34 CHAPTER II. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE EXTENDED. SECTION I. CLOSER DEFINITION OF SUBSTANTIVES. ADDITION. THE judgments which we assert are frequently formed with reference to some particular state of the subject, and would not be applicable to it in the full and unrestricted sense of the substantive. In such a case, in order to show the precise sense in which the substantive is used, it becomes necessary to couple with the idea of the object itself, an accessory idea expressive of the restriction. This may sometimes be effected by using an appellative of a subordinate class of the objects named by the general substantive. Let us take, for example, the word soldier, a subordinate class of the race man. This word expresses the complex idea of a man, and of a certain profession which he follows; and an assertion, perfectly true of a soldier, might be false as applied to men in general. Lancer adds again to the notions conveyed by soldier, the ideas of serving on horseback, and fighting with a certain weapon. So the words recruit and veteran convey notions of youth and age in addition to other ideas. The word infant names one of the human race in its tenderest age, and the terms child, boy or girl, youth or maiden, man or woman, serve to indicate the same creature in advancing stages of existence; but we have, in English, no substantive that names a human being of either sex when loaded with years. There are perhaps no substantives that, strictly speaking, express simple ideas; for they all suggest to us objects as distinguished by certain attributes. Independently however of the names of objects, we find in all languages words, which, formed by a combination of terms, convey complex ideas in a perfectly lucid manner; and no language is richer in such expressions than our own. But the English, having borrowed largely from other tongues, contains many words, which, though highly graphic in their native idiom, excite no definite idea in the minds of those ignorant of their derivation. For instance, the word polygamy is as completely Greek to an ignorant man, as though it were written in the characters of that language; yet could its constituent members be translated literally, and form such a word as manymarriage, its meaning would become tolerably clear to him. It would be utterly impracticable to invent distinct terms for every individual object, and for every varying state of the same object; and therefore, instead of rendering language unintelligible by indefinitely multiplying terms, we express, by various combinations of a limited number of words, every possible state in which the object named by a substantive can be imagined to exist. Human intelligence, wholly unable to form simple terms that would answer this purpose, and impelled by a necessity as absolute in one language as in another, has in all accomplished the object by analogous methods. In all, the signification of a substantive may be so restricted as to point out even an individual object of a species, or to express, with the utmost precision, the nicest distinctions that the mind is capable of making in its perceptions of either material or ideal objects. This closer determination of the sense of a substantive, called in grammar, ADDITION, is, in English, effected in various ways, some of which I will now proceed to describe; leaving others till the gradual development of the mechanism of our language shall bring the pupil to the consideration of those principles upon which they are based. I. The signification of a substantive is more closely determined by prefixing an adjective. Ex.: A ripe apple falls. Wet weather is unpleasant. The watchful dog barks. A naughty child pouts. Gold is a precious metal. The pheasant is a handsome bird. The plough is a useful implement. Sincerity is true wisdom. EXERCISE. LESSON 31.-Write twenty sentences, in each of which the subject is defined by an adjective, and draw a line under the latter. Ex.: Green fruit is unwholesome. A good child obeys. Dirty hands are a disgrace. LESSON 32.-Write twenty sentences, in which a substantive, in the predicate, is defined by an adjective, underlined as before. Ex.: England is a powerful kingdom. Lead is a heavy metal. II. One substantive is frequently defined by another substantive in the genitive case. Ex.: Man's life is uncertain. The toad's eye is brilliant. The nightingale's song is sweet. The miller's daughter is fair. The lion's roar alarms. The rook's feathers shine. A fool's cap will be the dunce's portion. EXERCISE. LESSON 33.-Write twenty sentences, in each of which the subject is defined by another substantive in the genitive case, underlined as in the last lesson. Ex.: The peacock's tail is beautiful. The duke's horse has won. III. It is a rule of syntax, that "one substantive governs another substantive, signifying a different thing, in the genitive case." This means, that when we would define one substantive by another, the defining substantive must be put into the genitive case, as in the examples given under the last rule. In other languages this rule is of pretty general application, but in English, as we shall presently see, it is very |