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8. The name of every object that has, or is conceived by the mind to have, an independent existence, is called a noun substantive, or merely a substantive. (Rose, flower, man, London, modesty.)
9. Such words as can stand immediately before a substantive, to denote some property that we perceive in objects, is called a noun adjective, or merely an adjective (Sweet, sour, sharp, heavy, light.)
It will be seen below, that a particular class of adjective-words are called participles.
10. The peculiar adjective-words ‘a’ or ‘an’ and ‘the’ are called articles.
(a) A or an is called the indefinite article, and marks that we are speaking of some one of the objects named. From the Latin adjectus, thrown to, added to. Noun, from nomen (Lat.), a name.
(b) The is called the definite article, and marks that we are speaking of a particular object.
11. Every word by which we express that persons or things do any thing, or are any thing, or have any thing done to them, is called a verb. (To run, to walk, to hurt, to bless.)
(a) To be (to which belong the forms is, are) is a peculiar verb, by means of which we join the name of a property to the name of a thing. ‘The rose is red.’ ‘The colours are bright.’
(b) Since the properties that we perceive in things are subject to change, the words ‘is,’ ‘are,’ are altered to denote whether the property existed at a former time, or exists now, or will exist at a future time: The rose is red. The roses are red. The rose was red. The roses were red. The rose will be red. The roses will be red.
(c) To become is a similar verb, by which we mark the acquisition of a new property.—’The road becomes impracticable.’
(d) The notion of a verb may be added to a substantive without being formally asserted of it. The forms which are used for this purpose are called participles. ‘A sleeping boy.’ ‘A broken stick.’
(e) Hence a participle is an adjective-word that, besides the notion of a property, conveys that of time; or of a completed or incomplete state.
12. Such words as add to the notion of a property or action some circumstance of time, place, or manner, are called adverbs.
(a) Though called ad-verbs, or words joined to verbs, they are also added to adjectives. ‘A very nasty medicine.’ ‘The storm rages violently.’ ‘A terribly passionate man.’ ‘He runs swiftly.’
(b) “The adjective and adverb are essentially the same, both being names of properties.” We shall find that sometimes the same word is both adjective and adverb.
13. A pronoun is a word that stands for a noun.
Pronouns save us from the necessity of repeating the noun; so that they are a convenient, but not a necessary part of speech. When the persons, spoken of are known, they sometimes make it unnecessary to name them at all. Suppose Henry speaking: he may say, ‘I think so and so,’ instead of, ‘Henry thinks so and so.’ If he is speaking of himself and Charles, he may say, ‘We think so and so,’ instead of, ‘Henry and Charles think so and so.’
14. A word that marks the relation of one thing to another, is called a preposition.
(a) Hence on, in, over, under, through, above, below, from, &c. are prepositions. They stand immediately before a substantive, or some adjective-word prefixed to a substantive.
(b) The primary relations marked by prepositions are relations in space; relations of local position. The prepositions used to denote these relations in space, were then transferred to analogous relations of time. Thus, “He stood before me” (in space). “He lived before Caesar” (in time).
15. A word that joins notions or assertions together, is called a conjunction. ‘The rose is red and sweet.’ ‘I wish that I could see him.’
16. A word, generally a simple sound, used to express some inward feeling (such as sorrow, surprise, anger, pain) is called an interjection.
Exercise
Find all the substantives in the following passages: (and so on for all parts of speech)
1. The herring, which rests in shoals, and the sheep, which lives in flocks, are not more happy in a crowd, or more contented amongst their companions, than is the pike or the lion with the deep solitude of the pool or the forest.
2. My dog, my dear, is a spaniel.
3. Till Miss Gunning begged him, he was the property of a farmer; and while he was his property, had been accustomed to lie in the chimney corner, among the embers, till the hair was singed from his back, and till nothing was left of his tail but the gristle.
4. Allowing for these disadvantages, he is really handsome; and when nature shall have furnished him with a new coat, a gift which, in consideration of the ragged condition of the old one, it is hoped she will not long delay, he will then be unrivalled in personal endowments by any dog in this country.
5. He and my cat are excessively fond of each other, and play a thousand gambols together, that it is impossible not to admire.
Return to Arnold, English Grammar
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