ADVERTISEMENT TO THE NINTH DUODECIMO EDITION. The eighth edition of this grammar received considerable alterations and additions ; but works of this nature admit of repeated improvements; and are, perhaps, never complete. The author, solicitous to render his book more worthy of the encouraging approbation bestowed on it by the public, has again revised the work with care and attention. The new edition, he hopes, will be found much improved. The addi- . tions, which are very considerable, are, chiefly such as are calculated to expand the learner's views of the subject; to obviate objections; and to render the study of grammar both easy and interesting. This edition contains also a new and enlarged system of parsing; copious lists of nouns arranged according to their gender and number; and many notes and observations, which serve to extend, or to explain, particular rules and positions.* The writer is sensible that, after all his endeavours to elucidate the principles of the work, there are few of the divisions, arrangements, definitions or rules, against which critical ingenuity cannot devise plausible objections. The subject is attended with so much intricacy, and admits of views so various, that it was not possible to render every part of it unexceptionable; or to accommodate the work, in all respects, to the opinions and prepossessions of every grammarian and teacher. If the author has adopted that system which, on the whole, is best suited to the nature of the subject, and conformable to the sentiments of the most judicious grammarians ; if his reasonings and illustrations, respecting particular points, are founded on just principles, and the peculiarities of the English language; he has, perhaps, done all that could reasonably be expected in a work of this nature; and he may warrantably indulge a hope, that the book will be still more extensively approved and circulated. Holdgale, near York,–1804. * The author conceives that the occasional strictures, dispersed through the book, and intended to illustrate and support a number of important grammatical points, will not, to roung persons of ingenuity, appear to be dry and useless discussions. . He is persuaded ihat, by such persons, they will be read with attention. And he presumes that these strictures will gratify their curiosity, stimulate application, and give solidity and permanence to their graminatical knowledge. B* CONTENTS. 46 48 59 SECT. 1. Of the personal pronouns SECT. 1. Of the nature of verbs in general 4. Remarks on the potential mood 6. The conjugation of the auxiliary verbs to 7. The auxiliary verbs conjugated in their simple form; with observations on their 8. The conjugation of regular verbs 9. Observations on passive verbs 11. Of defective verbs; and of the different ways in which verbs are conjugated 108 12. Theory respecting the inflections of lan- SECT. 1. Of the various ways in which words are 2. A sketch of the steps, by which the En- Of the syntax of the article Of several nouns joined by copulatives Of nouns connected by disjunctives Of one noun governing another in the possessive case 173 Of pronouns agreeing with their antecedents 154 Of the relatives being the nominative to the verb 159 Of the relatives preceded by nominatives of different Of the syntax of the adjective Of the verb's agreement with the nominative case 143 Of verbs active requiring the objective case Of one verb governing another in the infinitive mood 183 Of verbs and words related in point of time Of the syntax of the participle Of the rules respecting adverbs. Of the syntax of conjunctions. Of conjunctions connecting the same moods, tenses, Of conjunctions requiring the subjunctive mood, 205, 213 Of the syntax of interjections Of comparisons by the conjunction than or as 214 CHAP. 5. Of the dash, notes of interrogation and exclamation, and the parenthesis 278 CHAP. 6. Of the apostrophe, caret, &c. CHAP. 7 Directions respecting capital letters 283 VINDICATION OF THE STUDY OF GRAMMAR RULES AND OBSERVATIONS FOR PROMOTING PERSPICUITY AND ACCURACY IN WRITING. |