On Definitions. 237 



are employed in the case of verbs to denote the varieties of time in 

 which the event may have taken place. Other changes are intro- 

 duced to express the modes of the event or action, whether affirma- 

 tive, or conditional, or dependent on a condition, or imperative, or 

 interrogative, or whatever other peculiarity it may possess. So also, 

 in many languages, changes are made to express the different persons 

 of the verb. The agent of the verb is distinguished from the object 

 of the action, and the distinction may be made either by the form of 

 the word, or by its position.* 



All these distinctions, and many others though introduced by cus- 

 tom alone, and without any view to ulterior advantages, are of the 

 nature of definitions, and serve the purposes which definitions always 

 serve, to abbreviate language, and to render it precise.f 



The same distinctions are made, though in a different way, but 

 for the same purpose, and by analogous means, in the language of 

 signs, employed in teaching the deaf and dumb. In this interesting 

 and most humane science, in which signs alone, addressed to the 

 eye, are used instead of words, it is manifest, that no progress could 

 be made without the utmost precision and uniformity in the use of 

 the signs employed. The intention is therefore, no doubt, fixed by 

 such explanation as amounts to the nature of a definition, in what- 

 ever way that explanation is conveyed ; and such changes or modi- 

 fications are introduced into the use of this sign, as are fitted to 

 make it capable of conveying the same variations of the idea, as are 

 conveyed in ordinary language by the grammatical distinctions, or 

 the definitions that have been mentioned. 



Having ascertained that these distinctions are, in all languages, 

 even in that of signs, of the nature of definitions, let us shortly con- 



* Changes in the form of words are adopted to express the varjnng extent of 

 a quality, and are commonly named the degrees of comparison, whether in adjec- 

 tives or adverbs. Some conjunctions are employed to express a continuation of 

 similar objects, others opposition, some to express conditionality, others causation, 

 and others deduction. Syllables are frequently placed at the beginning of words, 

 to render aflirmatives negative, and the contrary. 



t The grammar of any particular language, consists of neither more nor less 

 than a collection and combined view of all the definitions of this kind, which the 

 practice of that language has introduced. The definitions of the former kind, be- 

 long rather to the science of universal grammar, as being such as are applicable to 

 all languages. Those now under consideration, constitute the grammar of any 

 particular language. Hence appears the absurdity of the prejudices, which some 

 modern innovators have conceived against grammar rules; these being the philo- 

 sophical principles of the language of which they treat. 



