles is never used adjectively. The same is true of the past participles of most of the other neuter or intransitive verbs. In active verb phrases where past participles occur, such as, I have lived here many years. I have written a letter. the past participles have a certain remote or historic adjective relation which may be dimly recognized, but the meaning is so blended that the verb phrase is usually thought of as inseparable. If we compare Participles 201 I have written a letter, with I have a letter written, we see that in the latter sentence have is no longer an auxiliary, but has reverted to its original use as a prin- cipal verb, and written though used adjectively has gained a passive meaning, like that of the participle in a passive verb phrase, such as "The letter is written." In a similar way, the participle of any transitive verb may be used adjectively outside of a verb phrase. But in this connection it is in no sense past. It has ac- quired a passive meaning and is usually called the passive participle, as, " The house seen in the distance, looks small." A few past participles of intransitive verbs have acquired an adjective use in somewhat of a passive sense, as "a grown man," "The risen sun," "A gone goose." The-past-participle of an intransitive verb is some- times used as a predicate adjective after the verb be, producing a phrase that resembles the passive voice, though without the true passive signification, as, "Babylon is fallen." The phrase thus formed is also related in meaning to the perfect tense of the active voice. Thus "I am arrived" and "I have arrived" are nearly equivalent in meaning. The former is the more logical form of expression, however. It was the usual form in old English for intransitive verbs, and is still the common idiom of German, though in modern 202 Grammar and Its Reasons English it has mostly been discarded in favor of the phrase with have. The past participle has more irregularities of spell- ing than any other verbal form. When a strong verb loses its ancient inflections, or acquires those of the weak conjugation, the older participial word is often retained for adjective uses, while the new or weaker form is used in true participial relations. Thus, sJiaven, molten, and sunken are now adjective forms, while shaved, melted and sunk are the forms generally used in participial relations. By some grammarians the past participle is called the perfect participle, though this name is usually reserved for one of the phrase forms. In addition to the two primary participles there are four participial phrase forms. A complete view of the participles of the verb may be given as follows : Seeing, present active participle; seen, past or passive participle. Phrases. Having seen perfect active. Having been seeing perfect active progressive. Being seen passive imperfect. Having been seen passive perfect. XL INFINITIVES The true, or simple, infinitive is the name of the verb, as go, while to go is a phrase or constructive form. I know of no error in English Grammar so fruitful of confusion to the student of English Grammar as the false idea that to go is the true (or only) English infinitive. In French and German, oiler or gehen usually means go, while to go is a aller or %u gehcn. JOYNES. The practice of joining to the simple infinitive the preposi- tion to was itself a corruption originally. In our early speech to belonged strictly to the gerund, or, as it is some- times called, the dative case of the infinitive. Prefixed to the gerund it meant something. But with the simple infinitive it merely precedes; it does not govern. It is so valueless in itself that when it is omitted, as it regularly is after certain verbs, its absence is not even felt. LOUNSBURY. The infinitive is perhaps the most difficult subject in English grammar on account of the great variety of its uses. HARPER AND BURGESS. It is long since up-to-date teachers or text-books have called the infinitive a mood of the verb. Its entire lack of assertive power precludes such an interpretation. Grammarians struggled long with this form, and by common consent infinitives and participles are usually classed together as verbals, although in their logical relations they are nouns and adjectives rather than true verbs. 203 204? Grammar and Its Reasons The infinitive is an abstract noun. The chief or root infinitive of a verb names the idea which the verb stands for, and thus becomes the name of the verb itself. The infinitive originally had no to, and is occasion- ally still so used, as, "Better dwell in the midst of alarms Than reign in this horrible place." But the modern infinitive is usually accompanied by to, which was originally a preposition, but is now thought of almost as a part of the infinitive itself and has sometimes unfortunately been called its sign. When an infinitive becomes a part of a verb phrase to is not used, as in "may go," "can do," etc. The infinitive originally had different cases. It was often used in the dative though sometimes in the ac- cusative, or in the old case called in some languages the locative. The infinitive of purpose was a dative in- finitive and corresponded in meaning to the dative supine in um, as, "A sower went out to sow his seed." Such phrases as, "rooms to rent," "apples to sell," also represent the usage of the old dative infinitive. It was this infinitive of purpose only that in old English had to. Later, in the seventeenth century, u hen the sense of to was weakened, for sometimes prec< cled this infinitive form, as, "What went ye out for to see?" The usual infinitive termination was an, as drinc /in, to drink. In the twelfth and following centuries, an became en and finally e and the e itself became a silen Infinitives 205 letter. As the terminations of the infinitive fell away the to of the infinitive of purpose extended itself to the other forms. Yet some verbs were so constantly followed by an infinitive that the preposition to was not introduced. To this class belong the potential auxiliaries, and a few other verbs, such as bid, dare, need, let, make, and a few others. In many of the phrases thus formed the infinitives seem to have lost their original independence, and the phrase is usually treated as inseparable. Yet the student of English should be able to recognize in each phrase the original character of each component word. There are also various idiomatic or abbreviated expressions in which to is not used, as. Please go. You had better go and see. What, be gone all day? Why not tell me? He cannot choose but know. A colloquial idiom that has come into use during the last century is the use of to in place of the entire infinitive, as, "I should like to." The little beggars are doing just what I don't want them to. STEVENSON. An adverb is sometimes placed between to and the infinitive, though this practice was objected to by the older grammarians. (See Chapter 57.) 206 Grammar and Its Reasons Besides the ordinary simple infinitive with to, there is also a participial infinitive. It has the form of the active participle, but the use of a noun, and can take the limitations of the verb from which it was derived as, "There is a pleasure in seeing plants grow." It resembles the Latin gerund, and is sometimes called by that name in English. (See Chapter 41.) In addition to these two simple infinitive forms, there are several infinitive phrases. Ah 1 the infinitives of the verb give may be shown as follows: Give, or to give, root infinitive; giving, participial infinitive. PHRASE FORMS. To be giving active progressive. To |$ve given active perfect. To have been giving active, perfect progressive To be given passive. To"T!Fave been given passive, perfect. In its primary use the infinitive is a noun in either the nominative or the objective relation, as, To do so is to be a coward. I want to try it. But the infinitive (as well as other substantive words) has certain uses that shade off into adjective or ad- verbial constructions, as "a house to let," "good to eat," "wonderful to tell." It is not always easy to in- terpret an infinitive in its relationships. In an adjective relation an infinitive may limit a noun directly as, A rule to go by; Or as an apposjtjve, as, A desire to be loved. Infinitives 207 It may also be the attribute of a sentence, as, He is to die at sunrise. Or an objective predicate, as, I declare this to be true. I wanted him to go at once. In an adverbial relation, it may limit an adjective, as, Glad to see you. Eager to go. Or an adverb, as, Not strong enough to lift it. The infinitive of purpose is an adverbial infinitive, as, He went to find it. In a similar way the infinitive may express a result adverbially, as, It fell so as to obstruct the view. Some knowledge of historical and comparative grammar will help a teacher to understand and interpret the infinitive in its various uses. XLI VERBAL FORMS IN ING. The grammarian in some unexplained way became greatly afraid of the word "gerund," and huddled that form of the verb in with participles, or with nouns, by extending too widely the use of the phrase "verbal noun." In the best of recent grammars this error has been righted and the gerund is given its proper recognition. The matter is complicated by the fact that the ending ing belongs also to nouns pure and simple. ARLO BATES. The gerund is Janus-faced; a noun on one side and a verb on the other. RAMSEY. "The gerund gives the idea of processes going vitally forward with vivid force." Modern English forms in ing represent different orig- inal forms which in old English had different end- ings. The participle in old English ended in ende, or ande, which later became inde or ynde and finally yng or ing. The abstract or verbal noun originally ended in inig and this was afterwards also written yng or ing. The two verbal forms thus became blended and were finally thought of as one. The true infinitive of the verb is also closely related to th< abstract noun. Thus, "Seeing is believing" and T" pee ix to l><>lieve" are nearly alike in meaning. Modern En^li>h uses a verbal in ing in many cases 208 Verbal Forms in "ing" 209 where in older English the infinitive in an or en would have been used. Partly on account of these different origins the verbal form in ing has many uses in English, as follows: She was singing a participle used in making a verb phrase. The bird singing on the tree is a thrush a participle having verbal limitations, but an appositive adjective re- lation. The singing bird sits on the tree pure adjective. Singing is a good exercise abstract or verbal noun. She amused us by her singing of that song also an ab- stract or verbal noun, limited like a noun. She pleased us by singing the song so well verbal noun with verbal modifiers (called participial infinitive and also sometimes called gerund.)* Some modern grammarians have revived the old term gerund for these verbals that show combined character and uses. The term is somewhat loosely applied, but is usually confined to verbals that are participial in *It seems desirable in English grammar to distinguish by some explicit term those verbals which retain much of their original verbal character from those that are exclusively nouns in their sentence construction. The term gerund, which is used in Latin grammar to refer to a verbal noun governing cases, and which has been adopted by some recent writers on English, is therefore used in this chapter with this signification. But the use of this word in English grammar is not without some elements of confusion. Louns- bury and other writers on grammar speak of the old dative infinitive as the gerundial use of the infinitive, and Bain and other grammarians apply the term gerund to the modern infinitive of purpose, as, "I come to write a letter." It would seem to be needful at present in using the term ge- rund in English grammar, that one should first clearly define his own application of it. 210 Grammar and Its Reasons form and substantive in use and that at the same time have verbal modifiers (usually a direct object). In- transitive participial nouns, however, are also called gerunds by these writers when the verbal limitation is made prominent, as "His walking to the village was needless." When a verbal in ing is preceded by the and followed by of it is a pure verbal noun. Verbal nouns in ing may be pluralized, but cannot at the same time take objects or other verbal limitations, as, " The windings of the river." "Paul's teachings." A pure noun in ing names the act or state, but the gerund generally shows explicitly that the act is going forward, as, "The putting it into place again was no easy task." The noun character of the gerund is frequently em- phasized by its having (in addition to the verbal modi- fiers) a preceding adjective modifier, as the or a pos- sessive case; as, My leaving Guido were a kind of death. BROWNING. The gerundive use is not confined to the simple verbals in ing but is shared by participial phrase forms also, as, They heard of his having written the letter. I distinctly remember having seen him. There is a still older English construction containing a verbal in ing after a noun or pronoun, but having the adjective rather than the noun use, as, What's the use of me reciting that chapter? Ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in us. BIBLE, Verbal Forms in "ing" 211 This is occasionally met with in modern literature, as, Would you mind me asking you a few questions? STEVENSON. The construction is not uncommon when it is a noun phrase that is limited by the participle, as, Who ever heard of an army superior in numbers retreat- ing without a blow? But when a pronoun is used the modern gerundive form is generally preferred, as, I never thought of his doing it (not, him doing it.) The thought in the two cases differs slightly, however. In " Think of me doing it" the thought is of me. In "Think of my doing it" the thought is of the doing. The verbals in ing in their participial use sometimes take a passive meaning, as, The tea is making. One thing is wanting. So much is owing. The house is building. In the older English this was usually preceded by the prepositional prefix a, as, " The house is a-building." This prefix is sometimes used also for an intransitive form where the meaning is not passive, as, Old Time is still a-flying. HERRICK. We see then that the verbals in ing have a mixed char- acter among the parts of speech. Sometimes the ad- 212 Grammar and Its Reasons jective character is prominent, sometimes the noun character. And in each of these relations the verbal character may be very obscure (or almost wholly lack- inu r ) or it may be made prominent by the presence of a clinvt object and other verbal modifiers. Modern writers on grammar have shown much in- terest in tin* history and the uses of these complex par- ticipial forms in ing. XLII ADVERBS Words of more or less obscure descent, belonging to no one of the regularly defined classes of nouns or verbs, sub- ject to no laws or rules, and yet not only incorporated into the idiom but always of undeniable importance, this ex- ceptional and generally ill-treated class of words we call after the fashion of ancient grammarians, adverbs. The old Latin writers, whenever a word was found to be estab- lished in use which differed from its ordinary manner of signifying, thrust it aside into the class of adverbs. M. SCHELE DE VERB. The common sink and repository of all heterogeneous and unknown corruptions. HORNE TOOKE. When a man says "I didn't never say nothing to nobody," this is a sound Old English idiom, traces of which are found after 1600. KINGTON OLIPHANT. "Adverbs shade off into prepositions and conjunctions, and the same word is often used as two of these parts of speech or even as all the three." "No other interchange of classification is more frequent than that of adverb and preposition, and vice versa, and in these cases at least the change is generally due to ellipsis." Judging from the names of the two parts of speech one might suppose that the adverb was strictly a verb modifier and that the adjective had a general limiting power for other parts of speech. But on the contrary it is the adjective which is confined to the one relation 213 214 immar and Its Reason* of noun modifier, while all other limiting words are indiscriminately classed together as adverbs. Many of the adverbs were originally of some oilier part of speech; some are abbreviations or corrupt forms of other words. Many of the prepositions have also an adverbial use. The one essential characteristic of an adverb is that it is a limiting or subordinate word that is joined to some other part of speech than a noun. An adverb may limit a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Occasionally also it limits a preposition or a connective. It frequently gives intensifying or diminish- ing force to an entire statement, as, "Truly God is good." In such cases it is called a modal adverb. Even the independent words of negation or affirmation, yes and no, are sometimes loosely classed with the modal adverbs. They are equivalent to abridged sen- tences, however, and are sometimes classed with the interjections. Adverbs are loosely subdivided according to meaning, into those denoting place, time, cause, manner, quantity, etc. In reference to grammatical use we speak of con- junctive, relative and interrogative as well as modal adverbs. Many adverbs are used in pairs with correlative sig- nification, as, to and fro, now and then, here and there, hither and thither, up and down, right and left. An adverb is often repeated with correlative force, as, partly, partly; now, now. English is also rich in adverbial phrases, idiomatic and sometimes hard to Adverbs 215 explain, as "at once," "at all," "in vain," "of old," "one by one." The line of division between adjective and adverb is not very clearly marked. The same word often allows the two uses. Some adverbs, like adjectives, admit of comparison, and the degrees of comparison are formed in the same way as for adjectives. Many of our Anglo-Saxon adjectives of one syllable had originally an adverbial form ending in e. Thus Chaucer uses the word h o t e as the adverbial form of the adjective hot. This final e shared the fate of many other final e's and was gradually dropped. With the dropping of the termination such adverbs became identical in form with the adjectives. An ly added to an adjective is a modern adverbial termination. Adverbs thus formed are not used ad- jectively; though the corresponding adjective form is frequently used in an adverbial relation, especially by the poets, who find the adjective more poetic than the strictly adverbial form. This usage is not an in- novation but has its root in the older English. Such colloquial expressions as "Walk slow" are common among people who are not "bookish," even when the adverb in ly is the modern literary form. One of the time-honored battlegrounds of grammarians is the question whether certain predicate terms are modi- fiers of the subject or the verb. In most of these cases the real truth is that both noun and verb are in a de- gree modified. In " He walks erect," the predicate term has both an adjective and an adverbial relationship. 216 Grammar and Its Reasons It is a peculiarity of the English idiom that the use of not in a sentence requires the auxiliary do, as " He does not like it." The poetic form allows the not with the common verb form, but the not is placed after the verb, and usually at the end of the sentence, as, "She likes me not." There are exceptions in literature, however, to this position of the not, as, She not denies it. SHAKSPEARB. If the adverb not be placed in a sentence containing another negative it neutralizes it, as, He does not work for nothing. Formerly two negatives were used to make a stronger negative but this was given up under the influence of Latin, in which two negatives make an affirmative. In old English nay was used to answer a question affirmative in its form, and no a negative one, as, , Is he going? Nay. Is not he going? No. But this distinction fell away, and yea and nay are now used in poetic style only. In a bright paragraph in a literary journal a modern writer discusses "nervous adverbs," that is those that are "nervous" either in position or in literary form. As illustrations of the two cases he quotes, "Few people learn anything that is worth learning, easily," and also the little girl who "liked eggs boiled softly." Only and certain of the modal adverbs show an especial tendency to lose their right position in the Adverbs 217 sentence. The usual place for only is immediately before the word which it modifies. Yet there are in- stances in which other considerations may alter this position. In the poem "Identity" no less careful a writer than Thomas Bailey Aldrich has included the line, " I only died last night. " To have placed only after died would of course have spoiled the meter; but it would be interesting to know just how long Mr. Aldrich struggled with that line before deciding to let it go in this shape. The propriety of placing an adverb between an infinitive and its sign has of ten been questioned, but the practice seems to be increasing. (See Chapter 57, on "The Split Infinitive.") Some critics have also objected to the placing of an adverb between the parts of a compound tense, prefer- ring "probably will go, ""has searched carefully," etc., to "will probably go" and "has carefully searched." It is frequently better that the adverb should precede or follow the entire phrase, but there are many instances in which the middle of the verb phrase seems to be the required place for the adverb. It is a good principle in writing that adverbs should be somewhat sparingly used. This is especially true of the intensive adverbs. The effect of very is quite as often weakening, as strengthening, to the force of a sentence. Vastly seems to have been abused in the eighteenth century somewhat as awfully was dur- ing the latter part of the nineteenth. Yet a writer's skill is sometimes emphatically shown 218 Grammar and Its Reasons in the choice of an unusual and appropriate adverb. Thus Dickens speaks of two men at a funeral "who spoke as if they themselves were notoriously immortal." The adverb may indeed be the most decorative and distinguishing of words. Ruskin somewhere tells us of the humility of great men who are nevertheless, "endlessly, foolishly, incredibly, merciful." Sir Arthur Helps in describing a weighty sentence says that it should be so constructed that no other writer will ever be able to " say the like thing so choicely, tersely, meUifliiously, and completely" Such an occa- sional prodigality of adverbs may give a fine touch to a piece of writing. Yet it is only the master's hand that should venture to lay them on so thick. XLIH PREPOSITIONS The grammatical function of a preposition is to make the noun-word it governs into an adjunct-word. SWEET. Some grammarians have given lists of adverbs, preposi- tions, and conjunctions, for what reason I know not, seeing that they have not attempted to give lists of the words of other parts of speech. COBBETT. (1818.) The small parts of speech are so fine as constantly to elude the critical attention of the writer, but so important as constantly to determine the critical effect of the sentence as a whole. ARLO BATES. "I was made a victim in a court of law of two preposi- tions and a conjunction. Of, concerning, and that were the abject instruments of my cruel extinction." In the sentence "This is a good country to be born in, to live for, to die for," the position of the preposition is the most genuine English. JOYNES. "Inflectional decay was the chief tendency of the language in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This increased the value of English prepositions." In English the prepositions play so important a part that they are really of more weight than the scanty remains of case inflection. SWEET. Their importance rises in proportion as a nation begins to think more acutely and to express its thought more accurately. M. SCHELE DE VERB. Prepositions were originally and for a long time 219 220 Grammar and Its Reasons classed with conjunctions. ' There is a similarity be- tween the two parts of speech, yet a clear differentiation should be made. Conjunctions are primarily sentence connectives. Only a few conjunctions can connect words, and these only in co-ordinate relations. A preposition connects words, yet not in co-ordinate relations. It establishes a relation of dependence between its object and some other word, thus forming a phrase which may be either adjective or adverbial in character, according to the nature of the part of speech which is modified by the phrase. As one writer has said, "The preposition puts a noun into relation with some other word in the sentence." There is a prevalent idea that the name preposition was given to this class of words because they are placed before nouns. The word seems to have come, how- ever, from the fact that in Greek and Latin the pre- position was often compounded with a verb, being placed before it as a prefix. The same thing is some- times found in English, as in undergo. There is a tradition that school children of a former generation had to commit to memory and recite verba- tim et seriatim the list of English prepositions. Modern schools certainly do not follow this plan, yet pupils ought to be familiar with the prepositions and able t ) recognize them quickly. Many of the prepositions are also used as adverbs, as, "He came in." Sometimes a prepositional adverb seems to be a part of the verb itself, as, " to be addicted to," "to laugh at." Some grammarians speak of Prepositions "detached prepositions," as in the sentence "I don't know what he is thinking of." Such prepositions have very nearly an adverbial use; yet of, though often a "detached preposition," can never be a true adverb. An ancient rhetoric contains the rule that "A pre- position is not a good word to end a sentence with." Doubtless in some cases there is a better place for the preposition than at the end of the sentence. Yet the English idiom allows and sometimes prefers this posi- tion for the preposition. " What did you ask for ? " " Whom did you come with ? " are stronger sentences than " For what did you ask ? " and " With whom did you come ? " Some of the prepositions were originally participles, as, respecting, excepting, etc. There is also a large class of prepositional phrase forms, that are usually treated by grammarians as one word, although they will admit of closer analysis. Such are "in regard to," "according to," "in spite of," "by means of," and "for the sake of." In "for the sake of peace," peace is grammatically the object of of, but logically it is the object of the whole phrase, which is therefore often treated together as one preposition. While the object of a preposition is usually a noun or pronoun, a phrase or a clause may stand in this relation, as, "till after the shower, 9 ' "Listen to what I say." An adjective or an adverb may also take the place of a noun as the object of a preposition, as, " till then," "on high." The time honored rule that "Prepositions govern Grammar and Its Reasons the objective case*' applies of course only to the seven words in English that have an objective case form. But these are so frequently used that the rule is of con- siderable importance. The English student should distinguish carefully be- tween related prepositions, such as, between and among, at and in before names of places, in and into, etc. Much care should be taken in choosing appropriate prepositions to convey subtle shades of meaning, or to follow certain words. A choice of prepositions must often be made in such phrases as, " agree with or to," " adapted to or /or," "a taste of or /or," "correspond with or to," "reconcile with or to," and many others. In milking such choices one has to rely mainly on his sense of idiom. One who is not thoroughly familiar with English usage often makes mistakes in such points. The use of for before an infinitive, and of than as a preposition before a relative pronoun, was common in the earlier English, as, "for to see," "Beelzebub, than whom," etc., but both of these usages have dis- appeared from modern English. Owing to the various and subtle shades of meaning which prepositions take, they are less intelligible to foreigners than most words, and are therefore less likely to be adopted into other languages. The exist- ence of similar prepositions is therefore a good evidence of affinity in languages. The preposition has had an important part to play in the tranbioriuation of English f rom a highly i n - Prepositions fleeted language to a "logical" one. It is largely by the exchange of case-endings for prepositions that this has been done. This change has introduced some new possibilites of error in sentence arrangements and has also added new elements of freedom and of strength to the language. But a considerable degree of training and skill is needed to bring fully into play the subtle powers and possibilities of the English prepositions. XLIV CONJUNCTIONS "In the order of nature, the conjunction comes last among the parts of speech. It proclaims the maturity of the simple sentence. The need of conjunctions did not come until the language had advanced to form compound sentences." Only a few conjunctions connect words, and these only on an equality. CARPENTER. We have a feeling of and, a feeling of if, a feeling of but, and a feeling of by, just as really as a feeling of blue or a feeling of cold. JAMES. If we take the word conjunction in its widest sense we may say that and, and that (in, I know that it is true), represent the extremes of abstract co-ordination and abstract sub- ordination. SWEET. The gouty joints of whereuntos and wherebys, thereof s, and tfcereiflttfi*. SHAFTESBURY. A good literary workman is at once to be known by his handling of connectives. ARLO BATES. "The conjunction shows the thought connection and so makes thinking clear and accurate." It is in the right use of these (i. e., the connecting terms or particles), that the brevity and clearness of good style must chiefly consist. LOCKE. As regards composition generally the greatest refine- ments and the most common inaccuracies attend the four simple conjunctions and, or, but, if. BAIN. The primary office of a conjunction is to connect 224 Conjunctions sentences (i. e. clauses), but since clauses, especially if co-ordinate, can be abridged by the omission of like words, a very few of the conjunctions have extended their use to connect also words and phrases in the same construction, as, " Will you take cheese or butter ?" Almost all such connected expressions may be thought of as elliptical forms of clauses; but the most important conjunction and (alone among the connectives) can connect words or phrases in like relations even when there is no ellipsis that can be supplied, as, " John and Mary are a happy couple," " Pompey and Caesar were both great men." We may say therefore, that con- junctions connect clauses, and occasionally also, words or phrases in like constructions. There are many words which add the conjunctive office to some other function. Such are the relative pronouns, relative adjectives, relative adverbs, and many other adverbs which are not relative. Conjunctions are of two main classes, co-ordinate and subordinate. A co-ordinate conjunction connects clauses or parts of clauses of equal rank. These con- nected clauses may be either principal clauses or sub- ordinate clauses holding the same relationship in the sentence. The most common co-ordinate conjunctions are and, but, and or. The name copulative is applied to and and a few others of similar meaning. But repre- sents another small group called disjunctive or adversa- tive conjunctions ; and or represents a small group called alternative conjunctions. These, however, are dis- Grammar and Its Reasons Unctions of meaning rather than of grammatical re- lation. For is a co-ordinate conjunction with causal signification as, " He will do it; for this is already agreed upon." For is to be distinguished from because, which is subordinate and adverbial in character. For represents the objective relations of events, while because shows the subjective or thought relations be- tween them. A subordinate conjunction connects a subordinate clause to the principal one; or, more strictly, to that word in the principal clause which the subordinate clause limits. A subordinate conjunction performs for a subordinate clause a like office to that which the preposition does for its object; as may be seen from the fact that the same word may often be used either as preposition or subordinate conjunction without change of its essential character, as, " He studied until noon," "He studied until the teacher came." Yet a conjunction connects without governing, while a prepo- sition governs the case form of an adjunct pronoun. Subordinate conjunctions are divided according to meaning into those of cause, purpose, comparison, etc., but the classification is neither very definite nor com- plete. Most of the subordinate conjunctions sustain also more or less of an adverbial relation. The con- junction that is called the substantive conjunction, because its chief use is to introduce a noun clause, as, "That you have wronged me doth appear in this," "I hope that you will do it." That may also be used to connect an adverbial clause after so or such. Conjunctions There are a few phrases that are occasionally used as conjunctions. Common examples are, "as if," "provided that," "in order that," etc. They are really elliptical in character, however. There are many connective words that are used in pairs, the first pointing out that the connection is to follow. Such are both and, either or, not only but also, etc. These are called correlative words (i. e. : having a mutual relation) and are usually co-ordinate in character; but if yet, and a few other pairs, belong with the subordinate connectives. One of the two correlative words is frequently an adverb, as, "It was so hard that he gave it up." And, also and or, among the co -ordinate conjunctions, and if, though and a few others among subordinate ones, are never anything except conjunctions. But, for, since, and a good many others may be used as prepositions as well. Some of the conjunctions (es- pecially the co-ordinate ones) are sometimes used to introduce sentences, thus forming " prepared " sentences in distinction from the unprepared, as, "And seeing the multitudes he went up into a mountain." Or sometimes introduces formally a long paragraph, which is thus logically (though not grammatically) con- nected with what goes before. Also, too, and therefore are frequently used in a similar way. A few adverbs, as still, nevertheless, however, are similarly used to connect logically though not formally, and these are sometimes called "half -conjunctions/' Grammar and Its Reasons Certain cumbrous words sometimes used are made by compounding where and there with many of the prepositions, as, whereupon, wherein, thereafter, there- unto. Those compounded with where are generally used as connectives, those with there as adverbs. Although called by Campbell "the luggage of par- ticles," these words have a convenient use in forming complex sentences. The conjunctions are really few in number. About twenty-three words have been enumerated that per- form most of the conjunctive offices in English. But although so few and so loosely related to the rest of the sentence, conjunctions form an important element of speech. Coleridge once wrote, "A clear reasoner and a good writer in a general way may be known by his pertinent use of connectives." XLV INTERJECTIONS The miserable refuge of the speechless. HORNE TOOKE. Primary undifferentiated language material; word proto- plasm, so to speak. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. A stepping-stone to true language, both by suggesting the idea of articulate speech and by supplying a large number if not the entire number of actual roots. MAX MULLER. "An interjection implies a meaning which it would take a whole grammatical sentence to expound, and it may be regarded as the rudiment of such a sentence." In conversation they serve to help the timid, to give time to the unready, to keep up a pleasant semblance of familiarity, and, in a word, to grease the wheels of talk. DEAN ALFORD. The idle word is not quite free from blame. DEAN ALFORD. Sacred Interpreter of human thought How few respect or use thee as they ought. COWPER. Cry "Hola" to thy tongue, I prythee, It curvets unseasonably. As You LIKE IT. The interjection stands among the parts of speech, but it is not really of them. It is, rather, " a whole speech, characterized by a maximum of brevity and a minimum of clearness." In this respect it is closely allied to the gesture, which usually gives its accom- panying force to the ejaculation. Emotion is quick. There is no time to "fit a phrase." Yet speech will 229 280 Grammar and Its Reasons break out when the feelings are stirred; hence, the need of interjections. Although the interjection is said to be independent in its sentence relations, other words may depend upon it. In, "O that I had wings," the clause "that I had wings" is the object of a verb of wishing implied in o. The interjection was probably the primary form of articulation. The ones first used may have had an imitative quality, such as we now recognize in pop, bang, ding-dong, and rub-a-dub. The best command of the rhetoric of the interjection, perhaps, belongs to children, and also to savages whose peculiar grunts contain whole areas of condensed thought. With civilization the use of interjections diminishes, and their character changes. It has been said that the degree of a man's civilization can be pretty fairly judged by the expletives which he uses. There are many interjections which have a historic meaning, and some are truly philological in character. There are whole classes of literature, however, which have no interjections. One will look in vain for them in treatises on mathematics, physical science or history, though these, as has been well said, "are often provocative of interjections." Fiction and oratory make large use of them ; and for the poet the interjection is an im- portant part of his stock in trade. In conversation these ejaculatory words serve some ends, and we could scarcely do without them. They fill up the gaps. They put the listener into touch Interjections 231 with the talker. Even in writing they sometimes give balance to a halting sentence. Well before a reply shows that one does not wholly repudiate the ques- tion even if he cannot fully answer it. Why rallies the questioner, or puts a doubtful aspect upon the subject discussed. But useful as these and other inter- jections are, they are much overworked by nervous or unthinking minds. The early grammarians, wiser perhaps than we, did not rank the interjection as a part of speech. It seems to have slipped into the list at a later era, partly perhaps to preserve the historic number eight after the article had been crowded out, and other "parts" had become differently divided. Some of the ancient grammarians classed the inter- jection with the adverb, and there is indeed a cognate relation between the two. Verily, truly, and other modal adverbs have a strong affinity with interjections. Yes and no, though sometimes called independent adverbs, are more truly interjections. Each of them implies a statement, as, " It is so," or "It is not so," "I will do it," or "I will not do it." Many of the com- monest interjections are adverbs put to an independent use, as, Here, There, Now, Why, Well. But there are other interjections that are closely related to the verb, such as, Hold, Hush, Halt, Whoa, Gee, Haw, See here, Look out. There are many vapid and meaningless expletives, while others are fraught with tremendous meaning. Colorless words often grow into interjections and Grammar and Its Reasons become current, but afterwards sink out of sight again. Changes come faster in the interjectional vocabulary than in any other. There is also more local and in- dividual variation in this linguistic department than in others. There are old historic interjections long disused, which one often meets in reading the English classics and which may be found in our dictionaries. Such are Marry, Gramercy, Zounds, and Well-a-way. La was a feeble expletive much in vogue among feminine fiction characters of the eighteenth century. There are several religious responses, having a wide-spread and important use, that are classed with the interjec- tions. Such are All Hail, the Selah of the Hebrew Psalms, Hallelujah and its Greek form Alleluia. Such also is the great response of prayerful souls through all the ages, Amen. Many of the literary interjections are seldom heard in conversation. Such are Lo, Alas, Behold, Hail, // tizzd, Ileigh-ho. There are others, however, having a dictionary recognition, that are in common use orally as well, such as Whew, Hurrah, Pooh, and Indeed. One often makes a limited number of interjections cover a wide range of meanings. In Oh we may find surprise, joy, pain, disgust, pity, and a whole gamut of emotions, according as the tone of voice may reveal or circumstances decree. There is a tendency of late to obliterate the spelling distinction between the emotional interjection oh, Interjections 233 and the vocative that comes to us from the Latin and is almost like a prefix to the following name, as, "O Lord." But there is some gain to the language in retaining the distinction, which we hope may not be wholly obliterated. It is a lamentable fact that interjections show an almost universal tendency to verge towards the expres- sions of profanity. Many of the historic interjections Were originally mild oaths. Thus Zounds is a con- traction of "God's wounds," and "Marry" came into use through the practice of swearing by the Virgin Mary. The word of prayer, or praise, or imprecation, used in the highest emotional states, is easily drawn upon and degraded to express less intense or lower emotions. People whose high moral sense or refined taste would never sink to the use of "Billingsgate" often use ex- pressions that are everywhere current, but are essentially forms of prayer or cursing that have become more or less disguised by conventional spelling or the cloak of a foreign synonym. Such modern expressions as "Gracious," "Good Lord," "Good Heavens," "Diable," "Mon Dieu," show how extensively the appellations of God and of his Satanic Majesty have entered into the ejacula- tory language. Among this class of words and phrases, there are some, such as "Good-bye," and "Adieu," which are rich and important contributions to the English tongue. Others also have achieved an inno- cent and respectable position, for even the most refined 234 Grammar and Its Reasons and modest mind is scarcely repelled by such a modified form of language as reveals itself in "O dear" "(ODieu)." One should not underestimate the sin and vulgarity of profane expressions. Yet there is less real difference perhaps, between the "profane swearing" of the saloon, and the conventionalized expletives of the "Club," than may at first appear. The use of interjections is a difficult but important subject for the teacher to deal with. To prevent the use of expletives would be impossible. But to curb the tendency, to direct it, to help the children to under- stand the real nature of the interjections they use, and to cultivate their taste so that only refined and ex- pressive ones shall find utterance from their lips is one of the important parts of the language teaching of American schools. XLVI SENTENCES AND CLAUSES A sentence is a completely worded statement, inquiry, or command. LEWIS'S APPLIED GRAMMAR. "Every group of words having a verb is grammatically a sentence." "A sentence is a word or group of words whose form makes us expect it to express a full meaning. We say expect because it depends on the context whether or not any sentence expresses a complete meaning." Exclamatory sentences are closely akin to interrogative and are usually placed in that class. CARPENTER. The Ideal Sentence. It should be powerful in its substan- tives, choice and discreet in its adjectives, nicely correct in its verbs. Withal, there must be a sense of felicity about it, declaring it to be the product of a happy moment, so that you feel that it will not happen again to that man who makes the sentence, nor to any other of the sons of men, to say the like thing so choicely, tersely, mellifluously, and com- pletely. SIR ARTHUR HELPS. The sentence is the primary unit of language in form as well as in thought. Words and phrases can only be dealt with grammatically as parts of the sentence. A study of the general plan of the sentence is therefore necessary at the beginning of a course in grammar. Sentences are classified according to their general form and meaning into declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences. Thus: 235 236 Grammar and Its Reasons You will do it. Declarative. Will you do it? Interrogative. Do it. Imperative. How well you do it! Exclamatory. The student of grammar needs to examine carefully the structural differences in these classes of sentences. Some writers on grammar omit the exclamatory sentence as a distinct type. Sentences in this form are rare. They also approach the interrogative in form, beginning with a word that is in its nature inter- rogative (haw or what) though the word order differs from that of the usual interrogative sentence. Declara- tive, interrogative and imperative sentences that are short and emphatic are often logically exclamatory and are punctuated as such. There are various types of the assertive (or declara- tive) sentence determined chiefly by the character of the verb, as, The apple is a fruit. Verb copulative. Dogs bark. Verb intransitive. Bees make honey. Verb transitive. Honey is made by the bees. Verb passive. You forget yourself. Verb reflexive. It rains. Verb impersonal. There are also negative sentences: Old form. I like it not. Modern form. I do not like it. Every group of words containing a verb and subject is by some grammarians called a sentence. But sen- Sentences and Clauses 237 tences can be combined into complex and compound sentence-wholes, and it is convenient to have some other word than sentence for the smaller sentences within the larger sentence. The term clause, rather than sentence, is generally used to refer to a subject and predicate that forms one of the parts of a complex or a compound sentence. Clauses are either principal or subordinate, and subordinate clauses may be adjective, adverbial, or noun clauses according to their relation in the complex sen- tences to which they belong. A noun clause is usually connected by the substan- tive conjunction that. It may be: Subjective. That it should fail was inevitable. Objective. I hope tha_jie will come. Predicative. The reply was that he had already written it. Appositive. The wish that he may succeed is very general. A sentence may be only partly compound, as, " He is tall, but not strong." " John and not Mary, was there." Sentences that are logically connected are often put together without a conjunction, as, " The grass is green, the sky is blue." Some writers would put into several sentences what others would punctuate as one. A succession of such short and logically connected sen- tences is sometimes called a sequence. A clause (or sentence) is sometimes interjected as a parenthesis into another sentence, as, "I understand (and this view is confirmed by others) that the matter had already been decided by the action of the com- Grammar and Its Reasons mittee." The grammatical relationship of such an interjected sentence to the principal one is not always tin; same as the logical one. In the sentence, "He thinks, I believe, that the world belongs to him," that ^hich is really the principal sentence is logically the object of believe. In the evolution of language the order of sentence development seems to be as follows: First. The isolated sentence. He went away. Second. Parallel sentences. He went away. I am sorry. Third. The compound sentence. He went away and I am sorry. Fourth. The complex sentence. I am sorry that he went away. The development of a child's language usually follows this order of sentence growth. Although the sentence as a whole must be studied at the beginning of the grammar course the clauses of a complex sentence cannot be fully discussed until the study of the parts of speech has thrown some light upon the relations of these larger component parts of sen- tences. PHRASES A large proportion of the elements of sentences are not single words, but combinations or groups of words. GREEN'S ENGLISH ANALYSIS. Each of the parts of speech has what we may call a power of extension; that is, it may consist of a group of words, i. e. t a phrase or a clause. CARPENTER. A phrase is a combination of two or more words, not in- cluding a subject and predicate, having in a sentence the office or value of a single part of speech, and capable of being regarded and parsed as such. WHITNEY. There is no good reason for giving special prominence to prepositional phrases over others. BROWN AND DEGARMO. A sentence can be broken up into as many phrases as there are groups of two or more words connected in meaning, which, taken together, perform the office of a part of speech. BROWN AND DEGARMO. Groups of words in sentences are often used to per- form the function of a single part of speech. When such a word group contains a subject and predicate it is a clause. When it has no verb within it, it is a phrase. Phrases are named from the part of speech whose office they hold, as noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverbial phrases, etc. Phrases are also called participial, infinitive, and 239 40 (! raw mar and Its Reasons prepositional phrases according as the nucleus of the phrase is a participle, an infinitive, or a preposition and its object. A word of any part of speech, however, as a noun, adjective or adverb, to which grammatical modifiers may be joined, can become the basis of a phrase. Verbs, participles, and infinitives have many phrase forms, which are usually treated as wholes, but admit of further analysis. Prepositional and conjunctive phrases, such as, "provided that," "for the sake of," " in order that," are usually elliptical and capable of analysis, though it is often better to treat them as wholes. A phrase can be very long and very complex in structure. Participial and infinitive phrase construc- tions are often of great length. (See Chapter 48, on " Abridged Clauses.") Phrases, as well as clauses, are sometimes inter- jected into sentences with which they have a logical rather than a grammatical connection, as, "Your ad- mission, to .speak very frankly, goes further than you intended." A knowledge of the parts of speech is necessary before tin; student can deal intelligently with the word groups in sentences. Yet the analysis of a given sentence should deal first with these larger wholes and after- wards with the individual words. XLVIII ABRIDGED CLAUSES "The absolute or independent use of the participle is one of those constructions which, while entirely well supported by authority yet seems somewhat out of harmony with the idiomatic spirit of the English tongue. Probably all writers of standing sometimes employ this form." The grammarian does not make rules to teach us to speak and write correctly, but he calls attention to the method employed by writers and speakers whose methods of writing and speaking are approved by the educated section of the community. When we speak of an expression as ungram- matical or "bad grammar," we simply mean that educated people do not approve of its employment. SWEET. There are many participial and infinitive expressions which may be thought of as abridged clauses, and which may contain certain subjective, copulative, and attributive elements, as, For him to be absent is unusual; i. e., That he should be absent, etc. He being absent, I took his place; i. e. t Because he was absent, etc. These are not strictly clauses, but are often called infinitive and participial clauses. In an infinitive construction of this kind, the pronouns used will be in the objective case; hence the rule of the old grammars, " The subject of an infinitive is in the 241 242 Grammar and Its Reasons objective case." Yet there is always a verb, or a preposition (usually for) that governs this case-form. In the sentence, " I want him to come," him is called the subject of to come, but its case-form is determined by its relation to the preceding verb. Whenever an objective attribute is an infinitive the expression falls into this class of constructions. An abridged adverbial clause usually takes the par- ticipial form and is called an absolute phrase or the absolute construction. Thus, "He being ab- sent," is an abridgment of the adverbial clause "Be- cause he was absent." When such absolute phrases occur in Latin they require that their parts should agree with each other in the ablative case. In Greek the genitive is the absolute case. In modern English the nominative case is used in these constructions, as, "It being he, I went to meet him." In Old English, however, the dative was used as the absolute case. About the middle of the fourteenth century the dative began to be replaced by the nominative; or perhaps, as the dative case-endings disappeared, the form began to be felt as the nominative case of the noun, and the pronoun finally fell into the same case by analogy. Yet there are instances in later literature where this old dative (now represented by the objective form of the pronoun) occurs. Milton often uses par- ticipial expressions preserving the old dative form, or possibly imitating the Latin construction, as, "Us dispossessed, the seat of the Deity supreme He trusted to have seized." Abridged Clauses 243 "Dagon hath presumed, me overthrown, To enter lists with God." Such expressions are historically correct, though modern English is decidedly in favor of the nominative as the absolute case. Absolute participial phrases, though grammatically allowable, do not seem entirely in harmony with the English language and are less used than formerly, as writers generally prefer a more direct form of expression. There is a certain class of nearly independent parti- cipial phrases which like modal adverbs limit an entire statement, as, Generally speaking, the figurative use of a word is derived from its sense. JAMES. Judging from many hereditary anecdotes this peculiar temper was hardly less than a monomania. HAWTHORNE. The very chin, modestly speaking, was as long as my whole face. ADDISON. For the abridgment of a substantive clause either a participial or an infinitive form may be used. Thus: "I never thought that it was he," may become "I never thought of its being he," or, "I never thought it to be him." These substantive abridged clauses usually follow such verbs as wish, think, desire, perceive, etc. Not every substantive clause can be thus abridged, however. Thus, "I said that I would do it" cannot take either the infinitive or the participial abridged form. 44 Grammar and Its Reasons For the abridgment of an objective clause after think and a few other verbs the participle is generally used and the subject term is put into the possessive thus limiting the participle, as, I never thought of his going so soon (i. e., that he would go so soon.) I did not think of its being he (i. e., that it was he.) In such sentences modern English generally uses the nominative absolute for the case form of an attri- butive pronoun, though the vacillation of case form in such sentences as, "It is I," "It is me," leaves an opportunity for variation here, especially in the first person, as, " He did not think of its being me." (See Chapter 54 on "Case Shif tings of Pronouns.") Instead of the possessive case before the participle, however, the objective is occasionally used, and the participle then takes the adjective relation, as, Would you mind me asking you a few questions? STEVENSON. Instead of the better form, "Would you mind my asking," etc. In the abridgment of substantive clauses after most verbs the infinitive form is used. Even with the verb think, this is sometimes the case, as, I wish him to be my messenger (i. e., that he should be my messenger.) I did not think it to be him (i. e., that it was he.) In such sentences the attributive pronoun after the Abridged Clauses 245 infinitive takes the objective case because of its relation to the subject of the infinitive. A question is some- times asked as to the case of an attributive noun or pronoun following the copula to be when there is no subject of the infinitive, as, To be a lawyer is his desire. He wishes to be a lawyer. Would the genius of the English language use a nomi- native for the absolute case in such a sentence, or would the association with the infinitive suggest the objective as the case to be used ? The question is purely specu- lative, however, as there are no instances in English literature where a pronoun is used in such a connection. Indeed it seems impossible to imagine an instance in which a well written sentence could contain such a pronoun ; or if we could conceive of such a use, it would be wholly problematical what view the writer would take of the necessary relations. In other words, it is possible to raise grammatical questions whose discussion would have neither practical nor educative value. In the light of common sense, the use of a sentence involving such a hazy grammatical question would be a blemish on rhetorical style, and contrary to the genius of the English language. XLIX WORD ORDER Languages tend on the whole more and more to utilize word order for grammatical purposes. JESPEBSEN. Inflectional forms serve for a device for clearness in lan- guages careless of word order. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. When the relations between words are shown by word order, concord is not of much use, and consequently is re- ducible to very narrow limits in such a language as English, Conversely, in a highly inflected language with a highly developed system of concord, such as Latin, fixed word order is not required to show the grammatical relations of words. SWEET. The mere fact that in English the pupil is obliged to get the meaning of the sentence from the order of the words and from a logical insight into the contents of the thought, with little or no aid from the form of the words this fact makes the study of English grammar a more abstract and difficult and disciplinary subject than the grammar of any highly inflected speech. BARBOUR. The freedom of arrangement required in poetry makes it somewhat superior to prose as a means of expelling from a pupil's mind the delusion that word order is a safe guide to grammatical construction. HARPER AND BURGESS. The substitution of word order for flexions means a vic- tory of spiritual over material agencies. JESPEBSEN. 246 Word Order 247 We have in mind an established order, the "regular pat- tern of thought," and also a psychological order, a con- scious arrangement to give effect. KELLNER. The rigidity of English word order is often much exag- gerated; it is hardly rigid at all. HARPER AND BUBGESS. The change of English from an inflected to a non- inflected language has had many subtle effects upon the language as a means of expression. It has relieved us of the burden of learning many forms and has given us large freedom in the logical relationship of words. It has made it possible for a word to hold several rela- tionships at once, and thus has added new elements of force to expression. But it has also made certain requirements more stringent. Word order has acquired grammatical significance, and so has become more specific and obligatory. Old English with its large elements of concord had very wide freedom in the order of its words. There was little possibility of a word's getting detached in thought from its proper relations, since the form showed so emphatically its logical connections. In the changes that occurred in the twelfth and thirteenth century, inflections dropped away, and word order became more fixed. Either the establishment of word order made agreements needless so that they fell away, or else the inflections having decayed the word order of neces- sity became more rigid, or more probably still, each process was in some degree the effect of the other. The parts of speech and their functions are largely dependent upon the position that the words occupy. 248 Grammar and Its Reasons Almost any change in word order is likely to give some change in syntactical relations. Thus when several adjectives limit the same noun the one is placed nearest which expresses the most essential and perma- nent quality. This adjective limits the noun aloin-, while each preceding adjective limits the noun as modi- fied. Thus in the phrase, " a poor old colored woman " age is more inherent than poverty but less so than race relations. So "colored" is made to limit "woman" alone, while "old" and "poor" limit the whole phrase following. The question of the order to be observed when a cardinal and an ordinal numeral are connected in the same phrase (three first, or first three) is of this nature. The order depends on the question as to which of the two numerals expresses the most inherent and primary idea. (See Chapter 29.) Adverbs are perhaps the words that show most lia- bility to lose their right connections, though pronouns and participles also have a way of escaping from their normal positions in the sentence. Most that we know of word order in English comes to us unconsciously and it is difficult to put matters so subtle into the form of rules. Indeed, many grammars are entirely silent on the important subject of word order. The general principle, "Keep the parts that are related near together," is the chief one that can be consciously applied in making English sentences. Yet early in the grammar course the attention of the student should be definitely given to the natural order of parts in assertive and interrogative sentences. Ex- Word Order 249 amples of common inverted types should also be ex- amined and the advantages gained by the inversion should be estimated. These advantages are some- times grammatical, making the relation of the parts more evident, and sometimes purely rhetorical, as in "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." The rhetoric of a sentence (even more than its grammatical relations) is very dependent upon questions of word order. Even when clearness and grammatical correctness are both present, a change of word order will often give force and elegance to a halting sentence. Poetry uses inversion far more than prose. Even the verb in poetry is sometimes allowed to begin an assertive sentence, as, Rose a nurse of ninety years, Took his child upon her knee. TENNYSON. Putting an adverb at the beginning of a sentence is a common way of causing an inversion in word order, as, "Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight." The poetical device of placing an adjective after its noun, as, "pastures green," "tresses brown," merely for metrical effect, is frowned upon by some critics. Yet all will agree that a greater freedom of word order in poetry than is admissible in prose, is not only a proper " poetical license" but a true means of giving poetic beauty. To make a prose paraphrase of a piece of poetry may not be of great value as an exercise in com- position, but as a study of word order (by comparison 250 Grammar and Its Reasons of the word order of prose and poetry) it has some genuine value. Inversion is rare in a dependent clause of English. It sometimes occurs, however, as in the expression, "as much as in me lies." In Old English, though its word order was on the whole much more free than ours, there were a few restrictions that the modern language has freed itself from. The verb of a dependent sentence was usually deferred to the end, as in German, thus demanding a more strained attention. The word order that was introduced by French influence after the Conquest was of a lighter and brighter kind. The study of the word order of specific sentences, the comparison of word order in different classes of sentences, and the noting of changes in meaning made by changes in arrangement, form an important part of grammatical study. Also a comparison of the word order of the English sentence with the unlike idioms of German or with the freer word order of Latin, is a good way to throw added light upon the characteristics of the English tongue. GOOD USAGE The rules of grammar have no value except as statements of fact. Whatever is in general use in a language is for that reason grammatically correct. SWEET. However language may be abused, the usage which gives law to speech is still that usage which is founded on the com- mon sense of mankind. GOOLD BROWN. The genius of a language unconsciously presiding over all its transfigurations and conducting them to a definite issue, will have been a far truer, far safer, guide than the artificial wit, however subtle, of any single man or any association of men. TRENCH. The English which we ought to speak and write derives its authority, not from the dicta of grammarians and lexi- cographers, but from the slowly evolved will of the nation. WELSH. We are not of those who are the obedient slaves of re- lentless grammatical rules, but those whose usage, barring slips, makes or mends them. N. Y. Independent. Everyone knows that the ultimate standard for correctness in language is good usage, but where is the authority that shall tell us beyond a doubt what good usage is ? The French have their "Academic," founded in 1635, and consisting of "Forty Immortals," elected for life. This body meets twice a week at the Palace 251 252 Grammar and Its Reasons Mazarin in Paris, and constitutes " the highest authority on everything appertaining to the niceties of the French language, to grammar, rhetoric, and poetry, and the publication of the French classics." The literary journals of England and America have sometimes called upon their readers to vote for the " Forty Immortals" of these respective nations. It is a harmless and interesting pastime. But the distin- guished writers thus voted for do not "stay elected." Literary reputations rise and fall. And where is the literary journal whose clientage has authentic power and prestige to pronounce upon the proper membership of such a tribunal ? We are often told and in general it must be agreed that only "present, reputable, and national usage'' can be considered good. But even in these forceful adjectives there is some debatable territory. When a poet uses for poetic reasons an archaic word, it is often better poetic usage than the modern term would be. It may be said, however, that tho occasional use of archaic terms is really "present" usage in the field of poetry. When a Shakespeare, or a Tennyson, or a Kipling introduces a word or phrase not hitherto received into good linguistic society, but which seems appro- priate to the occasion, the new term is very likely to l>ecome at once "reputable." Even a lesser genius has sometimes the happy inspiration to match an occasion with a word or phrase that proves its right to live. Good Usage 253 Yet the practice of one writer, or of several writers, or of one or more periodicals, however high they may stand in the world's estimation, cannot alone make an expression "reputable." Nor is the wide-spread use of a term a sure guarantee of its respectability. 'You often hear it" is no proof that it is in good repute. There must be something in the word or phrase itself which is fitted to call out the uniform, or nearly uniform, support of those whom the world deems worthy to decide such questions, or else its linguistic standing rests on an insecure basis. But it is the question of national usage that gives the largest room for variations of opinion. There is many a word or phrase of limited territorial extension that is in good repute in the region where it is "at home." Perhaps it is a language growth, and will finally conquer the whole field. It is not always needful to frown upon a word because some parts of the national domain have not yet heard of it. Or, if universality of acceptance be requisite, why stop with the national idea ? The niceties of the English tongue would seem to be a more promising field for an Anglo-American alliance than is to be found along political lines. Language has a larger empire than any single nation. This is more fully recognized than it used to be. English hypercriti- cisms of " American English" and American super-sensi- tiveness as to English opinions regarding the same, are being outgrown together. America and England are both in the jury box in deciding the standards 254 Grammar and Its Reasons of the mother tongue which is our common heritage. But if America then the same is true of each part of our large domain the South and the North, the West as well as the East. And if England and America, then also Australia, and the new English-speaking peoples that are growing up in Africa and Asia and the islands of the Pacific. In other words, language movements defy terri- torial limits, and if a language has within itself the qualifications that tend to make it a world language, there cannot be any sectional or national authority that has power to judge all its usages. But while we have no authoritative tribunal that can settle all our linguistic questions, we believe that we are better off than the French because of this fact. It is not an authority for good usage that an educated person needs, but a knowledge of the principles that guide usage, and the habit of mind that will enable him to be both a leader and a follower in his relation to the usages of his generation. Under f such conditions there will be both sectional and individual differences in usage, which help to make life interesting, and are not to be wholly de- precated. Yet, after all, it is only in colloquial English that large differences occur, and it is not with these that English grammar is chiefly concerned. The principles of English grammar are derived by the inductive study of the usages found in the standard literary works that are written in the English tongue. These standard works arc read wherever the language Good Usage 255 is spoken, and give a degree of unity to the language of all localities. The usages of literary English change with the generations, but the changes are slowly evolved, and are the result of the combined thought of the whole mass of educated people. The literary use of a language has a somewhat stable, as well ,as nearly universal, basis, and is, in general, "present, reputable, and international" in character. M IDIOMS Idiom is the dress and fashion of experience. PEGGE'S ANECDOTES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. "Isolated forms that are survivals sometimes go against our grammatical sense." The idiom of language admits only of being observed. Let no man ask why. BUTTMAN. "Idiom is not seen in full force so long as we can recon- cile it to grammatical structure. There is something arbi- trary and masterful about true idiom." There is much forcible English that cannot be parsed. ALLEN. Many of the puzzles of word-parsing arise from asking of English what it does not give, or rather has given up. JOYNES. The attempt to adjust the words of an idiom to grammati- cal rules would be an attempt to rob our tongue of some of its choicest elements of life and strength. TOWNSEND. If any rules stand in the way, so much the worse for the rule. BRANDER MATTHEWS. The peculiar mould in which a language shapes itself is the idiom of the language. Every language has many peculiarities that belong to itself alone. The idioms show the modes of thought that belong to the people that speak the language. 256 Idioms 257 Idiom in its largest sense, includes all special mean- ings given to groups of words, as, "How do you do ?" and "Look out;" also variation from the general rules of agreement, as, "It is they" All special cases of diction and of the government, arrangement or agree- ment of words, in which one language differs from others, belong to its idiomatic structure. Thus the placing of the past participle of a verb phrase at the end of the sentence is an important idiom of the German tongue. "The sun rises at six" is idiomatic English, while the French idiom is a phrase that translated literally would be "at six hours of the morning." The use of the present tense with a future meaning, as, " He is going home to-morrow" is also an English idiom. The sentence, "How long have you been here?" though it seems simple and natural to the native En- glishman, is nevertheless an idiom. "How long are you here?" is the form which the sentence takes in general grammar. Natives of other countries tell us that it seems to them absurd to say " have been " while one is still here. Idiomatic expressions cannot be classified by analogy but must be studied one by one. Every teacher of a foreign language knows well the mongrel kind of expression called " translation English, " which retains some of the peculiarities of one language while using the words of another. It requires a far- reaching knowledge of both languages to transfer perfectly the thought of a well-written production of one to an equally well-written, production of the other. 258 Grammar nml Its Reasons Indeed it is a question whether it ever can be perfectly transferred, as the thought itself is shaped partly by the mode of its expression. Even the most successful translation seldom has as vigorous a style as the original. The foreigner who has learned to speak "correct English" seldom gets above a certain " bookishness " in his speech which he himself is probably unaware of ; and owing to our long-continued national isolation it is doubtless still more rare for an American to acquire perfectly the idiomatic command of a foreign tongue. An illustration of the difficulty which one finds in an attempt to express himself in a foreign idiom, may be given by certain quotations taken from examination papers of the Porto Rican teachers who during the summer of 1904 studied at Harvard and Cornell Uni- \vrsities: "We not talk English often, not can." "We like stay very much." "Columbus fell over his knees to tell his downfall to Isa- bella." "Isabel is six years "old and is therefore on time to attend school." "If Jefferson don't would make other important tiring in his public life, this notable work have would being enough to make him live in the hearts of the American people." But in his efforts to translate, a foreigner sometimes gets a more conscious knowledge of the idiom of the new language than the native possesses who has ur- oonsciously been using the correct idiom all his life. The scholar needs not only to be able to speak and Idioms 259 write his native language correctly, but to know why he uses the idioms which he does; to be able also to test them, to interpret them to others. He also needs to gain from his knowledge of language a knowledge of his own forms of thinking and so to be led into more logical and cogent lines of thought itself. There are many idioms of local extension within a given language. Those which are true idioms (and not merely expressions loose in syntax) are of real value and give flavor to life and to literature. American idioms are different from those heard in England, while in different parts of America there are great differences in the colloquial idioms in current use. Idiom is more fundamental than dialect and far less local and temporary. Colloquial language is more idio- matic than the language of literature. Thus in spoken language, contractions of the negative verb phrases, as, "I can't,'" 4 Ym don't," etc., are constantly used, and are preferred to the unabridged form, but this idiom is excluded for the most part from the language of books. Slang expressions, if they are of such a nature as to be permanently valuable, may finally become idiomatic, but it takes time for them to become approved and to grow into idiom. A good idiom is old, while good similes and metaphors in language should be new. Most of the slang that is invented is not permanently valuable and never grows into idiom. There are also various peculiar expressions which we hear and see, that are not at all idiomatic, but are the result of loose and illogical thinking, Even the native needs a critical 260 Grammar and Its Reasons taste and acumen to be able to distinguish always between the idiom of a language which is its strength, and the confusions of loose thought or doubtful syntax Vhich are the weakness of linguistic expression. Unusual expressions, if they are true idioms, are forcible and give vivacity and flavor to life and to lit- erature. But while all true local and colloquial idioms are of interest, it is the idioms of literary English that grammar is chiefly concerned with. In dealing with the general traits of English we have been dealing with its idiomatic character. But there are also many special words and phrases having an idiomatic character that engage the attention of the philologist. Among idiomatic English phrases may be named, "many a man," "a great many," "this many years," "the more the merrier," "what with this, what with that," " by and bye," "ever and anon," "so to speak," "of course," "to be sure," "the house is building." The older English had many idiomatic phrases not now in use, as, "the tane and the tother," "go to now," "good your ladyship," "dost hear?," "have at you." "Knock me at the gate," and "He went strange countries for to see," also contain idioms. Among idioms of syntax may be named, the omis- sion of the conjunction that in substantive clauses, as, " I knew it was he;" the use of the double or cumulative genitive, as, "This child of ours;" the retained object in the passive voice with the indirect object made the subject, as, "I was shown some pictures;" and the use Idioms 261 of the sign to to take the place of the whole infinitive, as, "I asked him not to." One markedly peculiar class of idiomatic English phrases is represented by "had rather," "had as lief," with others similarly formed. (See Chapter 53.) In dealing with the more peculiar idioms of English, many grammarians make it their effort to explain away all deviations from general grammar and so make it appear that the peculiar phrase is "not much of an idiom" after all. "How shall I dispose of this? " is the common grammatical formula. But to explain away, is not to explain. And why should we " dispose of" our idioms? We ought indeed to try to interpret them. The student of language should face firmly, and deal frankly with, these expressions that puzzle the grammarians. Every irregularity arises by devia- tion from some regularity, and historic grammar will frequently do much to elucidate idiomatic mysteries. But since one of the most common causes of irregu- larity is confusion of thought, the peculiar phrase should be called on to " show its credentials. " We should draw as clear a line as possible between true idiom, and loose syntax, or slang which has overstepped right bounds. The proper grammatical way to treat an idiom then, is to test it to accept it if it is good, and reject it if of doubtful value; also to explain its history if historical grammar reveals such an explanation. Then, if it really belongs to the genius of the language the way to dispose of it is to call it by its true name idiom, and let it go. LH IMPERSONAL VERBS AND SENTENCES An abundance of impersonal verbs is a mark of an early stage in language, denoting that a speaker has not yet ar- rived so far in development as to trace his own actions and feelings to his own agency. ABBOTT. The business of the grammarians and the verbal critics is not to make language or prescribe rules, but more modestly to record usage, and to discover the principles which may underlie the incessant development of our common speech. BRANDER MATTHEWS. In every language there are certain idiomatic forms that express in a general way facts that are not explicitly referred to any specific agency. Such sentences are called impersonal sentences, and the verbs that belong to such sentences are impersonal verbs. Thus, rains, hails and snows are impersonal or unipersonal verbs. The earlier English abounded in impersonal sen- tences which had a somewhat different form from those used at present. The impersonal verb was usually accompanied by a dative construction, ;is, Me remembereth of the day of doom. CHAUCER* "Whether lyketh you better," sayd Merlyn, "the sword or the scabbard?" "Me lyketh better the sword," sayd another. MALORY. Many of the old impersonals were subjunctive ]r 262 Impersonal Verbs and Sentences 263 their verb forms, as, "Me were liever," "him hadde rather." Out of these certain peculiar modern idioms have developed. (See Chapter 53.) As the dative usually preceded the verb it came to be thought of in time as a kind of psychological subject. A small remnant of these old datives is found in the words "methinks" and "methought" which though archaic are still in recognized poetical use. A collo- quial expression sometimes vulgarly used, "Thinks I to myself," however, has no grammatical nor any other authority. Later the pronoun it came into use as a kind of ex- pletive subject for these impersonal verbs, and the dative object then followed the verb. Thus, "Me remembereth" became "It remembereth me." Examples : It yearns me not. SHAKESPEARE. It would pity any living eye. SHAKESPEARE. I'll dispose them as it likes me best. MARLOWE. It recks me not. MILTON. The dative construction in these sentences is clearly allied to the dative object sometimes found in sentences not impersonal in form, as, "Knock me at the gate." And from such sentences one may pass by easy grada- tions to the indirect objects in ordinary modern use, as, Dance me no dance. Saddle me the horse. Bring me the book. 264 Grammar and Its Reasons Modern English has replaced most of the old imper- sonate with other idioms or with personal forms. Thus, "Loth him was" has become "He was loth." The old subjunctives with had are now "I had rather," "He had as lief," "You had better," etc. Instead of "If it pleases you," we now say "If you please," or simply, "Please, do so and so." But although the old impersonal usage is mostly obsolete, writers occasionally revive it for poetic effect. Thus Walter Scott wrote: " When in Salamanca's cave Him listed his magic wand to wave, The bells would ring in Notre Dame. LAY OP THE LAST MINSTREL. Modern English retains in common use a few im- personal forms though without all the marks of the ancient impersonals. Among these are "What ails you?" "It pains me," and most common of all, those describing the weather, as, "It is cold," "It freezes." Modern impersonals usually have it for the expletive subject, and this is therefore called the impersonal pronoun. It has a simi- lar expletive use when the real subject is an infinitive or a clause following the verb, as, It is pleasant to walk on the beach. It is too bad that he should do so. There has a similar expletive use, as, There is a pleasure in the pathless wood. He would go if there were need. Impersonal Verbs and Sentences 265 All of these sentences are therefore allied to the impersonal sentences of the older English. Another important class of modern sentences having a kind of impersonal character includes those in which It stands as the subject, while the sentence attribute may have any person, number or gender, as, "It is I," " It is they," " It is the boys." The early form of these sentences had a different verb agreement, as, "It am I," or "I am it," which is similar to the German of to-day. "Ich bin es." Thus Wycliffe and Tyndale wrote in their Scripture translations, "I it am." Although the nominative is the recognized case for the attribute in such sentences, Dean Alford and some other writers have contended for the propriety of the objective form, especially in colloquial usage and in the first person, as, "It is me." These sentences have an analogy to such expressions as, "C'est moi" in French and other languages. A few indefinite expressions in modern colloquial English have a kind of impersonal meaning. Thus the French "Ondit" (one says) has its counterpart in the English "They say." In modern usage, how- r, Mrs. Grundy is sometimes made the scapegoat for irresponsible gossip. A similar lack of personality sometimes occurs in the use of you, as " He was so thin that you could almost look through him." This impersonal and familiar use of you is common in con- versation, and a few writers have made use of it in literary writings, though it could easily become a mannerism. 266 Grammar and Its Reasons Example : The house was a low, tumble-down affair. You could see in a moment that it was the house of a family in humble life. STEVENSON. The editorial "we" has also a little of this general or impersonal character. The subject of impersonal sentences and their modi- fied modern forms is a most interesting one to the student of historical and comparative grammar. LIII HAD RATHER, HAD BETTER, HAD AS LIEF Idioms have their kindred as well as men. JESPERSEN. Idioms not understood, like men in the same situation, are sure to be misunderstood. LOUNSBURY. One of the most peculiar of all English idioms is the use of had with rather, better, as lief, etc., as, "I had rather do it than not." Such phrases seem to con- tradict the logic of language, and have given great trouble to writers on grammar. It is perhaps enough for practical purposes to know that all these phrases have the sanction of good and abundant literary usage from an early period, and that their history can be traced through natural pro- cesses of language from original language forms. Yet some knowledge of this history, as well as of certain peculiar considerations that are influencing present usage in regard to each specific phrase, is also desirable for the advanced student of English grammar. In an article entitled The Story of an Idiom, in Harper's Magazine for June, 1904, Professor Louns- bu ry of Yale Unixersity has traced in a very compre- hensive way the history of these phrases, acknowledging however, as an aid in this Work, the investigations of Dr. Fitzedward Hall nearly a quarter of a century ago. It is from this article by Professor Lounsbury that 267 268 Grammar and Its Reasons much of the material has been gathered for the following brief discussion of the history and nature of this class of idiomatic phrases. The first traces of this idiom are found in subjunctive i mpersonal sentences containing the comparative of lief or liev (meaning dear) and a dative personal pronoun, as, " Me were liefer," i. e. : " It would be dearer to me. " Similar sentences were formed with the subjunctive of have which meant to hold, as, "Him hadde it liefer," i. e.: "It would be held dearer to him." Later the dative of the pronoun was -changed for the nominative. These impersonals with liefer or liever are often met with in the writings of Chaucer, as, Liefer I had to dien on a knife Than thee offende, trufc deare wife. * For about two hundred years "had liefer" was in full sway, but in the fifteenth century a rival phrase "had rather" sprang up, conveying the same idea with a different word. This grew rapidly and finally drove "had liefer" almost entirely out of use. In Shakespeare's plays "had rather" occurs many times, but "had liefer" not at all. "Had liefer" was not wholly extinguished, however, and Tennyson revives the old phrase in his poem Enid. Far liever had I gird his harness on him A descendant of the phrase is in full colloquial use to-day in the positive form "had as lief." In the phrase "had rather" which thus supplanted Had Rather, Had Better, Had as Lief 269 "had liefer," rather seems to have been thought of as an adjective as liefer had been. It being the comparative of rathe, meaning early, or quick, the phrase " had rather" carried the meaning of "hold it quicker" or "more desirable." Thus the Bible verse "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God," may be paraphrased as, " I hold it preferable to be a doorkeeper," etc. For a long time the phrase was accepted naturally without close analysis. But in the eighteenth century, when English began to be studied critically, it was inevitable that so peculiar a phrase as "had rather" should attract attention, and become the object of criticism from those who did not understand it. The corresponding phrase "had better" was also in occa- sional use, and had been from an early period, having been first used in the original form "me were better" a form which was never in use with rather. But " had better" had never come into extensive use, and was now rarely heard. "Had liefer" also had gone out of use, so the force of the grammarian's attack fell only on "had rather." In all other connections ratfier had come to have an adverbial instead of an adjective use, so that the incongruity of the phrase was sensibly felt. Dr. Johnson in his dictionary of 1755 defines "to have rather" as "to desire in preference," but adds, "This is, I think, a barbarous expression of late intrusion into our language, for which it is better to say will rather." In Sheridan's grammar, a few years after- wards this thought is repeated. 270 Grammar and Its Reasons Lowth's grammar of 1762 adds to this misinterpre- tation of the idiom by advancing the theory that the proper form was "I would rather," that this had been contracted into "I'd rather" and then erroneously expanded into "I had rather." This ingenious ety- 'mology, for which there is no justification in fact, be- came for a long time the accepted solution. It was adopted into the early editions of Webster's Dictionary, and may be found in some of the nineteenth century grammars. Recent dictionaries and grammars, how- ever, have corrected this misinterpretation, giving the true origin and history of the phrase, and have endorsed it as a true English idiom that has had an accepted literary use from an early period. l But while "had rather" has been reinstated among the approved literary idioms of English, it is undeniable that the use of "had rather" both the literary and especially the colloquial use has declined in modern times in favor of the newer phrase "would rather." Although "would rather" lacks the ancient prestige that belongs to "had rather," it does say, even if a little i mperfectly, what it is intended to say. While in " had rather" both words are used in a somewhat archaic sense and relationship, in "would rather" the verb is used in its modern sense, and rather sustains its usual adverbial relation. But in spite of the growth of "would rather" it is not likely that "had rather" will share the fate of "had liefer" and be abandoned as a true idiom of the English tongue. Although "had liefer," "had rather" and "had Had Rather, Had Better, Had as Lief 271 better "were originally formed after the same pattern of speech, the history and present status of " had rather" and "had better" are by no means alike. "Had better" developed very slowly into general use, but in recent years it has become very common and it is more frequent than "had rather" in modern English literature. The phrase also has positive and superla- tive forms, "had as good," and " had best." But while "had rather" has in a sense accommodated itself to the modern sense of idiom by suggesting for rather a quasi-adverbial character, this cannot so easily be clone for good, better and best. The analogy of "would rather" has also inaugurated the doubtful phrase "would better" which is now oc- casionally met with in speech and in newspaper English. In the words of Professor Lounsbury, "This is as ungrammatical as it is unidiomatic. What the one who employs it really says ... is that he would do so and so better than something else. What he is trying to say is that it would be better for him to do so and so instead of something else." In the phrases "had rather" and "had better," the tendency of both rather and better to suggest an ad- verbial instead of an adjective use, has also led to the employment of other adverbs in the same connection, and "had sooner/' "had as soon," "had as well," are sometimes heard. The propriety of these may be questioned, but as to the original consistency of "had rather" and "had better" with the true idioms cf English, there is no question. LIV CASE SIIIFTINGS OF PRONOUNS* "It la me," a stereotyped, idiomatic, colloquial form used by the masses, and shunned by the fastidious. "It is I," more literary and formal, used by those with strong feeling for grammatical consistency. CARPENTER. It is only the influence of ignorant grammarians that pre- vents such phrases as ''It is me" from being adopted into the written language and acknowledged in the grammars. SWEET. "It is me ' is an expression which every one uses. Gram- marians (of the smaller order) protest; schoolmasters (of the lower kind) prohibit and chastise; but English men, women, and children go on saying it, and will go on saying it as long as the English language is spoken. DEAN ALFORD. "It seems as if the last refuge of 'whom' is the construc- tion 'than whom* where it had originally nothing to do." Every error in grammar might be established if frequent usage or the occasional slips of good authors are to be ac- cepted as final authority. MARSHALL T. BIGELOW. When the English language gets in my way it doesn't stand a chance. HENRY WARD BEECHER. The case distinctions of the pronouns are often obscure or variable. Grammatical laws have always seemed to have a weak hold on the case forms of the MESPEBSEN'S Progress in Language (London, 1894) has an important chapter on Case-Shiftings. 272 Case Shift in(js of Pronouns pronouns, so that a mere point of euphony has some- times been held to justify variation. These case shifting are of great interest to philologists and there is much divergence of opinion as to what should be the allowed liberty in this field. We have already noticed (See Chapter 52 on " Im- personal Sentences") the somewhat widespread use of the expression, "It is me." It is allied to the old impersonal sentences containing datives, and also has an analogy to certain expressions in other languages, as the French "C'est moi," where the nominative form je is never used. In America the nominative form, "It is I," has been generally approved as the literary form, but the objective is frequent in colloquial usage and is approved by some grammarians as correct. This form of construction is less frequent in the third person than in the first and second, though sometimes heard. Dean Alford, however, who contends strongly for the correctness of "It is me," thinks the same construc- tion should be extended to the other pronouns as well. But regarding the Scripture expression " It is I, be not afraid," he says: "This shows us why the nominative should be sometimes used. The majesty of the speaker and his purpose of reassuring his disciples . . . point out to us the case in which it Would be proper for the nominative and not the accusative to be used." As a grammatical argument, however, this may not seem wholly convincing. In commenting on the difference in this usage among 274 Grammar and Its Reasons the three persons Dr. Latham, in his History of the English Language, points out that "me is not the proper, but only the adopted accusative of 7, being in fact a distinct and independent form of the personal pronoun." He argues therefore that "me and ye may be called indifferent forms, nominative as much as accusative and accusative as much as nominative. Him and her on the other hand are not indifferent. The m and r are respectively the signs of other cases than the nominative." Perhaps, however, phonetic influence is in a measure the reason why pronouns of the first and second per- sons are more free than those of the third person to use their accusative forms in these predicate constructions. The forms me, and thee, are thus brought into har- monious relation with we, ye, he, and she, thus making more orderly set of phrases for this predicate relation. In the line, "Be thou me, impetuous one." found in Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, the use of me gives a desirable poetic euphony, which the nomi- native case could not give. In "Fare thee well," thee is sometimes thought of as a subject, although the older and fuller form was "may it fare thee well." It bears a resemblance, moreover, to "Haste thee," "Stay thee," "Awake thee," "Hear thee," used by Shakespeare and other writers. In such sentences thee was not perhaps Case Shijtings of Pronouns 275 originally thought of as the subject of the imperative, but as a reflexive object or dative. There are many cases in literature, however, \vhrn; thee is used for thou, as, Scotland and thee did in each other live. DRYDEN. Tis better thee without than he within. MACBETH. The Quaker dialect has emphasized this tendency to make thee a colorless form by such expressions as, "Did thee say thee wanted to go?" When a pronoun is not in close proximity to its governing word the case sense seems difficult to carry, and writers have often ignored the true relation, as, Let fortune go to hell for it, not I. SHAKESPEARE. Let you and I cry quits. THOS. HUGHES. But such lapses as these on the part of writers are not to be justified. In exclamations the objective is often used, as, " Dear me!" " Oh me miserable!" Yet in address the nominative is the usual form as, "Oh unhappy thou!" 'Thou blessed One!" For an unattached pronoun (as in the reply to questions) colloquial idiom often u a the objective, as, "Who goes there?" "Me." This may be thought of, however, as an abbreviation of Ihr colloquial "It is me." But and save have sometimes been followed by the nominative as though they were conjunctions rathrr than prepositions, as, 276 Grammar and Its Reasons None save thou and thine I've sworn Shall be left upon the morn. BYRON. Away went Gilpin, who but he? COWPEU. An elliptical expression following as usually takes the nominative as the obviously grammatical form of the pronoun, as, " Who is so happy as I ? ' Yet there are instances in literature where the objective is used with good effect, as, The nations not so blest as thee. THOMSON'S RULE BRITANNIA. Yet oft in Holy Writ we see Even such weak minister as me May the oppressor bruise. SIR WALTER SCOTT. The usage in the last instance does not seem to be a happy one, and was perhaps adopted by the poet chiefly for rhyming purposes. Yet the idea of a half- preposition seems sometimes to reside in as, giving a degree of justification for the objective form. Case shifting is especially common after than. The natural and approved case for an abridged comparative clause would seem to be the nominative, as, I have known much more highly instructed persons than he make inferences quite as crude. GEORGE ELIOT. He seems mightier far than thou. BYRON. A greater soldier than he. CHAUCER. But literary usage is by no means uniform. Bishop Lowth in his grammar quotes many instances of the use of the accusative after than, as, Case Shiftings of Pronouns 277 She fancies herself better than you and me. THACKERY. She should be two inches shorter than me. TROLLOPE. A fool's wrath is heavier than them all. BIBLE. On the other hand, in My soul hates nothing more than he. As You LIKE IT. the elliptical construction seems to require that the objective rather than the nominative should have been used. The explanations given to these varied case forms after than seem nearly as uncertain as the usage itself. Whether the feeling that prompts the variation rests in a shifting character of the case form itself or in a wavering sense of the character of than (as preposition or conjunction) may be doubted. Yet in the minds of most persons of strong grammatical sense than is usually a conjunction and the following pronoun would take the nominative case unless the objective is sub- stituted for reasons of euphony. The most anomalous of all these case variations is found perhaps in the phrase "than whom "found in classic writings, though there is no very good syntactical explanation of the phrase, as, Beelzebub, than whom, Satan except, no higher sat. MILTON. We have already seen (See Chapter 30, on Interrog- ative Pronouns) that there is a tendency to make who a colorless word as to case, especially when used inter- 278 Grammar and Its Reasons rogatively, and when the governing word is far removed, as, Who should I see in the lid of it [a snuffbox] but the Doc- tor? ADDISON. "Who," I exclaimed, "can we consult but Miss P.?" MRS. HUMPHREY WARD. Perhaps one reason for the loss of case in such sen- tences as, " Who are you speaking of ? " is that who is felt to be in a sense the logical subject, as if the sen- tence were, " Who is it that you are speaking of ? " There are many instances in literature where wlw seems to be used objectively, as, Tell who loves who. DRYDEN. ;re wiio I'll tell you who Time ambles withall, who Time trots withall, who Time gallops withall, and who he stands still withall. SHAKESPEARE. This ignoring of case form is sometimes extended to the relative use of who. Schmidt's Lexicon of Quota- tions from Shakespeare gives fifteen instances of the interrogative and twelve of the relative use of who in objective relations. It is to be noted, however, that the eifrly editions of Shakespeare have who in many cases where the later ones have whom. The influence of schoolmasters is here shown. There are also in- stances in literature where what may be called a super- grammatical sense has attracted whom into relations where it was not required, as, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? BIBLE. Case Shiftings of Pronouns 279 While case variations are very common in literature, colloquial variations are" carried much farther still. Some of the dialects used in England show such expressions as, "Is that him? No. It's no him; it's just me." The following couplet is said to be taken from a Hampshire churchyard: "Him shall never come again to we But us sliall surely go one day to he." Cowper uses this colloquialism with humorous effect : "You shall ride on horseback after we." To sum up this discussion: The English pronouns still have case forms, and the use of the wrong case form is perhaps one of the most conspicuous faults in grammatical usage that can he made. Yet in not a few expressions (more or less idiomatic) usage differs widely. The pronoun case forms are to some extent in a state of flux. It is the part of grammarians to be conservative in resisting rhanges that may be detrimental to the purity of the language. Yet there are limits beyond which it is useless for dogmatic criticism to go. One should keep one's eyes open to the tendencies, and seek to under- stand the reasons for the variations, and then decide in a given case with discrimination as well as con- sorvatism, trying always to preserve whatever is worth preserving in the inflectional forms that are still left to the English tongue. LV WORDS OF PECULIAR OR VARIED USES Not only does the same word serve now in one capacity and now in another, but also it constantly occurs that the characteristics of different parts of speech are manifested at one time by one word in its ordinary sense. DAVENPORT AND EMERSON. The word it is the greatest troubler that I know of in language. COBBETT. The instrument ever adapting itself to the uses which it is to subserve. WHITNEY. There are a few words that are so often used in peculiar relations or are capable of taking so many different uses that they may well be made the subject of special grammatical examination. These are for the most part small indeclinable words of little special- ized meaning, and for this reason capable of filling grammatical gaps. A good exercise in grammar is to take a certain word and trace it through all its idiomatic uses, writing sentences that will illustrate all the uses to which tin- word can be put. One of these words is the neuter pronoun it, some- times called the indefinite or impersonal pronoun. A comprehensive study of the word would begin with its earlier form hit and trace also the gradual introduction 280 Words of Peculiar or Varied Uses 281 of its modern possessive form its. To-day the poet still uses his where the philosopher says its. Some (,!' the impersonal, expletive, and other uses of it have been already noticed. In the games of children it has a wide-spread and peculiar use as a proper noun, as, "It is now my turn to be IT." What is a word of very varied relationship. Its uses as pronoun and adjective, both in relative and interrog- ative relations should be illustrated; also its use as an interjection, as, "What! do you really mean it? " Other idiomatic uses of what may be illustrated as follows : "He found a miscellaneous collection of shells, stones, chips, and what not." " What though the day be lost, all is not lost/' " In building of chaises I tell you what," " What with this, what with that," These expressions with what are usually very ellip- tical, and it is not always easy to see what the ellipsis has been. They may be recognized as current idioms of English, even when the history of the idiom is in a degree lost. Similar treatment may be given to as, which may b<* cither conjunction or adverb, or both combined, and is occasionally used as a relative pronoun as, "Such as I have give I thee," i. e.: "Those which I have," etc. The correlative relations of as with such, same, so, etc., should be specially noticed, also the connection of Grammar and Its Reasons as with certain stereotyped phrases, as for me, as yet, as far as I am able, etc. The important verbal form be may be either infinitive, subjunctive, imperative, or an auxiliary in a verbal phrase. As a finite verb be is now always subjunctive or imperative, but it formerly had an indicative use also, as, "Ye be righteous men." In provincial dia- lect we still sometimes hear this ancient indicative used by rural citizens as, " Be you going to plant pota- toes in that field ? " The verbs do and have when used as principal verbs have a very definite and specialized meaning, but this is almost wholly lost in their auxiliary relations. Hare especially shows the results of change in its use and meaning. Beginning as a principal verb with the idea of possession it loses this almost wholly when made an auxiliary for the perfect tense. The idea given by have in these phrases is that of completed state or action, rather than of possession. The original idea of have as possess, also included the idea of to hold and so to esteem, which gave rise to the idiom had rather. Have has gained also a modern meaning of obligation, giving rise to such expressions, as, "I have to do it." "Have at thee!" illustrates another ancient idiom now out of use. As a subjunctive had frequently begins a sentence, as, " Had I the power, I would not use it." Get as a principal verb means to obtain, as, "Get wisdom, get understanding," but it is sometimes need- lessly used with have to denote possession, as, " I have Words of Peculiar or Varied Uses 283 got five sisters," "Have you got anything to say?" Get has acquired certain auxiliary uses in colloquial idiom that take the place of a kind of passive, as, " To get married," "You must get excused." Many con- ventional idiomatic phrases are also formed with get, as "get away," "get off," "get up," "get through," etc. It is obviously impossible in one brief chapter to name or illustrate all the peculiar uses of these variable words. Some of these have been noticed in other chapters of this book. Most of the indeclinable words of the language admit of varied uses. A few of the more prominent ones are here appended with illustra- tions of some of their special variations in relationship. All. All in all, at all, all but enough, all forlorn. When all is used adverbially with an adjective it is often connected by a hyphen, as, all-holy. There is a tendency in some quarters to make a closer compound of "all right" (i. e.: alright), as is done in already. But. He is but a man. None knew him but to love him. All but he (but him ?) had fled. There was not a child but knew his lesson that day. Who knows but I may go too ? The. The more, the merrier. Kadi. Each other. Else. How else can it be done? Thou dcsircst not sacrifice, else would I give it. Any one else. 284 Grammar and Its Reasons Little. It matters little. Give me a little. Like. Like produces like. Like as a father pitieth his children, etc. She sings like a bird. The use of like as a conjunction, as "he talks like he was crazy," is in common colloquial use in certain regions, but is not sustained by literary usage. Like was originally an adjective or adverb, and followed by to or unto, as "Like unto the Son of Man." It has acquired the prepositional use (to being now omitted), and there seems to be no absolute and inherent reason why it should not acquire a conjunctive use as well. The extensive use of like in some sections seems to show that in many minds like expresses a more definite idea than is given by as if. Yet like will probably not be adopted at present as a conjunction, either for literary use or in the language of most educated people. > Hard. Hard by. While. Worth while. While away the time. Over. Turn over. Over a mile. Over against the house. Ever and never. Ever so good. Never so well. Save. Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight. So. The fact is so. How are you ? So-so. He is so (colloquial and a provincialism). I care not, so I be not found wanting. Than. It is no other than John. Than whom. (See Chapter 54 on Gise Shiftings.) Words of Peculiar or Varied Uses 285 The labor of searching out and collecting Mich idiomatic usages of various important \\ords, i> <,f great value to grammar students, arousing inter* and leading them into true lines of grammatical thinking. Most of the prepositions, conjunctions, modal ad- verbs, adjective pronouns, and in fact most of the indeclinable words of English have acquired idiomatic usages, and may be thus treated. LVI INTERMEDIATE GRAMMATICAL CON- STRUCTIONS Why, sir, it is easier to tell what it is not. We all know what Light is not, but it is not easy to tell what it is. BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON. "There are blendings or hoverings of two constructions in all languages." "We should not deny the reasonableness of classification, but insist on an inevitable indefiniteness in the boundaries between classes just as in the prism no line can be drawn which separates one color from another.' 1 In English the logical connections between words extend over a wider area than the purely grammatical ones. SWEET. And if such things are too hard for children then grammar is too hard, for there neither is nor can be any grammar without them. R. JOHNSON'S GRAMMATICAL CONVERSA- TIONS. The indeterminate (or intermediate) form of English words and phrases, the same form fulfilling various relations, is one of the most striking characteristics in English. JOYNES. Grammatical relationships often shade into one another by almost imperceptible gradations. There are a few well defined types of construction. But there is also many a word or phrase which lacks some marl s of the type with which it is usually classed, or which has certain additional marks belonging to another type. 286 Intermediate Grammatical Constructions 287 The verb be in its original sense is an attributive verb. In the sentence, "God is, and therefore we are," it is an absolute verb of existence, and the sentence contains no other attribute. But in "I am ready," it is a pun- copula, and has no attributive idea. In "I am here," or "Where I am, there shall my people be," tlie verb seems to have something of its original idea of existence combined with a hovering sense of a copula- tive office that is also found in it. In "I am here and ready," here and ready are treated as co-ordinate terms after a copulative verb. It is manifest that there is much similarity in the predicate terms of, Thomas is late. Thomas is behind time. Thomas is absent. Thomas is not here. Thomas is in the garden. If the first of these be an adjective it is easy to find some adjective character in all the others. But it is equally true that a close analogy exists in the sentences, Thomas is in the garden. Thomas stands in the garden. Thomas works in the garden. and the adverbial element that is evident in the last sentence seems in some degree to be present in them all. In spite of their resemblance, however, there are real differences in sentences like these, and the study 88 Grammar and Its Reasons of these minute differences with a view to classification is a valuable exercise in grammar. The essential kinship of adjectives with adverbs manifest in these sentences is further shown by the fact that in poetic expression the adjective form usually takes the place of the adverbial, as, " Sleep soft, beloved, we sometimes say." It is also illustrated in participial phrases expressing accompanying action, as, The boy walked on, throwing the ball. He came running. In an inflected language such participles would agree in case with the subject, yet it requires little discern- ment to see that the verb also is to some extent modified. In such sentences as, "He walks erect," walks has been called a sort of half-copula, the word erect com- bining to some extent the relations of both attribute and adverbial modifier. Here and there and some other adverbs have occa- sionally a kind of adjective use, as, "the man here." Yet we do not say, "the here man." Few elements of a sentence are more distinct than the direct object and the adverbial modifier. Yet through various modifications of the indirect object the line of division seems sometimes almost obliterated. Verbs taking two objects (one meaning a person and the other a thing) sometimes sustain to each object a relationship so close that some grammarians (follow- ing the analogy of the Latin rule for two accusatives) would call both of the objects direct. But, laying aside Intermediate Grammatical Constructions all thought of Latin accusatives and datives, can anv one see in the purely logical relations of the English sentence, any good reason for finding two direct ol>j in, He taught me the phrase, and at the same time calling " John" the indirect object in the following? He forgave John the fault. He struck John a blow. Can any one find the exact line of division between indirect object and adverbial phrase among these sentences ? Let me find you the place. I will find for you the place. I accepted the invitation for you. I told him the circumstances. I told him of the circumstances. I carried him the apple. I carried the book to the children. I carried the book to his room. Another series of finely graded relationships may be found in the element variously known as objective predicate or attributive object. Who is able to dis- tinguish perfectly between this construction and that of indirect object in these sentences? They thought him wise. They wished him to be wise. They wished him to stay. They asked him to stay. 290 Grammar and Its Reasons They asked him a question. They asked of him a favor. They advised him to stay. They advised him that he should stay. But how shall the grammarian deal with these inter- mediate constructions? First, let him ask himself, What is the end to be gained by the classification of the logical relations of language? Is it that one may be- come an expert in "disposing of" all the words and phrases of literature ? Then would grammar be a use- less study indeed ! Too much of what is called gram- matical discussion is the belittling effort to explain away the intrinsic beauties of language. There is no small harm in trying to wrest good English to fit grammatical law. Who is so learned that he can claim to fully interpret all the idioms of our English tongue ? Syntax is based on logic, and in almost every sentence can be found one or more words bearing logical relations to several others at the same time. Inflected languages point out by inflectional terminations the most promi- nent of these relations. In English, a change in em- phasis or in the position of a single word may bring into prominence a new set of logical relations. Many a reader finds in a sentence elements of thought which the author of the sentence never conceived of. The varied relations of many English words show something of the nature of the language in this respect. In not a few cases more than one of the relations which a given word can hold will be present in the same phrase construction . The case shaftings of the pronouns also show the blend- Intermediate Grammatical Conttruetion ing or hovering sense of two relations which many a Word can carry. If this is found to a considerable extent in the pronoun relations, it is even more con- spicuous in the indeclinable words which are so easily (hanged from one part of speech to another and which form so large a part of the English speech. The student of English should examine carefully all the main types of grammatical relation, and then apply the tests of these types to the elements of various sen- tences. But let him not be disconcerted by the fact that many a word or phrase may lack some of the marks of the standard, or may combine the marks of several distinct types, or may be even capable of more than one sound interpretation or explanation. In the interpretation of these intermediate construc- tions, grammarians have always differed and will con- tinue to differ. But when a word holds multiplied re- lationships in a sentence it is not a matter of large consequence that different minds give somewhat vary- ing prominence to the several relations. To be many-sided in the study of grammar is a very different thing from being superficial. It is this very element of gradation in grammatical construction that makes English syntax a broadening subject if rightly pursued. The best result of syntactical study is clear- ness in thinking and the power of making logical dis- tinctions. If this be gained, it will act strongly, though indirectly, toward the increase of real language power. LVH THE "SPLIT INFINITIVE"* The rule given by grammarians, "To, the sign of the infini- tive, should never be separated from its verb," should be modified by the clause," unless the meaning can be more clearly expressed by the insertion of the adverb." J. T. BAKER, IN CORRECT ENGLISH. The usage of the split infinitive has been violently con- tested by rhetoricians, yet has gained ground. In some cases it has the advantage of bringing an adverb into an emphatic position. In other cases it is very awkward. CARPENTER. "The split infinitive is a synthetical combination now establishing itself." Every day is confirming the usage. It will stay because it was needed, and is unquestionably a clear gain in logical precision. JOYNES. This practice, examples of which go as far back certainly as the fifteenth century, has now become quite common. In spite of the opposition it encounters there is little ques- tion that it will establish itself permanently in the language. LOUNSBURY. The insertion of a modifying word between the sign to and the infinitive has been greatly censured by grarn- *The "split infinitive" so-called, is comprehensively treated in an article by Professor Lounsbury, of Yale Uni- versity, entitled "To and the Infinitive," and published in Harper's Magazine of April, 1904. 292 The "Split Infinitive' 9 293 marians, on the ground that we must not divide a part of speech. But the history of the infinitive shows that to is in no sense an integral part of the infinitive. It was never used originally with the ordinary infinitive, but only with its dative (sometimes called its gerundial) form. The extension of the sign to to the common infinitive during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was itself at that time a language corruption. Many infinitive forms (as in verb phrases) are still used without the sign to. Yet even if to were essential to the construction, the reason is by no means obvious why the verbal noun should be debarred from having a closely-joined modi- fier any more than any other noun that follows the pre- position to, as in the phrases "to this end," "to my father." But a question of propriety is finally one of good usage. More than twenty years ago Dr. Fitzedward Hall showed conclusively that this separation of the infinitive from its sign has occasionally been made by good writers in all periods since about the fourteenth century. Beginning with Wycliffe who wrote "to never have received" and "to evermore trow," he gives ex- amples of this use from a host of writers including Pecock, Sir John Fortescue, Tyndale, Sir Thomas Browne, Bentley, De Foe, Dr. Johnson, Burke, Sou they, Coleridge, Lamb, De Quincy, Matthew Arnold, Charles Reade, Ruskin, Herbert Spencer, and Leslie Stephen. To Dr. Hall's list could be added examples from Frank- lin, Byron, Keats, the Brownings, Lowell, Holmes, and '294 Grammar and Its Reasons many other prominent English and American writers. Yet it must be conceded that in spite of this imposing array of names, the general practice of good writers until recently has been against this separation. For some of the writers quoted (as Dr. Johnson) a single example of its use is all that could probably be given. With others the use seems to been have confined to certain stereotyped phrases, as, "Ta far exceed" used by Burke. Although Browning and some others used such forms freely, Tennyson certainly abstained and perhaps never used one. Grammarians also have always been on the opposing side. Goold Brown indeed tells us that the right to place an adverb between the sign to and the infinitive must be conceded to poets, and quotes from Burns's poem, "The Cotter's Saturday Night," the line, "Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride, " where the meter of the verse may be thought to have imposed its form upon the construction. But usage which can lay restrictions upon language can also remove those restrictions. Within the last fifty years there has been a growing feeling that it is to the advantage of the language that the separation should sometimes be made. Thus Macaulay wrote in 1840, "In order fully to appreciate the character of Lord Holland it is necessary to go back into the history of his family." But in 1843 he brought out an edition of his essays carefully revised in which the phrase reads, " In order to fully appreciate The "Split Infinitive" 295 the character," etc. Macaulay was never careless in his modes of expression, and the change evidently shows his mature thought on this subject. The influence of modern journalism with its in- sistence on conciseness has been strongly in favor of this practice, as making often a much more compact phrase, or giving truer emphasis to the important idea, as in, To almost succeed is not enough. Indeed it would be difficult to find a substitute for the divided infinitive in such a phrase as, "to more than counterbalance." There are certain conventional phrases, however, as " never-to-be forgotten," in which the adverb is never inserted within the phrase. Some careful writers of to-day, who have been trained in the older school of literature, seldom use a "split infinitive," or do so with hesitation only when there is clearly a gain in meaning or in energy. But probably the words of Professor Lounsbury are justifi- able, when he says: " It is clear that most of those who now refrain from the practice under discussion no longer do so instinct- ively as was once the case, but rather under compulsion. They refrain, not because they feel that it is unnatural or unidiomatic but because they have been told that it is improper. Artificial bulwarks of this sort will never hold back long a general movement of speech. . . . The time, indeed, will come when men will be unaware that there has ever been any dispute about the matter at all." Lvm DISPUTED POINTS IN GRAMMAR Grammar appeals to reason as well as to authority, but to what extent it should do so has been matter of dispute. GOOLD BROWN. "The same fact thought of in different ways may make perplexing differences in construction." A fallacy, that of two ways of expression one must be wrong. DEAN ALFORD. And for there is so great diversitie In English and in writing of our tong So pray I to God that none miswrite thee. CHAUCER. "Baith did fight, And baith did win, And baith did rin awa'." In the multiplicity of subjects that invite the world's attention questions of grammatical propriety sometimes seem of minor importance. Many minds absorbed in other interests are content to believe that their own language does not differ greatly from that of the per- sons around them, and are willing to let alone the finer and more subtle questions of linguistic usage. Yet there is an increasing number of persons edu- cators, literary men, and other cultivated minds who prefer to be among those who mould language and decide in regard to its finer distinctions, rather than with 296 Disputed Points in Grammar 297 those who follow blindly rules that have been laid down for them by others. The vigorous discussion that arose over the number form of the verb, after the pub- lication of Kipling's line, "The shouting and the tumult dies," gave evidence that questions of grammatical propriety are of real interest to the modern world. Some of the questions that receive discussion among grammarians themselves deal with the grammatical relationships of words or phrases, and with the logical interpretation of accepted idioms. These are of in- terest to scholars, and the determining of these fur- nishes tests of construction that can be applied in de- ciding the correctness or incorrectness of other expres- sions of more doubtful propriety. Yet in these purely logical and scientific questions the general public is not greatly interested. But in questions of practical usage all intelligent minds have a personal interest. Among the expres- sions which one hears there are not a few that are mani- festly wrong, and require no discussion. There are provincialisms, solecisms, and vulgarisms, that must be condemned, but that scarcely need to be argued about. Among the grosser ones may be named impure contractions, as, don't with a subject of the third person singular (He don't), and the bastard form ain't (I ain't); them used as an adjective (them apples), those limiting kind or sort (those sort of people) ; real as an 298 Grammar and Its Reasons adverb (It is real prclly) and the interchange of tho principal parts of strong verbs (He done it.) More subtle are the errors of "dangling participles," unre- lated clauses, and the mistakes in arrangement and agreement that come from confusions of thought. A general knowledge of grammar ought usually to be a sufficient defense against such impurities as these. The questions of most interest relate to the tolera- tion or deliberate adoption of certain alleged improprie- ties under special conditions that seem to invite their use. For instance, the usual position of the word only is just before the word which it modifies, yet there are occasions when smoothness of style is gained by placing it in some other position, as, " I will only mention some of the best." In spite of the protests of rigid gram- marians, the use of either in offering a choice among more than two objects seems to be increasing, and is supported in a measure by some of the modern dic- tionaries. There is also some good reason for this allowance, as any implies plurality and is less definitive, while any one seems needlessly labored and formal. The comparative form is sometimes accorded to an adjective of absolute meaning, as, "more universal," "less complete." Again, where the stickler for exael- s would say "Come to see me," the use of and (as, Come and see me) is often tolerated and is illustrated in the Scripture words of Jesus, "Come and see." "And they came and saw where he dwelt." And yet again, some would prefer the softened and less egoistic expression, "I do not think so," where others may Disputed Points in Grammar 299 insist that the precise thought to be expressed is, " I think it is not so." Shall we say " the three first" or "the first three" ? Are the relative pronouns that, and who or which, to he sharply differentiated ? The reciprocal pronoun phrases, each other and one another? The interjections O and oh? May we use whose as the possessive of which? And may we use the possessive case when possession is not indicated, as, "the waves' roar?" Has the interrogative who become indeterminate in case form? Shall me be used attributively (It is me) ? Has the subjunctive had its day ? Has the "split infinitive" established its claim to recognition ? How far may the general sense of a passage, rather than the strict number form of a subject or an antece- dent, determine the forms of agreement for verbs and pronouns ? All these and many other questions receive unlike answers at the hands of different speakers and writers and grammarians. The question of correctness in speech and writing is largely '>"<' <>i' usa^e; but it is also one of good MB The final arbiter in the 4 decision for the man of educa- tion will be his own practical and cultivated judgment, which tries to weigh carefully all the facts and prin- ciples of historic n.nd comparative grammar as well as those of actual and widespread contemporaneous usage, and then chooses from among the available 300 Grammar and Its Reasons forms of expression the one that gives with the greatest force and smoothness and the fewest objections the clearest utterance of his own inner thought. One should be conservative in this judgment, however, and not let down the bars to impurities of speech except for good and sufficient reasons. LIX CHANGES IN THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH* English is not a dead language. It grows from roots in the lower soil. N. Y. Independent. "A dead language neither gains nor loses. English still has the vital sap flowing." The process of dropping inflections seems nearly to have reached its limit, yet there are two forms of the verb which we may even now see undergoing the process of reduction. SOUTHWORTH. Every falling away of inflection is followed by some new synthetical formation, as the loss of mood ending brought in the auxiliaries. KELLNER. The evolution of language shows a progressive tendency from inseparable irregular conglomerations to freely and regularly combinable short elements. JESPEHSEN. The English language is /developing daily according to its needs. It is casting asid^ words and usages that are no longer satisfactory; it is adding new terms as new things are brought forward, and it is making new usages as con- venience suggests, to the neglect of the five-barred gates rigidly set up by our ancestors.-VBRANDER MATTHEWS. These changes are the result of natural tendencies of the organs of speech and of the human mind, and are therefore to a great extent uniform in their operation. SWEET. *Some of the points mentioned in this and in the following chapter are referred to also in the preceding chapters under the appropriate heads. It seemed desirable, however, that there should be a brief summary of these important facts. 301 302 Grammar and Its Itcasons The vicissitudes of language are a thing over which our volitions rarely have a calculable control. FITZEDWARD HALL. It may not be possible to stem the tide, but certainly the efforts of teachers and text-books should be directed towards keeping the language free from conflicting and weakening forms of speech. SOUTHWORTH. The great innovator Time manages his innovations so dexterously, spreads them over such vast periods, and so gradually, that often while effecting the highest changes he seems to be effecting none at all. TRENCH. The fluidity of the English language is a fluidity not like that of a river, but rather like that of a glacier, the move- ment of which is noted by years or generations rather than by days. N. Y. Independent. The universal law of change and progression applies to all forms of knowledge, and grammar is no exception. At first thought this may not seem to be the case. The tendency and effort of grammar is to fix the condition of the language by forbidding irregularities that pro- duce confusion. Thus the formulas of grammarians and the language of literature are much the same wherever English is spoken. It is the colloquial ex- pressions of uneducated people that show the most tendency to fluctuation. Yet there are real changes in the facts of language with which grammar deals. They are slow in their operation and it requires careful study and the com- parison of the literature of different ages to trace their order of progression. Changes in the Grammar of English 303 All the language changes are the result of natural tendencies in the human mind, and of social develop- ment. The speakers and writers of the language do not decree such changes. They can to some extent modify and retard tendencies that they think are harm- ful to the language. In fact if they did not to some extent control these changes the language of two suc- cessive generations would become mutually unintelli- gible. But the laws that lead to change are never inactive. Ours is a living and growing language and this fact must be recognized in all forms of language study. Most of the changes in language come in the field of diction, and are therefore etymological rather than grammatical. Yet some of these word changes have a grammatical bearing as well. A large increase in vocabulary comes by converting one part of speech into another. With extraordinary license English takes words of all classes and uses them as nouns. Thus we speak of a "walk" through the fields, the "up and down" of a piece of cloth, the "whys" and "wherefores" of an argument. With nearly equal freedom nouns become adjectives and both of these classes become verbs. We speak of a "university" man, a "provision" store; we "black" our boots, and "idle" away our time. A girl "queens" it among her companions, and the poet reminds us that "a man may gentle his condition." When a word in its passage from one part of SJK into another carries with it th^^miting terms of its 304 Grammar and Its Reasons original state, a new grammatical relation is acquired. In the expression "a run on the beach" the preposi- tional phrase "on the beach" has been changed from an^adverbial to an adjective character, by the new noun meaning given to run. The key to not a few grammatical puzzles can be found in the simple fact that the word at the basis of the peculiar phrase \vas originally of another part of speech and has carried its belongings with it into the new associations. A careful study of the prefixes and suffixes used in making one part of speech from another throws much light on the relations of the parts of speech among themselves. Thus we add ness to an adjective to make an abstract noun, as greenness, goodness. Ly added to an adjective gives a strictly adverbial Word, as, slowly, firmly. Er or or with a verb makes a noun, as, actor, singer. There are many such semi-grammatical laws that govern word formations. Changes in inflection come far more slowly than those of diction, and are usually subtractions from the language rather than additions to it. The study of comparative grammar shows that the languages of Europe have tended toward an analytical character, away from the synthetic or highly-inflected types that belonged to Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. Mod< rn languages tend to break away from inflected forms, and to make large use of short indeclinable Words that can be separated from each other and recombincd into new phrases at pleasure. All the languages of southern Europe hMtehown this tendency, but English Changes in the Grammar of English 305 has gone farther in this direction than any other Euro- pean tongue. In such a process prepositions usually come in first, and are brought to the aid of the inflectional form. Later the inflection itself seems needless, and the \vnght of the relation seems to fall on the preposition. Tlie inflection may then live on, as an ancient fashion, or under changing social conditions there may be a shedding o f inflections which are not really needed to show the logical relations. Such a history belongs to the Saxon tongue. For a time it had both the inflections and the prepositions; then with the general shake-up that came to the lan- guage after the Norman Conquest, the inflections were largely cast off as a burden that could be dispensed with. With this loss of inflections came other changes as well. The order of words in the sentence became more rigid. Old English with its large elements of agreeing forms was naturally careless of word order. There was little danger of related words getting de- tached in thought since the forms showed the logical connections. Some grammarians have maintained that it was the strengthening of word order first that made the inflections unnecessary so that they fell away. But it is needless to affirm too definitely as to the re- lations of cause and effect here. The loss of inflections and the strengthening of word order went on sim- ultaneously, each process aiding and hastening the other. 306 Grammar and Its Reasons The loss of the inflectional form gave a new syntacti- cal freedom to words, making it possible not only that they should be transferred easily from one part of speech to another, but especially that they should be able to hold several relations at the same time. Tlio intermediate constructions in English the same word fulfilling several functions is one of the most marked results of this falling off of inflectional agreements. Although in general the loss of inflections comes to a language very gradually, there is in the history of English one apparent exception to this principle of slow change, owing to a peculiar epoch in English history in which two peoples became united into one. During about two hundred years, while the Saxons and Normans were becoming amalgamated, the process went on with comparative rapidity, and at the end of that period there was a new language. At least the English tongue had undergone such large modifications as to make the literature of the periods before and after this epoch distinct in language characteristics. Yet the grammar of modern English is, nevertheless, deeply rooted in the grammar of the old Saxon tongue. But there were various nations in the old Saxon ( heptarchy. Their languages, or dialects, had differing 1 grammatical forms, and our remaining old English / inflections have come to us from various sections of Britain. Yet the legacies are not equally from all the dialects. The gieat writers of the fourteenth century, .Robert of Brunne, Wycliffe, Gower and Chaucer, used the dialect of the east Midland. Their popularity uncj Changes in the Grammar of English 307 the wide circulation of their writings made this dialect the literary language of England. The northern dialect continued to be used, but had little or no literature. At last it seemed strange to the English people and they refused to call it English but called it Scotch. It was the language of Burns and of Scott, and is to-day more like old English than English itself. Old English, in the form in which it has been pre- served, was a highly inflected language. It had six cases of nouns, nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, and a case similar to the ablative which has been called the instrumental case. The noun plurals were formed on various patterns, of which a few examples have come down to us in such words as, oxen, mice. We call them irregular plurals but they are remnants of old regular declensions. Adjectives and participles had case agreements with the nouns. Verbs were of various conjugations, and the remnants of all these conjugations except one (the one making its past tense in ed) w r e now group together as one conjugation of strong verbs. The one in ed we have retained as the rule of the language and call it the new, or weak, or regular conjugation. AVith the coming of AYilliam the Conqueror a new set of language forces was introduced. The early pages of Ivanhoe have an interesting scene between AYamba and the Swineherd, showing the relations \\liicli the Norman and Saxon languages naturally assumed in the range of vocabulary the animals, 308 Grammar and Its Reasons swine and ox, retaining their Saxon names while under the Swineherd, but becoming pork and beef when re- duced to articles of commerce and served in the dining- hall of a Norman castle. But with the grammatical character of the language the results were different. The Normans did not know the Saxon inflections and dropped them whenever they could make logical connections without them. As a result English is a virtually uninflected language but retains various shreds of the old forms and agreements. For a century or two after the Conquest, there was a period of broken Saxon, known as early English, the Norman language also being used by some. During the period 1350-1550 English became moulded into the national language, gradually acquiring most of its present characteristics. Since that time it is essen- tially modern English. In the early years after the Conquest many Norman words found their way into common use. During the fifteenth century Latin was used extensively by learned men. The fashion became so extravagant that it was at last made the occasion of satire. Men laughed at "ink-horn words." Butler (in Hudibras) thus describes this style of foreign English: "A Babylonish dialect Which learned pedants much affect, 'Twas English cut on Greek and Latin Like fiction heretofore on Satin." But under the influence of Classical study many Changes in the Grammar of English 309 words derived from Greek and Latin roots found their way into English. Modern science also draws its nomenclature largely from these sources, so that new words of classical origin are continually coming into English. But while the more significant words of the English vocabulary, nouns, adjectives, and verbs, have come in immense numbers from Norman French, Greek and Latin, all or nearly all the connecting and filling-in parts of speech, the prepositions, conjunctions, modal adverbs, articles, adjective pronouns, personal pro- nouns, and auxiliaries, are Saxon in origin. And since the inflections that have been retained are also Saxon, it may be said that while English is much mixed in vocabulary, its grammar is purely Saxon. The invention of printing in the fifteenth century gave fixity to the forms then in use. But perhaps no single influence in this direction has been stronger than that of the English Bible. Wycliffe's and Tyndale's Bibles, especially the latter, did something in this direc- tion. But after King James's version, published in 1611, became the "Authorized Version," and the rise and spread of Puritanism gave tremendous influence to this book throughout the kingdom, the expressions used in the Bible became familiar and entered into the language of all. A similar influence has been exerted upon the German language by Luther's Bible. Although the dropping of inflections nearly reached its limit several centuries ago the language has not been stationary since then. Looking over the four hundred 310 Grammar and Its Reason* years of the modern English period, we find not a few grammatical changes in all the parts of speech, and the tendencies to change are still active. During this long period nouns have established their modern possessive form, have reduced greatly the number of their irregular plurals, and their feminine forms. The old noun compounds, including such gender forms as manchild, he-goat, have mostly gone out of use. The pronouns ihou and ye have been relegated to archaic or poetic uses, its has found its way into the language, his and her have restricted their gender significations, mine and thine have become absolute pronoun forms, and certain old relative and interrog- ative pronouns, as whosoever, whatso, whether, have dropped out of general use. Adjectives are more strict in their modes of com- parison, and they no longer double their comparative and superlative forms. Among verbs, some strong verbs and many strong forms of verbs have gone out of use, subjunctive forms have become few, auxiliary verbs have enlarged their functions, shall and will phrases have been modified, and many new verbal phrases have grown into favor. Many adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions have enlarged their sentence functions, and special words among them have defined more precisely their meaning and usages. Certain constructions, as impersonal sentences and absolute participial phrases, are more rare than formerly and the dative (or accusative) case used by Milton as Changes in the Grammar of English 311 the absolute case has given way to the nominative. A comparison of modern English with the language of King James's version of the Bible published in 1611 is one of the best ways of discovering how far English grammar has changed in the last three hundred years. Shakespeare's works offer a similar opportunity for profitable comparison, and Abbott's Shakesperian Grammar gives convenient and scholarly assistance in this work. The most conspicuous difference which the Bible of 1611 shows from the English of to-day is in the con- stant use of thou and ye, and the verbal forms in est and eth, which give to the writing that peculiar structure which we call solemn or ancient style. The extensive use of subjunctives (If he find it, Though he slay me) and of the "shall of prophecy," the absence of many of our modern verb phrases, the oc- casional use of obsolete verbs (wist, wot, wit, trow, etc.), or of archaic verbal forms (holpen, spat), or of verbs with an obsolete meaning (let, prevent), the use of be as an indicative (Ye be spies), of did as an auxiliary for the ordinary past tense (I did eat), the lack of an auxiliary in negative and interrogative sentences (Lacked ye anything?), the use of for before the in- finitive (for to see); all these things and many more show the decided changes that English grammar has been making especially in its verb forms. The use of his and her without sex signification (Every tree is known by his fruit), the use of which where the modern word would be who (Our Father 312 Grammar and Its Reasons which art in Heaven), the use of impersonal sentences (It sufficeth me), of expletive objects (Saddle me the ass), of the intransitive phrase with be rather than have (I am come that they might have life), the use of to after like (like to a sardine stone); all these testify to the movements that have been taking place in Eng- lish grammar since 1611. In sentences as a whole time brings changes. It is the custom of the modern age to make shorter sentences than of old, to have fewer long participial and infinitive constructions. It has been estimated that Edmund Spenser's average sentence was forty-nine words, Macaulay's twenty-three, Emerson's twenty. As the style of thought changes, the "genius of the language" modifies its constructions to suit the new mental mood. Within the memory of living people some gram- matical changes in English may be perceived. The subjunctive mood, the forms of strong verbs, the gender forms of nouns are not quite what they were a genera- tion ago. The "split infinitive" has become more common and finds defenders among present-day gram- marians, and various idiomatic usages have been gain- ing or losing in public favor. The question of the proper attitude of grammarians and of educated people in general toward these language changes is an important one. There is a sense in which a language should be encouraged to follow its own bent, and to adapt itself to the changing needs of the people who use it. Yet if there is no restraining tendency the generations will not keep in touch with Changes in the Grammar of English 313 one another. People of different countries who orig- inally spoke the same language will find their speech mutually unintelligible and the language will break up into dialects. This has sometimes been the case. Thus Scotch has differentiated itself from English; thus also the three countries of Scandinavia, originally one, have now different languages; thus also the Taal spoken by the Hollanders of South Africa is so different from the language of the Dutch people that Dutch literature cannot easily be understood by those whose native language is still supposed to be Dutch. The man of education who understands and values his native tongue should watch the flowing currents with sympathy and yet with caution. While a general attitude of conservatism should be maintained, dis- tinction should be made between those changes which impoverish and those which merely simplify the lan- guage. Thus, the use of who for whom in questions produces no misunderstanding and tends toward sim- plicity, while the loss of the subjunctive were would result in a real weakening of language power. Grammar then is the preservative of language, and the natural tendencies of the science are necessarily conservative. It is its business to keep out solecisms, and to prune away irregular growths that cannot show good reason for their existence. But the true gram- marian \\-\\\ not try too strictly to "margin a living lake by rigid bounds." It is his privilege to be not only the critic but also the interpreter of language, both in regard to its past history and its present tendencies. LX GRAMMATICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH* Poverty in grammatical forms is no drawback to a lan- guage. JESPERSEN. "The simplest of all languages in form, the most spiritual in the mode of expression." English grammar is at once the simplest and most difficult of all the grammars. ALLEN. English enjoys the distinction of having freed itself from ancient and unnecessary inflections to a greater degree than any other language. CARPENTER. That language ranks highest which goes farthest in the art of accomplishing much with little means, or, in other words, which is able to express the greatest amount of meaning with the simplest mechanism. JESPERSEN. An elaborate linguistic structure with a variety of endings in declensions and conjugations, has certain advantages, but it may be that the advantages of the opposite simplicity are still greater. SCHLEICHER. Anglo-Saxon is the basis of English. All its joints, its whole articulation, sinews, ligaments, articles, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, numerals, and auxiliary verbs- all the words that bind together the sentence, are exclusively Saxon. W. H. Low. *Some of the facts given in this chapter are mentioned in other sedans of this book. But a brief final summary of this subject seems desirable. 314 Grammatical Characteristics of English Hardly less wonderful, perhaps, than the extraordinary development of its vocabulary is the slow process by which English has changed from a synthetic to an analytical lan- guage. It has in this way gained greatly in simplicity, though it must be granted that there has been in some degree a loss in precision and in delicacy of expression. SOUTH- WORTH. It is safe to say that the fixed word order, the freedom from inflections, the abundant use of prepositions and aux- iliary verbs, which characterize modern English, are a dis- tinct improvement upon the contrasted phenomena of the older languages. TOLMAN. Great is the English speech what speech is so great as the English! WALT WHITMAN. English, however, is at the opening of the twentieth cen- tury the greatest language power in existence, and bids fair to become ultimately the universal tongue. SOUTHWORTH. It is in its vocabulary, as inherited, acquired and adapted, that English finds its highest claim to supremacy among languages. JOYNES. Grammar it (i. e., English language) might have had, but it needes it not; being so easie of itself e and so voyd of those cumbersome differences of cases, genders, moodes and tenses, which I thinke was a peece of the Tower of Babilon's curse that a man should be put to schoole to learne his mother tongue. But for the uttering sweetly and properly the conceits of the minde which is the end of speech that hath it equally with any other tongue in the world. SIR PHILIP Sirr APOLOGIE FOR POETRY. 1585. The English is plenteous enough to express our myndos in anything whereof one man hath neede to speke with another, SIR THOMAS MORE. 816 Grammar and Its Reasons Most of our knowledge of our mother tongue comes to us by what are called Natural Methods, and the distinctive marks of the language being native to our thought are not always recognized clearly even when known correctly for use. But the student should sometimes step outside his own relation to the language in order to look at it ob- jectively, to compare and classify, to note its variations from other general language types and so gain a more explicit knowledge of its distinctive language forms. The scholar's knowledge of a language should be broader and deeper than that of one who would simply use the language as a vehicle of thought. The reasons of English grammar must underlie a scholarly knowl- edge of the subject. English has inherited traits from the two kinds of languages that represent the two ruling races of Christen- dom, the Roman and the Germanic. Yet while many English words are of French or Latin or Greek extrac- tion the grammar of English is mostly Teutonic in char- acter. Its idioms are Anglo-Saxon and not Latin or French in their origin. But modern English has diverged very far from the original Saxon type of language structure. Instead of being a highly inflected language, it is now one of the simplest of all languages in its word forms. While not in a condition of absolute simplicity like the Chinese which requires a new word for every modification of an idea it is yet nearer to this than any other lan- guage of Europe is, being made up very largely of Grammatical Characteristics of English 317 short indeclinable elements that can be readily com- bined into all needed logical arrangements. Languages are often roughly classed into two groups as showing two types of grammatical structure. Of the synthetic or inflected type Latin is one of the best ex- amples, while of the analytic type English is a pro- nounced illustration. The active powers of English in making inflectional forms seem now to be reduced to the action of two or three very simple rules. The addition of s or es for plural nouns, of 9 s to denote possession, of er and est in the comparison of adjectives and of s, ed, ing, for verb forms, with est and eth in solemn or poetic style these are all the present inflectional powers of English. But while the active inflections of English are few and simple, there are various remnants of old inflections still remaining that seem to us to-day not so much like real inflections, as irregular forms with which certain ideas have become associated. These give trouble not only to foreigners but to native speakers of the language, and mar the ideal simplicity of English for universal use. Yet the political and commercial growth of the English-speaking peoples, together with the highly analytical character of the language itself is giving it an increasing importance among the languages of the world. By the changes in its grammar English has acquired certain unique and high powers. The record has been one of progress, and not of decay or retrogression. The 318 Grammar and Its Reasons simple form allowing free interchange of grammatical functions gives peculiar vigor to style. With some loss of freedom of arrangement, there is nevertheless an economy of words, and greater idiomatic power and clearness. The power to transfer a word from one part of speech to another is remarkably developed in English. An especial prerogative seems to be the power to change almost any noun into a verb. Thus we "cable" our dispatches, and "phone" our verbal messages. We "table" a resolution and "bed" plants. Thus, also, Skakespeare's Portia uses the phrase, " Being so fathered and so husbanded." There are also large classes of words, such as the adjective pronouns, that belong equally to two parts of speech. The power of a word to perform several functions at the same time is most remarkably developed. A majority of the connec- tive terms (including relative pronouns, relative adjectives, and conjunctive adverbs of various types) unite in the same sentence the offices of two or more parts of speech. English is very rich in its variety of verb phrases. Foreigners find it hard to learn these and English- speaking travelers find great difficulty in rendering all our verb phrases into the idiom of other tongues. Many irregular phrases, for instance, are in use as substitutes for the future tense. The following examples show different ways of expressing nearly the same future action. Grammatical Characteristics of English 319 I shall write. I shall be writing. I will write. I will be writing. I am to write. I am to be writing. I am going to write. I am going to be writing. I am about to write. I am about to be writing. To these might be added perhaps the interesting Hiber- nianism, "I'll be afther writing." " Is to be" is one of the most common future phrases, as, "He is to be married to-morrow." The ordinary present tense may be used with future signification, as, "I go to-morrow," and most of the potential auxiliaries may also be used so as to convey a future idea. It may fairly be said that in the abundance and flexibility of its verbal combinations English is not surpassed or perhaps equalled by any other language in the world. English is not particularly rich in adjectives. "Ho, for an epithet" is the mental ejaculation of many a writer in search of choice and fitting words with which to clothe his thoughts. In passing from one language into another adjectives change their meaning more than nouns or verbs do, and English adjectives are often quite different in meaning from the foreign adjectives to which by form they are allied. A few idioms are very peculiar to English. Among these may be mentioned the use of the same term self as both a reflexive and an emphatic pronoun; the free omission of a relative pronoun in a restrictive adjective clause, as, "The man I met," and the double or Grammar and Its Reasons cumulative possessive, as, "This speech of Caesar's." To these may be added that form of a passive sen- tence in which the indirect object is made the subject, and the direct object is left in the predicate as a re- tained object, as, "I was given some oranges." But the phenomena of modern English are not very thoroughly classified and known. The older stages of the language are of much interest to scholars and are more studied than the shifting phases of the present. Grammars and dictionaries are necessarily conserva- tive, and are never quite up-to-date. But the study of these flowing currents and marks of modern English usage should be of great interest to students of language and of life. As has been well said, Those who are born to be heirs of a highly analytical lan- guage must needs learn to think up to it. THOMSON'S OULTINES OP THE LAWS OF THOUGHT. PART SECOND RELATION OF GRAMMAR TO OTHER KINDS OF LANGUAGE STUDY Even the analysis of sentences, important as it is, has its limits as a means of instruction and training. BUEHLER. It is intended that the study of literature be taken up as early in the course as is practicable, and continued in such . way as to supplement the technical part of the instruction. LOCKWOOD. To the question of how to become familiar with the best use, the first answer is, Read the best literature. BUEHLER. Practice in writing should be constant. LOCKWOOD. The teaching of English is difficult, its results often un- satisfactory. JOYNES. Hamlet. Will you play upon this pipe? Gilderstern. My lord, I cannot. Hamlet. I pray you. Gilderstern. I cannot, I know no touch of it, my lord. Hamlet. 'Tis as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music. Look you, these are the stops. Gilderstern. But these cannot I command to any utter- ance of harmony. I have not the skill. SHAKESPEARE. There are three distinct kinds of English study that 321 Grammar and Its Reasons must enter into school work. They are adapted to different ends, and pursued by different methods. All of them are important, and each is defective if not sup- plemented by both of the others. There is the formal or structural study of the lan- guage itself, known specifically as language study or linguistics. In this department, grammar is the central study. But the formal study of language includes also all that relates to spelling, pronunciation, etymology and all else that belongs to the scientific or formal make-up of spoken or written English. This line of work is chiefly technical. Its primary aim is to give the student control of his native tongue as an instrument that may be used for the higher ends of self expression. Yet grammatical study, by its appeal to the logical faculties has educative elements that are broader and deeper than belong to mere technical training. This study of English on the structural side begins with the earliest grades of school; but it also reaches on with increasing interest and importance, through the historic and comparative philological study that belongs to high school and collegiate work. A second kind of English study for schools is that which is pursued by literary methods and devoted to literary enda The study of the literary treasures of a language has elements of culture which the structural study of language can never give. It touches the emotions and cultivates the taste. Its appeal is to tlie motives and the spiritual life of the soul. It is there- Relation of Grammar to Other Language Study 323 fore a corrective for certain faults of mind that merely technical study sometimes induces. The study of literature used to be thought of as belonging to the later part of school life. Yet even for the youngest children in schools there is literary mate- rial in abundance which can be studied for artistic ends. The study of literature, not in name but in its essence, should begin in the kindergarten and extend through all stages of school and college life. But literary study as well as the technical study of language has its limitations. The study of a literary masterpiece is in a degree a receptive study. It does not always lead to active effort in the use of one's own language powers. It may even have a tendency to paralyze active literary effort, as one yields himself to the passive enjoyment of the work of others, or to the sense of discouragement sometimes induced by the disparaging comparisons which great writings invite toward all humbler performances. While the critical taste is cultivated, the creative faculty is not always iaroused by the study of noble writings. Both literary study and formal language study there- fore need to be reinforced by plenty of practical com- position work. By well-graded exercises and the use of stimulating motives the teacher should call forth the best creative energies of the pupil and lead him to the habit of free and correct expression of his own thoughts in both spoken and written English. From the primary school to the university, then, these three lines of English study, the formal or Grammar and Its Reasons structural, the literary or artistic, and the creative or practical need to be pursued side by side, with no one of the three overshadowing, but each aiding and cor- recting the others, until by their joint actions and re- actions the student comes to deserve the praise once bestowed upon an English scholar, "He was well- languaged." n RELATIONS OF THE STUDY OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR TO THE STUDY OF FOREIGN GRAMMARS Most of us wish to learn other languages than our own. We can do this more easily and accurately if we understand how our own language is made and used. WHITNEY AND LOCKWOOD. It may fairly be said that the construction and compre- hension of an English sentence demand and suppose the exercise of higher mental power than are required for fram- ing or understanding a proposition in Latin. WELSH. There is a strong difference between the analytical study of English and that of a language of the highly inflected type. In Latin, for instance, the part of speech of a word and its logical relations are usually shown by its inflectional form. But in English it is chiefly the sense that must decide, and so the study of the English sentence has a disciplinary value that is all its own. There are many teachers of foreign languages, and educated persons that have drunk deeply from the full cup of classical learning, who feel a doubt whether the study of English grammar can give much aid to the acquirement of foreign tongues. It may well be granted that a knowledge of English inflections, so meagre, so incomplete, and seemingly 325 326 Grammar and Its Reasons irregular as they all are, is but a slight aid to a study of inflection and inflectional agreements, in general grammar. The remnants of inflection that are left seem arbitrary and inconsistent, and seldom give an adequate impression of inflection in its true sense. For a primary knowledge of grammatical inflections and what they signify, one must agree with the report made years ago by Mr. George H. Martin (at that time agent of the Massachusetts Board of Education, of which he is now the secretary), in which he said: " After noting carefully the mental operations of thous- ands of pupils in the high schools, I am convinced that nothing can take the place of Latin in high school work." But, in gaining a knowledge of the syntax of Latin, that is spread out on the pages of the Latin grammar, and that is so vital to the knowledge and use of the language, will a knowledge of English syntax avail nothing ? Is a knowledge of the twelve or more different rela- tions in which an English noun can be placed, no aid in seeing these same relations when found in another tongue? Can our varied objective constructions, the indirect objects, the factitive or double objects, throw no light on Latin datives and accusatives? I lave the absolute constructions of other languages, the participial and infinitive phrases and clauses, the impersonal or unipersonal, and many abbreviated forms of foreign tongues, nothing to gain from the stu- of greatest linguistic value. In the hands of a wise and skillful teacher analysis and parsing are among the most useful tools for language teaching, but they should both be used always for broad ends and not for trivial ones. Analysis and Parsing 341 FORM OF ANALYSIS (To be used in whole or in part according to the needs of the class.) T. Kind of sentence. Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, Exclam- atory. Simple, Complex, Compound. NOTE. Since most sentences are declarative, the first dis- tinction needs to be noted only when the sentence differs from the assertive form. II. If a simple or a complex sentence, give (1) Entire subject and predicate. (2) Subject-word. The adjective elements that limit it. (3) Predicate term. (Name copula and attri- bute if distinct.) Object or objects. Adverbial elements. Later, any clause or phrase (if desired) can receive more minute analysis. (1) Give its basis. (2) Then the subordinate parts. III. If the sentence is compound (1) Give the principal divisions, (2) Analyze each as if it were a simple or com- plex sentence. 342 Grammar and Its Reasons FORM OF PARSING Part of Speech. Inflectional Form (if any). Relation to Other Words. NOTE. In parsing, lay special emphasis on all peculiarities of the word, either of form or relationship. If a pupil shows appreciation of the real character of a word it is not well to discourage him by insisting too closely on adherence to a form of statement. More real thought is often awakened by a good grammatical question than by formally parsing the word. Models should be used so far as they save time, or stimulate consecutive thinking. If they begin to con- sume time needlessly, or to stultify fresh thought and inter- est, it is time to dispense with them. VI SENTENCE DIAGRAMS AND OTHER DEVICES Some device by which the whole class can work together may be of value in large classes. SOUTHWORTH. A diagram is almost necessarily misleading in many ways. The half mechanical accomplishing of diagraming comes to be sought rather than an intimate comprehension of the sentence. Those peculiar features of a sentence which can- not be diagramed are lost sight of. TOLMAN. At this stage of his studies the pupil should not be required always to analyze sentences to their very dregs, nor should he be expected to analyze any sentence that is so compli- cated as to be very puzzling. KITTRIDGE AND ARNOLD. Too minute analysis may prove perplexing in complex sentences. Sufficient drill in the analysis of phrases will be given by the simple sentences. HARPER AND BURGESS. In the study of the individual sentence, analysis properly precedes the work of parsing. The early t xercises in analysis should be of a broad and general kind, marking out merely the main features of the sentence. There should be abundant practice in this general analysis without confusing the pupils' minds by points of detail. At a later period clauses and phrases should be analyzed and specific words parsed. In dealing witli long and intricate sentences, a rapid method of interpretation called "construing" is often 343 344 Grammar and Its Reasons of most value. It is a kind of continuous analysis, a combination of the methods of parsing and analysis giving rapidly the functions of clauses, phrases or words in their order, but pausing here and there for fuller dis- cussion of the more difficult points. An extension of this analytic interpretation to the paragraph, or to connected thought in narrative prose and poetry, sup- plies some elements of value that are not met by the analysis of single disconnected sentences. Caution should be used against supplying ellipses for the sake of ease in parsing, when they are not needed for the correct structure of the sentence itself; nor are dead forms and idioms always to be explained by analogy. A device once extensively used in grammar teaching was that of diagraming sentences. But there has been a great reaction against its use. Teachers dis- covered that the complications of English sentences require many variations of the form of diagram, and that some of the subtler points of analysis can never be truly shown in this way. In short, diagraming degenerated into an unprofitable puzzle, the technical effort to fit the diagram to the sentence crowding out the real language study, which is the main object of the teaching. Yet the fact that there are limits to the usefulness of diagrams is no reason for rejecting them wholly. Many a device that has often been misused is still of value in the hands of a wise teacher. The diagram analysis appeals to the eye, which is Sentence Diagrams and Other Devices 345 the most impressible of all the senses. The diagram can be made rapidly and left upon the blackboard for further study. It is of use in reviews, being specially adapted to the testing of large classes to see whether logical relations have been truly grasped. It gives a great saving of time over other forms of sentence analysis. The form used should be as simple as possible and omit all needless elaboration. One diagram that has been found useful is simply a tabulated statement of the great sentence elements, as illustrated by the follow- ing sentence: 'Yesterday, during the recess, two little boys of my school found a strange animal in the schoolyard." Subject, boys. Predicate, found Two little of my school a strange animal (obj.) yesterday during the recess in the school yard. The detailed analysis of the phrases is omitted, since the relations of these words would seldom be misunderstood. If one of the elements of a sentence is a clause, this can be included in an abbreviated form and then analyzed below in another diagram. A plan of analysis which does not involve the re- writing of the sentence is suggested in Southworth's English Grammar and Composition. This is ac- 346 Grammar and Its Reasons complished by means of underscoring, overscoring, parentheses, brackets, etc. The limit of usefulness for diagrams is very quickly reached. Idiomatic phrases and all complicated points are best discussed orally. When a word or phrase holds several relations in the sentence, the diagram is likely to do harm rather than good. All of the sen- tence relations need to be expressed, yet the repetition of a word or phrase in various parts of the diagram gives confusion. We must see to it that the aids we use in teaching are never suffered to become burdens or to detract from the main end that is to be gained. To sum the matter up: Diagrams are of use in teaching and in testing classes (especially young classes), as a rapid form of expressing to the eye the general rela- tions of sentences. But for difficult points of analysis they have only a limited value. For unravelling the mysteries of idiomatic English nothing can take the place of a good grammatical "quiz." vn SOME WORDS TO TEACHERS. Theory guides practice, practice modifies theory. BOYDEN. "It is easy to lay down general principles, but hard to apply them successfully." The study of grammar develops and perfects those forms of thought which, like the honey-cell of the bee, only later become filled with rich and substantial content. JOYNES. Since grammar is a subject that must be taught in the schools, happy is that teacher who loves to teach it, and can awaken in his pupils a love for the study. It must be confessed that grammar as often taught pre- sents few attractions to children; yet if their interest is really gained there is no subject in the common school curriculum that can yield larger educative results than this. If the children are to love grammar the teaching of it must be adapted to their age and experience. They should not be troubled with too much grammatical technique until they know enough to perceive its de- sirableness. It takes some maturity of judgment to appreciate truly the value of a close analysis of one's own thought. The teacher should not waste time in what may seem to the pupil like hair-splitting discus- sions over matters of no practical importance. It is not easy for mature minds to make logical defi- 347 348 Grammar and Its Reasons nitions of grammatical terms, and it is well-nigh im- possible for children to appreciate or apply strictly logical definitions for some of the grammatical terms which they need to use. Because of this difficulty some teachers demand no definitions at all that even approach exactness. There is certainly a serious error to be avoided on this side. Loose teaching will always produce loose thinking, and the chief value of grammar is to secure careful discriminations in thought and speech. How then shall the teacher find and keep the wise mean between no attempt at logical definition and the labored assumption of logical correctness which makes the subject tedious, and is useless for application in ele- mentary language teaching ? Some definitions must be given. Some logical distinctions must be drawn. But the number and form of these must depend on various circumstances and will vary greatly with different classes. It is by no means easy to keep the right balance be- tween looseness and inaccuracy on the one hand and the insistence on logical exactness which lays fetters hard to be borne upon immature minds. But on the teacher's skill in doing this the success of the work in grammar will very largely depend. Grammar may be taught so as to be narrowing and pedantic on the one hand or obscure and uninteresting on the other. It may carry its analytical method beyond the point of really educative influence over the minds which the teacher has to deal with. Grammar also sometimes assumes a false arrogance as to its own authority in matters of usage. The emphasis should Some Words to Teachers 349 always be laid upon real facts found in the language, and not upon negations or prohibitions of this or that form of expression. It is hardly worth while to be continually setting up men of straw to be knocked down by argument. The method used should be inductive rather than authoritative. The students of grammar are them- selves the explorers in the field of language, working, however, under the wise guidance of one who has traversed the same paths before them. The teacher must not forget that in the closer dis- tinctions of grammar, absolute decision of a disputed point cannot always be reached. The grammarian must not be over positive in his opinion on some of these points. It has been said that " Dogmatism saves time/' but does it in the end? Two interpretations may sometimes both be correct. In dealing with dis- puted questions it is not needful always for the teacher to bring every one of his pupils to the same under- standing of the intricate points that he himself holds. He should have a definite opinion, of course, and make it known to the class, with his reasons therefor. But let him beware how he dwarfs the power of judgment in his pupils by insisting on entire unanimity in their verdict, or invariable conformity to his own view. In the discussion of the subtler questions of syntax it is not the decision reached that is of chief importance. It is the power of thinking gained by the effort to compare and discriminate the relations of a thought that is of truest educational value. 850 Grammar and Its Reasons Finally, let the teacher who loves language Work and has labored faithfully for liis pupils in this field, be of good cheer, even if the results seem small. In every class there are illogical minds that grasp imperfectly, or sometimes apparently not at all, the abstract relations of the ideas and words with which grammar deals. But results do not show themselves all at first. Many are the men and women, who showed no brilliant powers as boys and girls in the grammar class but who yet look back gratefully upon the school training that gave them their first glimpses into the character of logical thinking. By and by these grammatical ideas, partly perceived by children, grow into more perfect clearness in their minds as they come to perceive that the fundamental relations of thought and of speech are identical and that a knowledge of these relations is of practical importance to every thinking mind. The real results of school work are seen in their true perspective relations only through the vista of later years. But even if the work of the grammar class for some of the pupils may seem to be but a qualified success, it should not cause discouragement. Gram- mar is only one means toward language power. The teacher is only one of many agencies that are at work. Let him takeup this necessary sub ject of English gramma r withcourageousheart, feeling sure thatfaithfulworkalon# this line is sure in its own time and way to contribute lar^e and important elements to the comprehensive en