there must be not only words of more than one kind, but words of certain kinds, fitted together in certain ways. 24. As the sentence is a combination of words by which we declare something to be so and so, or assert that something is true about something, there must be in every sentence two parts or members: one naming the thing about which we make our declaration or assertion, and one expressing what we declare or assert of the thing named. Thus, in the sentence the sun shines, the words the sun tell what we make our assertion about, and we assert about the sun that it shines: shines expresses what we declare to be true of the thing expressed by the sun. 25. These two necessary parts of the sentence we call the SUBJECT and the PREDICATE (predicate is only a more learned and harder name for thing asserted or declared'). We cannot, in the nature of things, make a complete sentence without joining together a subject and a predicate. But a sentence does not need to contain more than two words, one for each of the two parts or members. For example, gold glitters; George reads; horses run; paper burns; they wrote; are so many complete sentences, the former word in each being its subject, and the latter its predicate. 26. On the other hand, we may use two, or three, or many words in naming and describing the thing about which we are going to make our assertion, and as many more in making the assertion; and the sentence may still. be divided into the same two parts. Thus, in my father's beautiful black horses run every day down the hill to the brook for water, are the first five words my father's beautiful black horses the subject, because all of them taken together name that about which the assertion is made; and the other eleven words are the predicate, because they all combine to form the assertion, telling what is done by the horses we have described. 27. We have, then, this rule : A sentence is composed of two parts: 1. the subject, signifying that about which the assertion is made; and 2. the predicate, signifying that which is asserted of the subject. Now we have to look to see what kinds of words, what parts of speech, are put together thus to form the simplest sentence, the sentence composed of only two words. 28. A word that can be used as glitters, run, burns, reads, stand, wrote are used in the little sentences given above, is called a VERB (the word verb is Latin for 'word' simply). A verb is a word that asserts or declares; and any word that does that is a verb. Hence, we cannot make a sentence without using a verb; the predicate of the sentence (as we have called it above) must be a verb; and we cannot describe a verb truly except by saying that it is a kind of word which goes with the name of something to declare, or help declare, something about it; it can be used as the predicate of a sentence. This cannot be too much insisted on, as the definitions given of a verb are often wholly erroneous. A verb, as we have seen, does not necessarily stand alone as predicate; instead of shines, we can say is shining, or is brilliant, or sends down rays, and so on, which mean nearly the same thing; but in these phrases the is and sends are verbs; words like shining, brilliant, rays, cannot make an assertion without a verb added. And, of however many words a predicate may he composed as in run every day down the hill to the brook for water—it must always have in it, as its essential part, a verb as run: simply because a verb is a word that asserts. 29. Thus we have the definition : A verb is a word that asserts or declares, and hence that can stand, alone or with other words, as the predicate of a sentence. 30. When a predicate is composed of two or more words, we call the simple verb in it the BARE predicate, and this along with the rest the COMPLETE predicate. We shall see hereafter (350) that some verbs are very rarely used alone as predicate, but are made complete predicates by other words added to them, which are called their COMPLEMENT (that is, 'completing part'). And there are no verbs which may not take a complement of some kind. 31. The other words in most of our little sentences of two words each-namely, gold, horses, paper, Georgeare each of them what is called a NOUN. Noun means simply 'name.' All these nouns are names of objects that we can see. Others, as sound, noise, thunder, odor, are names of things which we perceive by other senses. Yet others, as mind, life, are names of what we can only think about, objects of thought. Others still, as height, roundness, beauty, courage, are names of the qualities of objects. There are many different classes of nouns, but they are all alike names, and they can all be used as subject of a sentence; they can be put along with a verb to make an assertion; they express anything that we can declare something about. 32. Thus we have the definition : A noun is the name of anything, a word that can stand, alone or with other words, as the subject of a sentence. 33. But while a verb was the only kind of word, or part of speech, that could be used as a predicate in a sentence, a noun is not the only one that can be used as a subject. We had also the little sentences I stand, they wrote, where and they are subjects; and these are words of so peculiar kind that they are not called nouns, but are made a class, or part of speech, by themselves, and are called PRONOUNS other words of the class are we, you, he, she, it, this, who. The word pronoun means 'standing for a noun.' And these are, in fact, a kind of additional set of names for objects, which may be used instead of the nouns, their ordinary names. They do not precisely name objects; but they point them out, where the circumstances show plainly enough what is referred to. Thus, instead of saying we may say the sun shines, it shines, if we have spoken before of the sun, in a way that makes plain what it means. In like manner, having said we may add George is studious, he reads, meaning George reads.' Or, speaking to George himself and not to any one else, we may say you read; and George may say, referring to himself, I read. We can, in this way, say he or she or it of every single object that has a name, any object that we can speak of by a noun ; to any one that we can speak to, we may say you; and any one of them that can speak of itself may call itself 1. Thus the pronouns are a sort of universal names, or universal substitutes, under special circumstances, for ordinary names. Accordingly, while there are hundreds and thousands of ordinary names, or nouns, there are only a few, a dozen or so, of these substitutes; but they are used far more often than any nouns are used. 34. Thus we have the definition : A pronoun is a word standing for a noun or ordinary name, and may, like a noun, be used as subject of a sen tence. 35. Both nouns and pronouns have other uses besides that of standing as subject; these will be pointed out hereafter. It will also be shown that words which are usually other parts of speech are sometimes used as if they were nouns. Such a word is then said to be used SUBSTANTIVELY. SUBSTANTIVE is another name for a noun. The word noun was formerly much used, and is still sometimes used, as a name for both nouns and adjectives, the former being distinguished as nouns substantive, or substantives, and the latter as nouns adjective, or adjectives. are the 36. These three parts of speech - the noun and pronoun on the one hand and the verb on the other principal, the independent, ones. They do not need to lean on anything else; they can form sentences without help from other parts of speech. [See Exercise I., at the end of the chapter.] Next we have to look at two other kinds of word which are of a different character, which do not by themselves, or directly, form either the subject or the predicate of a sentence, but only as they are put along with something else, to which they belong. 37. The word the, in the sun shines, is such a part of speech; it can only be used along with a noun, as an appendage to the noun. Other examples are golden and white, in the golden sun shines; white paper burns; each is added to a noun sun or paper to describe the thing of which the noun is the name, to express some quality as belonging to it. |