Anonymous

“ To enter at once upon the Science of Grammar, and the Study of a foreign Language, is to encounter two difficulties together, each of which would be much lessened by being taken separately and in its proper order. ”

“ Persons hath the Plural Number; We, Ye, They.
The Persons speaking and spoken to are supposed to be present, from which and other circumstances their Sex is commonly known, and needs not to be marked by a distinction of Gender in their Pronouns: but the Person spoken of being absent and in many respects unknown, it is necessary that it should be marked by a distinction of Gender; at least when some particular Person is spoken of, who ought to be more distinctly marked: accordingly the Pronoun Singular of the Third Person hath the Three Genders, He, She, It. ”

“ For these plain reasons a competent Grammatical knowledge of our own Language is the true foundation upon which all Literature, properly so called, ought to be raised. If this method were [xiii] adopted in our Schools; if children were first taught the common principles of Grammar by some short and clear System of English Grammar, which happily by its simplicity and facility is perhaps of all others the fittest for such a purpose, they would have some notion of what they were going about, when they should enter into the Latin Grammar ”

“ Ourself, the Plural Pronominal Adjective with the Singular Substantive, is peculiar to the Regal Style.
Own is an Adjective; or perhaps the Participle (owen) of the obsolete verb owe; to possess; to be the right owner of a thing.
All Nouns whatever in Grammatical Construction are of the Third Person: except when an address is made to a Person; then the Noun, answering to the Vocative Case in Latin, is of the Second Person.
ADJECTIVE.
An Adjective is a word joined to a Substantive to express its Quality [15] . ”

“ Thus far is right: the Lord in the third Person is the Antecedent, and the Verb agrees with the Relative in the third Person: “I am the Lord, which Lord, or He that, maketh all things.” It would have been equally right, if I had been made the Antecedent, and the Relative and the Verb had agreed with it in the First Person: “I am the Lord, that make all things.” But when it follows, “that spreadeth abroad the heavens by myself;” there arises a confusion of Persons, and a manifest Solecism. ”

“ The last English Grammar that hath been presented to the public, and by the Person best qualified to have given us a perfect one, comprises the whole Syntax in ten lines. The reason, which he assigns for being so very concise in this part, is, “because our Language has so little inflection, that its Construction neither requires nor admits many rules.” In truth, the easier any subject is in its own nature, the harder is it to make it more easy by explanation ”

“ A Phrase is two or more words rightly put together in order to make a part of a Sentence; and sometimes making a whole Sentence.
The most common Phrases used in simple Sentences are as follows:
1st Phrase: The Substantive before a Verb Active, Passive, or Neuter; when it is said what thing is, does, or is done: as, “I am;” “Thou writest;” “Thomas is loved:” where I, Thou, Thomas, [97] are the Nominative [42] Cases; and answer to the question who, or what? as, “Who is loved? Thomas.” And the Verb agrees with the Nominative Case in number and person [43] ”

“ The Words of the English Language are subject to fewer variations from their original Form, than those perhaps of any other Language whatsoever. Its Substantives have but one variation of Case: nor have they any beside the natural distinction of Gender. Its Adjectives admit of no change at all, except that which expresses the degrees of Comparison. All the possible variations of the original form of the Verb are not above six or seven ”

“ A member of a Sentence, whether Simple or Compounded, which of itself would make a compleat Sentence, and so requires a greater pause than a Semicolon, yet is followed by an additional part making a more full and perfect Sense, may be distinguished by a Colon.
EXAMPLE.
“Were all books reduced to their quintessence, many a bulky author would make his appearance in a penny paper: there would be scarce any such thing in nature as a folio: the works of an age would be contained on a few shelves: not to mention millions of volumes, that would be utterly annihilated.” ”

“ In English the Adjective is not varied on account of Gender, Number, or Case. The only variation it admits of is that of the Degrees of Comparison.
Qualities admit of more and less, or of different degrees: and the words that express Qualities have accordingly proper forms to express different degrees. When a Quality is simply expressed, without any relation to the same in a different degree, it is called the Positive ”

“ The learner is supposed to be unacquainted with all but his own native [xii] tongue; and in what other, consistently with reason and common sense, would you go about to explain it to him? When he has a competent knowledge of the main principles, the common terms, the general rules, the whole subject and business of Grammar, exemplified in his own Language; he then will apply himself with great advantage to any foreign language, whether ancient or modern. ”

“ A Grammatical Study of our own Language makes no part of the ordinary method of instruction which we pass thro’ in our childhood; and it is very seldom that we apply ourselves to it afterward. And yet the want of it will not be effectually supplied by any other advantages whatsoever. Much practice in the polite world, and a general acquaintance with the best authors, are good helps, but alone will hardly be sufficient: we have writers, who have enjoyed these advantages in their full extent, and yet cannot be recommended as models of an accurate style. ”

“ Things are frequently considered with relation to the distinction of Sex or Gender; as being Male, or Female, or Neither the one, nor the other. Hence Substantives are of the Masculine, or Feminine, or Neuter, that is, Neither, Gender: which latter is only the exclusion of all consideration of Gender.
The English Language, with singular propriety, following nature alone, applies the distinction of Masculine and Feminine only to the names of Animals ”

“ That these Participial Words are sometimes real Nouns is undeniable; for they have a Plural Number as such: as, “the outgoings of the morning.” The Sending is the same with the Mission; which necessarily requires the Preposition of after it, to mark the relation between it and the light; the mission of the light; and so, the sending of the light. The Phrase would be proper either way, by keeping to the Construction of the Noun, by the sending of the light; or of the Participle, or Gerund, by sending the light. ”

“ The nature of our language, the Accent and Pronunciation of it, inclines us to contract even all our Regular Verbs: thus loved, turned, are commonly pronounced in one syllable, lov’d, turn’d; and the second Person which was originally in three syllables, lovedest, turnedest, is become a dissyllable, lovedst, turnedst: for as we generally throw the accent as far back as possible towards the first part of the word, (in [65] some even to the fourth syllable from the end,) the stress being laid on the first syllables, the rest are pronounced in a lower tone, more rapidly and indistinctly ”

“ When a circumstance is added to a Verb or an Adjective by a Substantive with a Preposition before it: as, “I write for you;” “he reads with care;” “studious of praise;” “ready for mischief.”
12th Phrase: When the same Quality in different Subjects is compared; the Adjective in the Positive [102] having after it the Conjunction as, in the Comparative the Conjunction than, and in the Superlative the Preposition of: as, “white as snow;” “wiser than I;” “greatest of all.”
The Principal parts of a Simple Sentence are the Agent, the Attribute, and the Object. The Agent is the thing chiefly spoken of ”

“ In the Pronoun are to be considered the Person, Number, Gender and Case.
There are Three Persons which may be the Subject of any discourse: first, the Person who speaks may speak of himself; secondly, he may speak of the Person to whom he addresses himself; thirdly, he may speak of some other Person. ”

“ The words power, creator, uses, purposes, with the article the before them, (for his Creator is the same as the Creator of him) are used in the most confined signification for the things here mentioned and ascertained: the power is not any one indeterminate power out of many sorts, but that particular sort of power here specified, namely, the power of speech; the creator is the One great Creator of man and of all things ”

“ The Preposition is often separated from the Relative which it governs, and joined to the Verb at the end of the Sentence, or of some member of it: as, “Horace is an author, whom I am much delighted with.” “The [64] world is too well bred to shock authors with a truth, which generally their booksellers are the first that inform them of.” This is an Idiom which our language is strongly inclined to; it prevails in common conversation, and suits very well with the familiar style in [128] writing; but the placing of the Preposition before the Relative is more graceful, as well as more perspicuous ”

“ An Articulate Sound is the sound of the human voice, formed by the organs of speech.
A Vowel is a simple articulate sound, formed by the impulse of the voice, and by the opening only of the mouth in a particular manner.
A Consonant cannot be perfectly sounded by itself; but joined with [3] a vowel forms a compound articulate sound, by a particular motion or contact of the parts of the mouth.
A Diphthong, or Double Vowel, is the union of two or more vowels pronounced by a single impulse of the voice. ”

“ Here the sense is suspended, and the sentence is unintelligible, till you get to the end of it: there is no Antecedent, to which the Relative them can be referred, but bodies; but, “whilst the bodies remain between the bodies,” makes no sense at all. When you get to hands, the difficulty is cleared up, the sense helping out the Construction: yet there still remains an ambiguity in the Relatives they, them, which in number and gender are equally applicable to bodies or hands ”

“ The Secondary Modes are such, as, when the Copula is affected with any of them, make the Sentence to be (as the Logicians call it) a Modal Proposition.
This happens, when the matter in discourse, namely, the being, or doing, or suffering of a thing, is considered, not simply by itself, but gradually in its causes, from which it proceeds contingently, or necessarily.
Then a thing seems to be left Contingent, when the Speaker expresses only the Possibility of it, or his own Liberty to it.
1. The Possibility of a thing depends upon the power of its cause; and may be expressed
2. ”

“ It is with reason expected of every person [ix] of a liberal education, and much more is it indispensably required of every one who undertakes to inform or entertain the public, that he should be able to express himself with propriety and accuracy. It will evidently appear from these Notes, that our best Authors for want of some rudiments of this kind have sometimes fallen into mistakes, and been guilty of palpable errors in point of Grammar. ”

“ It sometimes happens also, that the word which arises from a regular change does not sound easily or agreeably; sometimes by the rapidity of our pronunciation the vowels are shortened or lost; and the consonants which are thrown together do not easily coalesce with one another, and are therefore changed into others of the same organ, or of a kindred species: this occasions a further deviation from the regular form: thus, loveth, turneth, are contracted into lov’th, turn’th, and these for easier pronunciation immediately become loves, turns. ”

“ Lastly it is to be observed, that these several Adjuncts are connected with the Verb each in a different manner; namely, with effects, as the object; with women, as the subject of them; with sense, as the quality or characteristic of those women. The Adjuncts therefore are only so many imperfect Phrases; the Sentence is a Simple Sentence, and admits of no Point, [164] by which it may be distinguished into parts.
“The Passion for praise, which is so very vehement in the fair sex, produces excellent effects in women of sense.” Here a new Verb is introduced, accompanied with Adjuncts of its own ”

“ Two or more Simple Sentences, joined together by one or more Connective Words, become a Compounded Sentence.
There are two sorts of words which connect Sentences: 1. Relatives; 2. Conjunctions.
Examples: 1. “Blessed is the man, who feareth the Lord.” 2. “Life is short, and art is long.” 1. and 2. “Blessed is the Man, who feareth the Lord, and keepeth his commandments.”
The Relatives who, which, that, having no variation of gender or number, cannot but agree with their Antecedents. Who is appropriated to persons; and so may be accounted Masculine and Feminine only: which is used of things only ”

“ As to these wonderful Civilities, one might say, that “they are an unanswerable argument, &c.” but as the Sentence stands at present it is not easy to reconcile it to any grammatical propriety. “A person whom all the world allows to be so much your betters.” Swift, Battle of Books. And the Phrase which occurs in the following examples, tho’ pretty common and authorised by Custom, yet seems to be somewhat defective in the same way:
“’Tis these that early taint the female soul.” ”

“ All disquisitions, which appeared to have more of subtilty than of usefulness in them, have been avoided. In a word, it was calculated for the use of the Learner even of the lowest class. Those, who would enter more deeply into this Subject, will find it fully and accurately handled, with the greatest acuteness of investigation, perspicuity of explication, and elegance of method, in a Treatise intitled Hermes, by James Harris Esq; the most beautiful and perfect [xv] example of Analysis that has been exhibited since the days of Aristotle. ”

“ When another Substantive is added to express and explain the former more fully; as, “Paul the Apostle;” “King George:” where they are both in the same case; and the latter is said to be put in Apposition to the former.
8th Phrase: When the quality [101] of the Substantive is expressed by adding an Adjective to it: as, “a wise man;” “a black horse.” Participles have the nature of Adjectives; as, “a learned man;” “a loving father.”
9th Phrase: An Adjective with a Verb in the Infinitive Mode following it: as, “worthy to die;” “fit to be trusted.” ”

“ The three first of these are varied to express Number; as, These, those, others; the last of which admits of the Plural form only when its Substantive is not joined to it, but referred to, or understood: none of them are varied to express the Gender or Case. One is sometimes used in an Indefinite sense (answering to the French on) as in the following phrases; “one is apt to think;” “one sees;” “one supposes.” Who, which, that, are called Relatives, because they more directly refer to some Substantive going before; which therefore is called the Antecedent. ”