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

word with an other word."—James Brown cor. "'Six AND six are twelve.' Here it is affirmed, that the two sixes added together are twelve."—Id. "'John AND his wife have six children.' This is an instance in which AND connects two nominatives in a simple sentence. It is not here affirmed that John has six children, and that his wife has six other children."—Id. "That 'Nothing can be great which is not right,' is itself a great falsity: there are great blunders, great evils, great sins."—L. Murray cor. "The highest degree of reverence should be paid to the most exalted virtue or goodness."—Id. "There is in all minds some knowledge, or understanding."—L. Murray et al. cor. "Formerly, the nominative and objective cases of our pronouns, were more generally distinguished in practice, than they now are."—Kirkham cor. "As it respects a choice of words and expressions, the just rules of grammar may materially aid the learner."—S. S. Greene cor. "The name of whatever exists, or is conceived to exist, is a noun."—Fowler cor. "As not all men are brave, brave is itself distinctive."—Id. UNDER CRITICAL NOTE VI.—OF ABSURDITIES.

(1.) "And sometimes two unaccented syllables come together."—Dr. Blair cor. (2.) "What nouns frequently stand together?" Or: "What nouns are frequently used one after an other?"—Sanborn cor. (3.) "Words are derived from other words in various ways."—Idem et al. cor. (4.) "The name PREPOSITION is derived from the two Latin words præ and pono, which signify before and place."—Mack cor. (5.) "He was much laughed at for such conduct."—Bullions cor. (6.) "Every pronominal adjective belongs to some noun, expressed or understood."—Ingersoll cor. (7.) "If he [Addison] fails in any thing, it is in strength and precision; the want of which renders his manner not altogether a proper model."—Dr. Blair cor. (8.) "Indeed, if Horace is deficient in any thing his fault is this, of not being sufficiently attentive to juncture, or the connexion of parts."—Id. (9.) "The pupil is now supposed to be acquainted with the ten parts of speech, and their most usual modifications."—Taylor cor. (10.) "I could see, feel, taste, and smell the rose."—Sanborn cor. (11.) "The vowels iou are sometimes pronounced distinctly in two syllables; as in various, abstemious; but not in bilious."—Murray and Walker cor. (12.) "The diphthong aa generally sounds like a short; as in Balaam, Canaan, Isaac; in Baäl and Gaäl, we make no diphthong."—L. Mur. cor. (13.) "Participles cannot be said to be 'governed by the article;' for any participle, with an article before it, becomes a substantive, or an adjective used substantively: as, the learning, the learned."—Id. (14.) "From words ending with y preceded by a consonant, we form the plurals of nouns, the persons of verbs, agent nouns, perfect participles, comparatives, and superlatives, by changing the y into i, and adding es, ed, er, eth, or est."—Walker, Murray, et al. cor. (15.) "But y preceded by a vowel, remains unchanged, in the derivatives above named; as, boy, boys."—L. Murray et al. cor. (16.) "But when the final y is preceded by a vowel, it remains unchanged before an additional syllable; as, coy, coyly."—Iid. (17.) "But y preceded by a vowel, remains unchanged, in almost all instances; as, coy, coyly."—Kirkham cor. (18.) "Sentences are of two kinds, simple and compound."—Wright cor. (19.) "The neuter pronoun it may be employed to introduce a nominative of any person, number, or gender: as, 'It is he:'—'It is she;'—'It is they;'—'It is the land.'"—Bucke cor. (20 and 21.) "It is and it was, are always singular; but they may introduce words of a plural construction: as, 'It was the heretics that first began to rail.' SMOLLETT."—Merchant cor.; also Priestley et al. (22.) "W and y, as consonants, have each of them one sound."—Town cor. (23.) "The word as is frequently a relative pronoun."—Bucke cor. (24.) "From a series of clauses, the conjunction may sometimes be omitted with propriety."—Merchant cor. (25.) "If, however, the two members are very closely connected, the comma is unnecessary; as, 'Revelation tells us how we may attain happiness.'"—L. Murray et al. cor. (26-27.) "The mind has difficulty in taking effectually, in quick succession, so many different views of the same object."—Dr. Blair cor.; also L. Mur. (28.) "Pronominal adjectives are a kind of definitives, which may either accompany their nouns, or represent them understood."—Kirkham cor. (29.) "When the nominative or antecedent is a collective noun conveying the idea of plurality, the verb or pronoun must agree with it in the plural number."—Id. et al. cor. (30-34.) "A noun or a pronoun in the possessive case, is governed by the name of the thing possessed."— Brown's Inst., p. 176; Greenleaf cor.; also Wilbur and Livingston; also Goldsbury; also P. E. Day; also Kirkham, Frazee, and Miller. (35.) "Here the boy is represented as acting: the word boy is therefore in the nominative case."—Kirkham cor. (36.) "Do, be, have, and will, are sometimes auxiliaries, and sometimes principal verbs."—Cooper cor. (37.) "Names of males are masculine. Names of females are feminine."—Adam's Gram., p. 10; Beck cor. (38.) "'To-day's lesson is longer than yesterday's.' Here to-day's and yesterday's are substantives."—L. Murray et al. cor. (39.) "In this example, to-day's and yesterday's are nouns in the possessive case."—Kirkham cor. (40.) "An Indian in Britain would be much surprised to find by chance an elephant feeding at large in the open fields."—Kames cor. (41.) "If we were to contrive a new language, we might make any articulate sound the sign of any idea: apart from previous usage, there would be no impropriety in calling oxen men, or rational beings oxen."—L. Murray cor. (42.) "All the parts of a sentence should form a consistent whole."—Id et al. cor.

(43.) "Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped, Along the pavement rolled the culprit's head."—Pope cor.

UNDER CRITICAL NOTE VII.—OF SELF-CONTRADICTION.

(1.) "Though 'The king, with the lords and commons,' must have a singular rather than a plural verb, the sentence would certainly stand better thus: 'The king, the lords, and the commons, form an excellent constitution.'"—Mur. and Ing. cor. (2-3.) "L has a soft liquid sound; as in love, billow, quarrel. This letter is sometimes silent; as in half, task [sic for 'talk'—KTH], psalm."—Mur. and Fisk cor.; also Kirkham. (4.) "The words means and amends, though regularly derived from the singulars mean and amend, are not now, even by polite writers, restricted to the plural number. Our most distinguished modern authors often say, 'by this means,' as well as, 'by these means.'"—Wright cor. (5.) "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues; an enemy, his crimes."—Mur. cor. (6.) "The auxiliary have, or any form of the perfect tense, belongs not properly to the subjunctive mood. We suppose past facts by the indicative: as, If I have loved, If thou hast loved, &c."—Merchant cor. (7.) "There is also an impropriety in using both the indicative and the subjunctive mood with the same conjunction; as, 'If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them is gone astray,' &c. [This is Merchant's perversion of the text. It should be, 'and one of them go astray:' or, 'be gone astray,' as in Matt., xviii. 12.]"—Id. (8.) "The rising series of contrasts conveys transcendent dignity and energy to the conclusion."—Jamieson cor. (9.) "A groan or a shriek is instantly understood, as a language extorted by distress, a natural language which conveys a meaning that words are not adequate to express. A groan or a shriek speaks to the ear with a far more thrilling effect than words: yet even this natural language of distress may be counterfeited by art."—Dr. Porter cor. (10.) "If these words [book and pen] cannot be put together in such a way as will constitute plurality, then they cannot be 'these words;' and then, also, one and one cannot be two."—James Brown cor. (11.) "Nor can the real pen and the real book be added or counted together in words, in such a manner as will not constitute plurality in grammar."—Id. (12.) "Our is a personal pronoun, of the possessive case. Murray does not decline it."—Mur. cor. (13.) "This and that, and their plurals these and those, are often opposed to each other in a sentence. When this or that is used alone, i.e., without contrast, this is applied to what is present or near; that, to what is absent or distant."—Buchanan cor. (14.) "Active and neuter verbs may be conjugated by adding their imperfect participle to the auxiliary verb be, through all its variations."—"Be is an auxiliary whenever it is placed before either the perfect or the imperfect participle of an other verb; but, in every other situation, it is a principal verb."—Kirkham cor. (15.) "A verb in the imperative mood is almost always of the second person."—"The verbs, according to a foreign idiom, or the poet's license, are used in the imperative, agreeing with a nominative of the first or third person."—Id. (16.) "A personal pronoun, is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of what person it is."—"Pronouns of the first person do not disagree in person with the nouns they represent."—Id. (17.) "Nouns have three cases; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective."—"Personal pronouns have, like nouns, three cases; the nominative, the possessive, and the objective."—Beck cor. (18.) "In many instances the preposition suffers a change and becomes an adverb by its mere application."—L. Murray cor. (19.) "Some nouns are used only in the plural; as, ashes, literati, minutiæ. Some nouns have the same form in both numbers; as, sheep, deer, series, species. Among the inferior parts of speech, there are some pairs or couples."—Rev. D. Blair cor. (20.) "Concerning the pronominal adjectives, that may, or may not, represent their nouns."—O. B. Peirce cor. (21.) "The word a is in a few instances employed in the sense of a preposition; as, 'Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing;' i. e., I go to fishing."—Weld cor. (22.) "So, too, verbs that are commonly transitive, are used intransitively, when they have no object."—Bullions cor.

(23.) "When first young Maro, in his boundless mind, A work t' outlast imperial Rome design'd."—Pope cor.

UNDER CRITICAL NOTE VIII.—OF SENSELESS JUMBLING.

"There are two numbers, called the singular and the plural, which distinguish nouns as signifying either one thing, or many of the same kind."—Dr. H. Blair cor. "Here James Monroe is addressed, he is spoken to; the name is therefore a noun of the second person."—Mack cor. "The number and person of an English verb can seldom be ascertained until its nominative is known."—Emmons cor. "A noun of multitude, or a singular noun signifying many, may have a verb or a pronoun agreeing with it in either number; yet not without regard to the import of the noun, as conveying the idea of unity or plurality."—Lowth et al. cor. "To form the present tense and the past imperfect of our active or neuter verbs, the auxiliary do, and its preterit did, are sometimes used: as, I do now love; I did then love."—Lowth cor. "If these be perfectly committed to memory, the learner will be able to take twenty lines for his second lesson, and the task may be increased each day."—Osborn cor. "Ch is generally sounded in the same manner as if it were tch: as in Charles, church, cheerfulness, and cheese. But, in Latin or Greek words, ch is pronounced like k: as in Chaos, character, chorus, and chimera. And, in words derived from the French, ch is sounded like sh: as in Chagrin, chicanery, and chaise."—Bucke cor. "Some nouns literally neuter, are made masculine or feminine by a figure of speech."—L. Murray et al. cor. "In the English language, words may be classified under ten general heads: the sorts, or chief classes, of words, are usually termed the ten parts of speech."—Nutting cor. "'Mercy is the true badge of nobility.' Nobility is a common noun, of the third person, singular number, neuter gender, and objective case; and is governed by of."—Kirkham cor. "Gh is either silent, as in plough, or has the sound of f, as in laugh."—Town cor. "Many nations were destroyed, and as many languages or dialects were lost and blotted out from the general catalogue."—Chazotte cor. "Some languages contain a greater number of moods than others, and each exhibits its own as forms peculiar to itself."—L. Murray cor. "A SIMILE is a simple and express comparison; and is generally introduced by like, as, or so."—Id. See Inst., p. 233. "The word what is sometimes improperly used for the conjunction that."—Priestley, Murray, et al., cor. "Brown makes no ado in condemning the absurd principles of preceding works, in relation to the gender of pronouns."—O. B. Peirce cor. "The nominative usually precedes the verb, and denotes the agent of the action."—Wm. Beck cor. "Primitive words are those which are not formed from other words more simple."—Wright cor. "In monosyllables, the single vowel i