Samuel Johnson

“ English verbs are active, as I love; or neuter, as I languish. The neuters are formed like the actives.
Most verbs signifying action may likewise signify condition or habit, and become neuters; as I love, I am in love; I strike, I am now striking.
Verbs have only two tenses inflected in their terminations, the present, and simple preterit; the other tenses are compounded of the auxiliary verbs, have, shall, will, let, may, can, and the infinitive of the active or neuter verb.
The passive voice is formed by joining the participle preterit to the substantive verb, as I am loved. ”

“ But as the laws of metre are included in the idea of grammar, I have thought proper to insert them.
PROSODY comprises orthoepy, or the rules of pronunciation; and orthometry, or the laws of versification.
Pronunciation is just, when every letter has its proper sound, and every syllable has its proper accent, or, which in English versification is the same, its proper quantity.
The sounds of the letters have been already explained; and rules for the accent or quantity are not easily to be given, being subject to innumerable exceptions. ”

“ Of these reformers some have endeavoured to accommodate orthography better to the pronunciation, without considering that this is to measure by a shadow, to take that for a model or standard which is changing while they apply it. Others, less absurdly indeed, but with equal unlikelihood of success, have endeavoured to proportion the number of letters to that of sounds, that every sound may have its own character, and every character a single sound. ”

“ A single s seldom ends any word, except in the third person of verbs, as loves, grows; and the plurals of nouns, as trees, bushes, distresses; the pronouns this, his, ours, yours, us; the adverb thus; and words derived from Latin, as rebus, surplus; the close being always either in se, as house, horse, or in ss, as grass, dress, bliss, less, anciently grasse, dresse.
S, single at the end of words, has a grosser sound, like that of z, as trees, eyes, except this, thus, us, rebus, surplus.
It sounds like z before ion, if a vowel goes before it, as intrusion ”

“ The English language has properly no dialects; the style of writers has no professed diversity in the use of words, or of their flexions and terminations, nor differs but by different degrees of skill or care. ”

“ Grammar, which is the art of using words properly, comprises four parts: Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody. ”

“ All adjectives may be compared by more and most, even when they have comparatives and superlatives regularly formed; as, fair, fairer, or more fair; fairest, or most fair.
In adjectives that admit a regular comparison, the comparative more is oftener used than the superlative most, as more fair is oftener written for fairer, than most fair for fairest.
The comparison of adjectives is very uncertain; and being much regulated by commodiousness of utterance, or agreeableness of sound, is not easily reduced to rules. ”

“ These books are ours. Your children excel ours in stature, but ours surpass yours in learning.
Ours, yours, hers, theirs, notwithstanding their seeming plural termination, are applied equally to singular and plural substantives, as, This book is ours. These books are ours.
Mine and thine were formerly used before a vowel, as mine amiable lady: which though now disused in prose, might be still properly continued in poetry: they are used as ours and yours, when they are referred to a substantive preceding, as thy house is larger than mine, but my garden is more spacious than thine. ”

“ The verb, as in other languages, agrees with the nominative in number and person; as, Thou fliest from good; He runs to death.
Our adjectives and pronouns are invariable.
Of two substantives the noun possessive is in the genitive; as, His father's glory; The sun's heat.
Verbs transitive require an oblique case; as, He loves me; You fear him.
All prepositions require an oblique case: as, He gave this to me; He took this from me; He says this of me; He came with me.
PROSODY.
It is common for those that deliver the grammar of modern languages, to omit the Prosody. ”

“ The English verbs were divided by Ben Jonson into four conjugations, without any reason arising from the nature of the language, which has properly but one conjugation, such as has been exemplified: from which all deviations are to be considered as anomalies, which are indeed, in our monosyllable Saxon verbs, and the verbs derived from them, very frequent; but almost all the verbs which have been adopted from other languages, follow the regular form. ”

“ Ch is sounded like k in words derived from the Greek, as chymist, scheme, choler. Arch is commonly sounded ark before a vowel, as archangel, and with the English sound of ch before a consonant, as archbishop.
Ch, in some French words not yet assimilated, sounds like sh, as machine, chaise.
C, according to English orthography, never ends a word; therefore we write stick, block, which were originally, sticke, blocke. In such words c is now mute.
It is used before l and r, as clock, cross.
D.
Is uniform in its sound, as death, diligent. ”

“ An account, therefore, of the primitive and simple letters, is useless, almost alike to those who know their sound, and those who know it not.
OF VOWELS A.
A has three sounds, the slender, open, and broad.
A slender is found in most words, as face, mane, and in words ending in ation, as creation, salvation, generation.
The a slender is the proper English a, called very justly by Erpenius, in his Arabick Grammar, a Anglicum cum e mistum, as having a middle sound between the open a and the e. The French have a similar sound in the word pais, and in their e masculine. ”

“ There are many words among us, even monosyllables, compounded of two or more words, at least serving instead of compounds, and comprising the signification of more words that one; as, from scrip and roll comes scroll; from proud and dance, prance; from st of the verb stay or stand and out, is made stout; from stout and hardy, sturdy; from sp of spit or spew, and out, comes spout; from the same sp with the termination in, is spin; and adding out, spin out: and from the same sp, with it, is spit, which only differs from spout in that it is smaller, and with less noise and force ”

“ In words which the necessities of life are often requiring, the sex is distinguished not by different terminations but by different names, as a bull, a cow; a horse, a mare; equus, equa; a cock, a hen; and sometimes by pronouns prefixed, as a he-goat, a, she-goat.
Of ADJECTIVES.
Adjectives in the English language are wholly indeclinable; having neither case, gender, nor number, and being added to substantives in all relations without any change; as, a good woman, good women, of a good woman; a good man, good men, of good men. ”

“ Nor power nor wealth can avail us,
But skilful industry steers right. Ballad.
To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse.
Our versification admits of few licences, except a synalœpha, or elision of e in the before a vowel, as th' eternal; and more rarely of o in to, as t' accept; and a synaresis, by which two short vowels coalesce into one syllable, as question, special; or a word is contracted by the expulsion of a short vowel before a liquid, as av'rice, temp'rance. ”

“ Some verbs which seem borrowed from the Latin, are formed from the present tense, and some from the supines.
From the present are formed spend, expend, expendo; conduce, conduco; despise, despicio; approve, approbo; conceive, concipio.
From the supines, supplicate, supplico; demonstrate, demonstro; dispose, dispono; expatiate, expatior; suppress, supprimo; exempt, eximo.
Nothing is more apparent than that Wallis goes too far in quest of originals. Many of these which seem selected as immediate descendants from the Latin, are apparently French, as, conceive, approve, expose, exempt. ”

“ Draw, know, grow, throw, blow, crow like a cock, fly, slay, see, ly, make their preterit drew, knew, grew, threw, blew, crew, flew, slew, saw, lay; their participles passive by n, drawn, known, grown, thrown, blown, flown, slain, seen, lien, lain. Yet from flee is made fled; from go, went, (from the old wend) the participle is gone.
Of DERIVATION.
That the English language may be more easily understood, it is necessary to inquire how its derivative words are deduced from their primitives, and how the primitives are borrowed from other languages. ”

“ Substantives, adjectives, and sometimes other parts of speech, are changed into verbs: in which case the vowel is often lengthened, or the consonant softened; as, a house, to house; brass, to braze; glass, to glaze; grass, to graze; price, to prize; breath, to breathe; a fish, to fish; oil, to oil; further, to further; forward, to forward; hinder, to hinder.
Sometimes the termination en is added, especially to adjectives; as, haste, to hasten; length, to lengthen; strength, to strengthen; short, to shorten; fast, to fasten; white, to whiten; black, to blacken; hard, to harden; soft, to soften. ”

“ On the contrary, the termination less added to substantives, makes adjectives signifying want; as, worthless, witless, heartless, joyless, careless, helpless. Thus comfort, comfortless; sap, sapless.
Privation or contrariety is very often denoted by the participle un prefixed to many adjectives, or in before words derived from the Latin; as pleasant, unpleasant; wise, unwise; profitable, unprofitable, patient, impatient. Thus unworthy, unhealthy, unfruitful, unuseful, and many more. ”

“ They are referred both to singular and plural antecedents.
There are two more words used only in conjunction with pronouns, own and self.
Own is added to possessives, both singular and plural, as my own hand, our own house. It is emphatical, and implies a silent contrariety, or opposition; as, I live in my own house, that is, not in a hired house. This I did with my own hand, that is, without help or not by proxy.
Self is added to possessives, as myself, yourselves; and sometimes to personal pronouns, as himself, itself, themselves. ”

“ Win, spin, begin, swim, strike, stick, sing, sting, fling, ring, wring, spring, swing, drink, sink, shrink, stink, come, run, find, bind, grind, wind, both in the preterit imperfect and participle passive, give won, spun, begun, swum, struck, stuck, sung, stung, flung, rung, wrung, sprung, swung, drunk, sunk, shrunk, stunk, come, run, found, bound, ground, wound. ”

“ Words ending in ous have the accents on the antepenult, as uxórious, volúptuous.
20. Words ending in ty have their accent on the antepenult, as pusillanímity, actívity.
These rules are not advanced as complete or infallible, but proposed as useful. Almost every rule of every language has its exceptions; and in English, as in other tongues, much must be learned by example and authority. Perhaps more and better rules may be given that have escaped my observation.
VERSIFICATION is the arrangement of a certain number of syllables according to certain laws. ”

“ The sound is soft in these words, then, thence, and there, with their derivatives and compounds, and in that, these, thou, thee, thy, thine, their, they, this, those, them, though, thus; and in all words between two vowels, as, father, whether; and between r and a vowel, as burthen.
In other words it is hard, as thick, thunder, faith, faithful. Where it is softened at the end of a word, an e silent must be added, as breath, breathe ”

“ Words derived from Latin written with de or dis retain the same signification; as distinguish, distinguo; detract, detraho; defame, defamo; detain, detineo.
The termination ly added to substantives, and sometimes to adjectives, forms adjectives that import some kind of similitude or agreement, being formed by contraction of lick or like. A giant, giantly, giantlike; earth, earthly; heaven, heavenly; world, worldly; God, godly; good, goodly.
The same termination ly, added to adjectives, forms adverbs of like signification; as, beautiful, beautifully ”

“ Himself, itself, themselves, are supposed by Wallis to be put by corruption, for his self, it self, their selves; so that self is always a substantive. This seems justly observed, for we say, He came himself; Himself shall do this; where himself cannot be an accusative. ”

“ Wallis, and sometimes endeavour to supply his detects, and rectify his errours.
Nouns are derived from verbs.
The thing implied in the verb, as done or produced, is commonly either the present of the verb; as to love, love; to fright, a fright; to fight, a fight; or the preterit of the verb, as to strike, I strick or strook, a stroke.
The action is the same with the participle present, as loving, frighting, fighting, striking. ”

“ There are other abstracts, partly derived from adjectives, and partly from [30] verbs, which are formed by the addition of the termination th, a small change being sometimes made; as long, length; strong, strength; broad, breadth; wide, width, deep, depth; true, truth; warm, warmth; dear, dearth; slow, slowth; merry, mirth; heal, health; well, weal, wealth; dry, drought; young, youth; and so moon, month.
Like these are some words derived from verbs; die, death; till, tilth; grow, growth; mow, later mowth, after mowth; commonly spoken and written later math, after math ”