GRAMMAR. 
ideas are connected in the mind. “ Mam- 
ma, milk good,” would surely be under- 
stood by any one; and, in similar cases, 
depending upon the ease of inference, the 
ancient writers left it to the mind of the 
reader to form it for himself. But how 
slowly and how ambiguously communica- 
tion would proceed, without some appro- 
priated link of connection, any one may be 
convinced, by leaving out of a few sen- 
tences those words, which, in our language, 
serve that purpose, and which, in all lan- 
guages, are necessary to render an affirma- 
tion complete. The intelligent reader, to 
whatever other account of such w'ords he 
may have been accustomed, will perceive, 
that we refer to verbs. The essential quality 
of a verb is, to express affirmation, when 
joined with the subject of the affirmation. 
Whenever a word expresses it, that word is 
a verb : if in any case it does not express 
it, it ceases to be a verb. That it does ex- 
press affirmation is, doubtless, by an in- 
ference of the mind ; in itself considered, it 
can only be the name of some quality or 
circumstance of its subject ; but by being 
frequently employed with such inference, 
and, in the later periods of language, being 
invested with peculiarities of flexion, it ac- 
quires a character different, in appearance 
at least, from that of the noun, and, in many 
instances, is appropriated to convey the in- 
ference, that something is affirmed of its 
subject. 
11. From verbs, or rather from the noun- 
state of verbs, in which they do not express 
affirmation, a new class of words is formed, 
partaking of the characteristics of the noun 
and adjective, and agreeing with verbs in 
the accidental circumstance of requiring 
after them a peculiar form of pronouns. 
These words are called participles. 
12. In the same manner as it is found 
needful, for the purpose of accurate and 
expeditious communication, to employ 
words to modify or restrict the signification 
of nouns, it is found at least convenient to 
appropriate other words to modify or re- 
strict the signification of adnouns and verbs. 
These are called adverbs, which are to be 
regarded as a class of words formed from 
nouns or adnouns, and used to express 
some quality or circumstance respecting 
the action, quality, or circumstance de- 
noted by verbs or adnouns. They are 
■therefore convenient abbreviations, which 
may be supplied by the other sorts of 
words. 
13. Froin nouns, adnouns, and verbs, 
another class of words have arisen, which, 
from the long disuse of the original forms of 
them, have lost their peculiar characteris- 
tics, and are now regarded as independent 
of them. They are now used to connect 
words, or sentences, or words and sen- 
tences ; and, in general, point out some 
particular kind of connexion. From the 
employment of them, they may be termed 
connectives ; and under this class, we 
comprehend those w'ords which are usually 
denominated Prepositions and Conjunc- 
tions. The distinction between t'hese two 
sorts of Connectives, is merely technical ; the 
latter requiring after them a peculiar form 
of the pronoun, and of the noun, in lan- 
guages in which the noun admits of flexion. 
14. We feel obliged, very much against 
our inclination, to admit, as an eighth class 
of words, some of those which are usually 
denominated interjections. Words of 
this sort are of very little importance, and 
by many are thought undeserving of the 
name of words. Some are involuntary ex- 
pressions of grief, or joy, or surprize, or 
some other strong emotion : and some may 
be used with the intention of informing others 
what emotions are in the mind of the 
speaker or writer. The former set have 
no more right to be called words, than the 
sigh of sorrow, the groan of pain, the laugh 
of mini), &c., which no one calls words; 
for words are voluntary vocal sounds, em- 
ployed to express our ideas to others. The 
latter set are generally found to be parts of 
sentences, or single words of the before men- 
tioned sorts. Our great philosophical ety- 
mologist, Mr. Horne Tooke, has traced the 
origin of the greater part of them ; and the 
few that remain, will probably be hereafter 
traced by some of those grammarians who 
are treading in his steps. 
We now proceed to a few remarks on 
each of these sorts of words : our limits will 
allow of very little amplification, and will 
enable us only to present an outline to our 
readers. Those who wish for farther in for- 
mation, we beg to refer to the article 
Grammar, in Dr. Rees’s “ Cyclopedia.” 
I. Of the Noun, 
15. Those words which are names of 
things, and which can stand alone, as the 
subject of an affirmation, are called Nouns: 
this class of words has two grand divisions : 
substantives and abstract nouns (8.) Sub- 
stantives are the names for substances. All 
names must originally have been names of 
individuals; the extension of the appiica- 
