A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical: By Henry Sweet, Part 1

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Clarendon Press, 1900 - English language - 499 pages
 

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Page 223 - Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and the native languages of America. 637. Standard English has always been influenced by the different English dialects. The literary revival of Broad Scotch at the end of the last century by Scott and Burns has introduced many Scotch words into literary English. PERIODS. 638. The main general difference between Early and Late MnE is that the former is the period of experiment and comparative licence both in the importation and in the formation of new words, idioms,...
Page 144 - Most of the letters have four forms in writing, depending on whether they occur at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word or whether they stand separately.
Page 204 - That pai t of grammar which concerns itself specially with forms, and ignores their meaning as much as possible, is called accidence. That part of grammar which ignores distinctions of form as much as possible, and concentrates itself on their meaning, is called syntax.
Page 5 - In considering the use of grammar as a corrective of what are called "ungrammatical" expressions, it must be borne in mind that the rules of grammar have no value except as statements of facts: whatever is in general use in a language is for that very reason grammatically correct.
Page 104 - For the purpose of such statements the present is best suited, as being in itself the most indefinite of the tenses. When the present is used in this way without implying any real distinctions of time, we call it the neutral present. Other tenses may be used as neutral tenses. In Latin the perfect (' gnomic perfect ') is employed as a neutral tense as well as the present. 290. Although we have confined ourselves hitherto to the meanings of tenses, it must not be forgotten that ' tense ' always implies...
Page 7 - Grammar; — like other sciences — deals only with what can be brought under general laws and stated in the form of general rules, and ignores isolated phenomena. Thus grammar is not concerned with the meanings of such primary words as man, tree, good, grow, and relegates them to the collection of isolated facts called the dictionary or lexicon, where they constitute what we may call the lexical side of language.
Page 281 - MnE sometimes as (iir, uur), as in/ear, moor, being sometimes broadened into (eer, or), as in there, bear, floor. In the present century (r) has been dropped everywhere except before a vowel, r final or before a consonant being represented only by a preceding glide-(a), as in (faia) = Early MnE (faiar) = ME fir. This (a)=r has broadened preceding (ij, uw) into (i, u), as in here (hia), poor, cure (kjua) contrasting with he (hij), pool (puwl). The glide-(a) before (r) was finally absorbed by a preceding...
Page 105 - ... Present. I see. I am seeing. Preterite. I saw. I was seeing. Perfect. I have seen. I have been seeing. Pluperfect. I had seen. I had been seeing. Future. I shall see. I shall be seeing. Future Perfect. I shall have seen. I shall have been seeing. Preterite Future. I should see. I should be seeing. Mood. 293. By the moods of a verb we understand grammatical forms expressing different relations between subject and predicate. Thus, if a language has special forms to express commands as distinguished...
Page 98 - The perfect therefore expresses an occurrence which began in the past and is connected with the present, either by actual continuance up to the present time, as in the latter example, or in its results...
Page 59 - But they mean more than this : they imply 'male human being,' just as Mary implies 'female human being/ Each name has besides a vast number of special meanings. Thus the name Plato implies all the characteristics — personal attributes, actions, feelings, thoughts, writings, etc. — that distinguish the man Plato from all other men. 164. Proper names are always liable to change into common words. One way in which this change may begin is by the metaphorical use of a proper name to express other...

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