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Show .. Additional Notes. I. Cordunctions and Prepositions. The first class of words consists of those, which suo·gest but one ~clea, and suffer no change of termination; which have been t rmed by grammarians CoNJUNCTIONS and PREPOSITIONS; the former of which connect sentences, and the latter words. Both which have been ingeniously explained by Mr. Horne Tooke from their etymology to be abbreviations of other modes of expression. 1. Thus the conjunction if and an, are shown by 1\fr. Tooke to be ·derived from the imperative mood of the verbs to give aud to grant; but both of these conjunctions by long use appear to have become the name of a more abstracted idea, tban the words gi vc or grant suggest, as they <lo not now express any ideas of person, or of number; or of time; all which are generally attendant upon the meaning of a verb; and perhaps all the words of this class are the names of .ideas much abstracted, which has caused. the difliculty of explaining :tl1em. 2. The number of Prepo itions )s very great in the English lan- guage, as they are used before the cases of nouns, and the infinitive mood of verbs, instead of the numerous changes of termination of the nouns and verbs of the Greek and Latin; which gives greater sim- ·.plicity to our language, and greater facility of acquiring it. The prepositions, as well as the preceding conjunctions, have been well explained by Mr. Horne Tooke; who has developed the etymology o'f many of tl1em. As the greatest number of the ideas, we ·receive from external objects, are complex ones, the names of these constitute a great part of language, as the proper names o persons and places; which are complex terms. Now as the c complex terms do not always exactly suggest the quantity of combined ideas we mean to express, some of the prepositions are prefixe( to lhem to add or to deduct something, or to limit their general meaning ; as a house with a party wall, or a house without a roof. Th se words are also derived by Mr. Tooke, as abbreviations of the imperative moods of rverbs; but which appear now to suggest ideas further ab:traLte than those generally suggested by verbs, and are all of them properly nouns, or names of ·ideas. The TJzeory and Structure of Language. 95 II. NlJuns Substantive. The second class ?f words consists of those, which in their simplest state su?g ~t bu.t on c 1d a, as the word man; but which by two changes 0f tcrrnmat10n m our language suo·ge tone secondary idea of number, a the word men; or another secondary idea of the O'enitive case as man '~ m.ind, . or the mind of man. These words by ~ther chang:s of tenmnatwr~ m the Greek and Latin languages- sugg·est many other secondary 1cleas, as of gender, as well as of uumber, and of all the other cases de cribed in their grammars; which in English are ex,.. pres eel by preposi t ions. 1his class of words includes the NouNs SuBSTANTIVE, or names of things, of common grammars, and may be conveniently divided into three kinds. 1. Those which suggest the ideas of things. believed to pos css hardness and figure, as a house or a horse. 2. TJ10se which suggest the ideas of things, wl1icl1 are not supposed to possess. hardness and figure, except metaphorically, as virtue, wisdom; which have therefore been termed abstracted ideas. ~J. Those which have been called by metaphysical writers reflex ideas, and mean those of the ()perations .uf the mind, as sensation, volition, association. Another convenient divi ion of these uouns substantive or 11ames of things may be first into general terms-, or the names of classes of ideas, as man, qnadrupcd, bird, fish, animal. S4. Into the names of complex, ideas, as this hou e, that dog. 3. lllto th e names of simple ideas, as whiteness, sweetness. A third convcnjent clivi ·ion of th names of things may ue into the names .of intire thing , whether of real or imaginary being; these are the nouns substantive of grammars. 2. Into the names of the qualities or properties of the former; these are the noun adjective of grammars. 3. The names of more abstracted ideas as the conjunctions and prepositions of grammarians. The noun substantive, or names of intire thing,, sugge t but one iclea in their simplest form, as in the nominative case ingular of grammars. A the word a tag is the nam ~ of a single complex idea ; but the word stags by a change of termination adds to this a secondary |