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

chapter of Etymology, as it exhibits only the distribution of words into the ten Parts of Speech, contains no false grammar for correction. And it may be here observed, that as mistakes concerning the forms, classes, or modifications of words, are chiefly to be found in sentences, rather than in any separate exhibition of the terms; the quotations of this kind, with which I have illustrated the principles of etymology, are many of them such as might perhaps with more propriety be denominated false syntax. But, having examples enough at hand to show the ignorance and carelessness of authors in every part of grammar, I have thought it most advisable, so to distribute them as to leave no part destitute of this most impressive kind of illustration. The examples exhibited as false etymology, are as distinct from those which are called false syntax, as the nature of the case will admit. CHAPTER II.—ARTICLES. CORRECTIONS RESPECTING A, AN, AND THE. LESSON I.—ARTICLES ADAPTED.

"Honour is a useful distinction in life."—Milnes cor. "No writer, therefore, ought to foment a humour of innovation."—Jamieson cor. "Conjunctions [generally] require a situation between the things of which they form a union."—Id. "Nothing is more easy than to mistake a u for an a."—Tooke cor. "From making so ill a use of our innocent expressions."—Penn cor. "To grant thee a heavenly and incorruptible crown of glory."—Sewel cor. "It in no wise follows, that such a one was able to predict."—Id. "With a harmless patience, they have borne most heavy oppressions."—Id. "My attendance was to make me a happier man."—Spect. cor. "On the wonderful nature of a human mind."—Id. "I have got a hussy of a maid, who is most craftily given to this."—Id. "Argus is said to have had a hundred eyes, some of which were always awake."—Stories cor. "Centiped, having a hundred feet; centennial, consisting of a hundred years."—Town cor. "No good man, he thought, could be a heretic."—Gilpin cor. "As, a Christian, an infidel, a heathen."—Ash cor. "Of two or more words, usually joined by a hyphen."—Blair cor. "We may consider the whole space of a hundred years as time present."—Ingersoll's Gram., p. 138. "In guarding against such a use of meats and drinks."—Ash cor. "Worship is a homage due from man to his Creator."—Monitor cor. "Then a eulogium on the deceased was pronounced."—Grimshaw cor. "But for Adam there was not found a help meet for him."—Bible cor. "My days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth."—Id. "A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof."—Id. "The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; a high hill, as the hill of Bashan."—Id. "But I do declare it to have been a holy offering, and such a one too as was to be once for all."—Penn cor. "A hope that does not make ashamed those that have it."—Barclay cor. "Where there is not a unity, we may exercise true charity."—Id. "Tell me, if in any of these such a union can be found?"—Dr. Brown cor.

   "Such holy drops her tresses steeped,
    Though 'twas a hero's eye that weeped."—Sir W. Scott cor.

LESSON II.—ARTICLES INSERTED.

"This veil of flesh parts the visible and the invisible world."—Sherlock cor. "The copulative and the disjunctive conjunctions operate differently on the verb."—L. Murray cor. "Every combination of a preposition and an article with the noun."—Id. "Either signifies, 'the one or the other:' neither imports, 'not either;' that is, 'not the one nor the other.'"—Id. "A noun of multitude may have a pronoun or a verb agreeing with it, either of the singular number or of the plural."—Bucke cor. "The principal copulative conjunctions are, and, as, both, because, for, if, that, then, since."—Id. "The two real genders are the masculine and the feminine."—Id. "In which a mute and a liquid are represented by the same character, th."—Gardiner cor. "They said, John the Baptist hath sent us unto thee."—Bible cor. "They indeed remember the names of an abundance of places."—Spect. cor. "Which created a great dispute between the young and the old men."—Goldsmith cor. "Then shall be read the Apostles' or the Nicene Creed."—Com. Prayer cor. "The rules concerning the perfect tenses and the supines of verbs are Lily's."—K. Henry's Gr. cor. "It was read by the high and the low, the learned and the illiterate."—Dr. Johnson cor. "Most commonly, both the pronoun and the verb are understood."—Buchanan cor. "To signify the thick and the slender enunciation of tone."—Knight cor. "The difference between a palatial and a guttural aspirate is very small."—Id. "Leaving it to waver between the figurative and the literal sense."—Jamieson cor. "Whatever verb will not admit of both an active and a passive signification."—Alex. Murray cor. "The is often set before adverbs in the comparative or the superlative degree."—Id. and Kirkham cor. "Lest any should fear the effect of such a change, upon the present or the succeeding age of writers."—Fowle cor. "In all these measures, the accents are to be placed on the even syllables; and every line is, in general, the more melodious, as this rule is the more strictly observed."—L. Murray et al. cor. "How many numbers do nouns appear to have? Two: the singular and the plural."—R. C. Smith cor. "How many persons? Three; the first, the second, and the third."—Id. "How many cases? Three; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective."—Id.

   "Ah! what avails it me, the flocks to keep,
    Who lost my heart while I preserv'd the sheep:"—or, "my sheep."

LESSON III.—ARTICLES OMITTED.

"The negroes are all descendants of Africans."—Morse cor. "Sybarite was applied as a term of reproach to a man of dissolute manners."—Id. "The original signification of knave was boy."—Webster cor. "The meaning of these will be explained, for greater clearness and precision."—Bucke cor. "What sort of noun is man? A noun substantive, common."—Buchanan cor. "Is what ever used as three kinds of pronoun?"—Kirkham's Question cor. [Answer: "No; as a pronoun, it is either relative or interrogative."—G. Brown.] "They delighted in having done it, as well as in the doing of it."—R. Johnson cor. "Both parts of this rule are exemplified in the following sentences."—Murray cor. "He has taught them to hope for an other and better world."—Knapp cor. "It was itself only preparatory to a future, better, and perfect revelation."—Keith cor. "Es then makes an other and distinct syllable."—Brightland cor. "The eternal clamours of a selfish and factious people."—Dr. Brown cor. "To those whose taste in elocution is but little cultivated."—Kirkham cor. "They considered they had but a sort of gourd to rejoice in."—Bennet cor. "Now there was but one such bough, in a spacious and shady grove."—Bacon cor. "Now the absurdity of this latter supposition will go a great way towards making a man easy."—Collier cor. "This is true of mathematics, with which taste has but little to do."—Todd cor. "To stand prompter to a pausing yet ready comprehension."—Rush cor. "Such an obedience as the yoked and tortured negro is compelled to yield to the whip of the overseer."—Chalmers cor. "For the gratification of a momentary and unholy desire."—Wayland cor. "The body is slenderly put together; the mind, a rambling sort of thing."—Collier cor. "The only nominative to the verb, is officer."—Murray cor. "And though in general it ought to be admitted, &c."—Blair cor. "Philosophical writing admits of a polished, neat, and elegant style."—Id. "But notwithstanding this defect, Thomson is a strong and beautiful describer."—Id. "So should he be sure to be ransomed, and many poor men's lives should be saved."—Shak. cor.

   "Who felt the wrong, or feared it, took alarm,
    Appealed to law, and Justice lent her arm."—Pope cor.

LESSON IV.—ARTICLES CHANGED.

"To enable us to avoid too frequent a repetition of the same word."—Bucke cor. "The former is commonly acquired in a third part of the time."—Burn cor. "Sometimes an adjective becomes a substantive; and, like other substantives, it may have an adjective relating to it: as, 'The chief good.'"—L. Murray cor. "An articulate sound is a sound of the human voice, formed by the organs of speech."—Id. "A tense is a distinction of time: there are six tenses."—Maunder cor. "In this case, an ellipsis of the last article would be improper."—L. Hurray cor. "Contrast always has the effect to make each of the contrasted objects appear in a stronger light."—Id. et al. "These remarks may serve to show the great importance of a proper use of the articles."—Lowth et al. cor. "'Archbishop Tillotson,' says the author of a history of England, 'died in this year.'"—Dr. Blair cor. "Pronouns are used in stead of substantives, to prevent too frequent a repetition of them."—A. Murray cor. "THAT, as a relative, seems to be introduced to prevent too frequent a repetition of WHO and WHICH."—Id. "A pronoun is a word used in stead of a noun, to prevent too frequent a repetition of it."—L. Murray cor. "THAT is often used as a relative, to prevent too frequent a repetition of WHO and WHICH."—Id. et al. cor. "His knees smote one against the other."—Logan cor. "They stand now on one foot, then on the other."—W. Walker cor. "The Lord watch between thee and me, when we are absent one from the other."—Bible cor. "Some have enumerated ten parts of speech, making the participle a distinct part."—L. Murray cor. "Nemesis rides upon a hart because the hart is a most lively creature."—Bacon cor. "The transition of the voice from one vowel of the diphthong to the other."—Dr. Wilson cor. "So difficult it is, to separate these two things one from the other."—Dr. Blair cor. "Without a material breach of any rule."—Id. "The great source of looseness of style, in opposition to precision, is an injudicious use of what are termed synonymous words."—Blair cor.; also Murray. "Sometimes one article is improperly used for the other."—Sanborn cor.

   "Satire of sense, alas! can Sporus feel?
    Who breaks a butterfly upon the wheel?"—Pope cor.

LESSON V.—MIXED EXAMPLES.

"He hath no delight in the strength of a horse."—Maturin cor. "The head of it would be a universal monarch."—Butler cor. "Here they confound the material and the formal object of faith."—Barclay cor. "The Irish [Celtic] and the Scottish Celtic are one language; the Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armorican, are an other."—Dr. Murray cor. "In a uniform and perspicuous manner."—Id. "SCRIPTURE, n. Appropriately, and by way of distinction, the books of the Old and the New Testament; the Bible."—Webster cor. "In two separate volumes, entitled, 'The Old and New Testaments.'"—Wayland cor. "The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament, contain a revelation from God."—Id. "Q has always a u after it; which, in words of French origin, is not sounded."—Wilson cor. "What should we say of such a one? that he is regenerate? No."—Hopkins cor. "Some grammarians subdivide the vowels into simple and compound."—L. Murray cor. "Emphasis has been divided into the weaker and the stronger emphasis."—Id. "Emphasis has also been divided into the superior and the inferior emphasis."—Id. "Pronouns must agree with their antecedents, or the nouns which they represent, in gender, number, and person."—Merchant cor. "The adverb where is often used improperly, for a relative pronoun and a preposition": as, "Words where [in which] the h is not silent."—Murray, p. 31. "The termination ish imports diminution, or a lessening of the quality."—Merchant cor. "In this train, all their verses proceed: one half of a line always answering to the other."—Dr. Blair cor. "To a height of prosperity and glory, unknown to any former age."—L. Murray cor. "Hwilc, who, which, such as, such a one, is declined as follows."—Gwilt cor. "When a vowel precedes the y, s only is required to form the plural; as, day, days."—Bucke cor. "He is asked what sort of word each is; whether a primitive, a derivative, or a compound."—British Gram. cor. "It is obvious, that neither the second, the third, nor the fourth chapter of Matthew, is the first; consequently, there are not 'four first chapters.'"—Churchill cor. "Some thought, which a writer wants the art to introduce in its proper place."—Dr. Blair cor. "Groves and meadows are the most pleasing in the spring."—Id. "The conflict between the carnal and the spiritual mind, is often long."—Gurney cor. "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful"—Burke cor.

   "Silence, my muse! make not these jewels cheap,
    Exposing to the world too large a heap."—Waller cor.

CHAPTER III.—NOUNS. CORRECTIONS IN THE MODIFICATIONS OF NOUNS. LESSON I.—NUMBERS.

"All the ablest of the Jewish rabbies acknowledge it."—Wilson cor. "Who has thoroughly imbibed the system of one or other of our Christian rabbies."—Campbell cor. "The seeming singularities of reason soon wear off."—Collier cor. "The chiefs and arikies, or priests, have the power of declaring a place or object taboo."—Balbi cor. "Among the various tribes of this family, are the Pottawatomies, the Sauks and Foxes, or Saukies and Ottogamies."—Id. "The Shawnees, Kickapoos, Menom'onies, Miamies, and Delawares, are of the same region."—Id. "The Mohegans and Abenaquies belonged also to this family."—Id. "One tribe of this family, the Winnebagoes, formerly resided near lake Michigan."—Id. "The other tribes are the