Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/769

Rh PKISCIAN 745 15). The parts of speech are, according to Priscian, eight, viz., noun, verb, participle, pronoun, preposition, adverb, interjection, conjunction. Infinites (i.e., infinitive moods) are included under the verb, because they have tenses and no cases. Participles are not included, because they have cases and genders but no moods (ib. 18). Priscian obtains a framework for the arrangement of his facts from the &quot;accidents&quot; of each part of speech, and subordinate classifications are taken from the endings of the words. Nouns have the following accidents : species, genus, numcrus, figura, casus. As regards species (&quot;class&quot;) nouns are proper or appel lative, and each of these classes are subdivided into many others. Adjectives are (rightly) treated by Priscian in common with other nouns (ii. 22 sq. ). The rest of this book and books iii. and iv. treat of the formation of the different classes of nouns, e.g., of patronymics, possessives, comparatives, superlatives, diminutives, and other derivatives. Book v. treats of gender, number, figure, and case. For gender, nouns are discussed by their endings. Figure is either simple or composite or decomposite (i.e., derivative from composite), as, magnus, magnanimus, magnanimitas (v. 61). There are four modes of composition : (1) ex duobus integris, as tribunusplebis ; (2) ex duobus corruptis, as bcnivolus ; (3) ex intcgro et corrupto, e.g., inimicus ; (4) ex corrupto et integro, as impius (v. 58). There are six cases, thus arranged : (1) the nominative as the original ; (2) the genitive, because it is born from the nomin ative, and begets the other oblique cases; (3) the dative, &quot;qui magis amicis convenit ; &quot; (4) the accusative, &quot; qui magis ad inimicos attinet ;&quot; (5) the vocative as the most imperfect ; (6) the ablative as new and peculiar to the Latins (v. 74). In book vi. the for mation of the genitive is discussed, each nominative termination being taken in order, irrespective of the declension. Book vii. treats of the other cases in each of the five declensions. Neither here nor in the books on the verb are full paradigms set out as in modern grammars. Hie, hujus, c., are often prefixed as symbols of gender and case. Books viii.-x. deal with the verb. Verbs have eight accidents: genus, tempus, modus, species, figura, conjugatio, persona, numcrus. Some verbs (as other parts of speech) are defective, either by natural necessity or by chance. Necessity may lie in the meaning (e.g., pucrperus is not found) or in the incompatibility of sound (e.g., cursor but not cursrix). Chance may lie simply in non-use, e.g., faux, prex, dicio, for, dor ; or because the form would be un pleasant, e.g., mctuturus or metuiturus, nutritrix (from nutritor), for which nutrix is used. Sometimes a word is not used in order to avoid confusion, e.g., conjunx has conjugis, lest conjungis should be taken for a verb ; maneolms mansi, not manui ; fac, due avoid con fusion with ablatives face, duce, &c. (viii. 4-6). Genus or significatio verbi is its being active or passive. Verbs in o are active, neuter, and neutro-passive, e.g., amo, spiro, gau/.Jeo (cf. xi. 28). Verbs in or are passive, common, and deponent, e.g., amor, oscular te and a te, scquor. Verbs whose meaning and use do not correspond with the form are enumerated (ib. 7-39). Tempus is present, past, and future. Past time is divided into past imper fect, past perfect, past pluperfect. Present and future time are not divided by the Romans (ib. 38). Dixcro is called the subjunc tive future (ib. 55, 57). The indicative and subjunctive have all tenses ; the imperative has present, future, and, in passive, a past (e.g., amattis sit). The optative and infinite have one form ex pressing both present and past imperfect, and another expressing perfect and pluperfect (ib. 38-43). The present tense embraces to some extent both past and future (e.g., Priscianus vocor, scribo vcrsum). The perfect corresponds to Greek aorist as well as to perfect (ib. 51-54). Priscian makes five moods, the optative (same in forms as the subjunctive) always requiring an adverb of wishing ; the subjunctive, requiring not only an adverb or conjunction, but also another verb, e.g., cumfaciam vcnito. In expressions of com mand, as nc dicas, another verb is not required (ib. 68). Supines and gerunds (sometimes confused, sometimes distinguished, by Priscian) are nouns used in place of the infinite. Amandus, &c., is called participiale or nomen verbale (ib. 44, 70). Impersonal verbs have a peculiar meaning (ib. 69). In class verbs are primitive or derivative. Derivatives are numerously classified as inchoatives, frequentatives, &c. (ib. 72 sq.). In figure verbs are simple or compound (ib. 81). Conjugations in Latin are determined by the vowel of the 2nd person, and are thus four only, while the Greeks have ten. Person and number close the eighth book. Fero, volo, edo are specially treated (ix. 4-11). The formation of the perfect is first treated generally (ix. 13), and then the perfects and supines of 1st and 2nd conjugations and (in book x. ) of 3rd and 4th conjugations. Book xi. deals with participles, which were invented to act as verbs applied to nouns, especially in oblique cases. Hence we can say not only bonus homo loqucbatur but boni hominis loquentis oratione.ni audivi, &c. (xi. 3). The participle has six accidents : genus, wsus, significatio, tempus, numcrus, figura (ib. 13), where gemis is gender, and significatio and figura have same application as in verbs. The formation of the participles, especially of the past participle, is fully discussed. Books xii. and xiii. deal with pronouns. They have six acci dents : species, persona, genus, numcrus, figura, casus. There are four declensions, viz., personal, ille, &c., meus, &c., nostras, &c. Priscian classes as nouns, and not as pronouns, quis, qualis, talis, quantus, tantus, tot, units, solus, totus, alius, nullus, uter, alter, and their compounds (xiii. 11, 29-35). Having finished the four declinable parts of speech, Priscian turns to the four indeclinable. Prepositions (book xiv. ) are (except some times in verse) put before nouns botli by apposition and com position ; before pronouns only by apposition ; before all else by composition (xiv. 8). He treats first of prepositions used with the accusative case, then of those used with the ablative, and lastly of those occurring only in composition. Adverbs (book xv. ) have species, significatio, figura, where species refers to their being primi tive or derivative, and significatio to their meaning as temporal, local, confirmative, optative, &c. Some are used with all tenses and moods, others with some only. They are arranged for discus sion under their endings (ib. 7). Under the endings in a are treated also ablatives of nouns used as adverbs, e.g., una, qua, Roma, and also other local uses of nouns, e.g., Romas sum, Romam eo, &c. (ib. 9). Interjections arc separated from adverbs by Koman writers, because they express fully an emotion of the mind, e.g., papae, quid video, where papa2 = miror(ib. 40). Conjunctions have figura and species, species denoting meaning and use as copulative, causal, disjunctive, &c. Some conjunctions belong to several of these classes. The two books on syntax are looser in arrangement, and are not so clear and exhaustive as the former books. The truth is, Priscian lacked a good framework for the facts of construction, and first tries one and then another. The seventeenth book rests mainly on Apollonius ; the eighteenth is less dependent on him, and ends with a long miscellaneous list, in alphabetical order, of Greek idioms, chiefly verbal, which he compares with corresponding Latin usages. Part of this list occurs twice over. Omitting duplicates, there are nearly 300 such comparisons. Hertz suggests (Prasf. iii. p. vii.) that it was only closed by the fortunate occurrence of xopTa^o^ai, illustrated by a line of Terence which ended with satur ! These idioms are illustrated by copious quotations from Demosthenes and Plato, and not a few from Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, besides Latin authors. The syntax commences with showing the analogy of elements, words, and speech. In each of these we have repetition, omission, conjunction, transposition, &c. (xvii. 3 sq.). Then Priscian dis cusses why interrogatives are all of two parts of speech only, viz., nouns and adverbs (ib. 22) : why not also verbs (ib. 36) ? He dis cusses the difference of pronouns from one another, their use with impersonals, particularly interest, rcfcrt (ib. 92), the use of the pos sessive and reflexive pronouns. He says that mei ager may be used for meus ager, but also for &quot;the land of my husband&quot; (ib. 129, 130). There are many possible unions and interchanges of different parts of speech and of their accidents. Such unions as ille ego qui quondam, &c., are justified analogically by the union of different cases, e.g., animalium qusedam sunt mortalia, or by the lise of compounds from different cases, as mediterraneus a media terras (ib. 144-152). Different numbers and genders are combined, as pars secant apcrite aliquis ; in Eunuchum suam ; or different cases, as urbem quam statuo vestra est ; or different times, as post- quam cecidit . . . llion et omnis humo fumat Troja (ib. 155-163). Often we find interchange, e.g., of parts of speech, as sublime (colas) for an adverb, genus mule Latinum for ex quo, &c. (ib. 168). In the eighteenth book he discusses the use of the cases. The nominative and vocative are absolute, and with substantival or vocatival verbs of the first or second person they do not require a pronoun, e.g., homo sum, Cicero nominor, but with other verbs they do, e.g., ego Priscianus scribo, tu Apollonius (or Apolloni) scribis. Tu may, however, be omitted with the vocative, but Priscianus scribo is a solecism, because nouns by themselves and participles, without the vocative case, are of the third person (ib. 2-4). If a noun requires an oblique case, we must have the verb substantive or participle, e.g., filius Herculis sum. In filius Pelei Achilles multos interfecit, the participle ens (&quot;for which we now use qui est or qui fuit&quot;) must be understood (ib. 6). The nominative is joined to the genitive when possession and a possessor are meant. In Hector filius Priami the genitive denotes the possessor ; in magnae virtutis vir it denotes the possession. In the latter use the Latins often have the ablative, as they have also for the Greek geni tive of consequence, t/j.ov favros =mc vivo (ib. 14). The^ geni tive after comparatives and superlatives and after verbals in -or and -rix is mentioned ; also such usages as fidens animi,_ dives lactis (ib. 18, 19). In doctus grammaticam we have a participle ; in doctus grammatics?, a noun (ib. 21). The dative is used acquisi tively, e.g., commodus tibi sum, also after verbals in -Us and -dus. Words of equivalence or subjection or the reverse are used in any order with either genitive or dative, e.g., pater filii, or filio est pater ; so similis, par, amicus, &c. Nominatives are joined to accusatives when what belongs to a part is assigned to the whole, e.g., fortis dcxtrain for fortem dcxtram habens. In all (even in oblique) cases we must understand qui est, as albi colorcm equi .XIX. - 94