3. By a noun, pronoun, or adjective, being prefixed to the substantive: as, A cock-sparrow. A he-goat. A he-bear. A male child. Male descendants. A hen-sparrow. A she-bear. A female child. Female descendants." It sometimes happens, that the same noun is either masculine or feminine. The words parent, child, cousin, friend, neighbour, servant, and several others, are used indifferently for males or females. Nouns with variable terminations contribute to conciseness and perspicuity of expression. We have only a sufficient number of them to make us feel our want; for when we say of a woman, she is a philosopher, an astronomer, a builder, a weaver, we perceive an impropriety in the termination, which we cannot avoid; but we can say, that she is a botanist, a student, a witness, a scholar, an orphan, a companion, because these terminations have not annexed to them the notion of sex. SECTION 3. Of Number. NUMBER is the consideration of an object, as one or more. Substantives are of two numbers, the singular and the plural. The singular number expresses but one object; as, a chair, a table. The plural number signifies more objects than one; as, chairs, tables. Some nouns, from the nature of the things which they express, are used only in the singular form; as, wheat, pitch, gold, sloth, pride, &c.; others, only in the plural form; as, bellows, scissors, lungs, riches, &c. Some words are the same in both numbers; as, deer, sheep, swine, &c The plural number of nouns is generally formed by adding s to the singular: as, dove, doves; face, faces; thought, thoughts. But when the substantive singular ends in x, ch soft, sh, ss, or s, we add es in the plural: as, box, boxes; church, churches; lash, lashes; kiss, kisses; rebus, rebusses. If the singular ends in ch hard, the plural is formed by adding s; as, monarch, monarchs; distich, distichs. Nouns which end in o, have sometimes es, added to the plural; as, cargo, echo, hero, negro, manifesto, potato, volcano, wo and sometimes only s; as, folio, nuncio, punctilio, seraglio. Nouns ending in ƒ, or fe, are rendered plural by the change of those terminations into ves: as, loaf, loaves; half, halves; wife, wives: except grief, relief, reproof, and several others, which form the plural by the addition of s. Those which end in ff, have the regular plural : as, ruff, ruffs; except, staff, staves. Nouns which have y in the singular, with no other vowel in the same syllable, change it into ies in the plural: as, beauty, beauties; fly, flies. But the y is not changed, when there is another vowel in the syllable: as, key, keys; delay, delays; attorney, attorneys. Some nouns become plural by changing the a of the singular into e: as, man, men; woman, women; alderman, aldermen. The words, ox and child, form oxen and children; brother, makes either brothers, or brethren. Sometimes the diphthong oo is changed into ee in the plural: as, foot, feet; goose, geese; tooth, teeth. Louse and mouse make lice and mice. Penny makes pence, or pennies, when the coin is meant: die, dice (for play ;) die, dies (for coining.) It is agreeable to analogy, and the practice of the generality of correct writers, to construe the following words as plural nouns; pains, riches, alms and also, mathematics, metaphysics, politics, ethics, optics, pneumatics, with other similar names of sciences. Dr. Johnson says that the adjective much is sometimes a term of number, as well as of quantity. This may account for the instances we meet with of its associating with pains as a plural noun: as, "much pains." The connexion, however, is not to be recommended. The word news is now almost universally considered as belonging to the singular number. The noun means is used both in the singular and the plural number. The following words, which have been adopted from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, are thus distinguished, with respect to number. Some words, derived from the learned languages, are confined to the plural number; as, antipodes, credenda, literati, minutiæ The following nouns being, in Latin, both singular and plural, are used in the same manner when adopted into our tongue: hiatus, apparatus, series, species. SECTION 4. Of Case. In English, substantives have three cases, the nominative, the possessive, and the objective. * Genii, when denoting aerial spirits: Geniuses, when signifying persons of genius. Indexes, when it signifies pointers, or Tables of contents: Indices, when referring to Algebraic quantities. The possessive is sometimes called the genitive case; and the objective, the accusative. The nominative case simply expresses the name of a thing, or the subject of the verb: as, "The boy plays ;" "The girls learn." The possessive case expresses the relation of property or possession; and has an apostrophe with the letters coming after it: as, "The scholar's duty;" "My father's house." When the plural ends in s, the others is omitted, but the apostrophe is retained: as, "on eagles' wings;" "The drapers' company." Sometimes, also, when the singular terminates in ss, the apostrophic s is not added: as, "For goodness' sake;" "For righteousness' sake." The objective case expresses the object of an action, or of a relation; and generally follows a verb active, or a preposition: as, "John assists Charles;" "They live in London." English substantives are declined in the following The English language, to express different connexions and relations of one thing to another, uses, for the most part, prepositions. The Greek and Latin among the ancient, and some too among the modern languages, as the German, vary the termination or ending of the substantive, to answer the same purpose; an example of which, in the Latin, is inserted, as explanatory of the nature and use of cases, viz. |