The Grammar of English Grammars Part 276

--Where a letter must be _once mute_.

_My_ and _mine, thy_ and _thine_, as duplicate forms of the poss. case, use of.

N.

N, its name and plur. numb., --of the cla.s.s _liquids_, --its sounds, --in what position silent.

_Name and t.i.tle_, see _Proper Names_.

_Naming_ the letters of the alphab., importance of.

_Narration_, see _Discourse_.

_Nasals_, what consonants so called.

_Near_ and _nigh_, see _Like_.

_Need_, as an uninflected third pers. sing. of the verb, --has perh. become an _auxiliary_ of the pot. mood, --to what tenses must be understood to belong, if to be recognized as an auxil. of the pot. mood, --that good writers sometimes inflect the verb, and sometimes do not, and that they sometimes use _to_ after it, and sometimes do not, how may be accounted for --three _authorized_ forms of expression, with respect to the verb.

_Needs_, as an adv., its composition

_Needless_, mixing of characters in printing, bad effect of --capitals; effect of --articles, to be omitted --ellipses, the supposition of, a common error among grammarians --use of participles for nouns, or nouns for participles --words, ineleg.

--possessive or art. before a part., how corrected --periods, or other points, after certain numeral expressions --abbreviations, offend against taste --dashes inserted, how to be treated

_Negation_, expressed in the early Eng. by multiplied negatives; such manner of expression now obsolete and improper --Effect on a _negation_, of two negatives in the same clause

_Negatives_, the comm. rule of the grammars, that "two negatives, in Eng., destroy each other, or &c.," whether a correct one

_Neither_, see _Either_

_Neuter verb_, defined --_Neuter verbs_, the _active-trans_. verbs are so called in most grammars and dictionaries; the absurdity of this --extent of this cla.s.s of verbs; their existence in any lang. denied by some grammarians --Neut. verb BE, conjugated --_Neuter verbs_, made from active-transitives, (_am come, is gone_, &c.;) these called by some, "neuter pa.s.sives"

--of pa.s.sive form, (_am grown, are flown_, &c.,) as errors of conjugat., or of synt.

--do., how may be distinguished from pa.s.s. verbs --do., DR. PRIESTL. mistaken notions concerning their nature and propriety --_Neut. verbs_, and their participles, take the same case after as before them --_Neuter verb_ between two nominatives, its agreem.

_Nevertheless_, its composition and cla.s.s

_No_ or _none_, p.r.o.nom. adj. _No_, as negative adj., "remarkable ambiguity in the use of," noticed by PRIESTL., ("_No laws are better than the English_;") how the ambiguity may be avoided --as a simple negation, its construc.

--as an adv. of deg., relating only to comparatives, ("NO _more_,"

--"NO _better_") --set before a noun, is an adj., corresponding to Lat. _nullus_ --In the phrases, _no longer, no more, no where_, DR. JOH. appar.

suggests wrongly the cla.s.s; its true cla.s.s according to its several relations --_No_, or an other independent negative, _repeated_, its effect --_No_, adv., not to be used with reference to a verb or part.

--derivation of, from Anglo-Sax.

_Nominative case_, defined --_Nom. case_, how distinguished from the objective in nouns --as subj. of a finite verb --different ways of using --_Nominative_ and verb, usual position of, and when varied --_Nom. case_ and _object._, at the same time, noun placed in the relation of --_Nom_. following a verb or part, with what must accord in signif. See also _Subject_, &c.

_Nominative sentences_, examples of what MURR. erron. so terms; the prop.

construc. shown

_Nor_, see _Or_.

_Not_, its place in negative questions --how spoken in grave discourse, and how ordinarily --vulg. contractions of, with certain verbs --used with other negatives --do. with _nor_ (in stead of _or_) following, whether correctly, or not --derivation of, from Anglo-Sax. _Not but_, how resolved. _Not only, not merely_, to what are correspondents

_Notwithstanding_, import and construc. of; misunderstood by DR. WEBST.

--formation and signif. of

NOUNS, Etymol. of --_Noun_, defined --_Nouns_, Cla.s.ses of, named and defined --Modifications of, named --Persons of, named and defined; (see _Persons_) --Numbers of, do.; (see _Plural Number_) --Genders of, do.; (see _Genders_) --Cases of, do.; (see _Cases_) --Declension of --_Nouns_, number of, in Eng.

--the sense of, how made indefinitely part.i.tive --examples of words commonly belonging to other cla.s.ses, used as --_collective, abstract_, and _verbal_ or _participial_, included among common nouns; (see _Collective Noun_, and _Particip. Noun_) --proper, (see _Proper Names_) --_Nouns_, Synt. of --_Noun_, why may not be put in the relation of two cases at once --taken figuratively sing. for literally plur.

--required to be repeated, or inserted, in stead of a p.r.o.noun --ellips. of, shown --_Nouns_ of _time, measure, distance_, &c., (see _Time_) --_Nouns_, derivation of, from nouns, adjectives, verbs, or participles --poet. peculiarities of

_Numbers_, the distinction of, to what belongs, and how applied. (See _Plural Number_.) _Numbers_, cardinal, ordinal, &c., (see _Cardinal Numbers_, &c.) --_Numbers_, abstract, expressions of multiplication in, ("_Twice one_ IS _two_,"

--"_Twice two_ ARE _four_," &c.,) seven different opinions of grammarians respecting, examined by BROWN; who determines the prop.

forms of expression --_Numbers_, expressed by letters, how to be considered; whether to be marked by the period --combined arithmetical, one adjective relating to an other

_Numerals, numeral adjectives_, see _Adjectives, Numeral_. _Numerical figures_ used for references

O.

O, lett., as A, E, I, and U, self-naming --its plural --formation of the plur. of nouns in --sounds properly its own --where sounded as short _u_ --do. as obscure _e_ --diphthongs beginning with --triphth. do. _O_, interj., with cap. lett.

--what emotion indicates --differs from _oh_ --as denoting earnestness, before nouns or p.r.o.nouns put absol. by direct address; is no positive index of the vocative --_O_, &c., MURR., erron. doctrine concerning, to what teaching it has given rise --_O_, &c., with a case following, Lat. construc. of, examined --_O_, not unfreq. confounded with _oh_, even by grammarians.

_Obelisk_, or _dagger_, as mark of reference.

_Objective case_, defined --_Obj. case_, how distinguished from the _nom._ in nouns --before the infin. mood, how taken in Eng.

--as governed by active-trans. verb or part.

--"Active verbs govern the _obj. case_," MURR., defect of this brief a.s.sertion; its uselessness as a RULE for "the syntax of verbs."

--_Obj. case_, of how many constructions susceptible --whether infinitives, participles, &c., can be in --two nouns in, after a verb, how pa.r.s.ed, --Whether any verb in Eng. governs _two objectives_ not coupled --_Obj. case_ as governed by pa.s.sive verbs, erron. allowed by some --what verbs not to be employed without --_Obj. case_ as governed by prep.

--"Prepositions gov. the _obj. case_," why the brief a.s.sertion is exceptionable, as the sole RULE, in parsing prep.

_Obsolete_ or antiquated words, use of, as opposed to purity, PREC. against --_Things obsolete_ in Eng., DR. LATHAM'S attempts to revive.

_Ocean_, figurative representation of, as uttering his voice in tones of varied quant.i.ty.

_Octometer_ line, may be reduced to tetrameter --iambic, examples of --_trochaic_, do --dactylic, example of --_Octometer_, trochaic, rhyme and termination of; its pauses, and how may be divided; the most common form of.

_Of_ and _on_ or _upon_, difference between.

_Old English_, characters of its alphabet, shown --occasional use of do.

_Omissions_ of words that are needful to the sense, Crit. N. against.

_Omitting_, verbs of, with part. in stead of infin.

_One_, employment of, as a noun or as a subst.i.tute for a noun; how cla.s.sed by some grammarians --may be preceded by the articles, or by adjectives --like Fr. _on_ or _l'on_, used indef. for any person; in this sense preferable to a _pers._ p.r.o.n. applied indefinitely --CHURCH., citation ridiculing the too frequent use of, for pers. p.r.o.n.

--as p.r.o.nom. adj., requires verb and p.r.o.n. in the third pers. sing. to agree with it. _One an other_, see _Other. One_, or _a unit_, whether it is a _number_.

_Only_, derivation of; cla.s.s and meaning of, in its several different relations --strictures on the instructions of grammarians respecting the cla.s.sification and placing of --ambiguous use of, (as also of _but_,) --use of, for _but_, or _except that_, not approved of by BROWN --_Not only, not merely --but_, &c., correspondents.

_Onomatopoeia_ described and exemplified (extr. from SWIFT.)