GRAMMAR. 



Indeterminate or unnecessary to be spe- 

 cified. The Chinese drop their plural ad- 

 junct, when there is another word of plu- 

 rality attached to the noun. We do not 

 go upon the same principle? but there 

 are cases in which we make no changes 

 to denote plurality, as twenty pound of 

 flour, thirty sailof ships, four thousand, &,c. 

 These instances, though contrary to the 

 prevailing analogy of our language, cer- 

 tainly do not oppose the general princi- 

 ples of language ; and though the neglect 

 of the plural termination in such cases is 

 ungrammatical, it probably savours less of 

 vulgarity to go thus far with the multitude, 

 than of pedantry to quit the beaten track. 

 There are other instances, however, in 

 which the use of the same word, both in a 

 singular and plural acceptation, is perfect- 

 ly legitimate ; we say one, or twenty, deer, 

 sheep, or swine. If there must be a form 

 for unity as distinguished from plurality, 

 why not forms to denote two things, three 

 things, See. ? There is no reason, but in 

 their inferior -utility some languages have 

 a form for duality ; and by the Greeks 

 this form was carried through their nouns, 

 adnouns, pronouns, verbs, and participles. 

 They had, however, no scruple in using 

 the "plural form for two things, and in 

 making their duals agree with plurals. 

 The fact is, the distinction between one 

 and more than one is more useful than 

 any farther distinction. The indefinite 

 denotement of plurality is continually ser- 

 viceable ; and if we wish to specity the 

 exact number, the addition of a numeral 

 is a much more simple procedure, than 

 the burdening of language with a number 

 of distinctions, which would seldom be 

 useful, and never necessary. 



19. In every department of knowledge 

 we are concerned with individuals ; and 

 though for the purposes of communica- 

 tion general terms are not only conve- 

 nient, but absolutely necessary, some con- 

 trivances are requisite to designate indi- 

 viduals, or less general classes of indivi- 

 duals. This is done by means of ad nouns, 

 or bv stating some connection between 

 what is denoted by the noun andsome other 

 substance or quality. The latter is ac- 

 complished by juxtaposition, by preposi- 

 tions, or by equivalent changes in the 

 word connected. The last is called in- 

 flection, and the word so changed is call- 

 ed a case of the noun. In English we have 

 only one inflection of the noun, and two 

 of the pronoun. Persons who think that 

 the procedures of every language must be 

 accommodated to the grammar of the 

 Greek and Latin, strenuously contend for 

 ^n equal number of cases with theirs. If 



case mean a change in the word, to de.- 

 note connection with other words, then 

 the plan of our language cannot be ac- 

 commodated to that of the Latin : If of a 

 man, to a mun, &c. be considered as cases, 

 there is certainly no reason why the same 

 appellation should not be given to every 

 noun to which a preposition is prefixed, 

 and then we shall have above thirty cases. 

 It is fortunate for the speculator, that, in 

 this and other instances, language will 

 not bend to the contrivances of the tech- 

 nical grammarian : for his wish to reduce 

 every process to an agreement with a 

 standard, which prejudice only can deem 

 perfect, would, if successful, materially 

 increase the difficulties of grammatical in- 

 vestigation. The variation of our nouns 

 is confined to the denotement of one re- 

 lation, that of property or possession ; and 

 it is therefore with great propriety called 

 the possessive case. The appellation geni- 

 tive case is sometimes applied to it ; but. 

 the force of the Greek and Latin genitive 

 is to denote relation in general, though 

 capable of specific application, and is ex- 

 actly equivalent to a noun preceded by of. 

 The possessive case of a noun is not equi- 

 valent to the noun preceded by of, except 

 where the latter has the specific force of 

 belonging to. It may in all cases be re- 

 presented by of, with the noun following; 

 but the latter mode of expression cannot 

 in many instances be represented by the 

 possessive case. The French, Spanish, 

 and Italian languages have no cases of 

 nouns : the German has changes, to ex- 

 press what we denote by of and to; but 

 these changes aa'e not carried fh rough all 

 the nouns. The Latin and Greek lan- 

 guages have still more variations, which 

 they carry through all their variable parts 

 of speech, except the verbs. The ar- 

 rangement of these variations is the work 

 of art; and the appellations of case, or fall- 

 en, and declension, or bending from, appear 

 to have gone upon this principle : the 

 word from which the cases are formed 

 was represented by a perpendicular*line, 

 and the cases by lines declining er falling 

 from it. For the sake of convenience, the 

 nominative and vocative are denominated 

 cases; and from the above contrivance 

 the nominative was termed the upright 

 case, and the other cases were termed 

 oblique. The nominative is the name it- 

 self. The vvcative, or case of calling, has 

 its origin in those changes in the pronun- 

 ciation, which arise from the mode of ut- 

 terance in calling to a person: it is a corrup- 

 tion, or aw abbreviation of the nominative. 

 We have already spoken of the force of 

 the genitive ; we shall only add herfej th'at 



