Part 24 (1/2)

OBS 2--Our common words, then, are the symbols neither of external particulars, nor merely of the sensible ideas which external particulars excite in our eneral or universal ideas which belong rather to the intellect than to the senses For intellection differs fro of a uage, being framed for the reciprocal commerce of human minds, whose perceptions include both, is eneral and particular, yet without placing theeneral ideas--that is, our ideas conceived as co in any part of ti to the words _th, resist_--such ideas, I say, constitute that s to words primarily, essentially, and immediately; whereas, our particular ideas, such as are conceived only of individual objects, which arc infinite in nunificance which belongs to language only secondarily, accidentally, and mediately If we express the latter at all, we do it either by proper naenerally known, or by eable liuage, as Harris observes, ”without wandering into infinitude, contrives how to denote things infinite”--_Hermes_, p 345 The particular manner in which this is done, I shall show hereafter, in Etyy, when I come to treat of articles and definitives

OBS 3--If we examine the structure of proper names, we shall find that most of them are compounds, the parts of which have, in very nification Now a complete phrase commonly conveys some particular notion or conception of the eneral terms is restricted by the other words which are added to theoldsoldsoldsmith_, than _one Goldsmith_; _one Goldsmith_, than _Mr Goldsmith_; _Mr Goldsmith_, than _Oliver Golds particular persons or objects, is that of giving them _proper names_; but proper names must needs be so written, that they may be known as proper names, and not be mistaken for common terms I have before observed, that we have some names which are both proper and common; and that these should be written with capitals, and should for that _the Friends_, who are in soe, should so generally have overlooked the necessity there is, of _co_ their nu them uniformly with capitals, as proper na but the form, whenever they are used without the article, and without those other tereneral idea particular And the compound form with a capital, is as necessary for _Firstday, Secondday, Thirdday_, &c, as for _Sunday, Monday, Tuesday_, &c

”The first day of the week,”--”The seventh day of the month,”--”The second ood English phrases, in which any co of the terms, or any additional use of capitals, would be i and too artificial Wethe months of the year and the days of the week What then?

Shall we merely throay the ter in their place the forhts, and insist on it that this is right? And is not this precisely what is done by those who reject as heathenish the ordinary names of the months and days, and write ”_first day_,” for _Sunday_, in stead of ”the first day of the week;” or ”_second month_,” for _February_, in stead of ”the second y may perhaps be well understood by those to whoe, because it is inconsistent with the common acceptation of the terms Example: ”The departure of a shi+p will take place _every sixth day_ with punctuality”--_Philadelphia Weekly Messenger_ The writer of this did not mean, ”_every Friday_;” and it is absurd for the Friends so to understand it, or so to write, when that is what they enerally desirable to express our y is always full to the letter, and often redundant Hence a merchant rite, ”Nov

24, 1837,” or, ”11 mo 24th, 1837;” but a conveyancer will have it, ”On the twenty-fourth day of Noveht hundred and thirty-seven;”--or, perhaps, ”On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh ht hundred and thirty-seven” Accordingly we find that, in common daily use, all the names of the months, except _March, May, June_, and _July_, are abbreviated; thus, _Jan, Feb, Apr, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec_ And sometimes even the Arabic number of the year is made yet shorter; as '37 for 1837; or 1835-6-7, for 1835, 1836, and 1837 In liketables of time, we sometimes denote the days of the week by the simple initials of their names; as, S for Sunday, M for Monday, &c But, for facility of abbreviation, the numerical names, whether of the months or of the days, are perhaps still more convenient For, if we please, we h it is better to add _d_ for _day_, and _mo_ for _month_: as, 1 d, 2 d, 3 d, &c;--1 mo, 2 mo, 3 mo, &c:--or more compactly thus: 1d, 2d, 3d, &c;--1 ill, our ordinary expression of these things should be in neither extrereat prolixity; and, therefore, it is best to eneral rule in our literary compositions, to use the full form of proper names for the ures written in full

OBS 5--In considering the nature of words, I was once a little puzzled with a curious speculation, if Ithe _principle of their identity_ We often speak of ”_the same words_,” and of ”_different words_;” but wherein does the sameness or the difference of words consist? Not in their pronunciation; for the same word may be differently pronounced; as, _p=at'ron_ or _p=a'tron, raphy; for the same word may be differently spelled; as, _favour_ or _favor, music_ or _musick, connexion_ or _connection_ Not in their form of presentation; for the same wordpresent e call _the sa; for the sas, and different wordsThis sa which is to be reconciled with great diversity Yet every word is itself, and not an other: and every word must necessarily have some property peculiar to itself, by which it uished froible But it _is_ so; and, therefore, to ht to betray great ignorance or great negligence, though such mistakes are by no means of uncommon occurrence But that the question about the identity of words is not a very easy one, ree about it in practice; as when one grammarian will have _an_ and _a_ to be tords, and an other will affirm them to be only different forms of one and the same word

OBS 6--Let us see, then, if amidst all this diversity we can find that principle of saht to be settled

Now, although different words do generally differ in orthography, in pronunciation, and in raphy, one pronunciation, and one ; yet some diversity is allowed in each of these respects, so that a sign differing from an other only in one, is not therefore a different word, or a sign agreeing with an other only in one, is not therefore the same word It follows thence, that the principle of verbal identity, the principle which distinguishes every word from every other, lies in neither extreme: it lies in a narrower coly in any one, but jointly in any two So that signs differing in any two of these characteristics of a word, are different words; and signs agreeing in any two, are the sa or of sound we add a difference of signification everybody will immediately say, that we speak or write different words, and not the same: thus _dear_, beloved, and _deer_, an animal, are two such words as no one would think to be the sae, and _use_, to employ, will readily be called different words Upon this principle, _an_ and _a_ are different words; yet, in confore, and because the latter is in fact but an abridgement of the former, I have always treated theh I have nowhere expressly called them the same word

But, to establish the principle above named, which appears to me the only one on which any such question can be resolved, or the identity of words be fixed at all, we ht pronunciation, and only one; one just orthography, and only one; and soh perhaps not always the same, is always a part of its essence For when tords of differentare spelled or pronounced alike, not to ainst the double orthography or the double pronunciation of either, is to confound their identity at once, and to prove by the rule that two different words are one and the sa thee more unsettled and variable than in that which relates to the _figure of words_ It is a point of which modern writers have taken but very little notice Lily, and other ancient Latin grarammatical accidents of nearly all the different parts of speech; and accordingly noticed thes worthy to be thus enders, cases,words in Latin, and also in Greek, is always by consolidation

No use appears to have been es, though the na ”_under one_” The co their nulected in English, is sufficient of itself to reat uncertainty Such ter theree than others, have little need of definition; and when new things are forive them new names of this sort: as, _steamboat, railroad_ The propriety or ie, is not to be detere before any lexicographer will insert them And so numerous, after all, are the discrepancies found in our best dictionaries, that row obsolete, before a nation can learn fro it; and o entirely out of use, before a man can thus determine how to name it _Railroads_ are of so recent invention that I find the word in only one dictionary; and that one is wrong, in giving the word a hyphen, while half our printers are wrong, in keeping the words separate because _Johnson_ did not compound theht to write _railroad_, or _rail-road_, or _rail road_, which we cannot learn froht to write _rocklo_, or _roquelo_, or _roquelaur_, or _roquelaure_, which, in some form or other, is found in theotten, and his cloak is out of fashi+on

OBS 8--No regular phrase, as I have taught in the second rule above, should be needlessly converted into a coether with the hyphen, or by uniting the, and a word is an other: and they ought to be kept as distinct as possible[113] But, when a whole phrase takes the relation of an _adjective_, the words must be compounded, and the hyphen becomes necessary; as, ”An inexpressibly apt _bottle-of-small-beer_ co of words, are in general sufficiently plain, to any one who knohat is intended to be said; but, as we compound words, sometimes with the hyphen, and so when to use this mark, and when to omit it ”Some settled rule for the use of the hyphen on these occasions, is e predilection for it; using it on almost every possible occasion Mr L

Murray, who has only three lines on the subject, seems inclined to countenance this practice; which is, no doubt, convenient enough for those who do not like trouble His words are: 'A Hyphen,co, tea-pot, pre-existence, self-love, to-morrow, mother-in-law' Of his six exaives the first and third without any separation between the syllables, _lapdog, preexistence_; his second and fifth as two distinct words each, _tea pot, to morrow_; and his sixth as three words, _mother in law_: so that only his fourth has the sanction of the lexicographer There certainly can be noa hyphen after the common prefixes, than before the common affixes, _ness, ly_, and the rest”--_Churchill's Graain: ”While it would be absurd, to sacrifice the established practice of all good authors to the ignorance of such readers [as could possibly uous vowels in such words as _preexistence, cooperate_, and _reenter_]; it would unquestionably be advantageous, to have souide us in that labyrinth of words, in which the hyphen appears to have been adh we find in Johnson, _aliver_, with the hyphen; we have _almsdeed, almshouse, almsman_, without: and ht be adduced, sufficient to fill several pages In this perplexity, is not the pronunciation of the words the best guide? In the English language, every word of more than one syllable is marked by an accent on so words indeed admit a secondary accent on _another_ syllable; but still this isaccent proly, when a compound has but one accented syllable in pronunciation, as _night'cap, bed'stead, broad'sword_, the tords have coalesced completely into one, and no hyphen should be admitted On the other hand, when each of the radical words has an accent, as _Chris'tian-name', broad'-shoul'dered_, I think the hyphen should be used _Good'-na'tured_ is a compound epithet with two accents, and therefore requires the hyphen: in _good nature, good will_, and siood_ is used simply as an adjective, and of course should remain distinct from the noun Thus, too, when a noun is used adjectively, it should re_, a _silver buckle_ When two numerals are employed to express a number, without a conjunction between them, it is usual to connect thehty-four_: but when the conjunction is inserted, the hyphen is as improper as it would be between other words connected by the conjunction This, however, is a common abuse; and we often meet with _five-&-twenty, six-&-thirty_, and the like”--_Ib_, p

376 Thus far Churchill: who appears to me, however, too hasty about the hyphen in compound numerals For rite _one hundred, two hundred, three thousand_, &c, without either hyphen or conjunction; and as _five-and-twenty_ is equivalent to _twenty-five_, and virtually but one word, the hyphen, if not absolutely necessary to the sense, is certainly not so very ies ”_Christian name_” is as often written without the hyphen as with it, and perhaps as accurately

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION

ERRORS IN THE FIGURE, OR FORM, OF WORDS

UNDER RULE I--OF COMPOUNDS

”Professing to imitate Timon, the man hater”--_Goldsmith's Rome_, p 161

[FORMULE--Not proper, because the co to Rule 1st, ”Words regularly or analogically united, and co a compound, should never be needlessly broken apart” Therefore, _manhater_ should be written as one word]

”Men load hay with a pitch fork”--_Webster's New Spelling-Book_, p 40 ”A pear tree grows froood to brush your teeth”--_Ib_, p 85 ”The mail is opened at the post office”--_Ib_, p 151 ”The error seee -Book_, p 82 ”It is a ures on a e is a farht to steal apples or water melons, than money”--_Ib_, p 118 ”The awl is a tool used by shoemakers, and harness makers”--_Ib_, p 150 ”Twenty five cents are equal to one quarter of a dollar”--_Ib_, p 107 ”The blowing up of the Fulton at New York was a terrible disaster”--_Ib_, p 54 ”The elders also, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu”--SCOTT: 2 _Kings_, x, 5 ”Not with eye service, as ood natured and equitable construction of cases”--_Ash's Gram_, p 138 ”And purify your hearts, ye double minded”--_Gurney's Portable Evidences_, p

115 ”It is a mean spirited action to steal; i e to steal is a mean spirited action”--_Grammar of Alex Murray, the schoolraphy which is a kin to the subjunctive ue”--_Booth's Introd to Dict_, p 71

”To bring him into nearer connexion with real and everyday life”--_Philological Museum_, Vol i, p 459 ”The common place, stale declamation of its revilers would be silenced”--_Ib_, i, 494 ”She forular and unheard of project”--_Goldsh feeble talented, and mean spirited enemies”--ROBERTS VAUX: _The Friend_, Vol vii, p 74 ”These old fashi+oned people would level our psalmody,” &c--_Music of Nature_, p 292

”This slow shi+fting scenery in the theatre of harmony”--_Ib_, p 398 ”So we are assured from Scripture it self”--_Harris's Her disheartened, then betakes its self to trifling”--_R

Johnson's Pref to Gram Com_ ”Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them”--_Beacon_, p 115: SCOTT, ALGER, FRIENDS: _John_, xx, 23 ”Tarry we our selves hoill”--_Walker's English Particles_, p

161 ”Manage your credit so, that you need neither swear your self, nor want a voucher”--_Collier's Antoninus_, p 33 ”Whereas song never conveys any of the above nao on horse back”--_Guy's Gram_, p 54 ”This requires _purity_, in opposition to barbarous, obsolete, or new coined words”--_Adah share shi+ne”--_White's Eng Verb_, p 161

”Which way ever we consider it”--_Locke, on Ed_, p 83

”Where e'er the silent (e) a Place obtains, The Voice foregoing, Length and softness gains”

--_Brightland's Gr_, p 15