8. Derivative words are also formed by composition; that is, by the construction of a single word out of two or more words, each capable of being used independently. These compounds differ entirely from the secondary derivatives, and are found in every class of English words. They are not, however, so numerous in our tongue as in the German; and in that they are less common than in the Greek language. Ex. Sunshine, fairhaired, thunderstorm, harvestman, daybreak, nevertheless, therefore, into, everlasting, midnight, noontime, elsewhere, however, undersell, overturn, because, hedgerow, warehouseman, earthquake, steamengine, railroad.

CLASSES OF WORDS.

The classification of words depends upon their signification as parts of sentences, which will be treated of under the head of "Syntax." The following will, however, suffice as an introduction to this part of the Grammar; and the nature of Subjects and Predicates, Attributives and Objects, with the various means of expressing the relations between them, will be treated of in the succeeding division.

Names of things, persons, and of whatever exists, even in imagination, are called Nouns, and sometimes Substantives. Ex. Tree, stone; man, boy; Cæsar, Wellington; virtue, hope.

Words expressing an assertion respecting an action or condition, or the reception of the consequences of an action, or simply respecting existence,

are called Verbs. Ex. To run; to strike; to sleep; to be; to be beaten.

Attributives which can only in figurative language be used without a noun (which they qualify in some Ex. Good, bad, green way) are called Adjectives. high, everlasting.

These are the three principal classes of words which represent distinct notions of things, persons actions, qualities, &c., &c., formed in the mind Other words express not so much the notions we have formed, as the connection of those notions with each other, or their relations to us, or some of the infinitely various associations of thoughts.

10. Pronouns serve not only to prevent the too frequent repetition of the same nouns, but yet more to indicate the relation of the persons or things spoken of to the speaker. Such are the Personal Pronouns. Others are used as attributives, but they also show the relations of the subjects they characterize to the speaker. Ex. I, thou, he, they; mine, thine; this, those; whom, what.

Whatever exists, or acts, or is acted upon, is regarded as being, or acting, or being acted on, in some particular time, place, manner, &c.; and these modifications of the simple notions indicated by the verb are expressed by a class of words called Adverbs. Ex. Now, where, so, seldom, perhaps.

Many of the relations of notions one to another, also, are those of place, time, manner, means. &c.; and these are expressed by words called Prepositions, which serve to connect nouns and pronouns with other nouns and pronouns, and with verbs. Ex. From, by, of, to, after.

The connection of things, &c., with each other, and of thoughts with other thoughts, is shown by means of Conjunctions. Ex. And, or, but, though, for.

Numerals are in part names, and in part attributives and adverbs; and therefore do not properly form a class by themselves. Ex. Two, four, six; first, tenth, hundredth; firstly, secondly, lastly.

Interjections, which are expressions of emotion, such as fear, joy, pain, wonder, &c., and not of thought, and the greater number of which are rather sounds than words, cannot be noticed in a grammar: although it is convenient to have such a class to which certain expressions which occur in the Dictionary may be referred. Ex. Ah! O! Ha!

11. Nouns. The Gender of Nouns is determined

Ly the sex of the persons or beings they represent, being called Masculine or Feminine, as they are the names of males or females. Beings without natural sex, things without life, and abstractions are called Neuter.

Figuratively, sex is attributed to many beings naturally having no such distinction, and to abstractions. Ex. The sun, he is setting; the moon, she is rising; Charity, she is the child of heaven. Very small beings, whatever sex they may be of, and those whose sex is not their distinctive characteristic, are spoken of as neuter. Ex. The ant, it is a patron of foresight and prudence; the child, it knows not what it does.

Very few words, in English, have terminations, or other specialties of form, indicative of their gender; the following are examples of the only kinds, and they are not numerous. Ex. Arbiter, Arbitress; Prosecutor, Prosecutrix; Margrave, Margravine; he-bear, she-bear; Man-servant, Maid-servant. In other instances different words are appropriated to the two sexes, but without any peculiarity of termination. Ex. Brother, Sister; Horse, Mare; King, Queen.

12. The only distinction of Number is that between one and more than one; the ordinary forms expressing the former, and being called Singular; and special forms being used for the latter, called Plural.

Most commonly, s or (when it ends in a sibilant or ) es is added to the singular. Ex. Sword, swords; fish, fishes. Words ending in for fe generally make their plurals in ves. Ex. Calf, calves; life, lives. But all words ending in ff, except staff, staves, and several words in ƒ or fe, add s without any change of letters for the plural. Ex. Whiff, whiffs; grief, griefs; fife, fifes. Those ending in Those ending in o, preceded by a vowel, add s only; but if a consonant precede the o, s or es is added. Ex. Cameo, cameos; ratio, ratios; cargo, cargoes; volcano, volcanoes; portico, porticoes; solo, solos. Words ending in y after a consonant have ies in the plural. Ex. fly, flies; history, histories.

A very few change the vowel sound of the singular. Ex. Foot, feet; goose, geese; tooth, teeth; woman, wonen (pronounced wimmen). One adds en to the singular-ox, oxen. One both changes the vowel and adds en-brother, brethren.

Besides these, the following must be noted: Child

makes children in the plural. Mouse has mice, and louse, lice; but it is the spelling only which is peculiar. Penny has two plurals; when coins are meant, pennies, but when money is spoken of, pence. In like manner die, signifying a stamp for coining, has dies; but when it means a cube used in play, dice. Pea has peas and pease, the latter signifying peas collectively, or used for food. Kine is sometimes used as a plural to cow.

Deer, sheep, swine, are used in both numbers; and (when spoken of as food) fish, cod, salmon, &c The names of metals are made plural only when employed to signify some particular things composed of them. Ex. Irons, coppers, brasses. Articles of trade and commerce which, in ordinary language, are never used in the plural form, have plural forms in the market. Ex. Cloth, oil, sugar, tea, &c. On the other hand, beast, which has a regular and commonly used plural, is employed in the singular form alone by Smithfield salesmen. Words signifying abstract qualities seldom take the plural form, because they cannot have a plural meaning, except when used figuratively. Ex. The honors of the world; the decencies of life. Names of measures, weights, of some numbers, and of terms employed numerically, are in some instances used in the singular form, with a plural meaning. Ex. A ten-pound note, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, an army of eighty thousand men, twelve dozen of wine, three brace of dogs, a fleet of twenty sail, twelve thousand foot and three thousand horse, fifteen thousand stand of arms, a hundred head of cattle, each weighing thirty stone.

Alms, means, news, pains, and riches, which are plural in form, are used both as singulars and as plurals. Ashes, bellows, breeches, cates, dregs, gallows, pincers, scissors, and tongs, have no singulars, either in form or meaning. The names of some sciences, derived from the Greek language, are plural in form, but in meaning singular. Ex. Ethics, hydrostatics mathematics, mechanics, politics. And so is the term morals. Suds, and wages, plural in form, are singular in signification; and pulse (leguminous seeds), also plural in form, is simply collective in its meaning.

13. Almost all nouns, which have been simply adopted from foreign languages, retain their original plurals; but some have also plurals formed in the English fashion, and in a few instances with a dif

14. When a noun is the subject of a sentence it is said to be in the nominative case, and when it immediately follows a verb or a preposition it is said to be in the objective case, but its form is precisely the same in both cases. Ex. Nom. The man walks; trees grow. Obj. I pity the man; he fells the trees-with the man; under the trees.

When one noun, in either the singular or plural number, is used along with another attributively, and indicating its possessor or origin, 's (with an apostrophe before it, which shows that a vowel sound has been dropped) is added to the former, except when it ends in a sibilant, when most frequently only the apostrophe is added. Ex. A soldier's life; the soldiers' friend; the jury's verdict; the judges' sentence; Thomas's horse (rad "Thomases"); the fox (read "foxes") brush; "He that despised Moses' law, died;" "If ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye."

Declension of a Noun.

15. In order to individualize the application of common nouns, two words usually designated articles, one a demonstrative pronoun, the, the other a numeral, an (or, as abbreviated before a consonant sound, a), almost universally precede them. The former, which is called the definite article, is used before nouns of both numbers. Ex. The man, the men; the horse, the horses. The latter is called the indefinite article, and is used before nouns in the singular number only. Ex. A man, an hour, a tree,

an enemy.

Proper names, abstract nouns, names of mate rials, and some other classes of nouns, take the articles only when they are used as common nouns. Ex. Solon, Brutus, hope, fear, water, wood; the Solor of his country; he is a Brutus; the hopes and fears of youth; the water's edge; the wood of the ark.

16. Verbs. When the action signified by a verb takes effect immediately on any person or thing as its object, the verb is called transitive or active; but when the action is completely described by the verb itself, or when the verb signifies a condition, it is called intransitive or neuter. Ex. We suspect deceit, he loves truth; I walk or run, they sleep, you stand. Many verbs, as may be seen in the English Diction ary, are both active and neuter. Ex. To abate a nui sance, the storm abated; to account a man wise, to account for one's conduct.

Transitive verbs are conjugated in two ways: one form, called active, is used when the agent is the subject of the verb. Ex. I esteem him; they speak both French and German; the Allies defeated the Russians. The other is used when the agent is the immediate object of the verb, and is called passive. Ex. He is esteemed ly me; both French and German are spoken by them; the Russians were defeated by the Allies.

"

In the conjugation of verbs, four moods are distinguished the indicative, the subjunctive, the imperative, and the infinitive-and another class of forms, called participles. The indicative is used when the speaker asserts something as actually existing or acting. Ex. He reads, we walked, they will consent, thou art punished, I was exalted, you will be confounded. The subjunctive is used when some possible or probable action or state of being is spoken of. Ex. "If I be a father, where is mine. honor?" "Though thou detain me, I will not eat ; "If he were a prophet, he would have known who touched him;" "Though these three men were ir it, they should deliver neither son nor daughter." When a command is given, the imperative is em ployed. Ex. "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king." The infinitive mood consists of the substantive forms, and the participles of the attributive forms, of the verb to which they belong. The preposition to is refixed to all infinitives, except those which follow auxiliary verbs, and such verbs as see, hear, etc., in the active voice. Ex. "To err is human; to forgive, divine: "

I