CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



prevail ; crew, for example, as past tense of crow, 

 will disappear before crowed. 



Defective Verbs. Quoth is used only in the 3d 

 person sing, past tense, and followed by he or she. 

 Go has now no past tense, although in old writers 

 we find yode (for goed). Instead of gocd, we sub- 

 stitute went, the old past tense of the verb wend. 



The following are a few of the more important 

 irregular verbs belonging to both conjugations : 



Dare, to challenge : lie, to tell a falsehood ; hang, applied -to 

 a criminal, are regular verbs, like love. Born is used in the 

 passive voice with regard to offspring ; thus, the child was born, 

 but the burden was borne. The forms in italics are becoming 

 antiquated ; cloven, drunken, and some other old participles are 

 still used as adjectives. 



III. DERIVATION OF WORDS. 



This division of the subject may be considered 

 under two heads : i. The history of the sources 

 from which the store of English words has been 

 derived; and 2. The Modes in which words spring 

 from, or are formed out of, other words. To make 

 this branch of the study at all instructive, it would 

 require to be treated in greater detail than our 

 space permits. The chief points will be found 

 indicated in the number on LANGUAGE ; and to 

 those who wish to pursue the subject (and without 

 some considerable study of it, no one can be said 

 to know English), we must be content to recom- 

 mend Historical Outlines of English Accidence, 

 by R. Morris. 



SYNTAX. 



Syntax (Gr. taxis, arrangement; syn, to- 

 gether) is the putting together of words for the 

 expressing of thoughts. In order to be able to 

 do this properly, we must first study carefully 

 the structure of sentences their anatomy and 

 physiology, as it were. For they are in a certain 

 sense organic, like animal bodies and plants ; 

 and not amorphous chance masses, like a piece 

 of rock ; or capricious artificial structures, like a 

 cairn of stones, or the building a child rears with 



88 



bricks. When sentences differ from one another, 

 it is according to fixed laws and within certs " 

 limits. When we have a thorough comprehensic 

 of those laws and limits, the rules of syntax flov 

 from them as necessary consequences ; or rather, 

 rules of syntax become in all ordinary circum- 

 stances unnecessary. It is only in those cases 

 in which the forms of grammar and those of 

 logic come into conflict, that we need to think of 

 rules. 



We have already, for the purposes of etymology 

 (page 577), entered, to some extent, into the 

 nature of sentences ; and recommending the reader 

 to reperuse the portion referred to, we here resume 

 the subject at that point, and shall consider a little 

 more in detail 



I. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE. 



A simple sentence has only one subject and 

 one finite verb. The simple sentence, reduced 

 to its essentials, is of this form: 'The sun shines.' 

 The full-bodied sentences usually met with, may 

 be considered as having been developed out of 

 this embryo state by a combination of processes, 

 which it is instructive to trace. 



1. The primary elements (subject and predi- 

 cate) have one or more secondary elements or 

 adjuncts tacked on to them ; as in ' The (skilful) 

 gardener (thoroughly) pruned (the tree).' This 

 sentence may be considered as exhibiting the 

 typical forms of the elements of a sentence, both 

 primary and secondary ; the subject and object 

 being expressed by nouns (or pronouns), the attri- 

 bute of the subject (and of the object, if it has 

 one) by an adjective, and the adjunct of the prcdi- 



| cate by an adverb. 



2. Each of these types is capable of taking 

 another form ; as in the following examples : 



Transformations and expansions of 

 (a.) The Subject. For ' work is fatiguing,' we 

 can say, ' to work is fatiguing,' or, ' working is 

 fatiguing;' where for a noun there is substituted 

 the infinitive of a verb, or its participle. When 

 the action of the verb requires an object or 

 objects, the name of the subject becomes ex- 

 panded into a phrase of greater or less length ; as, 



' ' To hear a good orator is rare.' 



(b.) The Object. The transformations of the 

 object are the same as those of the subject. Ex., 



1 'John likes work; John likes to work; John 

 likes working. Every one likes to hear good 

 speaking. 1 



(c.) The Adjective or Attribute of the Noun. 

 Instead of the noun having an adjective limiting 

 it, as, ' A -valiant man,' it may have another noun 

 joined to it either by a preposition, or by the pos- 

 sessive case, as, 'A man of valour] 'a temptation 

 to crime,' 'the fora's death;' or the other noun 

 may be without any connective ; as, ' Havelock, 

 the hero, is dead.' 



(d.) The Predicate. Instead of a single verb, 

 as in ' the sun shines] the predicate may take the 

 expanded forms of, ' the sun is bright, 1 ' the sun 

 was darkened] ' Nero was a tyrant] ' his mother 

 was in good health' The completion of the idea 

 of the action, too, often requires an object, as 

 already mentioned ; and not only one object, but 

 sometimes two. Ex., 'They elected him (cap- 

 tain},' 'he taught me (grammar),' 'the master 

 accuses John (of idleness]? 



