English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Part 13

FALSE SYNTAX.

A variety of pleasing objects charm the eye. The number of inhabitants of the United States exceed nine millions. Nothing but vain and foolish pursuits delight some persons.

In vain our flocks and fields increase our store, When our abundance make us wish for more.

While ever and anon, there falls Huge heaps of h.o.a.ry, moulder'd walls.

LECTURE III.

OF ARTICLES.

An article is a word prefixed to nouns to limit their signification; as, _a_ man, _the_ woman.

There are only two articles, _a_ or _an_, and _the. A_ or _an_ is called the indefinite article. _The_ is called the definite article.

The _indefinite article_ limits the noun to one of a kind, but to no particular one; as, _a_ house.

The _definite article_ generally limits the noun to a particular object, or collection of objects; as, _the_ house, _the_ men.

The small claims of the article to a separate rank as a distinct part of speech, ought not to be admitted in a scientific cla.s.sification of words. _A_ and _the, this_ and _that, ten, few_, and _fourth_, and many other words, are used to restrict, vary, or define the signification of the nouns to which they are joined. They might, therefore, with propriety, be ranked under the general head of _Restrictives, Indexes_, or _Defining Adjectives_. But, as there is a marked distinction in their particular meaning and application, each cla.s.s requires a separate explanation. Hence, no practical advantage would be gained, by rejecting their established cla.s.sification, as articles, numerals, and demonstratives, and by giving them _new_ names. The character and application of _a_ and _the_ can be learned as soon when they are styled _articles_, as when they are denominated _specifying_ or _defining adjectives_.

The history of this part of speech is very brief. As there are but two articles, _a_ or _an_ and _the_, you will know them wherever they occur.

A noun used without an article, or any other restrictive, is taken in its _general_ sense; as, _"Fruit_ is abundant;" "_Gold_ is heavy;"

"_Man_ is born to trouble" Here we mean, fruit and gold _in general;_ and _all men_, or _mankind_.

When we wish to limit the meaning of the noun to _one_ object, but to no _particular_ one, we employ _a_ or _an_. If I say, "Give me _a_ pen;"

"Bring me _an_ apple;" you are at liberty to fetch _any_ pen or _any_ apple you please. _A_ or _an_, then, is _indefinite_, because it leaves the meaning of the noun to which it is applied, as far as regards the person spoken to, _vague_, or _indeterminate_; that is, _not definite_.

But when reference is made to a _particular_ object, we employ _the_, as, "Give me _the_ pen;" "Bring me _the_ apple, or _the_ apple." When such a requisition is made, you are not at liberty to bring any pen or apple you please, but you must fetch the _particular_ pen or apple to which you know me to refer. _The_ is, therefore, called the _definite_ article.

"_A_ star appears." Here, the star referred to, may be known as a _particular_ star, _definite_, and distinguished from all others, in the mind of the _speaker_; but to the _hearer_, it is left, among the thousands that bedeck the vault of heaven, _undistinguished_ and _indefinite_. But when the star has previously been made the subject of discourse, it becomes, in the minds of both speaker and hearer a _definite_ object, and he says, "_The_ star appears;" that is, that _particular_ star about which we were discoursing.

"Solomon built _a_ temple." Did he build _any_ temple, _undetermined which?_ No; it was a _particular_ temple, pre-eminently distinguished from all others. But _how_ does it become a definite object in the mind of the _hearer_? Certainly, not by the phrase, "_a_ temple," which indicates _any_ temple, leaving it altogether _undetermined_ which; but supposing the person addressed was totally unacquainted with the fact a.s.serted, and it becomes to him, _in one respect only_, a definite and particular temple, by means of the a.s.sociated words, "Solomon built;"

that is, by the use of these words in connexion with the others, the hearer gets the idea of a temple distinguished as _the one erected by Solomon_. If the speaker were addressing one whom he supposed to be unacquainted with the fact related, he might make the temple referred to a still more definite object in the mind of the hearer by a farther explanation of it; thus, "Solomon built _a_ temple _on mount Zion_; and that was _the_ temple _to which the Jews resorted to wors.h.i.+p_."

"_The_ lunatic, _the_ poet, and _the_ lover, Are of imagination all compact."

"_The_ horse is a n.o.ble animal;" "_The_ dog is a faithful creature;"

"_The_ wind blows;" "_The_ wolves were howling in _the_ woods." In these examples, we do not refer to any particular lunatics, poets, lovers, horses, dogs, winds, wolves, and woods, but we refer to these _particular cla.s.ses_ of things, in contradistinction to other objects or cla.s.ses. The phrase, "Neither _the_ one nor _the_ other," is an idiom of the language.

REMARKS.--This method of elucidating the articles, which is popular with Blair, Priestley, Lowth, Johnson, Harris, Beattie, Coote, Murray, and many other distinguished philologists, is discarded by some of our modern writers. But, by proving that this theory is exceptionable, they by no means make it appear, that it ought, therefore, to be rejected.

Exceptionable or not, they have not been able to supply its place with one that is more _convenient in practice_. Neither have they adopted one _less_ exceptionable. The truth is, after all which can be done to render the definitions and rules of grammar comprehensive and accurate, they will still be found, when critically examined by men of learning and science, more or less exceptionable. These exceptions and imperfections are the unavoidable consequence of the imperfections of the language. Language, as well as every thing else of human invention, will always be _imperfect_. Consequently, a _perfect_ system of grammatical principles, would not suit it. A _perfect_ grammar will not be produced, until some _perfect_ being writes it for a _perfect_ language; and a perfect language will not be constructed, until some _super-human_ agency is employed in its production. All grammatical principles and systems which are not _perfect_, are _exceptionable_.

NOTES.

1. The article is _omitted_ before nouns implying the different virtues, vices, pa.s.sions, qualities, sciences, arts, metals, herbs, &c.; as, "_Modesty_ is becoming; _Falsehood_ is odious; _Grammar_ is useful," &c.

2. The article is not prefixed to proper nouns; as, _Barron_ killed _Decatur_; except by way of eminence, or for the sake of distinguis.h.i.+ng a particular family, or when some noun is understood; as, "He is not _a_ Franklin; He is _a_ Lee, or of the family of _the_ Lees; We sailed down _the_ (river) Missouri."

3. An _adjective_ is frequently placed between the article and the noun with which the article agrees; as, "A _good_ boy; an _industrious_ man." Sometimes the adjective precedes the article; as, "As _great_ a man as Alexander; _Such_ a shame."

4. In referring to many individuals, when we wish to bring each separately under consideration, the indefinite article is sometimes placed between the adjective _many_ and a singular noun; as, "Where _many a rosebud_ rears its blus.h.i.+ng head;" "Full _many a flower_ is born to blush unseen."

5. The definite article _the_ is frequently applied to _adverbs_ in the comparative or superlative degree; as, "_The more_ I examine it, _the better_ I like it," "I like this _the least_ of any."

You may proceed and pa.r.s.e the following articles, when you shall have committed this

SYSTEMATIC ORDER OF PARSING

_The order of parsing an_ Article, is--an article, and why?--definite or indefinite, and why?--with what noun does it agree?--RULE.

"He is _the_ son of _a_ king."

_The_ is an article, a word prefixed to a noun to limit its signification--definite, it limits the noun to a particular object--it belongs to the noun "son," according to

RULE 2. _The definite article_ the _belongs to nouns in the singular or plural number_.

_A_ is an article, a word placed before a noun to limit its signification--indefinite, it limits the noun to one of a kind, but to no particular one--it agrees with "king," agreeably to

RULE 1. _The article_ a _or_ an _agrees with nouns in the singular number only_.

NOTE. By considering the original meaning of this article, the propriety of Rule 1, will appear. _A_ or _an_, (formerly written _ane,)_ being equivalent to _one, any one_, or _some one_, cannot be prefixed to nouns in the plural number. There is, however, an exception to this rule. _A_ is placed before a plural noun when any of the following adjectives come between the article and the noun: _few, great, many, dozen, hundred, thousand, million_; as, _a_ few _men, a_ thousand _houses_, &c.

EXERCISES IN PARSING.

A bird sings. An eagle flies. Mountains stand. The mult.i.tude pursue pleasure. The reaper reaps the farmer's grain. Farmers mow the gra.s.s.

Farmers' boys spread the hay. The clerk sells the merchant's goods. An ostrich outruns an Arab's horse. Cecrops founded Athens. Gallileo invented the telescope. James Macpherson translated Ossian's poems. Sir Francis Drake circ.u.mnavigated the globe. Doctor Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod. Was.h.i.+ngton Irving wrote the Sketch-Book.

I will now offer a few remarks on the misapplication of the articles, which, with the exercise of your own discriminating powers, will enable you to use them with propriety. But, before you proceed, please to answer the following

QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERED IN PARSING.

How many articles are there?--In what sense is a noun taken, when it has no article to limit it?--Repeat the _order_ of parsing an article.--What rule applies in parsing the _definite_ article?--What rule in parsing the _indefinite_?

PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES.

A, AN, THE.

In a scientific arrangement of grammatical principles, _a_ and _the_ belong to that cla.s.s of adjectives denominated _definitives_ or _restrictives_.

_A, an, ane_, or _one_, is the past participle of _ananad_, to add, to join. It denotes that the thing to which it is prefixed, is _added, united, aned, an-d, oned, (woned,)_ or made _one_.

_The_ and _that_. According to Horne Tooke, _the_ is the imperative, and _that_, the past participle, of the Anglo-Saxon verb _thean_, to get, take, a.s.sume. _The_ and _that_ had, originally, the same meaning. The difference in their present application, is a modern refinement. Hence, _that_, as well as _the_, was formerly used, indifferently, before either a singular or a plural noun.