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

also mainly a Latin dictionary, with derivations and definitions as in other dictionaries. It is a folio volume of seven hundred and thirty closely-printed pages; six hundred of which are devoted to the vocabulary, the rest to orthography, accent, etymology, syntax, figures, points—almost everything but versification. Yet this vast sum of grammar has been entitled Prosody—"Prosodia seu Catholicon"—"Catholicon seu Universale Vocabularium ac Summa Grammatices."—See pp. 1 and 5. CHAPTER I—PUNCTUATION.

Punctuation is the art of dividing literary composition, by points, or stops, for the purpose of showing more clearly the sense and relation of the words; and of noting the different pauses and inflections required in reading.

The following are the principal points, or marks; namely, the Comma [,],
the Semicolon [;], the Colon [:], the Period [.], the Dash [—], the
Eroteme, or Note of Interrogation [?], the Ecphoneme, or Note of
Exclamation [!], and the Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis, [()].

The Comma denotes the shortest pause; the Semicolon, a pause double that of the comma; the Colon, a pause double that of the semicolon; and the Period, or Full Stop, a pause double that of the colon. The pauses required by the other four, vary according to the structure of the sentence, and their place in it. They may be equal to any of the foregoing.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—The pauses that are made in the natural flow of speech, have, in reality, no definite and invariable proportions. Children are often told to pause at a comma while they might count one; at a semicolon, one, two; at a colon, one, two, three; at a period, one, two, three, four. This may be of some use, as teaching them to observe the necessary stops, that they may catch the sense; but the standard itself is variable, and so are the times which good sense gives to the points. As a final stop, the period is immeasurable; and so may be the pause after a question or an exclamation.

OBS. 2.—The first four points take their names from the parts of discourse, or of a sentence, which are distinguished by them. The Period, or circuit, is a complete round of words, often consisting of several clauses or members, and always bringing out full sense at the close. The Colon, or member, is the greatest division or limb of a period, and is the chief constructive part of a compound sentence. The Semicolon, half member, or half limb, is the greatest division of a colon, and is properly a smaller constructive part of a compound sentence. The Comma, or segment, is a small part of a clause cut off, and is properly the least constructive part of a compound sentence. A simple sentence is sometimes a whole period, sometimes a chief member, sometimes a half member, sometimes a segment, and sometimes perhaps even less. Hence it may require the period, the colon, the semicolon, the comma, or even no point, according to the manner in which it is used. A sentence whose relatives and adjuncts are all taken in a restrictive sense, may be considerably complex, and yet require no division by points; as,

   "Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge
    On you who wrong me not for him who wrong'd."—Milton.

OBS. 3.—The system of punctuation now used in English, is, in its main features, common to very many languages. It is used in Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and perhaps most of the tongues in which books are now written or printed. The Germans, however, make less frequent use of the comma than we; and the Spaniards usually mark a question or an exclamation doubly, inverting the point at the beginning of the sentence. In Greek, the difference is greater: the colon, expressed by the upper dot alone, is the only point between the comma and the period; the ecphoneme, or note of exclamation, is hardly recognized, though some printers of the classics have occasionally introduced it; and the eroteme, or note of interrogation, retains in that language its pristine form, which is that of our semicolon. In Hebrew, a full stop is denoted by a heavy colon, or something like it; and this is the only pointing adopted, when the vowel points and the accents are not used.

OBS. 4.—Though the points in use, and the principles on which they ought to be applied, are in general well fixed, and common to almost all sorts of books; yet, through the negligence of editors, the imperfections of copy, the carelessness of printers, or some other means, it happens, that different editions and different versions of the same work are often found pointed very variously. This circumstance, provided the sense is still preserved, is commonly thought to be of little moment. But all writers will do well to remember, that they owe it to their readers, to show them at once how they mean to be read; and since the punctuation of the early printers was unquestionably very defective, the republishers of ancient books should not be over scrupulous about an exact imitation of it; they may, with proper caution, correct obvious faults.

OBS. 5.—The precise origin of the points, it is not easy to trace in the depth of antiquity. It appears probable, from ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, that the period is the oldest of them; and it is said by some, that the first system of punctuation consisted in the different positions of this dot alone. But after the adoption of the small letters, which improvement is referred to the ninth century, both the comma and the colon came into use, and also the Greek note of interrogation. In old books, however, the comma is often found, not in its present form, but in that of a straight stroke, drawn up and down obliquely between the words. Though the colon is of Greek origin, the practice of writing it with two dots we owe to the Latin authors, or perhaps to the early printers of Latin books. The semicolon was first used in Italy, and was not adopted in England till about the year 1600. Our marks for questions and exclamations were also derived from the same source, probably at a date somewhat earlier. The curves of the parenthesis have likewise been in use for several centuries. But the clash is a more recent invention: Lowth, Ash, and Ward,—Buchanan, Bicknell, and Burn,—though they name all the rest, make no mention of this mark; but it appears by their books, that they all occasionally used it.

OBS. 6—Of the colon it may be observed, that it is now much less frequently used than it was formerly; its place being usurped, sometimes by the semicolon, and sometimes by the period. For this ill reason, some late grammarians have discarded it altogether. Thus Felton: "The COLON is now so seldom used by good writers, that rules for its use are unnecessary."—Concise Manual of English Gram., p. 140. So Nutting: "It will be noticed, that the colon is omitted in this system; because it is omitted by the majority of the writers of the present age; three points, with the dash, being considered sufficient to mark the different lengths of the pauses."—Practical Grammar, p. 120. These critics, whenever they have occasion to copy such authors as Milton and Pope, do not scruple to mutilate their punctuation by putting semicolons or periods for all the colons they find. But who cannot perceive, that without the colon, the semicolon becomes an absurdity? It can no longer be a semicolon, unless the half can remain when the whole is taken away! The colon, being the older point of the two, and once very fashionable, is doubtless on record in more instances than the semicolon; and, if now, after both have been in common use for some hundreds of years, it be found out that only one is needed, perhaps it would be more reasonable to prefer the former. Should public opinion ever be found to coincide with the suggestions of the two authors last quoted, there will be reason to regret that Caxton, the old English typographer of the fifteenth century, who for a while successfully withstood, in his own country, the introduction of the semicolon, had not the power to prevent it forever. In short, to leave no literary extravagance unbroached, the latter point also has not lacked a modern impugner. "One of the greatest improvements in punctuation," says Justin Brenan, "is the rejection of the eternal semicolons of our ancestors. In latter times, the semicolon has been gradually disappearing, not only from the newspapers, but from books."—Brenan's "Composition and Punctuation familiarly Explained", p. 100; London, 1830. The colon and the semicolon are both useful, and, not unfrequently, necessary; and all correct writers will, I doubt not, continue to use both.

OBS. 7—Since Dr. Blair published his emphatic caution against too frequent a use of parentheses, there has been, if not an abatement of the kind of error which he intended to censure, at least a diminution in the use of the curves, the sign of a parenthesis. These, too, some inconsiderate grammarians now pronounce to be out of vogue. "The parenthesis is now generally exploded as a deformity."—Churchill's Gram., p. 362. "The Parenthesis, () has become nearly obsolete, except in mere references, and the like; its place, by modern writers, being usually supplied by the use of the comma, and the dash."—Nutting's Practical Gram., p. 126; Frazee's Improved Grammar, p. 187. More use may have been made of the curves than was necessary, and more of the parenthesis itself than was agreeable to good taste; but, the sign being well adapted to the construction, and the construction being sometimes sprightly and elegant, there are no good reasons for wishing to discard either of them; nor is it true, that the former "has become nearly obsolete."

OBS. 8—The name parenthesis is, which literally means a putting-in-between, is usually applied both to the curves, and to the incidental clause which they enclose. This twofold application of the term involves some inconvenience, if not impropriety. According to Dr. Johnson, the enclosed "sentence" alone is the parenthesis; but Worcester, agreeably to common usage, defines the word as meaning also "the mark thus ()." But, as this sign consists of two distinct parts, two corresponding curves, it seems more natural to use a plural name: hence L. Murray, when he would designate the sign only, adopted a plural expression; as, "the parenthetical characters,"—"the parenthetical marks." So, in another case, which is similar: "the hooks in which words are included," are commonly called crotchets or brackets; though Bucke, in his Classical Grammar, I know not why, calls the two "[ ] a Crotchet;" (p. 23;) and Webster, in his octavo Dictionary, defines a "Bracket, in printing," as Johnson does a "Crotchet" by a plural noun: "hooks; thus, [ ]." Again, in his grammars, Dr. Webster rather confusedly says: "The parenthesis () and hooks [] include a remark or clause, not essential to the sentence in construction."—Philosophical Gram., p. 219; Improved Gram., p. 154. But, in his Dictionary, he forgets both the hooks and the parenthesis that are here spoken of; and, with still worse confusion or inaccuracy, says: "The parenthesis is usually included in hooks or curved lines, thus, ()." Here he either improperly calls these regular little curves "hooks," or erroneously suggests that both the hooks and the curves are usual and appropriate signs of "the parenthesis." In Garner's quarto Dictionary, the French word Crochet, as used by printers, is translated, "A brace, a crotchet, a parenthesis;" and the English word Crotchet is defined, "The mark of a parenthesis, in printing, thus [ ]." But Webster defines Crotchet, "In printing, a hook including words, a sentence or a passage distinguished from the rest, thus []." This again is both ambiguous and otherwise inaccurate. It conveys no clear idea of what a crotchet is. One hook includes nothing. Therefore Johnson said: "Hooks in which words are included [thus]." But if each of the hooks is a crotchet, as Webster suggests, and almost every body supposes, then both lexicographers are wrong in not making the whole expression plural: thus, "Crotchets, in printing, are angular hooks usually including some explanatory words." But is this all that Webster meant? I cannot tell. He may be understood as saying also, that a Crotchet is "a sentence or a passage distinguished from the rest, thus [];" and doubtless it would be much better to call a hint thus marked, a crotchet, than to call it a parenthesis, as some have done. In Parker and Fox's Grammar, and also in Parker's Aids to English Composition, the term Brackets only is applied to these angular hooks; and, contrary to all usage of other authors, so far as I know, the name of Crotchets is there given to the Curves. And then, as if this application of the word were general, and its propriety indisputable, the pupil is simply told: "The curved