Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/282

 o somehow; as, "Somehow or other he will be favoured."--Butler's Analogy, p. 89. Here other seems to be put for otherwise; and yet the latter word would not be agreeable in such a sentence. "Somewhere or other," is a kindred phrase equally common, and equally good; or, rather, equally irregular and puzzling. Would it not be better, always to avoid both, by saying, in their stead, "In some way or other,"--"In someplace or other?" In the following examples, however, other seems to be used for otherwise, without such a connection: "How is THAT used, other than as a Conjunction?"--Ainsworth's Gram., p. 88.

"Will it not be receiv'd that they have done 't?   --Who dares receive it other?"--SHAK.: ''Joh. Dict., w. Other''.

OBS. 9.--All and enough, little and much, more and less, sometimes suggest the idea of quantity so abstractly, that we can hardly consider them as adjuncts to any other words; for which reason, they are, in this absolute sense, put down in our dictionaries as nouns. If nouns, however, they are never inflected by cases or numbers; nor do they in general admit the usual adjuncts or definitives of nouns.[174] Thus, we can neither say, the all, for the whole, nor an enough, for a sufficiency. And though a little, the more, and the less, are common phrases, the article does not here prove the following word to be a noun; because the expression may either be elliptical, or have the construction of an adverb: as, "Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved."--''2 Cor.'', xii, 15. Dr. Johnson seems to suppose that the partitive use of these words makes them nouns; as, "They have much of the poetry of Mecænas, but little of his liberality."--DRYDEN: ''in Joh. Dict.'' Upon this principle, however, adjectives innumerable would be made nouns; for we can just as well say, "Some of the poetry,"--"Any of the poetry,"--"The best of Poetry," &c. In all such expressions, the name of the thing divided, is understood in the partitive word; for a part of any thing must needs be of the same species as the whole. Nor was this great grammarian sufficiently attentive to adjuncts, in determining the parts of speech. ''Nearly all, quite enough, so little, too much, vastly more, rather less'', and an abundance of similar phrases, are familiar to every body; in none of which, can any of these words of quantity, however abstract, be very properly reckoned nouns; because the preceding word is an adverb, and adverbs do not relate to any words that are literally nouns. All these may also be used partitively; as, "Nearly all of us."

OBS. 10.--The following are some of Dr. Johnson's "nouns;" which, in connexion with the foregoing remarks, I would submit to the judgement of the reader: "'Then shall we be news-crammed.'--'All the better; we shall be the more remarkable.'"--SHAK.: ''in Joh. Dict. "All'' the fitter, Lentulus; our coming is not for salutation; we have business."--BEN JONSON: ib. "'Tis enough for me to have endeavoured the union of my country."--TEMPLE: ib. "Ye take too much upon you."--NUMBERS: ib. "The fate of love is such, that still it sees too little or too much."--DRYDEN: ib. "He thought not much to clothe his enemies."--MILTON: ib. "There remained not so much as one of them."--Ib., Exod., xiv, 28. "We will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need."--Ib., 2 Chronicles. "The matter of the universe was created before the flood; if any more was created, then there must be as much annihilated to make room for it."--BURNET: ib. "The Lord do so, and much more, to Jonathan."--1 SAMUEL: ib. "They that would have more and more, can never have enough; no, not if a miracle should interpose to gratify their avarice."--L'ESTRANGE: ib. "They gathered some more, some less."--EXODUS: ib. "Thy servant knew nothing of this, less or more."--1 SAMUEL: ib. The first two examples above, Johnson explains thus: "That is, 'Every thing is the better.'--Every thing is the fitter."--Quarto Dict. The propriety of this solution may well be doubted; because the similar phrases, "So much the better,"--"None the fitter," would certainly be perverted, if resolved in the same way: much and none are here, very clearly, adverbs.

OBS. 11.--Whatever disposition may be made of the terms cited above, there are instances in which some of the same words can hardly be any thing else than nouns. Thus all, when it signifies the whole, or every thing, may be reckoned a noun; as, "Our all is at stake, and irretrievably lost, if we fail of success."--Addison. "A torch, snuff and all, goes out in a moment, when dipped in the vapour."--Id. "The first blast of wind laid it flat on the ground; nest, eagles, and all."--L'Estrange.

"Finding, the wretched all they here can have,   But present food, and but a future grave."--Prior.

"And will she yet debase her eyes on me;   On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?"--Shak.

"Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee,   Forever; and in me all whom thou lov'st."--Milton.

OBS. 12.--There are yet some other words, which, by their construction alone, are to be distinguished from the pronominal adjectives. Both, when it stands as a correspondent to and, is reckoned a conjunction; as, "For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one."--Heb., ii, 11. But, in sentences like the following, it seems to be an adjective, referring to the nouns which precede: "Language and manners are both established by the usage of people of fashion."--''Amer. Chesterfield'', p. 83. So either, corresponding to or, and neither, referring to ''