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

The term, "imperfect passive tenses," seems not a very accurate one; because the present, the perfect, &c., are included. Pickbourn applies it to any passive tenses formed from the simple "imperfect participle;" but the phrase, "passive verbs in the progressive form," would better express the meaning. The term, "compound passive participle," which Wells applies above to "being built," "being printed," and the like, is also both unusual and inaccurate. Most readers would sooner understand by it the form, having been built, having been printed, &c. This author's mode of naming participles is always either very awkward or not distinctive. His scheme makes it necessary to add here, for each of these forms, a third epithet, referring to his main distinction of "imperfect and perfect;" as, "the compound imperfect participle passive," and "the compound perfect participle passive." What is "being builded" or "being printed," but "an imperfect passive participle?" Was this, or something else, the desideratum of Beattie?

[274] Borne usually signifies carried; born signifies brought forth. J. K. Worcester, the lexicographer, speaks of these two participles thus: "[Fist] The participle born is used in the passive form, and borne in the active form, [with reference to birth]; as, 'He was born blind,' John ix.; 'The barren hath borne seven,' I Sam. ii. This distinction between born and borne, though not recognized by grammars, is in accordance with common usage, at least in this country. In many editions of the Bible it is recognized; and in many it is not. It seems to have been more commonly recognized in American, than in English, editions."—Worcester's Universal and Critical Dict., w. Bear. In five, out of seven good American editions of the Bible among my books, the latter text is, "The barren hath born seven;" in two, it is as above, "hath borne." In Johnson's Quarto Dictionary, the perfect participle of bear is given erroneously, "bore, or born;" and that of forbear, which should be forborne, is found, both in his columns and in his preface, "forborn."

[275] According to Murray, Lennie, Bullions, and some others, to use begun for began or run for ran, is improper; but Webster gives run as well as ran for the preterit, and begun may be used in like manner, on the authority of Dryden, Pope, and Parnell.

[276] "And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead, and hungry."—Isaiah, viii, 21.

[277] "Brake [for the preterit of Break] seems now obsolescent."—Dr. Crombie, Etymol. and Syntax, p. 193. Some recent grammarians, however, retain it; among whom are Bullions and M'Culloch. Wells retains it, but marks it as, "Obsolete;" as he does also the preterits bare, clave, drove, gat, slang, spake, span, spat, sware, tare, writ; and the participles hoven, loaden, rid from ride, spitten, stricken, and writ. In this he is not altogether consistent. Forms really obsolete belong not to any modern list of irregular verbs; and even such as are archaic and obsolescent, it is sometimes better to omit. If "loaden," for example, is now out of use, why should "load, unload, and overload," be placed, as they are by this author, among "irregular verbs;" while freight and distract, in spite of fraught and distraught, are reckoned regular? "Rid," for rode or ridden, though admitted by Worcester, appears to me a low vulgarism.

[278] Cleave, to split, is most commonly, if not always, irregular, as above; cleave, to stick, or adhere, is usually considered regular, but clave was formerly used in the preterit, and clove still may be: as, "The men of Judah clave unto their king."—Samuel. "The tongue of the public prosecutor clove to the roof of his mouth."—Boston Atlas, 1855.

[279] Respecting the preterit and the perfect participle of this verb, drink, our grammarians are greatly at variance. Dr. Johnson says, "preter. drank or drunk; part. pass, drunk or drunken." Dr. Webster: "pret. and pp. drank. Old pret. and pp. drunk; pp. drunken." Lowth: "pret. drank; part, drunk or drunken." So Stamford. Webber, and others. Murray has it: "Imperf. drank, Perf. Part, drunk." So Comly, Lennie, Bullions, Blair, Butler. Frost, Felton, Goldsbury, and many others. Churchill cites the text, "Serve me till I have eaten and drunken;" and observes, "Drunken is now used only as an adjective. The impropriety of using the preterimperfect [drank] for the participle of this verb is very common."—New Gram., p. 261. Sanborn gives both forms for the participle, preferring drank to drunk. Kirkham prefers drunk to drank; but contradicts himself in a note, by unconsciously making drunk an adjective: "The men were drunk; i. e. inebriated. The toasts were drank."—Gram., p. 140. Cardell, in his Grammar, gives, "drink, drank, drunk;" but in his story of Jack Halyard, on page 59, he wrote, "had drinked:" and this, according to Fowle's True English Grammar, is not incorrect. The preponderance of authority is yet in favour of saying, "had drunk;" but drank seems to be a word of greater delicacy, and perhaps it is sufficiently authorized. A hundred late writers may be quoted for it, and some that were popular in the days of Johnson. "In the choice of what is fit to be eaten and drank."—Beattie's Moral Science, Vol. 1, p. 51. "Which I had no sooner drank."—Addison, Tattler, No. 131.

   "Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drank,
    Broach'd with the steely point of Clifford's lance."—Shakspeare.

[280] "Holden is not in general use; and is chiefly employed by attorneys."—Crombie, on Etymology and Synt., p. 190. Wells marks this word as, "Obsolescent."—School Gram., p. 103. L. Murray rejected it; but Lowth gave it alone, as a participle, and held only as a preterit.

[281] "I have been found guilty of killing cats I never hurted."—Roderick Random, Vol. i, p. 8.

[282] "They keeped aloof as they passed her bye."—J. Hogg, Pilgrims of the Sun, p. 19.

[283] Lie, to be at rest, is irregular, as above; but lie, to utter falsehood, is regular, as follows: lie, lied, lying, lied.

   "Thus said, at least, my mountain guide,
    Though deep, perchance, the villain lied."
        —Scott's Lady of the Lake.

[284] Perhaps there is authority sufficient to place the verb rend among those which are redundant.

   "Where'er its cloudy veil was rended."
        —Whittier's Moll Pitcher.

    "Mortal, my message is for thee; thy chain to earth is rended;
    I bear thee to eternity; prepare! thy course is ended."
        —The Amulet.

    "Come as the winds come, when forests are rended."
        —Sir W. Scott.

    "The hunger pangs her sons which rended."
        —NEW QUARTERLY REVIEW: Examiner, No. 119.

[285] We find now and then an instance in which gainsay is made regular: as, "It can neither be rivalled nor gainsayed."—Chapman's Sermons to Presbyterians, p. 36. Perhaps it would be as well to follow Webster here, in writing rivaled with one l: and the analogy of the simple verb say, in forming this compound irregularly, gainsaid. Usage warrants the latter, however, better than the former.

[286] "Shoe, shoed or shod, shoeing, shoed or shod."—Old Gram., by W. Ward, p. 64; and Fowle's True English Gram., p. 46.

[287] "A. Murray has rejected sung as the Preterite, and L. Murray has rejected sang. Each Preterite, however, rests on good authority. The same observation may be made, respecting sank and sunk. Respecting the preterites which have a or u, as slang, or slung, sank, or sunk, it would be better were the former only to be used, as the Preterite and Participle would thus be discriminated."—Dr. Crombie, on Etymology and Syntax, p. 199. The preterits which this critic thus prefers, are rang, sang, stung, sprang, swang, sank, shrank, slank, stank, swam, and span for spun. In respect to them all, I think he makes an ill choice. According to his own showing, fling, string, and sting, always make the preterit and the participle alike; and this is the obvious tendency of the language, in all these words. I reject slang and span, as derivatives from sling and spin; because, in such a sense, they are obsolete, and the words have other uses. Lindley Murray, in his early editions, rejected sang, sank, slang, swang, shrank, slank, stank, and span; and, at the same time, preferred rang, sprang, and swam, to rung, sprung, and swum. In his later copies, he gave the preference to the u, in all these words; but restored sang and sank, which Crombie names above, still omitting the other six, which did not happen to be mentioned to him.

[288] Sate for the preterit of sit, and sitten for the perfect participle, are, in my opinion, obsolete, or no longer in good use. Yet several recent grammarians prefer sitten to sat; among whom are Crombie, Lennie, Bullions, and M'Culloch. Dr. Crombie says, "Sitten, though formerly in use, is now obsolescent. Laudable attempts, however, have been made to restore it."—On Etymol. and Syntax, p. 199. Lennie says, "Many authors, both here and in America, use sate as the Past time of sit; but this is improper, for it is apt to be confounded with sate to glut. Sitten and spitten are preferable [to sat and spit,] though obsolescent."—Principles of E. Gram., p. 45. Bullions says, "Sitten and spitten are nearly obsolete, though preferable to sat and spit."—Principles of E. Gram., p. 64. M'Culloch gives these verbs in the following form: "Sit, sat, sitten or sat. Spit, spit or spat, spit or spitten."—Manual of E. Gram., p. 65.

[289] "He will find the political hobby which he has bestrided no child's nag."—The Vanguard, a Newspaper.

"Through the pressed nostril, spectacle-bestrid."—Cowper.

"A lank haired hunter strided."—Whittier's Sabbath Scene.

[290] In the age of Pope, writ was frequently used both for the participle and for the preterit of this verb. It is now either obsolete or peculiar to the poets. In prose it seems vulgar: as, "He writ it, at least, published it, in 1670."—Barclay's Works, Vol. i, p. 77.

   "He, who, supreme in judgement, as in wit,
    Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ."—Pope, Ess. on Crit.

Dr. Crombie remarked, more than thirty years ago, that, "Wrote as the Participle [of Write,] is generally disused, and likewise writ."—Treatise on Etym. and Synt., p. 202.

[291] A word is not necessarily ungrammatical by reason of having a rival form that is more common. The regular words, beseeched, blowed, bursted, digged, freezed, bereaved, hanged, meaned, sawed, showed, stringed, weeped, I admit for good English, though we find them all condemned by some critics.

[292] "And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leapt on them."—FRIENDS' BIBLE: Acts, xix, 16. In Scott's Bible, and several others, the word is "leaped." Walker says, "The past time of this verb is generally heard with the diphthong short; and if so, it ought to be spelled leapt, rhyming with kept."—Walker's Pron. Dict., w. Leap. Worcester, who improperly pronounces leaped in two ways, "l~ept or l=ept," misquotes Walker, as saying, "it ought to be spelled lept."—Universal and Critical Dict., w. Leap. In the solemn style, leaped is, of course, two syllables. As for leapedst or leaptest, I know not that either can be found.

[293] Acquit is almost always formed regularly, thus: acquit, acquitted, acquitting, acquitted. But, like quit, it is sometimes found in an irregular form also; which, if it be allowable, will make it redundant: as, "To be acquit from my continual smart."—SPENCER: Johnson's Dict. "The writer holds himself acquit of all charges in this regard."—Judd, on the Revolutionary War, p. 5. "I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box."—SHAK.

[294]

   "Not know my voice! O, time's extremity!
    Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue?"
        —SHAK.: Com. of Er.

[295] Whet is made redundant in Webster's American Dictionary, as well as in Wells's Grammar; but I can hardly affirm that the irregular form of it is well authorized.

[296] In S. W. Clark's Practical Grammar, first published in 1847—a work of high pretensions, and prepared expressly "for the education of Teachers"—sixty-three out of the foregoing ninety-five Redundant Verbs, are treated as having no regular or no irregular forms. (1.) The following twenty-nine are omitted by this author, as if they were always regular; belay, bet, betide, blend, bless, curse, dive, dress, geld, lean, leap, learn, mulet, pass, pen, plead, prove, rap, reave, roast, seethe, smell, spoil, stave, stay, wake, wed, whet, wont. (2.) The following thirty-four are given by him as being always irregular; abide, bend, beseech, blow, burst, catch, chide, creep, deal, freeze, grind, hang, knit, lade, lay, mean, pay, shake, sleep, slide, speed, spell, spill, split, string, strive, sweat, sweep, thrive, throw, weave, weep, wet, wind. Thirty-two of the ninety-five are made redundant by him, though not so called in his book.

In Wells's School Grammar, "the 113th Thousand," dated 1850, the deficiencies of the foregoing kinds, if I am right,