An English Grammar Part 13

71. In parsing any word, the following method should always be followed: tell the facts about what the word _does_, then make the grammatical statements as to its cla.s.s, inflections, and relations.

MODEL FOR PARSING.

"What is bolder than a miller's neckcloth, which takes a thief by the throat every morning?"

_Miller's_ is a name applied to every individual of its cla.s.s, hence it is a common noun; it is the name of a male being, hence it is a gender noun, masculine; it denotes only one person, therefore singular number; it expresses possession or owners.h.i.+p, and limits _neckcloth_, therefore possessive case.

_Neckcloth_, like _miller's_, is a common cla.s.s noun; it has no s.e.x, therefore neuter; names one thing, therefore singular number; subject of the verb _is_ understood, and therefore nominative case.

_Thief_ is a common cla.s.s noun; the connection shows a male is meant, therefore masculine gender; singular number; object of the verb _takes_, hence objective case.

_Throat_ is neuter, of the same cla.s.s and number as the word _neckcloth_; it is the object of the preposition _by_, hence it is objective case.

NOTE.--The preposition sometimes takes the possessive case (see Sec.

68).

_Morning_ is like _throat_ and _neckcloth_ as to cla.s.s, gender, and number; as to case, it expresses time, has no governing word, but is the adverbial objective.

Exercise.

Follow the model above in parsing all the nouns in the following sentences:--

1. To raise a monument to departed worth is to perpetuate virtue.

2. The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.

3. An old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered serving man, a fresh tapster.

4. That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.

5. Now, blessings light on him that first invented ... sleep!

6. Necker, financial minister to Louis XVI., and his daughter, Madame de Stael, were natives of Geneva.

7. He giveth his beloved sleep.

8. Time makes the worst enemies friends.

9. A few miles from this point, where the Rhone enters the lake, stands the famous Castle of Chillon, connected with the sh.o.r.e by a drawbridge,--palace, castle, and prison, all in one.

10. Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth, And hated her for her pride.

11. Mrs. Jarley's back being towards him, the military gentleman shook his forefinger.

p.r.o.nOUNS.

[Sidenote: _The need of p.r.o.nouns._]

72. When we wish to speak of a name several times in succession, it is clumsy and tiresome to repeat the noun. For instance, instead of saying, "_The pupil_ will succeed in _the pupil's_ efforts if _the pupil_ is ambitious," we improve the sentence by shortening it thus, "The pupil will succeed in _his_ efforts if _he_ is ambitious."

Again, if we wish to know about the owners.h.i.+p of a house, we evidently cannot state the owner's name, but by a question we say, "_Whose_ house is that?" thus placing a word instead of the name till we learn the name.

This is not to be understood as implying that p.r.o.nouns were _invented_ because nouns were tiresome, since history shows that p.r.o.nouns are as old as nouns and verbs. The use of p.r.o.nouns must have sprung up naturally, from a necessity for short, definite, and representative words.

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

A p.r.o.noun is a reference word, standing for a name, or for a person or thing, or for a group of persons or things.

[Sidenote: _Cla.s.ses of p.r.o.nouns._]

73. p.r.o.nouns may be grouped in five cla.s.ses:--

(1) Personal p.r.o.nouns, which distinguish person by their form (Sec.

76).

(2) Interrogative p.r.o.nouns, which are used to ask questions about persons or things.

(3) Relative p.r.o.nouns, which relate or refer to a noun, p.r.o.noun, or other word or expression, and at the same time connect two statements They are also called conjunctive.

(4) Adjective p.r.o.nouns, words, primarily adjectives, which are cla.s.sed as adjectives when they modify nouns, but as p.r.o.nouns when they stand for nouns.

(5) Indefinite p.r.o.nouns, which cannot be used as adjectives, but stand for an indefinite number of persons or things.

Numerous examples of all these will be given under the separate cla.s.ses hereafter treated.

PERSONAL p.r.o.nOUNS.

[Sidenote: _Person in grammar._]

74. Since p.r.o.nouns stand for persons as well as names, they must represent the person talking, the person or thing spoken to, and the person or thing talked about.

This gives rise to a new term, "the distinction of _person_."

[Sidenote: Person _of nouns_.]

75. This distinction was not needed in discussing nouns, as nouns have the _same form_, whether representing persons and things spoken to or spoken of. It is evident that a noun could not represent the person speaking, even if it had a special form.