write nonsense."-See Cambridge Philological Museum, vol.

i., p. 670.

THE TRUE NATURE

OF THE

GENITIVE FORM.

§ 173. The origin of the error of regarding his as replaced by s and the apostrophe may be found in the historical statement just given. The similarity of sound between the real Anglo-Saxon Genitive of one of the three declensions, and the same noun with the addition of his, as Christis gospel and Christ his gospel, led to the error. In Old English, the Genitives in the other declensions took the form of the one ending in s. In opposition to this error, it should be stated, 1. The expression the Queen's majesty is not capable of being reduced to the Queen his majesty. 2. In the form his, the s has precisely the power which it has in father's. Now his can not be said to arise out of he+his. 3. In all the languages of the vast Indo-European tribes, except the Celtic, a Genitive ends in s just as it does in English; so that even if the words father his would account for the English word father's, it would not account for the Sanscrit Genitive pad-as, of a foot, the Latin dent-is, &c.

THE NUMBER OF CASES.

§ 174. It has been a question how many cases should be admitted in the English Language. If a change of termination is essential to constitute a case, there are but two cases, the nominative and the possessive, which are the only two forms of the noun; as, John, John's. Indeed, strictly, there is but one case or falling from the nominative.

But if, on the other hand, it should be claimed that the use of a preposition constitutes a case, then there must be as many cases as there are prepositions: above a man; beneath a man; within a man; without a man must be cases as well as of a man; to a man; and from a man.

§ 175. In the language of the Anglo-Saxons, the Genitive Cases of the words Smith (Smis), ende (ende), were respectively Smithes (Smides), endes, while the Nominative Plurals were respectively Smithas (Smiðas), endas. A process of change took place, by which the Vowel of the last Syllable

in each word was ejected. The result was, that the forms of the Genitive Singular and the Nominative Plural, originally different, became one and the same, so that the identity of the two Cases is an accident. This fact relieves the English Grammarian of a difficulty. The Nominative Plural and the Genitive Singular are, in the present language of England, identical; the apostrophe in father's being a mere matter of Orthography. However, there was once a differThis modifies the statement that a change of form is essential to constitute a case. It may now stand thus, that for a change of case there must be a change of form existing or presumed.

ence.

same.

Besides, both in the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon, different cases are attributed to Nouns when the terminations are the In practical Grammar, we are therefore justified, on the ground of convenience, in admitting at least three cases, though there are but two terminations in Nouns, especially as we must have three terminational cases in some of the Pronouns. See § 208.

§ 176. One word of English is probably a true Accusative in the strict sense of the term, viz., the word twain two.

Abl. and Dat.,

Besides the Nominative, Genitive, and Accusative cases, we have remnants of the dative form in the Anglo-Saxon language, in the words whilom and seldom, as we have in the words him and whom. In the phrase "Give it him" we have a dative case. The objective case and the preposition to are often equivalent to the Dative case in other languages. It might be a matter of convenience to add the Dative and Vocative to the number of English cases.

A

The following has been proposed: "Nom., A man; Gen., A man's; Dat., A man; Accus., A man; Voc., man! MAN (N.) may beat ANOTHER MAN (A.) if he can, but it is A MAN'S (G.) part to give HIM, i. e., A man (D.), fair play. MAN! (V.) hold your hand. Here we have the agent, or Nominative, that beats; the patient, or Accusative, that is

beaten; the person standing in the relation of possession, or Genitive, and of giving, or Dative; finally, in that of being addressed by another, or Vocative."

THE ANALYSIS OF CASES.

§ 177. In the word children's we are enabled to separate the word into three parts: 1. The Root child; 2. The Plural signs r and en; 3. The signs of the Genitive case. In this instance, the word is said to be analyzed, since we not only take it to pieces, but also give the respective powers of each of its elements, stating which denotes the case and which the number.

The import of the Genitive case may often be expressed by the particle of. Thus, for man's wisdom we can say the wisdom of man. This has been called the analytical, or the Norman possessive or genitive, and is commonly used, especially in the plural number, when the possessor is inanimate. A Noun with the sign 's is called the Saxon possessive, because it is a contraction of the Saxon Genitive in es, is, The mark' is called apostrophe, because it is a turning off or omission of the vowel e or i. It is, however, used as the sign of the possessive case, where there is no omission of the vowel, as in the plural number. It should be added, before closing this section, that though the import of the analytical Genitive is often much the same as that of the Saxon Genitive, it is often different. If instead of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree, Milton had written, Of the first disobedience of man, and that forbidden tree's fruit, his meaning would have been different from what it now is. He now calls on the muse to sing of man's first act of disobedience as distinguished from all his other acts, and the fruit of that forbidden tree as distinguished from all other trees; whereas, the other arrangement of the words would have laid the stress on man as distinguished from all other beings, and on the fruit as distinguished from the rest of the tree. The Paradise Lost of Milton is not in import exactly the same as Milton's Paradise Lost. In the former, attention is called to the author; in the latter, to the work.

CHAPTER III.

THE ADJECTIVE.

§ 178. AN ADJECTIVE is a word which can not by itself form the Subject of a proposition, but which can form the Predicate of one, and can also qualify or limit the meaning of a Noun; as, "Man is mortal;""an honest man ;" "the second ring." See § 399.

Adjectives, from the Latin word adjectivus (added to), have been called Attributives, because they denote qualities attributed to things. An Adjective denotes a concrete quality of a Noun, without any other circumstance. Thus, in the phrase "he is an eloquent man," the word eloquent withdraws the attention from every other circumstance, and fixes it upon his eloquence. It is sometimes called a noun adjective, because it is the name of a quality. Unlike the AngloSaxon, the English adjective preserves the same form in both numbers, and in all genders and cases. See § 375, 3; 380.

CLASSIFICATION.

§ 179. Adjectives may be divided into two classes: I. Those which denote a VARIABLE quality or limitation, one which is capable of increase or diminution; as, Brave, good.

II. Those which denote an INVARIABLE quality or limitation, one which is incapable of increase or diminution; as, Wooden, brazen.

§ 180. Another division has been proposed, by which Adjectives have been distributed into, FIRST, Those which fix the attention on the quality or property which they describe, whether this property be an object of the bodily sense; as, Green, loud; or of the mental perceptions and affections; as, Dear, kind, true. Among these, the most characteristic are those which are not obviously derived from any other word; as, Good, soft, bright. Words of this class do not contain in themselves any reference to any other word; but we have

various derivatives formed from each of them; as, Goodness, wisdom, truth, soften, brighten, redden.

Besides the Adjectives that are apparently primitive in our own language, we have many Adjectives of quality derived from the Latin; as, Long, large, grand. From these we either form abstract Substantives; as, Length, largeness; or we Anglicize the abstract term already formed in another language; as, Chastity, grandeur. In other cases, abstract words have been established in our own language of a primitive character; as, Joy, virtue; and we have Adjectives of quality derived from them; as, Joyful, virtuous. Abstract terms are never strictly primitive, but are formed from some concrete substantive or verb. Joy comes from the French joye, and the Italian gioia from the Latin gaudium, whose root is gaudeo. Virtus is an old Roman abstraction from vir. The SECOND CLASS under this distribution are those which have a manifest and distinct reference to some Primitive; either a concrete substantive; as, wooden, fatherly; or to a verb; as, tiresome, seemly. These may be called ADJECTIVES OF RELATION. Various terminations are employed in the formation of such terms: some of Teutonic origin; as, Lovely, faithful, faithless, witty, sleepy, troublesome, sheepish, golden; others of Latin extraction; as, Gracious, ethereal, angular, adamantine, visionary, promissory, angelic, offensive, changeable, accessible, and others. The characteristic of the present class of adjectives is, that they have a distinctly felt reference to their primitives. When, for instance, we speak of a beechen bowl, of an insular climate, of fatherly duties, there is a reference, distinctly perceived, to the substantives from which the adjectives come, and we are conscious that we mean a bowl made of beech, the climate of an island, the duties of a father.

This mental reference to the primitive, when we use a derivative adjective, admits of very numerous and various degrees of consciousness and distinctness, implying either the material, as earthen; or some participation of substance or quality, earthy, earthly; or some actual or metaphorical assimilation; as, childish, homely.

This reference, too, is felt in very different degrees by dif