The Theory and Structure of Language. 99 



substantive, to which they belong; besides the two original or pri- 

 mary ideas of quality, and of their appertaining to some other word, 

 which must be adjoined to make them sense. Insomuch that some 

 of these adjectives, when declined through all their cases, and genders, 

 and numbers, in their positive, comparative, and superlative degrees, 

 enumerate fifty or sixty terminations. All which to one, who wishes 

 to learn these languages, are so many new words, and add much to 

 the difficulty of acquiring them. 



Though the English adjectives are undeclined, having neither 

 case, gender, nor number; and with this simplicity of form possess a 

 degree of comparison by the additional termination of ish, more than 

 the generality of Latin or Greek adjectives, yet are they less adapted 

 to poetic measure, as they must accompany their corresponding sub- 

 stantives; from which they are perpetually separated in Greek and 

 Latin poetry. 



2. There is a second kind of adjectives, which abound in our lan- 

 guage, and in the Greek, but not in the Latin, which are called 

 ARTICLES by the writers of grammar, as the letter a, and the word 

 the. These, like the adjectives above described, suggest two primary 

 ideas, and suffer no change of termination in our language, and there- 

 fore suggest no secondary ideas. 



Mr. Locke observes, that languages consist principally of general 

 terms; as it would have been impossible to give a name to every 

 individual object, so as to communicate an idea of it to others; it 

 would be like reciting the name of every individual soldier of an 

 army, instead of using the general term, army. Now the use of the 

 article a, and the in English, and o in Greek, converts general terms 

 into particular ones; this idea of particularity as a quality, or property 

 of a noun, is one of the primary ideas suggested by these articles ; 

 and the other is, that of its appertaining to some particular noun sub- 

 stantive, without which it is not intelligible. In both these respects 

 these articles correspond with adjectives; to which may be added, 

 that our article a may be expressed by the adjective one or any; and 

 that the Greek article o is declined like other adjectives. 



The perpetual use of the article, besides its converting general 

 terms into particular ones, contributes much to the force and beauty 



