Some Verbs which changeishort intoaoru, andilong intoou, have dropt the terminationenin the Participle.
In many of the foregoing the original and analogical form of the Past Time ina, which distinguished it from the Participle, is grown quite obsolete.
That all these had originally the terminationenin the Participle, is plain from the following considerations.Drinkandbindstill retainit;drunken,bounden; from the Saxon,druncen,bunden: and the rest are manifestly of the same analogy with these.Begonnen,sonken, andfounden, are used by Chaucer; and some others of them appear in their proper shape in the Saxon;scruncen,spunnen,sprungen,stungen,wunden. As likewise in the German, which is only another off-spring of the Saxon:begunnen,geklungen,getruncken,gesungen,gesuncken,gespunnen,gesprungen,gestuncken,geschwummen,geschwungen.
The following seem to have lost theenof the Participle in the same manner:
Hangen, andscoten, are the Saxon originals of the two first Participles; the latter of which is likewise still in use in its first form in one phrase; ashottenherring.Stuckseems to be a contraction fromstucken, asstrucknow in use forstrucken. Chaucer hathcomenandwonnen:becommenis even used by Lord Bacon[37]. And most of them still subsist intire in the German;gehangen,kommen,gerunnen,gewonnen.
To this third Class belong the Defective Verbs, Be, been; and Go, gone; i. e. goen.
From this Distribution and account of the Irregular Verbs, if it be just, it appears, that originallythere was no exception whatever from the Rule, That the Participle Præterit, or Passive, in English ends ind,t, orn. The first form included all the Regular Verbs, and those which are become Irregular by Contraction ending int. To the second properly belonged only those which end inght, from the Saxon Irregulars inhte. To the third, those from the Saxon Irregulars inen, which have still, or had originally, the same termination.
The same Rule affords a proper foundation for a division of the English Verbs into Three Conjugations, of which the three different Terminations of the Participle might respectively be the Characteristics. The Contracted Verbs, whose Participles now end int, might perhaps be best reduced to the first Conjugation, to which they naturallyand originally belonged; and they seem to be of a very different analogy from those inght. But as the Verbs of the first Conjugation would so greatly exceed in number those of both the others, which together make but about 110[38]; and as those of the third Conjugation are so various in their form, and so incapable of being reduced to one plain Rule; it seems better in practice to consider the first inedas the only Regular form, and the others as deviations from it; after the example of the Saxon and German Grammarians.
To the Irregular Verbs are to be added the Defective; which are notonly for the most part Irregular, but are also wanting in some of their parts. They are in general words of most frequent and vulgar use; in which Custom is apt to get the better of Analogy. Such are the Auxiliary Verbs, most of which are of this number. They are in use only in some of their Times, and Modes; and some of them are a Composition of Times of several Defective Verbs having the same signification.
There are not in English so many as a Hundred Verbs, (being only the chief part, but not all, of the Irregulars of the Third Class,) which have a distinct and different form for the Past Time Active and the Participle Perfect or Passive. The General bent and turn of the language is towards the other form, which makes the Past Time and the Participle the same. This general inclination and tendency of the language, seems to have given occasion to the introducing of a very great Corruption; by which the Form of the Past Time is confounded with that of the Participle in these Verbs, few in proportion, which have them quite different from one another. This confusion prevails greatly in commondiscourse, and is too much authorised by the example of some of our best Writers[39]. Thus it is said,He begun, forhe began;he run, forhe ran;he drunk, forhe drank:the Participle being used instead of the Past Time. And much more frequently the Past Time instead of the Participle: as,I had wrote,it was wrote, forI had written,itwas written;I have drank, forI have drunk;bore, forborn;chose, forchosen;bid, forbidden;got, forgotten; &c. This abuse has been long growing upon us, and is continually making further incroachments:as it may be observed in the example of those Irregular Verbs of the Third Class, which changeishort intoaandu; as, Cling, clang, clung; in which the original and analogical form of the Past Time inais almost grown obsolete; and, theuprevailing instead of it, the Past Time is now in most of them confounded with the Participle. The Vulgar Translation of the Bible, which is the best standard of our language, is free from this corruption, except in a few instances; as,hidis used forhidden;held, forholden, frequently:bid, forbidden;begot, forbegotten, once or twice: in which, and a few other like words, it may perhaps be allowed as a Contraction. And in some of these Custom has established it beyond recovery. In the rest it seems wholly inexcusable. Theabsurdity of it will be plainly perceived in the example of some of these Verbs, which Custom has not yet so perverted. We should be immediately shocked atI have knew,I have saw,I have gave, &c: but our ears are grown familiar withI have wrote,I have drank,I have bore, &c. which are altogether as barbarous.
Adverbsareadded to Verbsand Adjectives to denote some modification or circumstance of an action or quality: as, the manner, order, time, place, distance, motion, relation, quantity, quality, comparison, doubt, affirmation, negation, demonstration, interrogation.
In English they admit of no Variation; except some few of them,which have the degrees of Comparison: as,[40]“often, oftener, oftenest;” “soon, sooner, soonest.”
An Adverb is sometimes joined to another Adverb to modify or qualify its meaning; as, “very much; much too little; not very prudently.”
Prepositions, so called because they are commonlyput beforethe words to which they are applied, serve to connect words with one another, and to shew the relation between them.
One great use of Prepositions in English, is to express those relationswhich in some languages are chiefly marked by Cases, or the different endings of the Noun.
Most Prepositions originally denote the relation of Place, and have been thence transferred to denote by similitude other relations. Thus,out,in,through,under,by,to,from,of, &c.Ofis much the same withfrom; “askofme,” that is,fromme: “madeofwood;” “SonofPhilip;” that is, sprungfromhim.For, in its primary sense, ispro,loco alterius, in the stead, or place, of another. The notion of Place is very obvious in all the rest.
The Conjunction connects orjoins togetherSentences; so as out of two to make one Sentence.
Thus, “You,andI,andPeter,rode to London,” is one Sentence made up of these three by the Conjunctionandtwice employed; “You rode to London; I rode to London; Peter rode to London.” Again, “YouandI rode to London,butPeter staid at home,” is one Sentence made up of three by the Conjunctionsandandbut: both of which equally connect the Sentences, but the latter expresses an Opposition in the Sense. The first is therefore called a Conjunction Copulative; the other a Conjunction Disjunctive.
The use of Copulative Conjunctions is to connect, or to continue, the Sentence, by expressing an addition,and; a supposition, or condition,if,as; a cause,because[41],then; a motive,that; an inference,therefore; &c.
The use of Disjunctives is to connect and to continue the Sentence; but to express Opposition of meaning in different degrees: as,or,but,than,altho’,unless, &c.
Interjections, so called because they arethrown inbetween the parts of a sentence without making any other alteration in it, are a kind of Natural Sounds to express the affection of the Speaker.
The different Passions have forthe most part different Interjections to express them.
The InterjectionOplaced before a Substantive expresses more strongly an address made to that person or thing; as it marks in Latin what is called the Vocative Case.