Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/669



"I'll in. I'll in. Follow your friend's counsel. I'll in"--Id. Supply "get."

"Away, old man; give me thy hand; away."--Id. Supply "come."

"Love hath wings, and will away"--Waller. Supply "fly."

"Up, up, Glentarkin! rouse thee, ho!"--Scott. Supply "spring."

"Henry the Fifth is crowned; up, vanity!" Supply "stand."

"Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence!"--Shak. Supply "fall," and "get you."

"But up, and enter now into full bliss."--Milton. Supply "rise."

OBS. 8.--We have, on some occasions, a singular way of expressing a transitive action imperatively, or emphatically, by adding the preposition with to an adverb of direction; as, ''up with it, down with it, in with it, out with it, over with it, away with it'', and the like; in which construction, the adverb seems to be used elliptically as above, though the insertion of the verb would totally enervate or greatly alter the expression. Examples: "She up with her fist, and took him on the face."--''Sydney, in Joh. Dictionary''. "Away with him!"--Acts, xxi, 36. "Away with such a fellow from the earth."--Ib., xxii, 22. "The calling of assemblies I cannot away with"--Isaiah, i, 13. "Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse."--Milton's Comus. Ingersoll says, "Sometimes a whole phrase is used as an interjection, and we call such interjectional phrases: as, out upon him!--away with him!--Alas, what wonder! &c."--Conversations on Gram., p. 79. This method of lumping together several different parts of speech under the notion of one, and calling the whole an "adverbial phrase," a "substantive phrase," or an "interjectional phrase," is but a forced put, by which some grammarians would dodge certain difficulties which they know not how to meet. It is directly repugnant to the idea of parsing; for the parser ever deals with the parts of speech as such, and not with whole phrases in the lump. The foregoing adverbs when used imperatively, have some resemblance to interjections; but, in some of the examples above cited, they certainly are not used in this manner.

OBS. 9.--A conjunctive adverb usually relates to two verbs at the same time, and thus connects two clauses of a compound sentence; as, "And the rest will I set in order when I come,"--1 Cor., xi, 34. Here when is a conjunctive adverb of time, and relates to the two verbs will set and come; the meaning being, "And the rest will I set in order at the time at which I come." This adverb when is often used erroneously in lieu of a nominative after is, to which construction of the word, such an interpretation as the foregoing would not be applicable; because the person means to tell, not when, but what, the thing is, of which he speaks: as, "Another cause of obscurity is when the structure of the sentence is too much complicated, or too artificial; or when the sense is too long suspended by parentheses."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 246. Here the conjunction that would be much better than when, but the sentence might advantageously spare them both; thus, "An other cause of obscurity is too much complication, too artificial a structure of the sentence, or too long a suspension of the sense by parenthesis."

OBS. 10.--For the placing of adverbs, no definite general rule can be given; yet is there no other part of speech so liable to be misplaced. Those which relate to adjectives, or to other adverbs, with very few exceptions, immediately precede them; and those which belong to compound verbs, are commonly placed after the first auxiliary; or, if they be emphatical, after the whole verb. Those which relate to simple verbs, or to simple participles, are placed sometimes before and sometimes after them. Examples are so very common, I shall cite but one: "A man may, in respect to grammatical purity, speak unexceptionably, and yet speak obscurely, or ambiguously; and though we cannot say, that a man may speak properly, and at the same time speak unintelligibly, yet this last case falls more naturally to be considered as an offence against perspicuity, than as a violation of propriety."--Campbell's Rhet., p. 239.

OBS. 11.--Of the infinitive verb and its preposition to, some grammarians say, that they must never be separated by an adverb. It is true, that the adverb is, in general, more elegantly placed before the preposition than after it; but, possibly, the latter position of it may sometimes contribute to perspicuity, which is more essential than elegance: as, "If any man refuse so to implore, and to so receive pardon, let him die the death."--Fuller, on the Gospel, p. 209. The latter word so, if placed like the former, might possibly be understood in a different sense from what it now bears. But perhaps it would be better to say. "If any man refuse so to implore, and on such terms to receive pardon, let him die the death." "Honour teaches us properly to respect ourselves."--Murray's Key, ii, 252. Here it is not quite clear, to which verb the adverb "properly" relates. Some change of the expression is therefore needful. The right to place an adverb sometimes between to and its verb, should, I think, be conceded to the poets: as,

"Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride."--BURNS: ''C. Sat. N.''

OBS. 12.--The adverb no is used independently, only when it is equivalent to a whole sentence. This word is sometimes an adverb of degree; and as such it has this peculiarity, that it can relate only to comparatives: as, "No more,"--"No better,"--"No greater,"--"No sooner." When no is set before a noun, it is clearly an adjective, corresponding to the Latin nullus; as, "No clouds, no vapours intervene."--Dyer. Dr. Johnson, with no great accuracy, remarks, "It seems an adjective in these phrases, no longer, no more, no where; though sometimes it may be so commodiously changed to not, that it seems an adverb; as, 'The days are yet no shorter.'"--Quarto Dict. And his first example of what he calls the "adverb NO" is this: "'Our courteous Antony, Whom ne'er the word of no woman heard speak.' SHAKSPEARE."--Ibid. Dr. Webster says, "When it precedes where, as in no where, it may be considered as adverbial, though originally an adjective."--Octavo Dict. The truth is, that no is an adverb, whenever it relates to an adjective; an adjective, whenever it relates to a noun; and a noun, whenever it takes the relation of a case.