338 b.-Adjective Suffixes. 1. al (Lat. alis). Carnal, venal, regal. Binary, plenary, auxiliary. 6. ine (Lat. inus). Vaccine, marine. Forcible, amiable, able. ibilis, bilis). 11. il or ile (Lat. ilis). Civil, futile. 12. y (Lat. ius). Amatory, cursory, illusory. 13. ous or ose (Lat. osus). Gibbous, curious, verbose. 15. olent or ulent (Lat. olentus or ulentus). Virulent, turbulent, violent. 16. tive or sive (Lat. tivus or sivus). Cursive, furtive. 17. ant or ent (Lat. ans, ens, nom. case, participle). Extant, verdant, ardent. 18. te or se (Lat. tus or sus, pass. part.) Irate, concrete, erudite, sparse, diffuse. c.-Verb Suffixes. Some 339 There are two principal modes in which verbs are formed in English from Latin verbs. One mode is by taking simply the crude form of the infinitive mood or present tense, without any suffix; as intend, defend, manumit. times mute e makes its appearance after a long vowel, as in incline, opine, revise. The second mode is to adopt as a suffix the termination of the perfect participle passive (slightly modified), t, s, ate, or ite (Lat. tus, sus, atus, itus); as create (from creatus), conduct (from conductus), credit (from creditus), expedite (expeditus), incense (from incensus). GREEK SUFFIXES. 340 The following suffixes mark words of Greek origin : a.-Noun Suffixes. 1. sm or ism. Sophism, spasm, aneurism. 2. st or ist. Iconoclast, panegyrist, sophist. 4. e. Catastrophe. 5. y. Anatomy, analogy, monarchy. 6. ic or ics, or tic. Logic, rhetoric, ethics, arithmetic. 7. ad or id. Iliad, Aeneid, Thebaïd, Troad. 8. isk (diminutives). Asterisk, obelisk. 9. ma. Diorama, enema. 10. tre or ter. Centre, meter, theatre. b.-Verb Suffix, ize. Baptize, criticise. 341 The following examples will illustrate the way in whict. groups of derivatives cluster round a common origin. SYNTAX. 342 THE word syntax means arrangement. (Greek syn, together, taxis, arrangement). The rules of syntax are statements of the various ways in which the words of a sentence are related to each other. 343 A sentence is a collection of words of such kinds, and arranged in such a manner, as to make some complete sense. By "making some complete sense” is meant, that something is said about something. 344 It is plain, therefore, that every sentence must consist of two essential parts: 1st, that which stands for what we speak about: 2nd, that which is said about that of which we speak. 345 The word which stands for that about which we speak, is called the subject of the sentence, or the subject of a sentence is the word that stands for the subject of discourse. (Note.The subject of a sentence is a word; the subject of discourse is a thing). 346 That part of a sentence which consists of what is said about the subject of discourse consists of two portions or elements. One part represents some idea which we attach in thought to the subject of discourse. This is called the Predicate: the other part consists of the means by which the predicate is connected with the subject. This part is called the copula (or link). That act of the mind by which the notion expressed by the predicate is joined to the notion expressed by the subject, is called a judgment. The result of a judgment is a thought. The expression of a thought is a sentence. 347 The grammatical copula in every sentence consists of the personal inflections * of the verb. In the sentence, "Time flies," the subject is Time; that which is predicated or asserted of time, is flying: the personal termination of the verb flies unites this idea to the subject. In the sentence, "The rose is red," the subject is rose; that which is predicated of the rose is, being red; the personal inflection by which is becomes a third person singular, is the copula. If we say, "The journey was pleasant," what we assert of the journey is its * That is, the inflections by which number and person are marked, and by which the verb is made a finite verb. having been pleasant, it being clear that the notion of time belongs to the predicate. Inasmuch as the personal terminations of a verb have no existence apart from the verb itself, it is usual (and convenient) in grammar to treat the copula as a part of the predicate. Thus in the sentence, "Time flies," time is called the subject, and flies the predicate. In the sentence, "The rose is red," rose is called the subject, and is red the predicate. This mode of speaking is slightly inaccurate (at least with reference to the use of the word predicate in Logic); but it must be understood that, henceforth, in using the word predicate, we mean the predicate and copula combined.* 348 In grammar, the terms subject and predicate are used in a more restricted sense than in Logic. In Logic, the subject of a proposition is the entire description of that which is spoken of: the predicate is all that is employed to represent the idea which is connected with the subject. Thus in "The father of Charles I. was king of England," the subject is "the father of Charles I.;" the predicate is "king of England." But in grammar, the single noun father is called the subject, and king the predicate, the words connected with father and king being treated as enlargements of the subject and predicate. * All abstract sciences labour under the disadvantage of having to employ terms in a rather harsh and arbitrary manner; as, in Algebra, addition may be (arithmetically speaking) a subtraction, and multiplication may be, for example, taking two-thirds of a quantity. So in Logic, the terms predicate and copula involve a little difficulty. In the proposition, "The earth is a globe," it would be said that the predicate (praedicatum or thing asserted) is a globe, that is, what we assert of the earth is, a globe. This mode of speaking requires a technical meaning to be put upon it before it has any sense. More strictly in accordance with the meaning of the language, it should be said that what we assert, or the thing asserted about the earth is, its being a globe. The grammatical use of the word predicate, as it is explained in the text, is in strict accordance with its real meaning. Again, with regard to the copula, although for logical purposes it is necessary to throw propositions into a form in which each term is substantive in its nature, and the two terms are connected by some finite form of the verb be, it is demonstrably wrong to say that the copula of every proposition is a part of the verb be (is, are, was, &c.) For "Time flies " is a perfect proposition in its present form, and yet involves no part of the verb be either expressed or understood. It is true that the proposition will assume a different shape when reduced to its technical logical form; but if that form involves any element that does not exist in the original proposition, it is plain that it is not its exact equivalent. Again, the so-called copula in Logic is really more than a copula, or link by which two ideas are connected. If we have a finite form of the verb be (and without a finite form there can be no predication), we may ignore, but we cannot eliminate, either the root-meaning of the verb, or the idea of time. Is and are involve the notion of present time as essentially as was and were that of past time. This little difficulty, however, is quietly swallowed by logicians who tell us that the copula, as such, has no relation to time. The fact is that technical logic ought to have some abstract sign for the copula, something like = in mathematics, and not the verb be at all. Now if we put together the two facts that there may be a perfect proposition without the vero be, and that when that verb is used there is no proposition unless the verb be is in a finite form, the inference is plain that the real copula consists of those inflections by which a verb assumes a finite form. This justifies the mode in which the matter is stated in the text, and which, while it differs somewhat from what is generally set down in grammars, will be found to introduce a little more harmony between grammatical theory and grammatical practice. 349 Whenever we speak of anything, we make it a separate object of thought. A word that can stand for anything which we make a separate object of thought is called a substantive. 350 It follows therefore that the subject of a sentence must be a substantive. 351 An adjective is not the name of anything. It does not stand for a separate object of thought. An adjective therefore can never be the subject of a sentence. 352 353 : Substantives may be arranged in the following elasses :— 2. The Substantive Pronouns (see § 131). 4. Gerunds, or Verbal Nouns (see § 200). 5. Any word which is itself made the subject of discourse, every word being a name for itself. The only part of speech by means of which we can make an assertion is the verb (see § 173). The essential part of every affirmation respecting a subject of discourse is a finite verb (i. e. a verb in some one of its personal forms, not the infinitive mood or participle). 354 The subject and the verb are the cardinal points of every sentence. All other words in a sentence are attached directly or indirectly to one or other of these two. There cannot be a complete sentence without a subject and a verb (§ 344), and a complete sentence may be formed containing nothing but a subject and a verb. 355 356 When a sentence contains only one subject and one finite verb, it is said to be a simple sentence. When a sentence contains not only a principal subject and its verb, but also other clauses which have subjects and verbs of their own, the sentence is said to be compound. The subject of a compound sentence may be an entire clause. The subject of a sentence stands for some object of thought: the predicate denotes some fact or idea which we connect with that object, and the union between the two is effected by the copula. But this union may be viewed in more ways than one. 1. When it is our intention to declare that the connexion which is indicated between the subject of discourse and the idea denoted by the predicate does exist, the sentence is affirmative:* as, "Thomas left the room." A negative sentence is only a particular variety of affirmative sentence. If we deny that John is here by saying, "John is not here," we affirm that John is not here. |