5. Having made these few preliminary observations, the nature of the subjects which it is intended to notice in the course of Part I. may be briefly stated. We have, then, in the first place to ascertain what is meant by Grammar, and also the leading branches into which it is divided. This will lead us, secondly, to the consideration of the less prominent, but equally essential, features of the subject, called the parts of speech, which will be succeeded by an inquiry into the nature of those inflections which words undergo in the several functions they sustain as the expressive mediums of thought, or as the artificial symbols of the mind's conceptions.

THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

6. Grammar is that science which treats of the various classes of words forming language, and also of the disposition of words in accordance with custom and analogy.

7. The principal divisions of Grammar are Etymology and Syntax.

8. Etymology relates to the classification, and Syntax to the arrangement, of words.

9. The Orthographical and prosodiacal elements of the science, though two of its legitimate branches, are, as generally taught by grammarians, practically non-essential. They are inadequate to their intended purpose, for while Orthography fails to teach the student how to spell, Prosody befits him not to versify, and fails him also in pronunciation.

11. In the English language there are seven classes of words-Names, Fornames, Describing Words, Verbs, Adverbs, Connecting Words, and Interjections.

12. Grammar writers commonly distribute words into nine classes-Articles, Nouns or Substantives, Adjectives, Pronouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Prepositions, and Interjections.

13. To these leading divisions have been added minor ones almost innumerable. For some of the nine terms just mentioned, others are above offered in substitution. Whatever may apparently be deficient in the outset regarding the utility of such substitution, it will in our progress be perceived to be gradually assuming a more perfect form, and all the minor divisions, one by one, will resolve themselves, as the light bursts upon them, into pure nonentities.

14. Any word employed as the Name of a person or thing, is a Name in Grammar.

Examples-John, rabbit, apple, book.

15. Hat, cap, and bonnet, are names of coverings for the human head. Bricks, stone, slate, lime, and wood, are the names of materials of which houses are built. Hence all these words, from the circumstance that they name or individuate things, are Names in grammar.

16. Words of this class are, by the most popular writers, denominated Nouns, and are thus defined :

A

"The first class of speech is noun or its name, and that noun substantive or self-standing."-Elphinston. substantive or noun is the name of anything that exists, or of which we have any notion."-Murray. "Noun (nomen) is that part of speech which expresses the subject of discourse, or which is the name of the thing spoken of."-Crombie. "Substantives are all those principal words which are significant of substances, considered as substances."-Harris.

17. Not one of these rules contains sufficient simplicity and clearness of explication to enable those totally ignorant of grammar to understand it. Each of them embrace terms calculated to lead to perplexity, and ought therefore to be set aside.

66

18. Noun is a corruption of nomen, a Latin word, which signifies nothing more than the English word, name. Therefore to say a noun is a name," is correspondent to "a name is a name," and hence arises a somewhat substantial plea for the non-retention of noun in English classification. Point at or speak of anything, and ask the question, "What is that called or named?" and the reply must be the Name of the thing referred to.

19. The next branch of the subject embraces that class of words called Fornames.

Fornames are words used for or instead of

names.

Examples-William loves the master-he strives to please him.

20. Pronoun is the word selected by English grammarians for the name of this class, and hence their definitions are as follow:

"A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word.-Murray. Lennie simply says, that "pronouns are words used instead of nouns." These are the usual explications of pronouns amongst the earlier grammarians, with a few exceptions, in which they are termed "nouns of the second order." The last definition is adopted by Harris. 21. Pro, in Latin, means for. It has already been said that noun signifies name. Now, by joining these two simple English words together, and making PRONOUN FORNAME, we are supplied with a term exactly to tell us what is required to be known-that pronouns are for Names.

22. The only Fornames in the language are, I, me, we, us, thou, thee, ye, you, he, him, she, her, it, they, them.

23. It may be desirable here to add an observation on the office of pronouns. If you were lecturing on grammar to an audience, you would of course find it impossible to address those before you by their individual names. Supposing you had, in your subject just arrived at the point we are at in these pages. you might very naturally proceed :-"If you have paid the least attention to language, you must already be aware that fornames are an indispensable class of words."

Now you will readily see that when you, after if is uttered, the little word at once fully comprises within itself the names of all the individuals addressed, no matter whether they be considered ten or ten thousand in number, and that were it not for the aid the forname

affords, you, as the supposed lecturer, would be under the necessity of repeating respectively the names of all the persons composing your audience-a task which might be greatly increased by the fact that few of them might be known to you.

It may now, then, be remarked, that if you have paid the least attention to language, you have often observed that we employ these words to avoid the disagreeableness that would arise from a frequent repetition of names. The forname you is still less comprehensive than we, which includes both the speaker and person or persons addressed.

24 We now come to consider, in the next place, that classification called Describing Words.

25. Describing Words are those which describe or define the properties of names.

Examples-Good men, round stone, quiet horse, brass kettle, white cat, each person, this house, another thing.

26. One division of the describing words has been distinguished by the word Adjective, and hence we have the succeeding amongst the usual explications:

"An Adjective is a word added to a substantive to express its quality."-Murray. "An Adjective expresses the quality of a thing."-Guy. Fisher displaces the term Adjective by Quality. "An Adjective," says Dr. Ash, "is a word which signifies the quality of any person, place, or thing." Lennie informs us that "An Adjective is a word which expresses the quality of a noun." These definitions appear to Dr. Crombie to be somewhat defective and incorrect; for, says he, "the adjective does not express the quality simply, but the quality or property, as conjoined with a substance, or, as grammarians have termed it, in concerto."*

27. After these definitions, the following Adjectives, from Lennie, which are a mere transcript of the rules of his predecessor Murray, may be advantageously introduced:

* Murray, Guy, Fisher, Dr. Ash, and Lennie, all harp upon the same string, but as a matter of course, it answers not the design of different composers to play the same tune with corresponding crotchets and quavers!

"The possessive Adjective Pronouns are my, thy, his, her, our, your, their, its, own."

"The distributive Adjective Pronouns are each, every, either, neither."

"The demonstrative Adjective Pronouns are this, that, with their plurals, these and those."

"The indefinite Adjective Pronouns are none, any, all, such, whole, some, both, one, other, and another."

28. Let us now see how far this term Adjective bears upon the classes of words which it serves to distinguish. It comes from adjectus, a Latin word, signifying one thing joined, or added to another. Now, taken in this sense, no term could have been selected of a more absurd and ambiguous nature to represent the characteristic functions of a distinct class of words. In every sentence or collection of words, one word is always joined, or added, to another; and hence, from this inauspicious term, in its literal sense, it might reasonably be deduced, that all words are adjectives.

29. All that grammarians have advanced in regard to the classified Adjectives just quoted, must simply amount to this:-They serve to describe something of Names, as a good man, a round stone, a quiet horse, a brass kettle, a white cat, each man, this house, another thing. We may then on this definition proceed to lay down that

30. All words describing possession, by the apostrophic s ('s) or otherwise, are Describing Words.

Examples-John's shoes-his shoes. Men's clothestheir clothes.

31. The possessive describers are commonly called the possessive case of the names and fornames from which they respectively spring, for precisely the same reason that they are here called Describing Words-because they describe possession.

32. Another, though insignificant classification of the describing words has been represented by the term Article. The words of this small division are thus explained by Murray, and similarly by other writers:

"An article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point