The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (free ebook reader .txt) 📕

that will do very little good; the yes or the no must be accompanied and supported by reasons."—Dr. M'Cartee. "Shall I tell you why? Ay, sir, and wherefore; for, they say, every why hath a wherefore."—Shak. (2.) Of ADJECTIVES: as, "Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, and reduced it to an almost desert."—Wood's Dict., w. Moab. "The then bishop of London, Dr. Laud, attended on his Majesty."—Clarendon. "With upward speed his agile wings he spread."—Prior. "She lights the downward heaven, and rises there."—Dryden. (3.) Of PRONOUNS: as, "He liked the ground whereon she trod."—Milton. "Wherein have you been galled by the king?"—Shak. "O how unlike the place from whence they fell!"—Par. Lost, B. i, l. 75. Here whereon is exactly equivalent in sense to on which; wherein, to in what; and whence, to which: but none of them are actually reckoned pronouns. (4.) Of VERBS: as, "If he be hungry, more than wanton, bread alone will down."—Locke. "To down proud hearts that would not willing die."—Sidney. "She never could away with me."—Shak. "Away, and glister like the god of war."—Id. "Up, get ye out of this place."—Gen., xix, 14. (5.) Of CONJUNCTIONS: as, "I, even I, am he."—Isaiah, xliii, 25. "If I will that he tarry till I come."—John, xxi, 22. "I will go and see him before I die."—Gen., xlv, 28. "Before I go whence I shall not return."—Job, x, 21. (6) Of PREPOSITIONS: as, "Superior to any that are dug out the ground."—Eames's Lect., p. 28. "Who act so counter heavenly mercy's plan."—Burns. Better perhaps, "out of" and "counter to." (7.) Of INTERJECTIONS: as, "Up, up, Glentarkin! rouse thee, ho!"—Scott. "Down, down, cried Mar, your lances down!"—Id. "Off! or I fly for ever from thy sight."—Smith.

OBS. 6.—In these last examples, up, and down, and off, have perhaps as much resemblance to imperative verbs, as to interjections; but they need not be referred to either of these classes, because by supplying a verb we may easily parse them as adverbs. I neither adopt the notion of Horne Tooke, that the same word cannot belong to different parts of speech, nor refer every word to that class to which it may at first sight appear to belong; for both of these methods are impracticable and absurd. The essential nature of each part of speech, and every important peculiarity of its individual terms, it is hoped, will be sufficiently explained in some part or other of this work; but, as the classification of words often depends upon their construction, some explanations that go to determine the parts of speech, must be looked for under the head of Syntax.

OBS. 7.—The proper classification, or subdivision, of adverbs, though it does not appear to have been discovered by any of our earlier grammarians, is certainly very clearly indicated by the meaning and nature of the words themselves. The four important circumstances of any event or assertion, are the when, the where, the how-much, and the how; or the time, the place, the degree, and the manner. These four are the things which we usually express by adverbs. And seldom, if ever, do we find any adverb the notion of which does not correspond to that of sometime, somewhere, somewhat, or somehow. Hence, the general classes of this sort of words ought to be formed under these four heads. The classification heretofore most commonly adopted in English grammar, has every fault which the spirit of awkwardness could possibly give it. The head of it is this: "Adverbs, though very numerous, may be reduced to certain classes, the chief of which are those of Number, Order, Place, Time, Quantity, Manner or Quality, Doubt, Affirmation, Negation, Interrogation, and Comparison."—Murray's Gram., p. 115; Comly's, 66; Kirkham's, 86; R. C. Smith's, 34; Hall's, 26; and others.

CLASSES.

Adverbs may be reduced to four general classes; namely, adverbs of time, of place, of degree, and of manner. Besides these, it is proper to distinguish the particular class of conjunctive adverbs.

I. Adverbs of time are those which answer to the question, When? How long? How soon? or, How often? including these which ask.

OBS.—Adverbs of time may be subdivided as follows:—

1. Of time present; as, Now, yet, to-day, nowadays, presently, instantly, immediately, straightway, directly, forthwith.

2. Of time past; as, Already, just now, lately, recently, yesterday, formerly, anciently, once, heretofore, hitherto, since, till now, long ago, erewhile, erst.

3. Of time to come; as, To-morrow, hereafter, henceforth, henceforward, by-and-by, soon, erelong, shortly.

4. Of time relative; as, When, then, first, just, before, after, while, whilst, meanwhile, as, till, until, seasonably, betimes, early, late, whenever, afterward, afterwards, otherwhile, otherwhiles.

5. Of time absolute; as, Always, ever, never, aye, eternally, forever, perpetually, continually, incessantly, endlessly, evermore, everlastingly.

6. Of time repeated; as, Often, oft, again, occasionally, frequently, sometimes, seldom, rarely, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, annually, once, twice, thrice, or three times. Above this, we use only the phrases four times, five times, six times, &c. Whether these ought to be reckoned adverbs, or not, is questionable: times, for repetitions, or instances, may be supposed a noun; but such phrases often appear to be used adverbially.

II. Adverbs of place are those which answer to the question, Where?
Whither? Whence? or, Whereabout? including these which ask.

OBS.—Adverbs of place may be subdivided as follows:—

1. Of place in which; as, Where, here, there, yonder, above, below, about, around, somewhere, anywhere, elsewhere, otherwhere, everywhere, nowhere, wherever, wheresoever, within, without, whereabout, whereabouts, hereabout, hereabouts, thereabout, thereabouts.

2. Of place to which; as, Whither, hither, thither, in, up, down, back, forth, aside, ashore, abroad, aloft, home, homewards, inwards, upwards, downwards, backwards, forwards. Inward, homeward, upward, downward, backward, and forward, are also adverbs, as well as adjectives; but some critics, for distinction's sake, choose to use these only as adjectives.

3. Of place from which; as, Whence, hence, thence, away, out, off, far, remotely.

4. Of the order of place; as, First, secondly, thirdly, fourthly, &c. Thus, secondly means in the second place; thirdly, in the third place; &c. For order, or rank, implies place, though it may consist of relative degrees.

III. Adverbs of degree are those which answer to the question, How much?
How little? or, to the idea of more or less.

OBS.—Adverbs of degree may be subdivided as follows:—

1. Of excess or abundance; as, Much, more, most, too, very, greatly, far, besides; chiefly, principally, mainly, mostly, generally; entirely, full, fully, completely, perfectly, wholly, totally, altogether, all, quite, clear, stark; exceedingly, excessively, extravagantly, intolerably; immeasurably, inconceivably, infinitely.

2. Of equality or sufficiency; as, Enough, sufficiently, competently, adequately, proportionally, equally, so, as, even, just, exactly, precisely.

3. Of deficiency or abatement; as, Little, less, least, scarcely, hardly, scantly, scantily merely, barely, only, but, partly, partially, nearly, almost, well-nigh, not quite.

4. Of quantity in the abstract; as, How, (meaning, in what degree,) however, howsoever, everso, something, anything, nothing, a groat, a sixpence, a sou-markee, and other nouns of quantity used adverbially.

IV. Adverbs of manner are those which answer to the question, How? or, by affirming, denying, or doubting, show how a subject is regarded.

OBS.—Adverbs of manner may be subdivided as follows:—

1. Of manner from quality; as, Well, ill, wisely, foolishly, justly, wickedly, and many others formed by adding ly to adjectives of quality. Ly is a contraction of like; and is the most common termination of English adverbs. When added to nouns, it forms adjectives; but some few of these are also used adverbially; as, daily, weekly, monthly, which denote time.

2. Of affirmation or assent; as, Yes, yea, ay, verily, truly, indeed, surely, certainly, doubtless, undoubtedly, assuredly, certes, forsooth,[308] amen.

3. Of negation; as, No, nay, not, nowise, noway, noways, nohow.

4. Of doubt or uncertainty; as, Perhaps, haply, possibly, perchance, peradventure, may-be.

5. Of mode or way; as, Thus, so, how, somehow, nohow, anyhow, however, howsoever, like, else, otherwise, across, together, apart, asunder, namely, particularly, necessarily, hesitatingly, trippingly, extempore, headlong, lengthwise.

V. Conjunctive adverbs are those which perform the office of conjunctions, and serve to connect sentences, as well as to express some circumstance of time, place, degree, or the like. This class embraces a few words not strictly belonging to any of the others: as, (1.) The adverbs of cause; why, wherefore, therefore; but the last two of these are often called conjunctions. (2.) The pronominal compounds; herein, therein, wherein, &c.; in which the former term is a substitute, and virtually governed by the enclitic particle.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Conjunctive adverbs often relate equally to two verbs in different clauses, on which account it is the more necessary to distinguish them from others; as, "And they feared when they heard that they were Romans,"—Acts, xvi, 38. Here when is a conjunctive adverb of time, and relates equally to feared and to heard. "The right of coming on the shore for their purposes in general, as and when they please."—Holroyd. Here as is a conjunctive adverb of manner, and when, of time; both relating equally to coming and to please.

OBS. 2.—The following words are the most frequently used as conjunctive adverbs: after, again, also, as, before, besides, consequently, else, ere, even, furthermore, hence, how, however, moreover, nevertheless, otherwise, since, so, still, till, then, thence, therefore, too, until, when, where, wherefore, whither, and while, or whilst.

OBS. 3.—Adverbs of time, place, and manner, are generally connected with verbs or participles; those of degree are more frequently placed before adjectives or adverbs: the latter, however, sometimes denote the measure of actions or effects; as, "And I wept much"—Rev., v, 4. "And Isaac trembled very exceedingly"—Gen., xxvii, 33. "Writers who had felt less, would have said more"—Fuller.

   "Victors and vanquished, in the various field,
    Nor wholly overcome, nor wholly yield."—Dryden.

OBS. 4.—The adverbs here, there, and where, when compounded with prepositions, have the force of pronouns, or of pronominal adjectives: as, Hereby, for by this; thereby, for by that; whereby, for by which, or by what. The prepositions which may be subjoined in this manner, are only the short words, at, by, for, from, in, into, of, on, to, unto, under, upon, and with. Compounds of this kind, although they partake of the nature of pronouns with respect to the nouns going before, are still properly reckoned adverbs, because they relate as such to the verbs which follow them; as, "You take my life, when you do take the means whereby I live."—Shak. Here whereby is a conjunctive adverb, representing means, and relating to the verb live.[309] This mode of expression is now somewhat antiquated, though still frequently used by good authors, and especially by the poets.

OBS. 5—The adverbs, when, where, whither, whence, how, why, wherefore, wherein, whereof, whereby, and other like compounds of where, are sometimes used as interrogatives; but, as such, they still severally belong to the classes under which they are placed in the foregoing distribution, except that words of interrogation are not at the same time connectives. These adverbs, and the three pronouns, who, which, and what, are the only interrogative words in the language; but questions may be asked without any of them, and all have other uses than to ask questions.

OBS. 6.—The conjunctive adverbs, when, where, whither, whence, how, and why, are sometimes so employed as to partake of the nature of pronouns, being used as a sort of special relatives, which refer back to antecedent nouns of time, place, manner, or cause, according to their own respective meanings; yet being adverbs, because they relate as such, to the verbs which follow them: as, "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men."—Rom., ii, 16. "In a time when thou mayest be found."—Psal., xxxii, 6. "I sought for some time what I at length found here, a place where all real wants might be easily supplied."—Dr. Johnson. "To that part of the mountain where the declivity began to grow craggy."—Id. "At Canterbury, whither some voice had run before."—Wotton. "Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."—Isaiah, li, 1. "We may remark three different sources whence it arises."—Blair's Rhet., p. 163. "I'll tell you a way how you may live your time over again."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 108. "A crude account of the method how they perceive truth."—Harris's Hermes, p. 404. "The order how the Psalter is appointed to be read."—Common Prayer. "In the same reasoning we see the cause, why no substantive is susceptible of these comparative degrees."—Hermes, p. 201. "There seems no reason why it should not work prosperously."—Society in America, p. 68. "There are strong reasons why an extension of her territory would be injurious to her."—Ib. "An other reason why it deserved to be more studied."—Blair's Rhet., p. 123. "The end why God hath ordained faith, is, that his free grace might be glorified."—Goodwin.

OBS. 7.—The direct use of adverbs for pronouns, is often, if not generally, inelegant; and, except the expression may be thereby agreeably shortened, it ought to