PART III.

SYNTAX.

THE third part of Grammar is SYNTAX, which treats of the agreement and construction of words in a sentence. A sentence is an assemblage of words, forming a complete sense.

Sentences are of two kinds, simple and compound.

A simple sentence has in it but one subject, and one finite* verb: as, Life is short."

A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences connected together: as, Life is short, and art is long." "Idleness produces want, vice, and misery."

As sentences themselves are divided into simple and compound, so the members of sentences may be divided likewise into simple and compound members: for whole sentences, whether simple or compounded, may become members of other sentences, by means of some additional connexion; as in the following example: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider." This sentence consists of two compounded members, each of which is subdivided into two simple meinbers, which are properly called clauses.

There are three sorts of simple sentences; the explicative, or explaining; the interrogative, or asking; the imperative, or commanding.

An explicative sentence is when a thing is said to be or not to be, to do or not to do, to suffer or not suffer, in a direct manner: as, I am; thou writest; Thomas is loved." If the sentence be negative, the adverb not is placed after the auxiliary, or after the verb itself when it has no auxiliary: as, "I did not touch him;" or, "I touched him not."

In an interrogative sentence, or when a question is asked, the nominative case follows the principal verb or the auxiliary: as, "Was it he?" "Did Alexander conquer the Persians ?"

In an imperative sentence, when a thing is commanded to be, to do, to suffer, or not, the nominative case likewise follows the verb or the auxiliary: as, "Go, thou traitor!" "Do thou go:" "Haste ye away:" unless the verb let be used; as, "Let us be gone."

A phrase is two or more words rightly put together, making sometimes part of a sentence, and sometimes a whole sentence.

* Finite verbs are those to which number and person appertain. Verbs in the infinitive mood have no respect to number or person.

The principal parts of a simple sentence are, the subject, the attribute, and the object.

The subject is the thing chiefly spoken of; the attribute is the thing or action affirmed or denied of it; and the ob ject is the thing affected by such action.

The nominative denotes the subject, and usually goes before the verb or attribute; and the word or phrase, denoting the object, follows the verb; as, "A wise man governs his passions." Here, a wise man is the subject; governs, the attribute, or thing affirmed; and his passions, the object. Syntax principally consists of two parts, Concord and Go

vernment.

Concord is the agreement which one word has with another, in gender, number, case, or person.

Government is that power which one part of speech has over another, in directing its mood, tense, or case.

To produce the agreement and right disposition of words in a sentence, the following rules and observations should be carefully studied.

RULE I.

A Verb must agree with its nominative case, in number and person: as, "I learn;""Thou art improved;" "The birds sing."

The following are a few instances of the violation of this rule. "What signifies good opinions, when our practice is bad ?""what signify." ""There's two or three of us, who have seen the work:" "there are." "We may suppose there was more impostors than one:""There were more." "I have considered what have been said on both sides in this controversy:" "what has been said." "If thou would be healthy, live temperately:" "if thou wouldst." "Thou sees how little has been done :" "thou seest." "Though thou cannot do much for the cause, thou may and should do something" "canst not, mayst, and shouldst." "Full many a flower are born to blush unseen :" "is born." "A conformity of inclinations and qualities prepare us for friendship:" "prepares us." "A variety of blessings have been conferred upon us:" "has been." "In piety and virtue consist the happiness of man:" "consists." "To these precepts are subjoined a copious selection of rules and maxims :" "is subjoined."

*1. The infinitive mood, or part of a sentence, is sometimes out as the nominative case to the verb: as, "To see the sun is pleasant;""To be good is to be happy;" ""A desire to excel others in learning and virtue is cominendable ;” That warm

The chief practical notes under cach Rule, are regularly numbered, in order

to make them correspond to the examples m the volume of Exercises.

climates should accelerate the growth of the human body, and shorten its duration, is very reasonable to believe;""To be temperate in eating and drinking, to use exercise in the open air, and to preserve the mind free from tumultuous emotions, are the best preservatives of health."

2 Every verb, except in the infinitive mood, or the participle, ought to have a nominative case, either expressed or implied: as "Awake; arise;" that is, "A wake ye; arise ye."

We shall here add some examples of inaccuracy, in the use of the verb without its nominative case. "As it hath pleased him of his goodness to give you safe deliverance, and hath preserved you in the great danger," &c. The verb "hath preserved,” has here no nominative case, for it cannot be properly supplied by the preceding word, "him," which is in the objective case. It ought to be, "and as he hath preserved you;" or rather, "and to preserve you." "If the calm in which he was born, and lasted so long, had continued;"" and which lasted," &c. "These we have extracted from an historian of undoubted credit, and are the same that were practised," &c.; "and they are the same." "A man whose inclinations led him to be corrupt, and had great abilities to manage the business;" "and who had," &c. "A cloud gathering in the north; which we have helped to raise, and may quickly break in a storm upon our heads;" "and which may quickly."

3 Every nominative case, except the case absolute, and when an address is made to a person, should belong to some verb, either expressed or implied: as, "Who wrote this book ?" "James;" that is, "James wrote it." "To whom thus Adam," that is, "spoke."

One or two instances of the improper use of the nominative case, without any verb, expressed or implied, to answer it, may be sufficient to illustrate the usefulness of the preceding observation.

“Which rule, if it had been observed, a neighbouring prince would have wanted a great deal of that incense which hath been offered up to him." The pronoun it is here the nominative case to the verb "observed;" and which rule, is left by itself, a nominative case without any verb following it. This form of expression, though improper, is very common. It ought to be, "If this rule had been observed," &c. "Man, though he has great variety of thoughts, and such from which others as well as himself might receive profit and delight, yet they are all within his own breast." In this sentence, the nominative man stands alone and unconnected with any verb, either expressed or implied. It should be, "Though man has great variety," &c.

4 When a verb comes between two nouns, either of which may be understood as the subject of the affirmation, it may agree with either of them: but some regard must be had to that which is more naturally the subject of it, as also to that which stands next to the verb: as, His meat itas locusts and wild licney : « A

great cause of the low state of industry were the restraints put upon it;""The wages of sin is death."

5 When the nominative case has no personal tense of a verb, but is put before a participle, independently on the rest of the sentence, it is called the case absolute: as, "Shame being lost, all virtue is lost;" "That having been discussed long ago, there is no occasion to résume it."

As in the use of the case absolute, the case is, in English, always the nominative, the following example is erroneous, in making it the objective. "Solomon was of this mind; and I have no doubt he made as wise and true proverbs, as any body has done since; him only excepted, who was a much greater and wiser man than Solomon." It should be, “he only excepted."

The nominative case is commonly placed before the verb; but sometimes it is put after the verb, if it is a simple tense; and between the auxiliary, and the verb or participle, if a compound

tense: as,

1st, When a question is asked, a command given, or a wish expressed as, "Confidest thou in me?" "Read thou;" "Mayst thou be happy!" "Long live the King!"

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2d, When a supposition is made without the conjunction if: "Were it not for this ;""Had I been there."

3d, When a verb neuter is used: as, "On a sudden appeared the king."

4th, When the verb is preceded by the adverbs, here, there, then, thence, hence, thus, &c.: as, "Here am I;" "There was he slain;" ;" "Then cometh the end;" "Thence ariseth his grief;" "Hence proceeds his anger;" "Thus was the affair settled."

5th, When a sentence depends on neither or nor, so as to be coupled with another sentence: as, "Ye shall not eat of it, ueither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

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Some grammarians assert, that the phrases, as follows, as appears, form what are called impersonal verbs; and should, therefore, be confined to the singular number: as, "The arguments advanced were nearly as follows;" "The positions were as appears incontrovertible:" that is, "as it follows," as it appears." If we give (say they) the sentence a different turn, and instead of as, say such as, the verb is no longer termed impersonal; but properly agrees with its nominative, in the plural number: as, "The arguments advanced were nearly such as follow;" "The positions were such as appear incontrovertible."*

These grammarians are supported by general usage, and by the authority of an eminent critic on language and composition. "When a verb is used impersonally," says Dr. Campbell, in his Philosophy of Rhetoric, "it ought undoubtedly to be in the singular number, whether the neuter pronoun be expressed or understood." For this reason, analogy and usage favour this mode of ex pression: "The conditions of the agreement were as follows," and not, as follow. A few late writers have inconsiderately adopted this last form, through

They who doubt the accuracy of Horne Tooke's statement, "That as, however and whenever used in English, means the same as it, or that, or which ;" and who are not satisfied whether the verbs, in the sentence first mentioned, should be in the singular or the plural number, may vary the form of expression. Thus, the sense of the preceding sentences, may be conveyed in the following terms. "The arguments advanced were nearly of the following nature;" "The following are nearly the arguments which were advanced;""The arguments advanced were nearly those which follow:" "It appears that the positions were incontrovertible;" "That the positions were incontrovertible is apparent" "The positions were apparently incontrovertible." See the Octavo Grammar, the Note under Rule I.

RULE JI.

Two or more nouns, &c. in the singular number, joined together by a copulative conjunction, expressed or understood, must have verbs, nouns, and pronouns, agreeing with them in the plural number: as, Socrates and Plato were wise; they were the most eminent philosophers of Greece;" "The sun that rolls over our heads, the food that we receive, the rest that we enjoy, daily admonish us of a superior and superintending Power."*

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This rule is often violated; some instances of which are annexed. "And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee. who were partners with Simon;""and so were also." "All joy, tranquillity, and peace, even for ever and ever, doth dwell;" "dwell for ever." "By whose power all good and evil is distributed;" are distributed." "Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished;" are perished." "The thoughtless and intemperate enjoyment of pleasure, the criminal abuse of it, and the forgetfulness of our being accountable creatures, obliterates every serious thought of the proper business of life, and effaces the sense of religion and of God;" It ought to be, "obliterate," and "efface."

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1 When the nouns are nearly related, or scarcely distinguishable in sense, and sometimes even when they are very different, some authors have thought it allowable to put the verbs, nouns, and pronouns, in the singular number: as, "Tranquillity and peace dwells there;" "Ignorance and negligence has produced the effect;""The discomfiture and slaughter was very great." But it is evidently contrary to the first principles of grammar, to consider two distinct ideas as one, however nice may be their shades of difference: and if there be no difference, one of them must be superfluous, and ought to be rejected.

mistake of the construction. For the same reason, we ought to say, "I shall consider his censures so far only as concerns my friend's conduct;" and not 'so far as concern.'

* See the exceptions to this rule, at p. 46 of the Key; 12th edition.