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

"REM. 7.—Idiomatic expressions sometimes occur in which a noun in the objective is preceded by a passive verb, and followed by a preposition used adverbially. EXAMPLES: 'Vocal and instrumental music were made use of.'—Addison. 'The third, fourth, and fifth, were taken possession of at half past eight."—Southey. 'The Pinta was soon lost sight of in the darkness of the night.'—Irving."—Ib., p. 155, Sec. 215. As it is by the manner of their use, that we distinguish prepositions and adverbs, it seems no more proper to speak of "a preposition used adverbially," than of "an adverb used prepositionally." But even if the former phrase is right and the thing conceivable, here is no instance of it; for "of" here modifies no verb, adjective, or adverb. The construction is an unparsable synchysis, a vile snarl, which no grammarian should hesitate to condemn. These examples may each be corrected in several ways: 1. Say—"were used;"—"were taken into possession;"—"was soon lost from sight." 2. Say—"They made use of music, both vocal and instrumental."—"Of the third, the fourth, and the fifth, they took possession at half past eight."—"Of the Pinta they soon list sight," &c. 3. Say—"Use was also made of both vocal and instrumental music."—"Possession of the third, the fourth, and the fifth, was taken at half past eight."—"The Pinta soon disappeared in the darkness of the night." Here again, Wells puzzles his pupil, with a note which half justifies and half condemns the awkward usage in question. See School Gram., 1st Ed., p. 147; 3d Ed., 156; late Ed., Sec. 215.

"REM. 8.—There are some verbs which may be used either transitively or intransitively; as, 'He will return in a week,' 'He will return the book.'"—Ib., p. 147; 156; &c. According to Dr. Johnson, this is true of "most verbs," and Lindley Murray asserts it of "many." There are, I think, but few which may not, in some phraseology or other, be used both ways. Hence the rule, "Transitive verbs govern the objective case," or, as Wells now has it, "Transitive verbs, in the active voice, govern the objective case," (Sec. 215,) rests only upon a distinction which itself creates, between transitives and intransitives; and therefore it amounts to little.

[354] To these examples, Webster adds two others, of a different sort, with a comment, thus: "'Ask him his opinion?' 'You have asked me the news.' Will it be said that the latter phrases are elliptical, for 'ask of him his opinion?' I apprehend this to be a mistake. According to the true idea of the government of a transitive verb, him must be the object in the phrase under consideration, as much as in this, 'Ask him for a guinea;' or in this, 'ask him to go.'"—Ibid, ut supra; Frazee's Gram., p. 152; Fowler's, p. 480. If, for the reason here stated, it is a "mistake" to supply of in the foregoing instances, it does not follow that they are not elliptical. On the contrary, if they are analogous to, "Ask him for a guinea;" or, "Ask him to go;" it is manifest that the construction must be this: "Ask him [for] his opinion;" or, "Ask him [to tell] his opinion." So that the question resolves itself into this: What is the best way of supplying the ellipsis, when two objectives thus occur after ask?—G. BROWN.

[355] These examples Murray borrowed from Webster, who published them, with references, under his 34th Rule. With too little faith in the corrective power of grammar, the Doctor remarks upon the constructions as follows: "This idiom is outrageously anomalous, but perhaps incorrigible."— Webster's Philos. Gram., p. 180; Imp. G., 128.

[356] This seems to be a reasonable principle of syntax, and yet I find it contradicted, or a principle opposite to it set up, by some modern teachers of note, who venture to justify all those abnormal phrases which I here condemn as errors. Thus Fowler: "Note 5. When a Verb with its Accusative case, is equivalent to a single verb, it may take this accusative after it in the passive voice; as, 'This has been put an end to.'"—Fowler's English Language, 8vo, §552. Now what is this, but an effort to teach bad English by rule?—and by such a rule, too, as is vastly more general than even the great class of terms which it was designed to include? And yet this rule, broad as it is, does not apply at all to the example given! For "put an end," without the important word "to," is not equivalent to stop or terminate. Nor is the example right. One ought rather to say, "This has been ended;" or, "This has been stopped." See the marginal Note to Obs. 5th, above.

[357] Some, however, have conceived the putting of the same case after the verb as before it, to be government; as, "Neuter verbs occasionally govern either the nominative or [the] objective case, after them."—Alexander's Gram., p. 54. "The verb to be, always governs a Nominative, unless it be of the Infinitive Mood."—Buchanan's Gram., p. 94. This latter assertion is, in fact, monstrously untrue, and also solecistical.

[358] Not unfrequently the conjunction as intervenes between these "same cases," as it may also between words in apposition; as, "He then is as the head, and we as the members; he the vine, and we the branches."—Barclay's Works, Vol. ii, p. 189.

[359] "'Whose house is that?' This sentence, before it is parsed, should be transposed; thus, 'Whose is that house?' The same observation applies to every sentence of a similar construction."—Chandler's old Gram., p. 93. This instruction is worse than nonsense; for it teaches the pupil to parse every word in the sentence wrong! The author proceeds to explain Whose, as "qualifying house, understood;" is, as agreeing "with its nominative, house;" that, as "qualifying house;" and house, as "nominative case to the verb, is." Nothing of this is true of the original question. For, in that, Whose is governed by house; house is nominative after is; is agrees with house understood; and that relates to house understood. The meaning is, "Whose house is that house?" or, in the order of a declarative sentence, "That house is whose house?"

[360] 1: In Latin, the accusative case is used after such a verb, because an other word in the same case is understood before it; as, "Facere quæ libet, ID est [hominem] esse regem."—SALLUST. "To do what he pleases, THAT is [for a man] to be a king." If Professor Bullions had understood Latin, or Greek, or English, as well as his commenders imagine, he might have discovered what construction of cases we have in the following instances: "It is an honour [for a man] to be the author of such a work."—Bullions's Eng. Gram., p. 82. "To be surety for a stranger [,] is dangerous."—Ib. "Not to know what happened before you were born, is to be always a child."—Ib. "Nescire quid acciderit antequam natus es, est semper esse puerum."—Ib. "[Greek: Esti tion aischron …topon, hon hæmen pote kurioi phainesthai proiemenous]." "It is a shame to be seen giving up countries of which we were once masters."—DEMOSTHENES: ib. What support these examples give to this grammarian's new notion of "the objective indefinite" or to his still later seizure of Greene's doctrine of "the predicate-nominative" the learned reader may judge. All the Latin and Greek grammarians suppose an ellipsis, in such instances; but some moderns are careless enough of that, and of the analogy of General Grammar in this case, to have seconded the Doctor in his absurdity. See Farnum's Practical Gram., p. 23; and S. W. Clark's, p. 149.

2. Professor Hart has an indecisive remark on this construction, as follows: "Sometimes a verb in the infinitive mood has a noun after it without any other noun before it; as, 'To be a good man, is not so easy a thing as many people imagine.' Here 'man' may be parsed as used indefinitely after the verb to be. It is not easy to say in what case the noun is in such sentences. The analogy of the Latin would seem to indicate the objective.—Thus, 'Not to know what happened in past years, is to be always a child,' Latin, 'semper esse puerum.' In like manner, in English, we may say, 'Its being me, need make no change in your determination.'"—Hart's English Gram., p. 127.

3. These learned authors thus differ about what certainly admits of no other solution than that which is given in the Observation above. To parse the nouns in question, "as used indefinitely," without case, and to call them "objectives indefinite," without agreement or government, are two methods equally repugnant to reason. The last suggestion of Hart's is also a false argument for a true position. The phrases, "Its being me," and "To be a good man," are far from being constructed "in like manner." The former is manifestly bad English; because its and me are not in the same case. But S. S. Greene would say, "Its being I, is right." For in a similar instance, he has this conclusion: "Hence, in abridging the following proposition, 'I was not aware that it was he,' we should say 'of its being he,' not 'his' nor 'him.'"—Greene's Analysis, 1st Ed., p. 171. When being becomes a noun, no case after it appears to be very proper; but this author, thus "abridging" four syllables into five, produces an anomalous construction which it would be much better to avoid.

[361] Parkhurst and Sanborn, by what they call "A NEW RULE," attempt to determine the doubtful or unknown case which this note censures, and to justify the construction as being well-authorized and hardly avoidable. Their rule is this: "A noun following a neuter or [a] passive participial noun, is in the nominative independent. A noun or pronoun in the possessive case, always precedes the participial noun, either expressed or understood, signifying the same thing as the noun does that follows it." To this new and exceptionable' dogma, Sanborn adds: "This form of expression is one of the most common idioms of the language, and in general composition cannot be well avoided. In confirmation of the statement made, various authorities are subjoined. Two grammarians only, to our knowledge, have remarked OH this phraseology: 'Participles are sometimes preceded by a possessive case and followed by a nominative; as, There is no doubt of his being a great statesman.' B. GREENLEAF. 'We sometimes find a participle that takes the same case after as before it, converted into a verbal noun, and the latter word retained unchanged in connexion with it; as, I have some recollection of his father's being a judge.' GOOLD BROWN."—Sanborn's Analytical Gram., p. 189. On what principle the words statesman and judge can be affirmed to be in the nominative case, I see not; and certainly they are not nominatives "independent" because the word being, after which they stand, is not itself independent. It is true, the phraseology is common enough to be good English: but I dislike it; and if this citation from me, was meant for a confirmation of the reasonless dogmatism preceding, it is not made with fairness, because my opinion of the construction is omitted by the quoter. See Institutes of English Gram., p. 162. In an other late grammar,—a shameful work, because it is in great measure a tissue of petty larcenies from my Institutes, with alterations for the worse,—I find the following absurd "Note," or Rule: "An infinitive or participle is often followed by a substantive explanatory of an indefinite person or thing. The substantive is then in the objective case, and may be called the objective after the infinitive, or participle; [as,] It is an honor to be the author of such a work. His being a great man, did not make him a happy man. By being an obedient child, you will secure the approbation of your parents."—Farnum's Practical Gram., 1st Ed., p. 25. The first of these examples is elliptical; (see Obs. 12th above, and the Marginal Note;) the second is bad English,—or, at' any rate, directly repugnant to the rule for same cases; and the third parsed wrong by the rule: "child" is in the nominative case. See Obs. 7th above.

[362] When the preceding case is not "the verb's nominative" this phrase must of course be omitted; and when the word which is to be corrected, does not literally follow the verb, it may be proper to say, "constructively follows," in lieu of the phrase, "comes after."

[363] The author of this example supposes friend to be in the nominative case,