Subject (grammar)

“ THIRD METHOD OF ANALYSIS.
Sentences may be partially analyzed by a resolution into their SUBJECTS and their PREDICATES, a method which some late grammarians have borrowed from the logicians; the grammatical subject with its adjuncts, being taken for the logical subject; and the finite verb, which some call the grammatical predicate [330] being, with its subsequent case and the adjuncts of both, denominated the predicate, or the logical predicate. Thus:--
EXAMPLE ANALYZED.
"Such is the emptiness of human enjoyment, that we are always impatient of the present. ”

“ The first sentence is the clearest and best place for it. The topic sentence need not be a formal statement of the subject to be discussed, but may be any sentence that shows what is to be the central idea of the paragraph.
With the topic determined, there are various ways of developing it. It may be developed by repetition; by adding details and specific instances to the general statement; by presenting proof; by illustration; or by showing cause or effect.
148. Examine the following paragraphs. Each possesses the quality of unity. The topic sentence in each case is italicized. ”

“ I shall resume this subject in Lecture XI. QUESTIONS ON THE PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES.
What has usually been the object of philosophical investigations of language? (page 32.) —Do the syntactical dependances and connexions of words depend on their original import?—Is the power of association and custom efficient in changing the radical meaning of some words?—Have words intrinsically a signification of their own; or is their meaning inferential; i.e. such as custom has assigned to them? ”

“ Thus, in grammar, we often speak of nominatives, possessives, or objectives, meaning nouns or pronouns of the nominative, the possessive, or the objective case; of positives, comparatives, or superlatives, meaning adjectives of the positive, the comparative, or the superlative degree; of infinitives, subjunctives, or imperatives, meaning verbs of the infinitive, the subjunctive, or the imperative mood; and of singulars, plurals, and many other such things, in the same way. So a man's superiors or inferiors are persons superior or inferior to himself. His betters are persons better than he. ”

“ Here the art of logic, aiming solely at conviction, addresses the understanding with cool deductions of unvarnished truth; rhetoric, designing to move, in some particular direction, both the judgement and the sympathies of men, applies itself to the affections in order to persuade; and poetry, various in its character and tendency, solicits the imagination, with a view to delight, and in general also to instruct. But grammar, though intimately connected with all these, and essential to them in practice, is still too distinct from each to be identified with any of them. ”

“ Through lack of such discernment, gross faults are very often committed. For neither to all ranks, fortunes, and ages, nor to every time, place, and auditory, can the same style either of language or of sentiment be adapted. In every part of a discourse, as in every part of life, we must consider what is suitable and decent; and this must be determined with reference both to the matter in question, and to the personal character of those who speak and those who hear."—CICERO, Orator ad Brutum. ”

“ Having pointed out the importance of correct grammar and the right choice of language, I wish now to furnish you with some practical suggestions for the construction of sentences. Remember that a good thought often suffers from a weak and faulty expression of it.
Your sentences will certainly shape themselves after the structure of your own mind. If your thoughts are vivid and definite, so will be your language; if dreamy and hazy, so will your composition be obscure. Your speech, whether oral or written, can be but the expression of yourself; and what you are, that speech will be. ”

“ But, according to Critical Note 9th, "Words that are entirely needless, and especially such as injure or encumber the expression, ought in general to be omitted." The sentence would be better without this word, thus: "A knowledge of grammar enables us to express ourselves better in conversation and in writing." ”

“ How many grammars tell us, that, "The first person is the person who speaks;" that, "The second person is the person spoken to;" and that, "the third person is the person spoken of!" As if the three persons of a verb, or other part of speech, were so many intelligent beings! ”

“ In this mood the verb must have an agent and object, expressed or implied; as, "farmers cultivate the soil." But a whole sentence, that is, an idea written out, may perform this duty; as, "The study of grammar, on false principles, is productive of no good." What is productive of no good? What is the agent of is? "The study," our books and teachers tell us. But does such a construction give the true meaning of the sentence? ”

“ Wherefore just as a knowledge of the words is needed in order to know what things are signified, so a knowledge of the things is needed in order to determine their mystical signification of other things which have been or ought to be done. The [Pg 67] knowledge of words falls under two heads: expression, and the substance of their meaning. Grammar relates only to expression, dialectic only to meaning, while rhetoric relates to both. A knowledge of things requires a knowledge of their form and of their nature. Form consists in external configuration, nature in internal quality. ”

“ INDICATIVE MOOD. The indicative mood is that form of the verb, which simply indicates or declares a thing, or asks a question. It is used in all the tenses.
PRESENT TENSE. The present indicative, in its simple form, is essentially the same as the present infinitive, or radical verb; except that the verb be has am in the indicative.
1. The simple form of the present tense is varied thus:—
Singular. Plural. 1st person, I love, 1st person. We love, 2d person, Thou lovest, 2d person, You love, 3d person, He loves; 3d person, They love. ”

“ And thus we see, that as our simple ideas are the materials and foundation of knowledge, so the names of simple ideas may be considered as the elementary parts of language, beyond which we cannot trace the meaning and signification of words. ”

“ There are points of a philosophical character, which result alike from the analysis of any language, and are founded on the very nature of human thought, and that of the sounds or other signs which are used to express it. ”

“ The relation of words is their reference to other words, or their dependence according to the sense.
The agreement of words is their similarity in person, number, gender, case, mood, tense, or form.
The government of words is that power which one word has over an other, to cause it to assume some particular modification.
The arrangement of words is their collocation, or relative position, in a sentence.
CHAPTER I.—SENTENCES. A Sentence is an assemblage of words, making complete sense, and always containing a nominative and a verb; as, "Reward sweetens labour." ”

“ In the case of grammar and logic, the sign and the thing signified are always heterogenous and strangers to each other: with genius, on the contrary, the expression gushes forth spontaneously from the idea, the language and the thought are one and the same ”

“ If we throw aside the veil which art has drawn over the real structure of speech, we shall find, that almost every verb has either a personal or a verbal object, expressed or implied. Verbal objects, which are the effects or productions resulting from the actions, being necessarily implied, are seldom expressed. ”

“ In short, it leaves no ground at all for any grammatical science of a positive character, because it resolves all forms of language into the irresponsible will of those who utter any words, sounds, or noises. ”

“ The object of a verb or preposition is in the objective case (p. 47) .
8. A substantive that completes the meaning of a transitive verb is called its direct object, and is said to be in the objective case (p. 48) .
9. A verb of asking sometimes takes two direct objects, one denoting the person and the other the thing (p. 50) .
10. Verbs of choosing, calling, naming, making, and thinking may take two objects referring to the same person or thing.
The first of these is the direct object, and the second, which completes the sense of the predicate, is called a predicate objective (pp. 50, 111) . ”

“ How then, can any word, in truth, or in thought, be known to qualify the action, as distinct from the object or agent? And if it does not in fact, how can we explain words to children, or to our own minds, so as to understand what is not true?
Hence all words of this character are adjectives, describing one thing by its relation or likeness to another, and as such, admit of comparison; as, a likely man, a very likely [242] man, a likelier, and the likeliest man. "He is the most likely pedlar I ever knew." "He is more liable to be deceived." "A lively little fellow." "He is worthless." ”

“ If you study this lecture attentively, you will perceive, that when I say, I write, the verb is in the indicative mood; but when I say, if I write, or, unless I write, &c. the verb is in the subjunctive mood; write thou, or write ye or you, the imperative; I may write, I must write, I could write, &c. the potential; and to write, the infinitive. Any other verb (except the defective) may be employed in the same manner.
II. OF THE TENSES.
TENSE means time. ”

“ We shall contend, as before expressed, that all verbs are of one kind, that they express action, for the simple yet sublime reason, that every thing acts, at all times, and under every possible condition; according to the true definition of action as understood and employed by all writers on grammar, and natural and moral science. Here we are at issue. Both, contending for principles so opposite, can not be correct. One or the other, however pure the motives, must be attached to a system wrong in theory, and of course pernicious in practice. ”

“ If students take up logic with the idea, carried over from their study of grammar and their use of dictionaries, that words get their character as nouns, or verbs, or what not, from their origin or form, they should be made to understand early that it is quite an erroneous idea. ”

“ Grammar is the art of ordering language to express or to receive thought. (2) Logic is the art of ordering what is to be expressed in language or of judging what has been expressed, and here there is a limitation; for logic is restricted to the communication of thought in the narrower, or more intellectual, sense; and it must be completed by poetics as the art of ordering feelings and imaginations to be expressed, or of judging such expressions. (3) Rhetoric is the art of ordering both language and thought in order to reach another mind or person effectively ”

“ And in making such choice, let him remember, that as affectation of hard words makes composition ridiculous, so the affectation of easy and common ones may make it unmanly. But not to digress. With respect to grammar, we must sometimes content ourselves with such explications of its customary terms, as cannot claim to be perfect definitions; for the most common and familiar things are not always those which it is the most easy to define. ”

“ Nothing is more destructive of propriety and energy than this habit. The tones and inflections of the voice at the close of a sentence, ought to be diversified, according to the general nature of the discourse, and the particular construction and meaning of the sentence."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. ”

“ The disposition of the human mind to generalize the objects of thought, and to follow broad analogies in the use of words, discovers itself early, and seems to be an inherent principle of our nature. Hence, in the language of children and illiterate people, many words are regularly inflected even in opposition to the most common usage. ”

“ It has been adopted to show you how, in the definition or description of things, the mind clings to one thing to gain some information concerning another. When we find a thing unlike any thing else we have ever known, in form, in size, in color, in every thing ”

“ Present what you will, grammar directs the mind immediately to a consideration of the sense; and, if properly taught, always creates a discriminating taste which is not less offended by specious absurdities, than by the common blunders of clownishness. ”

“ By matter, we mean, that which is tangible, extended, and divisible; by mind, that which perceives, reflects, wills, and reasons. These properties are wholly dissimilar and admit of no comparison. To pretend that mind is matter, is to propose a contradiction in terms ”

“ Who climbs the grammar-tree, distinctly knows
Where noun, and verb, and participle grows; ”

“ This interesting class of words does not deviate from the correct principles which we have hitherto observed in these lectures. It depends on established laws, exerted in the regulation of matter and thought; and whoever would learn its sublime use must be a close observer of things, and the mode of their existence. The important character it sustains in the production of ideas of the changes and tendencies of things and in the transmission of thought, will be found simple, and obvious to all.
[113] Things exist; Nouns name them.
Things differ; Adjectives define or describe them. ”

“ Thus it is, that from principles so few and simple as about six or seven and thirty plain elementary sounds, represented by characters still fewer, we derive such a variety of oral and written signs, as may suffice to explain or record all the sentiments and transactions of all men in all ages. ”