Higher Lessons in English Part 57

Aborigines, annals, ashes, a.s.sets, clothes, fireworks, hysterics, literati, mumps, nippers, oats, pincers, rickets, scissors, shears, snuffers, suds, thanks, tongs, tidings, trousers, victuals, vitals.

The following were originally singular forms, but they are now treated as plural.

Alms (Anglo-Saxon _aelmaesse_), eaves (A. S. _efese_), riches (Norman French _richesse_).

The following have no singular corresponding in meaning.

Colors (flag), compa.s.ses (dividers), goods (property), grounds (dregs), letters (literature), manners (behavior), matins (morning service); morals (character), remains (dead body), spectacles (gla.s.ses), stays (corsets), vespers (evening service).

(The singular form is sometimes an adjective.)

Bitters, greens, narrows, sweets, valuables, etc.

Collective nouns are treated as plural when the individuals in the collection are thought of, and as singular when the collection as a whole is thought of.

+Examples+.--The _committee were_ unable to agree, and _they_ asked to be discharged. A _committee was_ appointed, and _its_ report will soon be made.

(Collective nouns have plural forms; as, _committees, armies_.)

LESSON 115.

REVIEW IN NUMBER.

+Direction+.--_Write the plural of the singular nouns and p.r.o.nouns in the following list, and the singular of those that are plural; give the Rule or the Remark that applies to each; and note those that have no plural, and those that have no singular:_--

Hope, age, bench, bush, house, loss, tax, waltz, potato, shoe, colony, piano, kangaroo, pulley, wharf, staff, fife, loaf, flagstaff, handkerchief, Mr., child, ox, beaux, cherubim, mesdames, termini, genus, genius, bagnio, theory, galley, m.u.f.f, mystery, colloquy, son-in-law, man-of-war, spoonful, maid-servant, Frenchman, German, man-servant, Dr. Smith, Messrs. Brown and Smith, x, 1/2, deer, series, bellows, mola.s.ses, pride, politics, news, sunfish, clothes, alms, goods, grounds, greens, who, that.

+Direction.+--_Give five words that have no plural, five that have no singular, and five that have the same form in both numbers._

+Direction.+--_Correct the following plurals, and give the Remark that applies to each:_--

Stagees, foxs, mosquitos, calicos, heros, soloes, babys, trioes, chimnies, storys, elfs, beefs, scarves, oxes, phenomenons, axises, terminuses, genuses, mother-in-laws, aldermans, Mussulmen, teeth-brushes, mouthsful, attorney-at-laws, man-childs, geese-quills, 2s, ms. swines.

LESSON 116.

NUMBER FORMS IN CONSTRUCTION.

The number of a noun may be determined not only by its form but also by the verb, the adjective, and the p.r.o.noun used in connection with it.

+Remark.+--_These scissors are_ so dull that I cannot use _them_. The plurality of _scissors_ is here made known in four ways. In the following sentence _this, is_, and _it_ are incorrectly used: _This_ scissors _is_ so dull that I cannot use _it_.

+Direction+.--_Construct sentences in which the number of each of the following nouns shall be indicated by the form of the verb, by the adjective, and by the p.r.o.noun used in connection with it_:--

(With the singular nouns use the verbs _is, was_, and _has been_; the adjectives _an, one, this_, and _that_; the p.r.o.nouns _he, his, him, she, her, it_, and _its_.)

(With the plural nouns use the verbs _are, were_, and _have been_; the adjectives _these, those_, and _two_; the p.r.o.nouns _they, their_, and _them_.)

Bellows, deer, fish, gross, means, series, species, heathen, trout, iron, irons, news, eaves, riches, oats, vermin, mola.s.ses, Misses, brethren, dice, head (of cattle), pennies, child, parent, family, crowd, meeting.

+Direction+.--_Compose sentences in which the first three of the following adjective p.r.o.nouns shall be used as singular subjects, the fourth as a plural subject, and the remainder both as singular and as plural subjects_:--

Each, either, neither, both, former, none, all, any.

LESSON 117.

NOUNS AND p.r.o.nOUNS--GENDER.

+Introductory Hints+.--_The lion was caged. The lioness was caged_. In the first sentence something is said about a male lion, and in the second something is said about a female lion. The modification of the noun to denote the s.e.x of the thing which it names is called +Gender+. _Lion_, denoting a male animal, is in the +Masculine Gender; and _lioness_, denoting a female animal, is in the +Feminine Gender+. Names of things that are without s.e.x are said to be in the +Neuter Gender+. Such nouns as _cousin, child, friend, neighbor_ are either masculine or feminine. Such words are sometimes said to be in the _Common Gender_.

s.e.x belongs to the thing; and gender, to the noun that names the thing.

Knowing the s.e.x of the thing or its lack of s.e.x, you know the gender of the noun in English that names it; for in our language gender follows the s.e.x.

But in such modern languages as the French and the German, and in Latin and Greek, the gender of nouns naming things without reference to s.e.x is determined by the likeness of their endings in sound to the endings of words denoting things with s.e.x. The German for table is a masculine noun, the French is feminine, and the English, of course, is neuter. [Footnote: In Anglo-Saxon, the mother-tongue of our language, gender was grammatical, as in the French and the German; but, since the union of the Norman-French with the Anglo-Saxon to form the English, gender has followed s.e.x.]

+DEFINITIONS+.

+_Gender_ is that modification of a noun or p.r.o.noun which denotes s.e.x+.

+The _Masculine Gender_ denotes the male s.e.x+.

+The _Feminine Gender_ denotes the female s.e.x+.

+The _Neuter Gender_ denotes want of s.e.x+.

Gender Forms.

No English nouns have distinctive neuter forms, but a lew have different forms to distinguish the masculine from the feminine.

The masculine is distinguished from the feminine in three ways:--

1st. By a difference in the ending of the words.

2d. By different words in the compound names.

3d. By using words wholly or radically different.

_Ess_ is the most common ending for feminine nouns. [Footnote: The suffix _ess_ came into the English language from the Norman-French. It displaced the feminine termination of the mother-tongue (A. S. _estre_, old English _ster_). The original meaning of _ster_ is preserved in _spinster_. _Er_ (A. S. _ere_) was originally a masculine suffix; but it now generally denotes an agent without reference to s.e.x; as, _read-er, speak-er._]

+Direction+.--_Form the feminine of each of the following masculine nouns by adding e s s :--_

Author, baron, count, deacon, giant, G.o.d (see Rule 3, Lesson 127), heir, host, Jew, lion, patron, poet, prince (see Rule 1, Lesson 127), prior, prophet, shepherd, tailor, tutor.