Part 293 (1/2)
[260] ”The substantive form, or, as it is commonly termed, _infinitive , and the literal ROOT on which all inflections of the verb are to be grafted This character being coes, it [this ht to precede the [other]rammatical systems”--_Enclytica_, p 14
[261] By this, I ular and plural, is _the same in for_ or _not changing_ the termination of the verb, most absurdly means by it, that the verb _is inflected_, just as it is in the indicative or the potential es_ or _variations_ of termination, he means, that the verb _reular! For exaular of the imperfect tense in the subjunctive mood, is also _very frequently varied in its termination_: as, 'If thou _loved_ him truly, thou wouldst obey him'”--_Murray's Gram_, 8vo, p 209 ”The auxiliaries of the potential e_ the terular; as, 'If thou _o'”--_Ib_, p 210 ”Some authors think, that the termination of these auxiliaries _should be varied_: as, I advise thee, that thou _may_ beware”--_Ib_, p
210 ”When the circuency and futurity concur, it is proper _to vary_ the terular”--_Ib_, 210 ”It es_ of termination _are necessary_, when these two circumstances concur”--_Ib_, p 207 ”It es_ of termination _are necessary_, when these two circuersoll's Graersoll here _! Whose fault is that? If Murray's, he has committed many such But, in this ersoll, but, on one occasion, by himself For he declares it to be an opinion in which he concurs ”That the definition and nature of the subjunctive e of termination”--_Murray's Grae blunders, he see_ which a verb has in this mood, _to the inflections_ which it receives _in the indicative_: saying ”That part of the verb which grammarians call the present tense of the subjunctive nification _This_ is effected by _varying the terular of _the indicative_!”--_Ib_, p 207 But the absurdity which he really means to teach, is, that the subjunctive mood _is derived from the indicative_,--the primitive or radical verb, _from it's derivatives or branches_!
[262] _Wert_ is sometimes used in lieu of _wast_; and, in such instances, both by authority and by analogy, it appears to belong here, if anywhere
See OBS 2d and 3d, below
[263] Soe of authors, prefer _was_ to _were_ in the singular nu remark, the tense is naed with soh the past tense of the indicative mood, expresses the _present_ of the hypothetical; as, 'I wish that I _ell' _The use of this hypothetical foriven rise to_ a forrammar_ When the verb _was_ is to be used in the _present tense singular_, in this form of the subjunctive mood, the ear is often pained with a _plural were_, as, '_Were I_ your master'--'_Were he_ compelled to do it,' &c This has becoe furnish authority for the barbarism, and even in the second person supply _wert_, as a convenient accoation is admitted, we may expect to see Shakspeare's '_thou beest_' in full use”--_Chandler's Gram_, Ed of 1821, p 55 In ”_Chandler's Coraph is somewhat softened, but the substance is still retained
See the latter work, p 80
[264] ”If I were, If _thou were_ If he were”--_Harrison's Grah, _thou were_, or _wert_ loved
If, or though, he were loved”--_Bicknell's Grah, &c I were burned, _thou were_ burned or you were burned, he were burned”--_Buchanan's Grah thou _wert_'”--_Mackintosh's Grah _thou were_ If or though he were”--_St Quentin's General Gram_, p 86 ”If I was, Thou wast, or You was or were, He was Or thus: If I were, Thou wert, or you was or were, He were”--_Webster's Philosophical Gram_, p 95; _Improved Gram_, p 64 ”PRESENT TENSE Before, &c I _be_; thou _beest_, or you _be_; he, she, or it, _be_: We, you or ye, they, _be_
PAST TENSE Before, &c I _were_; thou _wert_, or you _were_; he, she, or it, _were_; We, you or ye, they, _were_”--WHITE, _on the English Verb_, p
52
[265] The text in Acts, xxii, 20th, ”I also _was standing_ by, and _consenting_ unto his death,” ought rather to be, ”I also _stood_ by, and _consented_ to his death;” but the present reading is, thus far, a literal version froh the verb ”_kept_,” that follows, is not
Montanus renders it literally: ”Et ipse _eram astans, et consentiens_ interemptioni ejus, et _custodiens_ vestimenta interficientiuo quoque _adstabam_, et una _assentiebar_ caedi ipsius, et _custodiebam_ pallia eorum qui interimebant eum” Other exaressive for boy of six years of age, _was er in Lowell_, p
100 _Missing, wanting_, and _willing_, after the verb to be, are commonly reckoned participial _adjectives_; but here ”_was _” is made a passive verb, equivalent to _was_To miss_, to perceive the absence of, is such an act of the _; and, if we cannot say, ”The ht not to use the sarammarians, contrary to the common opinion, suppose the verbs here spoken of, to have, not a _passive_, but a _neuter_ signification
Thus, Joseph Guy, Jun, of London: ”Active verbs often take a _neuter_ sense; as, A house is building; here, is _building_ is used in a _neuter_ signification, because it has no object after it By this rule are explained such sentences as, Application is wanting; The gra, &c”--_Guy's English Gram_, p 21 ”_Neuter_,” here, as in many other places, is _” is of this class; and ”_is wanting_,” corresponding to the Latin _caret_, appears to be neuter; hut the rest seem rather to be passives Tried, however, by the usual criterion,--the naent_” which, it is said, ”a verb passive necessarily iressive passives,_action_” says Dr Johnson, ”nify _condition_, or _habit_, and become _neuters_, [i e
_active-intransitives_;] as _I love_, I a”--_Gram before Quarto Dict_, p 7 So _sell, form, make_, and many others, usually transitive, have sometimes an active-intransitive sense which nearly approaches the passive, and of which _are selling, is for_, and the like, may be only equivalent expressions For exa_ rapidly--or _is for, is the appearance of both voices, the Active and the Passive; while ”_is for_,” which some will have for an example of ”the _Middle_ voice,”passive construction is right, _is wanting_ or _are wanting_ may be a verb of three or four different sorts: ”Reflections thatby hiht's Grara, 'He is being loved'--'This result is being desired'”--_analyt and Pract Graht, whose superiority in grammar has sixty-two titled vouchers, this unheard-of barbarism is, for the present passive, precisely and solely what one _ought_ to say! Nor is it, in fact, any e, than the spurious example which the Doctor hi_ Thou _art loving_, &c; I _have been loving_, Thou _hast been loving_, &c”--_A and P Gr_, p 92 So: ”Ja_ me”--_Ib_, p 235
[268] ”The predicate in the for to our view, 'BEING BEING _built_,' which is an's Gram_, 1852, p 151
[269] ”Suppose a cri:--Shall we say, with Mr Murray,--'The cri?' If so, HE MUST BE BINDING SOMETHING,--a circumstance, in effect, quite opposed to the fact presented Shall we then say, as he does, in the _present tense_ conjugation of his passive verb,--'The cri, which the cri, will be represented as completed, --a position which the _action its self_ will palpably deny”
See _Wright's Phil Gram_, p 102 It is folly for a man to puzzle hiined on purpose to h, for all useful purposes, in the actual writings of valued authors; but who can show, by any proofs, that the English language, as heretofore written, is so e neologis sie event in the history of English grammar, that such a controversy as this should have arisen; but a stranger one still, that, after all that has been said, ument is needed Some men, who hope to be valued as scholars, yet stickle for an odd phrase, which critics have denounced as follows: ”But the history of the language scarcely affords a parallel to the innovation, at once unphilosophical and hypercritical, pedantic and illiterate, which has lately appeared in the excruciating refine_' and its unmerciful variations We hope, and indeed believe, that it has not received the sanction of any grammar adopted in our popular education, as it certainly never will of any writer of just pretensions to scholarshi+p”--_The True Sun_ N Y, April 16, 1846
[271] Education is a work of continuance, yet cooes on It is not, like the act of loving or hating, so coressive for_ hi_ for the law;” though not so well as, ”He _is to be educated_ for the law” But, to suppose that ”_is educated_” or ”_are educated_” i_ is a ht, only when _educated_ is taken adjectively The phrase, ”those who _are educated_ in our seminaries,”
hardly includes such as _have been educated_ there in times past: much less does it apply to these exclusively, as so_,” as inserted by Southey, is therefore quite _needless_: so it is _often_, in this new phraseology, the best correction being its mere omission
[272] Worcester has also this citation: ”The Eclectic Review remarks, 'That a need of this phrase, or an equivalent one, is felt, is sufficiently proved by the extent to which it is used by educated persons and respectable writers'”--_Gram before Dict_, p xlvi Sundry phrases, equivalent in sense to this new voice, have long been in use, and are, of course, still needed; so always, by every accurate writer, still preferred But this aard innovation, use it ill, can no more be justified by a plea of ”_need_,” than can every other hackneyed solecisht by Worcester, has descended to ”uncouth English,” without either necessity or propriety, having thereby only misexpounded a very common Greek word--a ”perfect or pluperfect” participle, whichbeen beaten_”--G Brown
[273] Wells has also the following citations, which h the first is rather extravagant: ”The propriety of these _imperfect passive tenses_ has been _doubted by alh I believe but few of the to reatest defects of the English tongue, with regard to the verb, seems to be the want of an _imperfect passive participle_' And yet he uses the _imperfect participle_ in a _passive sense_ as often as lish Verb_
”Several other expressions of this sort now and then occur, such as the new-fangled and lish idio out a pointed and pithy turn of the English language”--_N A Review_ See _Wells's Grammar_, 1850, p 161
The term, ”_imperfect passive tenses_,” seems not a very accurate one; because the present, the perfect, &c, are included Pickbourn applies it to any passive tenses formed from the simple ”imperfect participle;” but the phrase, ”_passive verbs in the progressive for The term, ”_compound passive participle_,” which Wells applies above to ”_being built_,” ”_being printed_,” and the like, is also both unusual and inaccurate Most readers would sooner understand by it the for been printed_, &c This author'sparticiples is always either very aard or not distinctive His scheme makes it necessary to add here, for each of these for to his main distinction of ”_imperfect_ and _perfect_;”
as, ”the compound _imperfect_ participle passive,” and ”the co builded_” or ”_being printed_,” but ”an _i else, the desideratunifies _carried_; _born_ signifies _brought forth_ J K Worcester, the lexicographer, speaks of these two participles thus: ”[Fist] The participle _born_ is used in the passive form, and _borne_ in the active form, [with reference to birth]; as, 'He was _born_ blind,' _John_ ix; 'The barren hath _borne_ seven,' I _Sah not recognized by grae, at least in this country In nized; and in nized in Alish, editions”--_Worcester's Universal and Critical Dict, w Bear_ In five, out of seven good A my books, the latter text is, ”The barren hath _born_ seven;” in two, it is as above, ”hath _borne_” In Johnson's Quarto Dictionary, the perfect participle of _bear_ is given erroneously, ”_bore_, or _born_;” and that of _forbear_, which should be _forborne_, is found, both in his colu to Murray, Lennie, Bullions, and soan_ or _run_ for _ran_, is iives _run_ as well as _ran_ for the preterit, and _begun_ may be used in like manner, on the authority of Dryden, Pope, and Parnell