An English Grammar
An English Grammar
6 BOOK COLLECTIONS
AN ENGLISH GRAMMAR
FOR THE USE OF
HIGH SCHOOL, ACADEMY, AND COLLEGE CLASSES
BY
W.M. BASKERVILL
PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY NASHVILLE, TENN.
AND
J.W. SEWELL
OF THE FOGG HIGH SCHOOL, NASHVILLE, TENN.
1895
PREFACE.
Of making many English grammars there is no end; nor should there be till theoretical scholarship and actual practice are
more happily wedded. In this field much valuable work has already been accomplished; but it has been done largely by
workers accustomed to take the scholar's point of view, and their writings are addressed rather to trained minds than to
immature learners. To find an advanced grammar unencumbered with hard words, abstruse thoughts, and difficult
principles, is not altogether an easy matter. These things enhance the difficulty which an ordinary youth experiences in
grasping and assimilating the facts of grammar, and create a distaste for the study. It is therefore the leading object of
this book to be both as scholarly and as practical as possible. In it there is an attempt to present grammatical facts as
simply, and to lead the student to assimilate them as thoroughly, as possible, and at the same time to do away with
confusing difficulties as far as may be.
To attain these ends it is necessary to keep ever in the foreground the real basis of grammar; that is, good literature.
Abundant quotations from standard authors have been given to show the student that he is dealing with the facts of the
language, and not with the theories of grammarians. It is also suggested that in preparing written exercises the student
use English classics instead of "making up" sentences. But it is not intended that the use of literary masterpieces for
grammatical purposes should supplant or even interfere with their proper use and real value as works of art. It will,
however, doubtless be found helpful to alternate the regular reading and æsthetic study of literature with a grammatical
study, so that, while the mind is being enriched and the artistic sense quickened, there may also be the useful acquisition
of arousing a keen observation of all grammatical forms and usages. Now and then it has been deemed best to omit
explanations, and to withhold personal preferences, in order that the student may, by actual contact with the sources of
grammatical laws, discover for himself the better way in regarding given data. It is not the grammarian's business to
"correct:" it is simply to record and to arrange the usages of language, and to point the way to the arbiters of usage in all
disputed cases. Free expression within the lines of good usage should have widest range.
It has been our aim to make a grammar of as wide a scope as is consistent with the proper definition of the word.
Therefore, in addition to recording and classifying the facts of language, we have endeavored to attain two other objects,
—to cultivate mental skill and power, and to induce the student to prosecute further studies in this field. It is not
supposable that in so delicate and difficult an undertaking there should be an entire freedom from errors and oversights.
We shall gratefully accept any assistance in helping to correct mistakes.
Though endeavoring to get our material as much as possible at first hand, and to make an independent use of it, we
desire to express our obligation to the following books and articles:—
Meiklejohn's "English Language," Longmans' "School Grammar," West's "English Grammar," Bain's "Higher English
Grammar" and "Composition Grammar," Sweet's "Primer of Spoken English" and "New English Grammar," etc.,
Hodgson's "Errors in the Use of English," Morris's "Elementary Lessons in Historical English Grammar," Lounsbury's
"English Language," Champney's "History of English," Emerson's "History of the English Language," Kellner's "Historical
Outlines of English Syntax," Earle's "English Prose," and Matzner's "Englische Grammatik." Allen's "Subjunctive Mood in
English," Battler's articles on "Prepositions" in the "Anglia," and many other valuable papers, have also been helpful and
suggestive.
We desire to express special thanks to Professor W.D. Mooney of Wall & Mooney's Battle-Ground Academy, Franklin,
Tenn., for a critical examination of the first draft of the manuscript, and to Professor Jno. M. Webb of Webb Bros. School,
Bell Buckle, Tenn., and Professor W.R. Garrett of the University of Nashville, for many valuable suggestions and helpful
criticism.
W.M. BASKERVILL.
J.W. SEWELL.
NASHVILLE, TENN., January, 1896.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
PART I. THE PARTS OF SPEECH.
NOUNS.
PRONOUNS.
ADJECTIVES.
ARTICLES.
VERBS AND VERBALS..
Verbs.
Verbals.
How To Parse Verbs And Verbals.
ADVERBS.
CONJUNCTIONS.
PREPOSITIONS..
WORDS THAT NEED WATCHING.
INTERJECTIONS.
PART II.
ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES.
CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO FORM.
CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF STATEMENTS.
Simple Sentences.
Contracted Sentences.
Complex Sentences.
Compound Sentences.
PART III.
SYNTAX
INTRODUCTORY.
NOUNS.
PRONOUNS.
ADJECTIVES.
ARTICLES.
VERBS.
INDIRECT DISCOURSE.
VERBALS.
INFINITIVES.
ADVERBS.
CONJUNCTIONS.
PREPOSITIONS
INDEX
INTRODUCTION.
So many slighting remarks have been made of late on the use of teaching grammar as compared with teaching science,
that it is plain the fact has been lost sight of that grammar is itself a science. The object we have, or should have, in
teaching science, is not to fill a child's mind with a vast number of facts that may or may not prove useful to him hereafter,
but to draw out and exercise his powers of observation, and to show him how to make use of what he observes.... And
here the teacher of grammar has a great advantage over the teacher of other sciences, in that the facts he has to call
attention to lie ready at hand for every pupil to observe without the use of apparatus of any kind while the use of them
also lies within the personal experience of every one.—Dr Richard Morris.
The proper study of a language is an intellectual discipline of the highest order. If I except discussions on the
comparative merits of Popery and Protestantism, English grammar was the most important discipline of my boyhood.—
John Tyndall.
INTRODUCTION.
What various opinions writers on English grammar have given in answer to the question, What is grammar? may be
shown by the following—
English grammar is a description of the usages of the English language by good
speakers and writers of the present day.—Whitney Definitions of grammar.
A description of account of the nature, build, constitution, or make of a language is called its
grammar—Meiklejohn
Grammar teaches the laws of language, and the right method of using it in speaking and writing.—
Patterson
Grammar is the science of letter; hence the science of using words correctly.—Abbott
The English word grammar relates only to the laws which govern the significant forms of words, and
the construction of the sentence.—Richard Grant White
These are sufficient to suggest several distinct notions about English grammar—
(1) It makes rules to tell us how to use words.
Synopsis of the above.
(2) It is a record of usage which we ought to follow.
(3) It is concerned with the forms of the language.
(4) English has no grammar in the sense of forms, or inflections, but takes account merely of the nature and the uses of
words in sentences.
Fierce discussions have raged over these opinions, and numerous works have been written
to uphold the theories. The first of them remained popular for a very long time. It originated The older idea and its origin.
from the etymology of the word grammar (Greek gramma, writing, a letter), and from an effort to build up a treatise on
English grammar by using classical grammar as a model.
Perhaps a combination of (1) and (3) has been still more popular, though there has been vastly more classification than
there are forms.
During recent years, (2) and (4) have been gaining ground, but they have had hard work to
displace the older and more popular theories. It is insisted by many that the student's time The opposite view.
should be used in studying general literature, and thus learning the fluent and correct use of his mother tongue. It is also
insisted that the study and discussion of forms and inflections is an inexcusable imitation of classical treatises.
Which view shall the student of English accept? Before this is answered, we should decide
whether some one of the above theories must be taken as the right one, and the rest The difficulty.
disregarded.
The real reason for the diversity of views is a confusion of two distinct things,—what the definition of grammar should be,
and what the purpose of grammar should be.
The province of English grammar is, rightly considered, wider than is indicated by any one of
the above definitions; and the student ought to have a clear idea of the ground to be covered. The material of grammar.
It must be admitted that the language has very few inflections at present, as compared with
Few inflections.
Latin or Greek; so that a small grammar will hold them all. Few inflections.
It is also evident, to those who have studied the language historically, that it is very
hazardous to make rules in grammar: what is at present regarded as correct may not be so Making rules is risky.
twenty years from now, even if our rules are founded on the keenest scrutiny of the "standard" writers of our time. Usage
is varied as our way of thinking changes. In Chaucer's time two or three negatives were used to strengthen a negation;
as, "Ther nas no man nowher so vertuous" (There never was no man nowhere so virtuous). And Shakespeare used
good English when he said more elder ("Merchant of Venice") and most unkindest ("Julius Cæsar"); but this is bad
English now.
If, however, we have tabulated the inflections of the language, and stated what syntax is the most used in certain
troublesome places, there is still much for the grammarian to do.
Surely our noble language, with its enormous vocabulary, its peculiar and abundant idioms,
its numerous periphrastic forms to express every possible shade of meaning, is worthy of A broader view.
serious study, apart from the mere memorizing of inflections and formulation of rules.
Grammar is eminently a means of mental training; and while it will train the student in subtle
and acute reasoning, it will at the same time, if rightly presented, lay the foundation of a keen Mental training. An æsthetic
benefit.
observation and a correct literary taste. The continued contact with the highest thoughts of
the best minds will create a thirst for the "well of English undefiled."
Coming back, then, from the question, What ground should grammar cover? we come to
answer the question, What should grammar teach? and we give as an answer the definition, What grammar is.
—
English grammar is the science which treats of the nature of words, their forms, and their uses and relations in the
sentence.
This will take in the usual divisions, "The Parts of Speech" (with their inflections), "Analysis,"
and "Syntax." It will also require a discussion of any points that will clear up difficulties, assist The work it will cover.
the classification of kindred expressions, or draw the attention of the student to everyday idioms and phrases, and thus
incite his observation.
A few words here as to the authority upon which grammar rests.
Authority as a basis.
The statements given will be substantiated by quotations from the leading or "standard"
literature of modern times; that is, from the eighteenth century on. This literary English is Literary English.
considered the foundation on which grammar must rest.
Here and there also will be quoted words and phrases from spoken or colloquial English, by
which is meant the free, unstudied expressions of ordinary conversation and communication Spoken English.
among intelligent people.
These quotations will often throw light on obscure constructions, since they preserve turns of expressions that have long
since perished from the literary or standard English.
Occasionally, too, reference will be made to vulgar English,—the speech of the uneducated
and ignorant,—which will serve to illustrate points of syntax once correct, or standard, but Vulgar English.
now undoubtedly bad grammar.
The following pages will cover, then, three divisions:—
Part I. The Parts of Speech, and Inflections.
Part II. Analysis of Sentences.
Part III. The Uses of Words, or Syntax.
PART I.
THE PARTS OF SPEECH.
NOUNS.
In the1.more simple state of the Arabs, the nation is free, because each of her sons disdains a base submission to the
will of a master.—Gibbon.
By examining this sentence we notice several words used as names. The plainest name is
Arabs, which belongs to a people; but, besides this one, the words sons and master name Name words
objects, and may belong to any of those objects. The words state, submission, and will are evidently names of a
different kind, as they stand for ideas, not objects; and the word nation stands for a whole group.
When the meaning of each of these words has once been understood, the word naming it will always call up the thing or
idea itself. Such words are called nouns.
A noun
2. is a name word, representing directly to the mind an object, substance, or idea.
Definition.
Nouns
3. are classified as follows:—
Classes of nouns.
(1) Proper.
(2) Common. (a) CLASS NAMES: i. Individual.
ii. Collective.
(b) MATERIAL.
(3) Abstract. (a) ATTRIBUTE.
(b) VERBAL
A proper
4. noun is a name applied to a particular object, whether person, place, or thing.
Names for special objects.
It specializes or limits the thing to which it is applied, reducing it to a narrow application. Thus,
city is a word applied to any one of its kind; but Chicago names one city, and fixes the attention upon that particular city.
King may be applied to any ruler of a kingdom, but Alfred the Great is the name of one king only.
The word proper is from a Latin word meaning limited, belonging to one. This does not imply, however, that a proper
name can be applied to only one object, but that each time such a name is applied it is fixed or proper to that object.
Even if there are several Bostons or Manchesters, the name of each is an individual or proper name.
A common
5. noun is a name possessed by any one of a class of persons, animals, or things.
Name for any individual of a class.
Common, as here used, is from a Latin word which means general, possessed by all .
For instance, road is a word that names any highway outside of cities; wagon is a term that names any vehicle of a
certain kind used for hauling: the words are of the widest application. We may say, the man here, or the man in front of
you, but the word man is here hedged in by other words or word groups: the name itself is of general application.
Besides considering persons, animals, and things separately, we may think of them in
groups, and appropriate names to the groups. Name for a group or collection of
objects.
Thus, men in groups may be called a crowd, or a mob, a committee, or a council , or a congress, etc.
These are called COLLECTIVE NOUNS. They properly belong under common nouns, because each group is
considered as a unit, and the name applied to it belongs to any group of its class.
The 6.
definition given for common nouns applies more strictly to class nouns. It may, however,
be correctly used for another group of nouns detailed below; for they are common nouns in Names for things thought of in
mass.
the sense that the names apply to every particle of similar substance, instead of to each
individual or separate object.
They are called MATERIAL NOUNS. Such are glass, iron, clay, frost, rain, snow, wheat, wine, tea, sugar, etc.
They may be placed in groups as follows:—
(1) The metals: iron, gold, platinum, etc.
(2) Products spoken of in bulk: tea, sugar, rice, wheat, etc.
(3) Geological bodies: mud, sand, granite, rock, stone, etc.
(4) Natural phenomena: rain, dew, cloud, frost, mist, etc.
(5) Various manufactures: cloth (and the different kinds of cloth), potash, soap, rubber, paint, celluloid, etc.
7. NOTE.—There are some nouns, such as sun, moon, earth, which seem to be the names of particular individual
objects, but which are not called proper names.
The reason is, that in proper names the intention is to exclude all other individuals of the
same class, and fasten a special name to the object considered, as in calling a city Words naturally of limited
application not proper.
Cincinnati ; but in the words sun, earth, etc., there is no such intention. If several bodies like
the center of our solar system are known, they also are called suns by a natural extension of the term: so with the words
earth, world, etc. They remain common class names.
Abstract
8. nouns are names of qualities, conditions, or actions, considered abstractly, or
apart from their natural connection. Names of ideas, not things.
When we speak of a wise man, we recognize in him an attribute or quality. If we wish to think simply of that quality
without describing the person, we speak of the wisdom of the man. The quality is still there as much as before, but it is
taken merely as a name. So poverty would express the condition of a poor person; proof means the act of proving, or
that which shows a thing has been proved; and so on.
Again, we may say, "Painting is a fine art," "Learning is hard to acquire," "a man of understanding."
There
9. are two chief divisions of abstract nouns:—
(1) ATTRIBUTE NOUNS, expressing attributes or qualities.
(2) VERBAL NOUNS, expressing state, condition, or action.
The10.ATTRIBUTE ABSTRACT NOUNS are derived from adjectives and from common nouns.
Thus, (1) prudence from prudent, height from high, redness from red, stupidity from stupid, Attribute abstract nouns.
etc.; (2) peerage from peer, childhood from child, mastery from master, kingship from king, etc.
II. The VERBAL ABSTRACT NOUNS Originate in verbs, as their name implies. They may be
— Verbal abstract nouns.
(1) Of the same form as the simple verb. The verb, by altering its function, is used as a noun; as in the expressions, "a
long run" "a bold move," "a brisk walk."
(2) Derived from verbs by changing the ending or adding a suffix: motion from move, speech from speak, theft from
thieve, action from act, service from serve.
(3) Derived from verbs by adding -ing to the simple verb. It must be remembered that these
words are free from any verbal function. They cannot govern a word, and they cannot Caution.
express action, but are merely names of actions. They are only the husks of verbs, and are to be rigidly distinguished
from gerunds (Secs. 272, 273).
To avoid difficulty, study carefully these examples:
The best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks; the moon caused fearful forebodings; in the beginning of his life; he
spread his blessings over the land; the great Puritan awakening; our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; a wedding or a
festival; the rude drawings of the book; masterpieces of the Socratic reasoning; the teachings of the High Spirit; those
opinions and feelings; there is time for such reasonings; the well-being of her subjects; her longing for their favor;
feelings which their original meaning will by no means justify; the main bearings of this matter.
Some12. abstract nouns were not derived from any other part of speech, but were framed
directly for the expression of certain ideas or phenomena. Such are beauty, joy, hope, ease, Underived abstract nouns.
energy; day, night, summer, winter; shadow, lightning, thunder, etc.
The adjectives or verbs corresponding to these are either themselves derived from the nouns or are totally different
words; as glad—joy, hopeful —hope, etc.
Exercises.
1. From your reading bring up sentences containing ten common nouns, five proper, five abstract.
NOTE.—Remember that all sentences are to be selected from standard literature.
2. Under what class of nouns would you place (a) the names of diseases, as pneumonia, pleurisy, catarrh, typhus,
diphtheria; (b) branches of knowledge, as physics, algebra, geology, mathematics?
3. Mention collective nouns that will embrace groups of each of the following individual nouns:—
man
horse
bird
fish
partridge
pupil
bee
soldier
book
sailor
child
sheep
ship
ruffian
4. Using a dictionary, tell from what word each of these abstract nouns is derived:—
sight
speech
motion
pleasure
patience
friendship
deceit
bravery
height
width
wisdom
regularity
advice
seizure
nobility
relief
death
raid
honesty
judgment
belief
occupation
justice
service
trail
feeling
choice
simplicity
SPECIAL USES OF NOUNS.
By 13.
being used so as to vary their usual meaning, nouns of one class may be made to
approach another class, or to go over to it entirely. Since words alter their meaning so rapidly Nouns change by use.
by a widening or narrowing of their application, we shall find numerous examples of this shifting from class to class; but
most of them are in the following groups. For further discussion see the remarks on articles (p. 119).
Proper
14. nouns are used as common in either of two ways:—
Proper names transferred to
(1) The origin of a thing is used for the thing itself: that is, the name of the inventor may be common use.
applied to the thing invented, as a davy, meaning the miner's lamp invented by Sir Humphry Davy; the guillotine, from
the name of Dr. Guillotin, who was its inventor. Or the name of the country or city from which an article is derived is used
for the article: as china, from China; arras, from a town in France; port (wine), from Oporto, in Portugal; levant and
morocco (leather).
Some of this class have become worn by use so that at present we can scarcely discover the derivation from the form of
the word; for example, the word port, above. Others of similar character are calico, from Calicut; damask, from
Damascus; currants, from Corinth; etc.
(2) The name of a person or place noted for certain qualities is transferred to any person or place possessing those
qualities; thus,—
Hercules and Samson were noted for their strength, and we call a very strong man a Hercules or a
Samson. Sodom was famous for wickedness, and a similar place is called a Sodom of sin.
A Daniel come to judgment!—Shakespeare.
If it prove a mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a
Fourier, it imposes its classification on other men, and lo! a new system.—Emerson.
Material
15. nouns may be used as class names. Instead of considering the whole body of
material of which certain uses are made, one can speak of particular uses or phases of the Names for things in bulk altered for
separate portions.
substance; as—
(1) Of individual objects made from metals or other substances capable of being wrought into various shapes. We know
a number of objects made of iron. The material iron embraces the metal contained in them all; but we may say, "The
cook made the irons hot," referring to flat-irons; or, "The sailor was put in irons" meaning chains of iron. So also we may
speak of a glass to drink from or to look into; a steel to whet a knife on; a rubber for erasing marks; and so on.
(2) Of classes or kinds of the same substance. These are the same in material, but differ in strength, purity, etc. Hence it
shortens speech to make the nouns plural, and say teas, tobaccos, paints, oils, candies, clays, coals.
(3) By poetical use, of certain words necessarily singular in idea, which are made plural, or used as class nouns, as in
the following:—
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
From all around—
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air—
Comes a still voice.
—Bryant.
Their airy ears
The winds have stationed on the mountain peaks.
—Percival.
(4) Of detached portions of matter used as class names; as stones, slates, papers, tins, clouds, mists, etc.
Abstract
16. nouns are frequently used as proper names by being personified; that is, the
ideas are spoken of as residing in living beings. This is a poetic usage, though not confined Personification of abstract ideas.
to verse.
Next Anger rushed; his eyes, on fire,
In lightnings owned his secret stings.
—Collins.
Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.—Byron.
Death, his mask melting like a nightmare dream, smiled.—Hayne.
Traffic has lain down to rest; and only Vice and Misery, to prowl or to moan like night birds, are
abroad.—Carlyle.
Abstract
17. nouns are made half abstract by being spoken of in the plural.
A halfway class of words. Class
They are not then pure abstract nouns, nor are they common class nouns. For example, nouns in use, abstract in meaning.
examine this:—
The arts differ from the sciences in this, that their power is founded not merely on facts which can be
communicated, but on dispositions which require to be created.—Ruskin.
When it is said that art differs from science, that the power of art is founded on fact, that disposition is the thing to be
created, the words italicized are pure abstract nouns; but in case an art or a science, or the arts and sciences, be
spoken of, the abstract idea is partly lost. The words preceded by the article a, or made plural, are still names of abstract
ideas, not material things; but they widen the application to separate kinds of art or different branches of science. They
are neither class nouns nor pure abstract nouns: they are more properly called half abstract.
Test this in the following sentences:—
Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so.—Emerson.
And still, as each repeated pleasure tired, Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired.—Goldsmith.
But ah! those pleasures, loves, and joys
Which I too keenly taste,
The Solitary can despise.
—Burns.
All these, however, were mere terrors of the night.—Irving.
Nouns
18. used as descriptive terms. Sometimes a noun is attached to another noun to add
to its meaning, or describe it; for example, "a family quarrel," "a New York bank," "the State By ellipses, nouns used to modify.
Bank Tax bill," "a morning walk."
It is evident that these approach very near to the function of adjectives. But it is better to consider them as nouns, for
these reasons: they do not give up their identity as nouns; they do not express quality; they cannot be compared, as
descriptive adjectives are.
They are more like the possessive noun, which belongs to another word, but is still a noun. They may be regarded as
elliptical expressions, meaning a walk in the morning, a bank in New York, a bill as to tax on the banks, etc.
NOTE.—If the descriptive word be a material noun, it may be regarded as changed to an adjective. The term "gold pen"
conveys the same idea as "golden pen," which contains a pure adjective.
WORDS AND WORD GROUPS USED AS NOUNS.
Owing
19. to the scarcity of distinctive forms, and to the consequent flexibility of English speech,
words which are usually other parts of speech are often used as nouns; and various word The noun may borrow from any
part of speech, or from any
groups may take the place of nouns by being used as nouns. expression.
Pick out the nouns in the following sentences, and tell to which class each belongs. Notice if any have shifted from one
class to another.
1. Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
2. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate.
3.
Stone walls do not a prison make.
Nor iron bars a cage.
4. Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named.
5. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.
6.
Power laid his rod aside,
And Ceremony doff'd her pride.
7. She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies.
8. Learning, that cobweb of the brain.
9.
A little weeping would ease my heart;
But in their briny bed
My tears must stop, for every drop
Hinders needle and thread.
10. A fool speaks all his mind, but a wise man reserves something for hereafter.
11. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
12. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
13.
And see, he cried, the welcome,
Fair guests, that waits you here.
14. The fleet, shattered and disabled, returned to Spain.
15. One To-day is worth two To-morrows.
16. Vessels carrying coal are constantly moving.
17.
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.
18. And oft we trod a waste of pearly sands.
19.
A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays
And confident to-morrows.
20. The hours glide by; the silver moon is gone.
21. Her robes of silk and velvet came from over the sea.
22. My soldier cousin was once only a drummer boy.
23.
But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.
24. All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy To-day.
INFLECTIONS OF NOUNS.
GENDER.
In Latin,
21. Greek, German, and many other languages, some general rules are given that
names of male beings are usually masculine, and names of females are usually feminine. What gender means in English. It
is founded on sex.
There are exceptions even to this general statement, but not so in English. Male beings are,
in English grammar, always masculine; female, always feminine.
When, however, inanimate things are spoken of, these languages are totally unlike our own in determining the gender of
words. For instance: in Latin, hortus (garden) is masculine, mensa (table) is feminine, corpus (body) is neuter; in
German, das Messer (knife) is neuter, der Tisch (table) is masculine, die Gabel (fork) is feminine.
The great difference is, that in English the gender follows the meaning of the word, in other languages gender follows
the form; that is, in English, gender depends on sex: if a thing spoken of is of the male sex, the name of it is masculine; if
of the female sex, the name of it is feminine. Hence:
Gender
22. is the mode of distinguishing sex by words, or additions to words.
Definition.
It is23.
evident from this that English can have but two genders,—masculine and feminine.
All nouns, then, must be divided into two principal classes,—gender nouns, those
distinguishing the sex of the object; and neuter nouns, those which do not distinguish sex, Gender nouns. Neuter nouns.
or names of things without life, and consequently without sex.
Gender nouns include names of persons and some names of animals; neuter nouns include some animals and all
inanimate objects.
Some
24.words may be either gender nouns or neuter nouns, according to their use. Thus, the
word child is neuter in the sentence, "A little child shall lead them," but is masculine in the Some words either gender or
neuter nouns, according to use.
sentence from Wordsworth,—
I have seen
A curious child ... applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell.
Of animals, those with which man comes in contact often, or which arouse his interest most, are named by gender
nouns, as in these sentences:—
Before the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of a husband, ... clapping his burnished
wings.—Irving.
Gunpowder ... came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent his rider
sprawling over his head—Id.
Other animals are not distinguished as to sex, but are spoken of as neuter, the sex being of no consequence.
Not a turkey but he [Ichabod] beheld daintily trussed up, with its gizzard under its wing.—Irving.
He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it.—Lamb.
According
25. to the definition, there can be no such thing as "common gender:" words either
distinguish sex (or the sex is distinguished by the context) or else they do not distinguish sex. No "common gender."
If such words as parent, servant, teacher, ruler, relative, cousin, domestic, etc., do not show the sex to which the
persons belong, they are neuter words.
Put26.
in convenient form, the division of words according to sex, or the lack of it, is,—
(MASCULINE: Male beings.
Gender nouns {
(FEMININE: Female beings.
Neuter nouns: Names of inanimate things, or of living beings whose sex cannot be determined.
inflections for gender belong, of course, only to masculine and feminine nouns. Forms would be a more accurate
The27.
word than inflections, since inflection applies only to the case of nouns.
There are three ways to distinguish the genders:—
(1) By prefixing a gender word to another word.
(2) By adding a suffix, generally to a masculine word.
(3) By using a different word for each gender.
One feminine, woman, puts a prefix before the masculine man. Woman is a short way of writing wifeman.
The word vixen was once used as the feminine of fox by the Southern-English. For fox they said vox; for from they said
vram; and for the older word fat they said vat, as in wine vat. Hence vixen is for fyxen, from the masculine fox.
Spinster is a relic of a large class of words that existed in Old and Middle English,[1] but have now lost their original force
as feminines. The old masculine answering to spinster was spinner; but spinster has now no connection with it.
The foreign suffixes are of two kinds:—
(1) Those belonging to borrowed words, as czarina, señorita, executrix, donna. These are
attached to foreign words, and are never used for words recognized as English. Foreign suffixes. Unaltered and
little used.
(2) That regarded as the standard or regular termination of the feminine, -ess (French esse,
Low Latin issa), the one most used. The corresponding masculine may have the ending -er (- Slightly changed and widely used.
or), but in most cases it has not. Whenever we adopt a new masculine word, the feminine is formed by adding this
termination -ess.
Sometimes the -ess has been added to a word already feminine by the ending -ster; as seam-str-ess, song-str-ess. The
ending -ster had then lost its force as a feminine suffix; it has none now in the words huckster, gamester, trickster,
punster.
ending -ess is added to many words without changing the ending of the masculine; as,—
The30.
Ending of masculine not changed.
baron—baroness
count—countess
lion—lioness
Jew—Jewess
heir—heiress
host—hostess
priest—priestess
giant—giantess
The masculine ending may be dropped before the feminine -ess is added; as,—
Masculine ending dropped.
abbot—abbess
negro—negress
murderer—murderess
sorcerer—sorceress
The feminine may discard a vowel which appears in the masculine; as in—
Vowel dropped before adding -
ess.
actor—actress
master—mistress
benefactor—benefactress
emperor—empress
tiger—tigress
enchanter—enchantress
Empress has been cut down from emperice (twelfth century) and emperesse (thirteenth century), from Latin
imperatricem.
Master and mistress were in Middle English maister—maistresse, from the Old French maistre—maistresse.
31. the older -en and -ster went out of use as the distinctive mark of the feminine, the ending -ess, from the French -
When
esse, sprang into a popularity much greater than at present.
Instead of saying doctress, fosteress, wagoness, as was said in the sixteenth century, or
servauntesse, teacheresse, neighboresse, frendesse, as in the fourteenth century, we have Ending -ess less used now than
formerly.
dispensed with the ending in many cases, and either use a prefix word or leave the masculine
to do work for the feminine also.
Thus, we say doctor (masculine and feminine) or woman doctor, teacher or lady teacher, neighbor (masculine and
feminine), etc. We frequently use such words as author, editor, chairman, to represent persons of either sex.
NOTE.—There is perhaps this distinction observed: when we speak of a female as an active agent merely, we use the
masculine termination, as, "George Eliot is the author of 'Adam Bede;'" but when we speak purposely to denote a
distinction from a male, we use the feminine, as, "George Eliot is an eminent authoress."
Bridegroom, from Old English brȳd-guma (bride's man). The r in groom has crept in from confusion with the word
groom.
Widower, from the weakening of the ending -a in Old English to -e in Middle English. The older forms,
widuwa—widuwe, became identical, and a new masculine ending was therefore added to distinguish the masculine from
the feminine (compare Middle English widuer—widewe).
Personification.
Just34.
as abstract ideas are personified (Sec. 16), material objects may be spoken of like gender nouns; for example,—
"Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way."
—Byron.
The Sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came he.
—Coleridge.
And haply the Queen Moon is on her throne,
Clustered around by all her starry Fays.
—Keats.
Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;
Her march is o'er the mountain waves,
Her home is on the deep.
—Campbell.
This is not exclusively a poetic use. In ordinary speech personification is very frequent: the pilot speaks of his boat as
feminine; the engineer speaks so of his engine; etc.
In such cases the gender is marked by the pronoun, and not by the form of the noun. But the
fact that in English the distinction of gender is confined to difference of sex makes these Effect of personification.
departures more effective.
NUMBER.
In nouns,
35. number means the mode of indicating whether we are speaking of one thing or of
more than one. Definition.
language has two numbers,—singular and plural . The singular number denotes that one thing is spoken of; the
Our36.
plural, more than one.
There
37. are three ways of changing the singular form to the plural:—
(1) By adding -en.
(2) By changing the root vowel.
(3) By adding -s (or -es).
The first two methods prevailed, together with the third, in Old English, but in modern English -s or -es has come to be
the "standard" ending; that is, whenever we adopt a new word, we make its plural by adding -s or -es.
-Es is also added to a few words ending in -o, though this sound combines readily with -s, and does not make an extra
syllable: cargo—cargoes, negro—negroes, hero—heroes, volcano—volcanoes, etc.
Usage differs somewhat in other words of this class, some adding -s, and some -es.
(2) If a word ends in -y preceded by a consonant (the y being then changed to i ); e.g., fancies, allies, daisies, fairies.
Formerly, however, these words ended in -ie, and the real ending is therefore -s. Notice
these from Chaucer (fourteenth century):— Words in -ies.
Special Lists.
Material
43. nouns and abstract nouns are always singular. When such words take a plural ending, they lose their identity,
and go over to other classes (Secs. 15 and 17).
Proper
44. nouns are regularly singular, but may be made plural when we wish to speak of several persons or things
bearing the same name; e.g., the Washingtons, the Americas.
45. words are usually singular, though they are plural in form. Examples of these are, optics, economics, physics,
Some
mathematics, politics, and many branches of learning; also news, pains (care), molasses, summons, means: as,—
Politics, in its widest extent, is both the science and the art of government.—Century Dictionary.
So live, that when thy summons comes, etc.—Bryant.
It served simply as a means of sight.—Prof. Dana.
Two words, means and politics, may be plural in their construction with verbs and
adjectives:— Means plural.
Words, by strongly conveying the passions, by those means which we have already mentioned, fully
compensate for their weakness in other respects.—Burke.
With great dexterity these means were now applied.—Motley.
By these means, I say, riches will accumulate.—Goldsmith.
Cultivating a feeling that politics are tiresome.—G. W. Curtis.
Politics plural.
The politics in which he took the keenest interest were politics scarcely deserving of
the name.—Macaulay.
Now I read all the politics that come out.—Goldsmith.
Some
46.words have no corresponding singular.
aborigines
amends
annals
assets
antipodes
scissors
thanks
spectacles
vespers
victuals
matins
nuptials
oats
obsequies
premises
bellows
billiards
dregs
gallows
tongs
Sometimes, however, a few of these words have the construction of singular nouns. Notice
the following:— Occasionally singular words.
They cannot get on without each other any more than one blade of a scissors can cut without the
other.—J. L. Laughlin.
A relic which, if I recollect right, he pronounced to have been a tongs.—Irving.
Besides this, it is furnished with a forceps.—Goldsmith.
The air,—was it subdued when...the wind was trained only to turn a windmill, carry off chaff, or work in
a bellows?—Prof. Dana.
In Early Modern English thank is found.
What thank have ye?—Bible
47. words were originally singular, the present ending -s not being really a plural inflection, but they are regularly
Three
construed as plural: alms, eaves, riches.
A few
48.nouns have two plurals differing in meaning.
two plurals.
brother—brothers (by blood), brethren (of a society or church).
cloth—cloths (kinds of cloth), clothes (garments).
die—dies (stamps for coins, etc.), dice (for gaming).
fish—fish (collectively), fishes (individuals or kinds).
genius—geniuses (men of genius), genii (spirits).
index—indexes (to books), indices (signs in algebra).
pea—peas (separately), pease (collectively).
penny—pennies (separately), pence (collectively).
shot—shot (collective balls), shots (number of times fired).
In speaking of coins, twopence, sixpence, etc., may add -s, making a double plural, as two sixpences.
Other
49. words have one plural form with two meanings,—one corresponding to the
singular, the other unlike it. One plural, two meanings.
Exercise.
CASE.
Case
55.is an inflection or use of a noun (or pronoun) to show its relation to other words in the
sentence. Definition.
In the sentence, "He sleeps in a felon's cell," the word felon's modifies cell , and expresses a relation akin to possession;
cell has another relation, helping to express the idea of place with the word in.
In the
56.general wearing-away of inflections, the number of case forms has been greatly reduced.
There are now only two case forms of English nouns,—one for the nominative and objective,
one for the possessive: consequently the matter of inflection is a very easy thing to handle in Only two case forms.
learning about cases.
But there are reasons why grammars treat of three cases of nouns when there are only two
forms:— Reasons for speaking of three
cases of nouns.
(1) Because the relations of all words, whether inflected or not, must be understood for purposes of analysis.
(2) Because pronouns still have three case forms as well as three case relations.
Nouns,
57. then, may be said to have three cases,—the nominative, the objective, and the possessive.
Exercise.
Pick out the nouns in the nominative case, and tell which use of the nominative each one has.
1. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead; excessive grief, the enemy of the living.
2.
Excuses are clothes which, when asked unawares,
Good Breeding to naked Necessity spares.
3. Human experience is the great test of truth.
4. Cheerfulness and content are great beautifiers.
5. Three properties belong to wisdom,—nature, learning, and experience; three things characterize man,—person,
fate, and merit.
6.
But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save, save, oh save me from the candid friend!
7. Conscience, her first law broken, wounded lies.
8. They charged, sword in hand and visor down.
9.
O sleep! O gentle sleep!
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee?
Point out the nouns in the objective case in these sentences, and tell which use each has:—
1. Tender men sometimes have strong wills.
2. Necessity is the certain connection between cause and effect.
3. Set a high price on your leisure moments; they are sands of precious gold.
4. But the flood came howling one day.
5. I found the urchin Cupid sleeping.
6. Five times every year he was to be exposed in the pillory.
7. The noblest mind the best contentment has.
8. Multitudes came every summer to visit that famous natural curiosity, the Great Stone Face.
9.
And whirling plate, and forfeits paid,
His winter task a pastime made.
10.
He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,
And gave the leper to eat and drink.
Case Inflection.
The63.
full declension of nouns is as follows:—
Declension or inflection of nouns.
SINGULAR. PLURAL.
1. Nom. and Obj. lady ladies
Poss. lady's ladies'
2. Nom. and Obj. child children
Poss. child's children's
NOTE.—The difficulty that some students have in writing the possessive plural would be A suggestion.
lessened if they would remember there are two steps to be taken:—
(1) Form the nominative plural according to Secs 39-53
(2) Follow the rule given in Sec. 62.
Here at the fruiterer's the Madonna has a tabernacle of fresh laurel leaves.—Ruskin.
It is very common for people to say that they are disappointed in the first sight of St. Peter's.—Lowell.
I remember him in his cradle at St. James's.—Thackeray.
Kate saw that; and she walked off from the don's.—De Quincey.
A peculiar
68. form, a double possessive, has grown up and become a fixed idiom in modern
English. The double possessive.
In most cases, a possessive relation was expressed in Old English by the inflection -es, corresponding to 's. The same
relation was expressed in French by a phrase corresponding to of and its object. Both of these are now used side by
side; sometimes they are used together, as one modifier, making a double possessive. For this there are several
reasons:—
(1) When a word is modified by a, the, this, that, every, no, any, each, etc., and at the same
time by a possessive noun, it is distasteful to place the possessive before the modified noun, Its advantages: Euphony.
and it would also alter the meaning: we place it after the modified noun with of.
(2) It is more emphatic than the simple possessive, especially when used with this or that, for
it brings out the modified word in strong relief. Emphasis.
(3) It prevents ambiguity. For example, in such a sentence as, "This introduction of Atterbury's
has all these advantages" (Dr. Blair), the statement clearly means only one thing,—the Clearness.
introduction which Atterbury made. If, however, we use the phrase of Atterbury, the sentence might be understood as
just explained, or it might mean this act of introducing Atterbury. (See also Sec. 87.)
The following are some instances of double possessives:—
This Hall of Tinville's is dark, ill-lighted except where she stands.—Carlyle.
Those lectures of Lowell's had a great influence with me, and I used to like whatever they bade me
like.—Howells
Niebuhr remarks that no pointed sentences of Cæsar's can have come down to us.—Froude.
Besides these famous books of Scott's and Johnson's, there is a copious "Life" by Thomas
Sheridan.—Thackeray
Always afterwards on occasions of ceremony, he wore that quaint old French sword of the
Commodore's.—E. E. Hale.
Exercises.
(a) Pick out the possessive nouns, and tell whether each is appositional, objective, or subjective.
(b) Rewrite the sentence, turning the possessives into equivalent phrases.
1. I don't choose a hornet's nest about my ears.
2. Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?
3. I must not see thee Osman's bride.
4.
At lovers' perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs.
5. The world has all its eyes on Cato's son.
6. My quarrel and the English queen's are one.
7.
Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger,
Comes dancing from the East.
8. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore, let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.
9.
'Tis all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow.
10.
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it.
11. No more the juice of Egypt's grape shall moist his lip.
12.
There Shakespeare's self, with every garland crowned,
Flew to those fairy climes his fancy sheen.
13.
What supports me? dost thou ask?
The conscience, Friend, to have lost them [his eyes] overplied
In liberty's defence.
14.
Or where Campania's plain forsaken lies,
A weary waste expanding to the skies.
15.
Nature herself, it seemed, would raise
A minster to her Maker's praise!
Exercise.
Follow the model above in parsing all the nouns in the following sentences:—
1. To raise a monument to departed worth is to perpetuate virtue.
2. The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.
3. An old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered serving man, a fresh tapster.
4.
That in the captain's but a choleric word,
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
5. Now, blessings light on him that first invented ... sleep!
6. Necker, financial minister to Louis XVI., and his daughter, Madame de Staël, were natives of Geneva.
7. He giveth his beloved sleep.
8. Time makes the worst enemies friends.
9. A few miles from this point, where the Rhone enters the lake, stands the famous Castle of Chillon, connected with
the shore by a drawbridge,—palace, castle, and prison, all in one.
10.
Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth,
And hated her for her pride.
11. Mrs. Jarley's back being towards him, the military gentleman shook his forefinger.
PRONOUNS.
When 72. we wish to speak of a name several times in succession, it is clumsy and tiresome to
repeat the noun. For instance, instead of saying, "The pupil will succeed in the pupil's efforts The need of pronouns.
if the pupil is ambitious," we improve the sentence by shortening it thus, "The pupil will succeed in his efforts if he is
ambitious."
Again, if we wish to know about the ownership of a house, we evidently cannot state the owner's name, but by a question
we say, "Whose house is that?" thus placing a word instead of the name till we learn the name.
This is not to be understood as implying that pronouns were invented because nouns were tiresome, since history shows
that pronouns are as old as nouns and verbs. The use of pronouns must have sprung up naturally, from a necessity for
short, definite, and representative words.
A pronoun is a reference word, standing for a name, or for a person or thing, or for a group
of persons or things. Definition.
Pronouns
73. may be grouped in five classes:—
Classes of pronouns.
(1) Personal pronouns, which distinguish person by their form (Sec. 76).
(2) Interrogative pronouns, which are used to ask questions about persons or things.
(3) Relative pronouns, which relate or refer to a noun, pronoun, or other word or expression, and at the same time
connect two statements They are also called conjunctive.
(4) Adjective pronouns, words, primarily adjectives, which are classed as adjectives when they modify nouns, but as
pronouns when they stand for nouns.
(5) Indefinite pronouns, which cannot be used as adjectives, but stand for an indefinite number of persons or things.
Numerous examples of all these will be given under the separate classes hereafter treated.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS..
Since
74.pronouns stand for persons as well as names, they must represent the person talking,
the person or thing spoken to, and the person or thing talked about. Person in grammar.
In Old English these three were formed from the same root; namely, masculine hē, feminine
hēo, neuter hit. Old forms.
The form hit (for it) is still heard in vulgar English, and hoo (for hēo) in some dialects of England.
The plurals were hī , heora, heom, in Old English; the forms they, their, them, perhaps being from the English
demonstrative, though influenced by the cognate Norse forms.
Thou , thee, etc., are old forms which are now out of use in ordinary speech. The
79.
consequence is, that we have no singular pronoun of the second person in ordinary speech Second person always plural in
ordinary English.
or prose, but make the plural you do duty for the singular. We use it with a plural verb always,
even when referring to a single object.
80. are, however, two modern uses of thou, thy, etc.:—
There
Two uses of the old singulars.
(1) In elevated style, especially in poetry; as,—
With thy clear keen joyance
Languor cannot be;
Shadow of annoyance
Never came near thee;
Thou lovest; but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.
—Shelley.
(2) In addressing the Deity, as in prayers, etc.; for example,—
Oh, thou Shepherd of Israel, that didst comfort thy people of old, to thy care we commit the helpless.—
Beecher.
worth while to consider the possessive its. This is of comparatively recent growth. The
It is81.
old form was his (from the nominative hit), and this continued in use till the sixteenth century. The form its.
The transition from the old his to the modern its is shown in these sentences:—
1 He anointed the altar and all his vessels.—Bible
Here his refers to altar, which is a neuter noun. The quotation represents the usage of the early sixteenth century.
2 It's had it head bit off by it young—Shakespeare
Shakespeare uses his, it, and sometimes its, as possessive of it.
In Milton's poetry (seventeenth century) its occurs only three times.
3 See heaven its sparkling portals wide display—Pope
We82.
have an interesting relic in such sentences as this from Thackeray: "One of the ways to
know 'em is to watch the scared looks of the ogres' wives and children." A relic of the olden time.
As shown above, the Old English objective was hem (or heom), which was often sounded with the h silent, just as we
now say, "I saw 'im yesterday" when the word him is not emphatic. In spoken English, this form 'em has survived side by
side with the literary them.
pronouns he and she are often used in poetry, and sometimes in ordinary speech, to
The83.
personify objects (Sec. 34). Use of the pronouns in
personification.
Besides this, we have, as in nouns, a possessive phrase made up of the preposition of with these double possessives,
hers, ours, yours, theirs, and with mine, thine, his, sometimes its.
Like the noun possessives, they have several uses:—
Their uses.
(1) To prevent ambiguity, as in the following:—
I have often contrasted the habitual qualities of that gloomy friend of theirs with the astounding spirits
of Thackeray and Dickens.—J. T. Fields.
No words of ours can describe the fury of the conflict.—J. F. Cooper.
(2) To bring emphasis, as in these sentences:—
This thing of yours that you call a Pardon of Sins, it is a bit of rag-paper with ink.—Carlyle.
This ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times. —Holmes.
(3) To express contempt, anger, or satire; for example,—
"Do you know the charges that unhappy sister of mine and her family have put me to already?" says
the Master.—Thackeray.
He [John Knox] had his pipe of Bordeaux too, we find, in that old Edinburgh house of his.—Carlyle.
"Hold thy peace, Long Allen," said Henry Woodstall, "I tell thee that tongue of thine is not the shortest
limb about thee."—Scott.
(4) To make a noun less limited in application; thus,—
A favorite liar and servant of mine was a man I once had to drive a brougham.—Thackeray.
In New York I read a newspaper criticism one day, commenting upon a letter of mine.—Id.
What would the last two sentences mean if the word my were written instead of of mine, and preceded the nouns?
In their
88. function, or use in a sentence, the absolute possessive forms of the personal
pronouns are very much like adjectives used as nouns. About the case of absolute
pronouns.
In such sentences as, "The good alone are great," "None but the brave deserves the fair," the words italicized have an
adjective force and also a noun force, as shown in Sec. 20.
So in the sentences illustrating absolute pronouns in Sec. 86: mine stands for my property, his for his property, in the
first sentence; mine stands for my praise in the second. But the first two have a nominative use, and mine in the second
has an objective use.
They may be spoken of as possessive in form, but nominative or objective in use, according as the modified word is in
the nominative or the objective.
Your mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, was passed by with indulgence.—
Irving
To empty here, you must condense there.—Emerson.
The peasants take off their hats as you pass; you sneeze, and they cry, "God bless you!" The thrifty
housewife shows you into her best chamber. You have oaten cakes baked some months before.—
Longfellow
pronoun it has a number of uses:—
The92.
Uses of it.
(1) To refer to some single word preceding; as,—
Ferdinand ordered the army to recommence its march.—Bulwer.
Society, in this century, has not made its progress, like Chinese skill, by a greater acuteness of
ingenuity in trifles.—D. Webster.
(2) To refer to a preceding word group; thus,—
If any man should do wrong merely out of ill nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or brier, which prick
and scratch because they can do no other.—Bacon.
Here it refers back to the whole sentence before it, or to the idea, "any man's doing wrong merely out of ill nature."
(3) As a grammatical subject, to stand for the real, logical subject, which follows the verb; as in the sentences,—
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion. —Emerson.
It is this haziness of intellectual vision which is the malady of all classes of men by nature.—Newman.
It is a pity that he has so much learning, or that he has not a great deal more.—Addison.
(4) As an impersonal subject in certain expressions which need no other subject; as,—
It is finger-cold, and prudent farmers get in their barreled apples.—Thoreau.
And when I awoke, it rained.—Coleridge.
For when it dawned, they dropped their arms.—Id.
It was late and after midnight.—De Quincey.
(5) As an impersonal or indefinite object of a verb or a preposition; as in the following sentences:—
(a) Michael Paw, who lorded it over the fair regions of ancient Pavonia.—Irving.
I made up my mind to foot it.—Hawthorne.
A sturdy lad ... who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles it, keeps a
school.—Emerson.
(b) "Thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it."—Irving.
There was nothing for it but to return.—Scott.
An editor has only to say "respectfully declined," and there is an end of it.—Holmes.
Poor Christian was hard put to it.—Bunyan.
personal pronouns in the objective case are often used reflexively; that is, referring to
The93.
the same person as the subject of the accompanying verb. For example, we use such Reflexive use of the personal
pronouns.
expressions as, "I found me a good book," "He bought him a horse," etc. This reflexive use of
the dative-objective is very common in spoken and in literary English.
The personal pronouns are not often used reflexively, however, when they are direct objects. This occurs in poetry, but
seldom in prose; as,—
Now I lay me down to sleep.—Anon.
I set me down and sigh.—Burns.
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep.
—Bryant.
(a) Bring up sentences containing ten personal pronouns, some each of masculine, feminine, and neuter.
(b) Bring up sentences containing five personal pronouns in the possessive, some of them being double possessives.
(c) Tell which use each it has in the following sentences:—
1.
Come and trip it as we go,
On the light fantastic toe.
2. Infancy conforms to nobody; all conform to it.
3. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.
4. Courage, father, fight it out.
5. And it grew wondrous cold.
6. To know what is best to do, and how to do it, is wisdom.
7. If any phenomenon remains brute and dark, it is because the corresponding faculty in the observer is not yet
active.
8. But if a man do not speak from within the veil, where the word is one with that it tells of, let him lowly confess it.
9. It behooved him to keep on good terms with his pupils.
10. Biscuit is about the best thing I know; but it is the soonest spoiled; and one would like to hear counsel on one
point, why it is that a touch of water utterly ruins it.
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS.
interrogative pronouns now in use are who (with the forms whose and whom) , which,
The97.
and what. Three now in use.
There is an old word, whether, used formerly to mean which of two, but now obsolete.
Examples from the Bible:— One obsolete.
In spoken English, who is used as objective instead of whom; as, "Who did you see?" "Who did he speak to?"
The interrogative who has a separate form for each case, consequently the case can be told
102.
by the form of the word; but the case of which and what must be determined exactly as in To tell the case of interrogatives.
nouns,—by the use of the words.
For instance, in Sec. 99, which is nominative in the first sentence, since it is subject of the verb had; nominative in the
second also, subject of doth love; objective in the last, being the direct object of the verb shall take.
Who , which, and what are also relative pronouns; which and what are sometimes adjectives;
103.
what may be an adverb in some expressions. Further treatment of who, which
and what.
They will be spoken of again in the proper places, especially in the treatment of indirect questions (Sec. 127).
RELATIVE PRONOUNS.
Relative
104. pronouns differ from both personal and interrogative pronouns in referring to an
antecedent, and also in having a conjunctive use. The advantage in using them is to unite Function of the relative pronoun.
short statements into longer sentences, and so to make smoother discourse. Thus we may say, "The last of all the Bards
was he. These bards sang of Border chivalry." Or, it may be shortened into,—
"The last of all the Bards was he,
Who sung of Border chivalry."
In the latter sentence, who evidently refers to Bards, which is called the antecedent of the relative.
The
105.
antecedent of a pronoun is the noun, pronoun, or other word or expression, for which
the pronoun stands. It usually precedes the pronoun. The antecedent.
Personal pronouns of the third person may have antecedents also, as they take the place usually of a word already
used; as,—
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us.—Lowell
In this, both his and who have the antecedent priest.
The pronoun which may have its antecedent following, and the antecedent may be a word or a group of words, as will be
shown in the remarks on which below.
Relatives
106. may be SIMPLE or INDEFINITE.
Two kinds.
When the word relative is used, a simple relative is meant. Indefinite relatives, and the
indefinite use of simple relatives, will be discussed further on.
The SIMPLE RELATIVES are who, which, that, what.
107. of the relative who and its forms:—
Examples
Who and its forms.
1. Has a man gained anything who has received a hundred favors and rendered
none?—Emerson.
2. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon.—Dr Johnson.
3.
For her enchanting son,
Whom universal nature did lament.
—Milton.
4. The nurse came to us, who were sitting in an adjoining apartment.—Thackeray.
5.
Ye mariners of England,
That guard our native seas;
Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,
The battle and the breeze!
—Campbell.
6. The men whom men respect, the women whom women approve, are the men and women who bless their
species.—Parton
108. of the relative which and its forms:—
Examples
Which and its forms.
1. They had not their own luster, but the look which is not of the earth.—Byron.
2.
The embattled portal arch he pass'd,
Whose ponderous grate and massy bar
Had oft roll'd back the tide of war.
—Scott.
3. Generally speaking, the dogs which stray around the butcher shops restrain their appetites.—Cox.
4. The origin of language is divine, in the same sense in which man's nature, with all its capabilities ..., is a divine
creation.—W. D. Whitney.
5.
(a) This gradation ... ought to be kept in view; else this description will seem exaggerated, which it certainly is
not.—Burke.
(b) The snow was three inches deep and still falling, which prevented him from taking his usual ride.—Irving.
109. of the relative that:—
Examples
That.
1.
The man that hath no music in himself,...
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
—Shakespeare
2. The judge ... bought up all the pigs that could be had.—Lamb
3. Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.—Emerson.
4. For the sake of country a man is told to yield everything that makes the land honorable.—H. W. Beecher
5. Reader, that do not pretend to have leisure for very much scholarship, you will not be angry with me for telling
you.—De Quincey.
6. The Tree Igdrasil, that has its roots down in the kingdoms of Hela and Death, and whose boughs overspread the
highest heaven!—Carlyle.
110. of the use of the relative what:—
Examples
What.
1. Its net to entangle the enemy seems to be what it chiefly trusts to, and what it takes
most pains to render as complete as possible.—Goldsmith.
2. For what he sought below is passed above, Already done is all that he would do.—Margaret Fuller.
3. Some of our readers may have seen in India a crowd of crows picking a sick vulture to death, no
bad type of what often happens in that country.—Macaulay
[To the Teacher. —If pupils work over the above sentences carefully, and test every remark in the following paragraphs,
they will get a much better understanding of the relatives.]
(1) It usually refers to persons: thus, in the first sentence, Sec. 107, a man...who; in the second, that man...whose; in the
third, son, whom; and so on.
(2) It has three case forms,—who, whose, whom.
(3) The forms do not change for person or number of the antecedent. In sentence 4, who is first person; in 5, whose is
second person; the others are all third person. In 1, 2, and 3, the relatives are singular; in 4, 5, and 6, they are plural.
112. in most cases who refers to persons there are instances found where it refers to
Though
animals. It has been seen (Sec. 24) that animals are referred to by personal pronouns when Who referring to animals.
their characteristics or habits are such as to render them important or interesting to man. Probably on the same principle
the personal relative who is used not infrequently in literature, referring to animals.
Witness the following examples:—
And you, warm little housekeeper [the cricket], who class With those who think the candles come too
soon.—Leigh Hunt.
The robins...have succeeded in driving off the bluejays who used to build in our pines.—Lowell.
The little gorilla, whose wound I had dressed, flung its arms around my neck.—Thackeray.
A lake frequented by every fowl whom Nature has taught to dip the wing in water.—Dr. Johnson.
While we had such plenty of domestic insects who infinitely excelled the former, because they
understood how to weave as well as to spin.—Swift.
My horse, who, under his former rider had hunted the buffalo, seemed as much excited as myself.—
Irving.
Other examples might be quoted from Burke, Kingsley, Smollett, Scott, Cooper, Gibbon, and others.
The
113.
sentences in Sec. 108 show that—
Which.
(1) Which refers to animals, things, or ideas, not persons.
(2) It is not inflected for gender or number.
(3) It is nearly always third person, rarely second (an example of its use as second person is given in sentence 32, p.
96).
(4) It has two case forms,—which for the nominative and objective, whose for the possessive.
Grammarians
114. sometimes object to the statement that whose is the possessive of which,
saying that the phrase of which should always be used instead; yet a search in literature Examples of whose, possessive
case of which.
shows that the possessive form whose is quite common in prose as well as in poetry: for
example,—
I swept the horizon, and saw at one glance the glorious elevations, on whose tops the sun kindled all
the melodies and harmonies of light.—Beecher.
Men may be ready to fight to the death, and to persecute without pity, for a religion whose creed they
do not understand, and whose precepts they habitually disobey.—Macaulay
Beneath these sluggish waves lay the once proud cities of the plain, whose grave was dug by the
thunder of the heavens.—Scott.
Many great and opulent cities whose population now exceeds that of Virginia during the Revolution,
and whose names are spoken in the remotest corner of the civilized world.—Mcmaster.
Through the heavy door whose bronze network closes the place of his rest, let us enter the church
itself.—Ruskin.
This moribund '61, whose career of life is just coming to its terminus.—Thackeray.
So in Matthew Arnold, Kingsley, Burke, and numerous others.
The last two sentences in Sec. 108 show that which may have other antecedents than nouns
115.
and pronouns. In 5 (a) there is a participial adjective used as the antecedent; in 5 (b) there is Which and its antecedents.
a complete clause employed as antecedent. This often occurs.
Sometimes, too, the antecedent follows which; thus,—
And, which is worse, all you have done
Hath been but for a wayward son.
—Shakespeare.
Primarily, which is very notable and curious, I observe that men of business rarely know the meaning
of the word "rich."—Ruskin.
I demurred to this honorary title upon two grounds,—first, as being one toward which I had no natural
aptitudes or predisposing advantages; secondly (which made her stare), as carrying with it no real or
enviable distinction.—De Quincey.
In 116.
the sentences of Sec. 109, we notice that—
That.
(1) That refers to persons, animals, and things.
(2) It has only one case form, no possessive.
(3) It is the same form for first, second, and third persons.
(4) It has the same form for singular and plural.
It sometimes borrows the possessive whose, as in sentence 6, Sec. 109, but this is not sanctioned as good usage.
The
117.
sentences of Sec. 110 show that—
What.
(1) What always refers to things; is always neuter.
(2) It is used almost entirely in the singular.
(3) Its antecedent is hardly ever expressed. When expressed, it usually follows, and is emphatic; as, for example,—
What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.—Bible
What fates impose, that men must needs abide.—Shakespeare.
What a man does, that he has.—Emerson.
Compare this:—
Alas! is it not too true, what we said?—Carlyle.
DECLENSION OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS.
These
118. are the forms of the simple relatives:—
SINGULAR AND PLURAL.
Nom. who which that what
Poss. whose whose — —
Obj. whom which that what
Exercise.
First find the antecedents, then parse the relatives, in the following sentences:—
1. How superior it is in these respects to the pear, whose blossoms are neither colored nor fragrant!
2. Some gnarly apple which I pick up in the road reminds me by its fragrance of all the wealth of Pomona.
3. Perhaps I talk with one who is selecting some choice barrels for filling an order.
4. Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.
5. Alas! it is we ourselves that are getting buried alive under this avalanche of earthly impertinences.
6. This method also forces upon us the necessity of thinking, which is, after all, the highest result of all education.
7. I know that there are many excellent people who object to the reading of novels as a waste of time.
8. I think they are trying to outwit nature, who is sure to be cunninger than they.
The relative what is handled differently, because it has usually no antecedent, but is singular,
120.
neuter, third person. Its case is determined exactly as that of other relatives. In the sentence, Parsing what, the simple relative.
"What can't be cured must be endured," the verb must be endured is the predicate of something. What must be endured?
Answer, What can't be cured. The whole expression is its subject. The word what, however, is subject of the verb can't
be cured, and hence is in the nominative case.
"What we call nature is a certain self-regulated motion or change." Here the subject of is, etc., is what we call nature; but
of this, we is the subject, and what is the direct object of the verb call , so is in the objective case.
Some prefer another method of treatment. As shown by the following sentences, what is
equivalent to that which:— Another way.
It has been said that "common souls pay with what they do, nobler souls with that which they are."—
Emerson.
That which is pleasant often appears under the name of evil; and what is disagreeable to nature is
called good and virtuous.—Burke.
Hence some take what as a double relative, and parse that in the first clause, and which in the second clause; that is,
"common souls pay with that [singular, object of with] which [singular, object of do] they do."
INDEFINITE RELATIVES.
INDEFINITE
121. RELATIVES are, by meaning and use, not as direct as the simple relatives.
List and examples.
They are whoever, whichever, whatever, whatsoever; less common are whoso, whosoever,
whichsoever, whatsoever. The simple relatives who, which, and what may also be used as indefinite relatives. Examples
of indefinite relatives (from Emerson):—
1. Whoever has flattered his friend successfully must at once think himself a knave, and his friend a
fool.
2. It is no proof of a man's understanding, to be able to affirm whatever he pleases.
3. They sit in a chair or sprawl with children on the floor, or stand on their head, or what else soever, in
a new and original way.
4. Whoso is heroic will always find crises to try his edge.
5. Only itself can inspire whom it will.
6. God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please,—you cannot
have both.
7. Do what we can, summer will have its flies.
The122.fitness of the term indefinite here cannot be shown better than by examining the
following sentences:— Meaning and use.
1. There is something so overruling in whatever inspires us with awe, in all things which belong ever
so remotely to terror, that nothing else can stand in their presence.—Burke.
2. Death is there associated, not with everything that is most endearing in social and domestic
charities, but with whatever is darkest in human nature and in human destiny.—Macaulay.
It is clear that in 1, whatever is equivalent to all things which, and in 2, to everything that; no certain antecedent, no
particular thing, being referred to. So with the other indefinites.
The
123.above helps us to discriminate between what as a simple and what as an indefinite
relative. What simple relative and what
indefinite relative.
As shown in Sec. 120, the simple relative what is equivalent to that which or the thing which,—some particular thing; as
shown by the last sentence in Sec. 121, what means anything that, everything that (or everything which). The difference
must be seen by the meaning of the sentence, as what hardly ever has an antecedent.
The examples in sentences 5 and 6, Sec. 121, show that who and which have no antecedent expressed, but mean any
one whom, either one that, etc.
1. There is not a leaf rotting on the highway but has force in it: how else could it rot?—Carlyle.
2. This, amongst such other troubles as most men meet with in this life, has been my heaviest
affliction.—De Quincey.
Compare with these the two following sentences:—
Proof that they have the force of
3. There is nothing but is related to us, nothing that does not interest us.—Emerson. relatives.
4. There were articles of comfort and luxury such as Hester never ceased to use, but which only
wealth could have purchased.—Hawthorne.
Sentence 3 shows that but is equivalent to the relative that with not, and that as after such is equivalent to which.
For as after same see "Syntax" (Sec. 417).
early modern English, as was used just as we use that or which, not following the word
In 125.
such; thus,— Former use of as.
A man is the facade of a temple wherein all wisdom and good abide.—Emerson.
The sovereignty of this nature whereof we speak.—Id.
The dear home faces whereupon
That fitful firelight paled and shone.
—Whittier.
1.
Sweet rose! whence is this hue
Which doth all hues excel?
—Drummond
2.
And then what wonders shall you do
Whose dawning beauty warms us so?
—Walker
3.
Is this a romance? Or is it a faithful picture of what has lately been in a neighboring land?—
Macaulay
These are interrogative sentences, but in none of them does the pronoun ask the question. In the first, whence is the
interrogative word, which has the antecedent hue. In the second, whose has the antecedent you, and asks no question.
In the third, the question is asked by the verb.
ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS.
Most
131.of the words how to be considered are capable of a double use,—they may be pure
modifiers of nouns, or they may stand for nouns. In the first use they are adjectives; in the Function of adjective pronouns.
second they retain an adjective meaning, but have lost their adjective use. Primarily they are adjectives, but in this
function, or use, they are properly classed as adjective pronouns.
The following are some examples of these:—
Some say that the place was bewitched.—Irving.
That mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death.
—Bryant.
How happy is he born or taught
That serveth not another's will.
—Wotton
That is more than any martyr can stand.—Emerson.
Hence these words are like adjectives used as nouns, which we have seen in such
expressions as, "The dead are there;" that is, a word, in order to be an adjective pronoun, Caution.
must not modify any word, expressed or understood. It must come under the requirement of
pronouns, and stand for a noun. For instance, in the following sentences—"The cubes are of Adjectives, not pronouns.
stainless ivory, and on each is written, in letters of gold, 'Truth;'" "You needs must play such pranks as these;" "They will
always have one bank to sun themselves upon, and another to get cool under;" "Where two men ride on a horse, one
must ride behind"—the words italicized modify nouns understood, necessarily thought of: thus, in the first, "each cube;" in
the second, "these pranks," in the others, "another bank," "one man."
Adjective
132. pronouns are divided into three classes:—
Classes of adjective pronouns.
(1) DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS, such as this, that, the former, etc.
(2) DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS, such as each, either, neither, etc.
(3) NUMERAL PRONOUNS, as some, any, few, many, none, all , etc.
DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
A DEMONSTRATIVE
133. PRONOUN is one that definitely points out what persons or things are
alluded to in the sentence. Definition and examples.
The person or thing alluded to by the demonstrative may be in another sentence, or may be the whole of a sentence. For
example, "Be that as it may" could refer to a sentiment in a sentence, or an argument in a paragraph; but the
demonstrative clearly points to that thing.
The following are examples of demonstratives:—
I did not say this in so many words.
All these he saw; but what he fain had seen He could not see.
Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil.
How much we forgive in those who yield us the rare spectacle of heroic manners!
The correspondence of Bonaparte with his brother Joseph, when the latter was the King of Spain.
Such are a few isolated instances, accidentally preserved.
Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
They know that patriotism has its glorious opportunities and its sacred duties. They have not shunned
the one, and they have well performed the other.
NOTE.—It will be noticed in the first four sentences that this and that are inflected for number.
Exercises.
DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS.
The
134.
DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS are those which stand for the names of persons or things
considered singly. Definition and examples.
NUMERAL PRONOUNS.
The
135.
NUMERAL PRONOUNS are those which stand for an uncertain number or quantity of
persons or things. Definition and examples.
INDEFINITE PRONOUNS.
Indefinite
136. pronouns are words which stand for an indefinite number or quantity of persons
or things; but, unlike adjective pronouns, they are never used as adjectives. Definition and examples.
Exercise.
Adjectives
142. are divided into four classes:—
Classes of adjectives.
( 1 ) Descriptive adjectives, which describe by expressing qualities or attributes of a
substantive.
(2) Adjectives of quantity, used to tell how many things are spoken of, or how much of a thing.
(3) Demonstrative adjectives, pointing out particular things.
(4) Pronominal adjectives, words primarily pronouns, but used adjectively sometimes in modifying nouns instead of
standing for them. They include relative and interrogative words.
DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES.
This
143.
large class includes several kinds of words:—
(1) SIMPLE ADJECTIVES expressing quality; such as safe, happy, deep, fair, rash, beautiful , remotest, terrible, etc.
(2) COMPOUND ADJECTIVES, made up of various words thrown together to make descriptive epithets. Examples are,
"Heaven-derived power," "this life-giving book," "his spirit wrapt and wonder-struck," "ice-cold water," "half-dead
traveler," "unlooked-for burden," "next-door neighbor," "ivory-handled pistols," "the cold-shudder-inspiring Woman in
White."
(3) PROPER ADJECTIVES, derived from proper nouns; such as, "an old English manuscript," "the Christian pearl of
charity," "the well-curb had a Chinese roof," "the Roman writer Palladius."
(4) PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES, which are either pure participles used to describe, or participles which have lost all
verbal force and have no function except to express quality. Examples are,—
Pure participial adjectives: "The healing power of the Messiah," "The shattering sway of one strong arm," "trailing
clouds," "The shattered squares have opened into line," "It came on like the rolling simoom," "God tempers the wind to
the shorn lamb."
Faded participial adjectives: "Sleep is a blessed thing;" "One is hungry, and another is drunken;" "under the fitting
drapery of the jagged and trailing clouds;" "The clearness and quickness are amazing;" "an aged man;" "a charming
sight."
Care
144.is needed, in studying these last-named words, to distinguish between a participle that
forms part of a verb, and a participle or participial adjective that belongs to a noun. Caution.
For instance: in the sentence, "The work was well and rapidly accomplished," was accomplished is a verb; in this, "No
man of his day was more brilliant or more accomplished," was is the verb, and accomplished is an adjective.
Exercises.
1. Bring up sentences with twenty descriptive adjectives, having some of each subclass named in Sec. 143.
2. Is the italicized word an adjective in this?—
The old sources of intellectual excitement seem to be well-nigh exhausted.
ADJECTIVES OF QUANTITY.
Adjectives
145. of quantity tell how much or how many. They have these three subdivisions:—
(1) QUANTITY IN BULK: such words as little, much, some, no, any, considerable,
sometimes small , joined usually to singular nouns to express an indefinite measure of the How much.
thing spoken of.
The following examples are from Kingsley:—
So he parted with much weeping of the lady.
Which we began to do with great labor and little profit.
Because I had some knowledge of surgery and blood-letting.
But ever she looked on Mr. Oxenham, and seemed to take no
care as long as he was by.
Examples of small an adjective of quantity:—
"The deil's in it but I bude to anger him!" said the woman, and walked away with a laugh of small
satisfaction.—Macdonald.
'Tis midnight, but small thoughts have I of sleep.—Coleridge.
It gives small idea of Coleridge's way of talking.—Carlyle.
When some, any, no, are used with plural nouns, they come under the next division of adjectives.
(2) QUANTITY IN NUMBER, which may be expressed exactly by numbers or remotely
designated by words expressing indefinite amounts. Hence the natural division into— How many.
(a) Definite numerals; as, "one blaze of musketry;" "He found in the pathway fourteen Spaniards;" "I have lost one
brother, but I have gained fourscore;" "a dozen volunteers."
(b) Indefinite numerals, as the following from Kingsley: "We gave several thousand pounds for it;" "In came some five
and twenty more, and with them a few negroes;" "Then we wandered for many days;" "Amyas had evidently more
schemes in his head;" "He had lived by hunting for some months;" "That light is far too red to be the reflection of any
beams of hers."
(3) DISTRIBUTIVE NUMERALS, which occupy a place midway between the last two
subdivisions of numeral adjectives; for they are indefinite in telling how many objects are Single ones of any number of
changes.
spoken of, but definite in referring to the objects one at a time. Thus,—
Every town had its fair; every village, its wake.—Thackeray.
An arrow was quivering in each body.—Kingsley.
Few on either side but had their shrewd scratch to show.—Id.
Before I taught my tongue to wound
My conscience with a sinful sound,
Or had the black art to dispense
A several sin to every sense.
—Vaughan.
Exercise.—Bring up sentences with ten adjectives of quantity.
DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES.
The
146.
words of this list are placed here instead of among pronominal adjectives, for the reason
that they are felt to be primarily adjectives; their pronominal use being evidently a shortening, Not primarily pronouns.
by which the words point out but stand for words omitted, instead of modifying them. Their natural and original use is to
be joined to a noun following or in close connection.
The demonstrative adjectives are this, that, (plural these, those), yonder (or yon), former,
latter; also the pairs one (or the one)—the other, the former—the latter, used to refer to two The list.
things which have been already named in a sentence.
The following sentences present some examples:—
Examples.
The bashful virgin's sidelong looks of love, The matron's glance that would those looks
reprove.—Goldsmith.
These were thy charms...but all these charms are fled.—Id.
About this time I met with an odd volume of the "Spectator."—B. Franklin.
Yonder proud ships are not means of annoyance to you.—D. Webster.
Yon cloud with that long purple cleft.—Wordsworth.
I chose for the students of Kensington two characteristic examples of early art, of equal skill; but in the
one case, skill which was progressive—in the other, skill which was at pause.—Ruskin.
Exercise.—Find sentences with five demonstrative adjectives.
The
147.
class of numerals known as ordinals must be placed here, as having the same function
as demonstrative adjectives. They point out which thing is meant among a series of things Ordinal numerals classed under
demonstratives.
mentioned. The following are examples:—
T he first regular provincial newspapers appear to have been created in the last decade of the
seventeenth century, and by the middle of the eighteenth century almost every important provincial
town had its local organ.—Bancroft.
These do not, like the other numerals, tell how many things are meant. When we speak of the seventeenth century, we
imply nothing as to how many centuries there may be.
PRONOMINAL ADJECTIVES.
has been said, pronominal adjectives are primarily pronouns; but, when they modify
As148.
words instead of referring to them as antecedents, they are changed to adjectives. They are Definition.
of two kinds,—RELATIVE and INTERROGATIVE,—and are used to join sentences or to ask questions, just as the
corresponding pronouns do.
The RELATIVE ADJECTIVES are which and what; for example,—
149.
Modify names of persons or things.
It matters not what rank he has, what revenues or garnitures. —Carlyle.
The silver and laughing Xenil, careless what lord should possess the banks that bloomed by its
everlasting course.—Bulwer.
The taking of which bark. I verily believe, was the ruin of every mother's son of us.—Kingsley.
In which evil strait Mr. Oxenham fought desperately.—Id.
150.INDEFINITE RELATIVE adjectives are what, whatever, whatsoever, whichever,
The
whichsoever. Examples of their use are,— Indefinite relative adjectives.
He in his turn tasted some of its flavor, which, make what sour mouths he would for pretense, proved
not altogether displeasing to him.—Lamb.
Whatever correction of our popular views from insight, nature will be sure to bear us out in.—Emerson.
Whatsoever kind of man he is, you at least give him full authority over your son.—Ruskin.
Was there, as it rather seemed, a circle of ominous shadow moving along with his deformity,
whichever way he turned himself?—Hawthorne.
New torments I behold, and new tormented
Around me, whichsoever way I move,
And whichsoever way I turn, and gaze.
—Longfellow (From Dante).
The INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVES are which and what. They may be used in direct and indirect questions. As in the
151.
pronouns, which is selective among what is known; what inquires about things or persons not known.
Sentences with which and what in direct questions:—
In direct questions.
Which debt must I pay first, the debt to the rich, or the debt to the poor?—Emerson.
But when the Trojan war comes, which side will you take? —Thackeray.
But what books in the circulating library circulate?—Lowell.
What beckoning ghost along the moonlight shade
Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?
—Pope.
Sentences with which and what in indirect questions:— In indirect questions.
His head...looked like a weathercock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew.—
Irving.
A lady once remarked, he [Coleridge] could never fix which side of the garden walk would suit him
best.—Carlyle.
He was turned before long into all the universe, where it was uncertain what game you would catch, or
whether any.—Id.
At what rate these materials would be distributed and precipitated in regular strata, it is impossible to
determine.—Agassiz.
exclamatory expressions, what (or what a) has a force somewhat like a descriptive
In 152.
adjective. It is neither relative nor interrogative, but might be called an EXCLAMATORY Adjective what in exclamations.
ADJECTIVE; as,—
Oh, what a revolution! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and
that fall!—Burke.
What a piece of work is man!—Shakespeare.
And yet, alas, the making of it right, what a business for long time to come!—Carlyle
Through what hardships it may attain to bear a sweet fruit!—Thoreau.
Exercise.—Find ten sentences containing pronominal adjectives.
INFLECTIONS OF ADJECTIVES.
153 .Adjectives have two inflections,—number and comparison.
NUMBER.—This, That.
The only adjectives having a plural form are this and that (plural these, those).
154.
History of this—these and that—
This is the old demonstrative; that being borrowed from the forms of the definite article, which those.
was fully inflected in Old English. The article that was used with neuter nouns.
In Middle English the plural of this was this or thise, which changed its spelling to the modern form these.
But this had also another plural, thās (modern those). The old plural of that was tha (Middle
English tho or thow): consequently tho (plural of that) and those (plural of this) became Those borrowed from this.
confused, and it was forgotten that those was really the plural of this; and in Modern English we speak of these as the
plural of this, and those as the plural of that.
COMPARISON.
Comparison
155. is an inflection not possessed by nouns and pronouns: it belongs to adjectives and adverbs.
When we place two objects side by side, we notice some differences between them as to
size, weight, color, etc. Thus, it is said that a cow is larger than a sheep, gold is heavier than Meaning of comparison.
iron, a sapphire is bluer than the sky. All these have certain qualities; and when we compare the objects, we do so by
means of their qualities,—cow and sheep by the quality of largeness, or size; gold and iron by the quality of heaviness,
or weight, etc.,—but not the same degree, or amount, of the quality.
The degrees belong to any beings or ideas that may be known or conceived of as possessing quality; as, "untamed
thought, great, giant-like, enormous;" "the commonest speech;" "It is a nobler valor;" "the largest soul."
Also words of quantity may be compared: for example, "more matter, with less wit;" "no fewer than a hundred."
There
156. are some descriptive words whose meaning is such as not to admit of comparison; for
example,— Words that cannot be compared.
His company became very agreeable to the brave old professor of arms, whose favorite pupil he
was.—Thackeray.
A main difference betwixt men is, whether they attend their own affair or not.—Emerson
It was his business to administer the law in its final and closest application to the offender—
Hawthorne.
Freedom is a perpetual, organic, universal institution, in harmony with the Constitution of the United
States.—Seward.
So with the words sole, sufficient, infinite, immemorial , indefatigable, indomitable, supreme, and many others.
It is true that words of comparison are sometimes prefixed to them, but, strictly considered, they are not compared.
Comparison
157. means the changes that words undergo to express degrees in quality, or
amounts in quantity. Definition.
There
158. are two forms for this inflection: the comparative, expressing a greater degree of
quality; and the superlative, expressing the greatest degree of quality. The two forms.
Most of them have worn down or become confused with similar words, but they are essentially the same forms that have
lived for so many centuries.
The following lists include the majority of them:—
LIST I.
1. Good or well Better Best
2. Evil, bad, ill Worse Worst
3. Little Less, lesser Least
4. Much or many More Most
5. Old Elder, older Eldest, oldest
6. Nigh Nigher Nighest, next
7. Near Nearer Nearest
8. Far Farther, further Farthest, furthest
9. Late Later, latter Latest, last
10. Hind Hinder Hindmost, hindermost
LIST II.
These have no adjective positive:—
1. [In] Inner Inmost, innermost
2. [Out] Outer, utter Outmost, outermost
Utmost, uttermost
3. [Up] Upper Upmost, uppermost
LIST III.
A few of comparative form but not comparative meaning:—
After Over Under Nether
There, on the very topmost twig, sits that ridiculous but sweet-singing bobolink.—H. W. Beecher.
Decidedly handsome, having such a skin as became a young woman of family in northernmost
Spain.—De Quincey.
Highest and midmost, was descried The royal banner floating wide.—Scott.
The
167.adjectives in List III. are like the comparative forms in List II. in having no adjective
positives. They have no superlatives, and have no comparative force, being merely List III.
descriptive.
Her bows were deep in the water, but her after deck was still dry.—Kingsley.
Her, by the by, in after years I vainly endeavored to trace.—De Quincey.
The upper and the under side of the medal of Jove.—Emerson.
Have you ever considered what a deep under meaning there lies in our custom of strewing flowers?—
Ruskin.
Perhaps he rose out of some nether region.—Hawthorne.
Over is rarely used separately as an adjective.
Exercise.
Exercise.
An historian, such as we have been attempting to describe, would indeed be an intellectual prodigy.—
Macaulay.
The Persians were an heroic people like the Greeks.—Brewer.
He [Rip] evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to anything else but his business.—Irving.
An habitual submission of the understanding to mere events and images.—Coleridge.
An hereditary tenure of these offices.—Thomas Jefferson.
An175.
article is a limiting word, not descriptive, which cannot be used alone, but always joins to
a substantive word to denote a particular thing, or a group or class of things, or any individual Definition.
of a group or class.
Articles
176. are either definite or indefinite.
Kinds.
The is the definite article, since it points out a particular individual, or group, or class.
An or a is the indefinite article, because it refers to any one of a group or class of things.
An and a are different forms of the same word, the older ān.
Don't you remember how, when the dragon was infesting the neighborhood of Babylon, the citizens
used to walk dismally out of evenings, and look at the valleys round about strewed with the bones?—
Thackeray.
NOTE.—This use is noticed when, on opening a story, a person is introduced by a, and afterwards
referred to by the:—
By and by a giant came out of the dark north, and lay down on the ice near Audhumla.... The giant
frowned when he saw the glitter of the golden hair.—Heroes Of Asgard.
The is often prefixed to the names of rivers; and when the word river is omitted, as "the
178.
Mississippi," "the Ohio," the article indicates clearly that a river, and not a state or other With names of rivers.
geographical division, is referred to.
No wonder I could face the Mississippi with so much courage supplied to me.—Thackeray.
The Dakota tribes, doubtless, then occupied the country southwest of the Missouri.—G. Bancroft.
179.the is prefixed to a proper name, it alters the force of the noun by directing attention to
When
certain qualities possessed by the person or thing spoken of; thus,— To call attention to attributes.
The Bacon, the Spinoza, the Hume, Schelling, Kant, or whosoever propounds to you a philosophy of
the mind, is only a more or less awkward translator of things in your consciousness.—Emerson.
The
180.
, when placed before the pluralized abstract noun, marks it as half abstract or a common
noun. With plural of abstract nouns.
As she hesitated to pass on, the gallant, throwing his cloak from his shoulders, laid it on the miry
spot.—Scott.
But De Soto was no longer able to abate the confidence or punish the temerity of the natives.—G.
Bancroft.
The
182.
before class nouns may mark one thing as a representative of the class to which it
belongs; for example,— One thing for its class.
The faint, silvery warblings heard over the partially bare and moist fields from the bluebird, the song
sparrow, and the redwing, as if the last flakes of winter tinkled as they fell!—Thoreau.
In the sands of Africa and Arabia the camel is a sacred and precious gift.—Gibbon.
The is frequently used instead of the possessive case of the personal pronouns his, her, etc.
183.
For possessive person pronouns.
More than one hinted that a cord twined around the head, or a match put between the
fingers, would speedily extract the required information.—Kingsley.
The mouth, and the region of the mouth, were about the strongest features in Wordsworth's face.—De
Quincey.
England and Scotland the is often used where we use a, in speaking of measure and price;
In 184.
as,— The for a.
Wheat, the price of which necessarily varied, averaged in the middle of the fourteenth century
tenpence the bushel , barley averaging at the same time three shillings the quarter.—Froude.
Sometimes
185. the has a strong force, almost equivalent to a descriptive adjective in emphasizing
a word,— A very strong restrictive.
No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.—Bible.
As for New Orleans, it seemed to me the city of the world where you can eat and drink the most and
suffer the least.—Thackeray.
He was the man in all Europe that could (if any could) have driven six-in-hand full gallop over Al
Sirat.—De Quincey.
The
186.
, since it belongs distinctively to substantives, is a sure indication that a word of verbal
form is not used participially, but substantively. Mark of a substantive.
There was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed, and which grew
still the more obvious to the sight the oftener they looked upon him.—Hawthorne.
Exercise.—Find sentences with five uses of the definite article.
Near the churchyard gate stands a poor-box, fastened to a post by iron bands and secured by a
padlock, with a sloping wooden roof to keep off the rain.—Longfellow
When
189. the indefinite article precedes proper names, it alters them to class names. The
qualities or attributes of the object are made prominent, and transferred to any one Widens the scope of proper nouns.
possessing them; as,—
The vulgar riot and debauchery, which scarcely disgraced an Alcibiades or a Cæsar, have been
exchanged for the higher ideals of a Bayard or a Sydney.—Pearson
An190.
or a before abstract nouns often changes them to half abstract: the idea of quality
remains, but the word now denotes only one instance or example of things possessing the With abstract nouns.
quality.
The simple perception of natural forms is a delight.—Emerson
Become half abstract.
If thou hadst a sorrow of thine own, the brook might tell thee of it.—Hawthorne
In the first sentence, instead of the general abstract notion of delight, which cannot be singular or plural, a delight means
one thing delightful, and implies others having the same quality.
So a sorrow means one cause of sorrow, implying that there are other things that bring sorrow.
NOTE.—Some abstract nouns become common class nouns with the indefinite article,
referring simply to persons; thus,— Become pure class nouns.
If the poet of the "Rape of the Lock" be not a wit, who deserves to be called so?—Thackeray.
He had a little brother in London with him at this time,—as great a beauty, as great a dandy, as great a
villain.—Id.
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown.—Gray.
An191.
or a before a material noun indicates the change to a class noun, meaning one kind or a
detached portion; as,— Changes material to class nouns.
An194.
or a is added to the adjectives such, many, and what, and may be considered a part of
these in modifying substantives. With such, many, what.
Exercise.
Now, it is indispensable to the nature of a verb that it is "a word used as a predicate." Examine the sentences in Sec.
200: In (1), obeyed is a predicate; in (2, a), may be considered is a unit in doing the work of one predicate; in (2, b),
might have been anticipated is also one predicate, but fearing is not a predicate, hence is not a verb; in (3, b), to go is
no predicate, and not a verb; in (3, c), to pretend and preying have something of verbal nature in expressing action in a
faint and general way, but cannot be predicates.
In the sentence, "Put money in thy purse," put is the predicate, with some word understood; as, "Put thou money in thy
purse."
Examine
204. the verbs in the following paragraph:—
The nature of intransitive verbs.
She sprang up at that thought, and, taking the staff which always guided her steps, she
hastened to the neighboring shrine of Isis. Till she had been under the guardianship of the kindly
Greek, that staff had sufficed to conduct the poor blind girl from corner to corner of Pompeii.—Bulwer
In this there are some verbs unlike those that have been examined. Sprang, or sprang up, expresses action, but it is
complete in itself, does not affect an object; hastened is similar in use; had been expresses condition, or state of being,
and can have no object; had sufficed means had been sufficient, and from its meaning cannot have an object.
Such verbs are called intransitive (not crossing over). Hence
An205.
intransitive verb is one which is complete in itself, or which is completed by other words
without requiring an object. Definition.
206. Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, according to their use in the
sentence, It can be said, "The boy walked for two hours," or "The boy walked the horse;" Study use, not form, of verbs here.
"The rains swelled the river," or "The river swelled because of the rain;" etc.
The important thing to observe is, many words must be distinguished as transitive or intransitive by use, not by form.
Also
207.
verbs are sometimes made transitive by prepositions. These may be (1) compounded with the verb; or (2) may
follow the verb, and be used as an integral part of it: for example,—
Asking her pardon for having withstood her.—Scott.
I can wish myself no worse than to have it all to undergo a second time.—Kingsley.
A weary gloom in the deep caverns of his eyes, as of a child that has outgrown its playthings.—
Hawthorne.
It is amusing to walk up and down the pier and look at the countenances passing by.—B. Taylor.
He was at once so out of the way, and yet so sensible, that I loved, laughed at, and pitied him.—
Goldsmith.
My little nurse told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother.—Swift.
Exercises.
(a) Pick out the transitive and the intransitive verbs in the following:—
1. The women and children collected together at a distance.
2. The path to the fountain led through a grassy savanna.
3. As soon as I recovered my senses and strength from so sudden a surprise, I started back out of his reach where I
stood to view him; he lay quiet whilst I surveyed him.
4. At first they lay a floor of this kind of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which they deposit a layer of eggs.
5. I ran my bark on shore at one of their landing places, which was a sort of neck or little dock, from which ascended
a sloping path or road up to the edge of the meadow, where their nests were; most of them were deserted, and the
great thick whitish eggshells lay broken and scattered upon the ground.
6. Accordingly I got everything on board, charged my gun, set sail cautiously, along shore. As I passed by Battle
Lagoon, I began to tremble.
7. I seized my gun, and went cautiously from my camp: when I had advanced about thirty yards, I halted behind a
coppice of orange trees, and soon perceived two very large bears, which had made their way through the water and
had landed in the grove, and were advancing toward me.
(b) Bring up sentences with five transitive and five intransitive verbs.
The passive voice is that form of the verb which represents the subject and the object by the same word.
Exercises.
(a) Pick out the verbs in the active and the passive voice:—
1. In the large room some forty or fifty students were walking about while the parties were preparing.
2. This was done by taking off the coat and vest and binding a great thick leather garment on, which reached to the
knees.
3. They then put on a leather glove reaching nearly to the shoulder, tied a thick cravat around the throat, and drew
on a cap with a large visor.
4. This done, they were walked about the room a short time; their faces all this time betrayed considerable anxiety.
5. We joined the crowd, and used our lungs as well as any.
6. The lakes were soon covered with merry skaters, and every afternoon the banks were crowded with spectators.
7. People were setting up torches and lengthening the rafts which had been already formed.
8. The water was first brought in barrels drawn by horses, till some officer came and opened the fire plug.
9. The exclusive in fashionable life does not see that he excludes himself from enjoyment, in the attempt to
appropriate it.
(b) Find sentences with five verbs in the active and five in the passive voice.
MOOD.
213.word mood is from the Latin modus, meaning manner, way, method. Hence, when
The
applied to verbs,— Definition.
Mood means the manner of conceiving and expressing action or being of some subject.
There
214. are three chief ways of expressing action or being:—
The three ways.
(1) As a fact; this may be a question, statement, or assumption.
(2) As doubtful, or merely conceived of in the mind.
(3) As urged or commanded.
INDICATIVE MOOD.
215.term indicative is from the Latin indicare (to declare, or assert). The indicative
The
represents something as a fact,— Deals with facts.
SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.
Subjunctive
217. means subjoined, or joined as dependent or subordinate to something else.
Meaning of the word.
If its original meaning be closely adhered to, we must expect every dependent clause to have
its verb in the subjunctive mood, and every clause not dependent to have its verb in some This meaning is misleading.
other mood.
But this is not the case. In the quotation from Hamilton (Sec. 215, 2) several subjoined clauses introduced by if have the
indicative mood, and also independent clauses are often found having the verb in the subjunctive mood.
Three cautions will be laid down which must be observed by a student who wishes to
understand and use the English subjunctive:— Cautions.
(1) You cannot tell it always by the form of the word. The main difference is, that the subjunctive has no -s as the ending
of the present tense, third person singular; as, "If he come."
(2) The fact that its clause is dependent or is introduced by certain words will not be a safe rule to guide you.
(3) The meaning of the verb itself must be keenly studied.
The
218.
subjunctive mood is that form or use of the verb which expresses action or being, not as
a fact, but as merely conceived of in the mind. Definition.
If they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the
oracles of God. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they were recorded in the
Book of Life.—Macaulay.
(2) Those in which the condition depends on something uncertain, and may or may not be
regarded true, or be fulfilled; as,— Ideal,—may or may not be true.
If, in our case, the representative system ultimately fail , popular government must be pronounced
impossible.—D. Webster.
If this be the glory of Julius, the first great founder of the Empire, so it is also the glory of Charlemagne,
the second founder.—Bryce.
If any man consider the present aspects of what is called by distinction society, he will see the need of
these ethics. —Emerson.
(3) Suppositions contrary to fact, which cannot be true, or conditions that cannot be fulfilled,
but are presented only in order to suggest what might be or might have been true; thus,— Unreal—cannot be true.
If these things were true, society could not hold together. —Lowell.
Did not my writings produce me some solid pudding, the great deficiency of praise would have quite
discouraged me.—Franklin.
Had he for once cast all such feelings aside, and striven energetically to save Ney, it would have cast
such an enhancing light over all his glories, that we cannot but regret its absence.—Bayne.
NOTE.—Conditional sentences are usually introduced by if, though, except, unless, etc.; but when the
verb precedes the subject, the conjunction is often omitted: for example, "Were I bidden to say how the
highest genius could be most advantageously employed," etc.
Exercise.
In the following conditional clauses, tell whether each verb is indicative or subjunctive, and what kind of condition:—
1. The voice, if he speak to you, is of similar physiognomy, clear, melodious, and sonorous.—Carlyle.
2. Were you so distinguished from your neighbors, would you, do you think, be any the happier?—
Thackeray.
3. Epaminondas, if he was the man I take him for, would have sat still with joy and peace, if his lot had
been mine.—Emerson.
4. If a damsel had the least smattering of literature, she was regarded as a prodigy.—Macaulay.
5. I told him, although it were the custom of our learned in Europe to steal inventions from each
other,... yet I would take such caution that he should have the honor entire.—Swift.
6. If he had reason to dislike him, he had better not have written, since he [Byron] was dead.—N. P.
Willis.
7. If it were prostrated to the ground by a profane hand, what native of the city would not mourn over
its fall?—Gayarre.
8. But in no case could it be justified, except it be for a failure of the association or union to effect the
object for which it was created.—Calhoun.
V. In Indirect Questions.
The
226.
subjunctive is often found in indirect questions, the answer being regarded as doubtful.
Ask the great man if there be none greater.—Emerson
What the best arrangement were, none of us could say.—Carlyle.
Whether it were morning or whether it were afternoon, in her confusion she had not distinctly known.—
De Quincey.
The first merit, that which admits neither substitute nor equivalent, is, that everything be
in its place.—Coleridge. Complement.
As sure as Heaven shall rescue me, I have no thought what men they be.—Coleridge.
Object.
Some might lament that I were cold.—Shelley.
This subjunctive is very frequent after verbs of commanding.
After verbs of commanding.
See that there be no traitors in your camp.—Tennyson.
Come, tell me all that thou hast seen,
And look thou tell me true.
—Scott.
See that thy scepter be heavy on his head.—De Quincey.
IMPERATIVE MOOD.
T he
231.
imperative mood is the form of the verb used in direct commands, entreaties, or
requests. Definition.
The232.imperative is naturally used mostly with the second person, since commands are
directed to a person addressed. Usually second person.
(1) Command.
Call up the shades of Demosthenes and Cicero to vouch for your words; point to their immortal works.
—J. Q. Adams.
Honor all men; love all men; fear none.—Channing.
(2) Entreaty.
Oh, from these sterner aspects of thy face
Spare me and mine, nor let us need the wrath
Of the mad unchained elements.
—Bryant.
(3) Request.
"Hush! mother," whispered Kit. "Come along with me."—Dickens
Tell me, how was it you thought of coming here?—Id.
But the imperative may be used with the plural of the first person. Since the first person plural
person is not really I + I, but I + you, or I + they, etc., we may use the imperative with we in a Sometimes with first person in the
plural.
plural.
command, request, etc., to you implied in it. This is scarcely ever found outside of poetry.
Part we in friendship from your land,
And, noble earl, receive my hand.
—Scott.
Then seek we not their camp—for there
The silence dwells of my despair.
—Campbell.
Break we our watch up.
—Shakespeare.
Usually this is expressed by let with the objective: "Let us go." And the same with the third person: "Let him be accursed."
(a) Tell the mood of each verb in these sentences, and what special use it is of that mood:—
1. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart and her
prayers be.
2.
Mark thou this difference, child of earth!
While each performs his part,
Not all the lip can speak is worth
The silence of the heart.
3. Oh, that I might be admitted to thy presence! that mine were the supreme delight of knowing thy will!
4.
'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life,
One glance at their array!
5. Whatever inconvenience ensue, nothing is to be preferred before justice.
6.
The vigorous sun would catch it up at eve
And use it for an anvil till he had filled
The shelves of heaven with burning thunderbolts.
7.
Meet is it changes should control
Our being, lest we rust in ease.
8.
Quoth she, "The Devil take the goose,
And God forget the stranger!"
9. Think not that I speak for your sakes.
10. "Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.
11. Were that a just return? Were that Roman magnanimity?
12. Well; how he may do his work, whether he do it right or wrong, or do it at all, is a point which no man in the world
has taken the pains to think of.
13. He is, let him live where else he like, in what pomps and prosperities he like, no literary man.
14. Could we one day complete the immense figure which these flagrant points compose!
15. "Oh, then, my dear madam," cried he, "tell me where I may find my poor, ruined, but repentant child."
16.
That sheaf of darts, will it not fall unbound,
Except, disrobed of thy vain earthly vaunt,
Thou bring it to be blessed where saints and angels haunt?
17.
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad leaden downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.
18.
He, as though an instrument,
Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls,
That they might answer him.
19.
From the moss violets and jonquils peep,
And dart their arrowy odor through the brain,
Till you might faint with that delicious pain.
20. That a man parade his doubt, and get to imagine that debating and logic is the triumph and true work of what
intellect he has; alas! this is as if you should overturn the tree.
21.
The fat earth feed thy branchy root
That under deeply strikes!
The northern morning o'er thee shoot,
High up in silver spikes!
22. Though abyss open under abyss, and opinion displace opinion, all are at last contained in the Eternal cause.
23. God send Rome one such other sight!
24. "Mr. Marshall," continued Old Morgan, "see that no one mentions the United States to the prisoner."
25. If there is only one woman in the nation who claims the right to vote, she ought to have it.
26. Though he were dumb, it would speak.
27. Meantime, whatever she did,—whether it were in display of her own matchless talents, or whether it were as one
member of a general party,—nothing could exceed the amiable, kind, and unassuming deportment of Mrs. Siddons.
28. It makes a great difference to the force of any sentence whether there be a man behind it or no.
(b) Find sentences with five verbs in the indicative mood, five in the subjunctive, five in the imperative.
TENSE.
Tense
233. means time. The tense of a verb is the form or use indicating the time of an action or
being. Definition.
Old English had only two tenses,—the present tense, which represented present and future
time; and the past tense. We still use the present for the future in such expressions as, "I go Tenses in English.
away to-morrow;" "If he comes, tell him to wait."
But English of the present day not only has a tense for each of the natural time divisions,—present, past, and future,—
but has other tenses to correspond with those of highly inflected languages, such as Latin and Greek.
The distinct inflections are found only in the present and past tenses, however: the others are compounds of verbal
forms with various helping verbs, called auxiliaries; such as be, have, shall , will .
Action
234. or being may be represented as occurring in present, past, or future time, by means of
the present, the past, and the future tense. It may also be represented as finished in The tenses in detail.
present or past or future time by means of the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect tenses.
Not only is this so: there are what are called definite forms of these tenses, showing more exactly the time of the action
or being. These make the English speech even more exact than other languages, as will be shown later on, in the
conjugations.
CONJUGATION.
Conjugation
236. is the regular arrangement of the forms of the verb in the various voices,
moods, tenses, persons, and numbers. Definition.
In classical languages, conjugation means joining together the numerous endings to the stem of the verb; but in
English, inflections are so few that conjugation means merely the exhibition of the forms and the different verb phrases
that express the relations of voice, mood, tense, etc.
237. in modern English have only four or five forms; for example, walk has walk, walks,
Verbs
walked, walking, sometimes adding the old forms walkest, walkedst, walketh. Such verbs as Few forms.
choose have five,—choose, chooses, chose, choosing, chosen (old, choosest, chooseth, chosest).
The verb be has more forms, since it is composed of several different roots,—am, are, is, were, been, etc.
INFLECTIONS
238. OF THE VERB BE.
Indicative Mood.
PRESENT TENSE. PAST TENSE.
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1. I am We are 1. I was We were
2. You are You are 2. You were You were
(thou art) (thou wast, wert)
3. [He] is [They] are 3. [He] was [They were]
Subjunctive Mood.
PRESENT TENSE. PAST TENSE.
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1. I be We be 1. I were We were
2. You (thou) be You be 2. You were You were
(thou wert)
3. [He] be [They] be 3. [He] were [They] were
Imperative Mood.
PRESENT TENSE
Singular and Plural
Be.
This conjugation is pieced out with three different roots: (1) am, is; (2) was, were; (3) be.
239. Remarks on the verb be.
Instead of the plural are, Old English had beoth and sind or sindon, same as the German sind. Are is supposed to have
come from the Norse language.
The old indicative third person plural be is sometimes found in literature, though it is usually a dialect form; for example,
—
Where be the sentries who used to salute as the Royal chariots drove in and out?—Thackeray
Where be the gloomy shades, and desolate mountains?—Whittier
The forms of the verb be have several uses:—
240.
Uses of be.
(1) As principal verbs.
The light that never was on sea and land.—Wordsworth.
(2) As auxiliary verbs, in four ways,—
(a) With verbal forms in -ing (imperfect participle) to form the definite tenses.
Broadswords are maddening in the rear,—Each broadsword bright was brandishing like beam of
light.—Scott.
(b) With the past participle in -ed, -en, etc., to form the passive voice.
By solemn vision and bright silver dream,
His infancy was nurtured.
—Shelley.
(c) With past participle of intransitive verbs, being equivalent to the present perfect and past perfect tenses active; as,
When we are gone
From every object dear to mortal sight.
—Wordsworth
We drank tea, which was now become an occasional banquet.—Goldsmith.
(d) With the infinitive, to express intention, obligation, condition, etc.; thus,
It was to have been called the Order of Minerva.—Thackeray.
Ingenuity and cleverness are to be rewarded by State prizes.—Id.
If I were to explain the motion of a body falling to the ground.—Burke
INFLECTIONS
241. OF THE VERB CHOOSE.
Indicative Mood.
PRESENT TENSE. PAST TENSE.
Singular. Plural. Singular. Plural.
1. I choose We choose 1. I chose We chose
2. You choose You choose 2. You chose You chose
3. [He] chooses [They] choose 3. [He] chose [They] chose
Subjunctive Mood.
PRESENT TENSE. PAST TENSE.
Singular. Plural. Singular. Plural.
1. I choose We choose 1. I chose We chose
2. You choose You choose 2. You chose You chose
3. [He] choose [They] choose 3. [He] chose [They] chose
Imperative Mood.
PRESENT TENSE
Singular and Plural
Choose.
ACTIVE VOICE.
Indicative Mood.
Present. He chooses.
Present definite. He is choosing.
Past. He chose.
Past definite. He was choosing.
Future. He will choose.
Future definite. He will he choosing.
Present perfect. He has chosen.
Present perfect definite. He has been choosing.
Past perfect. He had chosen.
Past perfect definite. He had been choosing.
Future perfect. He will have chosen.
Future perfect definite. He will have been choosing.
Subjunctive Mood.
Present. [If, though, lest, etc.] he choose.
Present definite. " he be choosing.
Past. " he chose (or were to choose).
Past definite. " he were choosing (or were to be choosing).
Present perfect. " he have chosen.
Present perfect definite. " he have been choosing.
Past perfect. " Same as indicative.
Past perfect definite. " Same as indicative.
Imperative Mood.
Present. (2d per.) Choose.
Present definite. " Be choosing.
NOTE.—Since participles and infinitives are not really verbs, but verbals, they will be discussed later (Sec. 262).
PASSIVE VOICE.
Indicative Mood.
Present. He is chosen.
Present definite. He is being chosen.
Past. He was chosen.
Past definite. He was being chosen.
Future. He will be chosen.
Future definite. None.
Present perfect. He has been chosen.
Present perfect definite. None.
Past perfect. He had been chosen.
Past perfect definite. None.
Future perfect. He will have been chosen.
Future perfect definite. None.
Subjunctive Mood.
Present.. [If, though, lest, etc.] he be chosen.
Present definite. " None.
Past. " he were chosen (or were to be chosen).
Past definite. " he were being chosen.
Present perfect. " he have been chosen.
Present perfect definite. " None.
Past Perfect. " he had been chosen.
Past perfect definite. " None.
Imperative Mood.
Present tense. (2d per.) Be chosen.
Also, in affirmative sentences, the indicative present and past tenses have emphatic forms made up of do and did with
the infinitive or simple form; as, "He does strike," "He did strike."
[Note to Teacher.—This table is not to be learned now; if learned at all, it should be as practice work on strong and weak
verb forms. Exercises should be given, however, to bring up sentences containing such of these conjugation forms as
the pupil will find readily in literature.]
A weak verb always adds an ending to the present to form the past tense, and may or may not change the vowel: as,
beg, begged; lay, laid; sleep, slept; catch, caught.
TABLE
245. OF STRONG VERBS.
NOTE. Some of these also have weak forms, which are in parentheses
Present Tense. Past Tense. Past Participle.
abide abode abode
arise arose arisen
awake awoke (awaked) awoke (awaked)
bear bore borne (active)born (passive)
begin began begun
behold beheld beheld
bid bade, bid bidden, bid
bind bound bound,[adj. bounden]
bite bit bitten, bit
blow blew blown
break broke broken
chide chid chidden, chid
choose chose chosen
cleave clove, clave (cleft) cloven (cleft)
climb [clomb] climbed climbed
cling clung clung
come came come
crow crew (crowed) (crowed)
dig dug dug
do did done
draw drew drawn
drink drank drunk, drank[adj. drunken]
drive drove driven
eat ate, eat eaten, eat
fall fell fallen
fight fought fought
find found found
fling flung flung
fly flew flown
forbear forbore forborne
forget forgot forgotten
forsake forsook forsaken
freeze froze frozen
get got got [gotten]
give gave given
go went gone
grind ground ground
grow grew grown
hang hung (hanged) hung (hanged)
hold held held
know knew known
lie lay lain
ride rode ridden
ring rang rung
run ran run
see saw seen
shake shook shaken
shear shore (sheared) shorn (sheared)
shine shone shone
shoot shot shot
shrink shrank or shrunk shrunk
shrive shrove shriven
sing sang or sung sung
sink sank or sunk sunk [adj. sunken]
sit sat [sate] sat
slay slew slain
slide slid slidden, slid
sling slung slung
slink slunk slunk
smite smote smitten
speak spoke spoken
spin spun spun
spring sprang, sprung sprung
stand stood stood
stave stove (staved) (staved)
steal stole stolen
stick stuck stuck
sting stung stung
stink stunk, stank stunk
stride strode stridden
strike struck struck, stricken
string strung strung
strive strove striven
swear swore sworn
swim swam or swum swum
swing swung swung
take took taken
tear tore torn
thrive throve (thrived) thriven (thrived)
throw threw thrown
tread trod trodden, trod
wear wore worn
weave wove woven
win won won
wind wound wound
wring wrung wrung
write wrote written
(b) In questions asking for orders, or implying obligation or authority resting upon the subject; as,—
With respect to novels, what shall I say?—N. Webster.
How shall I describe the luster which at that moment burst upon my vision?—C. Brockden Brown.
(2) With the SECOND AND THIRD PERSONS, shall and should are used,—
Second and third persons.
(a) To express authority, in the form of command, promise, or confident prediction. The
following are examples:—
Never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee.—Irving.
They shall have venison to eat, and corn to hoe.—Cooper.
The sea shall crush thee; yea, the ponderous wave up the loose beach shall grind and scoop thy
grave.—Thaxter.
She should not walk, he said, through the dust and heat of
the noonday;
Nay, she should ride like a queen, not plod along like a
peasant.
—Longfellow.
(b) In indirect quotations, to express the same idea that the original speaker put forth (i.e., future action); for example,—
He declares that he shall win the purse from you.—Bulwer.
She rejects his suit with scorn, but assures him that she shall make great use of her power over him.—
Macaulay.
Fielding came up more and more bland and smiling, with the conviction that he should win in the end.
—A. Larned.
Those who had too presumptuously concluded that they should pass without combat were something
disconcerted.—Scott.
(c) With direct questions of the second person, when the answer expected would express simple futurity; thus,—
"Should you like to go to school at Canterbury?"—Dickens.
(3) With ALL THREE PERSONS,—
First, second and third persons.
(a) Should is used with the meaning of obligation, and is equivalent to ought.
I never was what I should be.—H. James, Jr.
Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour.—Wordsworth.
He should not flatter himself with the delusion that he can make or unmake the reputation of other
men.—Winter.
(b) Shall and should are both used in dependent clauses of condition, time, purpose, etc.; for example,—
When thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all stately forms.
—Wordsworth.
Suppose this back-door gossip should be utterly blundering and untrue, would any one wonder?—
Thackeray.
Jealous lest the sky should have a listener.—Byron.
If thou should'st ever come by chance or choice to Modena.—Rogers.
If I should be where I no more can hear thy voice.—Wordsworth.
That accents and looks so winning should disarm me of my resolution, was to be expected.—C. B.
Brown.
Will
253.and would are used as follows:—
(1) With the FIRST PERSON, will and would are used to express determination as to the
future, or a promise; as, for example,— Authority as to future action—first
person.
I will go myself now, and will not return until all is finished.—Cable.
And promised...that I would do him justice, as the sole inventor.—Swift.
(2) With the SECOND PERSON, will is used to express command. This puts the order more
mildly, as if it were merely expected action; as,— Disguising a command.
Thou wilt take the skiff, Roland, and two of my people,... and fetch off certain plate and belongings.—
Scott.
You will proceed to Manassas at as early a moment as practicable, and mark on the grounds the
works, etc.—War Records.
(3) With both SECOND AND THIRD PERSONS, will and would are used to express simple
futurity, action merely expected to occur; for example,— Mere futurity.
Lie and lay need close attention. These are the forms:—
Present Tense. Past Tense. Pres. Participle. Past Participle.
1. Lie lay lying lain
2. Lay laid laying laid
The distinctions to be observed are as follows:—
(1) Lie, with its forms, is regularly intransitive as to use. As to meaning, lie means to rest, to recline, to place one's self in
a recumbent position; as, "There lies the ruin."
(2) Lay, with its forms, is always transitive as to use. As to meaning, lay means to put, to place a person or thing in
position; as, "Slowly and sadly we laid him down." Also lay may be used without any object expressed, but there is still a
transitive meaning; as in the expressions, "to lay up for future use," "to lay on with the rod," "to lay about him lustily."
Sit261.
and set have principal parts as follows:—
Sit and set.
Present Tense. Past Tense. Pres. Participle. Past Participle.
1. Sit sat sitting sat
2. Set set setting set
Notice these points of difference between the two verbs:—
(1) Sit, with its forms, is always intransitive in use. In meaning, sit signifies (a) to place one's self on a seat, to rest; (b) to
be adjusted, to fit; (c) to cover and warm eggs for hatching, as, "The hen sits."
(2) Set, with its forms, is always transitive in use when it has the following meanings: (a) to put or place a thing or person
in position, as "He set down the book;" (b) to fix or establish, as, "He sets a good example."
Set is intransitive when it means (a) to go down, to decline, as, "The sun has set;" (b) to become fixed or rigid, as, "His
eyes set in his head because of the disease;" (c) in certain idiomatic expressions, as, for example, "to set out," "to set up
in business," "to set about a thing," "to set to work," "to set forward," "the tide sets in," "a strong wind set in," etc.
Exercise.
Examine the forms of lie, lay, sit and set in these sentences; give the meaning of each, and correct those used wrongly.
1. If the phenomena which lie before him will not suit his purpose, all history must be ransacked.
2. He sat with his eyes fixed partly on the ghost and partly on Hamlet, and with his mouth open.
3. The days when his favorite volume set him upon making wheelbarrows and chairs,... can never again be the
realities they were.
4. To make the jacket sit yet more closely to the body, it was gathered at the middle by a broad leathern belt.
5. He had set up no unattainable standard of perfection.
6. For more than two hundred years his bones lay undistinguished.
7. The author laid the whole fault on the audience.
8. Dapple had to lay down on all fours before the lads could bestride him.
9.
And send'st him...to his gods where happy lies
His petty hope in some near port or bay,
And dashest him again to earth:—there let him lay.
10. Achilles is the swift-footed when he is sitting still.
11. It may be laid down as a general rule, that history begins in novel, and ends in essay.
12. I never took off my clothes, but laid down in them.
VERBALS.
Verbals
262. are words that express action in a general way, without limiting the action to any
time, or asserting it of any subject. Definition.
PARTICIPLES.
Participles
263. are adjectival verbals; that is, they either belong to some substantive by
expressing action in connection with it, or they express action, and directly modify a Definition.
substantive, thus having a descriptive force. Notice these functions.
1. At length, wearied by his cries and agitations, and not knowing how to put an end to
them, he addressed the animal as if he had been a rational being.—Dwight. Pure participle in function.
Here wearied and knowing belong to the subject he, and express action in connection with it, but do not describe.
2. Another name glided into her petition—it was that of the wounded Christian, whom
fate had placed in the hands of bloodthirsty men, his avowed enemies.—Scott. Express action and also describe.
Here wounded and avowed are participles, but are used with the same adjectival force that bloodthirsty is (see Sec. 143,
4).
Participial adjectives have been discussed in Sec. 143 (4), but we give further examples for the sake of comparison and
distinction.
3. As learned a man may live in a cottage or a college commmon-room.—Thackeray
Fossil participles as adjectives.
4. Not merely to the soldier are these campaigns interesting —Bayne.
5. How charming is divine philosophy!—Milton.
Participles,
264. in expressing action, may be active or passive, incomplete (or imperfect),
complete (perfect or past), and perfect definite. Forms of the participle.
They cannot be divided into tenses (present, past, etc.), because they have no tense of their own, but derive their tense
from the verb on which they depend; for example,—
1. He walked conscientiously through the services of the day, fulfilling every section the minutest, etc.—De
Quincey.
Fulfilling has the form to denote continuance, but depends on the verb walked, which is past tense.
2.
Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger,
Comes dancing from the East.
—Milton.
Dancing here depends on a verb in the present tense.
PARTICIPLES
265. OF THE VERB CHOOSE.
ACTIVE VOICE.
Imperfect. Choosing.
Perfect. Having chosen.
Perfect definite. Having been choosing.
PASSIVE VOICE.
Imperfect. None
Perfect. Chosen, being chosen, having been chosen.
Perfect definite. None.
Exercise.
Pick out the participles, and tell whether active or passive, imperfect, perfect, or perfect definite. If pure participles, tell to
what word they belong; if adjectives, tell what words they modify.
1. The change is a large process, accomplished within a large and corresponding space, having, perhaps, some
central or equatorial line, but lying, like that of our earth, between certain tropics, or limits widely separated.
2. I had fallen under medical advice the most misleading that it is possible to imagine.
3. These views, being adopted in a great measure from my mother, were naturally the same as my mother's.
4. Endowed with a great command over herself, she soon obtained an uncontrolled ascendency over her people.
5. No spectacle was more adapted to excite wonder.
6. Having fully supplied the demands of nature in this respect, I returned to reflection on my situation.
7. Three saplings, stripped of their branches and bound together at their ends, formed a kind of bedstead.
8. This all-pervading principle is at work in our system,—the creature warring against the creating power.
9. Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking.
10. Nothing of the kind having been done, and the principles of this unfortunate king having been distorted,... try
clemency.
INFINITIVES.
Infinitives,
266. like participles, have no tense. When active, they have an indefinite, an imperfect, a perfect, and a perfect
definite form; and when passive, an indefinite and a perfect form, to express action unconnected with a subject.
INFINITIVES
267. OF THE VERB CHOOSE.
ACTIVE VOICE.
Indefinite. [To] choose.
Imperfect. [To] be choosing.
Perfect. [To] have chosen.
Perfect definite. [To] have been choosing.
PASSIVE VOICE.
Indefinite. [To] be chosen.
Perfect. [To] have been chosen.
Sec. 267 the word to is printed in brackets because it is not a necessary part of the
In 268. To with the infinitive.
infinitive.
It originally belonged only to an inflected form of the infinitive, expressing purpose; as in the Old English, "Ūt ēode se
sǣdere his sæd tō sāwenne" (Out went the sower his seed to sow).
But later, when inflections became fewer, to was used before the infinitive generally, except
in the following cases:— Cases when to is omitted.
(1) After the auxiliaries shall , will (with should and would).
(2) After the verbs may (might), can (could), must; also let, make, do (as, "I do go" etc.), see, bid (command), feel , hear,
watch, please; sometimes need (as, "He need not go") and dare (to venture).
(3) After had in the idiomatic use; as, "You had better go" "He had rather walk than ride."
(4) In exclamations; as in the following examples:—
"He find pleasure in doing good!" cried Sir William.—Goldsmith.
I urge an address to his kinswoman! I approach her when in a base disguise! I do this!—Scott.
"She ask my pardon, poor woman!" cried Charles.—Macaulay.
Shall
269.and will are not to be taken as separate verbs, but with the infinitive as one tense of a verb; as, "He will choose," "I
shall have chosen," etc.
Also do may be considered an auxiliary in the interrogative, negative, and emphatic forms of the present and past, also in
the imperative; as,—
What! doth she, too, as the credulous imagine, learn [doth learn is one verb, present tense] the love of
the great stars? —Bulwer.
Do not entertain so weak an imagination—Burke.
She did not weep—she did not break forth into reproaches.—Irving.
The infinitive is sometimes active in form while it is passive in meaning, as in the expression, "a house to let." Examples
270.
are,—
She was a kind, liberal woman; rich rather more than needed where there were no opera boxes to rent.
—De Quincey.
Tho' it seems my spurs are yet to win.—Tennyson.
But there was nothing to do.—Howells.
They shall have venison to eat, and corn to hoe.—Cooper.
Nolan himself saw that something was to pay.—E. E. Hale.
The
271.
various offices which the infinitive and the participle have in the sentence will be treated in Part II., under "Analysis,"
as we are now learning merely to recognize the forms.
GERUNDS.
The
272.
gerund is like the participle in form, and like a noun in use.
The participle has been called an adjectival verbal; the gerund may be called a noun verbal . While the gerund expresses
action, it has several attributes of a noun,—it may be governed as a noun; it may be the subject of a verb, or the object of
a verb or a preposition; it is often preceded by the definite article; it is frequently modified by a possessive noun or
pronoun.
It differs
273. from the participle in being always used as a noun: it never belongs to or limits a
noun. Distinguished from participle and
verbal noun.
It differs from the verbal noun in having the property of governing a noun (which the verbal noun has not) and of
expressing action (the verbal noun merely names an action, Sec. II).
The following are examples of the uses of the gerund:—
(1) Subject: "The taking of means not to see another morning had all day absorbed every energy;" "Certainly dueling is
bad, and has been put down."
(2) Object: (a) "Our culture therefore must not omit the arming of the man." (b) "Nobody cares for planting the poor
fungus;" "I announce the good of being interpenetrated by the mind that made nature;" "The guilt of having been cured of
the palsy by a Jewish maiden."
(3) Governing and Governed: "We are far from having exhausted the significance of the few symbols we use," also (2,
b), above; "He could embellish the characters with new traits without violating probability;" "He could not help holding out
his hand in return."
Exercise.—Find sentences containing five participles, five infinitives, and five gerunds.
Tell to which of the above six classes each -ing word in the following sentences belongs:—
1. Here is need of apologies for shortcomings.
2. Then how pleasing is it, on your leaving the spot, to see the returning hope of the parents, when, after examining
the nest, they find the nurslings untouched!
3. The crowning incident of my life was upon the bank of the Scioto Salt Creek, in which I had been unhorsed by the
breaking of the saddle girths.
4. What a vast, brilliant, and wonderful store of learning!
5. He is one of the most charming masters of our language.
6. In explaining to a child the phenomena of nature, you must, by object lessons, give reality to your teaching.
7. I suppose I was dreaming about it. What is dreaming?
8. It is years since I heard the laughter ringing.
9. Intellect is not speaking and logicizing: it is seeing and ascertaining.
10. We now draw toward the end of that great martial drama which we have been briefly contemplating.
11. The second cause of failure was the burning of Moscow.
12. He spread his blessings all over the land.
13. The only means of ascending was by my hands.
14. A marble figure of Mary is stretched upon the tomb, round which is an iron railing, much corroded, bearing her
national emblem.
15. The exertion left me in a state of languor and sinking.
16. Thackeray did not, like Sir Walter Scott, write twenty pages without stopping, but, dictating from his chair, he
gave out sentence by sentence, slowly.
HOW TO PARSE VERBS AND VERBALS.
I. VERBS.
In 275.
parsing verbs, give the following points:—
(1) Class: (a) as to form,—strong or weak, giving principal parts; (b) as to use,—transitive or intransitive.
(2) Voice,—active or passive.
(3) Mood,—indicative, subjunctive, or imperative.
(4) Tense,—which of the tenses given in Sec. 234.
(5) Person and number, in determining which you must tell—
(6) What the subject is, for the form of the verb may not show the person and number.
It has
276.been intimated in Sec. 235, we must beware of the rule, "A verb agrees with its subject
in person and number." Sometimes it does; usually it does not, if agrees means that the verb Caution.
changes its form for the different persons and numbers. The verb be has more forms than other verbs, and may be said
to agree with its subject in several of its forms. But unless the verb is present, and ends in -s, or is an old or poetic form
ending in -st or -eth, it is best for the student not to state it as a general rule that "the verb agrees with its subject in
person and number," but merely to tell what the subject of the verb is.
III. VERBALS.
Participle. Tell (a) from what verb it is derived; (b) whether active or passive, imperfect, perfect, etc.; (c) to what word
(1)278.
it belongs. If a participial adjective, give points (a) and (b), then parse it as an adjective.
(2) Infinitive. Tell (a) from what verb it is derived; (b) whether indefinite, perfect, definite, etc.
(3) Gerund. (a) From what verb derived; (b) its use (Sec. 273).
Exercise.
Parse the verbs, verbals, and verb phrases in the following sentences:—
1. Byron builds a structure that repeats certain elements in nature or humanity.
2. The birds were singing as if there were no aching hearts, no sin nor sorrow, in the world.
3. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day
linger and play on its summit.
4. You are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance.
5. Read this Declaration at the head of the army.
6.
Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing,
Down all the line, a deafening shout, "God save our Lord the King!"
7. When he arose in the morning, he thought only of her, and wondered if she were yet awake.
8. He had lost the quiet of his thoughts, and his agitated soul reflected only broken and distorted images of things.
9.
So, lest I be inclined
To render ill for ill,
Henceforth in me instill,
O God, a sweet good will.
10. The sun appears to beat in vain at the casements.
11. Margaret had come into the workshop with her sewing, as usual.
12.
Two things there are with memory will abide—
Whatever else befall—while life flows by.
13. To the child it was not permitted to look beyond into the hazy lines that bounded his oasis of flowers.
14. With them, morning is not a new issuing of light, a new bursting forth of the sun; a new waking up of all that has
life, from a sort of temporary death.
15. Whatever ground you sow or plant, see that it is in good condition.
16. However that be, it is certain that he had grown to delight in nothing else than this conversation.
17. The soul having been often born, or, as the Hindoos say, "traveling the path of existence through thousands of
births," there is nothing of which she has not gained knowledge.
18. The ancients called it ecstasy or absence,—a getting-out of their bodies to think.
19. Such a boy could not whistle or dance.
20. He had rather stand charged with the imbecility of skepticism than with untruth.
21. He can behold with serenity the yawning gulf between the ambition of man and his power of performance.
22. He passed across the room to the washstand, leaving me upon the bed, where I afterward found he had
replaced me on being awakened by hearing me leap frantically up and down on the floor.
23. In going for water, he seemed to be traveling over a desert plain to some far-off spring.
24. Hasheesh always brings an awakening of perception which magnifies the smallest sensation.
25. I have always talked to him as I would to a friend.
26. Over them multitudes of rosy children came leaping to throw garlands on my victorious road.
27. Oh, had we some bright little isle of our own!
28.
Better it were, thou sayest, to consent;
Feast while we may, and live ere life be spent.
29. And now wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour of rest is at hand.
ADVERBS.
The word adverb means joined to a verb. The adverb is the only word that can join to a verb
279.
to modify it. Adverbs modify.
When action is expressed, an adverb is usually added to define the action in some way,—
time, place, or manner: as, "He began already to be proud of being a Rugby boy [time];" "One A verb.
of the young heroes scrambled up behind [place];" "He was absolute, but wisely and bravely ruling [manner]."
But this does not mean that adverbs modify verbs only: many of them express degree, and
limit adjectives or adverbs; as, "William's private life was severely pure;" "Principles of An adjective or an adverb.
English law are put down a little confusedly."
Sometimes an adverb may modify a noun or pronoun; for example,—
Sometimes a noun or pronoun.
The young man reveres men of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more himself
than he is.—Emerson.
Is it only poets, and men of leisure and cultivation, who live with nature?—Id.
To the almost terror of the persons present, Macaulay began with the senior wrangler of 1801-2-3-4,
and so on.—Thackeray.
Nor was it altogether nothing.—Carlyle.
Sounds overflow the listener's brain So sweet that joy is almost pain.—Shelley.
The condition of Kate is exactly that of Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner."—De Quincey.
He was incidentally news dealer.—T. B. Aldrich.
NOTE.—These last differ from the words in Sec. 169, being adverbs naturally and fitly, while those in Sec. 169 are felt to
be elliptical, and rather forced into the service of adjectives.
Also these adverbs modifying nouns are to be distinguished from those standing after a noun by ellipsis, but really
modifying, not the noun, but some verb understood; thus,—
The gentle winds and waters [that are] near, Make music to the lonely ear.—Byron.
With bowering leaves [that grow] o'erhead, to which the eye Looked up half sweetly, and half
awfully.—Leigh Hunt.
An adverb may modify a phrase which is equivalent to an adjective or an adverb, as shown in
the sentences,— A phrase.
They had begun to make their effort much at the same time.—Trollope.
I draw forth the fruit, all wet and glossy, maybe nibbled by rabbits and hollowed out by crickets, and
perhaps with a leaf or two cemented to it, but still with a rich bloom to it.—Thoreau.
It may also modify a sentence, emphasizing or qualifying the statement expressed; as, for
example,— A clause or sentence.
And certainly no one ever entered upon office with so few resources of power in the past.—Lowell.
Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven. —Irving.
We are offered six months' credit; and that, perhaps, has induced some of us to attend it.—Franklin.
An280.
adverb, then, is a modifying word, which may qualify an action word or a statement, and
may add to the meaning of an adjective or adverb, or a word group used as such. Definition.
NOTE.—The expression action word is put instead of verb, because any verbal word may be limited by an adverb, not
simply the forms used in predication.
Adverbs
281. may be classified in two ways: (1) according to the meaning of the words; (2) according to their use in the
sentence.
Some
286.adverbs, besides modifying, have the additional function of asking a question.
Interrogative.
These may introduce direct questions of—
Direct questions.
(1) Time.
When did this humane custom begin?—H. Clay.
(2) Place.
Where will you have the scene?—Longfellow
(3) Manner.
And how looks it now?—Hawthorne.
(4) Degree.
"How long have you had this whip?" asked he.—Bulwer.
(5) Reason.
Why that wild stare and wilder cry?—Whittier
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?—Coleridge
Or they may introduce indirect questions of—
Indirect questions.
(1) Time.
I do not remember when I was taught to read.—D. Webster.
(2) Place.
I will not ask where thou liest low.—Byron
(3) Manner.
Who set you to cast about what you should say to the select souls, or how to say anything to such?—
Emerson.
(4) Degree.
Being too full of sleep to understand
How far the unknown transcends the what we know.
—Longfellow
(5) Reason.
I hearkened, I know not why.—Poe.
There
287. is a class of words usually classed as conjunctive adverbs, as they are said to have the office of conjunctions in
joining clauses, while having the office of adverbs in modifying; for example,—
When last I saw thy young blue eyes, they smiled.—Byron.
But in reality, when does not express time and modify, but the whole clause, when...eyes; and when has simply the use
of a conjunction, not an adverb. For further discussion, see Sec. 299 under "Subordinate Conjunctions."
Exercise.—Bring up sentences containing twenty adverbs, representing four classes.
COMPARISON OF ADVERBS.
Many
288.adverbs are compared, and, when compared, have the same inflection as adjectives.
The following, irregularly compared, are often used as adjectives:—
Positive. Comparative. Superlative.
well better best
ill or badly worse worst
much more most
little less least
nigh or near nearer nearest or next
far farther, further farthest, furthest
late later latest, last
(rathe, obs.) rather
289.monosyllabic adverbs add -er and -est to form the comparative and superlative, just as adjectives do; as, high,
Most
higher, highest; soon, sooner, soonest.
Adverbs in -ly usually have more and most instead of the inflected form, only occasionally having -er and -est.
Its strings boldlier swept.—Coleridge.
None can deem harshlier of me than I deem.—Byron.
Only that we may wiselier see.—Emerson.
Then must she keep it safelier.—Tennyson.
I should freelier rejoice in that absence.—Shakespeare.
The fact that a word ends in -ly does not make it an adverb. Many adjectives have the same
290.
ending, and must be distinguished by their use in the sentence. Form vs. use.
Exercise.
This is such a fixed idiom that the sentence, if it has the verb be, seems awkward or affected without this "there
introductory." Compare these:—1. There are eyes, to be sure, that give no more admission into the man than
blueberries.—Emerson.
2. Time was when field and watery cove With modulated echoes rang.—Wordsworth.
Exercise.
(2) Connecting word groups: "Hitherto the two systems have existed in different States, but
side by side within the American Union;" "This has happened because the Union is a Word groups: Phrases.
confederation of States."
Clauses.
(3) Connecting sentences: "Unanimity in this case can mean only a very large majority. But
even unanimity itself is far from indicating the voice of God." Sentences.
(4) Connecting sentence groups: Paragraphs would be too long to quote here, but the
student will readily find them, in which the writer connects the divisions of narration or Paragraphs.
argument by such words as but, however, hence, nor, then, therefore, etc.
A 295.
conjunction is a linking word, connecting words, word groups, sentences, or sentence
groups. Definition.
Conjunctions
296. have two principal divisions:—
Classes of conjunctions.
(1) Coördinate, joining words, word groups, etc., of the same rank.
(2) Subordinate, joining a subordinate or dependent clause to a principal or independent clause.
COÖRDINATE CONJUNCTIONS.
Coördinate
297. conjunctions are of four kinds:
(1) COPULATIVE, coupling or uniting words and expressions in the same line of thought; as and, also, as well as,
moreover, etc.
(2) ADVERSATIVE, connecting words and expressions that are opposite in thought; as but, yet, still , however, while,
only, etc.
(3) CAUSAL, introducing a reason or cause. The chief ones are, for, therefore, hence, then.
(4) ALTERNATIVE, expressing a choice, usually between two things. They are or, either, else, nor, neither, whether.
298.of these go in pairs, answering to each other in the same sentence; as, both...and; not
Some
only...but (or but also); either...or; whether...or; neither...nor; whether...or whether. Correlatives.
The assertion, however, serves but to show their ignorance. "Can this be so?" said Goodman
Brown. "Howbeit, I have nothing to do with the governor and council." Adversative.
Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks.
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves.
Alternative.
Nor mark'd they less, where in the air
A thousand streamers flaunted fair.
Therefore the poet is not any permissive potentate, but is emperor in his own right. For it is Causal.
the rule of the universe that corn shall serve man, and not man corn.
Examples of the use of correlatives:—
He began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched.—Irving.
He is not only bold and vociferous, but possesses a considerable talent for mimicry, and seems to
enjoy great satisfaction in mocking and teasing other birds.—Wilson.
It is...the same whether I move my hand along the surface of a body, or whether such a body is moved
along my hand.—Burke.
Neither the place in which he found himself, nor the exclusive attention that he attracted, disturbed the
self-possession of the young Mohican.—Cooper.
Neither was there any phantom memorial of life, nor wing of bird, nor echo, nor green leaf, nor
creeping thing, that moved or stirred upon the soundless waste.—De Quincey.
SUBORDINATE CONJUNCTIONS.
Subordinate
299. conjunctions are of the following kinds:—
(1) PLACE: where, wherever, whither, whereto, whithersoever, whence, etc.
(2) TIME: when, before, after, since, as, until , whenever, while, ere, etc.
(3) MANNER: how, as, however, howsoever.
(4) CAUSE or REASON: because, since, as, now, whereas, that, seeing, etc.
(5) COMPARISON: than and as.
(6) PURPOSE: that, so, so that, in order that, lest, so...as.
(7) RESULT: that, so that, especially that after so.
(8) CONDITION or CONCESSION: if, unless, so, except, though, although; even if, provided, provided that, in case, on
condition that, etc.
(9) SUBSTANTIVE: that, whether, sometimes if, are used frequently to introduce noun clauses used as subject, object,
in apposition, etc.
Examples of the use of subordinate conjunctions:—
Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.—Bible.
Place.
To lead from eighteen to twenty millions of men whithersoever they will.—J. Quincy.
An artist will delight in excellence wherever he meets it. —Allston.
I promise to devote myself to your happiness whenever you shall ask it of me.—
Paulding. Time.
All the subsequent experience of our race had gone over him with as little permanent effect as [as
follows the semi-adverbs as and so in expressing comparison] the passing breeze.—Hawthorne.
We wish for a thousand heads, a thousand bodies, that we might celebrate its immense
beauty.—Emerson. Purpose.
We do not believe that he left any worthy man his foe who had ever been his friend.—Ames.
Let us see whether the greatest, the wisest, the purest-hearted of all ages are agreed in any wise on
this point.—Ruskin.
Who can tell if Washington be a great man or no?—Emerson.
will have been noticed, some words—for example, since, while, as, that, etc.—may belong to several classes of
As300.
conjunctions, according to their meaning and connection in the sentence.
Exercises.
SPECIAL REMARKS.
As301.
if is often used as one conjunction of manner, but really there is an ellipsis between the
two words; thus,—But thy soft murmuring As if.
Sounds sweet as if a sister's voice reproved.
—Byron.
If analyzed, the expression would be, "sounds sweet as [the sound would be] if a sister's voice reproved;" as, in this
case, expressing degree if taken separately.
But the ellipsis seems to be lost sight of frequently in writing, as is shown by the use of as though.
Emerson's sentence, "We meet, and part as though we parted not," it cannot be said that
In 302.
there is an ellipsis: it cannot mean "we part as [we should part] though" etc. As though.
Consequently, as if and as though may be taken as double conjunctions expressing manner. As though seems to be in
as wide use as the conjunction as if; for example,—Do you know a farmer who acts and lives as though he believed one
word of this?—H. Greeley.
His voice ... sounded as though it came out of a barrel.—Irving.
Blinded alike from sunshine and from rain,
As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again.
—Keats
Examples might be quoted from almost all authors.
poetry, as is often equivalent to as if.
In 303.
As for as if.
And their orbs grew strangely dreary,
Clouded, even as they would weep.
—Emily Bronte.
So silently we seemed to speak,
So slowly moved about,
As we had lent her half our powers
To eke her living out.
—Hood.
HOW TO PARSE CONJUNCTIONS.
In 304.
parsing conjunctions, tell—
(1) To what class and subclass they belong.
(2) What words, word groups, etc., they connect.
In classifying them, particular attention must be paid to the meaning of the word. Some
conjunctions, such as nor, and, because, when, etc., are regularly of one particular class; Caution.
others belong to several classes. For example, compare the sentences,—1. It continued raining, so that I could not stir
abroad.—Defoe
2. There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour.—Emerson
3. It was too dark to put an arrow into the creature's eye; so they paddled on.—Kingsley
In sentence 1, so that expresses result, and its clause depends on the other, hence it is a subordinate conjunction of
result; in 2, so means provided,—is subordinate of condition; in 3, so means therefore, and its clause is independent,
hence it is a coördinate conjunction of reason.
Exercise.
Besides
308. nouns, prepositions may have as objects—
Objects, nouns and the following.
(1) Pronouns: "Upon them with the lance;" "With whom I traverse earth."
(2) Adjectives: "On high the winds lift up their voices."
(3) Adverbs: "If I live wholly from within;" "Had it not been for the sea from aft."
(4) Phrases: "Everything came to her from on high;" "From of old they had been zealous worshipers."
(5) Infinitives: "The queen now scarce spoke to him save to convey some necessary command for her service."
(6) Gerunds: "They shrink from inflicting what they threaten;" "He is not content with shining on great occasions."
(7) Clauses:
"Each soldier eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn."
The
309.object of a preposition, if a noun or pronoun, is usually in the objective case. In Object usually objective case, if
pronouns, this is shown by the form of the word, as in Sec. 308 (1). noun or pronoun.
In the double-possessive idiom, however, the object is in the possessive case after of; for
example,—There was also a book of Defoe's,... and another of Mather's.—Franklin. Often possessive.
USES OF PREPOSITIONS.
Prepositions
310. are used in three ways:—
Inseparable.
(1) Compounded with verbs, adverbs, or conjunctions; as, for example, with verbs, withdraw,
understand, overlook, overtake, overflow, undergo, outstay, outnumber, overrun, overgrow, etc.; with adverbs, thereat,
therein, therefrom, thereby, therewith, etc.; with conjunctions, whereat, wherein, whereon, wherethrough, whereupon,
etc.
(2) Following a verb, and being really a part of the verb. This use needs to be watched
closely, to see whether the preposition belongs to the verb or has a separate prepositional Separable.
function. For example, in the sentences, (a) "He broke a pane from the window," ( b) "He broke into the bank," in (a), the
verb broke is a predicate, modified by the phrase introduced by from; in (b), the predicate is not broke, modified by into
the bank, but broke into—the object, bank.
Study carefully the following prepositions with verbs:—
Considering the space they took up.—Swift.
I loved, laughed at, and pitied him.—Goldsmith.
The sun breaks through the darkest clouds.—Shakespeare.
They will root up the whole ground.—Swift.
A friend prevailed upon one of the interpreters.—Addison
My uncle approved of it.—Franklin.
The robber who broke into them.—Landor.
This period is not obscurely hinted at.—Lamb.
The judge winked at the iniquity of the decision.—Id.
The pupils' voices, conning over their lessons.—Irving.
To help out his maintenance.—Id.
With such pomp is Merry Christmas ushered in.—Longfellow.
(3) As relation words, introducing phrases,—the most common use, in which the words have
their own proper function. Ordinary use as connective,
relation words.
Prepositions
311. are the subtlest and most useful words in the language for compressing a clear
meaning into few words. Each preposition has its proper and general meaning, which, by Usefulness of prepositions.
frequent and exacting use, has expanded and divided into a variety of meanings more or less close to the original one.
Take, for example, the word over. It expresses place, with motion, as, "The bird flew over the house;" or rest, as, "Silence
broods over the earth." It may also convey the meaning of about, concerning; as, "They quarreled over the booty." Or it
may express time: "Stay over night."
The language is made richer and more flexible by there being several meanings to each of many prepositions, as well as
by some of them having the same meaning as others.
CLASSES OF PREPOSITIONS.
It would
312. be useless to attempt to classify all the prepositions, since they are so various in meaning.
The largest groups are those of place, time, and exclusion.
PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE.
The
313.
following are the most common to indicate place:—
(1) PLACE WHERE: abaft, about, above, across, amid (amidst), among (amongst), at, athwart, below, beneath, beside,
between (betwixt), beyond, in, on, over, under (underneath), upon, round or around, without.
(2) PLACE WHITHER: into, unto, up, through, throughout, to, towards.
(3) PLACE WHENCE: down, from (away from, down from, from out, etc.), off, out of.
Abaft is exclusively a sea term, meaning back of.
Among (or amongst) and between (or betwixt) have a difference in meaning, and usually a difference in use. Among
originally meant in the crowd (on gemong), referring to several objects; between and betwixt were originally made up of
the preposition be (meaning by) and twēon or twēonum (modern twain), by two, and be with twīh (or twuh), having the
same meaning, by two objects.
As to modern use, see "Syntax" (Sec. 459).
PREPOSITIONS OF TIME.
314.are after, during, pending, till or until ; also many of the prepositions of place express time when put before words
They
indicating time, such as at, between, by, about, on, within, etc.
These are all familiar, and need no special remark.
EXCLUSION OR SEPARATION.
The chief ones are besides, but, except, save, without. The participle excepting is also used as a preposition.
315.
MISCELLANEOUS PREPOSITIONS.
Against
316. implies opposition, sometimes place where. In colloquial English it is sometimes used to express time, now and
then also in literary English; for example,—She contrived to fit up the baby's cradle for me against night.—Swift
About, and the participial prepositions concerning, respecting, regarding, mean with reference to.
317.phrases are used as single prepositions: by means of, by virtue of, by help of, by dint
Many
of, by force of; out of, on account of, by way of, for the sake of; in consideration of, in spite Phrase prepositions.
of, in defiance of, instead of, in view of, in place of; with respect to, with regard to, according to, agreeably to; and some
others.
Besides
318. all these, there are some prepositions that have so many meanings that they require separate and careful
treatment: on (upon), at, by, for, from, of, to, with.
No attempt will be made to give all the meanings that each one in this list has: the purpose is to stimulate observation,
and to show how useful prepositions really are.
At.
The general meaning of at is near, close to, after a verb or expression implying position; and towards after a verb or
319.
expression indicating motion. It defines position approximately, while in is exact, meaning within.
Its principal uses are as follows:—
(1) Place where.
They who heard it listened with a curling horror at the heart.—J. F. Cooper.
There had been a strike at the neighboring manufacturing village, and there was to be a public
meeting, at which he was besought to be present.—T. W. Higginson.
(2) Time, more exact, meaning the point of time at which.
He wished to attack at daybreak.—Parkman.
They buried him darkly, at dead of night.—Wolfe
(3) Direction.
The mother stood looking wildly down at the unseemly object.—Cooper.
You are next invited...to grasp at the opportunity, and take for your subject, "Health."—Higginson.
Here belong such expressions as laugh at, look at, wink at, gaze at, stare at, peep at, scowl at, sneer at, frown at, etc.
We laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years.—Johnson.
"You never mean to say," pursued Dot, sitting on the floor and shaking her head at him.—Dickens.
(4) Source or cause, meaning because of, by reason of.
I felt my heart chill at the dismal sound.—T. W. Knox.
Delighted at this outburst against the Spaniards.—Parkman.
(5) Then the idiomatic phrases at last, at length, at any rate, at the best, at the worst, at least, at most, at first, at once,
at all , at one, at naught, at random, etc.; and phrases signifying state or condition of being, as, at work, at play, at peace,
at war, at rest, etc.
Exercise.—Find sentences with three different uses of at.
By.
Like at, by means near or close to, but has several other meanings more or less connected with this,—(1) The general
320.
meaning of place.
Richard was standing by the window.—Aldrich.
Provided always the coach had not shed a wheel by the roadside.—Id.
(2) Time.
But by this time the bell of Old Alloway began tolling.—B. Taylor
The angel came by night.—R. H. Stoddard.
(3) Agency or means.
Menippus knew which were the kings by their howling louder.—M. D. Conway.
At St. Helena, the first port made by the ship, he stopped. —Parton.
(4) Measure of excess, expressing the degree of difference.
At that time [the earth] was richer, by many a million of acres.—De Quincey.
He was taller by almost the breadth of my nail.—Swift.
(5) It is also used in oaths and adjurations.
By my faith, that is a very plump hand for a man of eighty-four!—Parton.
They implore us by the long trials of struggling humanity; by the blessed memory of the departed; by
the wrecks of time; by the ruins of nations.—Everett.
Exercise.—Find sentences with three different meanings of by.
For.
The
321.
chief meanings of for are as follows:—
(1) Motion towards a place, or a tendency or action toward the attainment of any object.
Pioneers who were opening the way for the march of the nation.—Cooper.
She saw the boat headed for her.—Warner.
(2) In favor of, for the benefit of, in behalf of, a person or thing.
He and they were for immediate attack.—Parkman
The people were then against us; they are now for us.—W. L. Garrison.
(3) Duration of time, or extent of space.
For a long time the disreputable element outshone the virtuous.—H. H. Bancroft.
He could overlook all the country for many a mile of rich woodland.—Irving.
(4) Substitution or exchange.
There are gains for all our losses.—Stoddard.
Thus did the Spaniards make bloody atonement for the butchery of Fort Caroline.—Parkman.
(5) Reference, meaning with regard to, as to, respecting, etc.
For the rest, the Colonna motto would fit you best.—Emerson.
For him, poor fellow, he repented of his folly.—E. E. Hale
This is very common with as—as for me, etc.
(6) Like as, meaning in the character of, as being, etc.
"Nay, if your worship can accomplish that," answered Master Brackett, "I shall own you for a man of
skill indeed!" —Hawthorne.
Wavering whether he should put his son to death for an unnatural monster.—Lamb.
(7) Concession, meaning although, considering that etc.
"For a fool," said the Lady of Lochleven, "thou hast counseled wisely."—Scott By my faith, that is a
very plump hand for a man of eighty-four!—Parton.
(8) Meaning notwithstanding, or in spite of.
But the Colonel, for all his title, had a forest of poor relations.—Holmes.
Still, for all slips of hers,
One of Eve's family.
—Hood.
(9) Motive, cause, reason, incitement to action.
The twilight being...hardly more wholesome for its glittering mists of midge companies.—Ruskin.
An Arab woman, but a few sunsets since, ate her child, for famine.—Id.
Here Satouriona forgot his dignity, and leaped for joy.—Parkman.
(10) For with its object preceding the infinitive, and having the same meaning as a noun clause, as shown by this
sentence:—It is by no means necessary that he should devote his whole school existence to physical science; nay,
more, it is not necessary for him to give up more than a moderate share of his time to such studies.—Huxley.
Exercise.—Find sentences with five meanings of for.
From.
The general idea in from is separation or source. It may be with regard to—(1) Place.
322.
Like boys escaped from school.—H. H. Bancroft
Thus they drifted from snow-clad ranges to burning plain.—Id.
(2) Origin.
Coming from a race of day-dreamers, Ayrault had inherited the faculty of dreaming also by night.—
Higginson.
From harmony, from heavenly harmony
This universal frame began.
—Dryden.
(3) Time.
A distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become from the night of that fearful dream—Hawthorne.
(4) Motive, cause, or reason.
It was from no fault of Nolan's.—Hale.
The young cavaliers, from a desire of seeming valiant, ceased to be merciful.—Bancroft.
Exercise.—Find sentences with three meanings of from.
Of.
The original meaning of of was separation or source, like from. The various uses are shown in the following examples:—
323.
Not even woman's love, and the dignity of a queen, could give shelter from his contumely.—W. E.
Channing.
And the mighty secret of the Sierra stood revealed.—Bancroft.
(8) Appositional , which may be in the case of—
(a) Nouns.
Such a book as that of Job.—Froude.
The fair city of Mexico.—Prescott.
The nation of Lilliput.—Swift.
(b) Noun and gerund, being equivalent to an infinitive.
In the vain hope of appeasing the savages.—Cooper.
Few people take the trouble of finding out what democracy really is.—Lowell.
(c) Two nouns, when the first is descriptive of the second.
This crampfish of a Socrates has so bewitched him.—Emerson
A sorry antediluvian makeshift of a building you may think it.—Lamb.
An inexhaustible bottle of a shop.—Aldrich.
(9) Of time. Besides the phrases of old, of late, of a sudden, etc., of is used in the sense of during.
I used often to linger of a morning by the high gate.—Aldrich
I delighted to loll over the quarter railing of a calm day. —Irving.
(10) Of reference, equal to about, concerning, with regard to.
The Turk lay dreaming of the hour.—Halleck.
Boasted of his prowess as a scalp hunter and duelist.—Bancroft.
Sank into reverie of home and boyhood scenes.—Id.
Of is also used as an appendage of certain verbs, such as admit, accept, allow, approve,
disapprove, permit, without adding to their meaning. It also accompanies the verbs tire, Idiomatic use with verbs.
complain, repent, consist, avail (one's self), and others.
Exercise.—Find sentences with six uses of of.
On, Upon.
The general meaning of on is position or direction. On and upon are interchangeable in almost all of their applications,
324.
as shown by the sentences below:—(1) Place: (a) Where.
Cannon were heard close on the left.—Parkman.
The Earl of Huntley ranged his host
Upon their native strand.
—Mrs. Sigourney.
(b) With motion.
It was the battery at Samos firing on the boats.—Parkman.
Thou didst look down upon the naked earth.—Bryant.
(2) Time.
The demonstration of joy or sorrow on reading their letters. —Bancroft.
On Monday evening he sent forward the Indians.—Parkman.
Upon is seldom used to express time.
(3) Reference, equal to about, concerning, etc.
I think that one abstains from writing on the immortality of the soul.—Emerson.
He pronounced a very flattering opinion upon my brother's promise of excellence.—De Quincey.
(4) In adjurations.
On my life, you are eighteen, and not a day more.—Aldrich.
Upon my reputation and credit.—Shakespeare
(5) Idiomatic phrases: on fire, on board, on high, on the wing, on the alert, on a sudden, on view, on trial , etc.
Exercise.—Find sentences with three uses of on or upon.
To.
Some
325.uses of to are the following:—
(1) Expressing motion: (a) To a place.
Come to the bridal chamber, Death!—Halleck.
Rip had scrambled to one of the highest peaks.—Irving.
(b) Referring to time.
Full of schemes and speculations to the last.—Parton.
Revolutions, whose influence is felt to this hour.—Parkman.
(2) Expressing result.
He usually gave his draft to an aid...to be written over,—often to the loss of vigor.—Benton To our
great delight, Ben Lomond was unshrouded.—B. Taylor
(3) Expressing comparison.
But when, unmasked, gay Comedy appears,
'Tis ten to one you find the girl in tears.
—Aldrich
They are arrant rogues: Cacus was nothing to them.—Bulwer.
Bolingbroke and the wicked Lord Littleton were saints to him.—Webster
(4) Expressing concern, interest.
To the few, it may be genuine poetry.—Bryant.
His brother had died, had ceased to be, to him.—Hale.
Little mattered to them occasional privations—Bancroft.
(5) Equivalent to according to.
Nor, to my taste, does the mere music...of your style fall far below the highest efforts of poetry.—Lang.
We cook the dish to our own appetite.—Goldsmith.
(6) With the infinitive (see Sec. 268).
Exercise.—Find sentences containing three uses of to.
With.
With
326.expresses the idea of accompaniment, and hardly any of its applications vary from this general signification.
In Old English, mid meant in company with, while wið meant against: both meanings are included in the modern with.
The following meanings are expressed by with:—
(1) Personal accompaniment.
The advance, with Heyward at its head, had already reached the defile.—Cooper.
For many weeks I had walked with this poor friendless girl.—De Quincey.
(2) Instrumentality.
With my crossbow I shot the albatross.—Coleridge.
Either with the swingle-bar, or with the haunch of our near leader, we had struck the off-wheel of the
little gig.—De Quincey.
(3) Cause, reason, motive.
He was wild with delight about Texas.—Hale.
She seemed pleased with the accident.—Howells.
(4) Estimation, opinion.
How can a writer's verses be numerous if with him, as with you, "poetry is not a pursuit, but a
pleasure"?—Lang.
It seemed a supreme moment with him.—Howells.
(5) Opposition.
After battling with terrific hurricanes and typhoons on every known sea.—Aldrich.
The quarrel of the sentimentalists is not with life, but with you.—Lang.
(6) The equivalent of notwithstanding, in spite of.
With all his sensibility, he gave millions to the sword.—Channing.
Messala, with all his boldness, felt it unsafe to trifle further.—Wallace
(7) Time.
He expired with these words.—Scott.
With each new mind a new secret of nature transpires.—Emerson.
Exercise.—Find sentences with four uses of with.
Exercises.
WHAT.
Relative pronoun.
(1)330.
That is what I understand by scientific education.—Huxley.
(a) Indefinite relative.
Those shadowy recollections,
Which be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day.
—Wordsworth.
(2) Interrogative pronoun: (a) Direct question.
What would be an English merchant's character after a few such transactions?—Thackeray.
(b) Indirect question.
I have not allowed myself to look beyond the Union, to see what might be hidden.—Webster.
(3) Indefinite pronoun: The saying, "I'll tell you what."
(4) Relative adjective.
But woe to what thing or person stood in the way.—Emerson.
(a) Indefinite relative adjective.
To say what good of fashion we can, it rests on reality.—Id.
(5) Interrogative adjective: (a) Direct question.
What right have you to infer that this condition was caused by the action of heat?—Agassiz.
(b) Indirect question.
At what rate these materials would be distributed,...it is impossible to determine.—Id.
(6) Exclamatory adjective.
Saint Mary! what a scene is here!—Scott.
(7) Adverb of degree.
If he has [been in America], he knows what good people are to be found there.—Thackeray.
(8) Conjunction, nearly equivalent to partly... partly, or not only...but.
What with the Maltese goats, who go tinkling by to their pasturage; what with the vocal seller of bread
in the early morning;...these sounds are only to be heard...in Pera.—S.S. Cox.
(9) As an exclamation.
What, silent still, and silent all!—Byron.
What, Adam Woodcock at court!—Scott.
BUT.
Coördinate conjunction: (a) Adversative.
(1)331.
His very attack was never the inspiration of courage, but the result of calculation.—Emerson.
(b) Copulative, after not only.
Then arose not only tears, but piercing cries, on all sides. —Carlyle.
(2) Subordinate conjunction: (a) Result, equivalent to that ... not.
Nor is Nature so hard but she gives me this joy several times.—Emerson.
(b) Substantive, meaning otherwise ... than.
Who knows but, like the dog, it will at length be no longer traceable to its wild original—Thoreau.
(3) Preposition, meaning except.
Now there was nothing to be seen but fires in every direction.—Lamb.
(4) Relative pronoun, after a negative, stands for that ... not, or who ... not.
There is not a man in them but is impelled withal, at all moments, towards order.—Carlyle.
(5) Adverb, meaning only.
The whole twenty years had been to him but as one night.—Irving.
To lead but one measure.—Scott.
AS.
Subordinate conjunction: (a) Of time.
(1)332.
Rip beheld a precise counterpart of himself as he went up the mountain.—Irving.
(b) Of manner.
As orphans yearn on to their mothers,
He yearned to our patriot bands.
—Mrs Browning.
(c) Of degree.
His wan eyes
Gaze on the empty scene as vacantly
As ocean's moon looks on the moon in heaven.
—Shelley.
(d) Of reason.
I shall see but little of it, as I could neither bear walking nor riding in a carriage.—Franklin.
(e) Introducing an appositive word.
Reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the village.—Irving.
Doing duty as a guard.—Hawthorne.
(2) Relative pronoun, after such, sometimes same.
And was there such a resemblance as the crowd had testified?—Hawthorne.
LIKE.
An adjective.
(1)333.
Modifier of a noun or pronoun.
The aforesaid general had been exceedingly like the majestic image.—Hawthorne.
They look, indeed, liker a lion's mane than a Christian man's locks.-SCOTT.
No Emperor, this, like him awhile ago.—Aldrich.
There is no statue like this living man.—Emerson.
That face, like summer ocean's.—Halleck.
In each case, like clearly modifies a noun or pronoun, and is followed by a dative-objective.
(2) A subordinate conjunction of manner. This follows a verb or a verbal, but the verb of the
clause introduced by like is regularly omitted. Note the difference between these two uses. In Introduces
omitted.
a clause, but its verb is
Old English gelic (like) was followed by the dative, and was clearly an adjective. In this
second use, like introduces a shortened clause modifying a verb or a verbal, as shown in the following sentences:—
Goodman Brown came into the street of Salem village, staring like a bewildered man.—Hawthorne.
Give Ruskin space enough, and he grows frantic and beats the air like Carlyle.—Higginson.
They conducted themselves much like the crew of a man-of-war. —Parkman.
[The sound] rang in his ears like the iron hoofs of the steeds of Time.—Longfellow.
Stirring it vigorously, like a cook beating eggs.—Aldrich.
If the verb is expressed, like drops out, and as or as if takes its place.
The sturdy English moralist may talk of a Scotch supper as he pleases.—Cass.
Mankind for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw, just as they do in Abyssinia to this
day.—Lamb.
I do with my friends as I do with my books.—Emerson.
NOTE.—Very rarely like is found with a verb following, but this is not considered good usage: for example,—A timid,
nervous child, like Martin was.—Mayhew.
Through which they put their heads, like the Gauchos do through their cloaks.—Darwin.
Like an arrow shot
From a well-experienced archer hits the mark.
—Shakespeare.
INTERJECTIONS.
Interjections
334. are exclamations used to express emotion, and are not parts of speech in the
same sense as the words we have discussed; that is, entering into the structure of a Definition.
sentence.
Some of these are imitative sounds; as, tut! buzz! etc.
Humph! attempts to express a contemptuous nasal utterance that no letters of our language can really spell.
Other interjections are oh! ah! alas! pshaw! hurrah! etc. But it is to be remembered that
almost any word may be used as an exclamation, but it still retains its identity as noun, Not all exclamatory words are
interjections.
pronoun, verb, etc.: for example, "Books! lighthouses built on the sea of time [noun];" "Halt!
the dust-brown ranks stood fast [verb]," "Up! for shame! [adverb]," "Impossible! it cannot be [adjective]."
PART II.
ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES.
CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO FORM.
All335.
discourse is made up of sentences: consequently the sentence is the unit with which we
must begin. And in order to get a clear and practical idea of the structure of sentences, it is What analysis is..
necessary to become expert in analysis; that is, in separating them into their component parts.
A general idea of analysis was needed in our study of the parts of speech,—in determining case, subject and predicate,
clauses introduced by conjunctions, etc.
A more thorough and accurate acquaintance with the subject is necessary for two reasons,—
not only for a correct understanding of the principles of syntax, but for the study of Value of analysis.
punctuation and other topics treated in rhetoric.
A sentence
336. is the expression of a thought in words.
Definition.
According
337. to the way in which a thought is put before a listener or reader, sentences may be
of three kinds:—(1) Declarative, which puts the thought in the form of a declaration or Kinds of sentences as to form.
assertion. This is the most common one.
(2) Interrogative, which puts the thought in a question.
(3) Imperative, which expresses command, entreaty, or request.
Any one of these may be put in the form of an exclamation, but the sentence would still be declarative, interrogative, or
imperative; hence, according to form, there are only the three kinds of sentences already named.
Examples of these three kinds are, declarative, "Old year, you must not die!" interrogative, "Hath he not always
treasures, always friends?" imperative, "Come to the bridal chamber, Death!"
CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF STATEMENTS.
SIMPLE SENTENCES.
But338.
the division of sentences most necessary to analysis is the division, not according to the
form in which a thought is put, but according to how many statements there are. Division according to number of
statements.
The one we shall consider first is the simple sentence.
A 339.
simple sentence is one which contains a single statement, question, or command: for
example, "The quality of mercy is not strained;" "What wouldst thou do, old man?" "Be thou Definition.
familiar, but by no means vulgar."
Every
340.sentence must contain two parts,—a subject and a predicate.
The predicate of a sentence is a verb or verb phrase which says something about the
subject. Definition: Predicate.
In order to get a correct definition of the subject, let us examine two specimen sentences:—1. But now all is to be
changed.
2. A rare old plant is the ivy green.
In the first sentence we find the subject by placing the word what before the predicate,—What is to be changed? Answer,
all . Consequently, we say all is the subject of the sentence.
But if we try this with the second sentence, we have some trouble,—What is the ivy green? Answer, a rare old plant. But
we cannot help seeing that an assertion is made, not of a rare old plant, but about the ivy green; and the real subject is
the latter. Sentences are frequently in this inverted order, especially in poetry; and our definition must be the following, to
suit all cases:—Subject.
The subject is that which answers the question who or what placed before the predicate, and which at the same time
names that of which the predicate says something.
In 341.
the interrogative sentence, the subject is frequently after the verb. Either the verb is the
first word of the sentence, or an interrogative pronoun, adjective, or adverb that asks about The subject in interrogative and
imperative simple sentences.
the subject. In analyzing such sentences, always reduce them to the order of a statement.
Thus,—(1) "When should this scientific education be commenced?"
(2) "This scientific education should be commenced when?"
(3) "What wouldst thou have a good great man obtain?"
(4) "Thou wouldst have a good great man obtain what?"
In the imperative sentence, the subject (you, thou, or ye) is in most cases omitted, and is to be supplied; as, "[You]
behold her single in the field."
Exercise.
Name the subject and the predicate in each of the following sentences:—
1.
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves.
2. Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions.
3. Nowhere else on the Mount of Olives is there a view like this.
4. In the sands of Africa and Arabia the camel is a sacred and precious gift.
5. The last of all the Bards was he.
6. Slavery they can have anywhere.
7. Listen, on the other hand, to an ignorant man.
8. What must have been the emotions of the Spaniards!
9. Such was not the effect produced on the sanguine spirit of the general.
10. What a contrast did these children of southern Europe present to the Anglo-Saxon races!
Examples of direct and indirect objects are, direct, "She seldom saw her course at a glance;" indirect, "I give thee this to
wear at the collar."
A complement
344. is a word added to a verb of incomplete predication to complete its meaning.
Complement:
Notice that a verb of incomplete predication may be of two kinds,—transitive and intransitive.
The transitive verb often requires, in addition to the object, a word to define fully the action
that is exerted upon the object; for example, "Ye call me chief." Here the verb call has an Of a transitive verb.
object me (if we leave out chief), and means summoned; but chief belongs to the verb, and me here is not the object
simply of call , but of call chief, just as if to say, "Ye honor me." This word completing a transitive verb is sometimes
called a factitive object, or second object, but it is a true complement.
The fact that this is a complement can be more clearly seen when the verb is in the passive. See sentence 19, in
exercise following Sec. 364.
An intransitive verb, especially the forms of be, seem, appear, taste, feel , become, etc., must
often have a word to complete the meaning: as, for instance, "Brow and head were round, Complement of an intransitive
verb.
and of massive weight;" "The good man, he was now getting old, above sixty;" "Nothing
could be more copious than his talk;" "But in general he seemed deficient in laughter."
All these complete intransitive verbs. The following are examples of complements of transitive verbs: "Hope deferred
maketh the heart sick;" "He was termed Thomas, or, more familiarly, Thom of the Gills;" "A plentiful fortune is reckoned
necessary, in the popular judgment, to the completion of this man of the world."
The
345.
modifiers and independent elements will be discussed in detail in Secs. 351, 352, 355.
A phrase
346. is a group of words, not containing a verb, but used as a single modifier.
Phrases.
As to form, phrases are of three kinds:—
(1) PREPOSITIONAL, introduced by a preposition: for example, "Such a convulsion is the
struggle of gradual suffocation, as in drowning; and, in the original Opium Confessions, I Three kinds.
mentioned a case of that nature."
(2) PARTICIPIAL, consisting of a participle and the words dependent on it. The following are examples: "Then retreating
into the warm house, and barring the door, she sat down to undress the two youngest children."
(3) INFINITIVE, consisting of an infinitive and the words dependent upon it; as in the sentence, "She left her home
forever in order to present herself at the Dauphin's court."
(2) Pronoun: "Who is she in bloody coronation robes from Rheims?" "This is she, the shepherd girl."
(3) Adjective: "Innocence is ever simple and credulous."
(4) Infinitive: "To enumerate and analyze these relations is to teach the science of method."
(5) Gerund: "Life is a pitching of this penny,—heads or tails;" "Serving others is serving us."
(6) A prepositional phrase: "His frame is on a larger scale;" "The marks were of a kind not to be mistaken."
It will be noticed that all these complements have a double office,—completing the predicate, and explaining or modifying
the subject.
As complement of a transitive verb,—
Of a transitive verb.
(1) Noun: "I will not call you cowards."
( 2 ) Adjective: "Manners make beauty superfluous and ugly;" "Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and
malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation." In this last sentence, the object is made the subject by being
passive, and the words italicized are still complements. Like all the complements in this list, they are adjuncts of the
object, and, at the same time, complements of the predicate.
(3) Infinitive, or infinitive phrase: "That cry which made me look a thousand ways;" "I hear the echoes throng."
(4) Participle, or participial phrase: "I can imagine him pushing firmly on, trusting the hearts of his countrymen."
(5) Prepositional phrase: "My antagonist would render my poniard and my speed of no use to me."
Modifiers.
I. Modifiers of Subject, Object, or Complement.
Since
351. the subject and object are either nouns or some equivalent of a noun, the words modifying them must be
adjectives or some equivalent of an adjective; and whenever the complement is a noun, or the equivalent of the noun, it
is modified by the same words and word groups that modify the subject and the object.
These modifiers are as follows:—
(1) A possessive: "My memory assures me of this;" "She asked her father's permission."
(2) A word in apposition: "Theodore Wieland, the prisoner at the bar, was now called upon for his defense;" "Him, this
young idolater, I have seasoned for thee."
( 3 ) An adjective: "Great geniuses have the shortest biographies;" "Her father was a prince in Lebanon,—proud,
unforgiving, austere."
(4) Prepositional phrase: "Are the opinions of a man on right and wrong on fate and causation, at the mercy of a broken
sleep or an indigestion?" "The poet needs a ground in popular tradition to work on."
(5) Infinitive phrase: "The way to know him is to compare him, not with nature, but with other men;" "She has a new and
unattempted problem to solve;" "The simplest utterances are worthiest to be written."
(6) Participial phrase: "Another reading, given at the request of a Dutch lady, was the scene from King John;" "This was
the hour already appointed for the baptism of the new Christian daughter."
Exercise.—In each sentence in Sec. 351, tell whether the subject, object, or complement is modified.
(4) Infinitive phrase: "No imprudent, no sociable angel, ever dropped an early syllable to answer his longing."
(For participial and infinitive phrases, see further Secs. 357-363.)
(5) Indirect object: "I gave every man a trumpet;" "Give them not only noble teachings, but noble teachers."
These are equivalent to the phrases to every man and to them, and modify the predicate in the same way.
When the verb is changed from active to passive, the indirect object is retained, as in these
sentences: "It is left you to find out the reason why;" "All such knowledge should be given Retained with passive; or
her."
Or sometimes the indirect object of the active voice becomes the subject of the passive, and
the direct object is retained: for example, "She is to be taught to extend the limits of her subject of passive verb and direct
object retained.
sympathy;" "I was shown an immense sarcophagus."
(6) Adverbial objective. These answer the question when, or how long, how far, etc., and are consequently equivalent to
adverbs in modifying a predicate: "We were now running thirteen miles an hour;" "One way lies hope;" "Four hours
before midnight we approached a mighty minster."
Exercises.
Our further study will be in sentences which are combinations of simple sentences, made merely for convenience and
smoothness, to avoid the tiresome repetition of short ones of monotonous similarity.
Next to the simple sentence stands the complex sentence. The basis of it is two or more simple sentences, which are so
united that one member is the main one,—the backbone,—the other members subordinate to it, or dependent on it; as in
this sentence,—"When such a spirit breaks forth into complaint, we are aware how great must be the suffering that
extorts the murmur."
The relation of the parts is as follows:—
we are aware
_______ _____
| |
__| when such a spirit breaks
| forth into complaint,
|
how great must be the suffering
|
that extorts the murmur.
This arrangement shows to the eye the picture that the sentence forms in the mind,—how the first clause is held in
suspense by the mind till the second, we are aware, is taken in; then we recognize this as the main statement; and the
next one, how great ... suffering, drops into its place as subordinate to we are aware; and the last, that ... murmur,
logically depends on suffering.
Hence the following definition:—
A 368.
complex sentence is one containing one main or independent clause (also called the
principal proposition or clause), and one or more subordinate or dependent clauses. Definition.
The
369.
elements of a complex sentence are the same as those of the simple sentence; that is, each clause has its subject,
predicate, object, complements, modifiers, etc.
But there is this difference: whereas the simple sentence always has a word or a phrase for subject, object, complement,
and modifier, the complex sentence has statements or clauses for these places.
CLAUSES.
A clause
370. is a division of a sentence, containing a verb with its subject.
Definition.
Hence the term clause may refer to the main division of the complex sentence, or it may be
applied to the others,—the dependent or subordinate clauses.
A 371.
principal, main, or independent clause is one making a statement without the help of
any other clause. Independent clause.
As372.
to their office in the sentence, clauses are divided into NOUN, ADJECTIVE, and ADVERB
clauses, according as they are equivalent in use to nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Kinds.
Noun Clauses.
Noun
373.clauses have the following uses:—
(1) Subject: "That such men should give prejudiced views of America is not a matter of surprise."
(2) Object of a verb, verbal , or the equivalent of a verb: (a) "I confess these stories, for a time, put an end to my fancies;"
(b) "I am aware [I know] that a skillful illustrator of the immortal bard would have swelled the materials."
Just as the object noun, pronoun, infinitive, etc., is retained after a passive verb (Sec. 352, 5), so the object clause is
retained, and should not be called an adjunct of the subject; for example, "We are persuaded that a thread runs through
all things;" "I was told that the house had not been shut, night or day, for a hundred years."
(3) Complement: "The terms of admission to this spectacle are, that he have a certain solid and intelligible way of
living."
(4) Apposition. (a) Ordinary apposition, explanatory of some noun or its equivalent: "Cecil's saying of Sir Walter Raleigh,
'I know that he can toil terribly,' is an electric touch."
(b) After "it introductory" (logically this is a subject clause, but it is often treated as in apposition with it): "It was the
opinion of some, that this might be the wild huntsman famous in German legend."
(5) Object of a preposition: "At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs."
Notice that frequently only the introductory word is the object of the preposition, and the whole clause is not; thus, "The
rocks presented a high impenetrable wall, over which the torrent came tumbling."
374.are to be noticed certain sentences seemingly complex, with a noun clause in apposition with it; but logically they
Here
are nothing but simple sentences. But since they are complex in form, attention is called to them here; for example,
—"Alas! it is we ourselves that are getting buried alive under this avalanche of earthly impertinences."
To divide this into two clauses—(a) It is we ourselves, (b) that are ... impertinences—would be grammatical; but logically
the sentence is, We ourselves are getting ... impertinences, and it is ... that is merely a framework used to effect
emphasis. The sentence shows how it may lose its pronominal force.
Other examples of this construction are,—
"It is on the understanding, and not on the sentiment, of a nation, that all safe legislation must be
based."
"Then it is that deliberative Eloquence lays aside the plain attire of her daily occupation."
Exercise.
Adjective Clauses.
As375.
the office of an adjective is to modify, the only use of an adjective clause is to limit or describe some noun, or
equivalent of a noun: consequently the adjective may modify any noun, or equivalent of a noun, in the sentence.
The adjective clause may be introduced by the relative pronouns who, which, that, but, as; sometimes by the
conjunctions when, where, whither, whence, wherein, whereby, etc.
Frequently there is no connecting word, a relative pronoun being understood.
Adjective
376. clauses may modify—
Examples of adjective clauses.
(1) The subject: "The themes it offers for contemplation are too vast for their capacities;"
"Those who see the Englishman only in town, are apt to form an unfavorable opinion of his social character."
(2) The object: "From this piazza Ichabod entered the hall, which formed the center of the mansion."
(3) The complement: "The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plow-horse, that had outlived almost everything but
his usefulness;" "It was such an apparition as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight."
(4) Other words: "He rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle;" "No whit
anticipating the oblivion which awaited their names and feats, the champions advanced through the lists;" "Charity
covereth a multitude of sins, in another sense than that in which it is said to do so in Scripture."
Exercise.
Pick out the adjective clauses, and tell what each one modifies; i.e., whether subject, object, etc.
1. There were passages that reminded me perhaps too much of Massillon.
2. I walked home with Calhoun, who said that the principles which I had avowed were just and noble.
3. Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds.
4. In one of those celestial days when heaven and earth meet and adorn each other, it seems a pity that we can only
spend it once.
5. One of the maidens presented a silver cup, containing a rich mixture of wine and spice, which Rowena tasted.
6. No man is reason or illumination, or that essence we were looking for.
7. In the moment when he ceases to help us as a cause, he begins to help us more as an effect.
8. Socrates took away all ignominy from the place, which could not be a prison whilst he was there.
9. This is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear ghosts except in our long-established Dutch settlements.
10. From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vacancy.
11. Nature waited tranquilly for the hour to be struck when man should arrive.
Adverbial Clauses.
The
377.
adverb clause takes the place of an adverb in modifying a verb, a verbal, an adjective, or an adverb. The student
has met with many adverb clauses in his study of the subjunctive mood and of subordinate conjunctions; but they require
careful study, and will be given in detail, with examples.
Adverb
378. clauses are of the following kinds:
(1) TIME: "As we go, the milestones are grave-stones;" "He had gone but a little way before he espied a foul fiend
coming;" "When he was come up to Christian, he beheld him with a disdainful countenance."
(2) PLACE: "Wherever the sentiment of right comes in, it takes precedence of everything else;" "He went several times
to England, where he does not seem to have attracted any attention."
(3) REASON, or CAUSE: "His English editor lays no stress on his discoveries, since he was too great to care to be
original ;" "I give you joy that truth is altogether wholesome."
(4) MANNER: "The knowledge of the past is valuable only as it leads us to form just calculations with respect to the
future;" "After leaving the whole party under the table, he goes away as if nothing had happened."
(5) DEGREE, or COMPARISON: "They all become wiser than they were;" "The right conclusion is, that we should try, so
far as we can, to make up our shortcomings;" "Master Simon was in as chirping a humor as a grasshopper filled with
dew [is];" "The broader their education is, the wider is the horizon of their thought." The first clause in the last sentence
is dependent, expressing the degree in which the horizon, etc., is wider.
(6) PURPOSE: "Nature took us in hand, shaping our actions, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross
disobedience."
(7) RESULT, or CONSEQUENCE: "He wrote on the scale of the mind itself, so that all things have symmetry in his
tablet;" "The window was so far superior to every other in the church, that the vanquished artist killed himself from
mortification."
(8) CONDITION: "If we tire of the saints, Shakespeare is our city of refuge;" "Who cares for that, so thou gain aught
wider and nobler?" "You can die grandly, and as goddesses would die were goddesses mortal ."
(9) CONCESSION, introduced by indefinite relatives, adverbs, and adverbial conjunctions,—whoever, whatever,
however, etc.: "But still, however good she may be as a witness, Joanna is better;" "Whatever there may remain of
illiberal in discussion, there is always something illiberal in the severer aspects of study."
These mean no matter how good, no matter what remains, etc.
Exercise.
Pick out the adverbial clauses in the following sentences; tell what kind each is, and what it modifies:—
1. As I was clearing away the weeds from this epitaph, the little sexton drew me on one side with a mysterious air,
and informed me in a low voice that once upon a time, on a dark wintry night, when the wind was unruly, howling
and whistling, banging about doors and windows, and twirling weathercocks, so that the living were frightened out of
their beds, and even the dead could not sleep quietly in their graves, the ghost of honest Preston was attracted by
the well-known call of "waiter," and made its sudden appearance just as the parish clerk was singing a stave from
the "mirrie garland of Captain Death."
2. If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath,
snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble because they
had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas.
3. The spell of life went forth from her ever-creative spirit, and communicated itself to a thousand objects, as a torch
kindles a flame wherever it may be applied.
OUTLINE
(1)381.
Find the principal clause.
(2) Analyze it according to Sec. 364.
(3) Analyze the dependent clauses according to Sec. 364. This of course includes dependent clauses that depend on
other dependent clauses, as seen in the "map" (Sec. 380).
Exercises.
(2) Simple with complex: "The trees of the forest, the waving grass, and the peeping flowers have grown intelligent; and
he almost fears to trust them with the secret which they seem to invite."
(3) Complex with complex: "The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which
he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."
From
384.this it is evident that nothing new is added to the work of analysis already done.
The same analysis of simple sentences is repeated in (1) and (2) above, and what was done in complex sentences is
repeated in (2) and (3).
The division into members will be easier, for the coördinate independent statements are readily taken apart with the
subordinate clauses attached, if there are any.
Thus in (1), the semicolons cut apart the independent members, which are simple statements; in (2), the semicolon
separates the first, a simple member, from the second, a complex member; in (3), and connects the first and second
complex members, and nor the second and third complex members.
The coördinate conjunctions and, nor, or but, etc., introduce independent clauses (see Sec.
385.
297). Connectives.
But the conjunction is often omitted in copulative and adversative clauses, as in Sec. 383 (1). Another example is, "Only
the star dazzles; the planet has a faint, moon-like ray" (adversative).
The one point that will give trouble is the variable use of some connectives; as but, for, yet,
386.
while (whilst), however, whereas, etc. Some of these are now conjunctions, now adverbs or Study the thought.
prepositions; others sometimes coördinate, sometimes subordinate conjunctions.
The student must watch the logical connection of the members of the sentence, and not the form of the connective.
Exercise.
Of the following illustrative sentences, tell which are compound, and which complex:—
1. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost.
2. I no longer wish to meet a good I do not earn, for example, to find a pot of buried gold.
3. Your goodness must have some edge to it—else it is none.
4. Man does not stand in awe of man, nor is his genius admonished to stay at home, but it goes abroad to beg a cup
of water of the urns of other men.
5. A man cannot speak but he judges himself.
6. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity, yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield
to them heart and life.
7. I thought that it was a Sunday morning in May; that it was Easter Sunday, and as yet very early in the morning.
8. We denote the primary wisdom as intuition, whilst all later teachings are tuitions.
9. Whilst the world is thus dual, so is every one of its parts.
10. They measure the esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is.
11. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose
something.
12. I sometimes seemed to have lived for seventy or one hundred years in one night; nay, I sometimes had feelings
representative of a millennium, passed in that time, or, however, of a duration far beyond the limits of experience.
13. However some may think him wanting in zeal, the most fanatical can find no taint of apostasy in any measure of
his.
14. In this manner, from a happy yet often pensive child, he grew up to be a mild, quiet, unobtrusive boy, and sun-
browned with labor in the fields, but with more intelligence than is seen in many lads from the schools.
Exercise.
Agreement is concerned with the following relations of words: words in apposition, verb and subject, pronoun and
antecedent, adjective and noun.
Government has to do with verbs and prepositions, both of which are said to govern words by having them in the
objective case.
Considering
390. the scarcity of inflections in English, it is clear that if we merely follow the Latin treatment, the department of
syntax will be a small affair. But there is a good deal else to watch in addition to the few forms; for there is an important
and marked difference between Latin and English syntax. It is this:—Latin syntax depends upon fixed rules governing the
use of inflected forms: hence the position of words in a sentence is of little grammatical importance.
English syntax follows the Latin to a limited extent; but its leading characteristic is, that
English syntax is founded upon the meaning and the logical connection of words rather than Essential point in English syntax.
upon their form: consequently it is quite as necessary to place words properly, and to think clearly of the meaning of
words, as to study inflected forms.
For example, the sentence, "The savage here the settler slew," is ambiguous. Savage may be the subject, following the
regular order of subject; or settler may be the subject, the order being inverted. In Latin, distinct forms would be used,
and it would not matter which one stood first.
There
391. is, then, a double reason for not omitting syntax as a department of grammar,—
Why study syntax?
First, To study the rules regarding the use of inflected forms, some of which conform to
classical grammar, while some are idiomatic (peculiar to our own language).
Second, To find out the logical methods which control us in the arrangement of words; and particularly when the
grammatical and the logical conception of a sentence do not agree, or when they exist side by side in good usage.
As an illustration of the last remark, take the sentence, "Besides these famous books of Scott's and Johnson's, there is a
copious 'Life' by Sheridan." In this there is a possessive form, and added to it the preposition of, also expressing a
possessive relation. This is not logical; it is not consistent with the general rules of grammar: but none the less it is good
English.
Also in the sentence, "None remained but he," grammatical rules would require him instead of he after the preposition;
yet the expression is sustained by good authority.
In 392.
some cases, authorities—that is, standard writers—differ as to which of two constructions
should be used, or the same writer will use both indifferently. Instances will be found in Some rules not rigid.
treating of the pronoun or noun with a gerund, pronoun and antecedent, sometimes verb and subject, etc.
When usage varies as to a given construction, both forms will be given in the following pages.
Our
393.
treatment of syntax will be an endeavor to record the best usage of the present time on
important points; and nothing but important points will be considered, for it is easy to confuse The basis of syntax.
a student with too many obtrusive don'ts.
The constructions presented as general will be justified by quotations from modern writers of English who are regarded
as "standard;" that is, writers whose style is generally acknowledged as superior, and whose judgment, therefore, will be
accepted by those in quest of authoritative opinion.
Reference will also be made to spoken English when its constructions differ from those of the literary language, and to
vulgar English when it preserves forms which were once, but are not now, good English.
It may be suggested to the student that the only way to acquire correctness is to watch good usage everywhere, and
imitate it.
NOUNS.
Nouns
394. have no distinct forms for the nominative and objective cases: hence no mistake can be made in using them. But
some remarks are required concerning the use of the possessive case.
When
395. two or more possessives modify the same noun, or indicate joint ownership or
possession, the possessive sign is added to the last noun only; for example,—Live your king Use of the possessive. Joint
possession.
and country's best support.—Rowe.
Woman, sense and nature's easy fool.—Byron.
Oliver and Boyd's printing office.—Mcculloch.
Adam and Eve's morning hymn.—Milton.
In Beaumont and Fletcher's "Sea Voyage," Juletta tells, etc.—Emerson.
When
396. two or more possessives stand before the same noun, but imply separate possession
or ownership, the possessive sign is used with each noun; as,—He lands us on a grassy Separate possession.
stage, Safe from the storm's and prelate's rage.—Marvell
Where were the sons of Peers and Members of Parliament in Anne's and George's time?—Thackeray.
Levi's station in life was the receipt of custom; and Peter's, the shore of Galilee; and Paul's, the antechamber of the High
Priest.—Ruskin.
Swift did not keep Stella's letters. He kept Bolingbroke's, and Pope's, and Harley's, and Peterborough's.—Thackeray.
An actor in one of Morton's or Kotzebue's plays.—Macaulay.
Putting Mr. Mill's and Mr. Bentham's principles together. —Id.
The
397.
possessive preceding the gerund will be considered under the possessive of pronouns (Sec. 408).
PRONOUNS.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS.
I. NOMINATIVE AND OBJECTIVE FORMS.
398.most of the personal pronouns, together with the relative who, have separate forms for nominative and objective
Since
use, there are two general rules that require attention.
(1) The nominative use is usually marked by the nominative form of the pronoun.
General rules.
(2) The objective use is usually marked by the objective form of the pronoun.
These simple rules are sometimes violated in spoken and in literary English. Some of the violations are universally
condemned; others are generally, if not universally, sanctioned.
The
399.
objective is sometimes found instead of the nominative in the following instances:—
Objective for the nominative.
(1) By a common vulgarism of ignorance or carelessness, no notice is taken of the proper
form to be used as subject; as,—
He and me once went in the dead of winter in a one-hoss shay out to Boonville.—Whitcher, Bedott
Papers.
It seems strange to me that them that preach up the doctrine don't admire one who carrys it out.
—Josiah Allens Wife.
(2) By faulty analysis of the sentence, the true relation of the words is misunderstood; for example, "Whom think ye that I
am?" (In this, whom is the complement after the verb am, and should be the nominative form, who.) "The young Harper,
whom they agree was rather nice-looking" (whom is the subject of the verb was).
Especially is this fault to be noticed after an ellipsis with than or as, the real thought being forgotten; thus,—But the
consolation coming from devotion did not go far with such a one as her.—Trollope.
This should be "as she," because the full expression would be "such a one as she is."
Still,
400. the last expression has the support of many good writers, as shown in the following examples:—She was neither
better bred nor wiser than you or me.—Thackeray.
No mightier than thyself or me.—Shakespeare.
Lin'd with Giants deadlier than 'em all.—Pope.
But he must be a stronger than thee.—Southey.
Not to render up my soul to such as thee.—Byron.
I shall not learn my duty from such as thee.—Fielding.
It will be safer for the student to follow the general rule, as illustrated in the following
sentences:— A safe rule.
One I remember especially,—one than whom I never met a bandit more gallant.—Thackeray.
The camp of Richard of England, than whom none knows better how to do honor to a noble foe.—
Scott.
She had a companion who had been ever agreeable, and her estate a steward than whom no one
living was supposed to be more competent.—Parton.
And
402.
there is one question about which grammarians are not agreed, namely, whether the
nominative or the objective form should be used in the predicate after was, is, are, and the "It was he" or "It was him"?
other forms of the verb be.
It may be stated with assurance that the literary language prefers the nominative in this instance, as,—
For there was little doubt that it was he.—Kingsley.
But still it is not she.—Macaulay.
And it was he
That made the ship to go.
—Coleridge.
In spoken English, on the other hand, both in England and America, the objective form is regularly found, unless a
special, careful effort is made to adopt the standard usage. The following are examples of spoken English from
conversations:—"Rose Satterne, the mayor's daughter?"—"That's her."—Kingsley.
"Who's there?"—"Me, Patrick the Porter."—Winthrop.
"If there is any one embarrassed, it will not be me."—Wm. Black.
The usage is too common to need further examples.
Exercise.
Correct the italicized pronouns in the following sentences, giving reasons from the analysis of the sentence:—
1. Whom they were I really cannot specify.
2. Truth is mightier than us all.
3. If there ever was a rogue in the world, it is me.
4. They were the very two individuals whom we thought were far away.
5. "Seems to me as if them as writes must hev a kinder gift fur it, now."
6. The sign of the Good Samaritan is written on the face of whomsoever opens to the stranger.
7. It is not me you are in love with.
8. You know whom it is that you thus charge.
9. The same affinity will exert its influence on whomsoever is as noble as these men and women.
10. It was him that Horace Walpole called a man who never made a bad figure but as an author.
11. We shall soon see which is the fittest object of scorn, you or me.
It is
403.
to be remembered that the objective form is used in exclamations which turn the attention
upon a person; as,—Unhappy me! That I cannot risk my own worthless life.—Kingsley Me in exclamations.
Exercise.
Correct the italicized pronouns in the following, giving reasons from the analysis of the quotation:—
1. Thou, Nature, partial Nature, I arraign.
2. Let you and I look at these, for they say there are none such in the world.
3. "Nonsense!" said Amyas, "we could kill every soul of them in half an hour, and they know that as well as me."
4. Markland, who, with Jortin and Thirlby, Johnson calls three contemporaries of great eminence.
5. They are coming for a visit to she and I.
6.
They crowned him long ago;
But who they got to put it on
Nobody seems to know.
7. I experienced little difficulty in distinguishing among the pedestrians they who had business with St. Bartholomew.
8. The great difference lies between the laborer who moves to Yorkshire and he who moves to Canada.
9. Besides my father and Uncle Haddock—he of the silver plates.
10.
Ye against whose familiar names not yet
The fatal asterisk of death is set,
Ye I salute.
11. It can't be worth much to they that hasn't larning.
12. To send me away for a whole year—I who had never crept from under the parental wing—was a startling idea.
That is, should the possessive case of a noun or pronoun always be used with the gerund to indicate the active agent?
Closely scrutinizing these two sentences quoted, we might find a difference between them: saying that in the first one
studying is a participle, and the meaning is, We heard of Brown, [who was] studying law; and that in the second,
studying is a gerund, object of heard of, and modified by the possessive case as any other substantive would be.
But in common use there is no such distinction. Both types of sentences are found; both are
gerunds; sometimes the gerund has the possessive form before it, sometimes it has the Why both are found.
objective. The use of the objective is older, and in keeping with the old way of regarding the person as the chief object
before the mind: the possessive use is more modern, in keeping with the disposition to proceed from the material thing to
the abstract idea, and to make the action substantive the chief idea before the mind.
In the examples quoted, it will be noticed that the possessive of the pronoun is more common than that of the noun.
The last incident which I recollect, was my learned and worthy patron falling from a
chair.—Scott. Objective.
He spoke of some one coming to drink tea with him, and asked why it was not made.—Thackeray.
The old sexton even expressed a doubt as to Shakespeare having been born in her house.—Irving.
The fact of the Romans not burying their dead within the city walls proper is a strong reason, etc.—
Brewer.
I remember Wordsworth once laughingly reporting to me a little personal anecdote.—De Quincey.
Here I state them only in brief, to prevent the reader casting about in alarm for my ultimate meaning.—
Ruskin.
We think with far less pleasure of Cato tearing out his entrails than of Russell saying, as he turned
away from his wife, that the bitterness of death was past.—Macaulay.
There is actually a kind of sacredness in the fact of such a man being sent into this earth.—Carlyle.
There is no use for any man's taking up his abode in a house built of glass.—Carlyle.
Possessive.
As to his having good grounds on which to rest an action for life.—Dickens.
The case was made known to me by a man's holding out the little creature dead.—De Quincey.
There may be reason for a savage's preferring many kinds of food which the civilized man rejects.—
Thoreau.
It informs me of the previous circumstances of my laying aside my clothes.—C. Brockden Brown.
The two strangers gave me an account of their once having been themselves in a somewhat similar
condition.—Audubon.
There was a chance of their being sent to a new school, where there were examinations.—Ruskin
This can only be by his preferring truth to his past apprehension of truth.—Emerson
III. PERSONAL PRONOUNS AND THEIR ANTECEDENTS.
The
409.
pronouns of the third person usually refer back to some preceding noun or pronoun, and ought to agree with them in
person, number, and gender.
There are two constructions in which the student will need to watch the pronoun,—when the
antecedent, in one person, is followed by a phrase containing a pronoun of a different Watch for the real antecedent.
person; and when the antecedent is of such a form that the pronoun following cannot indicate exactly the gender.
Examples of these constructions are,—Those of us who can only maintain themselves by continuing in some business or
salaried office.—Ruskin.
Suppose the life and fortune of every one of us would depend on his winning or losing a game of chess.—Huxley.
If any one did not know it, it was his own fault.—Cable.
Everybody had his own life to think of.—Defoe.
In 410.
such a case as the last three sentences,—when the antecedent includes both masculine and feminine, or is a
distributive word, taking in each of many persons,—the preferred method is to put the pronoun following in the masculine
singular; if the antecedent is neuter, preceded by a distributive, the pronoun will be neuter singular.
The following are additional examples:—
The next correspondent wants you to mark out a whole course of life for him.—Holmes.
Every city threw open its gates.—De Quincey.
Every person who turns this page has his own little diary.—Thackeray.
The pale realms of shade, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death.
—Bryant.
Sometimes this is avoided by using both the masculine and the feminine pronoun; for Avoided: By using both pronouns.
example,—
Not the feeblest grandame, not a mowing idiot, but uses what spark of perception and faculty is left, to
chuckle and triumph in his or her opinion.—Emerson.
It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two
players in a game of his or her own.—Huxley.
By using the plural pronoun.
Another
411. way of referring to an antecedent which is a distributive pronoun or a noun modified by a distributive adjective, is
to use the plural of the pronoun following. This is not considered the best usage, the logical analysis requiring the
singular pronoun in each case; but the construction is frequently found when the antecedent includes or implies both
genders. The masculine does not really represent a feminine antecedent, and the expression his or her is avoided as
being cumbrous.
Notice the following examples of the plural:—
Neither of the sisters were very much deceived.—Thackeray.
Every one must judge of their own feelings.—Byron.
Had the doctor been contented to take my dining tables, as anybody in their senses would have
done.—Austen.
If the part deserve any comment, every considering Christian will make it themselves as they go.—
Defoe.
Every person's happiness depends in part upon the respect they meet in the world.—Paley.
Every nation have their refinements—Sterne.
Neither gave vent to their feelings in words.—Scott.
Each of the nations acted according to their national custom.—Palgrave.
The sun, which pleases everybody with it and with themselves.—Ruskin.
Urging every one within reach of your influence to be neat, and giving them means of being so.—Id.
Everybody will become of use in their own fittest way.—Id.
Everybody said they thought it was the newest thing there.—Wendell Phillips.
Struggling for life, each almost bursting their sinews to force the other off.—Paulding.
Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.—Bible.
Nobody knows what it is to lose a friend, till they have lost him.—Fielding.
Where she was gone, or what was become of her, no one could take upon them to say.—Sheridan.
I do not mean that I think any one to blame for taking due care of their health.—Addison.
Exercise.—In the above sentences, unless both genders are implied, change the pronoun to agree with its antecedent.
RELATIVE PRONOUNS.
I. RESTRICTIVE AND UNRESTRICTIVE RELATIVES.
As412.
to their conjunctive use, the definite relatives who, which, and that may be coördinating
or restrictive. What these terms mean.
A relative, when coördinating, or unrestrictive, is equivalent to a conjunction ( and, but, because, etc.) and a personal
pronoun. It adds a new statement to what precedes, that being considered already clear; as, "I gave it to the beggar, who
went away." This means, "I gave it to the beggar [we know which one], and he went away."
A relative, when restrictive, introduces a clause to limit and make clear some preceding word. The clause is restricted to
the antecedent, and does not add a new statement; it merely couples a thought necessary to define the antecedent: as,
"I gave it to a beggar who stood at the gate." It defines beggar.
It 413.
is sometimes contended that who and which should always be coördinating, and that always restrictive; but,
according to the practice of every modern writer, the usage must be stated as follows:—A loose rule the only one to be
formulated.
Who and which are either coördinating or restrictive, the taste of the writer and regard for euphony being the guide.
That is in most cases restrictive, the coördinating use not being often found among careful writers.
Exercise.
In the following examples, tell whether who, which, and that are restrictive or not, in each instance:—
1. "Here he is now!" cried those who stood near Ernest.—Hawthorne.
Who.
2. He could overhear the remarks of various individuals, who were comparing the
features with the face on the mountain side.—Id.
3. The particular recording angel who heard it pretended not to understand, or it might have gone hard
with the tutor.—Holmes.
4. Yet how many are there who up, down, and over England are saying, etc.—H. W. Beecher 5. A
grizzly-looking man appeared, whom we took to be sixty or seventy years old.—Thoreau.
6. The volume which I am just about terminating is almost as much English history as
Dutch.—Motley. Which.
7. On hearing their plan, which was to go over the Cordilleras, she agreed to join the party.—De
Quincey.
8. Even the wild story of the incident which had immediately occasioned the explosion of this madness
fell in with the universal prostration of mind.—Id.
9. Their colloquies are all gone to the fire except this first, which Mr. Hare has printed.—Carlyle.
10. There is a particular science which takes these matters in hand, and it is called logic.—Newman.
11. So different from the wild, hard-mouthed horses at Westport, that were often
vicious.—De Quincey. That.
12. He was often tempted to pluck the flowers that rose everywhere about him in the greatest
variety.—Addison.
13. He felt a gale of perfumes breathing upon him, that grew stronger and sweeter in proportion as he
advanced.—Id.
14. With narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves.—Irving.
This cannot be true as to the form of the pronoun, as that does not vary for person or
number. We say I, you, he, they, etc., who; these or that which, etc. However, the relative In what sense true.
carries over the agreement from the antecedent before to the verb following, so far as the verb has forms to show its
agreement with a substantive. For example, in the sentence, "He that writes to himself writes to an eternal public," that is
invariable as to person and number, but, because of its antecedent, it makes the verb third person singular.
Notice the agreement in the following sentences:—
There is not one of the company, but myself, who rarely speak at all, but speaks of him as that sort,
etc.—Addison.
O Time! who know'st a lenient hand to lay Softest on sorrow's wound.—Bowles.
Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never
come.—Lowell.
This
415.prepares the way for the consideration of one of the vexed questions,—whether we
should say, "one of the finest books that has been published," or, "one of the finest books A disputed point.
that have been published."
Both constructions are frequently found, the reason being a difference of opinion as to the
antecedent. Some consider it to be one [book] of the finest books, with one as the principal One of ... [plural] that who, or which
... [singular or plural.]
word, the true antecedent; others regard books as the antecedent, and write the verb in the
plural. The latter is rather more frequent, but the former has good authority.
The following quotations show both sides:—
He was one of the very few commanders who appear to have shown equal skill in
directing a campaign, in winning a battle, and in improving a victory.—Lecky. Plural.
He was one of the most distinguished scientists who have ever lived.—J. T. Morse, Jr., Franklin.
It is one of those periods which shine with an unnatural and delusive splendor.—Macaulay.
A very little encouragement brought back one of those overflows which make one more ashamed,
etc.—Holmes.
I am one of those who believe that the real will never find an irremovable basis till it rests on the
ideal.—Lowell.
French literature of the eighteenth century, one of the most powerful agencies that have ever existed.
—M. Arnold.
What man's life is not overtaken by one or more of those tornadoes that send us out of our course?—
Thackeray.
He is one of those that deserve very well.—Addison.
The fiery youth ... struck down one of those who was pressing hardest.—Scott.
Singular.
He appeared to me one of the noblest creatures that ever was, when he derided the
shams of society.—Howells.
A rare Roundabout performance,—one of the very best that has ever appeared in this series.—
Thackeray.
Valancourt was the hero of one of the most famous romances which ever was published in this
country.—Id.
It is one of the errors which has been diligently propagated by designing writers.—Irving.
"I am going to breakfast with one of these fellows who is at the Piazza Hotel."—Dickens.
The "Economy of the Animal Kingdom" is one of those books which is an honor to the human race.—
Emerson.
Tom Puzzle is one of the most eminent immethodical disputants of any that has fallen under my
observation.—Addison.
The richly canopied monument of one of the most earnest souls that ever gave itself to the arts.—
Ruskin.
The following sentence affords an example: "The rich are now engaged in distributing what remains among the poorer
sort, and who are now thrown upon their compassion." The trouble is that such conjunctions as and, but, or, etc., should
connect expressions of the same kind: and who makes us look for a preceding who, but none is expressed. There are
three ways to remedy the sentence quoted: thus, (1) "Among those who are poor, and who are now," etc.; (2) "Among the
poorer sort, who are now thrown," etc.; (3) "Among the poorer sort, now thrown upon their," etc. That is,—Direction for
rewriting.
Express both relatives, or omit the conjunction, or leave out both connective and relative.
Exercise.
2. With an albatross perched on his shoulder, and who might be introduced to the congregation as the
immediate organ of his conversion.—De Quincey.
3. After this came Elizabeth herself, then in the full glow of what in a sovereign was called beauty, and
who would in the lowest walk of life have been truly judged to possess a noble figure.—Scott.
4. This was a gentleman, once a great favorite of M. le Conte, and in whom I myself was not a little
interested.—Thackeray.
5. Yonder woman was the wife of a certain learned man, English by name, but who had
long dwelt in Amsterdam.—Hawthorne. But who.
6. Dr. Ferguson considered him as a man of a powerful capacity, but whose mind was thrown off its
just bias.—Scott.
7. "What knight so craven, then," exclaims the chivalrous Venetian, "that he would not
have been more than a match for the stoutest adversary; or who would not have lost Or who.
his life a thousand times sooner than return dishonored by the lady of his love?"—Prescott.
8. There are peculiar quavers still to be heard in that church, and which may even be
heard a mile off.—Irving. And which.
9. The old British tongue was replaced by a debased Latin, like that spoken in the towns, and in which
inscriptions are found in the western counties.—Pearson.
10. I shall have complete copies, one of signal interest, and which has never been described.—Motley.
11. "A mockery, indeed, but in which the soul trifled with itself!"—Hawthorne.
But which.
12. I saw upon the left a scene far different, but which yet the power of dreams had
reconciled into harmony.—De Quincey.
13. He accounted the fair-spoken courtesy, which the Scotch had learned, either from
imitation of their frequent allies, the French, or which might have arisen from their own Or which.
proud and reserved character, as a false and astucious mark, etc.—Scott.
Akin
420.to the above is another fault, which is likewise a variation from the best usage. Two
different relatives are sometimes found referring back to the same antecedent in one That ... and which, etc.
sentence; whereas the better practice is to choose one relative, and repeat this for any further reference.
Exercise.
Rewrite the following quotations by repeating one relative instead of using two for the same antecedent:—
1. Still in the confidence of children that tread without fear every chamber in their
father's house, and to whom no door is closed.—De Quincey. That ... who.
2. Those renowned men that were our ancestors as much as yours, and whose examples and
principles we inherit.—Beecher.
3. The Tree Igdrasil, that has its roots down in the kingdoms of Hela and Death, and whose boughs
overspread the highest heaven!—Carlyle.
4. Christianity is a religion that reveals men as the object of God's infinite love, and
which commends him to the unbounded love of his brethren.—W. E. Channing. That ... which.
5. He flung into literature, in his Mephistopheles, the first organic figure that has been added for some
ages, and which will remain as long as the Prometheus.—Emerson.
6. Gutenburg might also have struck out an idea that surely did not require any extraordinary ingenuity,
and which left the most important difficulties to be surmounted.—Hallam.
7. Do me the justice to tell me what I have a title to be acquainted with, and which I am certain to know
more truly from you than from others.—Scott.
8. He will do this amiable little service out of what one may say old civilization has established in place
of goodness of heart, but which is perhaps not so different from it.—Howells.
9. In my native town of Salem, at the head of what, half a century ago, was a bustling wharf,—but
which is now burdened with decayed wooden warehouses.—Hawthorne.
10. His recollection of what he considered as extreme presumption in the Knight of the Leopard, even
when he stood high in the roles of chivalry, but which, in his present condition, appeared an insult
sufficient to drive the fiery monarch into a frenzy of passion.—Scott
11. He, now without any effort but that which he derived from the sill, and what little his
feet could secure the irregular crevices, was hung in air.—W. G. Simms. That which ... what.
12. It rose into a thrilling passion, such as my heart had always dimly craved and
hungered after, but which now first interpreted itself to my ear.—De Quincey. Such as ... which.
13. I recommend some honest manual calling, such as they have very probably been bred to, and
which will at least give them a chance of becoming President.—Holmes.
14. I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me,
and to whom I do not belong.—Emerson. Such as ... whom.
15. That evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house, that hurried
me into the wild and undigested notion of making my fortune, and that impressed these Which ... that ... that.
conceits so forcibly upon me.—Defoe.
ADJECTIVE PRONOUNS.
The
421.
student is sometimes troubled whether to use each other or one another in expressing
reciprocal relation or action. Whether either one refers to a certain number of persons or Each other, one another.
objects, whether or not the two are equivalent, may be gathered from a study of the following sentences:—They [Ernest
and the poet] led one another, as it were, into the high pavilion of their thoughts.—Hawthorne.
Men take each other's measure when they meet for the first time.—Emerson.
You ruffian! do you fancy I forget that we were fond of each other?—Thackeray.
England was then divided between kings and Druids, always at war with one another, carrying off each other's cattle and
wives.—Brewer The topics follow each other in the happiest order.—Macaulay.
The Peers at a conference begin to pommel each other.—Id.
We call ourselves a rich nation, and we are filthy and foolish enough to thumb each other's books out of circulating
libraries.—Ruskin.
The real hardships of life are now coming fast upon us; let us not increase them by dissension among each other.—
Goldsmith.
In a moment we were all shaking hands with one another.—Dickens.
The unjust purchaser forces the two to bid against each other.—Ruskin.
By422.
their original meaning, either and neither refer to only two persons or objects; as, for
example,—Some one must be poor, and in want of his gold—or his corn. Assume that no one Distributives either and neither.
is in want of either.—Ruskin Their [Ernest's and the poet's] minds accorded into one strain, and made delightful music
which neither could have claimed as all his own.—Hawthorne.
Sometimes these are made to refer to several objects, in which case any should be used
instead; as,— Use of any.
Was it the winter's storm? was it hard labor and spare meals? was it disease? was it the tomahawk? Is
it possible that neither of these causes, that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope?—
Everett.
Once I took such delight in Montaigne ...; before that, in Shakespeare; then in Plutarch; then in
Plotinus; at one time in Bacon; afterwards in Goethe; even in Bettine; but now I turn the pages of either
of them languidly, whilst I still cherish their genius.—Emerson.
The
423.
adjective pronoun any is nearly always regarded as plural, as shown in the following
sentences:—If any of you have been accustomed to look upon these hours as mere visionary Any usually plural.
hours, I beseech you, etc.—Beecher Whenever, during his stay at Yuste, any of his friends had died, he had been
punctual in doing honor to their memory.—Stirling.
But I enjoy the company and conversation of its inhabitants, when any of them are so good as to visit me.—Franklin.
Do you think, when I spoke anon of the ghosts of Pryor's children, I mean that any of them are dead?—Thackeray.
In earlier Modern English, any was often singular; as,—
If any, speak; for him have I offended.—Shakespeare.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.—Bible.
Very rarely the singular is met with in later times; as,—
Here is a poet doubtless as much affected by his own descriptions as any that reads them can be.—
Burke.
The above instances are to be distinguished from the adjective any, which is plural as often
as singular. Caution.
The
424.
adjective pronoun none is, in the prose of the present day, usually plural, although it is
historically a contraction of ne ān (not one). Examples of its use are,—In earnest, if ever man None usually plural.
was; as none of the French philosophers were.—Carlyle.
None of Nature's powers do better service.—Prof. Dana
One man answers some question which none of his contemporaries put, and is isolated.—Emerson.
None obey the command of duty so well as those who are free from the observance of slavish bondage.—Scott.
Do you think, when I spoke anon of the ghosts of Pryor's children, I mean that any of them are dead? None are, that I
know of.—Thackeray.
Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of August; but I think none of them are so good to eat as some to smell.—
Thoreau.
The singular use of none is often found in the Bible; as,—
None of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.—Luke iv 27
Also the singular is sometimes found in present-day English in prose, and less rarely in poetry; for example,—
Perhaps none of our Presidents since Washington has stood so firm in the confidence of the people.—
Lowell In signal none his steed should spare.—Scott
Like the use of any, the pronoun none should be distinguished from the adjective none, which is used absolutely, and
hence is more likely to confuse the student.
Compare with the above the following sentences having the adjective none:—
Reflecting a summer evening sky in its bosom, though none [no sky] was visible overhead.—Thoreau
The holy fires were suffered to go out in the temples, and none [no fires] were lighted in their own
dwellings.—Prescott
The pronoun all has the singular construction when it means everything; the plural, when it
425.
means all persons: for example,—Singular. All singular and plural.
When all were gone, fixing his eyes on the mace, etc.—Lingard
All who did not understand French were compelled, etc.—Mcmaster.
The
426.
compounds somebody else, any one else, nobody else, etc., are treated as units,
and the apostrophe is regularly added to the final word else instead of the first. Thackeray Somebody's
else's?
else, or somebody
has the expression somebody's else, and Ford has nobody's else, but the regular usage is
shown in the following selections:—A boy who is fond of somebody else's pencil case.—G. Eliot.
A suit of clothes like somebody else's.—Thackeray.
Drawing off his gloves and warming his hands before the fire as benevolently as if they were somebody else's.—
Dickens.
Certainly not! nor any one else's ropes.—Ruskin.
Again, my pronunciation—like everyone else's—is in some cases more archaic.—Sweet.
Then everybody wanted some of somebody else's.—Ruskin.
His hair...curled once all over it in long tendrils, unlike anybody else's in the world.—N. P. Willis.
"Ye see, there ain't nothin' wakes folks up like somebody else's wantin' what you've got."—Mrs. Stowe.
ADJECTIVES.
AGREEMENT OF ADJECTIVES WITH NOUNS.
The
427.
statement that adjectives agree with their nouns in number is restricted to the words this
and that (with these and those), as these are the only adjectives that have separate forms These sort, all manner of, etc.
for singular and plural; and it is only in one set of expressions that the concord seems to be violated,—in such as "these
sort of books," "those kind of trees," "all manner of men;" the nouns being singular, the adjectives plural. These
expressions are all but universal in spoken English, and may be found not infrequently in literary English; for example,
—These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbor more craft, etc.
—Shakespeare
All these sort of things.—Sheridan.
I hoped we had done with those sort of things.—Muloch.
You have been so used to those sort of impertinences.Sydney Smith.
Whitefield or Wesley, or some other such great man as a bishop, or those sort of people.—Fielding.
I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes.—Austen.
There are women as well as men who can thoroughly enjoy those sort of romantic spots.—Saturday
Review, London.
The library was open, with all manner of amusing books.—Ruskin.
According to the approved usage of Modern English, each one of the above adjectives would have to be changed to the
singular, or the nouns to the plural.
The reason for the prevalence of these expressions must be sought in the history of the
language: it cannot be found in the statement that the adjective is made plural by the History of this construction.
attraction of a noun following.
In Old and Middle English, in keeping with the custom of looking at things concretely rather
than in the abstract, they said, not "all kinds of wild animals," but "alles cunnes wilde deor" At the source.
(wild animals of-every-kind). This the modern expression reverses.
But in early Middle English the modern way of regarding such expressions also appeared,
gradually displacing the old. Later form.
Exercise.
The delay in the first three lines, and conceit in the last, jar upon us constantly.—Ruskin.
The last dozen miles before you reach the suburbs.—De Quincey.
Mankind for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw.—Lamb.
The first twenty numbers were expressed by a corresponding number of dots. The first five had
specific names.—Prescott.
These are the three first needs of civilized life.—Ruskin.
Three first, etc.
He has already finished the three first sticks of it.—Addison.
In my two last you had so much of Lismahago that I suppose you are glad he is gone.—Smollett.
I have not numbered the lines except of the four first books. —Cowper.
The seven first centuries were filled with a succession of triumphs.—Gibbon.
ARTICLES.
The
433.
definite article is repeated before each of two modifiers of the same noun, when the
purpose is to call attention to the noun expressed and the one understood. In such a case Definite article.
two or more separate objects are usually indicated by the separation of the modifiers. Examples of this construction are,
—With a singular noun.
The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the English breed is derived from a mixture of Arabian
blood.—Gibbon.
The righteous man is distinguished from the unrighteous by his desire and hope of justice.—Ruskin.
He seemed deficient in sympathy for concrete human things either on the sunny or the stormy side.—
Carlyle.
It is difficult to imagine a greater contrast than that between the first and the second part of the volume.
—The Nation, No. 1508.
There was also a fundamental difference of opinion as to whether the earliest cleavage
was between the Northern and the Southern languages.—Taylor, Origin of the Aryans. With a plural noun.
The
434.
same repetition of the article is sometimes found before nouns alone, to distinguish clearly, or to emphasize the
meaning; as,—In every line of the Philip and the Saul , the greatest poems, I think, of the eighteenth century.—Macaulay.
He is master of the two-fold Logos, the thought and the word, distinct, but inseparable from each other.—Newman.
The flowers, and the presents, and the trunks and bonnet boxes ... having been arranged, the hour of parting came.—
Thackeray.
Frequently,
435. however, the article is not repeated before each of two or more adjectives, as in
Sec. 433, but is used with one only; as,—Or fanciest thou the red and yellow Clothes-screen The not repeated. One object and
several modifiers, with a singular
yonder is but of To-day, without a Yesterday or a To-morrow?—Carlyle. noun.
A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream of fresh water, are sufficient to attract a colony.—Gibbon.
The Dauphin, the Duke of Berri, Philip of Anjou, were men of insignificant characters.—Macaulay
(4) When a singular is joined with a plural by a disjunctive word, the verb agrees with the one nearest it; as,—
One or two of these perhaps survive.—Thoreau.
One or two persons in the crowd were insolent.—Froude.
One or two of the ladies were going to leave.—Addison
One or two of these old Cromwellian soldiers were still alive in the village.—Thackeray
One or two of whom were more entertaining.—De Quincey.
But notice the construction of this,—
A ray or two wanders into the darkness.—Ruskin.
Exercise.
Change each of the following sentences to accord with standard usage, as illustrated above (Secs. 440-444):—1.
And sharp Adversity will teach at last
Man,—and, as we would hope,—perhaps the devil,
That neither of their intellects are vast.
—Byron.
2. Neither of them, in my opinion, give so accurate an idea of the man as a statuette in bronze.—Trollope.
3. How each of these professions are crowded.—Addison.
4. Neither of their counselors were to be present.—Id.
5. Either of them are equally good to the person to whom they are significant.—Emerson.
6. Neither the red nor the white are strong and glaring.—Burke.
7. A lampoon or a satire do not carry in them robbery or murder.—Addison.
8. Neither of the sisters were very much deceived.—Thackeray.
9.
Nor wood, nor tree, nor bush are there,
Her course to intercept.
—Scott.
10. Both death and I am found eternal.—Milton.
11. In ascending the Mississippi the party was often obliged to wade through morasses; at last they came upon the
district of Little Prairie.—G. Bancroft.
12. In a word, the whole nation seems to be running out of their wits.—Smollett.
SEQUENCE OF TENSES (VERBS AND VERBALS).
If one
446. or more verbs depend on some leading verb, each should be in the tense that will
convey the meaning intended by the writer. Lack of logical sequence in verbs.
In this sentence from Defoe, "I expected every wave would have swallowed us up," the verb expected looks forward to
something in the future, while would have swallowed represents something completed in past time: hence the meaning
intended was, "I expected every wave would swallow" etc.
In the following sentence, the infinitive also fails to express the exact thought:—
Also in verbals.
I had hoped never to have seen the statues again.—Macaulay.
The trouble is the same as in the previous sentence; to have seen should be changed to to see, for exact connection. Of
course, if the purpose were to represent a prior fact or completed action, the perfect infinitive would be the very thing.
It should be remarked, however, that such sentences as those just quoted are in keeping with the older idea of the unity
of the sentence. The present rule is recent.
Exercise.
Explain whether the verbs and infinitives in the following sentences convey the right meaning; if not, change them to a
better form:—
1. I gave one quarter to Ann, meaning, on my return, to have divided with her whatever might remain.—
De Quincey 2. I can't sketch "The Five Drapers," ... but can look and be thankful to have seen such a
masterpiece.—Thackeray.
3. He would have done more wisely to have left them to find their own apology than to have given
reasons which seemed paradoxes.—R. W. Church.
4. The propositions of William are stated to have contained a proposition for a compromise.—Palgrave
5. But I found I wanted a stock of words, which I thought I should have acquired before that time.—
Franklin 6. I could even have suffered them to have broken Everet Ducking's head.—Irving.
INDIRECT DISCOURSE.
447. Direct discourse—that is, a direct quotation or a direct question—means the identical
words the writer or speaker used; as,—"I hope you have not killed him?" said Amyas.— Definitions.
Kingsley.
Indirect discourse means reported speech,—the thoughts of a writer or speaker put in the words of the one reporting
them.
Indirect
448. discourse may be of two kinds:—
Two samples of indirect discourse.
(1) Following the thoughts and also the exact words as far as consistent with the rules of
logical sequence of verbs.
(2) Merely a concise representation of the original words, not attempting to follow the entire quotation.
The following examples of both are from De Quincey:—
1. Reyes remarked that it was not in his power to oblige the clerk as to that, but that he
could oblige him by cutting his throat. Indirect.
His exact words were, "I cannot oblige you ..., but I can oblige you by cutting your throat."
Direct.
Her prudence whispered eternally, that safety there was none for her until she had laid
the Atlantic between herself and St. Sebastian's. Indirect.
She thought to herself, "Safety there is none for me until I have laid," etc.
Direct.
2. Then he laid bare the unparalleled ingratitude of such a step. Oh, the unseen treasure
that had been spent upon that girl! Oh, the untold sums of money that he had sunk in Summary of the expressions.
that unhappy speculation!
The substance of his lamentation was, "Oh, unseen treasure has been spent upon that
girl! Untold sums of money have I sunk," etc. Direct synopsis.
From
449.these illustrations will be readily seen the grammatical changes made in transferring from direct to indirect
discourse. Remember the following facts:—(1) Usually the main, introductory verb is in the past tense.
(2) The indirect quotation is usually introduced by that, and the indirect question by whether or if, or regular
interrogatives.
(3) Verbs in the present-tense form are changed to the past-tense form. This includes the auxiliaries be, have, will , etc.
The past tense is sometimes changed to the past perfect.
(4) The pronouns of the first and second persons are all changed to the third person. Sometimes it is clearer to introduce
the antecedent of the pronoun instead.
Other examples of indirect discourse have been given in Part I., under interrogative pronouns, interrogative adverbs, and
the subjunctive mood of verbs.
Exercise.
Rewrite the following extract from Irving's "Sketch Book," and change it to a direct quotation:—
He assured the company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the
Catskill Mountains had always been haunted by strange beings; that it was affirmed that the great
Hendrick Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there every twenty
years, with his crew of the Half-moon, being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his
enterprise, and keep a guardian eye upon the river and the great city called by his name; that his
father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the mountain;
and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of
thunder.
VERBALS.
PARTICIPLES.
The
450.following sentences illustrate a misuse of the participial phrase:—Pleased with the
"Pilgrim's Progress," my first collection was of John Bunyan's works.—B. Franklin. Careless use of the participial
phrase.
My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's
goodwill.—Goldsmith.
Upon asking how he had been taught the art of a cognoscente so suddenly, he assured me that nothing was more easy.
—Id.
Having thus run through the causes of the sublime, my first observation will be found nearly true.—Burke He therefore
remained silent till he had repeated a paternoster, being the course which his confessor had enjoined.—Scott
Compare with these the following:—
Going yesterday to dine with an old acquaintance, I had the misfortune to find his whole
family very much dejected.—Addison. A correct example.
The trouble is, in the sentences first quoted, that the main subject of the sentence is not the
same word that would be the subject of the participle, if this were expanded into a verb. Notice this.
Consequently one of two courses must be taken,—either change the participle to a verb with
its appropriate subject, leaving the principal statement as it is; or change the principal Correction.
proposition so it shall make logical connection with the participial phrase.
For example, the first sentence would be, either "As I was pleased, ... my first collection was," etc., or "Pleased with the
'Pilgrim's Progress,' I made my first collection John Bunyan's works."
Exercise.—Rewrite the other four sentences so as to correct the careless use of the participial phrase.
INFINITIVES.
There
451. is a construction which is becoming more and more common among good writers,—the
placing an adverb between to of the infinitive and the infinitive itself. The practice is Adverb between to and the
infinitive.
condemned by many grammarians, while defended or excused by others. Standard writers
often use it, and often, purposely or not, avoid it.
The following two examples show the adverb before the infinitive:—
He handled it with such nicety of address as sufficiently to show that he fully
understood the business.—Scott. The more common usage.
Exercise.
In the following citations, see if the adverbs can be placed before or after the infinitive and still modify it as clearly as they
now do:—1. There are, then, many things to be carefully considered, if a strike is to succeed.—Laughlin.
2. That the mind may not have to go backwards and forwards in order to rightly connect them.—Herbert Spencer.
3. It may be easier to bear along all the qualifications of an idea ... than to first imperfectly conceive such idea.—Id.
4. In works of art, this kind of grandeur, which consists in multitude, is to be very cautiously admitted.—Burke.
5. That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarcely worth the sentinel.—Goldsmith.
6. Burke said that such "little arts and devices" were not to be wholly condemned.—The Nation, No. 1533.
7. I wish the reader to clearly understand.—Ruskin.
8. Transactions which seem to be most widely separated from one another.—Dr. Blair.
9. Would earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up.—Addison.
10. A little sketch of his, in which a cannon ball is supposed to have just carried off the head of an aide-de-camp.—
Trollope.
11. The ladies seem to have been expressly created to form helps meet for such gentlemen.—Macaulay.
12. Sufficient to disgust a people whose manners were beginning to be strongly tinctured with austerity.—Id.
13. The spirits, therefore, of those opposed to them seemed to be considerably damped by their continued success.—
Scott.
ADVERBS.
A very
452. careful writer will so place the modifiers of a verb that the reader will not mistake the
meaning. Position of only, even, etc.
The rigid rule in such a case would be, to put the modifier in such a position that the reader not only can understand the
meaning intended, but cannot misunderstand the thought. Now, when such adverbs as only, even, etc., are used, they
are usually placed in a strictly correct position, if they modify single words; but they are often removed from the exact
position, if they modify phrases or clauses: for example, from Irving, "The site is only to be traced by fragments of bricks,
china, and earthenware." Here only modifies the phrase by fragments of bricks, etc., but it is placed before the infinitive.
This misplacement of the adverb can be detected only by analysis of the sentence.
Exercise.
Tell what the adverb modifies in each quotation, and see if it is placed in the proper position:—
1. Only the name of one obscure epigrammatist has been embalmed for us in the verses of his rival.—
Palgrave.
2. Do you remember pea shooters? I think we only had them on going home for holidays.—Thackeray.
3. Irving could only live very modestly. He could only afford to keep one old horse.—Id.
4. The arrangement of this machinery could only be accounted for by supposing the motive power to
have been steam.—Wendell Phillips.
5. Such disputes can only be settled by arms.—Id.
6. I have only noted one or two topics which I thought most likely to interest an American reader.—N. P.
Willis.
7. The silence of the first night at the farmhouse,—stillness broken only by two whippoorwills.—
Higginson.
8. My master, to avoid a crowd, would suffer only thirty people at a time to see me.—Swift.
9. In relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to mean the original institutions.
—Id.
10. The perfect loveliness of a woman's countenance can only consist in that majestic peace which is
founded in the memory of happy and useful years.—Ruskin.
11. In one of those celestial days it seems a poverty that we can only spend it once.—Emerson.
12. My lord was only anxious as long as his wife's anxious face or behavior seemed to upbraid him.—
Thackeray.
13. He shouted in those clear, piercing tones that could be even heard among the roaring of the
cannon.—Cooper.
14. His suspicions were not even excited by the ominous face of Gérard.—Motley.
15. During the whole course of his administration, he scarcely befriended a single man of genius.—
Macaulay.
16. I never remember to have felt an event more deeply than his death.—Sydney Smith.
17. His last journey to Cannes, whence he was never destined to return.—Mrs. Grote.
Exercise.
Tell whether the two or more negatives are properly used in each of the following sentences, and why:—
1. The red men were not so infrequent visitors of the English settlements.—Hawthorne.
2. "Huldy was so up to everything about the house, that the doctor didn't miss nothin' in a temporal
way."—Mrs. Stowe.
3. Her younger sister was a wide-awake girl, who hadn't been to school for nothing.—Holmes.
4. You will find no battle which does not exhibit the most cautious circumspection.—Bayne.
5. Not only could man not acquire such information, but ought not to labor after it.—Grote.
6. There is no thoughtful man in America who would not consider a war with England the greatest of
calamities.—Lowell.
7. In the execution of this task, there is no man who would not find it an arduous effort.—Hamilton.
8. "A weapon," said the King, "well worthy to confer honor, nor has it been laid on an undeserving
shoulder."—Scott.
CONJUNCTIONS.
The
454.
sentences given in Secs. 419 and 420 on the connecting of pronouns with different
expressions may again be referred to here, as the use of the conjunction, as well as of the And who, and which.
pronoun, should be scrutinized.
The most frequent mistakes in using conjunctions are in handling correlatives, especially both
455.
... and, neither ... nor, either ... or, not only ... but, not merely ... but (also). Choice and proper position of
correlatives.
The following examples illustrate the correct use of correlatives as to both choice of words and position:—Whether at
war or at peace, there we were, a standing menace to all earthly paradises of that kind.—Lowell.
These idols of wood can neither hear nor feel.—Prescott.
Both the common soldiery and their leaders and commanders lowered on each other as if their union had not been more
essential than ever, not only to the success of their common cause, but to their own safety.—Scott.
In these examples it will be noticed that nor, not or is the proper correlative of neither; and
that all correlatives in a sentence ought to have corresponding positions: that is, if the last Things to be watched.
precedes a verb, the first ought to be placed before a verb; if the second precedes a phrase, the first should also. This is
necessary to make the sentence clear and symmetrical.
In the sentence, "I am neither in spirits to enjoy it, or to reply to it," both of the above
requirements are violated. The word neither in such a case had better be changed to not ... Correction.
either,—"I am not in spirits either to enjoy it, or to reply to it."
Besides neither ... or, even neither ... nor is often changed to not—either ... or with advantage, as the negation is
sometimes too far from the verb to which it belongs.
A noun may be preceded by one of the correlatives, and an equivalent pronoun by the other. The sentence, "This loose
and inaccurate manner of speaking has misled us both in the theory of taste and of morals," may be changed to "This
loose ... misled us both in the theory of taste and in that of morals."
Exercise.
In the following sentences, substitute that, but, or but that for the words but what:—1. The doctor used to say 'twas her
young heart, and I don't know but what he was right.—S. O. Jewett.
2. At the first stroke of the pickax it is ten to one but what you are taken up for a trespass.—Bulwer.
3. There are few persons of distinction but what can hold conversation in both languages.—Swift.
4. Who knows but what there might be English among those sun-browned half-naked masses of panting wretches?—
Kingsley.
5. No little wound of the kind ever came to him but what he disclosed it at once.—Trollope.
6. They are not so distant from the camp of Saladin but what they might be in a moment surprised.—Scott.
PREPOSITIONS.
As458.
to the placing of a preposition after its object in certain cases, see Sec. 305.
In 459.
the primary meaning of between and among there is a sharp distinction, as already seen
in Sec. 313; but in Modern English the difference is not so marked. Between and among.
Between is used most often with two things only, but still it is frequently used in speaking of several objects, some
relation or connection between two at a time being implied.
Among is used in the same way as amid (though not with exactly the same meaning), several objects being spoken of in
the aggregate, no separation or division by twos being implied.
Examples of the distinctive use of the two words:—
The contentions that arise between the parson and the squire.—Addison.
Two things.
We reckoned the improvements of the art of war among the triumphs of science.—
Emerson.
Examples of the looser use of between:—
Natural objects affect us by the laws of that connection which Providence has
established between certain motions of bodies.—Burke. A number of things.
Hence the differences between men in natural endowment are insignificant in comparison with their
common wealth.—Emerson.
They maintain a good correspondence between those wealthy societies of men that are divided from
one another by seas and oceans.—Addison.
Looking up at its deep-pointed porches and the dark places between their pillars where there were
statues once.—Ruskin
What have I, a soldier of the Cross, to do with recollections of war betwixt Christian nations?—Scott.
Also between may express relation or connection in speaking of two groups of objects, or one
object and a group; as,—A council of war is going on beside the watch fire, between the Two groups or one and a group.
three adventurers and the faithful Yeo.—Kingsley.
The great distinction between teachers sacred or literary,—between poets like Herbert and poets like Pope,—between
philosophers like Spinoza, Kant, and Coleridge, and philosophers like Locke, Paley, Mackintosh, and Stewart, etc. —
Emerson.
Certain
460. words are followed by particular prepositions.
Some of these words show by their composition what preposition should follow. Such are absolve, involve, different.
Some of them have, by custom, come to take prepositions not in keeping with the original meaning of the words. Such
are derogatory, averse.
Many words take one preposition to express one meaning, and another to convey a different meaning; as, correspond,
confer.
And yet others may take several prepositions indifferently to express the same meaning.
461.
List I.: Words with particular
prepositions.
LIST I.
Absolve from.
Abhorrent to.
Accord with.
Acquit of.
Affinity between.
Averse to.
Bestow on (upon).
Conform to.
Comply with.
Conversant with.
Dependent on (upon).
Different from.
Dissent from.
Derogatory to.
Deprive of.
Independent of.
Involve in.
"Different to" is frequently heard in spoken English in England, and sometimes creeps into standard books, but it is not
good usage.
462.
List II.: Words taking different
prepositions for different meanings.
LIST II.
Agree with (a person).
Agree to (a proposal).
Change for (a thing).
Change with (a person).
Change to (become).
Confer with (talk with).
Confer on (upon) (give to).
Confide in (trust in).
Confide to (intrust to).
Correspond with (write to).
Correspond to (a thing).
Differ from (note below).
Differ with (note below).
Disappointed in (a thing obtained).
Disappointed of (a thing not obtained).
Reconcile to (note below).
Reconcile with (note below).
A taste of (food).
A taste for (art, etc.).
"Correspond with" is sometimes used of things, as meaning to be in keeping with.
"Differ from" is used in speaking of unlikeness between things or persons; "differ from" and "differ with" are both used in
speaking of persons disagreeing as to opinions.
"Reconcile to" is used with the meaning of resigned to, as, "The exile became reconciled to his fate;" also of persons, in
the sense of making friends with, as, "The king is reconciled to his minister." "Reconcile with" is used with the meaning of
make to agree with, as, "The statement must be reconciled with his previous conduct."
463.
List III.: Words taking anyone of
several prepositions for the same
meaning.
LIST III.
Die by, die for, die from, die of, die with.
Expect of, expect from.
Part from, part with.
Illustrations of "die of," "die from," etc.:—
The author died of a fit of apoplexy.—Boswell.
"Die of."
People do not die of trifling little colds.—Austen
Fifteen officers died of fever in a day.—Macaulay.
It would take me long to die of hunger.—G. Eliot.
She died of hard work, privation, and ill treatment.—Burnett.
She saw her husband at last literally die from hunger.—Bulwer.
"Die from."
He died at last without disease, simply from old age. —Athenæum.
No one died from want at Longfeld.—Chambers' Journal.
She would have been ready to die with shame.—G. Eliot.
"Die with."
I am positively dying with hunger.—Scott.
I thought the two Miss Flamboroughs would have died with laughing.—Goldsmith.
I wish that the happiest here may not die with envy.—Pope.
Take thought and die for Cæsar.—Shakespeare.
"Die for." (in behalf of).
One of them said he would die for her.—Goldsmith.
It is a man of quality who dies for her.—Addison.
Who, as Cervantes informs us, died for love of the fair Marcella.—Fielding.
"Die for." (because of).
Some officers had died for want of a morsel of bread.—Macaulay.
If I meet with any of 'em, they shall die by this hand. —Thackeray.
"Die by." (material cause,
He must purge himself to the satisfaction of a vigilant tribunal or die by fire.—Macaulay. instrument).
1. Can you imagine Indians or a semi-civilized people engaged on a work like the canal connecting the
Mediterranean and the Red seas?
2. In the friction between an employer and workman, it is commonly said that his profits are high.
3. None of them are in any wise willing to give his life for the life of his chief.
4. That which can be done with perfect convenience and without loss, is not always the thing that most needs to be
done, or which we are most imperatively required to do.
5. Art is neither to be achieved by effort of thinking, nor explained by accuracy of speaking.
6. To such as thee the fathers owe their fame.
7. We tread upon the ancient granite that first divided the waters into a northern and southern ocean.
8. Thou tread'st, with seraphims, the vast abyss.
9. Eustace had slipped off his long cloak, thrown it over Amyas's head, and ran up the alley.
10. This narrative, tedious perhaps, but which the story renders necessary, may serve to explain the state of
intelligence betwixt the lovers.
11. To the shame and eternal infamy of whomsoever shall turn back from the plow on which he hath laid his hand!
12. The noise of vast cataracts, raging storms, thunder, or artillery, awake a great and awful sensation in the mind.
13. The materials and ornaments ought neither to be white, nor green, nor yellow, nor blue, nor of a pale red.
14. This does not prove that an idea of use and beauty are the same thing, or that they are any way dependent on
each other.
15.
And were I anything but what I am,
I would wish me only he.
16. But every man may know, and most of us do know, what is a just and unjust act.
17. You have seen Cassio and she together.
18. We shall shortly see which is the fittest object of scorn, you or me.
19. Richard glared round him with an eye that seemed to seek an enemy, and from which the angry nobles shrunk
appalled.
20. It comes to whomsoever will put off what is foreign and proud.
21. The difference between the just and unjust procedure does not lie in the number of men hired, but in the price
paid to them.
22. The effect of proportion and fitness, so far at least as they proceed from a mere consideration of the work itself,
produce approbation, the acquiescence of the understanding.
23. When the glass or liquor are transparent, the light is sometimes softened in the passage.
24. For there nor yew nor cypress spread their gloom.
25. Every one of these letters are in my name.
26. Neither of them are remarkable for precision.
27. Squares, triangles, and other angular figures, are neither beautiful to the sight nor feeling.
28. There is not one in a thousand of these human souls that cares to think where this estate is, or how beautiful it
is, or what kind of life they are to lead in it.
29. Dryden and Rowe's manner are quite out of fashion.
30. We were only permitted to stop for refreshment once.
31. The sight of the manner in which the meals were served were enough to turn our stomach.
32. The moody and savage state of mind of the sullen and ambitious man are admirably drawn.
33. Surely none of our readers are so unfortunate as not to know some man or woman who carry this atmosphere of
peace and goodwill about with them. (Sec. 411.) 34. Friday, whom he thinks would be better than a dog, and almost
as good as a pony.
35. That night every man of the boat's crew, save Amyas, were down with raging fever.
36. These kind of books fill up the long tapestry of history with little bits of detail which give human interest to it.
37. I never remember the heather so rich and abundant.
38. These are scattered along the coast for several hundred miles, in conditions of life that seem forbidding enough,
but which are accepted without complaint by the inhabitants themselves.
39. Between each was an interval where lay a musket.
40. He had four children, and it was confidently expected that they would receive a fortune of at least $200,000
between them.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]More for convenience than for absolute accuracy, the stages of our language have been roughly divided into
three:—(1) Old English (with Anglo-Saxon) down to the twelfth century.
(2) Middle English, from about the twelfth century to the sixteenth century.
(3) Modern English, from about 1500 to the present time.
INDEX.
THE NUMBERS REFER TO PAGES.
A, origin of, 119.
syntax of, 310.
uses of, 124.
H, an before, 120.
Had better, had rather, 175.
Hanged, hung, 159.
He, she, it, 61.
His for its, 61.
Husband, 36.
Madam, 36.
Manner, adverbs of, 185, 188.
conjunctions of, 195.
Many, comparison of, 110, 112.
Many a, 126.
Mapping out sentences, 256, 265.
Mare, 36.
Master, mistress, 34.
May, might, 160.
Means, construction of, 41.
Mighty as adverb, 187.
Mine, of mine, 64.
Modifier, adverb, position of, 325.
Modifiers. See Enlargement.
Mood, definition of, 135.
imperative, 144.
indicative, 136, 137.
subjunctive, 137-144.
-Most, in superlatives, 113, 114, 189.
Much, comparison of, 110, 112, 189.
Must, 161.
Pains, 41.
Parsing, models for, 56, 117.
of adjectives, 115, 116.
of adverbs, 191.
of articles, 127.
of conjunctions, 199.
of nouns, 56.
of prepositions, 219.
of pronouns, 95.
of relatives, 80.
of verb phrases, 180.
of verbals, 181.
of verbs, 179.
some idioms not parsed, 56.
what it is, 56.
Part from, part with, 335.
Participial adjective, 100.
Participial phrase, 247.
Participle, definition of, 172.
distinguished from other -ing words, 177.
forms of, 174.
kinds of, 173.
syntax of, 322.
uses of, 150, 172.
Parts of speech, article included in, 119.
words used as various, 27, 28.
Passive voice, 134.
Peas, pease, 43.
Pence, pennies, 43.
Person, agreement of verb and subject in, 317.
of nouns, 59.
of pronouns, 59.
of verbs, 148.
Personal pronoun, absolute use of, 63.
agreement of, with antecedent, 287.
as predicate nominative, 281.
case of, 62.
compound, or reflexive, 69.
uses of, 70.
definition of, 59.
double possessive of, 64.
'em and them, 62.
history of, 61.
objective of, for nominative in spoken English, 63, 281.
syntax of, 281.
table of, 60.
triple possessive of, 64.
uses of it, 67.
Personification, of abstract nouns, 25.
of other nouns, 37.
Phrase, definition of, 236.
kinds of, 236.
infinitive, 248.
participial, 247.
prepositional, 247.
Place, adverbs of, 185, 188.
conjunctions of, 195.
prepositions of, 206.
For your own Unlimited Reading and FREE eBooks today, visit:
http://www.Free-eBooks.net
Share this eBook with anyone and everyone automatically by selecting any of the
options below:
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Free-eBooks.net respects the intellectual property of others. When a book's copyright owner submits their work to Free-eBooks.net, they are granting us permission to distribute such material. Unless
otherwise stated in this book, this permission is not passed onto others. As such, redistributing this book without the copyright owner's permission can constitute copyright infringement. If you
believe that your work has been used in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please follow our Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement as seen in our Terms
of Service here:
http://www.free-ebooks.net/tos.html
3 AUDIOBOOK COLLECTIONS
6 BOOK COLLECTIONS