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apostrophe with the letter s coming after it; as, The scholar's duty; My father's house.

When the plural ends in s, the other s is omitted, but the apostrophe is retained: as, On eagles' wings.

Sometimes, also, when the singular terminates in ss, the apostrophic s is not added: as, For goodness' sake; For righteousness' sake.

When the thing to which another is said to belong, is expressed by circumlocution, or by many terms, the sign of the possessive case is commonly added to the last term; as, The King of Great Britain's dominions.

Sometimes, though rarely, two nouns in the possessive case, immediately succeed each other in the following form: My friend's wife's sister: a sense which would be better expressed by saying, The sister of my friend's wife; or my friend's sister-in-law.

The objective case generally expresses the object of an action or relation; and it is from this circumstance that it derives the name of objective case. It is the object on which some action terminates, or concerning which some relation is expressed; as, He writes a letter; They live in London. Here, letter and London are in the objective case; the former is the object of an action, expressed by the transitive verb writes; the latter, of a relation expressed by the preposition in. The objective commonly, but not uniformly, follows a transitive verb or a preposition; and may therefore be said,in general, to be the object of an action or relation. It sometimes, however, follows an interjection, and is merely the object of passionate exclamation, as, O me miserable!

OF ARTICLES.

An article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point them out and limit their signification; as, A garden; an eagle; the woman.

There are two articles, a and the; a usually becomes an before a vowel and silent h; as, an acorn, an hour. Also when a word beginning with h is accented on the second syllable; as, an heroic action; an historical account. When words begin with u long, a takes the place of an; as, a university, a union. Also before one; as many a one. A, or an, is styled the indefinite article, because it is used in an indefinite and vague sense, to point out one single thing of a kind, or species; as, Give me a book; bring me an apple.

The is styled the definite article, because it is used in a definite sense, to point out what particular thing or things are meant, as, Give me the book; bring me the apples. Both of the articles limit the signification of the nouns to which they are annexed; but in a different manner. The indefinite article a, limits the noun with respect to its number. It requires the noun to which it is prefixed, to be in the singular number;* as,Give me a book. To say, Give me a books, it is easily perceived, would be improper.

The definite article is applied indifferently to either the singular or plural number; but it limits its

*There appears to be a remarkable exception to this rule, in the use of the adjectives, few and many, (the latter chiefly with the word great hefore it,) which, though joined with plural substantives, yet admit of the singular article a; as, a few men; a great many men.

The reason of it is manifest, from the effect which the article has on these phrases; it means a small or great number, collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a whole, that is, of unity. Thus likewise, a dozen, a score, a hundred, or a thousand, is one whole number, an aggregate of many, collectively taken; and therefore still retains the article a, though joined as an adjective to a plural substantive; as, a hundred years, &c.

subject, by designating the particular thing or things meant. Give me the book, or the apples, i. e. some particular book, or particular apples referred to. It does not leave it at the option of the person who is bidden, to bring any book or apples he may choose, but the direction is limited to particulars, by the force of the article.

A substantive without any article to limit it is generally taken in its widest sense, as a candid temper is proper for man; that is for all mankind.

The peculiar use and importance of the article will be seen in the following examples: The son of a king-the son of the king-a son of the king.

Each of these three phrases has an entirely different meaning, through the different application of the articles a and the.

Thou art a man, is a very general and harmless position; but, Thou art the man, (as Nathan said to David) is an assertion capable of striking terror and remorse into the heart.

The article is omitted before nouns that imply the different virtues, vices, passions, qualities, sciences, arts, metals, herbs, &c. ; as, Prudence is commendable: falsehood is odious: anger ought to be avoided, &c. It is not prefixed to a proper name, as Alexander, (because that of itself denotes a determinate individual, or particular thing,) except for the sake of distinguishing a particular family; as, He is a Howard, or of the family of the Howards; or, by way of eminence; as, Every man is not a Newton. He has the courage of an Achilles: or when some noun is understood; as He sailed down the (river) Thames, in the (ship) Britannia.

When an adjective is used with the noun to

which the article relates, it is placed between the article and the noun; as, A good man; An agreeable woman; the best friend. On some occasions, however, the adjective precedes a or an; as, Such a shame: As great a man as Alexander: Too careless an author.

The definite article the is frequently applied to adverbs in the comparative or superlative degree; and its effect is, to mark the degree more strongly, and to define it more precisely: as, The more I examine it, the better I like it; I like this the least of any.

OF ADJECTIVES.

An adjective is a word added to a substantive to qualify it. The adjective qualifies the noun in different ways. Sometimes it is used to point out its kind; as, an industrious man: a virtuous woman: a benevolent mind. The adjective here expresses the kind or quality of the person or thing to which it refers. Sometimes it expresses a mere circumstance; as, distant trees; yonder summit. Here the kind or quality of the objects referred to, is not expressed; but merely the circumstance of their being at a distance. Sometimes the adjective is used to give emphasis to the noun; as, are the particular person meant. The office here performed by the adjective particular, is more emphatically to point out the noun person; and it is in this sense, it qualifies it.

You

The pronoun that, when prefixed to a substantive, performs a similar office; as, That man is industrious. That, as here used, has the situation and force of an adjective; and may be called a pronominal adjective. It is " a word added to a substantive, to qualify it," by pointing it out, and

fitting it to sustain, in a proper manner, its office in the sentence. [See note to the definition of "qualify," Part I.p. 9

To adjectives, there are commonly ascribed three degrees of comparison; the positive, the comparative, and the superlative.*

The positive degree presents the adjective in its simplest state; as, Good, wise, great.

The comparative degree increases or lessens the positive in signification; as, Wiser, greater, less wise.

The superlative degree increases or lessens the signification of the positive, to the highest or lowest degree; as, Wisest, greatest, least wise.

The simple word, or positive, becomes the comparative, by adding r or er; and the superlative, by adding st or est to the end of it; as, Wise, wiser, wisest: great, greater, greatest.—The adverbs more and most, placed before the adjective, have the same effect; as, Wise, more wise, most wise.

The termination ish may be accounted in some sort a degree of comparison, by which the signification is diminished below the positive; as, Black, blackish, or tending to blackness: salt, saltish, or having a little taste of salt. The word rather, is very properly used to express a small degree of excess of a quality; as, She is rather profuse in her expenses.

Monosyllables, for the most part, are compared

* Grammarians have generally enumerated these three degrees of comparison; but the first of them has been thought by some writers to be improperly termed a degree of comparison; as it seems to be nothing more than the simple form of the adjective, and not to imply either comparison or degree. This opinion may be well founded, unless the adjective be supposed to imply comparison or degree, by containing a secret or general reference to other things as when we say, He is a tall man; this is a fair day, we make some reference to the ordinary size of men, and to different kinds of weather.

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