The Grammar of English Grammars Part 33

OBS. 1.--The first thing to be learned in the study of this the second part of grammar, is the distribution of the words of the language into those princ.i.p.al sorts, or cla.s.ses, which are denominated _the Parts of Speech_.

This is a matter of some difficulty. And as no scheme which can be adopted, will be in all cases so plain that young beginners will not occasionally falter in its application, the teacher may sometimes find it expedient to refer his pupils to the following simple explanations, which are designed to aid their first and most difficult steps.

How can we know to what cla.s.s, or part of speech, any word belongs? By learning the definitions of the ten parts of speech, and then observing how the word is written, and in what sense it is used. It is necessary also to observe, so far as we can, with what other words each particular one is capable of making sense.

1. Is it easy to distinguish an ARTICLE? If not always easy, it is generally so: _the, an_, and _a_, are the only English words called articles, and these are rarely any thing else. Because _an_ and _a_ have the same import, and are supposed to have the same origin, the articles are commonly reckoned two, but some count them as three.

2. How can we distinguish a NOUN? By means of the article before it, if there is one; as, _the house, an apple, a book_; or, by adding it to the phrase, "_I mentioned_;" as, "I mentioned _peace_;"--"I mentioned _war_;"--"I mentioned _slumber_." Any word which thus makes complete sense, is, in that sense, a noun; because a noun is the _name_ of any thing which can thus be mentioned _by a name_. Of English nouns, there are said to be as many as twenty-five or thirty thousand.

3. How can we distinguish an ADJECTIVE? By putting a noun after it, to see if the phrase will be sense. The noun _thing_, or its plural _things_, will suit almost any adjective; as, A _good_ thing--A _bad_ thing--A _little_ thing--A _great_ thing--_Few_ things--_Many_ things--_Some_ things--_Fifty_ things. Of adjectives, there are perhaps nine or ten thousand.

4. How can we distinguish a p.r.o.nOUN? By observing that its noun repeated makes the same sense. Thus, the example of the p.r.o.noun above, "The boy loves _his_ book; _he_ has long lessons, and _he_ learns _them_ well,"--very clearly means, "The boy loves _the boy's_ book; _the boy_ has long lessons, and _the boy_ learns _those lessons_ well." Here then, by a disagreeable repet.i.tion of two nouns, we have the same sense without any p.r.o.noun; but it is obvious that the p.r.o.nouns form a better mode of expression, because they prevent this awkward repet.i.tion. The different p.r.o.nouns in English are twenty-four; and their variations in declension are thirty-two: so that the number of _words_ of this cla.s.s, is fifty-six.

5. How can we distinguish a VERB? By observing that it is usually the princ.i.p.al word in the sentence, and that without it there would be no a.s.sertion. It is the word which expresses what is affirmed or said of the person or thing mentioned; as, "Jesus _wept_."--"Felix _trembled_."--"The just _shall live_ by faith." It will make sense when inflected with the p.r.o.nouns; as, I _write_, thou _writ'st_, he _writes_; we _write_, you _write_, they _write_.--I _walk_, thou _walkst_, he _walks_; we _walk_, you _walk_, they _walk_. Of English verbs, some recent grammarians compute the number at eight thousand; others formerly reckoned them to be no more than four thousand three hundred.[131]

6. How can we distinguish a PARTICIPLE? By observing its derivation from the verb, and then placing it after _to be_ or _having_; as, To be _writing_, Having _written_--To be _walking_, Having _walked_--To be _weeping_, Having _wept_--To be _studying_, Having _studied_. Of simple participles, there are twice as many as there are of simple or radical verbs; and the possible compounds are not less numerous than the simples, but they are much less frequently used.

7. How can we distinguish an ADVERB? By observing that it answers to the question, _When? Where? How much?_ or _How_?--or serves to ask it; as, "He spoke fluently." _How_ did he speak? _Fluently_. This word _fluently_ is therefore an adverb: it tells _how_ he spoke. Of adverbs, there are about two thousand six hundred; and four fifths of them end in _ly_.

8. How can we distinguish a CONJUNCTION? By observing what words or terms it joins together, or to what other conjunction it corresponds; as, "_Neither_ wealth _nor_ honor can heal a wounded conscience."--_Dillwyn's Ref._, p. 16. Or, it may be well to learn the whole list at once: _And, as, both, because, even, for, if, that, then, since, seeing, so: Or, nor, either, neither, than, though, although, yet, but, except, whether, lest, unless, save, provided, notwithstanding, whereas._ Of conjunctions, there are these twenty-nine in common use, and a few others now obsolete.

9. How can we distinguish a PREPOSITION? By observing that it will govern the p.r.o.noun _them_, and is not a verb or a participle; as, _About_ them--_above_ them--_across_ them--_after_ them--_against_ them--_amidst_ them--_among_ them--_around_ them--_at_ them--_Before_ them--_behind_ them--_below_ them--_beneath_ them--_beside_ them--_between_ them--_beyond_ them--_by_ them--_For_ them--_from_ them--_In_ them--_into_ them, &c. Of the prepositions, there are about sixty now in common use.

10. How can we distinguish an INTERJECTION? By observing that it is an independent word or sound, uttered earnestly, and very often written with the note of exclamation; as _Lo! behold! look! see! hark! hush! hist! mum!_ Of interjections, there are sixty or seventy in common use, some of which are seldom found in books.

OBS. 2.--An accurate knowledge of words, and of their changes, is indispensable to a clear discernment of their proper combinations in sentences, according to the usage of the learned. Etymology, therefore, should be taught before syntax; but it should be chiefly taught by a direct a.n.a.lysis of entire sentences, and those so plainly written that the particular effect of every word may be clearly distinguished, and the meaning, whether intrinsic or relative, be discovered with precision. The parts of speech are usually named and defined with reference to the use of words _in sentences_; and, as the same word not unfrequently stands for several different parts of speech, the learner should be early taught to make for himself the proper application of the foregoing distribution, without recurrence to a dictionary, and without aid from his teacher. He who is endeavouring to acquaint himself with the grammar of a language which he can already read and understand, is placed in circ.u.mstances very different from those which attend the school-boy who is just beginning to construe some sentences of a foreign tongue. A frequent use of the dictionary may facilitate the progress of the one, while it delays that of the other. English grammar, it is hoped, may be learned directly from this book alone, with better success than can be expected when the attention of the learner is divided among several or many different works.

OBS. 3.--Dr. James P. Wilson, in speaking of the cla.s.sification of words, observes, "The _names_ of the distributive parts should either express, distinctly, the influence, which each cla.s.s produces on sentences; or some other characteristic trait, by which the respective species of words may be distinguished, without danger of confusion. It is at least probable, that no distribution, sufficiently minute, can ever be made, of the parts of speech, which shall be wholly free from all objection. Hasty innovations, therefore, and crude conjectures, should not be permitted to disturb that course of grammatical instruction, which has been advancing in melioration, by the unremitting labours of thousands, through a series of ages."--_Wilson's Essay on Gram._, p. 66. Again: "The _number_ of the parts of speech may be reduced, or enlarged, at pleasure; and the rules of syntax may be accommodated to such new arrangement. The best grammarians find it difficult, in practice, to distinguish, in some instances, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions; yet their effects are generally distinct.

This inconvenience should be submitted to, since a less comprehensive distribution would be very unfavourable to a rational investigation of the meaning of English sentences."--_Ib._, p. 68. Again: "_As_ and _so_ have been also deemed subst.i.tutes, and resolved into other words. But if all abbreviations are to be restored to their primitive parts of speech, there will be a general revolution in the present systems of grammar; and the various improvements, which have sprung from convenience, or necessity, and been sanctioned by the usage of ancient times, must be retrenched, and anarchy in letters universally prevail."--_Ib._, p. 114.

OBS. 4.--I have elsewhere sufficiently shown why _ten_ parts of speech are to be preferred to any other number, in English; and whatever diversity of opinion there may be, respecting the cla.s.s to which some particular words ought to be referred, I trust to make it obvious to good sense, that I have seldom erred from the course which is most expedient. 1. _Articles_ are used with appellative nouns, sometimes to denote emphatically the species, but generally to designate individuals. 2. _Nouns_ stand in discourse for persons, things, or abstract qualities. 3. _Adjectives_ commonly express the concrete qualities of persons or things; but sometimes, their situation or number. 4. _p.r.o.nouns_ are subst.i.tutes for names, or nouns; but they sometimes represent sentences. 5. _Verbs_ a.s.sert, ask, or say something; and, for the most part, express action or motion. 6. _Participles_ contain the essential meaning of their verbs, and commonly denote action, and imply time; but, apart from auxiliaries, they express that meaning either adjectively or substantively, and not with a.s.sertion. 7. _Adverbs_ express the circ.u.mstances of time, of place, of degree, and of manner; the _when_, the _where_, the _how much_, and the _how_. 8. _Conjunctions_ connect, sometimes words, and sometimes sentences, rarely phrases; and always show, either the manner in which one sentence or one phrase depends upon an other, or what connexion there is between two words that refer to a third.

9. _Prepositions_ express the correspondent relations of things to things, of thoughts to thoughts, or of words to words; for these, if we speak truly, must be all the same in expression. 10. _Interjections_ are either natural sounds or exclamatory words, used independently, and serving briefly to indicate the wishes or feelings of the speaker.

OBS. 5.--In the following pa.s.sage, all the parts of speech are exemplified, and each is pointed out by the figure placed over the word:--

1 2 9 2 5 1 2 3 9 2 1 2 6 "The power of speech is a faculty peculiar to man; a faculty bestowed 9 4 9 4 3 2 9 1 3 8 7 3 on him by his beneficent Creator, for the greatest and most excellent 2 8 10 7 7 5 4 5 4 9 1 3 9 uses; but, alas! how often do we pervert it to the worst of 2 purposes!"--See _Lowth's Gram._, p. 1.

In this sentence, which has been adopted by Murray, Churchill, and others, we have the following parts of speech: 1. The words _the, a_, and _an_, are articles. 2. The words _power, speech, faculty, man, faculty, Creator, uses_, and _purposes_, are nouns. 3. The words _peculiar, beneficent, greatest, excellent_, and _worst_, are adjectives. 4. The words _him, his, we_, and _it_, are p.r.o.nouns. 5. The words _is, do_, and _pervert_, are verbs. 6. The word _bestowed_ is a participle. 7. The words _most, how_, and _often_, are adverbs. 8. The words _and_ and _but_ are conjunctions. 9.

The words _of, on, to, by, for, to_, and _of_, are prepositions. 10. The word _alas!_ is an interjection.

OBS. 6.--In speaking or writing, we of course bring together the different parts of speech just as they happen to be needed. Though a sentence of ordinary length usually embraces more than one half of them, it is not often that we find them _all_ in so small a compa.s.s. Sentences sometimes abound in words of a particular kind, and are quite dest.i.tute of those of some other sort. The following examples will ill.u.s.trate these remarks. (1) ARTICLES: "_A_ square is less beautiful than _a_ circle; and _the_ reason seems to be, that _the_ attention is divided among _the_ sides and angles of _a_ square, whereas _the_ circ.u.mference of _a_ circle, being _a_ single object, makes one entire impression."--_Kames, Elements of Criticism_, Vol.

i, p. 175. (2.) NOUNS: "A _number_ of _things_ destined for the same _use_, such as _windows, chairs, spoons, b.u.t.tons_, cannot be too uniform; for, supposing their _figure_ to be good, _utility_ requires _uniformity_."--_Ib._, i, 176. (3.) ADJECTIVES: "Hence nothing _just, proper, decent, beautiful, proportioned_, or _grand_, is _risible_."--_Ib._, i, 229. (4.) p.r.o.nOUNS: "_I_ must entreat the courteous reader to suspend _his_ curiosity, and rather to consider _what_ is written than _who they_ are _that_ write it."--_Addison, Spect._, No. 556. (5.) VERBS: "The least consideration _will inform_ us how easy it _is_ to _put_ an ill-natured construction upon a word; and what perverse turns and expressions _spring_ from an evil temper. Nothing _can be explained_ to him who _will_ not _understand_, nor _will_ any thing _appear_ right to the unreasonable."--_Cecil_. (6.) PARTICIPLES: "The Scriptures are an authoritative voice, _reproving, instructing_, and _warning_ the world; and _declaring_ the only means _ordained_ and _provided for escaping_ the awful penalties of sin."--_G. B._ (7.) ADVERBS: "The light of Scripture shines _steadily, purely, benignly, certainly, superlatively_."--_Dr. S. H. c.o.x._ (8.) CONJUNCTIONS: "Quietness and silence _both_ become _and_ befriend religious exercises. Clamour _and_ violence often hinder, _but_ never further, the work of G.o.d."--_Henry's Exposition._ (9.) PREPOSITIONS: "He has kept _among us_, in times of peace, standing armies, _without_ the consent of our legislatures."--_Dec. of Indep._ (10.) INTERJECTIONS: "_Oh_, my dear strong-box! _Oh_, my lost guineas! _Oh_, poor, ruined, beggared old man! _Boo! hoo! hoo!_"--MOLIERE: _Burgh's Art of Speaking_, p. 266.

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING.

_Parsing_ is the resolving or explaining of a sentence, or of some related word or words, according to the definitions and rules of grammar. Parsing is to grammar what ciphering is to arithmetic.

A _Praxis_ is a method of exercise, or a form of grammatical resolution, showing the learner how to proceed. The word is Greek, and literally signifies action, doing, practice, or formal use.

PRAXIS I--ETYMOLOGICAL.

_In the first Praxis, it is required of the pupil--merely to distinguish and define the different parts of speech.

The definitions to be given in the First Praxis, are one, and only one, for each word, or part of speech. Thus_:--

EXAMPLE Pa.r.s.eD.

"The patient ox submits to the yoke, and meekly performs the labour required of him."

_The_ is an article. 1.[132] An article is the word _the, an_, or _a_, which we put before nouns to limit their signification.

_Patient_ is an adjective. 1. An adjective is a word added to a noun or p.r.o.noun, and generally expresses quality.

_Ox_ is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned.

_Submits_ is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies _to be, to act_, or _to be acted upon._

_To_ is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a p.r.o.noun.

_The_ is an article. 1. An article is the word _the, an_, or _a_, which we put before nouns to limit their signification.

_Yoke_ is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned.

_And_ is a conjunction. 1. A conjunction is a word used to connect words or sentences in construction, and to show the dependence of the terms so connected.

_Meekly_ is an adverb. 1. An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner.

_Performs_ is a verb. 1. A verb is a word that signifies _to be, to act_, or _to be acted upon._

_The_ is an article. 1. An article is the word _the, an_, or _a_, which we put before nouns to limit their signification.

_Labour_ is a noun. 1. A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing, that can be known or mentioned.

_Required_ is a participle. 1. A participle is a word derived from a verb, partic.i.p.ating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by adding _ing, d_, or _ed_, to the verb.

_Of_ is a preposition. 1. A preposition is a word used to express some relation of different things or thoughts to each other, and is generally placed before a noun or a p.r.o.noun.

_Him_ is a p.r.o.noun. 1. A p.r.o.noun is a word used instead of a noun.

LESSON I.--PARSING.

"A nimble tongue often trips. The rule of the tongue is a great attainment.

The language of truth is direct and plain. Truth is never evasive. Flattery is the food of vanity. A virtuous mind loathes flattery. Vain persons are an easy prey to parasites. Vanity easily mistakes sneers for smiles. The smiles of the world are deceitful. True friendship hath eternal views. A faithful friend is invaluable. Constancy in friendship denotes a generous mind. Adversity is the criterion of friendship. Love and fidelity are inseparable. Few know the value of a friend till they lose him. Justice is the first of all moral virtues. Let justice hold, and mercy turn, the scale. A judge is guilty who connives at guilt. Justice delayed is little better than justice denied. Vice is the deformity of man. Virtue is a source of constant cheerfulness. One vice is more expensive than many virtues. Wisdom, though serious, is never sullen. Youth is the season of improvement."--_Dillwyn's Reflections_, pp. 4-27.

"Oh! my ill-chang'd condition! oh, my fate!

Did I lose heaven for this?"--_Cowley's Davideis._