PART I. ETYMOLOGY. OF WORDS IN GENERAL, AND THE PARTS OF SPEECH. A WORD, in oral language, is either a significant simple sound, or a significant combination of sounds. In written language, it may be defined to be a simple character, or combination of characters, expressive of significant sound, simple or compound. A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; of two syllables, a dissyllable; a word of three syllables, a trisyllable; and a word of more than three syllables is called a polysyllable. The last term, however, is frequently applied to words exceeding two syllables. Words are either derivative or primitive. A primitive is that which is formed from no other word, being itself a root, whence others spring, as angel, spirit, school. A derivative is that which is derived from some other word, as angelic, spiritual, scholar. A compound is a word made up of two or more words, as archangel, spiritless, schoolman. In examining the character of words as significant of ideas, we find them reducible into classes, or denominations, according to the offices which they severally perform. These classes are generally called parts of speech; and how many of these belong to language has been long a question among philosophers and grammarians. Some have reckoned two, some three, and others four; while the generality have affirmed, that there are not fewer than eight, nine, or ten*. This strange diversity of opinion has partly arisen from a propensity to judge of the character of words more from their form, which is a most fallacious criterion, than from their import or signification. One thing appears certain, how much soever the subject may have been obscured by scholastic refinements, that to assign names to objects of thought, and to express their properties and qualities, are the only indispensable requisites in language. If this be admitted, it follows, that the noun and the verb are the only parts of speech which are essentially necessary; the former being the name of the thing of which we speak, and the latter verb (or the word, by * Plato and Aristotle, when they treat of propositions, considered the noun and the verb as the only essential parts of speech; these, without the aid of any other word, being capable of forming a sentence. Hence they were called τα εμψυχοτατα μερη το λογε, "the most animated parts of speech." The latter of these philosophers, in his Poetics, admits four, adding to the noun and the verb the article and the conjunction. The elder Stoics made five, dividing the noun into proper and appellative. C 1 PART I. ETYMOLOGY. OF WORDS IN GENERAL, AND THE PARTS OF SPEECH. A WORD, in oral language, is either a significant simple sound, or a significant combination of sounds. In written language, it may be defined to be a simple character, or combination of characters, expressive of significant sound, simple or compound. A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; of two syllables, a dissyllable; a word of three syllables, a trisyllable; and a word of more than three syllables is called a polysyllable. The last term, however, is frequently applied to words exceeding two syllables. Words are either derivative or primitive. A primitive is that which is formed from no other word, being itself a root, whence others spring, as angel, spirit, school. A derivative is that which is derived from some other word, as angelic, spiritual, scholar. A compound is a word made up of two or more words, as archangel, spiritless, schoolman. In examining the character of words as significant of ideas, we find them reducible into classes, or denominations, according to the offices which they severally perform. These classes are generally called parts of speech; and how many of these belong to language has been long a question among philosophers and grammarians. Some have reckoned two, some three, and others four; while the generality have affirmed, that there are not fewer than eight, nine, or ten*. This strange diversity of opinion has partly arisen from a propensity to judge of the character of words more from their form, which is a most fallacious criterion, than from their import or signification. One thing appears certain, how much soever the subject may have been obscured by scholastic refinements, that to assign names to objects of thought, and to express their properties and qualities, are the only indispensable requisites in language. If this be admitted, it follows, that the noun and the verb are the only parts of speech which are essentially necessary; the former being the name of the thing of which we speak, and the latter verb (or the word, by * Plato and Aristotle, when they treat of propositions, considered the noun and the verb as the only essential parts of speech; these, without the aid of any other word, being capable of forming a sentence. Hence they were called τα εμψυχοτατα μερη τε λόγε, "the most animated parts of speech." The latter of these philosophers, in his Poetics, admits four, adding to the noun and the verb the article and the conjunction. The elder Stoics made five, dividing the noun into proper and appellative. с way of eminence) expressing what we think of it *. All other sorts of words must be regarded as subsidiaries, convenient perhaps for the more easy communication of thought, but by no means indispensably requisite. Had we a distinct name for every individual object of sensation or thought, language would then be composed purely of proper names, and thus become too great a load for any memory to retain. Language, therefore, must be composed of general signs, that it may be remembered; and as all our sensations and perceptions are of single objects, it must also be capable of denoting individuals. Now, whatever mode be adopted to render general terms significant of individual objects, or whatever auxiliaries be employed for this purpose, the general term, with its individuating word, must be regarded as a substitute for the proper name. Thus, man is a general term to denote the whole of a species; if I say, the man, this man, that man, it is obvious that the words the, this, and that, termed definitives, serve, with the general term, as a substitute for the proper name of the individual. *Noun, Nomen de quo loquimur. Verb, Verbum seu quod loquimur.-Quint. lib. i. 4. Horace has been thought by some to countenance this doctrine, when he says, "Donec verba, quibus voces sensusq; notarent, Nominaque invenere."-Lib. i. Sat. 3. |