Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/811

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chap. 1.]
prosody.—punctuation.—errors.—other marks.
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same case; §61, as, Alexander is a student."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 75. "When the objective is a relative or interrogative, it comes before the verb that governs it. §40, R. 9. (Murray's 6th rule is unnecessary.)"—Id., ib., p. 90. "It is generally improper (except in poetry,) to omit the antecedent to a relative; and always to omit a relative when of the nominative case."—Id., ib., p. 130. "In every sentence there must be a verb and a nominative (or subject) expressed or understood."—Id., ib., p. 87; Pract. Lessons, p. 91. "Nouns and pronouns, and especially words denoting time, are often governed by prepositions understood; or are used to restrict verbs or adjectives without a governing word, §50. Rem. 6 and Rule; as, He gave (to) me a full account of the whole affair."—Bullions, E. Gram., p. 80. "When should is used instead of ought, to express present duty, §20, 4, it may be followed by the present; as, 'You should study that you may become learned.'"—Id., ib., p. 123. "The indicative present is frequently used after the words, when, till, before, as soon as, after, to express the relative time of a future action; (§24, I, 4,) as, 'When he comes, he will be welcome.'"—Id., ib., p. 124. "The relative is parsed by stating its gender, number, case, and antecedent, (the gender and number being always the same as those of the antecedent) thus, 'The boy who.' ‘Who’ is a relative pronoun, masculine, singular, the nominative, and refers to ‘boy’ as its antecedent."—Bullions, Pract. Les., p. 31.

   "Now, now, I seize, I clasp thy charms,
    And now you burst; ah! cruel from my arms."

Here is an unnecessary change from the second person singular to the second plural. It would have been better thus,

   "Now, now I seize, I clasp your charms,
    And now you burst; ah! cruel from my arms."
        —J. Burn's Gram., p. 193.

Section IX.—The Other Marks.

There are also several other marks, which are occasionally used for various purposes, as follow:

  1. [’] The Apostrophe usually denotes either the possessive case of a noun, or the elision of one or more letters of a word: as, “The girl’s regard to her parents’ advice;”—’gan, lov’d, e’en, thro’; for began, loved, even, through. It is sometimes used in pluralizing a mere letter or sign; as, Two a’s—three 6’s.[1]
  2. [-] The Hyphen connects the parts of many compound words, especially such as have two accents; as, ever-living. It is also frequently inserted where a word is divided into syllables; as, con-tem-plate. Placed at the end of a line, it shows that one or more syllables of a word are carried forward to the next line.
  3. [¨] The Diæresis, or Dialysis, placed over either of two contiguous vowels, shows that they are not a diphthong; as, Danäe, aërial.
  4. [´] The Acute Accent marks the syllable which requires the principal stress in pronunciation; as, e'qual, equal'ity. It is sometimes used in opposition to the grave accent, to distinguish a close or short vowel; as, "Fáncy:" (Murray:) or to denote the rising inflection of the voice; as, "Is it ?"
  5. [`] The Grave Accent is used in opposition to the acute, to distinguish an open or long vowel; as, "Fàvour:" (Murray:) or to denote the falling inflection of the voice; as, "Yès; it is " It is sometimes placed over a vowel to show that it is not to be suppressed in pronunciation; as,

    "Let me, though in humble speech,
    Thy refinèd maxims teach."—Amer. Review, May, 1848.

  6. [^] The Circumflex generally denotes either the broad sound of a or an unusual sound given to some other vowel; as in âll, hêir, machîne. Some use it to mark a peculiar wave of the voice, and when occasion requires, reverse it; as, "If you said , then I said ."
  7. ˘ The Breve, or Stenotone, is used to denote either the close, short, shut sound of a vowel, or a syllable of short quantity; as, lĭve, to have life,—răv'en, to devour,[2]călămŭs, a reed.
  1. [467] In the works of some of our older poets, the apostrophe is sometimes irregularly inserted, and perhaps needlessly, to mark a prosodial synsæresis, or synalepha, where no letter is cut off or left out; as,

       "Retire, or taste thy folly', and learn by proof,
        Hell-born, not to contend with spir'its of Heaven."
            —Milton, P. L., ii, 686.

    In the following example, it seems to denote nothing more than the open or long sound of the preceding vowel e:

       "That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour,
        Even till a lethe'd dulness."
            —Singer's Shakspeare, Vol. ii, p. 280.

  2. [468] The breve is properly a mark of short quantity, only when it is set over an unaccented syllable or an unemphatic monosyllable, as it often is in the scanning of verses. In the examples above, it marks the close or short power of the vowels; but, under the accent, even this power may become part of a long syllable; as it does in the word rav´en, where the syllable rav, having twice the length of that which follows, must be reckoned long. In poetry, rāv-en and rā-ven are both trochees, the former syllable in each being long, and the latter short.