The English Language Part 96

But not _always_. In Byron's "Deformed Transformed" we find the following lines:-- {496}

Clay! not dead but soulless, Though no mortal man would choose thee, An immortal no less Deigns _not to refuse_ thee.

Here _not to refuse_=_to accept_; and is probably a Grecism. _To not refuse_ would, perhaps, be better.

The next expression is still more foreign to the English idiom:--

For _not_ to have been dipped in Lethe's lake _Could save_ the son of Thetis from to die.

Here _not_ is to be taken with _could_.

-- 626. In the present English, two negatives make an affirmative. _I have not not seen him_=_I have seen him_. In Greek this was not the case. _Duae aut plures negativae apud Graecos vehementius negant_ is a well-known rule.

The Anglo-Saxon idiom differed from the English and coincided with the Greek. The French negative is only apparently double; words like _point_, _pas_, mean not _not_, but _at all_. _Je ne parle pas_ = _I not speak at all_, not _I not speak no_.

-- 627. _Questions of appeal._--All questions imply want of information; want of information may then imply doubt; doubt, perplexity; and perplexity the absence of an alternative. In this way, what are called, by Mr.

Arnold,[67] _questions of appeal_, are, practically speaking, negatives.

_What should I do?_ when asked in extreme perplexity, means that nothing can well be done. In the following pa.s.sage we have the presence of a question instead of a negative:--

Or hear'st thou (_cluis_, Lat.) rather pure aetherial stream, Whose fountain who (_no one_) shall tell?

_Paradise Lost._

-- 628. The following extract from the Philological Museum (vol. ii.) ill.u.s.trates a curious and minute distinction, which the author shows to have been current when Wicliffe wrote, but which was becoming obsolete when Sir Thomas More wrote. It is an extract from that writer against Tyndall.

{497}

"I would not here note by the way that Tyndall here translateth _no_ for _nay_, for it is but a trifle and mistaking of the Englishe worde: saving that ye shoulde see that he whych in two so plain Englishe wordes, and so common as in _naye_ and _no_ can not tell when he should take the one and when the tother, is not for translating into Englishe a man very mete. For the use of these two wordes in aunswering a question is this. _No_ aunswereth the question framed by the affirmative. As for ensample if a manne should aske Tindall himselfe: ys an heretike meete to translate Holy Scripture into Englishe? lo to thys question if he will aunswere trew Englishe, he must aunswere _nay_ and not _no_. But and if the question be asked hym thus lo: is not an heretike mete to translate Holy Scripture into Englishe? To this question if he will aunswere trewe Englishe, he must aunswere _no_ and not _nay_. And a lyke difference is there betwene these two adverbs _ye_ and _yes_. For if the question bee framed unto Tindall by the affirmative in thys fas.h.i.+on. If an heretique falsely translate the New Testament into Englishe, to make his false heresyes seem the word of G.o.dde, be his bokes worthy to be burned? To this questyon asked in thys wyse, yf he will aunswere true Englishe, he must aunswere _ye_ and not _yes_. But now if the question be asked him thus lo; by the negative. If an heretike falsely translate the Newe Testament into Englishe to make his false heresyes seme the word of G.o.d, be not hys bokes well worthy to be burned?

To thys question in thys fas.h.i.+on framed if he will aunswere trewe Englishe he may not aunswere _ye_ but he must answere _yes_, and say yes marry be they, bothe the translation and the translatour, and al that wyll hold wyth them."

{498}

CHAPTER XXVIII.

ON THE CASE ABSOLUTE.

-- 629. Broadly speaking, all adverbial constructions are absolute. The term, however, is conveniently limited to a particular combination of the noun, verb, and participle. When two actions are connected with each other either by the fact of their simultaneous occurrence, or as cause and effect, they may be expressed within the limits of a single proposition, by expressing the one by means of a verb, and the other by means of a noun and participle agreeing with each other. _The door being open, the horse was stolen._

Considering the nature of the connection between the two actions, we find good grounds for expecting _a priori_ that the participle will be in the instrumental case, when such exists in the language; and when not, in some case allied to it, _i.e._, the ablative or dative.

In Latin the ablative is the case that is used absolutely. _Sole orto, claruit dies._

In Anglo-Saxon the absolute case was the dative. This is logical.

In the present English, however, the nominative is the absolute case. _He made the best proverbs, him alone excepted_, is an expression of Tillotson's. We should now write _he alone excepted_. The present mode of expression is only to be justified by considering the nominative form to be a dative one, just as in the expression _you are here_, the word _you_, although an accusative, is considered as a nominative. A real nominative absolute is as illogical as a real accusative case governing a verb.

{499}

PART VI.

ON THE PROSODY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

-- 630. Prosody deals with metre; and with accent, quant.i.ty and the articulate sounds, as subordinate to metre. For these the reader is referred to Part III. Chapters 1. 6. 7.

_Metre_ is a general term for the recurrence, within certain intervals, of syllables similarly affected.

Syllables may be similarly affected: 1. in respect to their quant.i.ties; 2.

in respect to their accents; 3. in respect to their articulations.

1.

P[)a]l[=a]i k[)y]naeg[)e]to[=u]nt[)a] k[=a]i m[)e]tro[=u]m[)e]n[=o]n.

[Greek: Palai kunegetounta kai metroumenon.]--SOPH. _Ajax_, 3.

Here there is the recurrence of similar quant.i.ties.

2.

The way was long, the wind was cold.

_Lay of the Last Minstrel._

Here there is the recurrence of similar accents.

3.

The way was long, the wind was _cold_, The minstrel was infirm and _old_.--_Ditto._

Here, besides the recurrence of similar accents, there is a recurrence of the same articulate sounds; _viz._ of _o_ + _ld_.

-- 631. Metres founded upon the periodic recurrence of similar articulations are of two sorts.

1. _Alliterative metres._--In alliterative metres a certain {500} number of words, within a certain period, must _begin_ with a similar articulation.

In Caines cynne one cwealm gewraec.

CaeDMON.

Alliteration is the general character of all the _early_ Gothic metres.

(See Rask's _Anglo-Saxon Grammar_, Rask, _On the Icelandic Prosody_, and Conybeare, _On Anglo-Saxon Poetry_.)

2. _a.s.sonant metres._--In a.s.sonant metres a certain number of words, within a certain period, must _end_ with a similar articulation. All _rhymes_ and all approaches to rhyme, form the a.s.sonant metres. The word _a.s.sonant_ has a limited as well as a general sense.

-- 632. All metre goes by the name of poetry, although all poetry is not metrical. The Hebrew poetry (_see_ Lowth, _De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum_) is characterized by the recurrence of similar _ideas_.