The Grammar of English Grammars

by Goold Brown

UNDER NOTE VI.—OF COMPOUND VERBAL NOUNS.

"When it denotes subjection to the exertion of an other."—Booth cor. "In the passive sense, it signifies a subjection to the influence of the action."—Felch cor. "To be abandoned by our friends, is very deplorable."—Goldsmith cor. "Without waiting to be attacked by the Macedonians."—Id. "In progress of time, words were wanted to express men's connexion with certain conditions of fortune."—Dr. Blair cor. "Our acquaintance with pain and sorrow has a tendency to bring us to a settled moderation."—Bp. Butler cor. "The chancellor's attachment to the king, secured to the monarch his crown."—L. Murray et al. cor. "The general's failure in this enterprise occasioned his disgrace."— Iid. "John's long application to writing had wearied him."—Iid. "The sentence may be, 'John's long application to writing has wearied him.'"—Wright cor. "Much depends on the observance of this rule."— L. Murray cor. "He mentioned that a boy had been corrected for his faults."—Alger and Merchant cor. "The boy's punishment is shameful to him."—Iid. "The greater the difficulty of remembrance is, and the more important the being-remembered is to the attainment of the ultimate end."—Campbell cor. "If the parts in the composition of similar objects were always in equal quantity, their being-compounded (or their compounding) would make no odds."—Id. "Circumstances, not of such importance as that the scope of the relation is affected by their being-known"—or, "by the mention of them."—Id. "A passive verb expresses the receiving of an action, or represents its subject as being acted upon; as, 'John is beaten.'"—Frost cor. "So our language has an other great advantage; namely, that it is little diversified by genders."—Buchanan cor. "The slander concerning Peter is no fault of his."—Frost cor. "Without faith in Christ, there is no justification."—Penn cor. "Habituation to danger begets intrepidity; i.e., lessens fear."—Bp. Butler cor. "It is not affection of any kind, but action that forms those habits."—Id. "In order that we may be satisfied of the truth of the apparent paradox."—Campbell cor. "A trope consists in the employing of a word to signify something that is different from its original or usual meaning."—Blair, Jamieson, Murray, and Kirkham cor.; also Hiley. "The scriptural view of our salvation from punishment."—Gurney cor. "To submit and obey, is not a renouncing of the Spirit's leading."—Barclay cor.

UNDER NOTE VII.—PARTICIPLES FOR INFINITIVES, &c.

"To teach little children is a pleasant employment." Or: "The teaching of little children," &c.—Bartlett cor. "To deny or compromise the principles of truth, is virtually to deny their divine Author."—Reformer cor. "A severe critic might point out some expressions that would bear retrenching"—"retrenchment"—or, "to be retrenched."—Dr. Blair cor. "Never attempt to prolong the pathetic too much."—Id. "I now recollect to have mentioned—(or, that I mentioned—) a report of that nature."—Whiting cor. "Nor of the necessity which there is, for their restraint—(or, for them to be restrained—) in them."—Bp. Butler cor. "But, to do what God commands because he commands it, is obedience, though it proceeds from hope or fear."—Id. "Simply to close the nostrils, does not so entirely prevent resonance."—Gardiner cor. "Yet they absolutely refuse to do so."—Harris cor. "But Artaxerxes could not refuse to pardon him."—Goldsmith cor. "The doing of them in the best manner, is signified by the names of these arts."—Rush cor. "To behave well for the time to come, may be insufficient."—Bp. Butler cor. "The compiler proposed to publish that part by itself."—Adam cor. "To smile on those whom we should censure, is, to bring guilt upon ourselves."—Kirkham cor. "But it would be great injustice to that illustrious orator, to bring his genius down to the same level."—Id. "The doubt that things go ill, often hurts more, than to be sure they do."—Shak. cor. "This is called the straining of a metaphor."— Blair and Murray cor. "This is what Aristotle calls the giving of manners to the poem."—Dr. Blair cor. "The painter's entire confinement to that part of time which he has chosen, deprives him of the power of exhibiting various stages of the same action."—L. Mur. cor. "It imports the retrenchment of all superfluities, and a pruning of the expression."—Blair et al. cor. "The necessity for us to be thus exempted is further apparent."—Jane West cor. "Her situation in life does not allow her to be genteel in every thing."—Same. "Provided you do not dislike to be dirty when you are invisible."—Same. "There is now an imperious necessity for her to be acquainted with her title to eternity."—Same. "Disregard to the restraints of virtue, is misnamed ingenuousness."—Same. "The legislature prohibits the opening of shops on Sunday."—Same. "To attempt to prove that any thing is right."—O. B. Peirce cor. "The comma directs us to make a pause of a second in duration, or less."—Id. "The rule which directs us to put other words into the place of it, is wrong."—Id. "They direct us to call the specifying adjectives, or adnames, adjective pronouns."—Id. "William dislikes to attend court."—Frost cor. "It may perhaps be worth while to remark, that Milton makes a distinction."—Phil. Mu. cor. "To profess regard and act injuriously, discovers a base mind."—Murray et al. cor. "To profess regard and act indifferently, discovers a base mind."—Weld cor. "You have proved beyond contradiction, that this course of action is the sure way to procure such an object."—Campbell cor.

UNDER NOTE VIII.—PARTICIPLES AFTER BE, IS, &c.

"Irony is a figure in which the speaker sneeringly utters the direct reverse of what he intends shall be understood."—Brown's Inst., p. 235. [Correct by this the four false definitions of "Irony" cited from Murray, Peirce, Fisher, and Sanborn.] "This is, in a great measure, a delivering of their own compositions."—Buchanan cor. "But purity is a right use of the words of the language."—Jamieson cor. "But the most important object is the settling of the English quantity."—Walker cor. "When there is no affinity, the transition from one meaning to an other is a very wide step taken."—Campbell cor. "It will be a loss of time, to attempt further to illustrate it."—Id. "This leaves the sentence too bare, and makes it to be, if not nonsense, hardly sense."—Cobbett cor. "This is a requiring of more labours from every private member."—J. West cor. "Is not this, to use one measure for our neighbours and an other for ourselves?"—Same. "Do we not charge God foolishly, when we give these dark colourings to human nature?"—Same. "This is not, to endure the cross, as a disciple of Jesus Christ; but, to snatch at it, like a partisan of Swift's Jack."—Same. "What is spelling? It is the combining of letters to form syllables and words."—O. B. Peirce cor. "It is the choosing of such letters to compose words," &c.—Id. "What is parsing? (1.) It is a describing of the nature, use, and powers of words."—Id. (2.) "For Parsing is a describing of the words of a sentence as they are used."—Id. (3.) "Parsing is only a describing of the nature and relations of words as they are used."—Id. (4.) "Parsing, let the pupil understand and remember, is a statement of facts concerning words; or a describing of words in their offices and relations as they are."—Id. (5.) "Parsing is the resolving and explaining of words according to the rules of grammar."—Id. Better: "Parsing is the resolving or explaining of a sentence according to the definitions and rules of grammar."—Brown's Inst., p. 28. (6.) "The parsing of a word, remember, is an enumerating and describing of its various qualities, and its grammatical relations to other words in the sentence."—Peirce cor. (7.) "For the parsing of a word is an enumerating and describing of its various properties, and [its] relations to [other words in] the sentence."—Id. (8.) "The parsing of a noun is an explanation of its person, number, gender, and case; and also of its grammatical relation in a sentence, with respect to some other word or words."—Ingersoll cor. (9.) "The parsing of any part of speech is an explanation of all its properties and relations."—Id. (10.)" Parsing is the resolving of a sentence into its elements."—Fowler cor. "The highway of the upright is, to depart from evil."—Prov., xvi, 17. "Besides, the first step towards exhibiting the truth, should be, to remove the veil of error."—O. B. Peirce cor. "Punctuation is the dividing of sentences, and the words of sentences, by points for pauses."—Id. "An other fault is the using of the imperfect tense SHOOK in stead of the participle SHAKEN."—Churchill cor. "Her employment is the drawing of maps."—Alger cor. "To go to the play, according to his notion, is, to lead a sensual life, and to expose one's self to the strongest temptations. This is a begging of the question, and therefore requires no answer."—Formey cor. "It is an overvaluing of ourselves, to reduce every thing to the narrow measure of our capacities."—Comly's Key, in his Gram., p. 188; Fisk's Gram., p. 135. "What is vocal language? It is speech, or the expressing of ideas by the human voice."—C. W. Sanders cor.