subjects, applies to the case in which antecedents of different persons have a common representative conjunctive pronoun, which forms the subject of an accessory proposition. If a conjunctive pronoun represents an antecedent of the first person together with an antecedent of the second person or of the third person, the conjunctive pronoun is to be considered as of the first person plural, and of course the verb to which it may be subject in the accessory must be of the same person and number; again, if the conjunctive represents an antecedent of the second person together with an antecedent of the third, it is to be considered as of the second person, and the verb accordingly will be of the second person plural. It will be remarked that in such cases all that is indicated in our language is that when two or more singular antecedents are represented by a single conjunctive pronoun, the verb to which such conjunctive pronoun serves as subject must be of the plural form. As there is no distinction of persons plural marked by the form of our verbs, the person is not indicated. (See § 52.) men. (5) OBS. II. It sometimes happens that the same individual is represented by words of different persons in the subject and predicate of the same proposition. Thus, I am a friend; you are an actor; we are The subjects of the first and last propositions are of the first person, the complementary nouns of the third person; the subject of the second proposition is of the second person, the complementary noun of the third person, though the subject and complementary nouns in the three propositions represent the same party in each respectively. Now such a proposition may be followed by a conjunctive pronoun and accessory, the one referring to, the other describing the individual represented by the subject noun and noun complementary of the principal proposition. Thus, I am a friend who TELL you this, or, I am a friend who FEELS for your misfortunes. The question has arisen, with which antecedent, representing the same individual, should the conjunctive pronoun and the verb in the accessory proposition agree in person; for instance in the example before us, with I or with friend? To answer this we have only to consider whether the accessory proposition is intended to modify the subject noun or the complementary noun in the predicate of the principal proposition. If it is designed by the speaker or writer to modify the subject, as for example the subject in the proposition, I am a friend who TELL you this, the verb must be, as here, in the first person; and a better arrangement in such cases will be, in conformity with the general rule laid down above, to place the accessory immediately after the subject, and suspend the progress of (5) Repeat the substance of Observation II the main assertion till our subject is completed; thus, I who TELL YOU this am a friend. If, on the contrary, the accessory is designed to modify the noun in the predicate, the verb in the accessory must agree with that noun in person, and the proper arrangement is that exhibited above; I am a friend who FEELS for your misfortunes-I am such a FRIEND as feels, &c. the accessory describing friend. In the form, I am a friend who feel for your misfortunes, or, more properly arranged, I who feel for your misfortunes am a friend, it is I the subject that is described by the accessory, and not friend. The person I described by the accessory is asserted to be a friend, not the person I asserted to be the kind of friend described by the accessory. In closing our remarks on the conjunctive pronouns, we must not omit to notice certain compound words formed of a conjunctive pronoun combined with a preposition. Compounds of this kind were much used by our old authors-by the translators, for example, of the Bible-instead of the simple pronoun and preposition. Such words are, whereat, whereby, wherefore, wherein, whereof, whereto, whereunto, wherewith, &c. There are some other similar compounds, which, like some of these, may be considered as belonging to other classes of accessories, such as whereabout to those of place, whereas to causals, and wherewithal to the interrogative pronouns. The word where in all these compounds is the dative or ablative of what-the case employed in Anglo-Saxon with the prepositions attached. As these words do not often occur in the modern language, it will be best, when we meet them, to resolve them into their component parts and treat them as nouns with a preposition, or rather as adjectives substantively employed with a preposition, the noun being implied. The noun ought in each instance to be supplied by the learner in analysis. Thus, whereby by what or by which, referring to something easily discovered, and supplied, as being the antecedent to which what or which refers. This is a decidedly more useful and more satisfactory mode of analysis than to call such words adverbs, as they are usually called in dictionaries and gram mars. PROMISCUOUS EXAMPLES OF ADJECTIVE ACCESSORY PROPOSITIONS.We subjoin examples of compound propositions containing adjective accessories, for the purpose of exercising the learner in analysis. "The fixed and unchanging features of the country also perpetuate the memory of the friend with whom we enjoyed them; who was the companion of our most retired walks, and (who) gave animation to every lonely scene. His idea is associated with every charm of nature; we hear his voice in the echo which he once delighted to awaken; his spirit haunts the grove which he once frequented," &c. = "The time "Satisfy yourselves with what is rational and attainable." men know how to squander that do not know how to give." "They we reve we follow teaches us to live in bonds of charity with all mankind," &c. Whoever shows a man his mistakes in a kind manner is his friend. "Whatever is, is right." They saw whatever could be seen. "At once came forth whatever creeps." "Whosoever hath Christ for his friend will be sure of counsel; whoever is his own friend will be sure to obey it." "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free." "The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose." Show the intentional ambiguity in this line, and express the two senses which it bears in such a way that the one cannot be confounded with the other. "Who never fasts, no banquets e'er enjoys; Who never toils or watches, never sleeps." "And fools who came to scoff remained to pray." "Let me take a horse who is to bear me." "Like mountain cat, who guards her young." "A score of vagabond dogs, who served his purpose." "Wine is like a strong serpent, who will creep unperceivedly into your empty head." (Observe the personification in the four preceding examples.) "Whatever nature has in worth denied, She gives in large recruits of needful pride! What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind." - The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains." Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies." "Couldst thou divine To what would one day dwindle that which made Thee more than mortal?" What is here interrogative, and the compound proposition, To what would one day dwindle that which, &c., is an interrogative substantive accessory, forming the objective modification of the verb divine. "I hear a voice you cannot hear, Which says, I must not stay; I see a hand you cannot see, Which beckons me away." Observe, I must not stay, is substantive accessory objective modifica tion to the verb says. $119. OF ADVERBIAL ACCESSORY PROPOSITIONS IN GENERAL.-We now come to treat of adverbial accessory propositions. (1) In enter ing on this subject, the learner will do well to revert to what we have said of adverbs (§ 92), namely that they are an abbreviated method of expressing the same kind of complement which is more formally expressed by a modified noun and preposition. Otherwise, when a single word expresses what is expressed by a noun and preposition modification, we call that word an adverb. (2) Now we here call all those accessories which express modifications similar either to those expressed by adverbs or by that of which an adverb is an abbreviation (a noun completed by a descriptive adjective and preceded by a preposition) adverbial accessories, since in them, as in the adverb, the preposition is generally suppressed. (3) It is not always suppressed; for some accessory propositions are connected, as we shall see, to their principal proposition by the intervention of a preposition exactly as a single noun is connected by a preposition with the modified word. We might have arranged these among the substantive accessories, and formed of them a class of substantive accessories connected with their principals by a preposition. (4) The learner will then remember that we do not separate into distinct classes the accessories which retain the form of noun and preposition, and the adverbial which do not retain this form; but consider them promiscuously, since, like the noun and preposition modification and the adverb they differ rather in mere form than in the purpose for which they are employed. We shall, however, carefully notice the cases, as they pass in review, in which a preposition serves to connect accessories of this class. (5) OBS.-We shall treat these adverbial accessories with more brevity (considering their number), than the preceding class; not because a knowledge of them is unimportant, but because what has been already said, especially in reference to the adjective accessories connected by the conjunctive pronouns, prepares the learner to understand us without entering so minutely into details, which must consist in a great measure of the mere repetition, with slight change, of matter which has been introduced in treating the classes of accessories already considered. A hint or a reference to the preceding pages will, we hope, be sufficient to bring before the student's mind facts and illustrations which it would consume much time to repeat again at full length. §119. (1) To what is the learner requested to revert in entering on the consideration of adverbial accessories? (2) Mention what accessories we include in the class of adverbial accessories. (3) What is said of accessories connected by a preposition, and of the mode in which they might be classed? (4) What is the learner here to remember? (5) Repeat the substance of the observation in reference to brevity. |