The English Language

Can, cunne, canst, cunnon, cunnan, cuðe, cuðon, cuð—such are the remaining forms in Anglo-Saxon. None of them account for the -l. The presence of the -l makes the word could irregular. No reference to the allied languages accounts for it.

Notwithstanding this, the presence of the -l is accounted for. In would and should the -l has a proper place. It is part of the original words, will and shall. A false analogy looked upon could in the same light. Hence a true irregularity; provided that the L be pronounced.

The L, however, is pronounced by few, and that only in pursuance to the spelling. This reduces the word could to an irregularity, not of language, but only of orthography.

That the mere ejection of the -n in can, and that the mere lengthening of the vowel, are not irregularities, we learn from a knowledge of the processes that convert the Greek ὀδόντος (odontos) into ὀδούς (odows).

§ 391. The verb quoth is truly defective. It is found in only one tense, one number, and one person. It is the third person singular of the præterite tense. It has the further peculiarity of preceding its pronoun. Instead of saying he quoth, we say quoth he. In Anglo-Saxon, however, it was not defective. It was found in the other tenses, in the other number, and in other moods. Ic cweðe, þu cwyst, he cwyð. Ic cwæð, þú cwæðe, he cwæð, we cwædon, ge cwædon, hi cwædon. Imperative, cweð. Participle, gecweden. In the Scandinavian it is current in all its forms. There, however, it means, not to speak but to sing. As far as its conjugation goes, it is strong. As far as its class goes, it follows the form of speak, spoke. Like speak, its Anglo-Saxon form is in æ, as cwæð. Like one of the forms of speak, its English form is in o, as quoth, spoke.

The whole of the present chapter is indicative of the nature of irregularity, and of the elements that should enter into the definition of it, rather than exhaustive of the detail.

The principle that I recognise for myself is to consider no word irregular unless it can be proved so. This view includes the words affected by ambiguous processes, and by processes of confusion, and no others. The words affected by extraordinary processes form a provisional class, which a future increase of our etymological knowledge may show to be regular. Worse and could (its spelling being considered) are the fairest specimens of our irregulars. The class, instead of filling pages, is exceedingly limited.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE IMPERSONAL VERBS.

§ 392. Meseems.—Equivalent to it seems to me; mihi videtur, φαίνεταί μοι. The verb seems is intransitive; consequently the pronoun me has the power of a dative case. The pronoun it is not required to accompany the verb.

§ 393. Methinks.—In Anglo-Saxon there are two forms; þencan=to think, and þincan=to seem. It is from the latter form that the verb in methinks comes. Such being the case, it is intransitive, and consequently the pronoun me has the power of a dative case. The pronoun it is not required to accompany the verb.

Of this word we have also the past form methought.

§ 394. Me listeth, or me lists.—Equivalent to it pleases me=me juvat. Anglo-Saxon lystan=to wish, to choose, also to please, to delight; Norse, lysta. Unlike the other two, the verb is transitive, so that the pronoun me has the power of an accusative case. The pronoun it is not required to accompany the verb.

These three are the only true impersonal verbs in the English language. They form a class by themselves, because no pronoun accompanies them, as is the case with the equivalent expressions it appears, it pleases, and with all the other verbs in the language.

In the old language impersonal verbs, or rather the impersonal use of verbs, was commoner than at present.

In the following lines the construction is, it shall please your Majesty.

See a paper of Mr. Guest's, Phil. Trans., vol. ii. 241.

Strictly speaking, the impersonal verbs are a part of syntax rather than of etymology.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE VERB SUBSTANTIVE.

§ 395. The verb substantive is generally dealt with as an irregular verb. This is inaccurate. The true notion is that the idea of being or existing is expressed by four different verbs, each of which is defective in some of its parts. The parts, however, that are wanting in one verb, are made up by the inflections of one of the others. There is, for example, no præterite of the verb am, and no present of the verb was. The absence, however, of the present form of was is made up by the word am, and the absence of the præterite form of am is made up by the word was.

§ 396. Was.—Defective, except in the præterite tense, where it is found both in the indicative and conjunctive.

In the older stages of the Gothic languages the word has both a full conjugation and a regular one. In Anglo-Saxon it has an infinitive, a participle present, and a participle past. In Mœso-Gothic it is inflected throughout with -s; as visa, vas, vêsum, visans. In that language it has the power of the Latin maneo = to remain. The -r first appears in the Old High German; wisu, was, wârumês, wësaner. In Norse the s entirely disappears, and the word is inflected with r throughout; vera, var, vorum, &c.

§ 397. Be.—Inflected in Anglo-Saxon throughout the present tense, both indicative and subjunctive; found also as an infinitive beón, as a gerund to beonne, and as a participle beonde. In the present English its inflection is as follows:—

The line in Milton beginning If thou beest he—(P. L. b. ii.), leads to the notion that the antiquated form beest is not indicative, but conjunctive. Such, however, is not the case: býst in Anglo-Saxon is indicative, the conjunctive form being beó.—And every thing that pretty bin (Cymbeline).—Here the word bin is the conjunctive plural, in Anglo-Saxon béon; so that the words every thing are to be considered equivalent to the plural form all things. The phrase in Latin would stand thus, quotquot pulcra sint; in Greek thus, ἁ ἄν κάλα ᾖ. The indicative plural is, in Anglo-Saxon, not beón, but beóð and beó.

§ 398. In the Deutsche Grammatik, i. 1051, it is stated that the Anglo-Saxon forms beó, bist, bið, beoð, or beó, have not a present, but a future sense; that whilst am means I am, beó means I shall be; and that in the older languages it is only where the form am is not found that be has the power of a present form. The same root occurs in the Slavonic and Lithuanic tongues with the same power; as, esmi=I am; búsu=I shall be, Lithuanic.—Esmu=I am; buhshu=I shall be, Livonic.—Jesm=I am; budu=I shall be, Slavonic.—Gsem=I am; budu=I shall be, Bohemian. This, however, proves, not that there is in Anglo-Saxon a future tense (or form), but that the word beó has a future sense. There is no fresh tense where there is no fresh form.

The following is a specimen of the future power of beón in Anglo-Saxon:—"Hi ne beóð na cílde, soðlice, on domesdæge, ac beóð swa micele menn swa swa hi, migton beón gif hi full weoxon on gewunlicre ylde."—Ælfric's Homilies. "They will not be children, forsooth, on Domesday, but will be as much (so muckle) men as they might be if they were full grown (waxen) in customary age."

§ 399. If we consider the word beón like the word weorðan (see below) to mean not so much to be as to become, we get an element of the idea of futurity. Things which are becoming anything have yet something further to either do or suffer. Again, from the idea of futurity we get the idea of contingency, and this explains the subjunctive power of be. In English we often say may for shall, and the same was done in Anglo-Saxon.—"Ic ðe secge, heò is be ðam húse ðe Fegor hátte, and nán man nis ðe hig wíte (shall, may know) ær ðám myclan dóme."—Ælfric's Homilies, 44.

§ 400. Am.—Of this form it should be stated, that the letter -m is no part of the original word. It is the sign of the first person, just as it is in all the Indo-European languages.

It should also be stated, that, although the fact be obscured, and although the changes be insufficiently accounted for, the forms am, art, are, and is, are not, like am and was, parts of different words, but forms of one and the same word; in other terms, that, although between am and be there is no etymological connexion, there is one between am and is. This we collect from the comparison of the Indo-European languages.

In English and Anglo-Saxon the word is found in the present indicative only. In English it is inflected through both numbers; in Anglo-Saxon in the singular number only. The Anglo-Saxon plurals are forms of the German seyn, a verb whereof we have, in the present English, no vestiges.

Worth.—In the following lines of Scott, the word worth=is, and is a fragment of the regular Anglo-Saxon verb weorðan=to be, or to become; German, werden.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE.

§ 401. The present participle, called also the active participle and the participle in -ing, is formed from the original word by adding -ing; as, move, moving. In the older languages the termination was more marked, being -nd. Like the Latin participle in -ns, it was originally declined. The Mœso-Gothic and Old High German forms are habands and hapêntêr=having, respectively. The -s in the one language, and the -êr in the other, are the signs of the case and gender. In the Old Saxon and Anglo-Saxon the forms are -and and -ande; as bindand, bindande=binding. In all the Norse languages, ancient and modern, the -d is preserved. So it is in the Old Lowland Scotch, and in many of the modern provincial dialects of England, where strikand, goand, is said for striking, going. In Staffordshire, where the -ing is pronounced -ingg, there is a fuller sound than that of the current English. In Old English the form in -nd is predominant, in Middle English, the use fluctuates, and in New English the termination -ing is universal. In the Scotch of the modern writers we find the form -in.

It is with the oblique cases of the present participles of the classical languages, rather than with the nominative, that we must compare the corresponding participle in Gothic; e.g., ἔχοντ-ος (ekhontos), Greek; habent-is, Latin; hapênt-êr, Old High German.

§ 402. It has often been remarked that the participle is used in many languages as a substantive. This is true in Greek,

§ 403. But it is also stated, that, in the English language, the participle is used as a substantive in a greater degree than elsewhere, and that it is used in several cases and in both numbers, e.g.,

Archbishop Whately has some remarks on this substantival power in his Logic.

Some remarks of Mr. R. Taylor, in the Introduction to his edition of Tooke's Diversions of Purley, modify this view. According to these, the -ing in words like rising is not the -ing of the present participle; neither has it originated in the Anglo-Saxon -end. It is rather the -ing in words like morning, which is anything but a participle of the non-existent verb morn, and which has originated in the Anglo-Saxon substantival termination -ung. Upon this Rask writes as follows:—"Gitsung, gewilnung=desire; swutelung=manifestation; clænsung=a cleansing; sceawung=view, contemplation; eorð beofung=an earthquake; gesomnung=an assembly. This termination is chiefly used in forming substantives from verbs of the first class in -ian; as, hálgung=consecration, from hálgian=to consecrate. These verbs are all feminine."—Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 107.

Now, whatever may be the theory of the origin of the termination -ing in old phrases like rising early is healthy, it cannot apply to expressions of recent introduction. Here the direct origin in -ung is out of the question.

The view, then, that remains to be taken of the forms in question is this:

1. That the older forms in -ing are substantival in origin, and=the Anglo-Saxon -ung.

2. That the latter ones are participial, and have been formed on a false analogy.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE PAST PARTICIPLE.

§ 404. The participle in -en.—In the Anglo-Saxon this participle was declined like the adjectives. Like the adjectives, it is, in the present English, undeclined.

In Anglo-Saxon it always ended in -en, as sungen, funden, bunden. In English this -en is often wanting, as found, bound; the word bounden being antiquated. Words where the -en is wanting may be viewed in two lights; 1, they may be looked upon as participles that have lost their termination; 2, they may be considered as præterites with a participial sense.

§ 405. Drank, drunk, drunken.—With all words wherein the vowel of the plural differs from that of the singular, the participle takes the plural form. To say I have drunk, is to use an ambiguous expression; since drunk may be either a participle minus its termination, or a præterite with a participial sense. To say I have drank, is to use a præterite for a participle. To say I have drunken, is to use an unexceptionable form.

In all words with a double form, as spake and spoke, brake and broke, clave and clove, the participle follows the form in o, as spoken, broken, cloven. Spaken, braken, claven, are impossible forms. There are degrees in laxity of language, and to say the spear is broke is better than to say the spear is brake.

These two statements bear upon the future history of the præterite. That of the two forms sang and sung, one will, in the course of language, become obsolete is nearly certain; and, as the plural form is also that of the participle, it is the plural form which is most likely to be the surviving one.

§ 406. As a general rule, we find the participle in -en wherever the præterite is strong; indeed, the participle in -en may be called the strong participle, or the participle of the strong conjugation. Still the two forms do not always coincide. In mow, mowed, mown; sow, sowed, sown; and several other words, we find the participle strong, and the præterite weak. I remember no instances of the converse. This is only another way of saying that the præterite has a greater tendency to pass from strong to weak than the participle.

§ 407. In the Latin language the change from s to r, and vice versâ, is very common. We have the double forms arbor and arbos, honor and honos, &c. Of this change we have a few specimens in English. The words rear and raise, as compared with each other, are examples. In Anglo-Saxon a few words undergo a similar change in the plural number of the strong præterites.

This accounts for the participial form forlorn, or lost, in New High German verloren. In Milton's lines,

we have a form from the Anglo-Saxon participle gefroren=frozen.

§ 408. The participle in -d, -t, or -ed.—In the Anglo-Saxon this participle was declined like the adjective. Like the adjective, it is, in the present English, undeclined.

In Anglo-Saxon it differed in form from the præterite, inasmuch as it ended in -ed, or -t, whereas the præterite ended in -ode, -de, or -te: as, lufode, bærnde, dypte, præterites; gelufod, bærned, dypt, participles.

As the ejection of the e reduces words like bærned and bærnde to the same form, it is easy to account for the present identity of form between the weak præterites and the participles in -d: e. g., I moved, I have moved, &c.

§ 409. In the older writers, and in works written, like Thomson's Castle of Indolence, in imitation of them, we find prefixed to the præterite participle the letter y-, as yclept=called: yclad=clothed: ydrad=dreaded.

The following are the chief facts and the current opinion concerning this prefix:—

1. It has grown out of the fuller forms ge-: Anglo-Saxon, ge-: Old Saxon, gi-: Mœso-Gothic, ga-: Old High German, ka-, cha-, ga-, ki-, gi-.

2. It occurs in each and all of the Germanic languages of the Gothic stock.

3. It occurs, with a few fragmentary exceptions, in none of the Scandinavian languages of the Gothic stock.

4. In Anglo-Saxon it occasionally indicates a difference of sense; as hâten=called, ge-hâten=promised, boren=borne, ge-boren=born.

5. It occurs in nouns as well as verbs.

6. Its power, in the case of nouns, is generally some idea of association, or collection.—Mœso-Gothic, sinþs=a journey, ga-sinþa=a companion; Old High German, perc=hill; ki-perki (ge-birge)=a range of hills.

7. But it has also a frequentative power; a frequentative power which is, in all probability, secondary to its collective power: since things which recur frequently recur with a tendency to collection or association; Middle High German, ge-rassel=rustling; ge-rumpel=c-rumple.

8. And it has also the power of expressing the possession of a quality.

This power is also a collective, since every quality is associated with the object that possesses it: a sea with waves=a wavy sea.

9. Hence it is probable that the ga-, ki-, or gi-, Gothic, is the cum of Latin languages. Such is Grimm's view, as given in Deutsche Grammatik, i. 1016.

Concerning this, it may be said that it is deficient in an essential point. It does not show how the participle past is collective. Undoubtedly it may be said that every such participle is in the condition of words like ge-feax and ge-heort; i. e., that they imply an association between the object and the action or state. But this does not seem to be Grimm's view; he rather suggests that the ge- may have been a prefix to verbs in general, originally attached to all their forms, but finally abandoned everywhere except in the case of the participle. The theory of this prefix has yet to assume a satisfactory form.

CHAPTER XXXI.

COMPOSITION.

§ 410. In the following words, amongst many others, we have palpable and indubitable specimens of composition. Day-star, vine-yard, sun-beam, apple-tree, ship-load, silver-smith, &c. The words palpable and indubitable have been used, because, in many cases, as will be seen hereafter, it is difficult to determine whether a word be a true compound or not.

Now, in each of the compounds quoted above, it may be seen that it is the second word which is qualified, or defined, by the first, and that it is not the first which is qualified or defined, by the second. Of yards, beams, trees, loads, smiths, there may be many sorts, and, in order to determine what particular sort of yard, beam, tree, load, or smith, may be meant, the words vine, sun, apple, ship, and silver, are prefixed. In compound words it is the first term that defines or particularises the second.

§ 411. That the idea given by the word apple-tree is not referable to the words apple and tree, irrespective of the order in which they occur, may be seen by reversing the position of them. The word tree-apple, although not existing in the language, is as correct a word as thorn-apple. In tree-apple, the particular sort of apple meant is denoted by the word tree, and if there were in our gardens various sorts of plants called apples, of which some grew along the ground and others upon trees, such a word as tree-apple would be required in order to be opposed to earth-apple, or ground-apple, or some word of the kind.

In the compound words tree-apple and apple-tree, we have the same elements differently arranged. However, as the word tree-apple is not current in the language, the class of compounds indicated by it may seem to be merely imaginary. Nothing is farther from being the case. A tree-rose is a rose of a particular sort. The generality of roses being on shrubs, this grows on a tree. Its peculiarity consists in this fact, and this particular character is expressed by the word tree prefixed. A rose-tree is a tree of a particular sort, distinguished from apple-trees, and trees in general (in other words, particularised or defined) by the word rose prefixed.

A ground-nut is a nut particularised by growing in the ground. A nut-ground is a ground particularised by producing nuts.

A finger-ring, as distinguished from ear-rings, and from rings in general (and so particularised), is a ring for the finger. A ring finger, as distinguished from fore-fingers, and from fingers in general (and so particularised), is a finger whereon rings are worn.

§ 412. At times this rule seems to be violated. The words spitfire and daredevil seem exceptions to it. At the first glance it seems, in the case of a spitfire, that what he (or she) spits is fire; and that, in the case of a daredevil, what he (or she) dares is the devil. In this case the initial words spit and dare, are particularised by the final ones fire and devil. The true idea, however, confirms the original rule. A spitfire voids his fire by spitting. A daredevil, in meeting the fiend, would not shrink from him, but would defy him. A spitfire is not one who spits fire, but one whose fire is spit. A daredevil is not one who dares even the devil, but one by whom the devil is even dared.

§ 413. Of the two elements of a compound word, which is the most important? In one sense the latter, in another sense the former. The latter word is the most essential; since the general idea of trees must exist before it can be defined or particularised; so becoming the idea which we have in apple-tree, rose-tree, &c. The former word, however, is the most influential. It is by this that the original idea is qualified. The latter word is the staple original element: the former is the superadded influencing element. Compared with each other, the former element is active, the latter passive. Etymologically speaking, the former element, in English compounds, is the most important.

§ 414. Most numerous are the observations that bear upon the composition of words; e.g., how nouns combine with nouns, as in sunbeam; nouns with verbs, as in daredevil, &c. It is thought sufficient in the present work to be content with, 1. defining the meaning of the term composition; 2. explaining the nature of some obscure compounds.

Composition is the joining together, in language, of two different words, and treating the combination as a single term. Observe the words in italics.

In language.—A great number of our compounds, like the word merry-making, are divided by the sign -, or the hyphen. It is very plain that if all words spelt with a hyphen were to be considered as compounds, the formation of them would be not a matter of speech, or language, but one of writing or spelling. This distinguishes compounds in language from mere printers' compounds.

Different.—In Old High German we find the form sëlp-sëlpo. Here there is the junction of two words, but not the junction of two different ones. This distinguishes composition from gemination.—Grimm, Deutsche Grammatik, iii. 405.

Words.—In father-s, clear-er, four-th, &c., there is the addition of a letter or a syllable, and it may be even of the part of a word. There is no addition, however, of a whole word. This distinguishes composition from derivation.

Treating the combination as a single term.—In determining, in certain cases, between derived words and compound words, there is an occasional perplexity; the perplexity, however, is far greater in determining between a compound word and two words. In the eyes of one grammarian the term mountain height may be as truly a compound word as sunbeam. In the eyes of another grammarian it may be no compound word, but two words, just as Alpine height is two words; mountain being dealt with as an adjective. It is in the determination of this that the accent plays an important part. This fact was foreshadowed in the Chapter upon Accents.

§ 415. The attention of the reader is drawn to the following line, slightly altered, from Churchill:—

On each of the syllables rest, friend, spare, prec-, breath, there is an accent. Each of these syllables must be compared with the one that precedes it; rest with then, friend with my, and so on throughout the line. Compared with the word and, the word spare is not only accented, but the accent is conspicuous and prominent. There is so little on and, and so much on spare, that the disparity of accent is very manifest.

Now, if in the place of and, there was some other word, a word not so much accented as spare, but still more accented than and, this disparity would be diminished, and the accents of the two words might be said to be at par, or nearly so. As said before, the line was slightly altered from Churchill, the real reading being

In the true reading we actually find what had previously only been supposed. In the words spare, spare, the accents are nearly at par. Such the difference between accent at par and disparity of accent.

Good illustrations of the parity and disparity of accent may be drawn from certain names of places. Let there be such a sentence as the following: the lime house near the bridge north of the new port. Compare the parity of accent on the separate words lime and house, bridge and north, new and port, with the disparity of accent in the compound words Límehouse, Brídgenorth, and Néwport. The separate words beef steak, where the accent is nearly at par, compared with the compound word sweépstakes, where there is a great disparity of accent, are further illustrations of the same difference.

§ 416. The difference between a compound word and two words is greatest where the first is an adjective. This we see in comparing such terms as the following: bláck bírd, meaning a bird that is black, with bláckbird=the Latin merula; or blúe béll, meaning a bell that is blue, with blúebell, the flower. Expressions like a shárp edgéd instrument, meaning an instrument that is sharp and has edges, as opposed to a shárp-edged instrument, meaning an instrument with sharp edges, further exemplify this difference.

Subject to four small classes of exceptions, it may be laid down, that, in the English language, there is no composition unless there is either a change of form or a change of accent.

The reader is now informed, that unless, in what has gone before, he has taken an exception to either a statement or an inference, he has either seen beyond what has been already laid down by the author, or else has read him with insufficient attention. This may be shown by drawing a distinction between a compound form and a compound idea.

In the words a red house, each word preserves its natural and original meaning, and the statement is that a house is red. By a parity of reasoning a mad house should mean a house that is mad; and, provided that each word retain its natural meaning and its natural accent, such is the fact. Let a house mean, as it often does, a family. Then the phrase, a mad house, means that the house, or family, is mad, just as a red house means that the house is red. Such, however, is not the current meaning of the word. Every one knows that a mad house means a house for mad men; in which case it is treated as a compound word, and has a marked accent on the first syllable, just as Límehouse has. Now, compared with the word red house, meaning a house of a red colour, and compared with the words mad house, meaning a deranged family, the word mádhouse, in its common sense, expresses a compound idea; as opposed to two ideas, or a double idea. The word beef steak is evidently a compound idea; but, as there is no disparity of accent, it is not a compound word. Its sense is compound; its form is not compound, but double. This indicates the objection anticipated, which is this: viz., that a definition, which would exclude such a word as beef steak from the list of compounds, is, for that very reason, exceptionable. I answer to this, that the term in question is a compound idea, and not a compound form; in other words, that it is a compound in logic, but not a compound in etymology. Now etymology, taking cognisance of forms only, has nothing to do with ideas, except so far as they influence forms.

Such is the commentary upon the words, "treating the combination as a single term;" in other words, such the difference between a compound word and two words. The rule, being repeated, stands (subject to the four classes of exceptions) thus: There is no true composition without either a change of form or a change of accent. As I wish to be clear upon this point, I shall illustrate the statement by its application.

The word trée-rose is often pronounced trée róse; that is, with the accent at par. It is compound in the one case; it is two words in the other.

The words mountain ash and mountain height are generally (perhaps always) pronounced with an equal accent on the syllables mount- and ash, mount- and height, respectively. In this case the word mountain must be dealt with as an adjective, and the words considered as two. The word moúntain wave is often pronounced with a visible diminution of accent on the last syllable. In this case there is a disparity of accent, and the word is compound.

§ 417. The following quotation indicates a further cause of perplexity in determining between compound words and two words:—