A Grammar of the English Language: Volume I: Parts of Speech

Description

This volume of the Grammar contains Parts of Speech and Accidence. The two subjects are closely related and are here treated together. The purpose of the treatise is to describe fully the parts of English speech and their changes of form to express thought. The word ‘form’ does not mean today what it did in the Old English period. It was then associated with the idea of a change of endings to express thought. Most of the old endings have disappeared. The old syntactical framework remains intact, but the grammatical forms, case and verbal endings, have been greatly reduced. This was effected by employing simpler means of expression. For instance, today we often express a change of thought, not by changing the endings, but by changing the position of the words: ‘The hunter (subject) killed the bear’ (object), but ‘The bear (subject) killed the hunter’ (object). Thus position is an important modem English grammatical form. Often, however, we now express our thought without the aid of a grammatical form: I go, you go, we go, they go. The verb here does not express person or number. We feel that the context makes our thought clear. Thus context plays a role in our modern English. In this volume the author has tried very hard to gather together and put into orderly shape everything known to him about English grammatical form or English lack of it. The formulations of usage are presented, not as fixed rules but as the description of the means employed by English-speaking people to express their thought and feeling. These means are not represented as fixed but as ever changing and developing as the result of the long struggles of the English mind in its unfolding intellectual life to express itself more fully and more simply. Glimpses of important older developments are given here and there throughout the Grammar in order that the reader may obtain an insight into the forces that have been at work shaping English. A careful study of these older developments will enable him to understand his heritage better and will give him a clearer idea of his own relation to it. The story of these older struggles for more complete or more simple expression should be of especial interest to those who are now forming their habits of expression, for this struggle has now become theirs, and the further shaping of the language will soon lie in their hands. I. THE NOUN.......................................................................................... 1 Common.................................................................................................. 1 Proper.................................................................................................. 1 II. THE PRONOUN................................................................................. 6 Personal............................................................................................. 7 Reflexive......................................................................................... 10 Reciprocal......................................................................................... 11 Relative.............................................................................................. 11 Relative Pronouns with Antecedent ...................................... 11 Indefinite and General Relative Pronouns.............................. 14 Indefinite......................................................................................... 15 Interrogative................................................................................. 21 Limiting Adjectives Used as Pronouns.............................. 22 Intensifying Adjectives Used as Personal Pronouns .... 22 Demonstrative Pronouns............................................................ 22 Indefinite Limiting Adjectives Used as Indefinite Pronouns 30 Numeral Adjectives Used as Pronouns.................................. 36 Possessive Adjectives Used as Pronouns.................................. 37 Indefinite Relative Adjectives Used as Pronouns................. 40 Interrogative Adjectives Used as Pronouns.......................... 40 III. THE ADJECTIVE............................................................................ 41 Descriptive ..................................................................................... 42 Limiting............................................................................................. 46 Possessive......................................................................................... 46 Intensifying..................................................................................... 48 Demonstrative................................................................................. 50 Numeral......................................................................................... 55 Relative ......................................................................................... 57 Indefinite......................................................................................... 57 Interrogative..................................................................................... 61 Proper............................................................................................. 61 Exclamatory ................................................................................. 62 IV. THE VERB........................................................................................ 63 V. THE ADVERB.................................................................. 71 VI. THE PREPOSITION....................................................................... 87 VH. THE CONJUNCTION....................................................................... 92 VIII. THE INTERJECTION........................................................................ 105 ACCIDENCE..............................................................................................109 IX. INFLECTION OF NOUNS.................................................................111 Number...................................................................................................... 112 Case.......................................................................................................... 127 Gender ..................................................................................................137 Old English Inflection................................................................ 140 Middle English Inflection............................................................ 142 X. INFLECTION OF PRONOUNS........................................................ 146 Personal Pronouns............................................................................. 148 Old English Inflection.....................................................................154 Middle English Inflection................................................................ I55 Reflexive Pronouns.........................................................................157 Reciprocal Pronouns.........................................................................158 Relative Pronouns............................................................................. 161 Older Inflection................................................................................. 168 Indefinite Pronouns.........................................................................169 Interrogative Pronouns.................................................................170 Limiting Adjectives Used as Pronouns................................... 172 Intensifying Adjectives Used as Personal Pronouns .... 172 Demonstrative Pronouns.................................................................172 Indefinite Limiting Adjectives Used as Indefinite Pronouns 173 Numeral Adjectives Used as Pronouns....................................... 176 Possessive Adjectives Used as Pronouns....................................... I77 XI. INFLECTION OF ADJECTIVES.................................................... 179 Older Inflection................................................................................. ....... XII. INFLECTION OF VERBS............................................................... 201 Voice...................................................................................................... 203 Mood...................................................................................................... 223 Tense...................................................................................................... 231 Aspect...................................................................................................... 232 Number and Person.........................................................................237 Number and Person in Older English........................................... 239 Tense Formation................................................................................. 241 Present Tense..................................................................................... 241 Old English Forms.........................................................................243 Middle English Forms.................................................................245 Irregularities................................................................................. 247 Past Tense..........................................................................................260 Weak Past..........................................................................................260 Old English Forms.....................................................................261 Middle English Forms............................................................ 264 Irregularities.............................................................................269 Strong Past..................................................................................... 296 Irregular Past Tense................................................................ 297 Old English Past Tense............................................................ 299 Middle English Past Tense....................................................299 Classes of Strong Verbs....................................................... ...... List of Strong Verbs........................................................... ...... Formation of Compound Tenses....................................... 319 Present Perfect....................................................................320 Past Perfect........................................................................322 Future.................................................................................323 Future Perfect.................................................................327 Full Inflection of Active Verb................................................................................................327 Full Inflection of Passive Verb................................................................................................331 XIII. FORM AND COMPARISON OFADVERBS......................... 334 XIV. UNINFLECTED PARTS OFSPEECH..................................... 345 WORD INDEX................................................................................349 SUBJECT INDEX ........................................................................369