J

“ The noun that speaks [,] is the first person; as, I, James, was present. The noun that is spoken to, is the second person; as, James, were you present? The noun that is spoken of is the third person; as, James was present."—Adams's System of English Gram., p. 9. What can be a greater blunder, than to call the first person of a verb, of a pronoun, or even of a noun, "the noun that speaks?" What can be more absurd than are the following assertions? "Nouns are in the first person when speaking. ”

“ Verbs, therefore, are attributives, of the same nature as adjectives, only with additional connotative powers; and they cut smaller classes out of larger, in the manner of adjectives. Thus “John walks,” is an expression, the same in import as the Predication “John is a walking man;” and, walking men, standing men, running men, lying men, are all sub-species of the Species Man. ”

“ I, then, use the word man, instead of the word John, with many advantages; because every thing which I can affirm of the word man, is true not only of John, but of James, and Peter, and every other individual of the class. ”

“ The definite article the is an, for all numbers and genders. When the noun that follows is feminine and singular, or masculine and plural, its initial, if mutable, is in the second state. If it is masculine and singular, or feminine and plural, the initial is in the first state. [73]
When the article an is preceded by a preposition or conjunction, and sometimes by other words, ending in a vowel, the article loses its vowel and is written ’n. Thus:—
Dên, man, masc. sing.; an dên, the man. dhô’n dên, to the man. ”

“ The verb to be, as it is called, is conjugated by the aid of six different words, in its various modes and tenses; am, is, are, was, were, be. Am is unchanged, always in the in [182] dicative mood, present tense, agreeing with the first person singular. Is is also unchanged, in the same mood and tense, agreeing with the third person singular. Art, in the singular, is the same as are in the plural. Was and wast, are the same as were and wert in meaning, being derived from the same etymon. Be, being, and been, are changes of the same word. ”

“ Go your way and
tell John the things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their
sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and
the dead are raised up and the poor have good tidings preached to them. ”

“ If we know the present tense form, the past, and the perfect participle of any verb, we can tell to which conjugation it belongs, and can give all its inflections of person, number, tense, and mode, therefore the present tense form, the past and the perfect participle, are called the principal parts of the verb. When we give all the inflections of a verb, or indicate them by the principal parts, we conjugate it. ”

“ Mr. J—— said very little more; he took the keys of the house out of his bureau, gave them to me,—and, thanking him cordially for his frankness, and his urbane concession to my wish, I carried off my prize.
Impatient for the experiment, as soon as I reached home, I summoned my confidential servant,—a young man of gay spirits, fearless temper, and as free from superstitious prejudice as anyone I could think of. ”

“ In the sentence—János szereti Marít, John loves Mary—the words might be placed in any order without altering the meaning of the sentence.
The emphasis rests chiefly on the first word; and accordingly as we want to impress upon the hearer the person who loves, or the person (object) that is loved, or the fact that the person we speak of is in love, the respective word would be put in the first place. ”

“ Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp; 28. And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Thou hast now done foolishly in so doing. 29. It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad. 30. ”

“ And you know, too, that the noun John is the actor, therefore John is in the nominative case to the verb writes. In the expressions, The man walks—The boy plays—Thunders roll—- Warriors fight—you perceive that the words walks, plays, roll, and fight, are active verbs; and you cannot be at a loss to know, that the nouns man, boy, thunders, and warriors, are in the nominative case. ”

“ “You have your handwork and your art and—John—remember there’s no jealousy in the grave.” ”

“ The man, with shining eyes looking him full in the face, took his hand and said, "Jacob, thou art little but thou shalt become great—a man very different from the common cast, so that thou shalt be a wonder to the world. ”

“ Instead of the wasted and debauched beings, of whom we had read, we found stout Johns and lean Johns, lively Johns and somnolent Johns, busy and idle—but all looking as if they regarded life as a huge joke. ”

“ CHAPTER VI VERBS § 72. The MHG. verb has the following independent forms:—one voice (active) , two numbers, three persons, two tenses (present and preterite) , two complete moods (indicative and subjunctive, the latter originally the optative) , besides an imperative which is only used in the present tense; two verbal nouns (the present infinitive, and the gerund, generally called the inflected infinitive) , a present participle with active meaning, and one verbal adjective (the past participle) . ”

“ Note, There are interpreters, which those that are in prison and sorrow, should wish to have with them, to instruct them in the meaning and design of Providence; (Elihu alludes to such, when he says, If there be an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness, Job. 33. 23, 24.) interpreters to guide their consciences, not to satisfy their curiosity. Joseph, hereupon, directed them which way to look, Do not interpretations belong to God! He means the God whom he worshipped, to the knowledge of whom he endeavours hereby to lead them. ”

“ Almost every being or thing, indeed, has in English two words to express it, an ordinary and an odd one; and so greatly has the number of expressions of the kind last mentioned increased of late, that, as it appears to us, a new edition of Johnson’s Dictionary, enriched with modern additions, is imperatively called for. When we talk of odd words, we have no fear that our meaning will be misunderstood. ”

“ So much, at least, I saw Lady John as seeing, and my vision may be taken as representing the dash I have confessed myself as making from my end of our field. It offers us, to be exact, as jostling each other just sensibly—though I only might feel the bruise—in our business of picking up straws. ”

“ I stand here, you set there, and the third person is in Philadelphia. I utter these words, "Let him love." What is my meaning? Why, our books tell us, that the verb to love is third person. Then I command him to let himself love! What jargon and falsehood! You all know that we can address the second person only. You would call me insane if I should employ language according to the rules of grammar as laid down in the standard books. In my room alone, no person near me, I cry out, "let me be quiet"—imperative mood, first person of to be! Do I command myself to let myself be quiet? ”

“ IV.—THE PROCESS BY PLACEMENT.
The place or position of a word may affect its significant use. Thus in English we say John struck James. By the position of those words to each other we know that John is the actor, and that James receives the action. ”

“ Why, they would say, for example, 'Get out of the way, John, quick.' Whereas, it would be better to say, 'John, you are in the way, where we want to come along.' Some men give their directions with great noise and vociferation, and others give them quietly and gently. ”

“ Let us look through our cards to see whether we can find words which stand for the qualities of objects. Supposing we select some from the drawer of the adjective and some from the drawer of the noun. Now let us place beside each noun a card which makes sense with it: here, for instance, I have Charles, red, quadruped, transparent. Does that mean anything? Well then find me some adjectives which will go well with Charles. Adjectives are words which stand for qualities of a given object. They must go well with their noun. ”

“ I take the accusatives δρᾶμα and τετραλογίαν as subjects to the infinitive ἀγωνίζεσθαι. Compare Arist. Poetics, ch. 7, εἰ γὰρ ἔδει ἑκατὸν τραγῳδίας ἀγωνίζεσθαι, πρὸς κλέψυδραν ἂν ἠγωνίζοντο: "for if it had been necessary that a hundred tragedies should compete, they would have competed under a limit of time for each." The alternative is to take δρᾶμα and τετραλογίαν λογίαν as cognate accusatives, and to suppose that the subject to the infinitive is the poet; "he began the practice of (the poet) competing with play against play," etc. ”

“ It is the imperative mood, third person of the verb to have. Does he command the third person, the boy who has not the pencil? Such is the resolution of the sentence, according to the authority of standard grammars. But where is there a child five years old who does not know better. Every body knows that he addresses the second person, the boy who has the pencil, to let the other have it.
Teachers have learned their scholars the first and third persons of this mood when committing the conjugation of verbs ”

“ When a noun of multitude or collective noun is the antecedent, the pronoun, like the verb, must be plural or singular according to the sense intended to be conveyed.
Ambiguity
Never leave the antecedent of your pronoun in doubt.
“John tried to see his father in the crowd, but could not, because he was so short.” If the father was short, repeat the noun and omit the pronoun, as “John tried to see his father in the crowd but could not because his father was so short.” If John was short, recast the sentence: “John, being short of stature, tried in vain to see his father in the crowd.” ”

“ Johnson, and say to his girls, "Be brisk, be splendid, and be public." ”

“ III. Never say jou; and avoid UE except in correspondence. You are warned against any approach to familiarity in the use of pronouns. The courteous form is UEdele. Gij more respectful than jij. Je is a term of endearment.”
[17]
A WARNING NOTE.
“But,” objected the First Year’s Man, “it doesn’t seem to hang together, for you said just now—”
“No debating allowed,” growled the Philosopher.
“Hurry up, O’Neill, with those general principles.”
“Oh, that’s all of them,” said Jack, “all at present.” ”

“ We resume the consideration of nouns this evening, in relation to person, number, gender, and position or case.
In the use of language there is a speaker, person spoken to, and things spoken of. Those who speak are the first persons, those who hear the second, and those who are the subject of conversation the third.
The first and second persons are generally used in reference to human beings capable of speech and understanding. But we sometimes condesend to hold converse with animals and inanimate matter. ”

“ John possesses is real rather than verbal. The interpreter must look not only at the words themselves, but at that which precedes and follows; above all he must fix his attention not only upon the verbal expression of the thought, but upon the thought itself. ”

“ I utter a pleading moan when you, e.g., transport your characters, toward the end, in a line or two from Leyden to Dunkirk without the glint of a hint of all the ambient picture of the 18th century road. However, stick to your own system of evocation so long as what you positively achieve is so big. Life and letters and art all take joy in you. ”

“ As, however, in many cases initial i had the consonantal value of the English y in iugum (yoke) , &c., the symbol came to be used for the value of y, a value which it still retains in German: Ja! jung, &c. Initially it is pronounced in English as an affricate dzh. The great majority of English words beginning with j are (1) of foreign (mostly French) origin, as “jaundice,” “judge”; (2) imitative of sound, like “jar” (the verb) ”

“ To complete my contrivance, I invent a mark, which, placed between my marks, 161 John and man, fixes the idea I mean to convey, that man, is another mark to that idea of which John is a mark, while it is a mark of the other ideas, of which James, Thomas, &c., are marks. ”

“ Almost any topic will serve to arouse the argumentative zeal of the average reader, who rushes to the fray with that joyous alacrity which is so exhilarating to the peaceful looker-on. The disputed pronunciation or spelling of a word, if ventilated with spirit in a literary journal, will call forth dozens of letters, all written in the most serious and urgent manner, and all apparently emanating from people of rigorous views and limitless leisure. ”

“ To Mary Jefferson.
New York, April 11th, 1790.
Where are you, my dear Maria? how are you occupied? Write me a letter by the first post, and answer me all these questions. Tell me whether you see the sun rise every day? how many pages you read every day in Don Quixote? how far you are advanced in him? whether you repeat a grammar lesson every day; what else you read? how many hours a day you sew? whether you have an opportunity of continuing your music? whether you know how to make a pudding yet, to cut out a beefsteak, to sow spinach? ”

“ Howbeit, though no scholar, I am not one of those who misuse the English speech, and, being foolishly led by the hasty custom of scriveners and printers to write the letters "T" and "H" joined together, which resembleth a "Y," do incontinently jump to the conclusion the THE is pronounced "Ye,"—the like of which I never heard in all England. ”

“ Examples: "Jane is in the nominative case, because it leads the sentence."--Infant School Gram., p. 30. Here it represents the word "Jane" and not the person Jane. "What mark or sign is put after master to show that he is in the possessive case? Spell it"--Ib., p. 32. Here the word "master" is most absurdly confounded with the man; and that to accommodate grammar to a child's comprehension! ”