added clause, of which the adjective would be the predicate - as if, for example, we said

since he was young, handsome, and clever, the page was etc.

Yet, as we have seen already (175), the attributive adjective also may always be turned into the predicate of a descriptive clause. And it is quite impossible to draw a distinct line between the attributive and the appositive use of the adjective. If we make the description at all complicated by adding modifiers to the adjective, we may not put the adjective in the usual place of an attribute, close before the noun, but must separate it, like an appositive, from the noun. Thus, we say his ruddy countenance; the loveliest vale; but

or

his countenance, ruddy with the hue of youth;

a vale, loveliest of all vales on earth;

ruddy with the hue of youth, his countenance was pleasant to look upon; and so on.

Hence, as the participles have modifiers added to them much more freely than ordinary adjectives, the participles are especially used in appositive construction (see below, 457).

A pronoun, which almost never takes an attributive adjective before it, like a noun, has an appositive adjective or noun added to it just as freely as a noun: thus,

we, poor in friends, sought their love;

they ran off laughing;

tired and hungry, he hastened home;

you Frenchmen are livelier than we English.

377. On the other hand, a noun is now and then used quite in the manner of an attributive adjective: thus,

my hunter friend,

her soldier cousin,

the drummer boy.

We may properly call such a noun attributive; or we may say that it is used with the value of an attributive adjective. Compound nouns (119 b) sometimes grow out of this combination.

378. We have, then, the definitions:

IX. An adjective qualifying a noun directly (not through a verb) is called attributive or, if more loosely connected with the noun, it is called appositive.

X. A noun added to another noun, by way of further description of the same object, is said to be in apposition with that noun.

That an appositive adjective or noun also qualifies a pronoun has been explained above.

379. In languages which inflect their adjectives, and inflect their nouns more fully, attributive and appositive words are regularly made to agree in case, or in number and case, with the nouns (or pronouns) which they qualify or describe. But no such agreement is possible with the English adjective, because it is wholly uninflected (with the exception of this and these, that and those: see 76); and it is only imperfectly made in the possessive case of the appositive noun. We are allowed to say, indeed,

the rifle is my friend's, the hunter's;

but the expression seems awkward to us, and we prefer to say the same thing in some other way: as,

it belongs to my friend, the hunter.

Or, we put the sign of the possessive case only on the last noun (see 138): thus, my friend the hunter's rifle.

It is useless, then, to add any rule about agreement.

[See Exercise XVI., at the end of the chapter.]

ADVERB.

380. As the adjective is the usual qualifier of the noun, so the adverb is the usual qualifier of the other member of the simple sentence, the verb.

Adverbs qualify verbs in all the variety of meaning that belongs to them, but without any difference of relation (like that of the predicative and attributive relation in the adjective) which is of importance enough to be distinguished and defined.

381. Adverbs (as we have already seen, 41-2, 308-9) qualify also adjectives, and sometimes other adverbs. There are even cases in which an adverb qualifies a preposition: thus,

a result far beyond his hopes;

he jumped clear over the wall;

a nail driven deep into the wood.

Such cases shade off into those in which the qualifying word is no proper adverb, but an adjective belonging to the noun, to which the prepositional phrase is added.

382. An adverb is quite often used with the value of a predicate adjective: for example,

the sun is down, the moon is up, and the stars are all out; he was there, but you were away.

And the adverb so is much used as substitute for adjectives as well as other parts of speech, to avoid repetition: see 493. For example,

his step was light, for his heart was so.

Less often, as an appositive adjective: thus,

ask at the house next above;

my stay there will be short;

the wall within and that without.

Sometimes (and less properly), even as an attributive adjec

tive: thus,

the above passage;

my sometime friend;

the then ruler;

his almost impudence of manner.

As to the use of an adverb with the value of a noun, as object of a preposition, see 322.

383. We have, then, the rules:

XI. An adverb qualifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

XII. An adverb is sometimes used with the value of an adjective, especially of a predicate adjective.

[See Exercise XVII., at the end of the chapter.]

GENITIVE OR POSSESSIVE CASE OF NOUNS.

384. We have seen (68 etc.) that English nouns and pronouns have an inflectional form which is called their GENITIVE or POSSESSIVE case: thus,

John's from John;

men's from men;

man's from man;

his from he;

their or theirs from they;

and that the case is usually called "possessive" because it is especially used, in connection with another noun, to point out the possessor of whatever that noun signifies, the person or thing to which it belongs.

For example, if a book has John for its owner, we call it John's book; a crown belonging to the king is the king's crown; and, in a more figurative way, the doings that belong to a certain day are called that day's doings. If a man has debts,

we call them his debts; the act performed by him is his act; the faults he has committed are his faults; and so on.

385. The possessive use of this case, its use as a genitive of possession or appurtenance (taking these words in a somewhat wide and loose sense), is by far the most common of all in English; but there are two or three others which call for notice.

a. If the qualified noun signifies some action or condition of which, if it were expressed by a verb, the noun in the genitive would be the subject, the case is called a SUBJECTIVE genitive.

b. If, on the other hand, the genitive would be the object of the action expressed by the other noun in verb-form, we call it an OBJECTIVE genitive.

The objective genitive is much less common in English than the subjective. c. Once more, if the relation of the two nouns is logically that of apposition, and might also be so expressed, the case is called an APPOSITIVE genitive: thus, Numidia's spacious kingdom.

Britain's isle;

The appositive genitive is now almost obsolete, but it occurs sometimes in poetry.

386. In this way, a noun in its possessive case-form becomes a qualifying, or descriptive, or limiting addition to another noun, much as if it were an attributive adjective. Often we can put an adjective in place of the possessive, with little or no difference of meaning thus,

the king's crown, may also be described as

the day's doings,

man's imperfections,

the royal crown, the daily doings,

human imperfections.

And we saw above (165, 205) that the possessive cases of the personal pronouns, especially, are not to be sharply distinguished from adjectives.

Though the English possessive is the genitive of older English and of the other related languages, it is peculiar in this respect that whereas the genitive was used also with verbs and adjectives, or adverbially, our present possessive has only an adjective value, or is used adnominally · that is, as added to a noun,' or qualifying a noun.

-

387. The possessive is said to be dependent on the noun which it describes, or to be governed by it: that is to say, the qualifying noun is as it were required or compelled by its relation to the other to take the possessive case-form.

388. The possessive, with the noun on which it is dependent omitted, is also used in the various. other constructions of the adjective.

Thus, as simple predicate :

the book is John's;

as objective predicate:

that crown is the king's;

I made the book his;

in apposition :

that crown, the king's, is set with jewels.

Also, like an adjective used as a noun: thus,

John's book lies by Harry's.

he and his are all well; And the possessive, standing for 'such a one's property or belongings,' has come to be used with a preceding of, in the sense of belonging to such a one,' being put, like an appositive adjective, after the noun it qualifies: thus, a servant of my brother's;

this boy is a friend of mine;

that wife of his;

that is, a friend belonging to me,' or 'one of my friends,' and so on.

389. Thus we have the rule:

XIII. The genitive or possessive case of a noun (or pronoun) is used to qualify or limit another noun, in the manner of an adjective.

[See Exercise XVIII., at the end of the chapter.]

ADVERBIAL OBJECTIVE CASE OF NOUNS.

390. While, as we have just seen, our noun has a special case-form, the possessive, for adjective use, or as quali