Part 44 (2/2)
328 ”Such poems as Camoen's Lusiad, Voltaire's Henriade, &c”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 422 ”My learned correspondent writes a word in defence of large scarves”--SPECT: in _Joh Dict_ ”The forerunners of an apoplexy are dulness, vertigos, trees the _o_ into _~in=es_, ~in=es_”--_Churchill's Graes the _o_ into _=on=es_,the plural _noctambul=on=es_”--_Ib_, p 59 ”What shall we say of noctambulos?”--ARBUTHNOT: _in Joh Dict_ ”In the curious fretwork of rocks and grottos”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 220 ”_Wharf_ makes the plural _wharves_”--_Smith's Gram_, p 45; _Merchant's_, 29; _Picket's_, 21; _Frost's_, 8 ”A few cent's worth of _, p 275 ”C sounds hard, like _k_, at the end of a word or syllables”--_Blair's Granitude of every lie”--_Hudibras_ ”Quartos, octavos, shape the lessening pyre”--_Pope's Dunciad_, B i, l 162 ”Perching within square royal rooves”--SIDNEY: _in Joh Dict_ ”Similies should, even in poetry, be used with moderation”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 166 ”Similies should never be taken from low or mean objects”--_Ib_, p 167 ”It were certainly better to say, 'The house of lords,' than 'the Lord's house'”--_Murray's Graure? 'Five' Ten's? 'Six'
Hundreds? 'Seven'”--_Abbott's Teacher_, p 79 ”Alexander conquered Darius' army”--_Kirkham's Gram_, p 58 ”Three days time was requisite, to prepare matters”--_Brown's Estimate_, ii, 156 ”So we say that Ciceros stile and Sallusts, were not one, nor Cesars and Livies, nor Homers and Hesiodus, nor Herodotus and Theucidides, nor Euripides and Aristophanes, nor Eraslish Poesie_, iii, 5 ”_Lex_ (ie _legs_) is no other than our ancestors past participle _laeg, laid down_”--_Tooke's Diversions_, ii, 7 ”Achaia's sons at Ilium slain for the Atridae' sake”--_Cowper's Iliad_ ”The corpse[167] of half her senate manure the fields of Thessaly”--_Addison's Cato_
”Poisoning, without regard of fame or fear: And spotted corpse are frequent on the bier”--_Dryden_
CHAPTER IV--ADJECTIVES
An Adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses quality: as, A _wise_ ent_
OBSERVATIONS
OBS 1--Adjectives have been otherwise called attributes, attributives, qualities, adnouns; but none of these names is any better than the common one Some writers have classed adjectives with verbs; because, with a neuter verb for the copula, they often forious_” The Latin grammarians usually class them with nouns; consequently their nouns are divided into nouns substantive and nouns adjective With us, substantives are nouns; and adjectives fored to be a much better distribution Adjectives cannot with propriety be called _nouns_, in any language; because they are not _the nanify They must be _added_ to nouns or pronouns in order to make sense
But if, in a just distribution of words, the term ”_adjective nouns_” is needless and improper, the term ”_adjective pronouns_” is, certainly, not less so: most of the words which Murray and others call by this name, are not pronouns, but adjectives
OBS 2--The noun, or substantive, is a _name_, which makes sense of itself The adjective is an adjunct to the noun or pronoun It is a word added to denote quality, situation, quantity, number, foruish the thing or things spoken of Adjectives, therefore, are distinguished _fro to that which qualities bear to things: so that no part of speech is lish adjectives, as such, are all indeclinable When, therefore, any words usually belonging to this class, are found to take either the plural or the possessive form, like substantive nouns, they are to be parsed as nouns To abbreviate expression, we not unfrequently, in this rammar, we often speak of _no nouns or pronouns of the nominative, the possessive, or the objective case; of _positives, co adjectives of the positive, the coree; of _infinitives, subjunctives_, or _i verbs of the infinitive, the subjunctive, or the iulars, plurals_, and s, 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 _Others_ are any persons or things distinguished from some that are named or referred to; as, ”If you want enemies, excel _others_; if you want friends, let _others_ excel you”--_Lacon_ All adjectives thus taken substantively, becoht to be parsed as such, unless this word _others_ is to be made an exception, and called a ”_pronoun_”
”Th' event is fear'd; should we again provoke Our _stronger_, some worse way his wrath may find”
--_Milton, P L_, B ii, l 82
OBS 3--Murray says, ”Perhaps the words _forst the demonstrative pronouns, _especially insentence may serve as an example: 'It was happy for the state, that Fabius continued in the com was a check upon the _latter's_ vivacity'”--_Gralish _Forht to be adjectives only; except when _former_ means _ pronouns, to le anonymous sentence If it were said, ”The deliberation of _the former_ was a seasonable chock upon the fiery temper of _the latter_” the words _former_ and _latter_ would see to the noun _commander_ understood after it
OBS 4--The sense and relation of words in sentences, as well as their particular for, before the learner can say, with certainty, to what class they belong Other parts of speech, and especially nouns and participles, by a change in their construction, may beco is formed, we very commonly make the na: as, A _gold chain_, a _silver spoon_, a _glass pitcher_, a _tin basin_, an _oak plank_, a _basswood slab_, a _whalebone rod_ This construction is in general correct, whenever the forold”--”The spoon is silver” But we do not write _gold beater_ for _goldbeater_, or _silver sold, nor is the smith silver This principle, however, is not universally observed; for rite _sobll, ash_, and h the ball is snow and the wash is white; and _linseed oil_, or _Newark cider_, h the former word cannot well be predicated of the latter So in the following examples: ”Let these _conversation_ tones be the foundation of public pronunciation”--_Blair's Rhet_, p 334 ”A _reeable _flirtation_ air”--POPE: _Priestley's Graently guide rim_ feet To find thy _hermit_ cell”--_Barbauld_
OBS 5--Murray says, ”Various nouns placed before other nouns assume the nature of adjectives: as, sea fish, wine vessel, corn field, round, &c”--_Octavo Gram_, p 48 This is, certainly, very lame instruction If there is not palpable error in all his examples, the propriety of them all is at least questionable; and, to adopt and follow out their principle, would be, to tear apart soround_” round is meadow; it seeround
What he meant by ”_wine vessel_” is doubtful: that is, whether a shi+p or a cask, a flagon or a decanter If we turn to our dictionaries, Webster has _sea-fish_ and _wine-cask_ with a hyphen, and _cornfield_ without; while Johnson and others have _corn-field_ with a hyphen, and _seafish_ without
According to the rules for the figure of words, we ought to write them _seafish, winecask, cornfield_ What then becomes of the thousands of ”adjectives” embraced in the ”&c” quoted above?
OBS 6--The pronouns _he_ and _she_, when placed before or prefixed to nouns ender, appear to be used adjectively; as, ”The male or _he_ animals offered in sacrifice”--_Wood's Dict, w Males_
”The most usual term is _he_ or _she, male_ or _female_, employed as an adjective: as, a _he bear_, a _she bear_; a _male elephant_, a _female elephant_”--_Churchill's Gram_, p 69 Most writers, however, think proper to insert a hyphen in the terms here referred to: as, _he-bear, she-bear_, the plurals of which are _he-bears_ and _she-bears_ And, judging by the foregoing rule of predication, we ht In the first example, the word _he_ is useless; for the term ”_male animals_” is sufficiently clear without it It has been shown in the third chapter, that _he_ and _she_ are sometiular declension of nouns,the plurals _hes_ and _shes_ But whenever these words are used adjectively to denote gender, whether we choose to insert the hyphen or not, they are, without question, indeclinable, like other adjectives In the following example, Sanborn will have _he_ to be a noun in the _objective_ case; but I consider it rather, to be an adjective, signifying _masculine_:
”(_Philosophy_, I say, and call _it He_; For, whatsoe'er the painter's fancy be, It a male-virtue seems to me”)--_Cowley_, Brit Poets, Vol ii, p 54
OBS 7--Though verbs give rise to many adjectives, they seldoe of construction It isan additional termination, that any verb is formed into an adjective: as in _teachable, moveable, oppressive, diffusive, prohibitory_ There are, however, about forty words ending in _ate_, which, without difference of forate, animate, appropriate, articulate, aspirate, associate, complicate, confederate, consummate, deliberate, desolate, effeitienerate, reprobate, separate, sophisticate, subordinate_ This class of adjectives see some of them, at least in popular practice: as, _contaminated_, for _contaminate_, defiled; _reiterated_, for _reiterate_, repeated; _situated_, for _situate_, placed; _attenuated_, for _attenuate_, made thin or slender _Devote, exhaust_, and some other verbal forms, are occasionally used by the poets, in lieu of the participial forms, _devoted, exhausted_, &c
OBS 8--Participles, which have naturally much resemblance to this part of speech, often drop their distinctive character, and become adjectives
This is usually the case whenever they stand immediately _before_ the nouns to which they relate; as, A _pleasing_ countenance, a _piercing_ eye, an _accomplished_ scholar, an _exalted_ station Many participial adjectives are derivatives forative prefix _un_, which reverses theof the prihtened_ Most words of this kind differ of course from participles, because there are no such verbs as _to undisturb, to undivide_, &c Yet they may be called participial adjectives, because they have the termination, and embrace the form, of participles Nor should any participial adjective be needlessly varied froraphy of the participle: a distinction is, however, observed by some writers, between _past_ and _passed, staid_ and _stayed_; and some old words, as _drunken, stricken, shotten, rotten_, now obsolete as participles, are still retained as adjectives This sort of words will be further noticed in the chapter on participles
OBS 9--Adverbs are generally distinguished from adjectives, by the form, as well as by the construction, of the words Yet, in instances not a few, the sa used both adjectively and adverbially In these cases, the scholar must determine the part of speech, by the construction alone; re to nouns or pronouns only; and adverbs, to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs, only The following examples from Scripture, will partially illustrate this point, which will be noticed again under the head of syntax: ”Is your father well?”--_Gen_, xliii, 27 ”Thou hast well said”--_John_, iv, 17
”He separateth very friends”--_Prov_, xvii, 9 ”Esaias is _very_ bold”--_Ro_ prayer”--_Matt_, xxiii, 14 ”They that tarry _long_ at the wine”--_Prov_, xxiii, 30 ”It had not _much_ earth”--_Mark_, iv, 5 ”For she loved _ard to their _construction_, differ from adjectives, almost exactly as active-transitive participles differ syntactically fro overn those words, and refer back to some other term; which, in the usual order of speech, stands before the_ is an adjective relating to oak; if, ”A boy spreading hay,” _spreading_ is a participle, governing _hay_, and relating to _boy_, because the boy is the agent of the action
So, when Dr Webster says, ”The _off_ horse in a tea to the noun _horse_; but, in the phrase, ”Athe relation between _ are other examples: ”From the _above_ speculations”--_Harris's Hermes_, p 194 ”An _after_ period of life”--MARSHALL: _in Web Dict_ ”With soht of Tythes_, p 86 ”Who”--_Shak_ ”Especially is _over_ exertion made”--_Journal of Lit Conv_, p 119 ”To both the _under_ worlds”--_Hudibras_ ”Please to pay to A B the amount of the _within_ bill” Whether properly used or not, the words _above, after, beneath, over, under, and within_, are here unquestionably enerally prepositions, though sometimes adverbs
CLassES
Adjectives may be divided into six classes; namely, _common, proper, numeral, pronominal, participial_, and _compound_