The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (free ebook reader .txt) 📕

degree. On the contrary, there are several among them, from which true superlatives are frequently and correctly formed. Where are the positives which are here supposed to be "increased to the highest degree?" Every real superlative in our language, except best and worst, most and least, first and last, with the still more irregular word next, is a derivative, formed from some other English word, by adding est or most; as, truest, hindmost. The propriety or impropriety of comparing the foregoing words, or any of the "many others" of which this author speaks, is to be determined according to their meaning, and according to the usage of good writers, and not by the dictation of a feeble pedant, or upon the supposition that if compared they would form "double superlatives."

OBS. 8.—Chief is from the French word chef, the head: chiefest is therefore no more a double superlative than headmost: "But when the headmost foes appeared."—Scott. Nor are chief and chiefest equivalent terms: "Doeg an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen."—1 Samuel, xxi, 7. "The chief of the herdsmen," would convey a different meaning; it would be either the leader of the herdsmen, or the principal part of them. Chiefest, however, has often been used where chief would have been better; as, "He sometimes denied admission to the chiefest officers of the army."—Clarendon, let us look further at Kirkham's list of absolute "superlatives."

OBS. 9.—Extreme is from the Latin superlative extremus, and of course its literal signification is not really susceptible of increase. Yet extremest has been used, and is still used, by some of the very best writers; as, "They thought it the extremest of evils."—Bacon. "That on the sea's extremest border stood."—Addison. "How, to extremest thrill of agony."—Pollok, B. viii, l. 270. "I go th' extremest remedy to prove."—Dryden. "In extremest poverty."—Swift. "The hairy fool stood on th' extremest verge of the swift brook, augmenting it with tears."—Shak. "While the extremest parts of the earth were meditating submission."—Atterbury. "His writings are poetical to the extremest boundaries of poetry."—Adams's Rhetoric, i, 87. In prose, this superlative is not now very common; but the poets still occasionally use it, for the sake of their measure; and it ought to be noticed that the simple adjective is not partitive. If we say, for the first example, "the extreme of evils;" we make the word a noun, and do not convey exactly the same idea that is there expressed.

OBS. 10.—Perfect, if taken in its strictest sense, must not be compared; but this word, like many others which mean most in the positive, is often used with a certain latitude of meaning, which renders its comparison by the adverbs not altogether inadmissible; nor is it destitute of authority, as I have already shown. (See Obs. 8th, p. 280.) "From the first rough sketches, to the more perfect draughts."—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 152. "The most perfect."—Adams's Lect. on Rhet., i, 99 and 136; ii, 17 and 57: Blair's Lect., pp. 20 and 399. "The most beautiful and perfect example of analysis."—Lowth's Gram., Pref., p. 10. "The plainest, most perfect, and most useful manual."—Bullions's E. Gram., Rev., p. 7. "Our sight is the most perfect, and the most delightful, of all our senses."—Addison, Spect., No. 411; Blair's Lect., pp. 115 and 194; Murray's Gram., i, 322. Here Murray anonymously copied Blair. "And to render natives more perfect in the knowledge of it."—Campbell's Rhet., p. 171; Murray's Gram., p. 366. Here Murray copied Campbell, the most accurate of all his masters. Whom did he copy when he said, "The phrases, more perfect, and most perfect, are improper?"—Octavo Gram., p. 168. But if these are wrong, so is the following sentence: "No poet has ever attained a greater perfection than Horace."—Blair's Lect., p. 398. And also this: "Why are we brought into the world less perfect in respect to our nature?"—West's Letters to a Young Lady, p. 220.

OBS. 11.—Right and wrong are not often compared by good writers; though we sometimes see such phrases as more right and more wrong, and such words as rightest and wrongest: "'Tis always in the wrongest sense."—Butler. "A method of attaining the rightest and greatest happiness."—PRICE: Priestley's Gram., p. 78. "It is no more right to steal apples, than it is to steal money."—Webster's New Spelling-Book, p. 118. There are equivalent expressions which seem preferable; as, more proper, more erroneous, most proper, most erroneous.

OBS. 12.—Honest, just, true, correct, sincere, and vast, may all be compared at pleasure. Pope's Essay on Criticism is more correct than any thing this modest pretender can write; and in it, he may find the comparative juster, the superlatives justest, truest, sincerest, and the phrases, "So vast a throng,"—"So vast is art:" all of which are contrary to his teaching. "Unjuster dealing is used in buying than in selling."—Butler's Poems, p. 163. "Iniquissimam pacem justissimo bello antefero."—Cicero. "I prefer the unjustest peace before the justest war."—Walker's English Particles, p. 68. The poet Cowley used the word honestest; which is not now very common. So Swift: "What honester folks never durst for their ears."—The Yahoo's Overthrow. So Jucius: "The honestest and ablest men."—Letter XVIII. "The sentence would be more correct in the following form."—Murray's Gram., i, p. 223. "Elegance is chiefly gained by studying the correctest writers."—Holmes's Rhetoric, p. 27. Honest and correct, for the sake of euphony, require the adverbs; as, more honest, "most correct."—Lowth's Gram., Pref., p. iv. Vast, vaster, vastest, are words as smooth, as fast, faster, fastest; and more vast is certainly as good English as more just: "Shall mortal man be more just than God?"—Job, iv, 17. "Wilt thou condemn him that is most just?"—Ib., xxxiv, 17. "More wise, more learn'd, more just, more-everything."—Pope. Universal is often compared by the adverbs, but certainly with no reënforcement of meaning: as, "One of the most universal precepts, is, that the orator himself should feel the passion."—Adams's Rhet., i, 379. "Though not so universal."—Ib., ii, 311. "This experience is general, though not so universal, as the absence of memory in childhood."—Ib., ii, 362. "We can suppose no motive which would more universally operate."—Dr. Blair's Rhet., p. 55. "Music is known to have been more universally studied."—Ib., p. 123. "We shall not wonder, that his grammar has been so universally applauded."—Walker's Recommendation in Murray's Gram., ii, 306. "The pronoun it is the most universal of all the pronouns."—Cutler's Gram., p. 66. Thus much for one half of this critic's twenty-two "superlatives." The rest are simply adjectives that are not susceptible of comparison: they are not "superlatives" at all. A man might just as well teach, that good is a superlative, and not susceptible of comparison, because "there is none good but one."

OBS. 13.—Pronominal adjectives, when their nouns are expressed, simply relate to them, and have no modifications: except this and that, which form the plurals these and those; and much, many, and a few others, which are compared. Examples: "Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?"—Matt., xiii, 54. "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?"—1 Cor., xv, 35. "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit."—Ib., 45. So, when one pronominal adjective "precedes an other, the former must be taken simply as an adjective;" as,

"Those suns are set. O rise some other such!" —Cowper's Task, B. ii, l. 252.

OBS. 14.—Pronominal adjectives, when their nouns are not expressed, may be parsed as representing them in person, number, gender, and case; but those who prefer it, may supply the ellipsis, and parse the adjective, simply as an adjective. Example: "He threatens many, who injures one."—Kames. Here it may be said, "Many is a pronominal adjective, meaning many persons; of the third person, plural number, masculine gender, and objective case." Or those who will take the word simply as an adjective, may say, "Many is a pronominal adjective, of the positive degree, compared many, more, most, and relating to persons understood." And so of "one," which represents, or relates to, person understood. Either say, "One is a pronominal adjective, not compared," and give the three definitions accordingly; or else say, "One is a pronominal adjective, relating to person understood; of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and objective case," and give the six definitions accordingly.

OBS. 15.—Elder for older, and eldest for oldest, are still frequently used; though the ancient positive, eld for old, is now obsolete. Hence some have represented old as having a two-fold comparison; and have placed it, not very properly, among the irregular adjectives. The comparatives elder and better, are often used as nouns; so are the Latin comparatives superior and inferior, interior and exterior, senior and junior, major and minor: as, The elder's advice,—One of the elders,—His betters,—Our superiors,—The interior of the country,—A handsome exterior,—Your seniors,—My juniors,—A major in the army,—He is yet a minor. The word other, which has something of the nature of a comparative, likewise takes the form of a noun, as before suggested; and, in that form, the reader, if he will, may call it a noun: as, "What do ye more than others?"—Bible. "God in thus much is bounded, that the evil hath he left unto an other; and that Dark Other hath usurped the evil which Omnipotence laid down."—Tupper's Book of Thoughts, p. 45. Some call it a pronoun. But it seems to be pronominal, merely by ellipsis of the noun after it; although, unlike a mere adjective, it assumes the ending of the noun, to mark that ellipsis. Perhaps therefore, the best explanation of it would be this: "'Others is a pronominal adjective, having the form of a noun, and put for other men; in the third person, plural number, masculine gender, and nominative case." The gender of this word varies, according to that of the contrasted term; and the case, according to the relation it bears to other words. In the following example, it is neuter and objective: "The fibres of this muscle act as those of others."—Cheyne. Here, "as those of others," means, "as the fibres of other muscles."

OBS. 16.—"Comparatives and superlatives seem sometimes to part with their relative nature, and only to retain their intensive, especially those which are formed by the superlative adverb most; as, 'A most learned man,'—'A most brave man:' i. e. not the bravest or the most learned man that ever was, but a man possessing bravery or learning in a very eminent degree."—See Alexander Murray's Gram., p. 110. This use of the terms of comparison is thought by some not to be very grammatical.

OBS. 17.—Contractions of the superlative termination est, as high'st for highest, bigg'st for biggest, though sometimes used by the poets, are always inelegant, and may justly be considered grammatically improper. They occur most frequently in doggerel verse, like that of Hudibras; the author of which work, wrote, in his droll fashion, not only the foregoing monosyllables, but learned'st for most learned, activ'st for most active, desperat'st for most desperate, epidemical'st for most epidemical, &c.

   "And th' activ'st fancies share as loose alloys,
    For want of equal weight to counterpoise."—Butler's Poems.

    "Who therefore finds the artificial'st fools
    Have not been chang'd i th' cradle, but the schools."—Ib., p. 143.

OBS. 18.—Nouns used adjectively are not varied in number to agree with the nouns to which they relate, but what is singular or plural when used substantively, is without number when taken as an adjective: as, "One of the nine sister goddesses."—Webster's Dict., w. Muse. "He has money in a savings bank." The latter mode of expression is uncommon, and the term savings-bank is sometimes compounded, but the hyphen does not really affect the nature of the former word. It is doubtful, however, whether a plural noun can ever properly assume the character of an adjective; because, if it is not then really the same as the possessive case, it will always be liable to be thought a false form of that case. What Johnson wrote "fullers earth" and "fullers thistle;" Chalmers has "fullers earth" and "fuller's thistle;" Webster, "fuller's-earth" and "fuller's-thistle;" Ainsworth, "fuller's earth" and "fuller's thistle;" Walker has only "fullers-earth;" Worcester, "fuller's-earth;" Cobb, "fullers earth;" the Treasury of Knowledge, "fullers'-earth." So unsettled is this part of our grammar, that in many such cases it is difficult cult to say whether we ought to use the apostrophe, or the hyphen, or both, or neither. To insert neither, unless we make a close compound, is to use a plural noun adjectively; which form, I think, is the most objectionable of all. See "All souls day,"—"All-fools-day,"—"All-saints'-day," &c., in the dictionaries. These may well be written "All Souls' Day" &c.

EXAMPLES FOR PARSING. PRAXIS IV.—ETYMOLOGICAL.

In the Fourth Praxis, it is required of the pupil—to distinguish and define the different parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the ARTICLES, NOUNS, and ADJECTIVES.

The definitions to be given in the Fourth Praxis, are two for