The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (read books for money TXT) 📖

"Never was man so teized, or suffered half the uneasiness as I have done this evening."— Tattler, No. 160; Priestley's Gram., p. 200; Murray's, i, 223. "There may be reckoned in English four different cases, or relations of a substantive, called the subjective, the possessive, the objective, and the absolute cases."—Goodenow's Gram., p. 31. "To avoid the too often repeating the Names of other Persons or Things of which we discourse, the words he, she, it, who, what, were invented."—Brightland's Gram., p. 85. "Names which denote a number of the same things, are called nouns of multitude."—Infant School Gram., p. 21. "But lest he should think, this were too slightly a passing over his matter, I will propose to him to be considered these things following."—Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 472. "In the pronunciation of the letters of the Hebrew proper names, we find nearly the same rules prevail as in those of Greek and Latin."—Walker's Key, p. 223. "The distributive pronominal adjectives each, every, either, agree with the nouns, pronouns, and verbs of the singular number only."—Lowth's Gram., p. 89. "Having treated of the different sorts of words, and their various modifications, which is the first part of Etymology, it is now proper to explain the methods by which one word is derived from another."—L. Murray's Gram., p. 130. EXERCISE XVI.—MANY ERRORS.

"A Noun with its Adjectives (or any governing Word with its Attendants) is one compound Word, whence the Noun and Adjective so joined, do often admit another Adjective, and sometimes a third, and so on; as, a Man, an old Man, a very good old Man, a very learned, judicious, sober Man."—British Gram., p. 195; Buchanan's, 79. "A substantive with its adjective is reckoned as one compounded word; whence they often take another adjective, and sometimes a third, and so on: as, 'An old man; a good old man; a very learned, judicious, good old man.'"—L. Murray's Gram., p. 169; Ingersoll's, 195; and others. "But though this elliptical style be intelligible, and is allowable in conversation and epistolary writing, yet in all writings of a serious or dignified kind, is ungraceful."—Blair's Rhet., p. 112. "There is no talent so useful towards rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune, than that quality generally possessed by the dullest sort of people, and is, in common language, called discretion."—SWIFT: Blair's Rhet., p. 113. "Which to allow, is just as reasonable as to own, that 'tis the greatest ill of a body to be in the utmost manner maimed or distorted; but that to lose the use only of one limb, or to be impaired in some single organ or member, is no ill worthy the least notice."— SHAFTESBURY: ib., p. 115; Murray's Gram., p. 322. "If the singular nouns and pronouns, which are joined together by a copulative conjunction, be of several persons, in making the plural pronoun agree with them in person, the second person takes place of the third, and the first of both."—Murray's Gram., p. 151; et al. "'The painter * * * cannot exhibit various stages of the same action.' In this sentence we see that the painter governs, or agrees with, the verb can, as its nominative case."—Ib., p. 195. "It expresses also facts which exist generally, at all times, general truths, attributes which are permanent, habits, customary actions, and the like, without the reference to a specific time."—Ib., p. 73; Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 71. "The different species of animals may therefore be considered, as so many different nations speaking different languages, that have no commerce with each other; each of which consequently understands none but their own."—Sheridan's Elocution, p. 142. "It is also important to understand and apply the principles of grammar in our common conversation; not only because it enables us to make our language understood by educated persons, but because it furnishes the readiest evidence of our having received a good education ourselves."—Frost's Practical Gram., p. 16.

EXERCISE XVII.—MANY ERRORS.

"This faulty Tumour in Stile is like an huge unpleasant Rock in a Champion Country, that's difficult to be transcended."—Holmes's Rhet., Book ii, p. 16. "For there are no Pelops's, nor Cadmus's, nor Danaus's dwell among us."—Ib., p. 51. "None of these, except will, is ever used as a principal verb, but as an auxiliary to some principal, either expressed or understood."—Ingersoll's Gram., p. 134. "Nouns which signify either the male or female are common gender."—Perley's Gram., p. 11. "An Adjective expresses the kind, number, or quality of a noun."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part I, p. 9. "There are six tenses; the Present, the Imperfect, the Perfect, the Pluperfect, the Future, and the Future Perfect tenses."—Ib., p. 18. "My refers to the first person singular, either gender. Our refers to the first person plural, either gender. Thy refers to the second person singular, either gender. Your refers to the second person plural, either gender. Their refers to the third person plural, either gender."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part II, p. 14. "Good use, which for brevity's sake, shall hereafter include reputable, national, and present use, is not always uniform in her decisions."—Jamieson's Rhet., p. 44. "Nouns which denote but one object are considered in the singular number."—Edward's First Lessons in Gram., p. 35. "If, therefore, the example of Jesus should be plead to authorize accepting an invitation to dine on the sabbath, it should be plead just as it was."—Barnes's Notes: on Luke, xiv, 1. "The teacher will readily dictate what part may be omitted, the first time going through it."—Ainsworth's Gram., p. 4. "The contents of the following pages have been drawn chiefly, with various modifications, from the same source which has supplied most modern writers on this subject, viz. LINDLEY MURRAY'S GRAMMAR."—Felton's Gram., p. 3. "The term person in grammar distinguishes between the speaker, the person or thing spoken to, and the person or thing spoken of."—Ib., p. 9. "In my father's garden grow the Maiden's Blush and the Prince' Feather."—Felton, ib., p. 15. "A preposition is a word used to connect words with one another, and show the relation between them. They generally stand before nouns and pronouns."—Ib., p. 60. "Nouns or pronouns addressed are always either in the second person, singular or plural."—Hallock's Gram., p. 54. "The plural MEN not ending in s, is the reason for adding the apostrophie's."—T. Smith's Gram., p. 19. "Pennies denote real coin; pence, their value in computation."— Hazen's Gram., p. 24. "We commence, first, with letters, which is termed Orthography; secondly, with words, denominated Etymology; thirdly, with sentences, styled Syntax; fourthly, with orations and poems, called Prosody."—Barrett's Gram., p. 22. "Care must be taken, that sentences of proper construction and obvious import be not rendered obscure by the too free use of the ellipsis."—Felton's Grammar, Stereotype Edition, p. 80.

EXERCISE XVIII.—PROMISCUOUS.

"Tropes and metaphors so closely resemble each other that it is not always easy, nor is it important to be able to distinguish the one from the other."—Parker and Fox, Part III, p. 66. "With regard to relatives, it may be further observed, that obscurity often arises from the too frequent repetition of them, particularly of the pronouns WHO, and THEY, and THEM, and THEIRS. When we find these personal pronouns crowding too fast upon us, we have often no method left, but to throw the whole sentence into some other form."—Ib., p. 90; Murray's Gram., p. 311; Blair's Rhet., p. 106. "Do scholars acquire any valuable knowledge, by learning to repeat long strings of words, without any definite ideas, or several jumbled together like rubbish in a corner, and apparently with no application, either for the improvement of mind or of language?"— Cutler's Gram., Pref., p. 5. "The being officiously good natured and civil are things so uncommon in the world, that one cannot hear a man make professions of them without being surprised, or at least, suspecting the disinterestedness of his intentions."—FABLES: Cutler's Gram., p. 135. "Irony is the intentional use of words to express a sense contrary to that which the speaker or writer means to convey."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part III, p. 68. "The term Substantive is derived from substare, to stand, to distinguish it from an adjective, which cannot, like the noun, stand alone."—Hiley's Gram., p. 11. "They have two numbers, like nouns, the singular and plural; and three persons in each number, namely, I, the first person, represents the speaker. Thou, the second person, represents the person spoken to. He, she, it, the third person, represents the person or thing spoken of."—Ib., p. 23. "He, She, It, is the Third Person singular; but he with others, she with others, or it with others, make each of them they, which is the Third Person plural."—White, on the English Verb, p. 97. "The words had I been, that is, the Third Past Tense of the Verb, marks the Supposition, as referring itself, not to the Present, but to some former period of time."—Ib., p. 88. "A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid a too frequent repetition of the same word."—Frazee's Improved Gram., p. 122.

   "That which he cannot use, and dare not show,
    And would not give—why longer should he owe?"—Crabbe.

PART IV. PROSODY.

Prosody treats of punctuation, utterance, figures, and versification.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—The word prosody, (from the Greek—[Greek: pros], to, and [Greek: dæ], song,) is, with regard to its derivation, exactly equivalent to accent, or the Latin accentus, which is formed from ad, to, and cantus, song: both terms, perhaps, originally signifying a singing with, or sounding to, some instrument or voice. PROSODIA, as a Latin word, is defined by Littleton, "Pars Grammaticæ quæ docet accentus, h. e. rationem atollendi et depremendi syllabas, tum quantitatem carundem." And in English, "The art of ACCENTING, or the rule of pronouncing syllables truly, LONG or SHORT."—Litt. Dict., 4to. This is a little varied by Ainsworth thus: "The rule of ACCENTING, or pronouncing syllables truly, whether LONG or SHORT."—Ains. Dict., 4to. Accent, in English, belongs as much to prose as to poetry; but some deny that in Latin it belongs to either. There is also much difficulty about the import of the word; since some prosodists identify accent with tone; some take it for the inflections of voice; some call it the pitch of vocal sounds; and some, like the authors just cited, seem to confound it with quantity,—"LONG or SHORT." [459]

OBS. 2.—"Prosody," says a late writer, "strictly denotes only that musical tone or melody which accompanies speech. But the usage of modern grammarians justifies an extremely general application of the term."—Frost's Practical Grammar, p. 160. This remark is a note upon the following definition: "PROSODY is that part of grammar which treats of the structure of Poetical Composition."—Ibid. Agreeably to this definition, Frost's Prosody, with all the generality the author claims for it, embraces only a brief account of Versification, with a few remarks on "Poetical License." Of Pronunciation and the Figures of Speech, he takes no notice; and Punctuation, which some place with Orthography, and others distinguish as one of the chief parts of grammar, he exhibits as a portion of Syntax. Not more comprehensive is this part of grammar, as exhibited in the works of several other authors; but, by Lindley Murray, R. C. Smith, and some others, both Punctuation and Pronunciation are placed here; though no mention is made of the former in their subdivision of Prosody, which, they not very aptly say, "consists of two parts, Pronunciation and Versification." Dr. Bullions, no less deficient in method, begins with saying, "PROSODY consists of two parts; Elocution and Versification;" (Principles of E. Gram., p. 163;) and then absurdly proceeds to treat of it under the following six principal heads: viz., Elocution, Versification, Figures of Speech, Poetic License, Hints for Correct and Elegant Writing, and Composition.

OBS. 3.—If, in regard to the subjects which may be treated under the name of Prosody, "the usage of modern grammarians justifies an extremely general application of the term," such an application is certainly not less warranted by the usage of old authors. But, by the practice of neither, can it be easily determined how many and what things ought to be embraced under this head. Of the different kinds of verse, or "the structure of Poetical Compostion," some of the old prosodists took little or no notice; because they thought it their chief business, to treat of syllables, and determine the orthoëpy of words. The Prosody of Smetius, dated 1509, (my edition of which was published in Germany in 1691,) is in fact a pronouncing dictionary of the Latin language. After a brief abstract of the old rules of George Fabricius concerning quantity and accent, it exhibits, in alphabetic order, and with all their syllables marked, about twenty-eight thousand words, with a poetic line quoted against each, to prove the pronunciation just. The Prosody of John Genuensis, an other immense work, concluded by its author in 1286, improved by Badius in 1506, and printed at Lyons in 1514, is