Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/1020

 institution have been enlarged; and an expense has been incurred, which, with the increased price of provisions, renders it necessary to advance the terms of admission."--L. Murray cor. "These sentences are far less difficult than complex ones."--S. S. Greene cor.

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife   They sober lived, nor ever wished to stray."--Gray cor.

UNDER CRITICAL NOTE III.--OF DEFINITIONS.

(1.) "A definition is a short and lucid description of a thing, or species, according to its nature and properties."--G. BROWN: Rev. David Blair cor. (2.) "Language, in general, signifies the expression of our ideas by certain articulate sounds, or written words, which are used as the signs of those ideas."--Dr. Hugh Blair cor. (3.) "A word is one or more syllables used by common consent as the sign of an idea."--Bullions cor. (4.) "A word is one or more syllables used as the sign of an idea, or of some manner of thought."--Hazen cor. (5.) "Words are articulate sounds, or their written signs, used to convey ideas."--Hiley cor. (6.) "A word is one or more syllables used orally or in writing, to represent some idea."--Hart cor. (7.) "A word is one or more syllables used as the sign of an idea."--S. W. Clark cor. (8.) "A word is a letter or a combination of letters, a sound or a combination of sounds, used as the sign of an idea."--Wells cor. (9.) "Words are articulate sounds, or their written signs, by which ideas are communicated."--Wright cor. (10.) "Words are certain articulate sounds, or their written representatives, used by common consent as signs of our ideas."--Bullions, Lowth, Murray, et al. cor. (11.) "Words are sounds or written symbols used as signs of our ideas."--W. Allen cor. (12.) "Orthography literally means correct writing"--Kirkham and Smith cor. [The word orthography stands for different things: as, 1. The art or practice of writing words with their proper letters; 2. That part of grammar which treats of letters, syllables, separate words, and spelling.] (13.) "A vowel is a letter which forms a perfect sound when uttered alone."--Inst., p. 16; Hazen, Lennie, and Brace, cor. (14-18.) "Spelling is the art of expressing words by their proper letters."--G. BROWN: Lowth and Churchill cor.; also ''Murray, Ing. et al.; also Comly; also Bullions; also Kirkham and Sanborn''. (19.) "A syllable is one or more letters, pronounced by a single impulse of the voice, and constituting a word, or part of a word."--Lowth, Mur., et al., cor. (20.) "A syllable is a letter or a combination of letters, uttered in one complete sound."--''Brit. Gram. and Buch. cor. (21.) "A syllable is one or more letters representing a distinct sound, or what is uttered by a single impulse of the voice."--Kirkham cor. (22.) "A syllable is so much of a word as is sounded at once, whether it be the whole or a part."--Bullions cor. (23.) "A syllable is so many letters as are sounded at once; and is either a word, or a part of a word."--Picket cor. (24.) "A diphthong is a union of two vowels in one syllable, as in bear and beat."--Bucke cor. Or: "A diphthong is the meeting of two vowels in one syllable."--Brit. Gram., p. 15; Buchanan's'', 3. (25.) "A diphthong consists of two vowels put together in one syllable; as ea in beat, oi in voice."--Guy cor. (26.) "A triphthong consists of three vowels put together in one syllable; as, eau in beauty."--Id. (27.) "But a triphthong is the union of three vowels in one syllable."--Bucke cor. Or: "A triphthong is the meeting of three vowels in one syllable."--British Gram., p. 21; Buchanan's, 3. (28.) "What is a noun? A noun is the name of something; as, a man, a boy."--''Brit. Gram. and Buchanan cor. (29.) "An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, to describe the object named or referred to."--Maunder cor. (30.) "An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, to describe or define the object mentioned."--R. C. Smith cor. (31.) "An adjective is a word which, without assertion or time, serves to describe or define something; as, a good man, every boy."--Wilcox cor. (32.) "An adjective is a word added to a noun or pronoun, and generally expresses a quality."--Mur. and Lowth cor. (33.) "An adjective expresses the quality, not of the noun or pronoun to which it is applied, but of the person or thing spoken of; and it may generally be known by the sense which it thus makes in connexion with its noun; as, 'A good man,' 'A genteel woman.'"--Wright cor. (34.) "An adverb is a word used to modify the sense of a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb."--Wilcox cor. (35.) "An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb, to modify the sense, or denote some circumstance."--Bullions cor. (36.) "A substantive, or noun, is a name given to some object which the senses can perceive, the understanding comprehend, or the imagination entertain."--Wright cor. (37-54.) "Genders are modifications that distinguish objects in regard to sex."--Brown's Inst., p. 35: Bullions cor.: also Frost; also Perley; also Cooper; also L. Murray et al.; also Alden et al.; also Brit. Gram., with Buchanan; also Fowle; also Burn; also Webster; also Coar; also Hall; also Wright; also Fisher; also W. Allen; also Parker and Fox; also Weld; also Weld again''. (55 and 56.) "A case, in grammar, is the state or condition of a noun or pronoun, with respect to some other word in the sentence."--Bullions cor.; also Kirkham. (57.) "Cases are modifications that distinguish the relations of nouns and pronouns to other words."--Brown's Inst., p. 36. (58.) "Government is the power which one word has over an other, to cause it to assume some particular modification."--Sanborn et al. cor. See Inst., p. 104. (59.) "A simple sentence is a sentence which contains only one assertion, command, or question."--Sanborn et al. cor. (60.) "Declension means the putting of a noun or pronoun through the different cases and numbers."--Kirkham cor. Or better: "The declension of a word is a regular arrangement of its numbers and cases."--See Inst., p. 37. (61.) "Zeugma is a figure in which two or more words refer in common to an other which literally agrees with only one of them."--B. F. Fish cor. (62.) "An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed; as, smite, smote, smitten."--Inst., p. 75. (63). "A personal pronoun is a pronoun that shows, by its form, of what person it is."--Inst., p. 46.