A Grammar of the English Tongue Part 4

ETYMOLOGY.

Etymology teaches the deduction of one word from another, and the various modifications by which the sense of the same word is diversified; as horse, horses; I love, I loved.

Of the ARTICLE.

The English have two articles, an or a, and the.

AN, A.

A has an indefinite signification, and means one, with some reference to more; as This is a good book; that is, one among the books that are good; He was killed by a sword; that is, some sword; This is a better book for a man than a boy; that is, for one of those that are men than one of those that are boys; An army might enter without resistance; that is, any army.

In the senses in which we use a or an in the singular, we speak in the plural without an article; as these are good books.

I have made an the original article, because it is only the Saxon an, or aen, one, applied to a new use, as the German ein, and the French un; the n being cut off before a consonant in the speed of utterance.

Grammarians of the last age direct, that an should be used before h; whence it appears that the English anciently asperated less. An is still used before the silent h; as an herb, an honest man; but otherwise a; as

A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse. Shakespeare.

An or a can only be joined with a singular: the correspondent plural is the noun without an article, as, I want a pen, I want pens; or with the p.r.o.nominal adjective some, as, I want some pens.

THE.

The has a particular and definite signification.

The fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world. Milton.

That is, that particular fruit, and this world in which we live. So, He giveth fodder for the cattle, and green herbs for the use of man; that is, for those beings that are cattle, and his use that is man.

The is used in both numbers.

I am as free as Nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the n.o.ble savage ran. Dryden.

Many words are used without articles; as

1. Proper names, as John, Alexander, Longinus, Aristarchus, Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London. G.o.d is used as a proper name.

2. Abstract names, as blackness, witch-craft, virtue, vice, beauty, ugliness, love, hatred, anger, good-nature, kindness.

3. Words in which nothing but the mere being of any thing is implied: This is not beer, but water; this is not bra.s.s, but steel.

Of NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE.

The relations of English nouns to words going before or following are not expressed by cases, or changes of termination, but, as in most of the other European languages, by prepositions, unless we may be said to have a genitive case.

Singular.

Nom. Magister, a Master, the Master.

Gen. Magistri, of a Master, of the Master, or Master's, the Master's.

Dat. Magistro, to a Master, to the Master.

Acc. Magistrum, a Master, the Master.

Voc. Magister, Master, O Master.

Abl. Magistro, from a Master, from the Master.

Plural.

Nom. Magistri, Masters, the Masters.

Gen. Magistrorum, of Masters, of the Masters.

Dat. Magistris, to Masters, to the Masters.

Acc. Magistros, Masters, the Masters.

Voc. Magistri, Masters, O Masters.

Abl. Magistris, from Masters, from the Masters.

Our nouns are therefore only declined thus:

Master, Gen. Master's. Plur. Masters.

Scholar, Gen. Scholar's. Plur. Scholars.

These genitives are always written with a mark of elision, master's, scholar's, according to an opinion long received, that the 's is a contraction of his, as the soldier's valour, for the soldier his valour: but this cannot be the true original, because 's is put to female nouns, Woman's beauty; the Virgin's delicacy; Haughty Juno's unrelenting hate; and collective nouns, as Women's pa.s.sions; the rabble's insolence; the mult.i.tude's folly: in all these cases it is apparent that his cannot be understood. We say likewise the foundation's strength; the diamond's l.u.s.tre; the winter's severity: but in these cases his may be understood, he and his having formerly been applied to neuters in the place now supplied by it and its.

The learned and sagacious Wallis, to whom every English grammarian owes a tribute of reverence, calls this modification of the noun an adjective possessive; I think with no more propriety than he might have applied the same to the genitive in equitum decus, Trojae oris, or any other Latin genitive. Dr. Lowth, on the other part, supposes the possessive p.r.o.nouns mine and thine to be genitive cases.

This termination of the noun seems to const.i.tute a real genitive indicating possession. It is derived to us from the Saxon's who declined smith, a smith; Gen. smither, of a smith; Plur. smither or smithar, smiths; and so in two other of their seven declensions.

It is a further confirmation of this opinion, that in the old poets both the genitive and plural were longer by a syllable than the original word: knitis for knight's, in Chaucer; leavis for leaves, in Spenser.

When a word ends in s, the genitive may be the same with the nominative, as Venus temple.

The plural is formed by adding s, as table, tables; fly, flies; sister, sisters; wood, woods; or es where s could not otherwise be sounded, as after ch, s, sh, x, z; after c sounded like s, and g like j; the mute e is vocal before s, as lance, lances; outrage, outrages.

The formation of the plural and genitive singular is the same.

A few words still make the plural in n, as men, women, oxen, swine, and more anciently eyen, shoon. This formation is that which generally prevails in the Teutonick dialects.

Words that end in f commonly form their plural by ves, as loaf, loaves; calf, calves.