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

or the OBJECT[322] governed by the verb: as, "Crimes deserve punishment."

The other or subordinate parts depend upon these, either as primary or as secondary adjuncts; as, "High crimes justly deserve very severe punishments."

Sentences are usually said to be of two kinds, simple and compound.[323]

A simple sentence is a sentence which consists of one single assertion, supposition, command, question, or exclamation; as, "David and Jonathan loved each other."—"If thine enemy hunger."—"Do violence to no man."—"Am I not an apostle?"—1 Cor., ix, 1. "What immortal glory shall I have acquired!"—HOOKE: Mur. Seq., p. 71.

A compound sentence is a sentence which consists of two or more simple ones either expressly or tacitly connected; as, "Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved."—Acts, xi, 13. "The more the works of Cowper are read, the more his readers will find reason to admire the variety and the extent, the graces and the energy, of his literary talents."—HAYLEY: Mur. Seq., p. 250.

A clause, or member, is a subdivision of a compound sentence; and is itself a sentence, either simple or compound: as, "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; if he be thirsty, give him water to drink."—Prov., xxv, 21.[324]

A phrase is two or more words which express some relation of different ideas, but no entire proposition; as, "By the means appointed."—"To be plain with you."—"Having loved his own."

Words that are omitted by ellipsis, and that are necessarily understood in order to complete the construction, (and only such,) must be supplied in parsing.

The leading principles to be observed in the construction of sentences, are embraced in the following twenty-four rules, which are arranged, as nearly as possible, in the order of the parts of speech.

THE RULES OF SYNTAX. RULE I.—ARTICLES.

Articles relate to the nouns which they limit.

RULE II.—NOMINATIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative case.

RULE III.—APPOSITION. A Noun or a personal Pronoun used to explain a preceding noun or pronoun, is put, by apposition, in the same case.

RULE IV.—POSSESSIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the name of the thing possessed.

RULE V.—OBJECTIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of an active-transitive verb or participle, is governed by it in the objective case.

RULE VI.—SAME CASES.

A Noun or a Pronoun put after a verb or participle not transitive, agrees in case with a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the same thing.

RULE VII.—OBJECTIVES.

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of a preposition, is governed by it in the objective case.

RULE VIII.—NOM. ABSOLUTE.

A Noun or a Pronoun is put absolute in the nominative, when its case depends on no other word.

RULE IX.—ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives relate to nouns or pronouns.

RULE X.—PRONOUNS.

A Pronoun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or pronoun which it represents, in person, number, and gender.

RULE XI—PRONOUNS.

When the antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Pronoun must agree with it in the plural number.

RULE XII.—PRONOUNS.

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by and, it must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together.

RULE XIII.—PRONOUNS.

When a Pronoun has two or more antecedents connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together.

RULE XIV.—FINITE VERBS.

Every finite Verb must agree with its subject, or nominative, in person and number.

RULE XV.—FINITE VERBS.

When the nominative is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the Verb must agree with it in the plural number.

RULE XVI.—FINITE VERBS.

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by and, it must agree with them jointly in the plural, because they are taken together.

RULE XVII.—FINITE VERBS.

When a Verb has two or more nominatives connected by or or nor, it must agree with them singly, and not as if taken together.

RULE XVIII.—INFINITIVES.

The Infinitive Mood is governed in general by the preposition TO, which commonly connects it to a finite verb.

RULE XIX.—INFINITIVES.

The active verbs, bid, dare, feel, hear, let, make, need, see, and their participles, usually take the Infinitive after them without the preposition TO.

RULE XX.—PARTICIPLES.

Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by prepositions.

RULE XXI.—ADVERBS.

Adverbs relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs.

RULE XXII.—CONJUNCTIONS.

Conjunctions connect words, sentences, or parts of sentences.

RULE XXIII.—PREPOSITIONS.

Prepositions show the relations of words, and of the things or thoughts expressed by them.

RULE XXIV.—INTERJECTIONS.

Interjections have no dependent construction; they are put absolute, either alone, or with other words.

GENERAL OR CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON SYNTAX.

OBS. 1.—An explanation of the relation, agreement, government, and arrangement, of words in sentences, constitutes that part of grammar which we call Syntax. But many grammarians, representing this branch of their subject as consisting of two parts only, "concord and government" say little or nothing of the relation and arrangement of words, except as these are involved in the others. The four things are essentially different in their nature, as may be seen by the definitions given above, yet not so distinct in practice that they can well be made the basis of any perfect division of the rules of syntax. I have therefore, on this occasion, preferred the order of the parts of speech; each of which will form a chapter in the Syntax of this work, as each forms a chapter in the Etymology.

OBS. 2.—Agreement and concord are one and the same thing. Relation and agreement, though different, may yet coincide, and be taken together. The latter is moreover naturally allied to the former. Seven of the ten parts of speech are, with a few exceptions, incapable of any agreement; of these the relation and use must be explained in parsing; and all requisite agreement between any of the rest, is confined to words that relate to each other. For one word may relate to an other and not agree with it; but there is never any necessary agreement between words that have not a relation one to the other, or a connexion according to the sense. Any similarity happening between unconnected words, is no syntactical concord, though it may rank the terms in the same class etymologically.

OBS. 3.—From these observations it may be seen, that the most important and most comprehensive principle of English syntax, is the simple Relation of words, according to the sense. To this head alone, ought to be referred all the rules of construction by which our articles, our nominatives, our adjectives, our participles, our adverbs, our conjunctions, our prepositions, and our interjections, are to be parsed. To the ordinary syntactical use of any of these, no rules of concord, government, or position, can at all apply. Yet so defective and erroneous are the schemes of syntax which are commonly found in our English grammars, that no rules of simple relation, none by which any of the above-named parts of speech can be consistently parsed, are in general to be found in them. If there are any exceptions to this censure, they are very few, and in treatises still marked with glaring defects in regard to the syntax of some of these parts of speech.

OBS. 4.—Grammarians, of course, do not utter falsehoods intentionally; but it is lamentable to see how often they pervert doctrine by untruths uttered ignorantly. It is the design of this pandect, to make every one who reads it, an intelligent judge of the perversions, as well as of the true doctrines, of English grammar. The following citations will show him the scope and parts which have commonly been assigned to our syntax: "The construction of sentences depends principally upon the concord or agreement, and the regimen or government, of words."—Lowth's Gram., p. 68; Churchill's, 120. "Words in sentences have a twofold relation to one another; namely, that of Concord or Agreement; and that of Government or Influence."—Dr. Adam's Latin and English Grammar, p. 151. "The third part of Grammar is SYNTAX, which treats of the agreement and construction of words in a sentence."—E. G. Greene's Grammatical Text-Book, p. 15. "Syntax principally consists of two parts, Concord and Government."—Murray's Gram., p. 142; Ingersoll's, 170; Alger's, 51; R. C. Smith's, 119; and many others. "Syntax consists of two parts, Concord and Government."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 175; Wright's, 124. "The Rules of Syntax may all be included under three heads, Concord, Government, and Position."—Bullions's E. Gram., p. 87. "Position means the place which a word occupies in a sentence."—Ib. "These rules may be mostly ranked under the two heads of agreement and government; the remainder may be termed miscellaneous."—Nutting's Gram., p. 92. "Syntax treats of the agreement, government and proper arrangement of words in a sentence."—Frost's El. of Gram., p. 43. This last-named author, in touching the text of my books, has often corrupted it, as he does here; but my definitions of the tenses he copied without marring them much. The borrowing occurred as early as 1828, and I add this notice now, lest any should suppose me the plagiarist.

OBS. 5.—Most of our English grammars have more rules of syntax than are needed, and yet are very deficient in such as are needed. To say, as some do, that articles, adjectives, and participles, agree with nouns, is to teach Greek or Latin syntax, and not English. To throw, as Nutting does, the whole syntax of adverbs into a remark on such a rule of agreement, is to choose disorder for its own sake. To say, with Frost, Hall, Smith, Perley, Kirkham, Sanborn, Rand, and others, "The nominative case governs the verb in number and person," and again, "A verb must agree with its nominative case in number and person," is to confound the meaning of government and agreement, to say the same thing in different words, and to leave the subject of a verb still without a rule: for rules of government are applicable only to the words governed, and nothing ever agrees with that which governs it.[325] To say, with Murray and others, "Participles have the same government as the verbs from which they are derived," is to say nothing by which either verbs or participles may be parsed, or any of their errors corrected: those many grammarians, therefore, who make this their only rule for participles, leave them all without any syntax. To say, with Murray, Alger, and others, "Adverbs, though they have no government of case, tense, &c., require an appropriate situation in the sentence," is to squander words at random, and leave the important question unanswered, "To what do adverbs relate?" To say again, with the same gentlemen, "Conjunctions connect the same moods and tenses of verbs, and cases of nouns and pronouns," is to put an ungrammatical, obscure, and useless assertion, in the place of an important rule. To say merely, "Prepositions govern the objective case," is to rest all the syntax of prepositions on a rule that never applies to them, but which is meant only for one of the constructions of the objective case. To say, as many do, "Interjections require the objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them, and the nominative case of the second," is to tell what is utterly false as the words stand, and by no means true in the sense which the authors intend. Finally, to suppose, with Murray, that, "the Interjection does not require a distinct, appropriate rule," is in admirable keeping with all the foregoing quotations, and especially with his notion of what it does require; namely, "the objective case of the first person:" but who dares deny that the following exclamation is good English?

"O wretched we! why were we hurried down This lubric and adulterate age!"—Dryden.

OBS. 6.—The truth of any doctrine in science, can be nothing else than its conformity to facts, or to the nature of things; and chiefly by what he knows of the things themselves, must any one judge of what others say concerning them. Erroneous or inadequate views, confused or inconsistent statements, are the peculiar property of those who advance them; they have, in reality, no relationship to science itself, because they originate in ignorance; but all science is knowledge—it is knowledge methodized. What general rules