The Grammar of English Grammars Part 162

Does this author appear to have gained "a _clear idea_ of the nature of a collective noun?" 28. What great difficulty does Murray acknowledge concerning "nouns of mult.i.tude?" 29. Does Murray's notion, that collective nouns are of different sorts, appear to be consistent or warrantable? 30.

Can words that agree with the same collective noun, be of different numbers? 31. What is observed of collective nouns used part.i.tively? 32.

Which are the most apt to be taken plurally, collections of persons, or collections of things? 33. Can a collective noun, as such, take a plural adjective before it? 34. What is observed of the expressions, _these people, these gentry, these folk_? 35. What is observed of sentences like the following, in which there seems to be no nominative: "There _are_ from eight to twelve professors?" 36. What rule does Dr. Webster give for such examples as the following: "There _was_ more than a hundred and fifty thousand pounds?" 37. What grammarians teach, that two or more nouns connected by _and_, "always require the verb or p.r.o.noun to which they refer, to be in the plural number?" 38. Does Murray acknowledge or furnish any exceptions to this doctrine? 39. On what principle can one justify such an example as this: "_All work and no play, makes_ Jack a dull boy?" 40.

What is remarked of instances like the following: "Prior's _Henry and Emma contains_ an other beautiful example?" 41. What is said of the suppression of the conjunction _and_? 42. When the speaker changes his nominative, to take a stronger one, what concord has the verb? 43. When two or more nominatives connected by _and_ explain a preceding one, what agreement has the verb? 44. What grammarian approves of such expressions as, "Two and two _is_ four?" 45. What is observed of verbs that agree with the nearest nominative, and are understood to the rest? 46. When the nominatives connected are of different persons, of what person is the verb?

LESSON XXIV.--VERBS.

47. What is the syntax of the verb, when one of its nominatives is expressed, and an other or others implied? 48. What is the syntax of the verb, when there are nominatives connected by _as_? 49. What is the construction when two nominatives are connected by _as well as, but_, or _save_? 50. Can words connected by _with_ be properly used as joint nominatives? 51. Does the a.n.a.logy of other languages with ours prove any thing on this point? 52. What does Cobbett say about _with_ put for _and_?

53. What is the construction of such expressions as this: "A torch, _snuff_ and _all, goes_ out in a moment?" 54. Does our rule for the verb and disjunct nominatives derive confirmation from the Latin and Greek syntax?

55. Why do collective nouns singular, when connected by _or_ or _nor_, admit of a plural verb? 56. In the expression, "_I, thou, or he, may affirm_," of what person and number is the verb? 57. Who says, "the verb agrees with _the last nominative_?" 58. What authors prefer "_the nearest person_," and "_the plural number_?" 59. What authors prefer "the _nearest nominative_, whether singular or plural?" 60. What author declares it improper ever to connect by _or_ or _nor_ any nominatives that require different forms of the verb? 61. What is Cobbett's "_clear principle_" on this head? 62. Can a zeugma of the verb be proved to be right, in spite of these authorities? 63. When a verb has nominatives of different persons or numbers, connected by _or_ or _nor_, with which of them does it _commonly_ agree? 64. When does it agree with the remoter nominative? 65. When a noun is implied in an adjective of a different number, which word is regarded in the formation of the verb? 66. What is remarked concerning the place of the p.r.o.noun of the first person singular? 67. When verbs are connected by _and, or_, or _nor_, do they necessarily agree with the same nominative? 68. Why is the thirteenth rule of the author's Inst.i.tutes and First Lines not retained as a rule in this work? 69. Are verbs often connected without agreeing in mood, tense, and form?

LESSON XXV.--VERBS.

70. What particular convenience do we find in having most of our tenses composed of separable words? 71. Is the connecting of verbs elliptically, or by parts, anything peculiar to our language? 72. What faults appear in the teaching of our grammarians concerning _do_ used as a "subst.i.tute for other verbs?" 73. What notions have been entertained concerning the word _to_ as used before the infinitive verb? 74. How does Dr. Ash pa.r.s.e _to_ before the infinitive? 75. What grammarians have taught that the preposition _to_ governs the infinitive mood? 76. Does Lowth agree with Murray in the anomaly of supposing _to_ a preposition that governs nothing?

77. Why do those teach just as inconsistently, who forbear to call the _to_ a preposition? 78. What objections are there to the rule, with its exceptions, "One verb governs an other in the infinitive mood?" 79. What large exception to this rule has been recently discovered by Dr. Bullions?

80. Are the countless examples of this exception truly elliptical? 81. Is the infinitive ever governed by a preposition in French, Spanish, or Italian? 82. What whimsical account of the English infinitive is given by Nixon? 83. How was the infinitive expressed in the Anglo-Saxon of the eleventh century? 84. What does Richard Johnson infer from the fact that the Latin infinitive is sometimes governed by a preposition? 85. What reasons can be adduced to show that the infinitive is not a noun? 86. How can it be proved that _to_ before the infinitive is a preposition? 87. What does Dr. Wilson say of the character and _import_ of the infinitive? 88. To what other terms can the infinitive be connected? 89. What is the infinitive, and for what things may it stand? 90. Do these ten heads embrace all the uses of the infinitive? 91. What is observed of Murray's "_infinitive made absolute_?" 92. What is said of the position of the infinitive? 93. Is the infinitive ever liable to be misplaced?

LESSON XXVI.--VERBS.

94. What is observed of the frequent ellipses of the verb _to be_, supposed by Allen and others? 95. What is said of the suppression of _to_ and the insertion of _be_; as, "To make himself _be_ heard?" 96. Why is it necessary to use the sign _to_ before an abstract infinitive, where it shows no relation? 97. What is observed concerning the distinction of _voice_ in the simple infinitive and the first participle? 98. What do our grammarians teach concerning the omission of _to_ before the infinitive, after _bid, dare, feel_, &c.? 99. How do Ingersoll, Kirkham, and Smith, agree with their master Murray, concerning such examples as, "_Let me go_?"

100. What is affirmed of the difficulties of parsing the infinitive according to the code of Murray? 101. How do Nutting, Kirkham, Nixon, Cooper, and Sanborn, agree with Murray, or with one an other, in pointing out what governs the infinitive? 102. What do Murray and others mean by "_neuter verbs_," when they tell us that the taking of the infinitive without _to_ "extends only to active and neuter verbs?" 103. How is the infinitive used after _bid_? 104. How, after _dare_? 105. How, after _feel_? 106. How, after _hear_? 107. How, after _let_? 108. How, after _make_? 109. How, after _need_? 110. Is _need_ ever an auxiliary? 111. What errors are taught by Greenleaf concerning _dare_ and _need_ or _needs_?

112. What is said of _see_, as governing the infinitive? 113. Do any other verbs, besides these eight, take the infinitive after them without _to_?

114. How is the infinitive used after _have, help_, and _find_? 115. When two or more infinitives occur in the same construction, must _to_ be used with each? 116. What is said of the sign _to_ after _than_ or _as_?

LESSON XXVII.--PARTICIPLES.

1. What questionable uses of participles are commonly admitted by grammarians? 2. Why does the author incline to condemn these peculiarities?

3. What is observed of the multiplicity of uses to which the participle in _ing_ may be turned? 4. What is said of the participles which some suppose to be put absolute? 5. How are participles placed? 6. What is said of the transitive use of such words as _unbecoming_? 7. What distinction, in respect to government, is to be observed between a participle and a participial noun? 8. What shall we do when _of_ after the participial noun is objectionable? 9. What is said of the correction of those examples in which a needless article or possessive is put before the participle? 10.

What is stated of the retaining of adverbs with participial nouns? 11. Can words having the form of the first participle be nouns, and clearly known to be such, when they have no adjuncts? 12. What strictures are made on Murray, Lennie, and Bullions, with reference to examples in which an infinitive follows the participial noun? 13. In what instances is the first participle equivalent to the infinitive? 14. What is said of certain infinitives supposed to be erroneously put for participles? 15. What verbs take the participle after them, and not the infinitive? 16. What is said of those examples in which participles seem to be made the objects of verbs?

17. What is said of the teaching of Murray and others, that, "The participle with its adjuncts may be considered as a _substantive phrase_?"

18. How does the English participle compare with the Latin gerund? 19. How do Dr. Adam and others suppose "the gerund in English" to become a "substantive," or noun? 20. How does the French construction of participles and infinitives compare with the English?

LESSON XXVIII.--PARTICIPLES.

21. What difference does it make, whether we use the possessive case before words in _ing_, or not? 22. What is said of the distinguis.h.i.+ng or confounding of different parts of speech, such as verbs, participles, and nouns? 23. With how many other parts of speech does W. Allen confound the participle? 24. How is the distinguis.h.i.+ng of the participle from the verbal noun inculcated by Allen, and their difference of meaning by Murray? 25. Is it pretended that the authorities and reasons which oppose the mixed construction of participles, are sufficient to prove such usage altogether inadmissible? 26. Is it proper to teach, in general terms, that the noun or p.r.o.noun which limits the meaning of a participle should be put in the possessive case? 27. What is remarked of different cases used indiscriminately before the participle or verbal noun? 28. What say Crombie and others about this disputable phraseology? 29. What says Brown of this their teaching? 30. How do Priestley and others pretend to distinguish between the participial and the substantive use of verbals in _ing_? 31.

What does Brown say of this doctrine? 32. If when a participle becomes an adjective it drops its regimen, should it not also drop it on becoming a noun? 33. Where the sense admits of a choice of construction in respect to the participle, is not attention due to the a.n.a.logy of general grammar? 34.

Does it appear that nouns before participles are less frequently subjected to their government than p.r.o.nouns? 35. Why must a grammarian discriminate between idioms, or peculiarities, and the common mode of expression? 36. Is the Latin gerund, like the verbal in _ing_, sometimes active, sometimes pa.s.sive; and when the former governs the genitive, do we imitate the idiom in English? 37. Is it agreed among grammarians, that the Latin gerund may govern the genitive of the agent? 38. What distinction between the participial and the substantive use of verbals in _ing_ do Crombie and others propose to make? 39. How does this accord with the views of Murray, Lowth, Adam, and Brown?. 40. How does Hiley treat the English participle?

41. What further is remarked concerning false teaching in relation to participles?

LESSON XXIX.--ADVERBS.

1. What is replied to Dr. Adam's suggestion, "Adverbs sometimes qualify substantives?" 2. Do not adverbs sometimes relate to participial nouns? 3.

If an adverbial word relates directly to a noun or p.r.o.noun, does not that fact const.i.tute it an adjective? 4. Are such expressions as, "the _then_ ministry," "the _above_ discourse," good English, or bad--well authorized, or not? 5. When words commonly used as adverbs a.s.sume the construction of nouns, how are they to be pa.r.s.ed? 6. Must not the pa.r.s.er be careful to distinguish adverbs used substantively or adjectively, from such as may be better resolved by the supposing of an ellipsis? 7. How is an adverb to be pa.r.s.ed, when it seems to be put for a verb? 8. How are adverbs to be pa.r.s.ed in such expressions as, "_Away with him?_" 9. What is observed of the relation of conjunctive adverbs, and of the misuse of _when_? 10. What is said in regard to the placing of adverbs? 11. What suggestions are made concerning the word _no_? 12. What is remarked of two or more negatives in the same sentence? 13. Is that a correct rule which says, "Two negatives, in English, destroy each other, or are equivalent to an affirmative?" 14.

What is the dispute among grammarians concerning the adoption of _or_ or _nor_ after _not_ or _no_? 15. What fault is found with the opinion of Priestley, Murray, Ingersoll, and Smith, that "either of them may be used with nearly equal propriety?" 16. How does John Burn propose to settle this dispute? 17. How does Churchill treat the matter? 18. What does he say of the manner in which "the use of _nor_ after _not_ has been introduced?" 19.

What other common modes of expression are censured by this author under the same head? 20. How does Brown review these criticisms, and attempt to settle the question? 21. What critical remark is made on the misuse of _ever_ and _never_? 22. How does Churchill differ from Lowth respecting the phrase, "_ever so wisely_," or "_never so wisely?_" 23. What is observed of _never_ and _ever_ as seeming to be adjectives, and being liable to contraction? 24. What strictures are made on the cla.s.sification and placing of the word _only_? 25. What is observed of the term _not but_, and of the adverbial use of _but_? 26. What is noted of the ambiguous use of _but_ or _only_? 27. What notions are inculcated by different grammarians about the introductory word _there_?

LESSON x.x.x.--CONJUNCTIONS.

1. When two declinable words are connected by a conjunction, why are they of the same case? 2. What is the power, and what the position, of a conjunction that connects sentences or clauses? 3. What further is added concerning the terms which conjunctions connect? 4. What is remarked of two or more conjunctions coming together? 5. What is said of _and_ as supposed to be used to call attention? 6. What relation of case occurs between nouns connected by _as_? 7. Between what other related terms can _as_ be employed? 8. What is _as_ when it is made the subject or the object of a verb? 9. What questions are raised among grammarians, about the construction of _as follow_ or _as follows_, and other similar phrases? 10.

What is said of Murray's mode of treating this subject? 11. Has Murray written any thing which goes to show whether _as follows_ can be right or not, when the preceding noun is plural? 12. What is the opinion of Nixon, and of Crombie? 13. What conjunction is frequently understood? 14. What is said of ellipsis after _than_ or _as_? 15. What is suggested concerning the character and import of _than_ and _as_? 16. Does _than_ as well as _as_ usually take the same case after it that occurs before it? 17. Is the Greek or Latin construction of the latter term in a comparison usually such as ours? 18. What inferences have our grammarians made from the phrase _than whom_? 19. Is _than_ supposed by Murray to be capable of governing any other objective than _whom_? 20. What grammarian supposes _whom_ after _than_ to be "in the objective case _absolute_?" 21. How does the author of this work dispose of the example? 22. What notice is taken of O. B.

Peirce's Grammar, with reference to his manner of parsing words after _than_ or _as_? 23. What says Churchill about the notion that certain conjunctions govern the subjunctive mood? 24. What is said of the different parts of speech contained in the list of correspondents?

LESSON x.x.xI.--PREPOSITIONS.

1. What is said of the parsing of a preposition? 2. How can the terms of relation which pertain to the preposition be ascertained? 3. What is said of the transposition of the two terms? 4. Between what parts of speech, as terms of the relation, can a preposition be used? 5. What is said of the ellipsis of one or the other of the terms? 6. Is _to_ before the infinitive to be pa.r.s.ed just as any other preposition? 7. What is said of Dr. Adam's "_To_ taken _absolutely_?" 8. What is observed in relation to the exceptions to Rule 23d? 9. What is said of the placing of prepositions? 10.

What is told of two prepositions coming together? 11. In how many and what ways does the relation of prepositions admit of complexity? 12. What is the difference between _in_ and _into_? 13. What notice is taken of the application of _between, betwixt, among, amongst, amid, amidst_? 14. What erroneous remark have Priestley, Murray, and others, about two prepositions "in the same construction?" 15. What false doctrine have Lowth, Murray, and others, about the separating of the preposition from its noun? 16. What is said of the prepositions which follow _averse_ and _aversion, except_ and _exception_? 17. What is remarked concerning the use of _of, to, on_, and _upon_? 18. Can there be an inelegant use of prepositions which is not positively ungrammatical?

LESSON x.x.xII.--INTERJECTIONS.

1. Are all interjections to be pa.r.s.ed as being put absolute? 2. What is said of _O_ and the vocative case? 3. What do Nixon and Kirkham erroneously teach about cases governed by interjections? 4. What say Murray, Ingersoll, and Lennie, about interjections and cases? 5. What is shown of the later teaching to which Murray's erroneous and unoriginal remark about "_O, oh_, and _ah_," has given rise? 6. What notice is taken of the application of the rule for "_O, oh_, and _ah_," to nouns of the second person? 7. What is observed concerning the further extension of this rule to nouns and p.r.o.nouns of the third person? 8. What authors teach that interjections are put absolute, and have no government? 9. What is the construction of the p.r.o.noun in "_Ah me!_" "_Ah him!_" or any similar exclamation? 10. Is the common rule for interjections, as requiring certain cases after them, sustained by any a.n.a.logy from the Latin syntax? 11. Can it be shown, on good authority, that _O_ in Latin may be followed by the nominative of the first person or the accusative of the second? 12. What errors in the construction and punctuation of interjectional phrases are quoted from Fisk, Smith, and Kirkham? 13. What is said of those sentences in which an interjection is followed by a preposition or the conjunction _that_? 14.

What is said of the place of the interjection? 15. What says O. B. Peirce about the name and place of the interjection? 16. What is offered in refutation of Peirce's doctrine?

[Now pa.r.s.e the six lessons of the _Thirteenth Praxis_; taking, if the teacher please, the Italic or difficult words only; and referring to the exceptions or observations under the rules, as often as there is occasion.

Then proceed to the correction of the eighteen lessons of _False Syntax_ contained in Chapter Twelfth, or the General Review.]

LESSON x.x.xIII.--GENERAL RULE.

1. Why were the general rule and the general or critical notes added to the foregoing code of syntax? 2. What is the general rule? 3. How many are there of the general or critical notes? 4. What says Critical Note 1st of _the parts of speech_? 5. What says Note 2d of _the doubtful reference_ of words? 6. What says Note 3d of _definitions_? 7. What says Note 4th of _comparisons_? 8. What says Note 5th of _falsities_? 9. What says Note 6th of _absurdities_? 10. What says Note 7th of _self-contradiction_? 11. What says Note 8th of _senseless jumbling_? 12. What says Note 9th of _words needless_? 13. What says Note 10th of _improper omissions_? 14. What says Note 11th of _literary blunders_? 15. What says Note 12th of _literary perversions_? 16. What says Note 13th of _literary awkwardness_? 17. What says Note 14th of _literary ignorance_? 18. What says Note 15th of _literary silliness_? 19. What says Note 16th of _errors incorrigible_? 20.

In what place are the rules, exceptions, notes, and observations, in the foregoing system of syntax, enumerated and described? 21. What suggestions are made in relation to the number of rules or notes, and the completeness of the system? 22. What is remarked on the place and character of the critical notes and the general rule? 23. What is noted in relation to the unamendable imperfections sometimes found in ancient writings?

[Now correct--(or at least read, and compare with the Key--) the sixteen lessons of _False Syntax_, arranged under appropriate heads, for the application of the General Rule; the sixteen others adapted to the Critical Notes; and the five concluding ones, for which the rules are various.]

CHAPTER XV.--FOR WRITING.

EXERCISES IN SYNTAX.

[Fist][When the pupil has been sufficiently exercised in _syntactical parsing_, and has corrected _orally_, according to the formulas given, all the examples of false syntax designed for oral exercises, or so many of them as may be deemed sufficient; he should write out the following exercises, correcting them according to the principles of syntax given in the rules, notes, and observations, contained in the preceding chapters; but omitting or varying the references, because his corrections cannot be ascribed to the books which contain these errors.]

EXERCISE I.--ARTICLES.

"They are inst.i.tutions not merely of an useless, but of an hurtful nature."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 344. "Quintilian prefers the full, the copious, and the amplifying style."--_Ib._, p. 247. "The proper application of rules respecting style, will always be best learned by the means of the ill.u.s.tration which examples afford."--_Ib._, p. 224. "He was even tempted to wish that he had such an one."--_Infant School Gram._, p. 41. "Every limb of the human body has an agreeable and disagreeable motion."--_Kames, El. of Crit._ i, 217. "To produce an uniformity of opinion in all men."--_Ib._, ii. 365. "A writer that is really an humourist in character, does this without design."--_Ib._, i. 303. "Addison was not an humourist in character."--_Ib._, i. 303. "It merits not indeed the t.i.tle of an universal language."--_Ib._, i. 353. "It is unpleasant to find even a negative and affirmative proposition connected."--_Ib._, ii. 25. "The sense is left doubtful by wrong arrangement of members."--_Ib._, ii. 44. "As, for example, between the adjective and following substantive."--_Ib._, ii. 104.

"Witness the following hyperbole, too bold even for an Hotspur."--_Ib._, 193. "It is disposed to carry along the good and bad properties of one to another."--_Ib._, ii. 197. "What a kind of a man such an one is likely to prove, is easy to foresee."--_Locke, on Education_, p. 47. "In propriety there cannot be such a thing as an universal grammar, unless there were such a thing as an universal language."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 47. "The very same process by which he gets at the meaning of any ancient author, carries him to a fair and a faithful rendering of the scriptures of the Old and New Testament."--_Chalmers, Sermons_, p. 16. "But still a predominancy of one or other quality in the minister is often visible."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 19. "Among the ancient critics, Longinus possessed most delicacy; Aristotle, most correctness."--_Ib._, p. 20. "He then proceeded to describe an hexameter and pentameter verse."--_Ward's Preface to Lily_, p. vi. "And Alfred, who was no less able a negotiator than courageous a warrior, was unanimously chosen King."--_Pinnock's Geog._, p. 271. "An useless incident weakens the interest which we take in the action."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 460. "This will lead into some detail; but I hope an useful one."--_Ib._, p. 234. "When they understand how to write English with due Connexion, Propriety, and Order, and are pretty well Masters of a tolerable Narrative Stile, they may be advanced to writing of Letters."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. 337. "The Senate is divided into the Select and Great Senate."--_Hewitt's Student-Life in Germany_, p. 28. "We see a remains of this ceremonial yet in the public solemnities of the universities."--_Ib._, p. 46.

"Where an huge pollard on the winter fire, At an huge distance made them all retire."--_Crabbe, Borough_, p. 209.