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

break, or transition, should be marked with the dash; as, 1. "'I must inquire into the affair; and if'—'And if!' interrupted the farmer." 2. "Whom I—But first 't is fit the billows to restrain."—Dryd. Virg. 3. "HERE LIES THE GREAT—False marble! where? Nothing but sordid dust lies here."—Young. RULE II.—EMPHATIC PAUSES.

To mark a considerable pause, greater than the structure or the sentence or the points inserted would seem to require, the dash may be employed; as, 1. "I pause for a reply.—None?—Then none have I offended.—I have done no more to Cæsar, than you should do to Brutus."—SHAKSPEARE: Enfields Speaker, p. 182.

2. "Tarry a little. There is something else.—
    This bond—doth give thee here—no jot of blood."
        —ID.: Burgh's Sp., p. 167.

3. "It thunders;—but it thunders to preserve."—Young.

4. "Behold the picture!—Is it like?—Like whom?"—Cowper.

RULE III.—FAULTY DASHES.

Dashes needlessly inserted, or substituted for other stops more definite, are in general to be treated as errors in punctuation; as, "Here Greece stands by itself as opposed to the other nations of antiquity—She was none of the other nations—She was more polished than they."—Lennie's Gram., p. 78. "Here Greece stands by herself, as opposed to the other nations of antiquity. She was none of the other nations: She was more polished than they."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 114. If this colon is sufficient, the capital after it is needless: a period would, perhaps, be better.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—The dash does not appear to be always a rhetorical stop, or always intended to lengthen the pause signified by an other mark before it. As one instance of a different design, we may notice, that it is now very often employed between a text and a reference;—i.e., between a quotation and the name of the author of the book quoted;—in which case, as Wm. Day suggests, "it serves as a connecting mark for the two."—Day's Punctuation, p. 131. But this usage, being comparatively recent, is, perhaps, not so general or so necessary, that a neglect of it may properly be censured as false punctuation.

OBS. 2.—An other peculiar use of the dash, is its application to side-titles, to set them off from other words in the same line, as is seen often in this Grammar as well as in other works. Day says of this, "When the substance of a paragraph is given as a side-head, a dash is necessary to connect it with its relative matter."—Ibid. Wilson also approves of this usage, as well as of the others here named; saying, "The dash should be inserted between a title and the subject-matter, and also between the subject-matter, and the authority from which it is taken, when they occur in the same paragraph."—Wilson's Punctuation, Ed. of 1850, p. 139.

OBS. 3.—The dash is often used to signify the omission of something; and, when set between the two extremes of a series of numbers, it may represent all the intermediate ones; as, "Page 10-15;" i. e., "Page 10, 11, 12, &c. to 15."—"Matt, vi, 9-14."

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. FALSE PUNCTUATION.—ERRORS CONCERNING THE DASH. UNDER RULE I.—ABRUPT PAUSES.

"And there is something in your very strange story, that resembles … Does
Mr. Bevil know your history particularly?"—See Key.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the abrupt pause after resembles is here marked by three periods. But, according to Rule 1st for the Dash. "A sudden interruption, break, or transition, should be marked with the dash." Therefore, the dash should be preferred to these points.]

"Sir, Mr. Myrtle, Gentlemen! You are friends; I am but a servant.
But."—See Key.

"Another man now would have given plump into this foolish story; but I? No, no, your humble servant for that."—See Key.

"Do not plunge thyself too far in anger lest thou hasten thy trial; which if Lord have mercy on thee for a hen!"—See Key.

   "But ere they came, O, let me say no more!
    Gather the sequel by that went before."—See Key.

UNDER RULE II.—EMPHATIC PAUSES.

"M, Malvolio; M, why, that begins my name."

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the pauses after M and Malvolio seem not to be sufficiently indicated here. But, according to Rule 2d for the Dash, "To mark a considerable pause, greater than the structure of the sentence or the points inserted would seem to require, the dash may be employed." Therefore, a dash may be set after the commas and the semicolon, in this sentence.]

"Thus, by the creative influence of the Eternal Spirit, were the heavens and the earth finished in the space of six days, so admirably finished, an unformed chaos changed into a system of perfect order and beauty, that the adorable Architect himself pronounced it very good, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."—See Key.

"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop remained in my country, I NEVER would lay down my arms; NEVER, NEVER, NEVER."—Columbian Orator, p. 265.

   "Madam, yourself are not exempt in this,
    Nor your son Dorset, Buckingham, nor you."—See Key.

UNDER RULE III.—FAULTY DASHES.

"—You shall go home directly, Le Fevre, said my uncle Toby, to my house,—and we'll send for a doctor to see what's the matter,—and we'll have an apothecary,—and the corporal shall be your nurse;—and I'll be your servant, Le Fevre."—STERNE: Enfield's Speaker, p. 306.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because all the dashes here quoted, except perhaps the last, are useless, or obviously substituted for more definite marks. But, according to Rule 3d, "Dashes needlessly inserted, or substituted for other stops more definite, are in general to be treated as errors in punctuation." Therefore, the first of these should be simply expunged; the second, third, and fourth, with their commas, should be changed to semicolons; and the last, with its semicolon, may well be made a colon.]

"He continued—Inferior artists may be at a stand, because they want materials."—HARRIS: Enfield's Speaker, p. 191. "Thus, then, continued he—The end in other arts is ever distant and removed."—Id., ib.

"The nouns must be coupled with and, and when a pronoun is used it must be plural, as in the example—When the nouns are disjoined the pronoun must be singular."—Lennie's Gram., 5th Ed., p. 57.

"Opinion is a noun or substantive common,—of the singular number,—neuter gender,—nominative case,—and third person."—Wright's Philos. Gram., p. 228.

   "The mountain—thy pall and thy prison—may keep thee;
    I shall see thee no more; but till death I will weep thee."
        —Felton's Gram., p. 146.

MIXED EXAMPLES OF ERROR

"If to accommodate man and beast, heaven and earth; if this be beyond me, 'tis not possible.—What consequence then follows? or can there be any other than this—if I seek an interest of my own, detached from that of others; I seek an interest which is chimerical, and can never have existence."—HARRIS: Enfield's Speaker, p. 139.

"Again—I must have food and clothing—Without a proper genial warmth, I instantly perish—Am I not related, in this view, to the very earth itself? To the distant sun, from whose beams I derive vigour?"—Id., ib., p. 140.

"Nature instantly ebb'd again—the film returned to its place—the pulse flutter'd—stopp'd—went on—throbb'd—stopp'd again—mov'd—stopp'd—shall I go on?—No."—STERNE: ib., p. 307.

"Write ten nouns of the masculine gender. Ten of the feminine. Ten of the neuter. Ten indefinite in gender."—Pardon Davis's Gram., p. 9.

"The Infinitive Mode has two tenses—the Indicative, six—the Potential, two—the Subjunctive, six, and the Imperative, one."—Frazee's Gram., Ster. Ed., p. 39; 1st Ed., 37. "Now notice the following sentences. John runs,—boys run—thou runnest."—Ib., Ster. Ed., p. 50; 1st Ed., p. 48.

"The Pronoun sometimes stands for a name—sometimes for an adjective—a sentence—a part of a sentence—and, sometimes for a whole series of propositions."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., 1st Ed., 12mo, p. 321.

   "The self-applauding bird, the peacock, see—
    Mark what a sumptuous pharisee is he!"—Cowper, i, 49.

SECTION VI.—THE EROTEME.

The Eroteme, or Note of Interrogation, is used to designate a question.

RULE I.—QUESTIONS DIRECT.

Questions expressed directly as such, if finished, should always be followed by the note of interrogation; as, "Was it possible that virtue so exalted should be erected upon injustice? that the proudest and the most ambitious of mankind should be the great master and accomplished pattern of humility? that a doctrine so pure as the Gospel should be the work of an uncommissioned pretender? that so perfect a system of morals should be established on blasphemy?"—Jerningham's Essay, p. 81.

   "In life, can love be bought with gold?
    Are friendship's pleasures to be sold?"—Johnson.

RULE II.—QUESTIONS UNITED.

When two or more questions are united in one compound sentence, the comma, semicolon, or dash, is sometimes used to separate them, and the eroteme occurs after the last only; as, 1. "When—under what administration—under what exigencies of war or peace—did the Senate ever before deal with such a measure in such a manner? Never, sir, never."—D. Webster, in Congress, 1846.

    2. "Canst thou, and honour'd with a Christian name,
       Buy what is woman-born, and feel no shame;
       Trade in the blood of innocence, and plead
       Expedience as a warrant for the deed?"—Cowper.

    3. "Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
       All fear, none aid you, and few understand."—Pope.

RULE III.—QUESTIONS INDIRECT.

When a question is mentioned, but not put directly as a question, it loses both the quality and the sign of interrogation; as, "The Cyprians asked me why I wept."—Murray.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—The value of the eroteme as a sign of pause, is stated very differently by different grammarians; while many of the vast multitude, by a strange oversight, say nothing about it. It is unquestionably variable, like that of the dash, or of the ecphoneme. W. H. Wells says, "The comma requires a momentary pause; the semicolon, a pause somewhat longer than the comma; the colon, a pause somewhat longer than the semicolon; and the period, a full stop. The note of interrogation, or the note of exclamation, may take the place of EITHER of these, and accordingly requires a pause of the same length as the point for which it is substituted."—Wells's School Gram., p. 175. This appears to be accurate in idea, though perhaps hardly so in language. Lindley Murray has stated it thus: "The interrogation and exclamation points are intermediate as to their quantity or time, and may be equivalent in that respect to a semicolon, a colon, or a period, as the sense may require."—Octavo Gram., p. 280. But Sanborn, in regard to his "Question Point," awkwardly says: "This pause is generally some longer than that of a period."—Analytical Gram., p. 271. Buchanan, as long ago as 1767, taught as follows: "The Pause after the two Points of Interrogation and Admiration ought to be equal to that of the Period, or a Colon at least."—English Syntax, p. 160. And J. S. Hart avers, that, "A question is reckoned as equal to a complete sentence, and the mark of interrogation as equal to a period."—Hart's English Gram., p. 166. He says also, that, "the first word after a note of interrogation should begin with a capital."—Ib., p. 162. In some instances, however, he, like others, has not adhered to these exceptionable principles, as may be seen by the false grammar cited below.

OBS. 2.—Sometimes a series of questions may be severally complete in sense, so that each may require the interrogative sign, though some or all of them may be so united in construction, as not to admit either a long intermediate pause or an initial capital; as, "Is there no honor in generosity? nor in preferring the lessons of conscience to the impulses of passion? nor in maintaining the supremacy of moral principle, and in paying reverence to Christian truth?"—Gannett. "True honour is manifested in a steady, uniform train of actions, attended by justice, and directed by prudence. Is this the conduct of the duellist? will justice support him in robbing the community of an able and useful member? and in depriving the poor of a benefactor? will it support him in preparing affliction for the widow's heart? in filling the orphan's eyes with tears?"—Jerningham's Essay, p. 113. But, in this latter example, perhaps, commas might be substituted for the second and fourth erotemes; and the word will might, in both instances, begin with a capital.

OBS. 3.—When a question is mentioned in its due form, it commonly retains the sign of interrogation, though not actually asked by the writer; and, except perhaps when it consists of some little interrogative word or phrase, requires the initial capital: as, "To know when this point ought to be used, do not say:[,] 'Is a question asked?' but, 'Does the sentence ask a question?'"—Churchill's Gram., p. 368. "They put their huge inarticulate question, 'What do you mean to do with us?' in a manner audible to every reflective soul in the kingdom."—Carlyle's Past and Present, p.