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THE POPULAR EDUCATOR 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH. XL. 



PABT II. INFLECTION. 

 NOUNS : THEIR ORIGIN AND CLASSES. 



I HAVE given my scholars such instruction on the component 

 elements of the English language as the occasion permits. You 

 now see of what materials your mother tongue consists. In 

 their origin, those materials are very diverse : the Celtic, the 

 Teutonic, the Norman-French, the Latin, the Greek, the Ro- 

 mance tongues such as the French, the Italian, the Spanish 

 besides others, have all contributed a portion. Our labours 

 have put us into possession of the constituent parts of the 

 English tongue. These constituent parts we now possess in 

 their simple and in their compound form ; that is, we know 

 whence our words come, and of what verbal combinations they 

 are capable. But we do not yet know what changes these 

 simple words and these compound words undergo in themselves. 

 Equally are we uninformed of the laws under which they com- 

 bine together so as to form sentences and become the vehicle of 

 thought. In other words, we have dealt with the Etymology of 

 our tongue, and have now to treat of its inflections and its 

 Syntax. 



All the words of the English language have been brought 

 into nine or ten classes. Arranging these classes according to 

 their importance, I find them to be : 1, the noun ; 2, the verb ; 

 3, the adjective; 4, the pronoun; 5, the adverb ; 6, the prepo- 

 sition ; 7, the conjunction ; 8, the article ; 9, the participle ; 

 10, the interjection. If, however, I follow a more natural order, 

 it may be better to treat of these classes in the following suc- 

 cession : 1, the noun ; 2, the article ; 3, the adjective ; 4, the 

 pronoun ; 5, the preposition ; 6, the verb ; 7, the participle ; 8, 

 the adverb ; 9, the conjunction ; 10, the interjection. By this 

 means we get together under one head the noun, and what 

 chiefly pertains to the noun ; and under another head the verb, 

 and what chiefly pertains to the verb, as is seen in this arrange- 

 ment: 



Nominal Division. 



1. NOUN, article, adjective, pronoun, preposition. 



Verbal Division. 



2. VERB, participle, adverb, conjunction, interjection. 



The reasons of this division are obvious ; for, 1st, the article 

 limits the noun ; the adjective qualifies the noun ; the pronoun 

 takes the place of the noun ; the preposition governs the noun : 

 and, 2nd, the participle belongs to the verb ; the adverb qualifies 

 the verb ; the conjunction governs the verb ; the interjection is 

 an abbreviated form of a preposition. 



Nouns or names are of a very high antiquity. In the noun 

 probably is the root of language to be found. One of the ear- 

 liest acts of human intelligence must have been to give a name 

 to some object of sight and desire. Accordingly, we read in the 

 Bible (Gen. ii. 20), that at the beginning " Adam gave names to 

 all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the 

 field." Food, of course, was man's first want; and a name for 

 an edible object would be among man's first articulate sounds. 

 That the noun preceded the verb is cbnr from the fact that men 

 must have had a subject to speak of, before they could speak of 

 a subject. In other terms, the subject was anterior to the pre- 

 dicate, for it is the business of the predicate to make some 

 averment touching the subject. 



Nouns originally were imitations ; they were imitations of na- 

 tural sounds. From the first breeze of wind and the first ripple 

 of water, natural sounds existed and must have drawn attention. 

 These sounds were signs, and those signs would be the names of 

 the things signified. Man's tendency to make names imitative 

 of natural sounds, bears in learned phrase the designation of 

 onomatopeia, from two Greek words, OVO/JLO, (on'-o-ma) (Latin, 

 nomen), a name, and irojew (poi'-e-o), I make, so that the term 

 literally signifies name-making, without any reference to the 

 ground or principle of imitation on which such making proceeds. 

 Instances of onomatopeia exist in all languages. In English we 

 speak of the buzz of the bee, the mew of the cat, the crash of 

 falling timber, the crushing of a shell, etc. 



In general, names were originally descriptive. The fact is 

 specially illustrated in the Hebrew nouns, and the book of 

 Genesis is full of instances. Thus Isaac means laughter, and 

 Jesus means saviour. The names of rivers in other languages, 



when traced back to their originals, are found to be descriptive 

 of the flow of the stream, according as it is swift, slow, quiet, 

 noisy, etc. 



The name declares the qualities of the object ; but, observe, 

 there is no necessary connection between the name and the 

 qualities. Not always are names truly descriptive. With the 

 progress of science even scientific names have ceased to be truly 

 descriptive. But however correct a description of the qualities 

 of an object its name may give, nevertheless it has no necessary 

 connection with the object itself. This fact is best illustrated 

 by reference to the different names borne by the same object in 

 different languages. Take the name God. In Hebrew, God is 

 called Elohim and Jehovah; in Greek, Theos; in Latin, Dens; 

 in French, Dieu; in English, God. You see there is no con- 

 nection between the Almighty and any one of these names. 

 Yet the names are all descriptive. These names, and all names, 

 are only sounds ; or if you regard them as written rather than 

 as spoken, then are they certain straight and curved strokes or 

 lines representing sounds. By one sound is the Creator desig- 

 nated in Hebrew, by another sound He is designated in English. 

 Hence you may learn that any sound may denote any object. 

 The appropriation of sounds to particular objects is purely a 

 matter of convention, or passive agreement, or, to use another 

 term, usage. 



If usage can originate nouns, usage can erect into nouns other 

 parts of speech. Indeed, all the parts of speech may be re- 

 garded and used as nouns. You may know that a word not a 

 noun is used as a noun, by its being constructed as a noun ; 

 that is, by its having connected with it such particles as nouns 

 commonly take. Now nouns take before them the articles, the 

 and a; and they have after them the preposition of. Conse- 

 quently those words are nouns which have the or a before them, 

 and of after them. Attend to these instances of 



WORDS USED AS NOUNS. 



1. Adjectives used as Nouns : " The blacks of Africa are bought and 

 sold." " The. Ancient of Days did sit." (Dan. vii. 9.) " Of the an- 

 cients." (Swift.) 



2. Pronouns used as Nouns .- " The nameless He whose nod is Nature's 

 birth." (Young.) "I was wont to load my she with knacks." (Shake- 

 speare.) "When I see many its in a page, I always tremble for the 

 writer." (Cobbett.) " Let those two try to do this with their tofios and 

 their vihiches." (Spectator.) 



3. Verbs used as Nouns : " The officer erred in granting a permit." 

 "A may be of mercy is sufficient." (Bridge.) "To err is human, to 

 forgive divine." (Pope.) 



4. Participles used as .Nouns : " Neither regardeth he the crying of 

 the driver." (Job xxxix. 7. ) " Eeading, writing, and ciphering are 

 necessary parts of education." " Knowledge of the past comes next." 

 (Harris.) " I am my beloved's." (Sony of Sol. vii. 10.) 



5. Adverbs used as .Nouns : "One long note." "In these cases we 

 examine the why, the what, and the how of things." " 'Tis Heaven 

 itself that points out an hereafter." (Addison.) 



6. Conjunctions used as Nouns : "None of your if s." (Shakespeare.) 

 " Tour i/ is the only peacemaker ; much virtue lies in an if." (Shake- 

 speare.) 



7. Interjections used as Nouns : " Will cuts him short with a What 

 then?" (Addison.) "With hark and whoop and wild halloo." (Scott.) 



8. Other words used as Nouns : "Us is a personal pronoun." (Murray.) 

 " I and J were formerly expressed by the same character, as were U 

 and V." (Allen.) " Th has two sounds." (Murray.) " Let B. be a 

 now or instant." (Harris.) " Within this wooden O." (Shafcespeare.) 

 " Here are eight ands in one sentence." (Blair.) 



From the study of these instances you will learn the grounds 

 of the rule given by Campbell, in his Rhetoric, " All words and 

 signs taken technically (that is, independent of their meaning, 

 and merely as things spoken of) are nouns ; or rather are things 

 read and construed (constructed) as nouns ; as, ' For this reason 

 I prefer contemporary to cotemporary." You will also see that 

 adjectives, when they represent more than one, take s in the 

 plural, as if they were nouns : for example, the ancients, the elders. 

 Yet we do not say "the wises," but "the wise." The reason 

 seems to be, that elder and ancient, though adjectives in form and 

 import originally, have come to have a permanent force as nouns ; 

 as is seen in the fact that you can say " an ancient," " an 

 elder ; " but you cannot say " a wise ; " "a sage " you can say, 

 though sage and wise are nearly the same in meaning, and 

 though properly they are both adjectives. These remarks 

 illustrate the extent to which usage prevails in language, and 

 show that in a living language so rich as the English, rules to 

 wl:ic.. no exception can be given are not easily laid down. 



