Obs. 3.-In prepositional phrases containing a relative or interrogative we often find the preposition placed at the end of the clause, and the relative or interrogative, which it governs, at the commencement of the clause or possibly altogether omitted, as in

This is the person whom [= from whom] you took it from.

'These needy persons do not know what [= that of which] to talk of.' -Addison.

'No author, that [=of whom] I know of, has written professedly upon it.'-Addison.

'There is another set of men that [ to which] I must lay claim to.' -Addison.

I did not know the man [whom] you spoke of.

Obs. 4.-When a preposition [having of course its older adverbial character] is prefixed or suffixed to an active verb or verbal, the said verb or verbal is invariably transitive, as

The stream over-flowed its banks.

The dog over-took the boy.

The man built-up a fortune.
The cat ate-up the cake.

The child gulped-down the dose.

The surveyor marked-out the ground.

Even in absence of the hyphen the student need not mistake the adjoining words, 'up a fortune,' 'up the cake,' 'down the dose,' 'out the ground,' for adverbial prepositional phrases, inasmuch as they tell neither the place, time, cause, or manner of the verbs 'built,' 'ate,' 'gulped,' or 'marked': when however they do tell of such things, the prepositions are in reality case equivalents, and ought therefore to be coupled with the noun or pronoun.

Obs. 5.-When the noun or pronoun, governed by a preposition in an active sentence, is made the subject in a passive one, the preposition and verb are in general found to coalesce; and by so doing form a compound verb of fuller meaning. Thus the active sentences, 'The dog walked with-me,' 'We journeyed from-London,' 'I traded with-him,' may appear in the passive as 'I was walked-with by the dog,' 'London was journeyedfrom by us,' 'He was traded-with by me.' The preposition is however sometimes dropped; especially when its continuance would involve an absurdity. Thus we do not resolve the active sentence 'She gave to-me a loaf,' into the passive 'I was given-to a loaf by her'; but into 'I was given a loaf by her.'

85. Adverbials continued. The Infinitive form of the verbal-noun frequently discharges the adverbial functions belonging

to a dative or a locative case, the former telling of the end or purpose of an act, the latter of the sphere or state of an action. On rare occasions we meet with infinitives discharging an adverbial genitive or ablative function, as in 'My readers too have the satisfaction to find [= of finding] that there is no rank, &c.'-Addison. 'What doth hinder me to be baptized [= from being baptized]?'-A.V.

Except as discharging dative or locative functions, the adverbial infinitive is however so rarely used, that we may almost dismiss it from observation. In O.E. there was a special form of the Infinitive for the dative, and in Latin there was a special form of the Verbal-noun for the locative [viz. the Supine in -u]. In modern English we have no such convenient inflectional forms, but the nature of the adverbial function discharged by an infinitive can often be decided by turning it into a prepositional phrase. If the preposition be 'for' the infinitive is discharging a dative function; if the preposition be 'a' [= in or on] the infinitive is dischanging a locative function. Thus

I strive to succeed
I saw him sink

I seemed to fly

=

=

=

for to succeed v. for success.

a-sinking v. in the act of sinking.
in the act of flying.

Some of these prepositional phrases, although somewhat antiquated, are still occasionally met with, e.g.

They came together for to consider of this matter.'-A.V. 'Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing.'—A.V.

There are however so many sentences in which, through the slightest change in the meaning of the verb, either a dative or locative force is appropriate, that, in our analysis, it is best to content ourselves with the recognition of an Adverbial Infinitive' as such, without attempting any further refinements. Even to do this is sometimes difficult, as may be seen in § 47, where an infinitive follows a verb which admits of either a

[substantival] cognate object or an [adverbial] indirect object, i.e. of an infinitive telling either of the purport or purpose of an Thus in 'They prayed him to show, &c.' Tyndale took the 'to show &c.' as telling the purport of the prayer; but Wycliffe took it as telling the purpose of the prayer, for in their versions we have

act.

'Desyringe that he wold shewe, &c.'-Tyndale.

'And preiden hym for to shewe, &c.'—Wycliffe.

Obs. 1.-The adverbial infinitive may of course consist of the infinitive of a copula verb, as I strive to be good.

I sent him to be punished.

The case agreement of the complements does not affect the case function discharged by the copulas so completed. Thus in the above examples 'good' is nominative, and 'punished' is objective [acc.]; but both ‘to be good' and 'to be punished' are adverbial infinitival clauses discharging the same functions.

86. Adverbials continued. The so-called 'Nominative Absolute' construction is an adverbial phrase expressive of Time and Cause. It consists of a noun or pronoun in the nominative and a participle [with its belongings] in agreement with it. The whole phrase is spoken of as absolute [from Latin absolvere = to release] because it is not joined by any bond of case agreement, with any member of the sentence. Thus in

Lessons being ended, the children ran out.

'Then rode Geraint into the castle court, his charger trampling many a prickly star.'-Tennyson.

'There on a day, he [i.e. Arthur] sitting high in hall, before him came a forester of Dean.'-Tennyson.

Spring having come, the flowers bloom.

'I pray you of your courtesy, he being as he is, to let me be.' -Tennyson.

We at once perceive that

'Lessons being ended'

=

when lessons were ended.

'His charger trampling, &c.' while his charger trampled, &c.

=

while he was sitting high, &c.

'He sitting high, &c.' 'Spring having come' 'He being as he is '

=

because he is as he is.'

The use of the Nominative in this construction affords an instance of the establishment of what was originally a piece of bad grammar. In O.E., as in all other Aryan languages' the case of the noun used in the absolute construction was invariably an adverbial case: but, after this noun had lost its adverbial inflection, people came so completely to overlook its adverbial character, that they gradually allowed even the nominative of the personal pronoun to appear in this construction.

Obs. 1.-The student must take care to observe that it is not the participle which marks the absolute phrase, but the independent noun or pronoun with which the participle agrees. A participle, without such an independent noun or pronoun, often appears to tell of Time or Cause; but when it does so it is merely a subordinating attribute; see § 76.

Obs. 2.-The temporal or causal force is sometimes so slight, that the Nominative Absolute clause approaches very near to a co-ordinate clause, as in 'We put to sea, Aristarchus...being with us,' R.A.V., which seems almost to='we put to sea and Aristarchus was with us.' But however slight the adverbial force may be, it is probable that it is always there, so that we shall class the Absolute construction only amongst the adverbials.

87. Adjectivals are restricted or defined in their range by adverbials of various kinds, as will be seen in the following sections. Amongst adjectivals the participles are the only ones whose meaning renders them capable of receiving every kind of

1 The adverbial cases used in the absolute construction vary much. The general use is as follows: in Sanskrit, the locative; in Latin, the ablative; in Greek, the genitive (abl.); in Lithuanian, Gothic, and O.E. the dative.

adverbial restriction. This capacity springs from their verbal character, and calls for no special notice here.

88. Adjectives of quality are constantly qualified by adverbs of Degree and Quantity. Thus (a) we have the Degree of a quality expressed in 'so good,' 'as good,' 'too good,' 'good enough,' 'the better,' 'more swift,' 'most swift,' [= 'swift-er,' 'swift-est']; and (B) we have the Quantity of a quality expressed in very good,' 'doubly glad,' 'then rode Geraint, a little spleenful yet.'-Tennyson.

Obs. 1.-Adjectives of quality sometimes appear to be qualified by adverbs of quality, as in 'He was terribly hot,' 'I am intensely glad.” But such adverbs of quality, when used thus with adjectives, have the force of adverbs of quantity. Thus in the above sentences, 'terribly'

=

very, and

Obs. 2.-The adverbs 'more' and 'most' are frequently represented by the adverbial suffixes -er and -est. Thus more fair' = 'fair-er'; and 'most fair' = 'fair-est.'

89. Nouns possessing an adverbial force are sometimes used with adjectives of quantity, These nouns are the stems [with or without the mark of the plural number] of what were once adverbial cases, and which, in spite of the loss of what in O.E. was a genitive or instrumental termination, have preserved their traditional force through the influence of constant use. The following are examples of some of these adverbial case-stems with the O.E. forms:

Two-ells high
Inch long.
Six-pence worth 1'

O.E. twegra elna (gen.) héah.
O.E. ynces (gen.) lang.

O.E. sex-peninga (gen.) wyrde.

Three-miles broad. O.E. preora-mila (gen.) brád.

Three-hands higher. O.E. prym-mundum (inst.) hýrra.

Obs. A noun-stem discharging an adverbial-accusative function is used after verbs. See § 83, Obs. I.

1 Inasmuch as the adjective 'worth' requires to be completed by an adverbial, that adverbial is termed an indirect object, when 'worth' is a complement. See § 66.