28. Properties of Nouns.

To nouns belong the propertics of person, number, gender, and

case.

39. Person of Nouns.

1. Person is that property of a noun or pronoun which shows the relation of the speaker to the object (35, 2) spoken of.

2. The object spoken of may be, (1.) the speaker himself, (2.) the person spoken to, or (3.) a party neither speaking, nor spoken to, but merely spoken of. Hence

3. There are three persons-the first, second, and third.

4. The first person denotes the speaker; as, "I, John, sa these things."

5. The second person denotes the person spoken to; as, "Children, obey your parents."

as,

6. The third person denotes the person or thing spoken of; "Thomas did not come." "The harvest is abundant."

7. Person, as a property of the noun or pronoun, should be carefully distinguished from person, as used in common language to denote an intelligent being. It denotes, in Grammar, a personal or party relation, that is, the relation of the party speaking to the party spoken of, whether the latter happen to be the speaker himself, the hearer, or any other object.

8. These relations of person, though truly attributes of the noun, are never indicated by any change of the word, but are properly repre sented by personal pronouns, a class of words made to take the place of nouns for this express purpose.

9. Nouns in the first or second person are never used as the subject or object of a verb, but may be put in apposition with either, for the purpose of explanation; as, "I, Paul, beseech you."

10. The names of inanimate objects are in the second person, when the objects to which they apply are spoken to. Objects thus addressed are personified, and are treated as though they were actual hearers; as, "And I have loved thee, Ocean."

40. Exercise.

1. Tell the person of the nouns in the following sentences:Nero was a tyrant. Children, obey your parents. Philip, thou art a

Properties of nouns. Person, first, second, third.

The fer

an. Delays are dangerous. His praise, ye brooks, attune. man took us safely across the river. Keep thy heart with all diligence. ing Philip was the last of the Wampanoags. "Let my country be Line," said his preserver. Babylon, how art thou fallen! I, Daniel, as grieved in my spirit.

2. Fill the blanks in the following expressions; tell the person of the noun · pronoun inserted:

st

ain.

art the man. The lady

are willing to re

delight in surf bathing. daughters around

uprightness, and the duchess beloved a spirit of earth or air.

wast

41. Number of Nouns.

1. Number is that property of a noun (or pronoun) which disinguishes one object from more than one.

2. Nouns have two numbers-the singular and the plural. 3. The singular number denotes but one object; as, horse, iver, nation.

4. The plural denotes more than one object; as, horses, rivers, iations. (See Introduction. Lesson XVI.)

42. Regular Formation of the Plural.

1. The plural of nouns is regularly formed,—

(a.) By adding s, when the singular ends with a sound that can anite or coalesce with s; as, book, books; tree, trees,—

(b.) By adding es, when the singular ends with a sound that cannot coalesce with s; as, box, boxes; church, churches.

2. When es is added, s has the sound of z; as, fox, foxes; when s only is added, it has the sound of z when it unites or coalesces with a vowel; as, folio, folios; flea, fleas. It follows the rule (13, 3) for the combination of consonants, when it follows a consonant; that is, it is s aspirate when it unites with an aspirate; as, hat, hats; cap, caps; surf, surfs; clock, clocks; it is s subvocal (or z) when it follows a subvocal; as, lad, lads; log, logs; ball, balls; farm, farms; fan, fans; war, wars.

Number. Singular, Plural. Plurals regularly formed. Added syllable.

Sound of s.

3. The s or es adds a syllable when it does not coalesce with the final syllable of the singular; as, church, church-es; race, rac-es; cage, caga The s or es does not add a syllable when it does coalesce with the final syllable; as, work, works; echo, echoes.

43. Irregular Formation of the Plural.

1. When the finals, contrary to the rule (42, 2), is subvocal, after the aspirate sounds f, fe, the f must be changed (13, 3) into its correlative v; as, loaf, loaves; life, lives; sheaf, sheaves; thief, thieves. When si aspirate, as in the plural of dwarf, brief, scarf, reef, chief, grief, kerchi handkerchief, gulf, surf, turf, serf, proof, hoof, roof, safe, fife, strife, the f is not changed. Staff, when meaning a stick, has staves for its plural: when meaning a set of officers, it has staffs. The plural of wharf, in the United States, is wharves; in England, wharfs.

2. The s added to th aspirate is also subvocal (except in truth, you' and, it may be, a few others), and would cause a similar change in the orthography of the plural, were not the correlative (6.) also represented by th; as, oath, oaths; bath, baths.

3. Most nouns ending in o, preceded by a consonant, add es, notwithstanding s alone would coalesce with o (42, 1); as, cargo, cargoes. Zere, canto, grotto, quarto, junto, duodecimo, octavo, solo, portico, tyro, halo, adl only s. Yet by some writers es is added. Nouns ending in o, preceded by a vowel, follow the general rule; as, folio, folios; cameo, cameos.

4. Nouns ending in y, preceded by a consonant (25, 4), change y inte ies; as, glory, glories; mercy, mercies. Formerly, these words in the singular, ended in ie; as, glorie, mercie; their plurals were then formed regularly. Nouns ending in y, preceded by a vowel, form the plural regularly; as, day, days; key, keys.

5. The following plurals are very irregular; as, man, men; womea, women; ox, oxen; goose, geese; child, children; foot, feet; louse, lice; mouse mice; cow, formerly kine, but now regular, cows; tooth, teeth.

6. Some nouns have both a regular and an irregular plural, but the two forms have usually different significations; as, brother, brothers (of the same family); brethren (of the same society); die, dies (stamps): dice (cubes used in gaming); genius, geniuses (men of genius); ge (spirits); index, indexes (tables of reference); indices (signs in algebra); pea, peas (distinct seeds); pease (quantity); penny, pennies (coins); pence (a sum, or value).

7. Names of substances, and most abstract nouns, commonly have no plural form; as, gold, cider, flax, milk, tar, goodness, darkness. When dif

Plural irregularly formed. Nouns ending in f, fe,-in th,-in o,-in y Man, woman, &c. Brother, die &c. Names of substances.

erent kinds of the substances are referred to, the plural form is used; is, waters, wines, teas.

8. In compound words, if the word denoting the principal idea is placed first, it is changed to form the plural; as, court-martial, courtsnartial; cousin-german, cousins-german; hanger-on, hangers-on; but if he principal word is placed last, the final word is changed; as, hand-ful, Liand-fuls; both parts being (apparently) equally prominent are changed ʼn man-servant, woman-servant, and knight-templar; as, men-servants, womenservants, knights-templars.

9. Letters, marks, figures, and signs are pluralized by adding 's; as, the s'e; the 's; the 's; the 9's; the 's.

10. When other parts of speech are used as nouns, their plurals are formed regularly; as, "The ifs and buts;" "The whys and wherefores ;" "At sixes and sevens."

11. Many nouns from foreign languages retain their original plurals; as, antithesis, antitheses; arcanum, arcana; automaton, automata; axis, axes; bandit, banditti; basis, bases; beau, beaux; cherub, cherubim; criterion, criteria; crisis, crises; datum, data; desideratum, desiderata; encomium, encomia; effluvium, effluvia; erratum, errata; ellipsis, ellipses; focus, foci; formula, formula; genus, genera; hypothesis, hypotheses; madame, mesdames; magus, magi; memorandum, memoranda; medium, media; minutia, minutiæ; metamorphosis, metamorphoses; monsieur, messieurs; nebula, nebula; phenomenon, phenomena; radius, radii; seraph, seraphim; stimulus, stimuli; stratum, strata; stamen, stamina; vortex, vortices.

44. Plural of Proper Names.

1. SINGLE NAMES. plural.

The proper name of an individual object, has no

2. When several of the same name or family are spoken of together, the name takes the plural form; as, "The Tudors," "The twelve Cæsars." 3. So, also, the proper names of races, communities, and nations, are plural; as, "The Indians;" "The Jesuits," "The Romans."

4. The plurals of proper names are formed, as a general rule, according to the analogy of common names; as, Canada, Canadas; Jew, Jews; Ptolemy, Ptolemies.

5. COMPLEX NAMES. When two or more names applied to the same individual, stand in a sort of apposition to each other, they are generally considered as one complex name, and are made plural by varying

Compounds. Letters, marks, &c. Other parts of speech used as nouns. Nouns from foreign languages. Plural of single proper names,-of complex

names.

the last only; as, "The George Washingtons;" "May there not be Sir Isaac Newtons in every science?"- Watts.

6. A TITLE AND A NAME. When a title, as Miss, Mrs., Mr., Gen., Capt., or Dr., is prefixed to a proper name, usage has not been uniform in the formation of the plural. Sometimes the title, sometimes the name, and sometimes both have been varied; as, The Misses Brown; The Miss Thompsons; The Misses Winthrops.

7. In all these cases, the relative prominence of the name and title for the most part, determines the plural form. Thus,

(a.) When the name is made prominent, that alone, and not the title, takes the plural form. In speaking of three persons by the name of Brown, we should say (44, 2) "The three Browns;" thus distinguishing them from the Smiths, or those of any other name. Now, with this idea uppermost, if we wished also to distinguish them as young ladies, we should add, incidentally, the distinctive title," the three Miss Browns." So, the Dr. Smiths.

(b.) When the title is to be made prominent, that alone should be varied. Thus, if we should speak of three persons, and say the three Misses, we should distinguish them as ladies, from so many gentlemen; in the same way, we say, the two Drs., the three Generals. If now, with the title prominent, we would incidentally add the name, we should say, (1.) if the names were dif ferent, "the three Misses Brown, Atwood, and Putnam;” (2.) if the three Misses Brown," and especially so without the numeral; as, The Misses Brown." In the former of these cases, if the name were prominent, we should say, "Miss Brown, Miss Atwood, and Miss Putnam."

66

same,

"the

(c.) When two titles are made equally prominent, they are both varied; as, "The Lords Bishops of Durham and St. David's ;" "The Knights Baronets” (43, 8). And so it would seem, by the same law, that, when a title and a name are made equally emphatic, they should both be varied. Thus, the Misses Winthrop, in distinction from the Messrs. Winthrop; and the Misses Winthrop, in distinction from the Messrs. Mortons. Yet, usage seems to be nearly uniform in placing the plural name after Mrs.; as, "The Mrs. Whites ;" and the plural title before the names, when persons of different names are mentioned together; as, "The Misses Wilson and Everett ;""Messrs. Little and Brown."

45. Remarks on the Number of Nouns.

1. NOUNS WITHOUT A PLURAL. Proper nouns, except as in (44, 2, 3), and nouns denoting substance (43, 7), except when different sorts are expressed, have no plural; as, gold, grass, wine.

2. NOUNS WITHOUT THE SINGULAR. The following nouns have no singular: embers, oats, scissors, vespers, literati, antipodes, ashes, clothes, billiards, ides, intestines, vitals, bellows, drawers, nippers, tongs, shears, &c. Lungs, bowels, and some others have a singular denoting a part of the whole; as, lung, bowel.

Plural of a title and a name. Nouns without a plural. Nouns without the singular.