The Grammar of English Grammars - Goold Brown (spiritual books to read TXT) 📗

Lily's system thus: "'A Verb Neuter endeth in o or m, and cannot take r to make him a Passive; as, Curro, I run; Sum, I am.'—Grammar, Eng. p. 13. This Definition, is founded upon the Notion abovementioned, viz. That none but Transitives are Verbs Active, which is contrary to the reason of Things, and the common sense of Mankind. And what can shock a Child more, of any Ingenuity, than to be told, That Ambuto and Curro are Verbs Neuter; that is, to speak according to the common Apprehensions of Mankind, that they signifie neither to do, nor suffer."—Johnson's Grammatical Commentaries, 8vo, London, 1706, p. 273.

[229] Murray says, "Mood or Mode is a particular form of the verb, showing the manner in which the being, action, or passion is represented."—Octavo Gram., p. 63. By many grammarians, the term Mode is preferred to Mood; but the latter is, for this use, the more distinctive, and by far the more common word. In some treatises on grammar, as well as in books of logic, certain parts of speech, as adjectives and adverbs, are called Modes, because they qualify or modify other terms. E.g., "Thus all the parts of speech are reducible to four; viz., Names, Verbs, Modes, Connectives."—Enclytica, or Universal Gram., p. 8. "Modes are naturally divided, by their attribution to names or verbs, into adnames and adverbs."—Ibid., p. 24. After making this application of the name modes, was it not improper for the learned author to call the moods also "modes?"

[230] "We have, in English, no genuine subjunctive mood, except the preterimperfect, if I were, if thou wert, &c. of the verb to be. [See Notes and Observations on the Third Example of Conjugation, in this chapter.] The phrase termed the subjunctive mood, is elliptical; shall, may, &c. being understood: as, 'Though hand (shall) join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.' 'If it (may) be possible, live peaceably with all.' Scriptures."—Rev. W. Allen's Gram., p. 61. Such expressions as, "If thou do love, If he do love," appear to disprove this doctrine. [See Notes and Remarks on the Subjunctive of the First Example conjugated below.]

[231] "Mr. Murray has changed his opinion, as often as Laban changed Jacob's wages. In the edition we print from, we find shall and will used in each person of the first and second future tenses of the subjunctive, but he now states that in the second future tense, shalt, shall, should be used instead of wilt, will. Perhaps this is the only improvement he has made in his Grammar since 1796."—Rev. T. Smith's Edition of Lindley Murray's English Grammar, p. 67.

[232] Notwithstanding this expression, Murray did not teach, as do many modern grammarians, that inflected forms of the present tense, such as, "If he thinks so," "Unless he deceives me," "If thou lov'st me," are of the subjunctive mood; though, when he rejected his changeless forms of the other tenses of this mood, he improperly put as many indicatives in their places. With him, and his numerous followers, the ending determines the mood in one tense, while the conjunction controls it in the other five! In his syntax, he argues, "that in cases wherein contingency and futurity do not occur, it is not proper to turn the verb from its signification of present time, nor to vary [he means, or to forbear to change] its form or termination. [Fist] The verb would then be in the indicative mood, whatever conjunctions might attend it."—L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 208: 12mo, p. 167.

[233] Some grammarians—(among whom are Lowth, Dalton, Cobbett, and Cardell—) recognize only three tenses, or "times," of English verbs; namely, the present, the past, and the future. A few, like Latham and Child, denying all the compound tenses to be tenses, acknowledge only the first two, the present and the past; and these they will have to consist only of the simple or radical verb and the simple preterit. Some others, who acknowledge six tenses, such as are above described, have endeavoured of late to change the names of a majority of them; though with too little agreement among themselves, as may be seen by the following citations: (1.) "We have six tenses; three, the Present, Past, and Future, to represent time in a general way; and three, the Present Perfect, Past Perfect, and Future Perfect, to represent the precise time of finishing the action."—Perley's Gram., 1834, p. 25. (2.) "There are six tenses; the present, the past, the present-perfect, the past-perfect, the future, and the future-perfect."—Hiley's Gram., 1840, p. 28. (3.) "There are six tenses; the Present and Present Perfect, the Past and Past Perfect, and the Future and Future Perfect."—Farnum's Gram., 1842, p. 34. (4.) "The names of the tenses will then be, Present, Present Perfect; Past, Past Perfect; Future, Future Perfect. They are usually named as follows: Present, Perfect, Imperfect, Pluperfect, Future, Second Future."—N. Butler's Gram, 1845, p. 69. (5.) "We have six tenses;—the present, the past, the future, the present perfect, the past perfect, and the future perfect."—Wells's School Gram., 1846. p. 82. (6.) "The tenses in English are six—the Present, the Present-perfect, the Past, the Past-perfect, the Future, and the Future-perfect."—Bullions's Gram., 1849. p. 71. (7.) "Verbs have Six Tenses, called the Present, the Perfect-Present, the Past, the Perfect-Past, the Future, and the Perfect-Future."—Spencer's Gram., 1852, p. 53. (8.) "There are six tenses: the present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect."—Covell's Gram., 1853, p. 62. (9.) "The tenses are—the present, the present perfect; the past, the past perfect; the future, the future perfect."—S. S. Greene's Gram., 1853, p. 65. (10.) "There are six tenses; one present, and but one, three past, and two future." They are named thus: "The Present, the First Past, the Second Past, the Third Past, the First Future, the Second Future."—"For the sake of symmetry, to call two of them present, and two only past, while one only is present, and three are past tenses, is to sacrifice truth to beauty."—Pinneo's Gram., 1853, pp. 69 and 70. "The old names, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect," which, in 1845, Butler justly admitted to be the usual names of the three past tenses. Dr. Pinneo, who dates his copy-right from 1850, most unwarrantably declares to be "now generally discarded!"—Analytical Gram., p. 76; Same Revised, p. 81. These terms, still predominant in use, he strangely supposes to have been suddenly superseded by others which are no better, if so good: imagining that the scheme which Perley or Hiley introduced, of "two present, two past, and two future tenses,"—a scheme which, he says, "has no foundation in truth, and is therefore to be rejected,"—had prepared the way for the above-cited innovation of his own, which merely presents the old ideas under new terms, or terms partly new, and wholly unlikely to prevail. William Ward, one of the ablest of our old grammarians, rejecting in 1765 the two terms imperfect and perfect, adopted others which resemble Pinneo's; but few, if any, have since named the tenses as he did, thus: "The Present, the First Preterite, the Second Preterite, the Pluperfect, the First Future, the Second Future."—Ward's Gram., p. 47.

[234] "The infinitive mood, as 'to shine,' may be called the name of the verb; it carries neither time nor affirmation; but simply expresses that attribute, action, or state of things, which is to be the subject of the other moods and tenses."—Blair's Lectures, p. 81. By the word "subject" the Doctor does not here mean the nominative to the other moods and tenses, but the material of them, or that which is formed into them.

[235] Some grammarians absurdly deny that persons and numbers are properties of verbs at all: not indeed because our verbs have so few inflections, or because these authors wish to discard the little distinction that remains; but because they have some fanciful conception, that these properties cannot pertain to a verb. Yet, when they come to their syntax, they all forget, that if a verb has no person and number, it cannot agree with a nominative in these respects. Thus KIRKHAM: "Person, strictly speaking, is a quality that belongs not to verbs, but to nouns and pronouns. We say, however, that the verb must agree with its nominative in person, as well as in number."—Gram. in Familiar Lect., p. 46. So J. W. WRIGHT: "In truth, number and person are not properties of verbs. Mr. Murray grants that, 'in philosophical strictness, both number and person might (say, may) be excluded from every verb, as they are, in fact, the properties of substantives, not a part of the essence of the verb.'"—Philosophical Gram., p. 68. This author's rule of syntax for verbs, makes them agree with their nominatives, not in person and number, but in termination, or else in nobody knows what: "A verb must vary its terminations, so as to agree with the nominative to which it is connected."—Ib., p. 168. But Murray's rule is, "A verb must agree with its nominative case in number and person:" and this doctrine is directly repugnant to that interpretation of his words above, by which these gentlemen have so egregiously misled themselves and others. Undoubtedly, both the numbers and the persons of all English verbs might be abolished, and the language would still be intelligible. But while any such distinctions remain, and the verb is actually modified to form them, they belong as properly to this part of speech as they can to any other. De Sacy says, "The distinction of number occurs in the verb;" and then adds, "yet this distinction does not properly belong to the verb, as it signifies nothing which can be numbered."—Fosdick's Version, p. 64. This deceptive reason is only a new form of the blunder which I have once exposed, of confounding the numbers in grammar with numbers in arithmetic. J. M. Putnam, after repeating what is above cited from Murray, adds: "The terms number and person, as applied to the verb are figurative. The properties which belong to one thing, for convenience' sake are ascribed to another."—Gram., p. 49. Kirkham imagines, if ten men build a house, or navigate a ship round the world, they perform just "ten actions," and no more. "Common sense teaches you," says he, "that there must be as many actions as there are actors; and that the verb when it has no form or ending to show it, is as strictly plural, as when it has. So, in the phrase, 'We walk,' the verb walk is [of the] first person, because it expresses the actions performed by the speakers. The verb, then, when correctly written, always agrees, in sense, with its nominative in number and person."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 47. It seems to me, that these authors do not very well know what persons or numbers, in grammar, are.

[236] John Despauter, whose ample Grammar of the Latin language appeared in its third edition in 1517, represents this practice as a corruption originating in false pride, and maintained by the wickedness of hungry flatterers. On the twentieth leaf of his Syntax, he says, "Videntur hodie Christiani superbiores, quam olim ethnici imperatores, qui dii haberi voluerunt; nam hi nunquam inviti audierunt pronomina tu, tibi, tuus. Quæ si hodie alicui monachorum antistiti, aut decano, aut pontifici dicantur aut scribantur, videbitur ita loquens aut scribens blasphemasse, et anathemate dignus: nec tamen Abbas, aut pontifex, tam ægrè feret, quam Malchi, aut famelici gnathones, his assistentes, et vociferantes, Sic loqueris, aut scribis, pontifici? Quintilianus et Donatus dicunt barbarismum, aut soloecismum esse, siquis uni dicat. Salvete." The learned Erasmus also ridiculed this practice, calling those who adopted it, "voscitatores," or youyouers.

[237] "By a perversion of language the pronoun you is almost invariably used for the second person singular, as well as plural; always, however, retaining the plural verb; as, 'My friend, you write a good hand.' Thou is confined to a solemn style, or [to] poetical compositions."—Chandler's Grammar, Edition of 1821, p. 41; Ed. of 1847, p. 66.

[238] In regard to the inflection of our verbs, William B. Fowle, who is something of an antiquarian in grammar, and who professes now to be "conservative" of the popular system, makes a threefold distinction of style, thus: "English verbs have three Styles[,] or Modes,[;] called [the] Familiar, [the] Solemn[,] and [the] Ancient. The familiar style, or mode, is that used in common conversation; as, you see, he fears. The solemn style, or mode, is that used in the Bible, and in prayer; as, Thou seest, he feareth. The ancient style, or mode, now little used, allows no change in the second and third person, [persons,] singular, of the verb, and generally follows the word if, though, lest, or whether; as, if thou see; though he fear; lest he be angry; whether he go or stay."—Fowle's Common School Grammar, Part Second, p. 44. Among his subsequent examples of the Solemn style, he gives the following: "Thou lovest, Thou lovedst, Thou art, Thou wast, Thou hast, Thou hadst, Thou doest or dost, Thou didst." And, as corresponding examples of the Ancient