CHAPTER III.

WORDS-PARTS OF SPEECH.

Language and thought are inseparable. Words without thought are dead sounds: thoughts without words are nothing. To think is to speak low; to speak is to think aloud.-MAX MÜLLER.

HOUGH we have spoken of language figuratively

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as an organism having laws of growth and an objective existence, we have seen that in reality it is a congeries of individual signs, called words, which have their value and currency only by the agreement of speakers and hearers. We have seen that its history is connected with the whole mental and physical life of man, illustrating as well the inward sentiment as the outward action of a nation. As the Vital Force aggregates dead matter into an organic structure as the thoughts entertained, the feelings cherished, and the purposes enacted, mould the body internally and externally, making it a manifestation of the conscious activities, so Thought is the vitalizing determinating principle of language. Man speaks because he thinks and is social. He invents words because he would exhibit and preserve, as in crystal shrine, his flitting notions.

In the application of terms, therefore, we must apprehend the nature and properties of the objects for which they stand. In the definition of terms, we must be guided by a critical examination of the things to which they are applied. In the classification of terms, we must group them by their resemblances in the work of expression.

Were we to address to another only the separate words 'life,' 'God,' 'virtue,' the hearer would naturally wait for an explanation, as if he should inquire: 'Well, what about them?' So, should we say 'is short,' 'is love,' 'is immortal,' the meaning would be in like manner fragmentary. But if we say,

Life is short,

God is love,

Virtue is immortal,

we shall in each case be understood, for the sense is complete.

Because, in general, we do not think, and cannot talk, unless we use two or more words of certain kinds, and fit them together in certain ways, words arranged classwise, according to similarities of use are called parts of speech.

The combination of words by which we judge something to be so and so, or assert that something is true of something,' is called a sentence. Hence a sentence consists of such words as are necessary or sufficient to express a thought. Thus:

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the night.— Beecher.

How ridiculous is official power when the personal power of self-trust is gone! -Parker.

Is he not wretched who enslaves the divine portion of himself, his soul, to the unclean appetites of his body?— Plato.

Let us now examine some such sentences as the following:

Hitch your wagon to a star.- Emerson.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.-Shakespeare.

1 Considering the assertive sentence as the regular and typical form, of which the imperative, the interrogative and the exclamatory are variations.

There is na workman

That can bothe worken wel and hastelie.- Chaucer.

A bad woman may have a sweet voice, but that sweetness of voice comes of the past morality of her race.— - Ruskin.

If we inquire what each word tells us, we shall see that some words have like, and some have unlike uses. Thus, 'wagon,' 'star,' 'suspicion,' 'mind,' 'workman,' 'woman,' 'voice,' 'sweetness,' 'morality,' and race' tell us the names of things. But 'hitch,' haunts,' 'is,'' can worken,' 'may have,' and 'comes' are of quite another character. They are words put with names to tell what things do or are. 'Guilty,' 'bad,' 'sweet,' and 'past' are words of yet another kind—they tell us of what sort of things we speak. Again, the words 'always,' 'wel,' and 'hastelie' are unlike the others- they tell us when or how things are done. To,' 'of,' and 'but' join parts. 'Your,' 'that,' and 'her' stand for names, and so forth.

A great many words in every language are used in the same way as 'star' and 'sweetness,' to name things. A great many are used in the same way as 'haunts' and 'comes,' — to assert something. Consequently, just as from certain likenesses we put together certain flowers and call them roses, and from other likenesses put together other flowers and call them lilies, so from similarities in use we group words into classes, giving to each class a name. Thus, finding that many words name things — things of which we can think and speak place them in one class and call them Nouns;' Proper," when intended to distinguish one particular individual from the rest of the individuals of the same species;

1 From the Latin nomen, a name.
2 From the Latin proprius, peculiar.

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Common, when applicable to all the individuals of a kind. While all the nouns of a language may be divided into proper or common, according to their use as particular or general terms, they may also, from another point of view, be divided into Concrete1 and Abstract. A Concrete noun is the name of a sensible object—one that may be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, or heard. The species are: 1. Proper Nouns, or names of individuals.

2. Mass-nouns, or names of masses; as 'air,' 'ice.' 3. Collective Nouns, or names of groups; as 'army,' 'flock.'

4. Class-nouns, or names of classes; as 'man,' 'flower.' An Abstract noun is the name of an attribute when regarded by the mind as an object of thought; as 'goodness,' 'wisdom,' nationality.' The species are:

1. Quality-nouns; as 'bitterness.'

2. Action-nouns; as 'creation,' 'growth.'

3. Condition-nouns; as 'health,' 'decay,' 'sleep.' 4. Relative-nouns; as 'superiority,' succession.' Thus while the one (concrete) denotes the objective reality, the other (abstract) denotes some attribute of it. The one relates more especially to substances; the other, to ideas. Thus, also, logically speaking, there is a variety of nouns, though grammatically all are looked upon as names.

Again, finding that many words tell us what things do, or assert that they are or exist, we place them in another class and call them Verbs. These may be subdivided,

according to their use, into:

1 From the Latin concretus, grown together, hence formed by the union of particles.

2 From the Latin abstractus, separated, hence the attribute considered apart from the object to which it belongs.

3 From the Latin verbum, word. The name was given to this class because it was thought that the assertive element was the preeminent word in the sentence.

1. Transitive,' which express an action that terminates directly on some object, and which do not make complete sense without the specification of that object; as, The Danes burned the monasteries.

2. Intransitive, which express (1) a state or condition; (2) an action not terminating on an object:

He sleeps (state or condition).

He arose (action confined to the subject).

This, however convenient for purposes of grammar, is not always a distinction in the nature of things; for the same verb, expressing the same action, can be either transitive or intransitive.

Thus:

The child sees the horse.

The new-born child sees, but the kitten is blind.

The explanation of the difference is that in the first case a special and single act is expressed; in the second, the act of seeing is generalized, that is, spoken of generally. So Cowper says of painting:

Blest be the art that can immortalize.

Let it carefully be borne in mind, then, that the same verb may be transitive at one time and intransitive at another, according to its use, according as it does or does not take or obviously require the specification of an object upon which the action is immediately expended.

We find, further, that some words, while they do not precisely name things, are yet a kind of substitutes for the ordinary names. These are put into a third class, and called Pronouns. They are employed to prevent tiresome or awkward repetition, to distinguish the objects of

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1 From the Latin trans, over, and ire, to go, the idea being that the action passes over from the subject and affects some object.

2 From the Latin pronomen, for a name.