The English Language Part 88

_R. Br._

2. Whether feith schall _mowe to save_ him?

WICLIF, _James_ ii.

3. My woful child what flight _maist thou to take_?

HIGGINS, _Lady Sabrine_, 4.

4. Never to retourne no more, Except he _would_ his life _to loose_ therfore.

HIGGINS, _King Albanaet_, 6.

5. He said he _could not to forsake_ my love.

HIGGINS, _Queen Elstride_, 20.

6. The mayster _lette_ X men and mo _To wende_.

_Octavian_, 381.

7. And though we owe the fall of Troy requite, Yet _let_ revenge thereof from G.o.ds _to_ lighte.

HIGGINS, _King Albanaet_, 16.

8. _I durst_, my lord, _to wager_ she is honest.

_Oth.e.l.lo_, iv. 2.

9. Whom, when on ground, she grovelling _saw to roll_, She ran in haste, &c.

_F. Q._ iv. 7, 32.

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-- 571. Imperatives have three peculiarities. (1.) They can only, in English, be used in the second person: (2.) They take p.r.o.nouns after, instead of before, them: (3.) They often omit the p.r.o.noun altogether.

-- 572. For the syntax of subjunctives, see the Chapter on Conjunctions.

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CHAPTER XX.

ON THE TENSES.

-- 573. Notwithstanding its name, the present tense in English, does not express a strictly _present_ action. It rather expresses an habitual one.

_He speaks well_=_he is a good speaker_. If a man means to say that he is in the act of speaking, he says _I am speaking_.

It has also, especially when combined with a subjunctive mood, a future power--_I beat you_ (=_I will beat you_) _if you don't leave off_.

-- 574. The English praeterite is the equivalent, not to the Greek perfect but the Greek aorist. _I beat_=[Greek: etupsa] not [Greek: tetupha]. The true perfect is expressed, in English, by the auxiliary _have_ + the past participle.

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CHAPTER XXI.

SYNTAX OF THE PERSONS OF VERBS.

-- 575. For the impersonal verbs see Part IV. Chapter 27.

-- 576. _The concord of persons._--A difficulty that occurs frequently in the Latin language is rare in English. In expressions like _ego et ille_ followed by a verb, there arises a question as to the person in which that verb should be used. Is it to be in the first person in order to agree with _ego_, or in the _third_ in order to agree with _ille_? For the sake of laying down a rule upon these and similar points, the cla.s.sical grammarians arrange the persons (as they do the genders) according to their _dignity_, making the verb (or adjective if it be a question of gender) agree with the most _worthy_. In respect to persons, the first is more worthy than the second, and the second more worthy than the third. Hence, the Latins said--

_Ego_ et _Balbus sustulimus_ ma.n.u.s.

_Tu_ et _Balbus sustulistis_ ma.n.u.s.

Now, in English, the plural form is the same for all three persons. Hence we say _I and you are friends_, _you and I are friends_, _I and he are friends_, &c., so that, for the practice of language, the question as to the relative dignity of the three persons is a matter of indifference.

Nevertheless, it _may_ occur even in English. Whenever two or more p.r.o.nouns of different persons, and of the _singular_ number, follow each other _disjunctively_, the question of concord arises. _I or you_,--_you or he_,--_he or I_. I believe that, in these cases, the rule is as follows:--

1. Whenever the words _either_ or _neither_ precede the {457} p.r.o.nouns, the verb is in the third person. _Either you or I is in the wrong_; _neither you nor I is in the wrong_.

2. Whenever the disjunctive is simple (_i. e._ unaccompanied with the word _either_ or _neither_) the verb agrees with the _first_ of the two p.r.o.nouns.

_I_ or _he am_ in the wrong.

_He_ or _I is_ in the wrong.

_Thou_ or _he art_ in the wrong.

_He_ or _thou is_ in the wrong.

The reasons for these rules will appear in the Chapter on Conjunctions.

Now, provided that they are correct, it is clear that the English language knows nothing about the relative degrees of dignity between these three p.r.o.nouns; since its habit is to make the verb agree with the one which is placed first--whatever may be the person. I am strongly inclined to believe that the same is the case in Latin; in which case (in the sentence _ego et Balbus sustulimus ma.n.u.s_) _sustulimus_ agrees, in person, with _ego_, not because the first person is the worthiest, but because it comes first in the proposition. That the greater supposed worth of the first person may be a reason for putting it first in the proposition is likely enough.

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CHAPTER XXII.

ON THE VOICES OF VERBS.

-- 577. In English there is neither a pa.s.sive nor a middle voice.