English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Part 35

"He _should have been punished_ before he committed that atrocious deed."

_Should have been punished_ is a verb, a word that signifies to do--pa.s.sive, it denotes action received or endured by the nom.--it is formed by adding the perfect part, _punished_ to the neuter verb to _be_--regular, the perf. part, ends in _ed_--potential mood, it implies obligation, &c.--pluperfect tense, it denotes a past act which was prior to the other past time specified by "committed"--third pers. sing.

num. because the nom. "he" is with which it agrees: RULE 4. _The verb must agree_, &c.--Conjugated, Indic. mood, pres. tense, he is punished; imperf. tense, he was punished; perf. tense, he has been punished; and so on. Conjugate it through all the moods and tenses, and speak the participles.

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

Columbus discovered America. America was discovered by Columbus. The preceptor is writing a letter. The letter is written by the preceptor.

The work can be done. The house would have been built ere this, had he fulfilled his promise. If I be beaten by that man, he will be punished.

Young man, if you wish to be respected, you must be more a.s.siduous.

Being ridiculed and despised, he left the inst.i.tution. He is reading Homer. They are talking. He may be respected, if he become more ingenuous. My worthy friend ought to be honored for his benevolent deeds. This ought ye to have done.

ADDITIONAL EXERCISES IN PARSING.

All the most important principles of the science, together with many of the rules, have now been presented and ill.u.s.trated. But before you proceed to a.n.a.lyze the following exercises, you may turn over a few pages, and you will find all the rules presented in a body. Please to examine them critically, and pa.r.s.e the _examples_ under each rule and note. The examples, you will notice, are given to ill.u.s.trate the respective rules and notes under which they are placed; hence, by paying particular attention to them, you will be enabled fully and clearly to comprehend the meaning and application of all the rules and notes.

As soon as you become familiarly acquainted with all the _definitions_ so that you can apply them with facility, you may omit them in parsing; but you must always apply the rules of Syntax. When you pa.r.s.e without applying the definitions, you may proceed in the following manner:

"Mercy is the true badge of n.o.bility."

_Mercy_ is a noun common, of the neuter gender, third person, singular number, and in the nominative case to "is:" RULE 3. _The nominative case governs the verb_.

_Is_ is an irregular neuter verb, indicative mood, present tense, third person, singular number, agreeing with "mercy," according to RULE 4.

_The verb must agree_, &c.

_The_ is a definite article, belonging to "badge," in the singular number: RULE 2. _The definite article_ the, &c.

_True_ is an adjective in the positive degree, and belongs to the noun "badge:" RULE 18. _Adjectives belong_, &c.

_Badge_ is a noun com. neuter gender, third person, singular number, and in the nominative case _after_ "is," and put by apposition with "mercy,"

according to RULE 21. _The verb to be may have the same case after it as before it_.

_Of_ is a preposition, connecting "badge" and "n.o.bility," and showing the relation between them.

_n.o.bility_ is a noun of mult.i.tude, mas. and fem. gender, third person, sing, and in the obj. case, and governed by "of:" RULE 31. _Prepositions govern the objective case_.

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

Learn to unlearn what you have learned amiss.

What I forfeit for myself is a trifle; that my indiscretions should reach my posterity, wounds me to the heart.

Lady Jane Gray fell a sacrifice to the wild ambition of the duke of Northumberland.

King Missipsi charged his sons to consider the senate and people of Rome as proprietors of the kingdom of Numidia.

Hazael smote the children of Israel in all their coasts; and from what is left on record of his actions, he plainly appears to have proved, what the prophet foresaw him to be, a man of violence, cruelty, and blood.

Heaven hides from brutes what men, from men what spirits know.

He that formed the ear, can he not hear?

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

NOTE 1. _Learn_, in the first of the preceding examples, is a transitive verb, because the action pa.s.ses over from the nom. _you_ understood, to _the rest of the sentence_ for its object: RULE 24.

In the next example, _that my indiscretions should reach my posterity_, is a part of a sentence put as the nominative to the verb _wounds_, according to the same Rule.

2. The noun _sacrifice_, in the third example, is nom. after the active-intransitive verb _fell_: RULE 22. The noun _proprietors_, in the next sentence, is in the objective case, and put by apposition with _senate_ and _people_: RULE 7, or governed by _consider_, understood, according to RULE 35.

3. In the fifth example, _what_, following _proved_, is a compound relative. _Thing_, the antecedent part, is in the nom. case after _to be_, understood, and put by apposition with _he_, according to RULE 21, and NOTE. _Which_, the relative part, is in the obj. case after _to be_ expressed, and put by apposition with _him_, according to the same RULE. _Man_ is in the obj. case, put by apposition with _which_: RULE 7. The latter part of the sentence may be _literally_ rendered thus: He plainly appears to have proved _to be that base character which_ the prophet foresaw him to be, viz. a _man_ of violence, cruelty, and blood. The antecedent part of the first _what_, in the next sentence, is governed by _hides_; and _which_, the relative part, is governed by _know_ understood. The antecedent part of the second _what_, is governed by _hides_ understood, and the relative part is governed by _know_ expressed.

4. The first _he_, in the seventh example, is, in the opinion of some, nom. to _can hear_ understood; but Mr. N.R. Smith, a distinguished and acute grammarian, suggests the propriety of rendering the sentence thus; "He that formed the ear, _formed it to hear_; can he not hear?" The first _he_, in the last example, is redundant; yet the construction is sometimes admissible, for the expression is more forcible than it would be to say, "Let him hear who hath ears to hear;" and if we adopt the ingenious method of Mr.

Smith, the sentence is grammatical, and may be rendered thus; "He that hath ears, _hath ears_ to hear; let him hear."

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

_Idioms, anomalies, and intricacies_.

1. "The wall is three _feet_ high."

2. "His son is eight _years_ old."

3. "My knife is worth a _s.h.i.+lling_."

4. "She is worth _him_ and all his _connexions_."

5. "He has been there three _times_."

6. "The hat cost ten _dollars_."

7. "The load weighs a _tun_."

8. "The spar measures ninety _feet_."

REMARKS.--_Anomaly_ is derived from the Greek, _a_, without, and _omales_, similar; that is, _without similarity_. Some give its derivation thus; _anomaly_, from the Latin, _ab_, from, or out of, and _norma_, a rule, or law, means an _outlaw_; a mode of expression that departs from the rules, laws, or _general_ usages of the language; a construction in language peculiar to itself. Thus, it is a general rule of the language, that adjectives of one syllable are compared by adding _r_, or _er_, and _st_, or _est_, to the positive degree; but good, _better, best_; bad, _worse, worst_, are not compared according to the general rule. They are, therefore, anomalies. The plural number of nouns is generally formed by adding s to the singular: man, _men_; woman, _women_; child, _children_; penny, _pence_, are anomalies. The use of _news, means, alms_ and _amends_, in the singular, const.i.tutes anomalies. Anomalous constructions are correct according to custom; but, as they are departures from general rules, by them they cannot be a.n.a.lyzed.

An _idiom_, Latin _idioma_, a construction peculiar to a language, may be an anomaly, or it may not. An idiomatical expression which is not an anomaly, can be a.n.a.lyzed.

_Feet_ and _years_, in the 1st and 2d examples, are not in the nominative after _is_, according to Rule 21, because they are not in apposition with the respective nouns that precede the verb; but the constructions are anomalous; and, therefore, no rule can be applied to a.n.a.lyze them. The same ideas, however; can be conveyed by a legitimate construction which can be a.n.a.lyzed; thus, "The _height_ of the wall is three _feet_;" "The _age_ of my son is eight _years_."

An anomaly, when ascertained to be such, is easily disposed of; but sometimes it is very difficult to decide whether a construction is anomalous or not. The 3d, 4th, and 5th examples, are generally considered anomalies; but if we supply, as we are, perhaps, warranted in doing, the a.s.sociated words which modern refinement has dropped, they will cease to be anomalies; thus, "My knife is _of the_ worth _of_ a s.h.i.+lling;" "--_of the_ worth _of_ him," &c. "He has been there _for_ three times;" as we say, "I was unwell _for_ three days, after I arrived;" or, "I was unwell three days." Thus it appears, that by tracing back, _for_ a few centuries, what the merely modern English scholar supposes to be an anomaly, an ellipsis will frequently be discovered, which, when supplied, destroys the anomaly.

On extreme points, and peculiar and varying constructions in a living language, the most able philologists can never be agreed; because many usages will always be unsettled and fluctuating, and will, consequently, be disposed of according to the caprice of the grammarian. By some, a sentence may be treated as an anomaly; by others who contend for, and supply, an ellipsis, the same sentence may be a.n.a.lyzed according to the ellipsis supplied; whilst others, who deny both the elliptical and anomalous character of the sentence, construct a rule by which to a.n.a.lyze it, which rule has for its foundation the principle contained in that sentence only. This last mode of procedure, inasmuch as it requires us to make a rule for every peculiar construction in the language, appears to me to be the most exceptionable of the three. It appears to be multiplying rules beyond the bounds of utility.

The verbs, _cost, weighs_, and _measures_, in the 6th, 7th, and 8th examples, may be considered as transitive. See remarks on _resemble, have, own_, &c., page 56.

EXAMPLES.

1. "And G.o.d said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." "Let us make man." "Let us bow before the Lord." "Let high-born seraphs tune the lyre."

2. "_Be it_ enacted." "_Be it_ remembered." _"Blessed be he_ that blesseth thee; and _cursed be he_ that curseth thee." "My soul, turn from them:--_turn we_ to survey," &c.

3. "_Methinks_ I see the portals of eternity wide open to receive him."

"_Methought_ I was incarcerated beneath the mighty deep." "I was there just thirty _years ago_."

4. "Their laws and their manners, generally _speaking_, were extremely rude." "_Considering_ their means, they have effected much."