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qualities, unless that significancy be considered as residing rather in the suggested common noun, than in the imagined individual.

The following may perhaps be admitted as a regulating principle, with respect to the application of a proper name to more than one individuals:-Let the name be regarded as common, when it implies an imputation of the qualities which distinguished an individual; and as proper, when it simply denotes a reiteration of the proper name. Thus : (Common.) "Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest." "It takes many Thameses to make a Mississippi." "Shakespeares are not of every-day growth." (Proper.) "The twelve Cæsars."

"Have you seen any

of the Thomsons ?" "He married a Howard."

4. Some common nouns are called Collective, and others Abstract nouns.

*

"The

The noun Collective, or noun of multitude, is one which refers to individuals, severally, by a name strictly denoting one mass; as, "The laity were appealed to." peasantry go barefoot." "The family were severally consulted." "The multitude have nothing to eat."

The noun Abstract is the name of some attribute conceived of as abstracted or apart from any thing to which it may belong; as, "Veracity is amiable.” "I dislike conceit."

"Endure hardness."

Common nouns when generalised are sometimes called Abstract; but there is between them and the stricter kind of abstract nouns a distinction not easily definable. Man is in a certain sense an abstract term; but Humanity implies a higher degree of abstraction. See Mill's Logic, vol. i. pp. 34, 35.

Other species of nouns are occasionally referred to; as Verbal, Sentential or Many-worded, Derivative, Compound, Diminutive, &c.

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EXERCISES.

5. Name, as parts of speech, the words in the following sentences, giving special description of the Nouns, as taught in this chapter :

Put away the evil of your doings. William came over from Normandy, and fought against Harold in the famous battle of Hastings. Egypt was a settled kingdom ruled by a Pharaoh, at the time of Abram. Idleness is the parent of Want and Pain. The Romans invaded the country of the Britons. Freedom found a home in the mountains. Give me the mind of a Kepler, a Newton, or a Leibnitz. Piety and virtue are the noblest accomplishments. Several Johnsons are among the subscribers.

"Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes,
He comes attended by the sultry Hours.".

Thomson.

CHAP. IV.

OF THE ADJECTIVE.

1. THE Adjective can, in general, stand immediately before the Noun, and qualifies or describes the Noun, without asserting any thing.

That part of speech which is now usually denominated the Noun, was formerly known by the name Substantive Noun, to distinguish it more immediately from another part of speech termed the Adjective Noun.

The word Adjective, then, was originally designed to distinguish a particular kind of Noun. And we think it may still appear entitled to be recognised in that light, if we take the class of Nouns to comprehend names generally. But it is nevertheless desirable to observe the usual distinction which calls the Substantive Noun simply the Noun, or the Substantive, and the Adjective Noun simply the Adjective. The two kinds are certainly distinct enough to entitle them

to be separately specified in the enumeration of the parts of speech.

The Substantive is so named, because it denotes a thing considered as subsisting of itself, or holds an independent position in discourse. The Adjective is so called, because for the support of its meaning it must connect itself with a Substantive.*

2. The tendency of the Adjective to blend with the Substantive is primarily occasioned by giving a noun a conjunctive termination. Thus, person and credit are both substantives; but when the former is altered to the word personal, it has ceased to be substantive, and has become adjective; its dependence requires for it a supporting noun, and personal credit will form the coalition requisite. Otherwise; when the word credit is changed to creditable, it has ceased to be substantive, and has become adjective; and creditable person exemplifies the kind of union necessary to its support.

3. It is not necessary, however, that all our Adjectives should be formed in the above manner. Usage and arrangement are sufficient to make us apprehend a word as an Adjective; so that we can perceive, in the expression iron bar, the adjective meaning of iron, and in the expression bar iron, the adjective meaning of bar, although either word is more naturally a Substantive than an Adjective.†

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'Inability to stand alone in a sentence," says Tooke, "is not the distinguishing mark of an Adjective, for no Substantive in any of its oblique cases can stand alone any more than the Adjective. And this last circumstance might perhaps incline Wallis to call our Genitive an Adjective; for man's cannot stand alone any more than human.”. Diversions, p. 634.

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† Horne Tooke complains of "the want of an adjective distinction to some of our terms," whereby we "are forced to attribute the term itself without any adherent intimation of its attribution." "In English," says he, "instead of adjectiving our own substantives, we have borrowed, in immense numbers, adjectived signs from other languages." Compare mind and mental. See Diversions, p. 636. See also M'Culloch, p. 118.

4. Adjectives do not strictly admit of being used as nouns, but are always dependent on a substantive, present or implied. And it may well be questioned, whether such a phrase as iron bar ought not, in grammatical parsing, to be extended into the form bar of iron, from which the form iron bar is undoubtedly derived by abbreviation and transposition.*

5. Most adjectives imply kindred abstract nouns. Thus strong implies strength, wise implies wisdom, white implies whiteness. When the quality strength is abstracted or disengaged from the confined and dependent state of the adjective strong, it is an ideal thing; but as it can thus become a distinct general conception in the mind, it is warrantably classed among things that are, and the word expressing it is fitly termed a substantive.

6. Consider the phrases -fertile lands, these lands, remote lands, all lands; the first adjective expresses quality; the second, position; the third, position; the fourth, extent. Accordingly, some one of the terms qualifying, describing, defining, may be employed in pointing out the noun to which an adjective pertains. Thus, in the phrases, many privations, discouraging privations, severe privations, we may refer to many as defining the noun privations; to discouraging, as describing it; to severe, as qualifying it.

Definitives.

7. Many grammarians, allowing the class of ordinary adjectives to comprise descriptive or qualifying terms, have assigned the name Definitive Adjectives, or Definitives, to those words which define nouns, that is, which refer to the

Nouns used as adjectives are called by Wallis respective adjectives; which, however, he says, have their sense much more distinctly expressed by means of prepositions. The tendency of such nouns is to incorporate with the substantives which they describe, the coalescence being first attempted by a hyphen; thus, man kind, man-kind, mankind. See Wallis's Gram. Ling. Angl. p. 93.

position, extent, or any limitation, of the object denoted by

a noun.

The principal Definitives are the following:

One, two, three, &c.; a, an, any; some, several, both, all, none; many, much, more, most; few, fewer, fewest; little, less, least. First, second, third, &c.; former, latter, last; the, this, that, these, those; what, which, whether; such, same, other; each, every, either, neither.

Of these definitive adjectives some have received more special names; thus, one, two, first, second, &c. are Numeral Adjectives; this, that, &c. are Demonstrative Adjectives; each, every, &c. are Distributive Adjectives; and the peculiar words a, an, the, are commonly called Articles.

8. The Definitives all admit of being employed pronominally, that is, like pronouns or substitutes for nouns, excepting the Articles, which always have an accompanying noun, and excepting also the distributive every, which formerly, however, was often used pronominally.* None is now the pronominal form of no. Thus, we can say, "Give each boy a book," or "Give each a book;" "I bought another slate," or 66 I bought another;" "Which room do you mean?" or "Which do you mean ?"

The Articles.

9. The first of the articles a, an, the, is merely an abridgment of the second, which is the modern representative of an Anglo-Saxon word denoting one. In our employment, however, of a or an, we mean to express oneness very feebly, as if avoiding the numerical force of

Thus, Locke says, "The reason your Lordship gives in every of these places." In technical law style the pronominal use of every is retained; as "all and every of the conditions."

The Article, never having its noun suppressed, is, as its name indicates, a jointed or joined term invariably.

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