[131] Donaldson’s Greek Grammar, s. 67-79.
[132] For the development and more clear enunciation of these views, we must refer to the works quoted.
[133] Donaldson’s New Crat. ch. ii. Plato (Crat. p. 435) thought the numerals offered a proof that at least some part of language must be the result of convention and custom (συνθήκη καὶ ἔθος).
[134] Bopp’s Comparative Grammar, § 311.
[135] Dr. Donaldson aptly compares (New Crat. § 154) the vulgarism “number one” as a synonym for the first person, and “proximus sum egomet mihi.”
[136] Bopp’s Comparative Grammar, §§ 309, 323. Donaldson’s New Crat. ch. ii.; Greek Gram. § 246. For the Hebrew numerals see Maskil-le Sophir. pp. 41 sq. by the same author. Other works are Pott, Die quinäre und vigesimale Zählmethode. Halle, 1847. Mommsen, in Höfer’s Zeitschr. für die Wiss. der Spr. Heft 2, 1846. In Greenland the word for 20 is “a man,” (i.e. fingers + toes = 20); and for 100 the word is five men, &c.! It might have been thought that particles were eminently (what Aristotle calls them) φωναὶ ἄσημοι, and yet even their pedigree may be traced; and in fact no clear line of distinction can be drawn between them and the φωναὶ σημαντικαί.—Heyse, s. 108 ff.
[137] For instance, we find M. A. Vinet (Essais de Philos. Morale, p. 323) speaking of the verb as the word which founds, or, so to speak, creates an ideal world side by side with the real world, and of which the real world is either the expression or the type. The word “verb” has often been dwelt on as showing the importance attached to this part of speech; the German “zeitwort” is more to the purpose. The Chinese call it ho-tseu, or the living word (Silvestre de Sacy, Principes de Gram. Gén. i. ch. 1.)
[138] Compare the Italian stare, Spanish estar. Prof. Key (Trans. of Phil. Soc. vol. iv.) quotes an anecdote of a lady who had to tell her African servant, “Go and fetch big teacup, he live in pantry.” We cannot, however, accept his derivations of “esse” from “edo,” and “vivo” from “bibo.”
[139] See Renan, p. 129. Becker, Organism der Sprache, p. 58. In point of fact, the conception of existence in untaught minds is generally concrete, and often grossly material. Vico mentions the fact, that peasants often say of a sick person “he still eats,” for “he still lives.” “In the Lingua Franca the more abstract verbs have disappeared altogether; ‘to be’ is always expressed by ‘to stand,’ and ‘to have’ by ‘to hold.’
‘Non tener honta