Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

Yet is get, by the usual change of y and g in the old books, or rather by the use of a character in common for both.

314. The other conjunctions may all be as well considered and explained as adverbs. The word as never is a conjunction. The attempted distinction between copulative and disjunctive, and otherclasses of conjunctives, and all which is called explanation upon them, is a totally absurd, unfounded, and whimsical jargon; not surpassed in any dream book, or treatise on the juggling art. This mass of nonsense is not chargeable on any individual but has been handed down from one compiler to an other, to the present time, because that no one thinks proper to inquire why seventeen hundred thousand scholars, now in school in the United States, should be taught to believe that joining two words together necessarily produces separation between them.

:

Mr. Murray's whole list of conjunctions amounts to twenty-two. Several of these never are conjunctions, in any possible instance, by any rational application of the words, according to his own scheme; and all of them may be better explained under other classes of words.

But Mr. Murray's "judicious and philosophical" system sinks down to relative soberness, and almost puts on the appearance of truth, when compared with the following classification of the different sorts of conjunctions, which has been palmed upon the schools, and called learning.

Conjunctive, adjunctive, disjunctive, subdisjunctive, copulative, negative copulative, continuative, subcontinuative, positive, suppositive, causal, collective, effective, approbative, discretive, ablative, presumptive, abnegative, completive, augmenta

tive, alternative, hypothetical, extensive, periodical, motival, conclusive, explicative, transitive, interrogative, comparative, diminutive, preventive, adequate preventive, adversative, conditional, suspensive, illative, conductive, declarative, &c. &c.

The book of Revelation contains twenty-two chapters, and nineteen of them begin with the copulative conjunction and. In this case, which is grammatically connected, "words, or members of a sentence?"

"Et jacet Euxinis vates Romanus in oris."-Politian's Elegy on the Exile and Death of Ovid; Line I.

Here is a simple proposition beginning with the copulative conjunction et; and no one, probably, will question its Latinity.

PREPOSITIONS.

"Prepositions serve to connect words with one an other, and to show the relation between them. part, put before nouns and pronouns; don to York. She is above disguise. him."

They are, for the most as, he went from LonThey are instructed by

This is Mr. Murray's definition of this part of speech, and it is about as good as any other which could be made. The following is his list of the words.

Of, to, for, by, with, in, into, within, without, over, under, through, above, below, between, beneath, from, beyond, at, near, up, down, before, behind, off, on, upon, among, after, about, against.

316. Every one of these prepositions is a noun or a verb, capable of being clearly traced and defined as such, with much less trouble than to define the word preposition or adverb.

In, as a noun, is the old word innan, innen, the inner part of the human breast, enclosing the heart and vitals. In its extended meaning, it is the inner part of any thing else; an inn of court; as, Lincoln's Inn; an indwelling place; a traveller's inn; a public lodging place.

Inn, as a verb, is from the noun: "to inn the harvest or grain," as used by Chaucer, Shakspeare, Lord Bacon, Sir Philip Sydney, and other writers, means to put the harvest into barns. The participle inning is from the same. This is also used as a noun. The adjectives in, inner, innest, innermost, inmost, inward, innerward, are from the noun.

The adverbs inly, innerly, and inwardly, are formed from the adjectives.

The word in has also many compounds, as inlet, inmate, inland, inlay, and others.

All these terms are pure old English.

Such is one of the least of these prepositions, without meaning, used to connect significant words and "show the relation between them."

If the general principles laid down in this work should be acceptable to the American public, an attempt will be made in a future edition, to reduce all words to four classes, in such a manner as to leave no possibility of doubt on the subject. It will greatly facilitate the whole process of teaching language, and is as applicable to other tongues as to

our own.

INTERJECTIONS.

317. This department of language does not consist of words, ner belong to conventional speech. It is made up of sounds, which are uttered by different orders of beings, as mere animals; sometimes by man among the rest. The bellowing of a cow, the barking of a dog, the neighing of a horse, are interjections. In many instances among men, sudden and violent starts of surprise, joy, pain, or anger, cause an indistinct sound, not reducible to the language of compact. Laughter, crying, or the groans of pain, are interjections: but if a man says hush, tush, or tut, to his children, meaning to have them be still, and they so understand him, it is as much an imperative verb, as if he said cease, stop, or any other form of parental command. To say hah, in order to call quick attention, is no less a verb than lo, look, or see there, used for the same purpose. The simple question is, on each utterance of this kind, whether it is given and received with a definite form and meaning.

Fruitless attempts have been made to arrange this set of words into different subdivisions, according to their meanings; but all words capable of being so classified, do not belong to interjections.

STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES.

SYNTAX.

RULE I.

317. The noun is subject or object of a verb, or governed by a preposition; as, Henry VII. defeated Richard III. in the battle of Bosworth.

Exception. Nouns are sometimes used without grammatical connexion, in which case, they are said to be independent, or absolute. This takes place in the single words, or broken parts of sentences, placed as heads of chapters, or in terms of direct personal address; as, "It must be so, Plato, thou

reasonest well."

RULE II.

318. All nouns and pronouns meaning the same thing, and contained in the same member of a sentence, must agree in number, gender, and person, with the thing which they represent ; as, ye blind guides, hypocrites.

Cicero and Hortensius rendered themselves great

orators.

He showed himself a consummate general.
They are ( ) excellent poets.

These serve to explain each other, without enlarg ing the idea conveyed by one of the terms.

This form of speech is the identical proposition of the mental philosophers and logicians.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »