Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/475

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any other participle, is itself governed only by a preposition. At least, this is its usual and allowed construction, and no other is acknowledged to be indisputably right.

OBS. 19.--The simple Relations of words in English, (or those several uses of the parts of speech which we may refer to this head,) are the following nine: (1.) Of Articles to nouns, by Rule 1st; (2.) Of Nominatives to verbs, by Rule 2d; (3.) Of Nominatives absolute or independent, by Rule 8th; (4.) Of Adjectives to nouns or pronouns, by Rule 9th; (5.) Of Participles to nouns or pronouns, by Rule 20th; (6.) Of Adverbs to verbs, participles, &c., by Rule 21st; (7.) Of Conjunctions as connecting words, phrases, or sentences, by Rule 22nd; (8.) Of Prepositions as showing the relations of things, by Rule 23d; (9.) Of Interjections as being used independently, by Rule 24th.

OBS. 20.--The syntactical Agreements in English, though actually much fewer than those which occur in Latin, Greek, or French, may easily be so reckoned as to amount to double, or even triple, the number usually spoken of by the old grammarians. The twenty-four rules above, embrace the following ten heads, which may not improperly be taken for so many distinct concords: (1.) Of a Noun or Pronoun in direct apposition with another, by Rule 3d; (2.) Of a Noun or Pronoun after a verb or participle not transitive, by Rule 6th; (3.) Of a Pronoun with its antecedent, by Rule 10th; (4.) Of a Pronoun with a collective noun, by Rule 11th; (5.) Of a Pronoun with joint antecedents, by Rule 12th; (6.) Of a Pronoun with disjunct antecedents, by Rule 13th; (7.) Of a Verb with its nominative, by Rule 14th; (8.) Of a Verb with a collective noun, by Rule 15th; (9.) Of a Verb with joint nominatives, by Rule 16th; (10.) Of a Verb with disjunct nominatives, by Rule 17th. To these may be added two other special concords, less common and less important, which will be explained in notes under the rules: (11.) Of one Verb with an other, in mood, tense, and form, when two are connected so as to agree with the same nominative; (12.) Of Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, with their nouns, in number.

OBS. 21.--Again, by a different mode of reckoning them, the concords or the general principles of agreement, in our language, may be made to be only three or four; and some of these much less general, than they are in other languages: (1.) Words in apposition agree in case, according to Rule 3d; of which principle, Rule 6th may be considered a modification. (2.) Pronouns agree, with their nouns, in person, number, and gender, according to Rule 10th; of which principle, Rules 11th, 12th, and 13th, may be reckoned modifications. (3.) Verbs agree with their nominatives, in person and number, according to Rule 14th; of which principle Rules 15th, 16th, and 17th, and the occasional agreement of one verb with an other, may be esteemed mere modifications. (4.) Some adjectives agree with their nouns in number. These make up the twelve concords above enumerated.

OBS. 22.--The rules of Government in the best Latin grammars are about sixty; and these are usually distributed (though not very properly) under three heads; "1. Of Nouns. 2. Of Verbs. 3. Of Words indeclinable."-- Grant's Lat. Gram., p. 170. "Regimen est triplex: 1. Nominum. 2. Verborum. 3. Vocum indeclinabilium."--Ruddiman's Gram., p. 138. This division of the subject brings all the titles of the rules wrong. For example, if the rule be, "Active verbs govern the accusative case," this is not properly "the government of verbs" but rather the government of the accusative by verbs. At least, such titles are equivocal, and likely to mislead the learner. The governments in English are only seven, and these are expressed, perhaps with sufficient distinctness, in six of the foregoing rules: (1.) Of Possessives by nouns, in Rule 4th; (2.) Of Objectives by verbs, in Rule 5th; (3.) Of Objectives by participles, in Rule 5th; (4.) Of Objectives by prepositions, in Rule 7th; (5.) Of Infinitives by the preposition to, in Rule 18th; (6.) Of Infinitives by the verbs bid, dare, &c., in Rule 19th; (7.) Of Participles by prepositions, in Rule 20th.

OBS. 23.--The Arrangement of words, (which will be sufficiently treated of in the observations hereafter to be made on the several rules of construction,) is an important part of syntax, in which not only the beauty but the propriety of language is intimately concerned, and to which particular attention should therefore be paid in composition. But it is to be remembered, that the mere collocation of words in a sentence never affects the method of parsing them: on the contrary, the same words, however placed, are always to be parsed in precisely the same way, so long as they express precisely the same meaning. In order to show that we have parsed any part of an inverted or difficult sentence rightly, we are at liberty to declare the meaning by any arrangement which will make the construction more obvious, provided we retain both the sense and all the words unaltered; but to drop or alter any word, is to pervert the text under pretence of resolving it, and to make a mockery of parsing. Grammar rightly learned, enables one to understand both the sense and the construction of whatsoever is rightly written; and he who reads what he does not understand, reads to little purpose. With great indignity to the muses, several pretenders to grammar have foolishly taught, that, "In parsing poetry, in order to come at the meaning of the author, the learner will find it necessary to transpose his language."--Kirkham's Gram., p. 166. See also the books of Merchant, Wilcox, O. B. Peirce, Hull, Smith, Felton, and others, to the same effect. To what purpose can he transpose the words of a sentence, who does not first see what they mean, and how to explain or parse them as they stand?

OBS. 24.--Errors innumerable have been introduced into the common modes of parsing, through a false notion of what constitutes a simple sentence. Lowth, Adam, Murray, Gould, Smith, Ingersoll, Comly, Lennie, Hiley, Bullions, Wells, and many others, say, "A simple sentence has in it but one subject, and one finite verb: as, 'Life is short.'"--L. Murray's Gram., p. 141. In accordance with this assertion, some assume, that, "Every nominative has its own verb expressed or understood;" and that, "Every verb (except in the infinitive mood and participle) has