Higher Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (small books to read TXT) 📖

the most common ending for feminine nouns. [Footnote: The suffix ess came into the English language from the Norman-French. It displaced the feminine termination of the mother-tongue (A. S. estre, old English ster). The original meaning of ster is preserved in spinster. Er (A. S. ere) was originally a masculine suffix; but it now generally denotes an agent without reference to sex; as, read-er, speaker.]

+Direction+.—_Form the feminine of each of the following masculine nouns by adding e s s :—_

Author, baron, count, deacon, giant, god (see Rule 3, Lesson 127), heir, host, Jew, lion, patron, poet, prince (see Rule 1, Lesson 127), prior, prophet, shepherd, tailor, tutor.

(Drop the vowel e or o in the ending of the masculine, and add ess.)

Actor, ambassador, arbiter, benefactor, conductor, director, editor, enchanter, hunter, idolater, instructor, preceptor, tiger, waiter.

(Drop the masculine er or or, and add the feminine ess.)

Adventurer, caterer, governor, murderer, sorcerer.

(The following are somewhat irregular.)

+Direction+.—_Learn these forms:_—

Abbot, abbess; duke, duchess; emperor, empress; lad, lass; marquis, marchioness; master, mistress; negro, negress.

Ess was formerly more common than now. Such words as editor and author are now frequently used to denote persons of either sex.

+Direction+.—_Give five nouns ending in e r or o r that may be applied to either sex._

Some words, mostly foreign, have various endings in the feminine.

+Direction+.—Learn the following forms:—

Administrator, administratrix; Augustus, Augusta; beau, belle; Charles, Charlotte; Cornelius, Cornelia; czar, czarina; don, donna; equestrian, equestrienne; executor, executrix; Francis, Frances; George, Georgiana; Henry, Henrietta; hero, heroine; infante, infanta; Jesse, Jessie; Joseph, Josephine; Julius, Julia or Juliet; landgrave, landgravine; Louis, Louisa or Louise; Paul, Pauline; signore or signor, siguora; sultan, sultana; testator, testatrix; widower, widow.

In some compounds distinguishing words are prefixed or affixed.

+Direction+.—_Learn the following forms_:—

Billy-goat, nanny-goat; buck-rabbit, doe-rabbit; cock-sparrow, hen-sparrow; Englishman, Englishwoman; gentleman, gentlewoman; grandfather, grandmother; he-bear, she-bear; landlord, landlady; man-servant, maid-servant; merman, mermaid; Mr. Jones, Mrs. or Miss Jones; peacock, peahen.

Words wholly or radically different are used to distinguish the masculine from the feminine.

(This is a matter pertaining to the dictionary rather than to grammar.)

+Direction+.—_Learn the following forms_:—

Bachelor, maid; buck, doe; drake, duck; earl, countess; friar or monk, nun; gander, goose; hart, roe; lord, lady; nephew, niece; sir, madam; stag, hind; steer, heifer; wizard, witch; youth, damsel or maiden.

The pronoun has three gender forms:—Masculine he, feminine she, and neuter it. [Footnote: It, although a neuter form, is used idiomatically to refer to a male or a female as, It was John; It was Mary.]

+Direction+.—_Give five examples of each of the three ways of distinguishing the masculine from the feminine._

 

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LESSON 118.

GENDER FORMS IN CONSTRUCTION.

Gender as a matter of orthography is of some importance, but in grammar it is chiefly important as involving the correct use of the pronouns he, she, and it.

When a singular noun is used so as to imply persons of both sexes, it is commonly represented by a masculine pronoun. [Footnote: When it is necessary to distinguish the sexes, both the masculine and the feminine pronoun should be used; as, Each person was required to name his or her favorite flower.]

+Example+.—Every person has his faults.

The names of animals are often considered as masculine or feminine without regard to the real sex.

+Examples+.—The grizzly bear is the most savage of his race. The cat steals upon her prey.

+Remark+.—The writer employs he or she according as he fancies the animal to possess masculine or feminine characteristics. He is more frequently employed than she.

The neuter pronoun it is often used with reference to animals and very young children, the sex being disregarded.

+Examples+.—When the deer is alarmed, it gives two or three graceful springs. The little child reached out its hand to catch the sunbeam.

+Remark+.—It is quite generally used instead of he or she, in referring to an animal, unless some masculine or feminine quality seems to predominate.

Inanimate things are often represented as living beings, that is, they are personified, and are referred to by the pronoun he or she.

+Example+.—The oak shall send his roots abroad and pierce thy mold.

+Remark+.—The names of objects distinguished for size, power, or sublimity are regarded as masculine; and the names of those distinguished for grace, beauty, gentleness, or productiveness are considered as feminine. Personification adds beauty and animation to style.

+Direction+.—_Study what is said above, and then fill each of the blanks in the following sentences with a masculine, a feminine, or a neuter pronoun, and in each case give the reason for your selection_:—

1. No one else is so much alone in the universe as –- who denies God. 2. A person’s manners not unfrequently indicate –- morals, 3. Everybody should think for –-. 4. The forest’s leaping panther shall yield –- spotted hide. 5. The catamount lies in the boughs to watch –- prey. 6. The mocking-bird poured from –- little throat floods of delirious music. 7. The wild beast from –- cavern sprang, the wild bird from –- grove. 8. The night-sparrow trills –- song. 9. The elephant is distinguished for –- strength and sagacity. 10. The bat is nocturnal in –- habits. 11. The dog is faithful to –- master. 12. The child was unconscious of –- danger. 13. The fox is noted for –- cunning. 14. Belgium’s capital had gathered then –- beauty and –- chivalry. 15. Despair extends –- raven wing. 16. Life mocks the idle hate of –- arch-enemy, Death. 17. Spring comes forth –- work of gladness to contrive. 18. Truth is fearless, yet –- is meek and modest.

+Direction+.—_Write sentences in which the things named below shall be personified by means of masculine pronouns_:—

Death, time, winter, war, sun, river, wind.

+Direction+.—Write sentences in which the things named below shall be personified by means of feminine pronouns:—

Ship, moon, earth, spring, virtue, nature, night, England.

+Caution+.—Avoid changing the gender of the pronoun when referring to the same antecedent.

+Direction+.—_Correct these errors_:—

1. The polar bear is comparatively rare in menageries, as it suffers so much from the heat that he is not easily preserved in confinement. 2. The cat, when it comes to the light, contracts and elongates the pupil of her eye. 3. Summer clothes herself in green, and decks itself with flowers. 4. War leaves his victim on the field, and homes desolated by it mourn over her cruelty.

 

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LESSON 119.

NOUNS AND PRONOUNS—PERSON AND CASE.

+Introductory Hints+.—Number and gender, as you have learned, are modifications affecting the meaning of nouns and pronouns—number being almost always indicated by form, or inflection; gender, sometimes. There are two modifications which do not refer to changes in the meaning of nouns and pronouns but to their different uses and relations. These uses and relations are not generally indicated by form, or inflection.

I, Paul, have written. Paul, thou art beside thyself. He brought Paul before Agrippa. In these three sentences the word Paul has three different uses, though, as you see, its form is not changed. In the first it is used to name the speaker; in the second, to name the one spoken to; in the third, to name the one spoken of. These different uses of nouns and pronouns and the forms used to mark these uses constitute the modification called +Person+. I, thou, and he are personal pronouns, and, as you see, distinguish person by their form. I, denoting the speaker, is in the +First Person+; thou, denoting the one spoken to, is in the +Second Person+; and he, denoting the one spoken of, is in the +Third Person+.

Instead of I a writer or speaker may use the plural we; and through courtesy it came to be customary, except among the Friends, or in the language of prayer and poetry, to use the plural you instead of thou.

The bear killed the man. The man killed the bear. The bear’s grease was made into hair oil. In the first sentence the bear is represented as performing an act; in the second, as receiving an act; in the third, as possessing something. These different uses of nouns and pronouns and the forms used to mark these uses constitute the modification called +Case+. A noun used as subject is in the +Nominative Case+; used as object complement it is in the +Objective Case+; and used to denote possession it is in the +Possessive Case+.

Some of the pronouns have a special form for each case; but of nouns the possessive case is the only one that is now marked by a peculiar form. We inflect below a noun from the Anglo-Saxon, [Footnote: The Anglo-Saxon cases are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative; the Latin are nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, and ablative; the English are nominative, possessive (genitive), and objective.

ANGLO-SAXON. Hlaford, lord. Singular. Plural. Nom. hlaford, hlaford-as. Gen. hlaford-es, hlaford-a. Dat. hlaford-e, hlaford-_um_. Acc. hlaford, hlaford-as. Voc. hlaford, hlaford-as.

LATIN. Dominus, lord. Singular. Plural. Nom. domin-us, domin-i. Gen. domin-i, domin-_orum_. Dat. domin-o, domin-is. Acc. domin-_um_, domin-os. Voc. domin-e, domin-i. Ab. domin-o, domin-is.

ENGLISH. Lord. Singular. Nom. lord, Pos. lord-_’s_, Obj. lord; Plural. Nom. lord-s, Pos. lord-_s’_, Obj. lord-s.]

and one from the Latin, the parent of the Norman-French, in order that you may see how cases and the inflections to mark them have been dropped in English. In English, prepositions have largely taken the place of case forms, and it is thought that by them our language can express the many relations of nouns to other words in the sentence better than other languages can by their cumbrous machinery of inflection.

 

+DEFINITIONS+.

+_Person_ is that modification of a noun or pronoun which denotes the speaker, the one spoken to, or the one spoken of+.

+The First Person denotes the one speaking+.

+The Second Person denotes the one spoken to+.

+The Third Person denotes the one spoken of+.

A noun is said to be of the first person when joined as an explanatory modifier to a pronoun of the first person; as, I, John, saw these things; We Americans are always in a hurry. [Footnote: It is doubtful whether a noun is ever of the first person. It may be said that, in the sentence I, John, saw these things, John speaks of his own name, the expression meaning, I, and my name is John, etc.]

A noun is of the second person when used as explanatory of a pronoun of the second person, or when used independently as a term of address; as, Ye crags and peaks; Idle time, John, is ruinous.

+Direction+.—_Compose sentences in which there shall be two examples of nouns and two of pronouns used in each of the three persons_.

+Person Forms+.

Personal pronouns and verbs are the only classes of words that have distinctive person forms.

+Direction+.—_From the forms of the pronouns given in Lesson 124, select and write in one list all the first person forms; in another list, all the second person forms; and in another, all the third person forms._

Person is regarded in grammar because the verb sometimes varies its form to agree with the person of its subject; as, I see; Thou seest; He sees.

 

+DEFINITIONS+.

+_Case_ is that modification of a noun or pronoun which