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

   "These are her garb, not her; they but express
    Her form, her semblance, her appropriate dress."—Hannah More.

"I had no knowledge of there being any connexion between them."—Stone, on Freemasonry, p. 25. "To promote iniquity in others, is nearly the same as being the actors of it ourselves."—Murray's Key, p. 170. "It must arise from feeling delicately ourselves."—Blair's Rhet., p. 330; Murray's Gram., 248. "By reason of there not having been exercised a competent physical power for their enforcement."—Mass. Legislature, 1839. "PUPILAGE, n. The state of being a scholar."—Johnson, Walker, Webster, Worcester. "Then the other part's being the definition would make it include all verbs of every description."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 343. "John's being my friend,[363] saved me from inconvenience."—Ib., p. 201. "William's having become a judge, changed his whole demeanor."—Ib., p. 201. "William's having been a teacher, was the cause of the interest which he felt."—Ib., p. 216. "The being but one among many stifleth the chidings of conscience."—Book of Thoughts, p. 131. "As for its being esteemed a close translalation [sic—KTH], I doubt not many have been led into that error by the shortness of it."—Pope's Pref. to Homer. "All presumption of death's being the destruction of living beings, must go upon supposition that they are compounded, and so discerptible."—Butler's Analogy, p. 63. "This argues rather their being proper names."—Churchill's Gram., p. 382. "But may it not be retorted, that its being a gratification is that which excites our resentment?"—Campbell's Rhet., p. 145. "Under the common notion, of its being a system of the whole poetical art."—Blair's Rhet., p. 401. "Whose time or other circumstances forbid their becoming classical scholars."—Literary Convention, p. 113. "It would preclude the notion of his being a merely fictitious personage."—Philological Museum, i, 446. "For, or under pretence of their being heretics or infidels."—The Catholic Oath; Geo. III, 31st. "We may here add Dr. Home's sermon on Christ's being the Object of religious Adoration."—Relig. World, Vol. ii, p. 200. "To say nothing of Dr. Priestley's being a strenuous advocate," &c.—Ib., ii, 207. "By virtue of Adam's being their public head."—Ib., ii, 233. "Objections against there being any such moral plan as this."—Butler's Analogy, p. 57. "A greater instance of a man's being a blockhead."—Spect., No. 520. "We may insure or promote its being a happy state of existence to ourselves."—Gurney's Evidences, p. 86. "By its often falling a victim to the same kind of unnatural treatment."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 41. "Their appearing foolishness is no presumption against this."—Butler's Analogy, p. 189. "But what arises from their being offences; i. e. from their being liable to be perverted."—Ib., p. 185. "And he entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God."—Acts, xviii, 7.

"But to be popular, he observes, is an ambiguous word."—Blair's Rhet., p. 307. "The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is often the nominative case to a verb."—L. Murray's Index, Octavo Gram., Vol. ii, p. 290. "When any person, in speaking, introduces his own name, it is the first person; as, 'I, James, of the city of Boston.'"—R. C. Smith's New Gram., p. 43. "The name of the person spoken to, is the second person; as, 'James, come to me.'"—Ibid. "The name of the person or thing spoken of, or about, is the third person; as, 'James has come.'"—Ibid. "The object [of a passive verb] is always its subject or nominative case."—Ib., p. 62. "When a noun is in the nominative case to an active verb, it is the actor."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 44. "And the person commanded, is its nominative."—Ingersoll's Gram., p. 120. "The first person is that who speaks."—Pasquier's Lévizac, p. 91. "The Conjugation of a Verb is its different variations or inflections throughout the Moods and Tenses."—Wright's Gram., p. 80. "The first person is the speaker. The second person is the one spoken to. The third person is the one spoken of."—Parker and Fox's Gram., Part i, p. 6; Hiley's, 18. "The first person is the one that speaks, or the speaker."—Sanborn's Gram., pp. 23 and 75. "The second person is the one that is spoken to, or addressed."—Ibid. "The third person is the one that is spoken of, or that is the topic of conversation."—Ibid. "I, is the first person Singular. We, is the first person Plural."—Murray's Gram., p. 51; Alger's, Ingersoll's, and many others. "Thou, is the second person Singular. Ye or you, is the second person Plural."—Ibid. "He, she, or it, is the third person Singular. They, is the third person Plural."—Ibid. "The nominative case is the actor, or subject of the verb."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 43. "The noun John is the actor, therefore John is in the nominative case."—Ibid. "The actor is always the nominative case."—Smith's New Gram., p. 62. "The nominative case is always the agent or actor."—Mack's Gram., p. 67. "Tell the part of speech each name is."—J. Flint's Gram., p. 6. "What number is boy? Why? What number is pens? Why?"—Ib., p. 27. "The speaker is the first person, the person spoken to, the second person, and the person or thing spoken of, is the third person."—Ib., p. 26. "What nouns are masculine gender? All males are masculine gender."—Ib., p. 28. "An interjection is a sudden emotion of the mind."—Barrett's Gram., p. 62.

A Noun or a Pronoun made the object of a preposition, is governed by it in the objective case: as, "The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars, is kindled from the ashes of great men"—Hazlitt.

"Life is His gift, from whom whate'er life needs, With ev'ry good and perfect gift, proceeds."—Cowper, Vol. i, p. 95.

OBS. 1.—To this rule there are no exceptions; for prepositions, in English, govern no other case than the objective.[364] But the learner should observe that most of our prepositions may take the imperfect participle for their object, and some, the pluperfect, or preperfect; as, "On opening the trial they accused him of having defrauded them."—"A quick wit, a nice judgment, &c., could not raise this man above being received only upon the foot of contributing to mirth and diversion."—Steele. And the preposition to is often followed by an infinitive verb; as, "When one sort of wind is said to whistle, and an other to roar; when a serpent is said to hiss, a fly to buzz, and falling timber to crash; when a stream is said to flow, and hail to rattle; the analogy between the word and the thing signified, is plainly discernible."—Blair's Rhet., p. 55. But let it not be supposed that participles or infinitives, when they are governed by prepositions, are therefore in the objective case; for case is no attribute of either of these classes of words: they are indeclinable in English, whatever be the relations they assume. They are governed as participles, or as infinitives, and not as cases. The mere fact of government is so far from creating the modification governed, that it necessarily presupposes it to exist, and that it is something cognizable in etymology.

OBS. 2.—The brief assertion, that, "Prepositions govern the objective case," which till very lately our grammarians have universally adopted as their sole rule for both terms, the governing and the governed,—the preposition and its object,—is, in respect to both, somewhat exceptionable, being but partially and lamely applicable to either. It neither explains the connecting nature of the preposition, nor applies to all objectives, nor embraces all the terms which a preposition may govern. It is true, that prepositions, when they introduce declinable words, or words that have cases, always govern the objective; but the rule is liable to be misunderstood, and is in fact often misapplied, as if it meant something more than this. Besides, in no other instance do grammarians attempt to parse both the governing word and the governed, by one and the same rule. I have therefore placed the objects of this government here, where they belong in the order of the parts of speech, expressing the rule in such terms as cannot be mistaken; and have also given, in its proper place, a distinct rule for the construction of the preposition itself. See Rule 23d.

OBS. 3.—Prepositions are sometimes elliptically construed with adjectives, the real object of the relation being thought to be some objective noun understood: as, in vain, in secret, at first, on high; i. e. in a vain manner, in secret places, at the first time, on high places. Such phrases usually imply time, place, degree, or manner, and are equivalent to adverbs. In parsing, the learner may supply the ellipsis.

OBS. 4.—In some phrases, a preposition seems to govern a perfect participle; but these expressions are perhaps rather to be explained as being elliptical: as, "To give it up for lost;"—"To take that for granted which is disputed."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 109. That is, perhaps, "To give it up for a thing lost;"—"To take that for a thing granted," &c. In the following passage the words ought and should are employed in such a manner that it is difficult to say to what part of speech they belong: "It is that very character of ought and should which makes justice a law to us; and the same character is applicable to propriety, though perhaps more faintly than to justice."—Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. i, p. 286. The meaning seems to be, "It is that very character of being owed and required, that makes justice a law to us;" and this mode of expression, as it is more easy to be parsed, is perhaps more grammatical than his Lordship's. But, as preterits are sometimes put by enallage for participles, a reference of them to this figure may afford a mode of explanation in parsing, whenever they are introduced by a preposition, and not by a nominative: as, "A kind of conquest Cæsar made here; but made not here his brag Of, came, and saw, and overcame"—Shak., Cymb., iii, 1. That is,—"of having come, and seen, and overcome." Here, however, by assuming that a sentence is the object of the preposition, we may suppose the pronoun I to be understood, as ego is in the bulletin referred to, "Veni, vidi, vici." For, as a short sentence is sometimes made the subject of a verb, so is it sometimes made the object of a preposition; as,

   "Earth's highest station ends in, 'here he lies;'
    And 'dust to dust,' concludes her noblest song."—Young.

OBS. 5.—In some instances, prepositions precede adverbs; as, at once, at unawares, from thence, from above, till now, till very lately, for once, for ever. Here the adverb, though an indeclinable word, appears to be made the object of the preposition. It is in fact used substantively, and governed by the preposition. The term forever is often written as one word, and, as such, is obviously an adverb. The rest are what some writers would call adverbial phrases; a term not very consistent with itself, or with the true idea of parsing. If different parts of speech are to be taken together as having the nature of an adverb, they ought rather to coalesce and be united; for the verb to parse, being derived from the Latin pars, a part, implies in general a distinct recognition of the elements or words of every phrase or sentence.

OBS. 6.—Nouns of time, measure, distance, or value, have often so direct a relation to verbs or adjectives, that the prepositions which are supposed to govern them, are usually suppressed; as, "We rode sixty miles that day." That is,—"through sixty miles on that day." "The country is not a farthing richer."—Webster's Essays, p. 122. That is,—"richer by a farthing." "The error has been copied times without number."—Ib., p. 281. That is,—"on or at times innumerable." "A row of columns ten feet high, and a row twice that height, require different proportions." Kames, El. of Crit., ii, 344. That is,—"high to ten feet," and, "a row of twice that height." "Altus sex pedes, High on or at six feet."—Dr. Murray's Hist of Europ. Lang., ii, 150. All such nouns are in the objective case, and, in parsing them, the learner may supply the ellipsis;[365] or, perhaps it might be as well, to say, as do B. H. Smart and some others, that the noun is an objective of time, measure, or value, taken adverbially, and relating directly to the verb or adjective qualified by it. Such expressions as, "A board of six feet long,"—"A boy of twelve years old," are wrong. Either strike out the of, or say, "A board of six feet in length,"—"A boy of twelve years of age;" because this preposition is not suited to the adjective, nor is the adjective fit to qualify the time or measure.

OBS. 7.—After the adjectives like, near, and nigh, the preposition to