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

words, some, choice, which, and plan, may appear to a Latinist to be so many objectives, or accusatives, placed before infinitives, and used to describe that state of things which the author would promote. If objectives they are, we may still suppose them to be governed by let, would have, or something of the kind, understood: as, "Let some of these be attended to;" or, "Some of these I would have to be attended to," &c. The relative which might with more propriety be made nominative, by changing "to be binding" to "shall be binding;" and as to the rest, it is very doubtful whether they are not now nominatives, rather than objectives. The infinitive, as used above, is a mere substitute for the Latin future participle; and any English noun or pronoun put absolute with a participle, is in the nominative case. English relatives are rarely, if ever, put absolute in this manner: and this may be the reason why the construction of which, in the sentence above, seems awkward. Besides, it is certain that the other pronouns are sometimes put absolute with the infinitive; and that, in the nominative case, not the objective: as,

   "And I to be a corporal in his field,
    And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!
    What? I! I love! I sue! I seek a wife!"—Shak., Love's Labour Lost.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE II. THE SUBJECT OF A FINITE VERB.

"The whole need not a physician, but them that are sick."—Bunyan's Law and Gr., p. iv.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the objective pronoun them is here made the subject of the verb need, understood. But, according to Rule 2d, "A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative case." Therefore, them should be they; thus, "The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."]

"He will in no wise cast out whomsoever cometh unto him."—Robert Hall "He feared the enemy might fall upon his men, whom he saw were off their guard."—Hutchinson's Massachusetts, ii, 133. "Whomsoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."—Dymond's Essays, p. 48. "The idea's of the author have been conversant with the faults of other writers."—Swift's T. T., p. 55. "You are a much greater loser than me by his death."—Swift to Pope, l. 63. "Such peccadillo's pass with him for pious frauds."—Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 279. "In whom I am nearly concerned, and whom I know would be very apt to justify my whole procedure."—Ib., i, 560. "Do not think such a man as me contemptible for my garb."—Addison. "His wealth and him bid adieu to each other."—Priestley's Gram., p. 107. "So that, 'He is greater than me,' will be more grammatical than, 'He is greater than I.'"—Ib., p. 106. "The Jesuits had more interests at court than him."—SMOLLETT: in Pr. Gram., p. 106.[343] "Tell the Cardinal that I understand poetry better than him."—Id., ib. "An inhabitant of Crim Tartary was far more happy than him."—Id., ib. "My father and him have been very intimate since."—Fair American, ii, 53. "Who was the agent, and whom the object struck or kissed?"—Infant School Gram., p. 32. "To find the person whom he imagined was concealed there."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 225. "He offered a great recompense to whomsoever would help him."—HUME: in Pr. Gram., p. 104. "They would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whomsoever might exercise the right of judgement."—Gov. Haynes's Speech, in 1832. "They had promised to accept whomsoever should be born in Wales."—Stories by Croker. "We sorrow not as them that have no hope."—Maturin's Sermons, p. 27. "If he suffers, he suffers as them that have no hope."—Ib., p. 32. "We acknowledge that he, and him only, hath been our peacemaker."—Gratton. "And what can be better than him that made it?"—Jenks's Prayers, p. 329. "None of his school-fellows is more beloved than him."—Cooper's Gram., p. 42. "Solomon, who was wiser than them all."—Watson's Apology, p. 76. "Those whom the Jews thought were the last to be saved, first entered the kingdom of God."—Eleventh Hour, Tract, No. 4. "A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both."—Prov., xxvii, 3. "A man of business, in good company, is hardly more insupportable than her they call a notable woman."—Steele, Sped. "The king of the Sarmatians, whom we may imagine was no small prince, restored him a hundred thousand Roman prisoners."—Life of Antoninus, p. 83. "Such notions would be avowed at this time by none but rosicrucians, and fanatics as mad as them."—Bolingbroke's Ph. Tr., p. 24. "Unless, as I said, Messieurs, you are the masters, and not me."—BASIL HALL: Harrison's E. Lang., p. 173. "We had drawn up against peaceable travellers, who must have been as glad as us to escape."—BURNES'S TRAVELS: ibid. "Stimulated, in turn, by their approbation, and that of better judges than them, she turned to their literature with redoubled energy."—QUARTERLY REVIEW: Life of H. More: ibid. "I know not whom else are expected."—SCOTT'S PIRATE: ibid. "He is great, but truth is greater than us all."—Horace Mann, in Congress, 1850. "Him I accuse has entered."—Fowler's E. Gram., §482: see Shakspeare's Coriolanus, Act V, sc. 5.

   "Scotland and thee did each in other live."
        —Dryden's Po., Vol. ii, p. 220.

    "We are alone; here's none but thee and I."
        —Shak., 2 Hen. VI.

    "Me rather had, my heart might feel your love,
    Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy."
        —Idem: Joh. Dict.

    "Tell me, in sadness, whom is she you love?"
        —Id., Romeo and Juliet, A. I, sc. 1.

    "Better leave undone, than by our deeds acquire
    Too high a fame, when him we serve's away."
        —Shak., Ant. and Cleop.

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: as, "But it is really I, your old friend and neighbour., Piso, late a dweller upon the Coelian hill, who am now basking in the warm skies of Palmyra."—Zenobia.

   "But he, our gracious Master, kind as just,
    Knowing our frame, remembers we are dust."—Barbauld.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE III.

OBS. 1—Apposition is that peculiar relation which one noun or pronoun bears to an other, when two or more are placed together in the same case, and used to designate the same person or thing: as, "Cicero the orator;"—"The prophet Joel;"—"He of Gath, Goliah;"—"Which ye yourselves do know;"—"To make him king;"—"To give his life a ransom for many;"—"I made the ground my bed;"—"I, thy schoolmaster;"—"We the People of the United States." This placing-together of nouns and pronouns in the same case, was reckoned by the old grammarians a figure of syntax; and from them it received, in their elaborate detail of the grammatical and rhetorical figures, its present name of apposition. They reckoned it a species of ellipsis, and supplied between the words, the participle being, the infinitive to be, or some other part of their "substantive verb:" as, "Cicero being the orator;"—"To make him to be king;"—"I who am thy schoolmaster." But the later Latin grammarians have usually placed it among their regular concords; some calling it the first concord, while others make it the last, in the series; and some, with no great regard to consistency, treating it both as a figure and as a regular concord, at the same time.

OBS. 2.—Some English grammarians teach, "that the words in the cases preceding and following the verb to be, may be said to be in apposition to each other."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 181; R. C. Smith's, 155; Fisk's, 126; Ingersoll's, 146; Merchant's, 91. But this is entirely repugnant to the doctrine, that apposition is a figure; nor is it at all consistent with the original meaning of the word apposition; because it assumes that the literal reading, when the supposed ellipsis is supplied, is apposition still. The old distinction, however, between apposition and same cases, is generally preserved in our grammars, and is worthy ever to be so. The rule for same cases applies to all nouns or pronouns that are put after verbs or participles not transitive, and that are made to agree in case with other nouns or pronouns going before, and meaning the same thing. But some teachers who observe this distinction with reference to the neuter verb be, and to certain passive verbs of naming, appointing, and the like, absurdly break it down in relation to other verbs, neuter or active-intransitive. Thus Nixon: "Nouns in apposition are in the same case; as, 'Hortensius died a martyr;' 'Sydney lived the shepherd's friend.'"—English Parser, p. 55. It is remarkable that all this author's examples of "nominatives in apposition," (and he gives eighteen in the exercise,) are precisely of this sort, in which there is really no apposition at all.

OBS. 3.—In the exercise of parsing, rule third should be applied only to the explanatory term; because the case of the principal term depends on its relation to the rest of the sentence, and comes under some other rule. In certain instances, too, it is better to waive the analysis which might be made under rule third, and to take both or all the terms together, under the rule for the main relation. Thus, the several proper names which distinguish an individual, are always in apposition, and should be taken together in parsing; as, William Pitt—Marcus Tullius Cicero. It may, I think, be proper to include with the personal names, some titles also; as, Lord Bacon—Sir Isaac Newton. William E. Russell and Jonathan Ware, (two American authors of no great note,) in parsing the name of "George Washington," absurdly take the former word as an adjective belonging to the latter. See Russell's Gram., p. 100; and Ware's, 17. R. C. Smith does the same, both with honorary titles, and with baptismal or Christian names. See his New Gram., p. 97. And one English writer, in explaining the phrases, "John Wickliffe's influence," "Robert Bruce's exertions," and the like, will have the first nouns to be governed by the last, and the intermediate ones to be distinct possessives in apposition with the former. See Nixon's English Parser, p. 59. Wm. B. Fowle, in his "True English Grammar," takes all titles, all given names, all possessives, and all pronouns, to be adjectives. According to him, this class embraces more than half the words in the language. A later writer than any of these says, "The proper noun is philosophically an adjective. Nouns common or proper, of similar or dissimilar import, may be parsed as adjectives, when they become qualifying or distinguishing words; as, President Madison,—Doctor Johnson,—Mr. Webster,—Esq. Carleton,—Miss Gould,—Professor Ware,—lake Erie,—the Pacific ocean,—Franklin House,—Union street."—Sanborn's Gram., p. 134. I dissent from all these views, at least so far as not to divide a man's name in parsing it. A person will sometimes have such a multitude of names, that it would be a flagrant waste of time, to parse them all separately: for example, that wonderful doctor, Paracelsus, who called himself, "Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus de Hoenheim."—Univ. Biog. Dict.

OBS. 4.—A very common rule for apposition in Latin, is this: "Substantives signifying the same thing, agree in case."—Adam's Latin Gram., p. 156. The same has also been applied to our language: "Substantives denoting the same person or thing, agree in case."—Bullions's E. Gram., p. 102. This rule is, for two reasons, very faulty: first, because the apposition of pronouns seems not to be included it; secondly, because two nouns that are not in the same case, do sometimes "signify" or "denote" the same thing. Thus, "the city of London," means only the city London; "the land of Egypt," is only Egypt; and "the person of Richard" is Richard himself. Dr. Webster defines apposition to be, "The placing of two nouns in the same case, without a connecting word between them."—Octavo Dict. This, too, excludes the pronouns, and has exceptions, both various and numerous. In the first place, the apposition may be of more than two nouns, without any connective; as, "Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law."—Ezra, vii, 21. Secondly, two nouns connected by a conjunction, may both be put in apposition with a preceding noun or pronoun; as, "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."—Acts, ii, 36. "Who made me a judge or a divider over you."—Luke, xii, 14. Thirdly, the apposition may be of two nouns immediately connected by and, provided the two words denote but one person or thing; as, "This great philosopher and statesman was bred a printer." Fourthly, it may be of two words connected by as, expressing the idea of a partial or assumed identity; as, "Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."—2 Thess., iii, 15. "So that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God."—Ib., ii, 4. Fifthly, it may perhaps be of two words connected by than; as, "He left them no more than dead men."—Law and