The Grammar of English Grammars Part 119

NOTE X.--Where a p.r.o.noun or a p.r.o.nominal adjective will not express the meaning clearly, the noun must be repeated, or inserted in stead of it: as, "We see the beautiful variety of colour in the rainbow, and are led to consider the cause of _it_." Say,--"the cause of _that variety_;" because the _it_ may mean _the variety, the colour_, or _the rainbow_.

NOTE XI.--To prevent ambiguity or obscurity, the relative should, in general, be placed as near as possible to the antecedent. The following sentence is therefore faulty: "He is like a beast of prey, that is void of compa.s.sion." Better thus: "He that is void of compa.s.sion, is like a beast of prey."

NOTE XII.--The p.r.o.noun _what_ should never be used in stead of the conjunction _that_; as, "Think no man so perfect but _what_ he may err."

This is a vulgar fault. Say,--"but _that_ he may err."

NOTE XIII.--A p.r.o.noun should never be used to represent an _adjective_,--except the p.r.o.nominal adjectives, and others taken substantively; because a p.r.o.noun can neither express a concrete quality as such, nor convert it properly into an abstract: as, "Be _attentive_; without _which_ you will learn nothing." Better thus: "Be attentive; _for without attention_ you will learn nothing."

NOTE XIV.--Though the relative which may in some instances stand for a phrase or a sentence, it is seldom, if ever, a fit representative of an indicative a.s.sertion; as, "The man opposed me, _which_ was antic.i.p.ated."-- _Nixon's Pa.r.s.er_, p. 127. Say,--"_but his opposition_ was antic.i.p.ated."

Or: "The man opposed me, _as_ was antic.i.p.ated." Or:--"_as I expected he would_." Again: "The captain disobeys orders, _which_ is punished."--_Ib._, p. 128. This is an other fact.i.tious sentence, formed after the same model, and too erroneous for correction: none but a conceited grammatist could ever have framed such a construction.

NOTE XV.--The possessive p.r.o.nouns, _my, thy, his, her, its_, &c., should be inserted or repeated as often as the sense or construction of the sentence requires them; their omission, like that of the articles, can scarcely in any instance const.i.tute a proper ellipsis: as, "Of Princeton and vicinity."--Say, "Of Princeton and _its_ vicinity." "The man and wife."--Say, "The man and _his_ wife." "Many verbs vary both their signification and construction."--_Adam's Gram._, p. 170; _Gould's_, 171.

Say,--"and _their_ construction."

NOTE XVI.--In the correcting of any discord between the antecedent and its p.r.o.noun, if the latter for any sufficient reason is most proper as it stands, the former must be changed to accord with it: as, "Let us discuss what relates to _each particular_ in _their_ order:--_its_ order."-- _Priestley's Gram._, p. 193. Better thus: "Let us discuss what relates to _the several particulars_, in _their_ order." For the order of things implies plurality.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE X. UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.--OF AGREEMENT

"The subject is to be joined with his predicate."--BP. WILKINS: _Lowth's Gram._, p. 42.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the p.r.o.noun _his_ is of the masculine gender, and does not correctly represent its antecedent noun _subject_, which is of the third person, singular, _neuter_. But, according to Rule 10th, "A p.r.o.noun must agree with its antecedent, or the noun or p.r.o.noun which it represents, in person, number, and gender." Therefore, _his_ should be _its_; thus, "The subject is to be joined with _its_ predicate."]

"Every one must judge of their own feelings."--_Byron's Letters_. "Every one in the family should know their duty."--_Wm. Penn_. "To introduce its possessor into 'that way in which it should go.'"--_Infant School Gram._, p. v. "Do not they say, every true believer has the Spirit of G.o.d in them?"--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 388. "There is none in their natural state righteous, no not one."--_Wood's Dict. of Bible_, ii, 129. "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own."--_John_, xv, 19. "His form had not yet lost all her original brightness."--_Milton_. "No one will answer as if I were their friend or companion."--_Steele_, Spect., No. 534. "But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."-- _Philippians_, ii, 3. "And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour."--_Zechariah_, viii, 17. "For every tree is known by his own fruit."--_Luke_, vi, 44. "But she fell to laughing, like one out of their right mind."--_Castle Rackrent_, p. 51. "Now these systems, so far from having any tendency to make men better, have a manifest tendency to make him worse."--_Wayland's Moral Science_, p. 128. "And n.o.body else would make that city their refuge any more."--_Josephus's Life_, p. 158. "What is quant.i.ty, as it respects syllables or words? It is that time which is occupied in p.r.o.nouncing it."--_Bradley's Gram._, p. 108. "In such expressions the adjective so much resembles an adverb in its meaning, that they are usually pa.r.s.ed as such."--_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. 103. "The tongue is like a race-horse; which runs the faster the less weight it carries."--ADDISON: _Joh. Dict.; Murray's Key_, Rule 8. "As two thoughtless boys were trying to see which could lift the greatest weight with their jaws, one of them had several of his firm-set teeth wrenched from their sockets."--_Newspaper_. "Everybody nowadays publishes memoirs; everybody has recollections which they think worthy of recording."--_d.u.c.h.ess D'Abrantes_, p. 25. "Every body trembled for themselves or their friends."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 171.

"A steed comes at morning: no rider is there; But its bridle is red with the sign of despair."--_Campbell_.

UNDER NOTE I.--p.r.o.nOUNS WRONG OR NEEDLESS.

"Charles loves to study; but John, alas! he is very idle."--_Merchant's School Gram._, p. 22. "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?"--_Matt._, vii, 9. "Who, in stead of going about doing good, they are perpetually intent upon doing mischief."-- _Tillotson_. "Whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pontius Pilate."--_Acts_, iii, 13. "Whom, when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber."--_Acts_, ix, 37. "Then Mana.s.seh knew that the Lord he was G.o.d."--_2 Chron._, x.x.xiii, 13. "Whatever a man conceives clearly, he may, if he will be at the trouble, put it into distinct propositions, and express it clearly to others."--_Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p.

293. "But to that point of time which he has chosen, the painter being entirely confined, he cannot exhibit various stages of the same action."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 52. "It is without any proof at all what he subjoins."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 301. "George Fox his Testimony concerning Robert Barclay."--_Ib._, i, 111. "According to the author of the Postscript his advice."--_Ib._, iii, 263. "These things seem as ugly to the Eye of their Meditations, as those aethiopians pictur'd in Nemesis her Pitcher."--_Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients_, p. 49. "Moreover, there is always a twofold Condition propounded with Sphynx her aenigma's."--_Ib._, p.

73. "Whoever believeth not therein, they shall perish."--_Sale's Koran_, p.

20. "When, at Sestius his entreaty, I had been at his house."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 59.

"There high on Sipylus his s.h.a.ggy brow, She stands, her own sad monument of woe."

--_Pope's Homer_, B. xxiv, l. 777.

UNDER NOTE II.--CHANGE OF NUMBER.

"So will I send upon you famine, and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee."--_Ezekiel_, v, 17. "Why do you plead so much for it? why do ye preach it up?"--_Barclay's Works_, i, 180. "Since thou hast decreed that I shall bear man, your darling."--_Edward's First Lesson in Gram._, p. 106.

"You have my book and I have thine; i.e. thy book."--_Chandler's Gram._, 1821, p. 22. "Neither art thou such a one as to be ignorant of what you are."--_Bullions, Lat. Gram._, p. 70. "Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you."--_Jeremiah_, iii, 12. "The Almighty, unwilling to cut thee off in the fullness of iniquity, has sent me to give you warning."--_Art of Thinking_, p. 278. "Wert thou born only for pleasure? were you never to do any thing?"--_Collier's Antoninus_, p. 63. "Thou shalt be required to go to G.o.d, to die, and give up your account."--BARNES'S NOTES: _on Luke_, xii, 20. "And canst thou expect to behold the resplendent glory of the Creator?

would not such a sight annihilate you?"--_Milton_. "If the prophet had commanded thee to do some great thing, would you have refused?"--_Common School Journal_, i, 80. "Art thou a penitent? Evince your sincerity by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance."--_Christian's Vade-Mec.u.m_, p.

117. "I will call thee my dear son: I remember all your tenderness."-- _Cla.s.sic Tales_, p. 8. "So do thou, my son: open your ears, and your eyes."--_Wright's Athens_, p. 33. "I promise you, this was enough to discourage thee."--_Pilgrim's Progress_, p. 446. "Ere you remark an other's sin, Bid thy own conscience look within."--_Gay_. "Permit that I share in thy woe, The privilege can you refuse?"--_Perfect's Poems_, p. 6. "Ah!

Strephon, how can you despise Her who without thy pity dies?"--_Swift's Poems_, p. 340.

"Thy verses, friend, are Kidderminster stuff, And I must own, you've measur'd out enough."--_Shenstone._

"This day, dear Bee, is thy nativity; Had Fate a luckier one, she'd give it ye."--_Swift._

UNDER NOTE III.--WHO AND WHICH.

"Exactly like so many puppets, who are moved by wires."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 462. "They are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt."--_Leviticus_, xxv, 42. "Behold I and the children which G.o.d hath given me."--_Heb._, ii, 13; _Webster's Bible, and others._ "And he sent Eliakim which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe."--_2 Kings_, xix, 2. "In a short time the streets were cleared of the corpses who filled them."--_M'Ilvaine's Led._, p. 411. "They are not of those which teach things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 435. "As a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces."--_Micah_, v, 8. "Frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water."--_Ra.s.selas_, p. 10. "He had two sons, one of which was adopted by the family of Maximus."--_Lempriere, w. aemytius_.

"And the ants, who are collected by the smell, are burned by fire."--_The Friend_, xii, 49. "They being the agents, to which this thing was trusted."--_Nixon's Pa.r.s.er_, p. 139. "A packhorse who is driven constantly forwards and backwards to market."--LOCKE: _Joh. Dict._ "By instructing children, the affection of which will be increased."--_Nixon's Pa.r.s.er_, p.

136. "He had a comely young woman which travelled with him."--_Hutchinson's Hist._, i, 29. "A b.u.t.terfly, which thought himself an accomplished traveller, happened to light upon a beehive."--_Inst._, p. 143. "It is an enormous elephant of stone, who disgorges from his uplifted trunk a vast but graceful shower."--_Zen.o.bia_, i, 150. "He was met by a dolphin, who sometimes swam before him, and sometimes behind him."--_Edward's First Lessons in Gram._, p. 34.

"That Caesar's horse, who, as fame goes, Had corns upon his feet and toes, Was not by half so tender-hooft, Nor trod upon the ground so soft."--_Hudibras_, p. 6.

UNDER NOTE IV.--NOUNS OF MULt.i.tUDE.

"He instructed and fed the crowds who surrounded him."--_Murray's Exercises_, p. 52. "The court, who gives currency to manners, ought to be exemplary."--_Ibid._ "Nor does he describe cla.s.ses of sinners who do not exist."--_Anti-Slavery Magazine_, i, 27. "Because the nations among whom they took their rise, were not savage."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 113. "Among nations who are in the first and rude periods of society."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 60. "The martial spirit of those nations, among whom the feudal government prevailed."--_Ib._, p. 374. "France who was in alliance with Sweden."--_Smollett's Voltaire_, vi, 187. "That faction in England who most powerfully opposed his arbitrary pretensions."--_Mrs. Macaulay's Hist._, iii, 21. "We may say, the crowd, _who_ was going up the street.'"--_Cobbett's Gram._, -- 204. "Such members of the Convention who formed this Lyceum, as have subscribed this Const.i.tution."--_New-York Lyceum._

UNDER NOTE V.--CONFUSION OF SENSES.

"The possessor shall take a particular form to show its case."--_Kirkham's Gram._, p. 53. "Of which reasons the princ.i.p.al one is, that no Noun, properly so called, implies its own Presence."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 76.

"Boston is a proper noun, which distinguishes it from other cities."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 22. "Conjunction means union, or joining together. It is used to join or unite either words or sentences."--_Ib._, p. 20. "The word _interjection_ means _thrown among_. It is interspersed among other words to express sudden or strong emotion."--_Ib._, p. 21. "_In deed_, or in very deed, may better be written separately, as they formerly were."--_Cardell's Gram._, 12mo, p. 89. "_Alexander_, on the contrary, is a particular name, and is restricted to distinguish him alone."--_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 25. "As an indication that nature itself had changed her course."--_Hist. of America_, p. 9. "Of removing from the United States and her territories the free people of colour."--_Jenifer_. "So that _gh_ may be said not to have their proper sound."--_Webster's El. Spelling-Book_, p.

10. "Are we to welcome the loathsome harlot, and introduce it to our children?"--_Maturin's Sermons_, p. 167. "The first question is this, 'Is reputable, national, and present use, which, for brevity's sake, I shall hereafter simply denominate good use, always uniform in her decisions?"--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 171. "Time is always masculine, on account of its mighty efficacy. Virtue is feminine from its beauty, and its being the object of love."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 37; _Blair's_, 125; _Sanborn's_, 189; _Emmons's_, 13; _Putnam's_, 25; _Fisk's_, 57; _Ingersoll's_, 26; _Greenleaf's_, 21. See also _Blair's Rhet._, p. 76.

"When you speak to a person or thing, it is in the second person."--_Bartlett's Manual_, Part ii, p. 27. "You now know the noun, for it means name."--_Ibid._ "_T_. What do you see? _P_. A book. _T_. Spell it."--_R. W. Green's Gram._, p. 12. "_T_. What do you see now? _P_. Two books. _T_. Spell them."--_Ibid._ "If the United States lose her rights as a nation."--_Liberator_, Vol. ix, p. 24. "When a person or thing is addressed or spoken to, it is in the second person."--_Frost's El. of Gram._, p. 7. "When a person or thing is spoken of, it is in the third person."--_Ibid._ "The ox, that ploughs the ground, has the same plural termination also, _oxen_."--_Bucke's Cla.s.sical Gram._, p. 40.

"Hail, happy States! thine is the blissful seat, Where nature's gifts and art's improvements meet."

EVERETT: _Columbian Orator_, p. 239.

UNDER NOTE VI.--THE RELATIVE THAT.

(1.) "This is the most useful art which men possess."--_Murray's Key_, 8vo, p. 275. "The earliest accounts which history gives us concerning all nations, bear testimony to these facts."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 379; _Jamieson's_, 300. "Mr. Addison was the first who attempted a regular inquiry" [into the pleasures of taste.]--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 28. "One of the first who introduced it was Montesquieu."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 125.

"Ma.s.sillon is perhaps the most eloquent writer of sermons which modern times have produced."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 289. "The greatest barber who ever lived, is our guiding star and prototype."--_Hart's Figaro_, No. 6.

(2.) "When prepositions are subjoined to nouns, they are generally the same which are subjoined to the verbs, from which the nouns are derived."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 157. "The same proportions which are agreeable in a model, are not agreeable in a large building."--_Kames, EL of Crit._, ii, 343. "The same ornaments, which we admire in a private apartment, are unseemly in a temple."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 128. "The same whom John saw also in the sun."--_Milton. P. L._, B. iii, l. 623.

(3.) "Who can ever be easy, who is reproached with his own ill conduct?"--_Thomas a Kempis_, p. 72. "Who is she who comes clothed in a robe of green?"--_Inst._, p. 143. "Who who has either sense or civility, does not perceive the vileness of profanity?"

(4.) "The second person denotes the person or thing which is spoken to."--_Compendium in Kirkham's Gram._ "The third person denotes the person or thing which is spoken of."--_Ibid._ "A pa.s.sive verb denotes action received or endured by the person or thing which is its nominative."--_Ibid, and Gram._, p. 157. "The princes and states who had neglected or favoured the growth of this power."--_Bolingbroke, on History_, p. 222. "The nominative expresses the name of the person, or thing which acts, or which is the subject of discourse."--_Hiley's Gram._, p. 19. (5.) "Authors who deal in long sentences, are very apt to be faulty."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 108. "Writers who deal in long sentences, are very apt to be faulty."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 313. "The neuter gender denotes objects which are neither male nor female."--_Merchant's Gram._, p.

26. "The neuter gender denotes things which have no s.e.x."--_Kirkham's Compendium_. "Nouns which denote objects neither male nor female, are of the neuter gender."--_Wells's Gram._, 1st Ed., p. 49. "Objects and ideas which have been long familiar, make too faint an impression to give an agreeable exercise to our faculties."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 50. "Cases which custom has left dubious, are certainly within the grammarian's province."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 164. "Substantives which end in _ery_, signify action or habit."--_Ib._, p. 132. "After all which can be done to render the definitions and rules of grammar accurate," &c.--_Ib._, p. 36.

"Possibly, all which I have said, is known and taught."--_A. B. Johnson's Plan of a Dict._, p. 15.

(6.) "It is a strong and manly style which should chiefly be studied."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 261. "It is this which chiefly makes a division appear neat and elegant."--_Ib._, p. 313. "I hope it is not I with whom he is displeased."--_Murray's Key_, R. 17. "When it is this alone which renders the sentence obscure."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 242. "This sort of full and ample a.s.sertion, _'it is this which_,' is fit to be used when a proposition of importance is laid down."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 197.

"She is the person whom I understood it to have been." _See Murray's Gram._, p. 181. "Was it thou, or the wind, who shut the door?"--_Inst._, p.

143. "It was not I who shut it."--_Ib._

(7.) "He is not the person who it seemed he was."--_Murray's Gram._, p.

181; _Ingersoll's_, p. 147. "He is really the person who he appeared to be."--_Same_. "She is not now the woman whom they represented her to have been."--_Same_. "An only child, is one who has neither brother nor sister; a child alone, is one who is left by itself"--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 98; _Jamieson's_, 71; _Murray's Gram._ 303.