False Orthography for the learner to correct.—Be thou like the gale that moves the gras, to those who ask thy aid.—The aged hero comes forth on his staf; his gray hair glitters in the beam.—Shal mortal man be more just than God?—Few know the value of health til they lose it.—Our manners should be neither gros, nor excessively refined.
And that is not the lark, whose notes do beatThe vaulty heaven so high above our heads:I have more care to stay, than wil to go.
RULE II. Monosyllables ending in any consonant butf, l, ors, never double the final consonant when it is preceded by asinglevowel; as,man, hat. Exceptions;add, ebb, butt, egg, odd, err, inn, bunn, purr, andbuzz.
False Orthography.—None ever went sadd from Fingal.—He rejoiced over his sonn.—Clonar lies bleeding on the bedd of death.—Many a trapp is set to insnare the feet of youth.
The weary sunn has made a golden sett,And, by the bright track of his golden carr,Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow.
RULE III. Words ending iny, form the plural of nouns, the persons of verbs, participial nouns, past participles, comparatives, and superlatives, by changingyintoi, when theyis preceded by aconsonant; as,spy, spies; I carry, thou carriest, he carries; carrier, carried; happy, happier, happiest.
The present participle ining, retains theythatimay not be doubled; as,carry, carrying.
But whenyis preceded by avowel, in such instances as the above, it is not changed intoi; as,boy, boys; I cloy, he cloys; except in the wordslay, pay, andsay Ifrom which are formedlaid, paid, andsaid; and their compounds,unpaid, unsaid, &c.
False Orthography.—Our fancys should be governed by reason.—Thou wearyest thyself in vain.—He denyed himself all sinful pleasures.
Win straiing souls with modesty and love;Cast none away.
The truly good man is not dismaied by poverty.Ere fresh morning streak the east, we must be risen to reform yonder allies green.
RULE IV. When words ending iny, assume an additional syllable beginning with a consonant, they, if it is preceded by a consonant, is commonly changed toi; as,happy, happily, happiness.
But whenyis preceded by a vowel, in such instances, it is very rarely changed toi; as,coy, coyless; boy, boyish; boyhood; joy, joyless, joyful.
False Orthography.—His mind is uninfluenced by fancyful humors.—The vessel was heavyly laden.—When we act against conscience, we become the destroiers of our own peace.
Christiana, mayden of heroic mien!Star of the north! of northern stars the queen!
RULE V. Monosyllables, and words accented on the last syllable, ending with a single consonant that is preceded by a single vowel, double that consonant when they assume another syllable that begins with a vowel; as,wit, witty; thin, thinnish; to abet, an abetter.
But if a diphthong precedes, or the accent isnoton the last syllable, the consonant remains single; as,to toil, toiling; to offer, an offering; maid, maiden.
False Orthography.—The business of to-day, should not be defered till to-morrow.—That law is annuled.—When we have outstriped our errors we have won the race.—By defering our repentance, we accumulate our sorrows.—The Christian Lawgiver has prohibited many things which the heathen philosophers allowed.
At summer eve, when heaven's aerial bowSpans with bright arch the glitterring hills below.—Thus mourned the hapless man; a thunderring soundRolled round the shudderring walls and shook the ground.
RULE VI. Words ending in doublel, in takingness, less, ly, orful, after them, generally omit onel; as,fulness, skilless, fully skilful.
But words ending in any double letter butl, and takingness, less, ly, orful, after them, preserve the letter double; as,harmlessness, carelessness, carelessly, stiffly, successful.
False Orthography.—A chillness generally precedes a fever.—He is wed to dullness.
The silent stranger stood amazed to seeContempt of wealth and willful poverty.
Restlesness of mind impairs our peace.—The road to the blisful regions, is as open to the peasant as to the king.—The arrows of calumny fall harmlesly at the feet of virtue.
RULE VII.Ness, less, ly, orful, added to words ending in silente, does not cut it off; as,paleness, guileless, closely, peaceful; except in a few words; as,duly, truly, awful.
False Orthography.—Sedatness is becoming.
All these with ceasless praise his works behold.Stars rush: and final ruin fiercly drivesHer ploughshare o'er creation!———Nature made a pause,An aweful pause! prophetic of her end!
RULE VIII. When words ending in silente, assume the termination,ment, theeshould not be cut off; as,abatement, chastisement.
Ment, like other terminations, changesyintoiwhen theyis preceded by a consonant; as,accompany, accompaniment; merry, merriment.
False Orthography.—A judicious arrangment of studies facilitates improvment.—Encouragment is greatest when we least need it.
To shun allurments is not hard,To minds resolv'd, forwarn'd, and well prepared.
RULE IX. When words ending in silente, assume the termination,ableorible, theeshould generally be cut off; as,blame, blamable; cure, curable; sense, sensible. But ifcorgsoft comes beforeein the original word, theeis preserved in words compounded withable; as,peace, peaceable; change, changeable.
False Orthography.—Knowledge is desireable.—Misconduct is inexcuseable.—Our natural defects are not chargable upon us.—We are made to be servicable to others as well as to ourselves.
RULE X. Wheningorishis added to words ending in silente, theeis almost always omitted; as,place, placing; lodge, lodging; slave, slavish; prude, prudish.
False Orthography.—Labor and expense are lost upon a droneish spirit.—An obligeing and humble disposition, is totally unconnected with a servile and cringeing humor.
Conscience anticipateing time,Already rues th' unacted crime.
One self-approveing hour, whole years outweighsOf stupid starers, and of loud huzzas.
RULE XI. Compound words are generally spelled in the same manner as the simple words of which they are compounded; as,glasshouse, skylight, thereby, hereafter. Many words ending in doublel, are exceptions to this rule; as,already, welfare, wilful, fulfil; and also the words,wherever, christmas, lammas, &c.
False Orthography.—The Jew's pasover was instituted in A.M. 2513.—They salute one another by touching their forheads.—That which is some times expedient, is not allways so.
Then, in the scale of reasoning life 'tis plain,There must be, somwhere, such a rank as man.Till hymen brought his lov-delighted hour,There dwelt no joy in Eden's rosy bower.The head reclined, the loosened hair,The limbs relaxed, the mournful air:—See, he looks up; a wofull smileLightens his wo-worn cheek awhile.
You may now answer the following
What is language?—How is language divided?—What is natural language?—What are the elements of natural language in man?—Wherein consists the language of brutes?—What is artificial language?—What is an idea?—What are words?—What is grammar?—What does Universal grammar explain?—Wherein does Particular grammar differ from universal?—What is the standard of grammatical accuracy?—What is Philosophical grammar?—What is Practical grammar?—What is a principle of grammar?—A definition?—A rule?—What is English grammar?—Into how many parts is grammar divided?—What does Orthography teach?
ETYMOLOGY treats of the different sorts of words, their various modifications, and their derivation.
SYNTAX treats of the agreement and government of words, and of their proper arrangement in a sentence.
The word ETYMOLOGY signifies theoriginorpedigree of words.
Syn, a prefix from the Greek, signifiestogether.Syn-tax, meansplacing together; or, as applied in grammar,sentence making.
The rules of syntax, which direct to the proper choice of words, and their judicious arrangement in a sentence, and thereby enable us to correct and avoid errors in speech, are chiefly based on principles unfolded and explained by Etymology. Etymological knowledge, then, is a prerequisite to the study of Syntax; but, in parsing, under the head of Etymology, you are required to apply the rules of Syntax. It becomes necessary, therefore, in a practical work of this sort, to treat these two parts of grammar in connexion.
Conducted on scientific principles, Etymology would comprehend the exposition of the origin and meaning of words, and, in short, their whole history, including their application to things in accordance with the laws of nature and of thought, and the caprice of those who apply them; but to follow up the current of language to its various sources, and analyze the springs from which it flows, would involve a process altogether too arduous and extensive for an elementary work. It would lead to the study of all those languages from which ours is immediately derived, and even compel us to trace many words through those languages to others more ancient, and so on, until the chain of research would become, if not endless, at least, too extensive to be traced out by one man. I shall, therefore, confine myself to the following, limited views of this part of grammar.
1. Etymology treats of theclassificationof words.
2. Etymology explains theaccidentsorpropertiespeculiar to each class or sort of words, and their presentmodifications. By modifications, I mean the changes produced on theirendings, in consequence of their assuming different relations in respect to one another. These changes, such as fruit, fruits, fruit's; he, his, him; write, writest, writeth, writes, wrote, written, writing, writer; a, an; ample, amply, and the like, will be explained in their appropriate places.
3. Etymology treats of thederivationof words; that is, it teaches youhow one word comes from, orgrows out ofanother. For example, from the word speak, come the words speakest, speaketh, speaks, speaking, spoke, spoken, speaker, speaker's, speakers. These, you perceive, are all one and the same word, and all, except the last three, express the same kind of action. They differ from each other only in the termination. These changes in termination are produced on the word in order to make it correspond with the variouspersonswho speak, thenumberof persons, or thetimeof speaking; as,Ispeak,thouspeakest, themanspeaketh, or speaks, themenspeak,Ispoke; The speakerspeaksanother speaker'sspeech.
The third part of Etymology, which is intimately connected with the second, will be more amply expanded in Lecture XIV, and in the Philosophical notes; but I shall not treat largely of that branch of derivation which consists in tracing words to foreign languages. This is the province of the lexicographer, rather than of the philologist. It is not the business of him who writes a practical, English grammar, to trace words to the Saxon, nor to the Celtic, the Greek, the Dutch, the Mexican, nor the Persian; nor is it his province to explain their meaning in Latin, French, or Hebrew, Italian, Mohegan, or Sanscrit; but it is his duty to explain their properties, their powers, their connexions, relations, dependancies, and, bearings, not at the period in which the Danes made an irruption into the island of Great Britain, nor in the year in which Lamech paid his addresses to Adah and Zillah, butat the particular period in which he writes. His words are already derived, formed, established, and furnished to his hand, and he is bound to take them and explain them as he finds themin his day, without any regard to their ancient construction and application.
In arranging the parts of speech, I conceive it to be the legitimate object of the practical grammarian, to consultpractical convenience. The true principle of classification seems to be, not a reference to essential differences in theprimitivemeaning of words, nor to their original combinations, but to themanner in which they are at present employed. In the early and rude state of society, mankind are quite limited in their knowledge, and having but few ideas to communicate, a small number of words answers their purpose in the transmission of thought. This leads them to express their ideas in short, detached sentences, requiring few or none of thoseconnectives, or words of transition, which are afterwards introduced into language by refinement, and which contribute so largely to its perspicuity and elegance. The argument appears to be conclusive, then, that every language must necessarily have more parts of speech in its refined, than in its barbarous state.
The part of speech to which any word belongs, is ascertained, not by theoriginalsignification of that word, but by its presentmannerof meaning, or, rather,the office which it performs in a sentence.
The various ways in which a word is applied to the idea which it represents, are called itsmanner of meaning. Thus, The painter dips hispaintbrush inpaint, topaintthe carriage. Here, the wordpaint, is first employed todescribethe brush which the painter uses; in this situation it is, therefore, anadjective; secondly, tonamethe mixture employed; for which reason it is anoun; and, lastly, toexpress the actionperformed; it therefore, becomes averb; and yet, the meaning of the word is the same in all these applications. This meaning, however, is applied in different ways; and thus the same word becomes different parts of speech. Richard tookwaterfrom thewaterpot, towaterthe plants.
Etymology treats, first, of theclassificationof words.
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE is derived chiefly from the Saxon, Danish, Celtic, and Gothic; but in the progressive stages of its refinement, it has been greatly enriched by accessions from the Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and German languages.
The number of words in our language, after deducting proper names, and words formed by the inflections of our verbs, nouns, and adjectives, may be estimated at aboutforty thousand.
There are ten sorts of words, called parts of speech, namely, the NOUN or SUBSTANTIVE, VERB, ARTICLE, ADJECTIVE, PARTICIPLE, ADVERB, PREPOSITION, PRONOUN, CONJUNCTION, and INTERJECTION.
Thus you perceive, that all the words in the English language are included in these ten classes: and what you have to do in acquiring a knowledge of English Grammar, is merely to become acquainted with these ten parts of speech, and the rules of Syntax that apply to them. TheNounandVerbare the most important and leading parts of speech; therefore they are first presented: all the rest (except the interjection) are either appendages or connectives of these two. As you proceed, you will find that it will require more time, and cost you more labor, to get a knowledge of the noun and verb, than it will to become familiar with all the minor parts of speech.
The principal use of words is, tonamethings,comparethem with each other, andexpress their actions.
Nouns, which are the names of entities or things,adjectiveswhich denote the comparisons and relations of things by describing them, and expressing their qualities, andverbs, which express the actions and being of things, are the only classes of words necessarily recognised in a philosophical view of grammar. But in a treatise which consults, mainly, thepracticaladvantages of the learner, it is believed, that no classification will be found more convenient or accurate than the foregoing, which divides words into ten sorts. To attempt to prove, in this place, that nothing would be gained by adopting either a less or a greater number of the parts of speech, would be anticipating the subject. I shall, therefore, give my reasons for adopting this arrangement in preference to any other, as the different sorts of words are respectively presented to you, for then you will be better prepared to appreciate my arguments.
A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing; as,man, Charleston, knowledge.
Nouns are often improperly calledsubstantives. A substantive is the name of asubstanceonly; but a noun is the name either of asubstanceor aquality.
Noun, derived from the Latin wordnomen, signifiesname. The name of any thing[1]that exists, whether animate or inanimate, or which we can see, hear, feel, taste, smell, or think of, is a noun.Animal, bird, creature, paper, pen, apple, fold, house, modesty, virtue, danger, are all nouns. In order that you may easily distinguish this part of speech from others, I will give you asign, which will be useful to you when you cannot tell it by thesense. Any word that will make sense withthebefore it, is a noun. Try the following words by this sign, and see if they are nouns: tree, mountain, soul, mind, conscience, understanding.Thetree,themountain,thesoul, and so on. You perceive, that they will make sense withtheprefixed; therefore you know they arenouns. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, for some nouns will not make sense withtheprefixed. These you will be able to distinguish, if you exercise your mind, by theirmaking sense of themselves; as,goodness, sobriety, hope, immortality.
Nouns are used to denote the nonentity or absence of a thing, as well as its reality; as,nothing, naught, vacancy, non-existence, invisibility.
Nouns are sometimes used as verbs, and verbs, as nouns, according to theirmannerof meaning; and nouns are sometimes used as adjectives, and adjectives, as nouns. This matter will be explained in the concluding part of this lecture, where you will be better prepared to comprehend it.
NOUNS are of two kinds, common and proper.
ACommon nounis the name of a sort or species of things; as,man, tree, river.
AProper nounis the name of an individual; as,Charles, Ithaca, Ganges.
A noun signifying many, is called acollective noun, ornoun of multitude; as, thepeople, thearmy.
The distinction between a common and a proper noun, is very obvious. For example:boyis a common noun, because it is a name applied toallboys; butCharlesis a proper noun, because it is the name of anindividualboy. Although many boys may have the same name, yet you know it is not a common noun, for the name Charles isnotgiven to all boys.Mississippiis a proper noun, because it is the name of an individual river; butriveris a common noun, because it is the name of aspeciesof things, and the nameriveris common toallrivers.
Nouns which denote the genus, species, or variety of beings or things, are always common; as,tree, the genus;oak, ash, chestnut, poplar, different species; and redoak, whiteoak, blackoak, varieties. The word earth, when it signifies a kind or quantity of dirt, is a common noun; but when it denotes the planet we inhabit, it is a proper noun. Thewordsperson, place, river, mountain, lake, &c. arecommon nouns, because they are the names of wholespecies, or classes of things containing many sorts; but thenamesof persons, places, rivers, mountains, lakes, &c. areproper nouns, because they denoteindividuals; as, Augustus, Baltimore, Alps, Huron.
Physician, lawyer, merchant, andshoemaker, are common nouns, because these names are common to classes of men.GodandLord, when applied to Jehovah or Jesus Christ, are proper; but when employed to denote heathen or falsegods, or temporallords, they are common. The Notes and remarks throughout the work, though of minor importance, demand your attentive and careful perusal.
1. Whenpropernouns have an article annexed to them, they are used after the manner ofcommonnouns; as, "Bolivar is styledtheWashington of South America."
2.Commonnouns are sometimes used to signifyindividuals, when articles or pronouns are prefixed to them; as, "Theboy is studious;Thatgirl is discreet." In such instances, they are nearly equivalent to proper nouns.
3.Commonnouns are sometimes subdivided into the following classes:Nouns of Multitude; as, The people, the parliament:Verbal or participial nouns; as, The beginning, reading, writing; andAbstract nouns, or the names of qualities abstracted from their substances; as, knowledge, virtue, goodness. Lest the student be led to blend the idea of abstract nouns with that of adjectives, both of which denote qualities, a farther illustration appears to be necessary, in order to mark the distinction between these two parts of speech. An abstract noun denotes a quality consideredapart(that is, abstracted)fromthe substance or being to which it belongs; but an adjective denotes a qualityjoined(adjected)tothe substance or being to which it belongs. Thus,whitenessandwhiteboth denote the same quality; but we speak of whiteness as a distinct object of thought, while we use the wordwhitealways in reference to the noun to which it belongs; as,whitepaper,whitemouse.
4. Some authors have proceeded to still more minute divisions and sub-divisions of nouns; such, for example, as the following, which appear to be more complex than useful:Natural nouns, or names of things formed by nature; as, man, beast, water, air: 2.Artificialnouns, or names of things formed by art; as, book, vessel, house: 3.Personal nouns, or those which stand for human beings; as, man, woman, Edwin: 4.Neuter nouns, or those which denote things inanimate; as, book, field, mountain, Cincinnati. The following, however, is quite a rational division:Material nounsare the names of things formed of matter; as, stone, book:Immaterialnounsare the names of things having no substance; as, hope, immortality.
To nouns belong gender, person, number, and case.
GENDER is the distinction of sex. Nouns have three genders, the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter.
Themasculine genderdenotes males; as, aman, aboy.
Thefeminine genderdenotes females; as, awoman, agirl.
Theneuter genderdenotes things without sex; as, ahat, astick.
Neutermeansneither:therefore neuter gender signifies neither gender; that is, neither masculine nor feminine. Hence, neuter gender meansno gender. Strictly speaking, then, as there are but two sexes, nouns have buttwogenders; but for the sake of practical convenience, we apply to them three genders, by calling that a gender which isnogender. The English and the pure Persian, appear to be the only languages which observe, in the distinction of sex, the natural division of nouns.—The genders of nouns are so easily known, that a farther explanation of them is unnecessary, except what is given in the following
1. The same noun is sometimes masculineandfeminine, and sometimes masculineorfeminine. The nounparentsis of the masculineandfeminine gender. The nounsparent, associate, neighbor, servant, friend, child, bird, fish, &c.if doubtful, are of the masculineorfeminine gender.
2. Some nouns naturally neuter, are, when used figuratively, orpersonified, converted into the masculine or feminine gender. Those nouns are generally rendered masculine, which are conspicuous for the attributes of imparting or communicating, and which are by nature strong and efficacious; as, thesun, time, death, sleep,winter, &c.Those, again, are generally feminine, which are conspicuous for the attributes of containing or bringing forth, or which are very beautiful, mild, or amiable; as, theearth, moon,church, boat, vessel, city, country, nature, ship, soul, fortune,virtue, hope, spring, peace, &c.This principle for designating the sex of a personified object, which is quite rational, is generally adhered to in the English language; but, in some instances, the poet applies the sex according to his fancy.
The masculine and feminine genders are distinguished in three ways:
1.By different words; as,
2.By a difference in termination; as,
3.By prefixing another word; as,
PERSON is a property of the noun and pronoun which varies the verb.
Thefirst persondenotes the speaker.
Thesecond persondenotes the person or thing spoken to; as, "Listen,earth!"
Thethird persondenotes the person or thing spoken of; as, "Theearththirsts."
Nouns have buttwopersons, the second and third. When a man speaks, thepronoun Iorweis always used; therefore nouns can never be in thefirstperson. In examples like the following, some philologists suppose the noun to be in thefirstperson:—"This may certify, that I,Jonas Taylor, do hereby give and grant," &c. But it is evident, that the speaker or writer, in introducing his own name, speaksofhimself; consequently the noun is of thethird person.
If you wish to understand the persons of nouns, a little sober thought is requisite; and, by exercising it, all difficulties will be removed. If I say, myson, have you seen the young man? you perceive that the nounsonis of thesecondperson, because I address myselftohim; that is, he is spokento;but the nounmanis of thethirdperson, because he is spokenof. Again, if I say, youngman, have you seen my son?manis of thesecondperson, andsonis of thethird.
"Hast thou left thy blue course in the heavens, golden-hairedsunof the sky?"
"Father, may the Great Spirit so brighten the chain of friendship between us, that a child may find it, when the sun is asleep in his wig-wam behind the western waters."
"Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
Sink down, yemountains, and, yevalleys, rise!"
"EternalHope, thy glittering wings explore
Earth's loneliest bounds, and ocean's wildest shore."
In these examples, the nouns, sun, father, mountains, valleys, and hope, are of thesecondperson, and, as you will hereafter learn, in the nominative case independent. Course, heavens, sky, Spirit, chain, friendship, child, sun, wig-wam, waters, earth, skies, wings, earth, bounds, ocean, and shore, are all of thethirdperson.
Number is the distinction of objects, as one or more. Nouns are of two numbers, the singular and the plural.
Thesingularnumber implies but one; as, abook.
Thepluralnumber implies more than one; as,books.
1. Some nouns are used only in the singular form; as, hemp, flax, barley, wheat, pitch, gold, sloth, pride, honesty, meekness, compassion, &c.; others only in the plural form; as, bellows, scissors, ashes, riches, snuffers, tongs, thanks, wages, embers, ides, pains, vespers, &c.
2. Some words are the same in both numbers; as, deer, sheep, swine; and, also, hiatus, apparatus, series, species.
3. The plural number of nouns is generally formed by addingsto the singular; as, dove, doves; face, faces; but sometimes we addesin the plural; as, box, boxes; church, churches; lash, lashes; cargo, cargoes.
4. Nouns ending inforfe, are rendered plural by a change of that termination intoves; as, half, halves; wife, wives: except grief, relief, reproof, and several others, which form their plurals by the addition ofs. Those ending inff, have the regular plural; as, ruff, ruffs; except staff, staves.
5. Nouns ending inyin the singular, with no other vowel in the same syllable, change it intoiesin the plural; as, beauty, beauties; fly, flies. But theyis not changed, where there is another vowel in the syllable; as, key, keys; delay, delays; attorney, attorneys; valley, valleys; chimney, chimneys.
6.Mathematics, metaphysics, politics, optics, ethics, pneumatics,hydraulics, &c. are construed either as singular or plural nouns.
7. The wordnewsis always singular. The nounsmeans, alms, andamends, though plural in form, may be either singular or plural in signification. Antipodes, credenda, literati, and minutiæ are always plural.Banditis now used as the singular of Banditti.
8. The following nouns form their plurals not according to any general rule; thus, man, men; woman, women; child, children; ox, oxen; tooth, teeth; goose, geese; foot, feet; mouse, mice; louse, lice; brother, brothers or brethren; cow, cows or kine; penny, pence, or pennies when the coin is meant; die, dicefor play,diesfor coining;pea and fish, pease and fish when the species is meant, butpeasandfisheswhen we refer to the number; as, sixpeas, tenfishes.
9. The following compounds form their plurals thus: handful, handfuls; cupful, cupfuls; spoonful, spoonfuls:—brother-in-law, brothers-in-law; court-martial, courts-martial.
The following words form their plurals according to the rules of the languages from which they are adopted.