Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

limited to a determinate signification in respect of place, it is neither subjunctive nor interrogative. Hither and thither are compounded with ward in our old writers, and used as adverbs.

Yes and no, when considered as adverbs, modify the verb contained in the interrogative sentence to which they form the answer. It may be doubted whether yes and no ought not to be considered as interjections. Adverbial phrases were originally short phrases, added to a perfect sentence, for the purpose of modifying the adjective, or verb, which it contained. The office of such a phrase is the same as the office of an adverb; as, for the nonce, that is, "for the occasion," or, "for the present turn." Spick-and-span was in reputable use till the time of Swift; spick-and-span-new, means "shining new from the warehouse," Pell-mell, from the French, "confusedly, tumultuously."

RECAPITULATION. An adverb is a word used for the purpose of modification; primarily an adjective or a verb, and secondarily, another adverb. It is added to a perfect sentence,―a sentence perfect both in the mind and expression of the speaker; or a sentence perfect to the conception, but broken short in the utterance. The adverb may

be a simple or compound word, formed from nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, all of which have been used as adverbs. Compound adverbs may be formed of all the other parts of speech; and a variety of adverbial phrases, or words derived from such phrases, which in the construction of sentences supply the place, and perform the function of adverbs. Phrases often become words and of such words, it is the use and not the form, which entitles them to be considered as adverbs. If a noun be used

adverbially it is equally an adverb, whether it has or has not previously undergone any inflection.

PREPOSITION.

A preposition is a word employed in a complex sentence to express the relation in which a substantive stands to a verb, or to another substantive.

Abraham was before Moses. The preposition before, expresses the relation of priority, in which the noun Abraham stands to the substantive Moses, the mere verb of existence intervening.

He speaks concerning the law. The preposition concerning, expresses the relation of subject to action, in which relation the substantive law stands to the verb speaks.

The Duke of Wellington liberated Spain. The preposition of expresses the relation of appurtenance, in which the substantive duke stands to the name Wellington, no verb intervening.

The preposition is always employed in a complex sentence; for as the noun and verb make up one proposition, and the noun, verb, and adverb two, so the noun, verb, and preposition, with the noun which follows, or is governed by the preposition, make up three propositions. Thus "John walks before," is a sentence involving two propositions," John is walking," "John is before." But "John walks before Peter," involves three propositions,"John is walking," "John is before," "Peter is behind."

Thus a sentence may be resolved into its separate propositions by expressing the conception implied by the preposition, and connecting it successively with the two terms related to each other.

Words that express the situation of one noun with

respect to another, either really or metaphorically, are prepositions. The expression of situation is their distinguishing characteristic. We say that one thing is before or after, on or off, to or from, on this side or on that, of another. The term, Preposition, suggests but an incorrect idea of its nature. The Latin prae, before, and positus, placed, might, in our language, be equally well applied to adjectives, for they, too, are placed before nouns. The adjectives in French, and the prepositions in Turkish and Hungarian, seldom precede, but generally follow the substantives with which they are connected in construction.

In the Greek and Latin, which have declensions from their nouns, prepositions are said to govern one or other of the cases. This government is not real but figurative. The case of a noun does not depend upon the preceding verb or preposition. The governing and the governed are collateral and corresponding effects of the same cause, the state of the different objects in the mind of the writer. When a substantive is the subject of the verb, it is denoted by its name or nominative; in every other state it must be attended by words that express its situation, otherwise such words must be understood. These, when separate, are prepositions, and, when added to the noun, they form declensions. When we say " John went after him," it is not because it follows the word after that the pronoun is in the accusative; but because the person represented by the word him is not considered as an actor in the sentence; otherwise we should say, "John went after he went," making two assertions instead of one.

With. The radical meaning of with is association; "There is no living with thee, nor without thee." It generally expresses the conception of joining or binding

E

[ocr errors]

"" two

together, modified by the nature of the objects spoken of, as, in company, in partnership, in mutual dealing; for "I am joined with those with whom I am in company,' "I am bound to one with whom I am in partnership,' persons who mutually deal together, are bound by the laws of honesty to each other." "With, in composition," says Johnson, "signifies opposition or privation;" as in the expressions withdrawn, withhold, withstand.

By signifies at the side of or near to. We pass by a man when we pass near him; to pass with him would be to pass in company with him; with includes the idea of junction, by of association, without absolute connection. In the sentence "he was killed by an Indian with an arrow," by refers to the agent, and with to the instrument of death. But it is correct to say, "he was wounded by a musket shot," because the musket shot implies both the agent and instrument. "To sell by the yard," means the yard being the instrument of measure. He travels by night; that is, in or during the night. He gained battles by sea and land; that is, on sea and on land. Day by day means day after day. By and by signifies in one or two short spaces of time.

"and

By is used as an adverb in the sense of proximity; snorting by we may descry the monsters of the deep."Dryden. As a noun, in the phrase "by the by," formerly written upon the by.

By, in composition, says Johnson, implies something out of the direct way; as, a by-stander, one who stands near; a by-road; a by-end; a by-word; a by-name.

In English by himself means alone; in the Scottish dialect it signifies insane, "beside himself."

"And mony a day was by himseľ,

He was sae sairly frighted."-Burns.

Be and by are, in old English, often used indifferently. Of the prepositions compounded with be or by, we have behind, before, between, beyond, beneath, &c. In the compounded preposition behind, the simple word hind is a noun, the name of a conception formed by the mind. Before is a preposition of the same nature as behind; for it is evident that the words hind and fore were equally in their origin nouns. But of what conception is fore the name? Take the following illustrations: forecastle, foredeck, forefinger, forehead-relating to place; and forebode, foreadvise, forenoon, forefather-relating to time. A foreland, for instance, is a part of the land which projects before the rest into the sea. The forenoon is the early part of the day that elapses before midday.

The conception expressed by the particle fore is not the conception of a real object, but it is the conception of a relation existing between two objects. A savage when in presence of his enemy, not only knows that the enemy exists, but that he is before him; this is the relation of place. The same savage, when he perceives the sun rising, not only knows that a certain portion of the day is elapsing, but that such portion is before noon; hence he forms a conception of the relation of time.

.

[ocr errors]

Lord Monboddo says every kind of relation is a pure idea of intellect, which can never be apprehended by sense." Sense can apprehend an external object which is before another, or the thing before which another is; but the relation of place, time, order, causation, or the like, which we express by the word before, is not discerned by a simple operation of sense, but by means of our comparing and judging faculties.

For. Dr Johnson has given forty-six significations of

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »