The Grammar of English Grammars eBook

Goold Brown
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 4,149 pages of information about The Grammar of English Grammars.

The Grammar of English Grammars eBook

Goold Brown
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 4,149 pages of information about The Grammar of English Grammars.

   “And on his quest, where likeliest he might find.”
        —­Ib., B. ix, l. 414.

   “Now amplier known thy Saviour and thy Lord.”
        —­Ib., B. xii, l. 544.

   “Though thou wert firmlier fasten’d than a rock.”
        —­Sam.  Agon., l. 1398.

   “Not rustic, as before, but seemlier clad.”
        —­P.  Reg., B. ii, l. 299.

-------------------------“Whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be reveal’d.”
—­Paradise Lost, B. xii, l. 150.
------------“To show what coast thy sluggish erare
Might easiliest harbour in.”
—­Shakspeare, Cymb., Act IV.

   “Shall not myself be kindlier mov’d than thou art?”
        —­Id., Tempest, Act V.

   “But earthlier happy is the rose distill’d.”
        —­Id., M. S. N. Dream, Act I.

OBS. 3.—­The usage just cited is clearly analogical, and has the obvious advantage of adding to the flexibility of the language, while it also multiplies its distinctive forms.  If carried out as it might be, it would furnish to poets and orators an ampler choice of phraseology, and at the same time, obviate in a great measure the necessity of using the same words both adjectively and adverbially.  The words which are now commonly used in this twofold character, are principally monosyllables; and, of adjectives, monosyllables are the class which we oftenest compare by er and est:  next to which come dissyllables ending in y; as, holy, happy, lovely.  But if to any monosyllable we add ly to form an adverb, we have of course a dissyllable ending in y; and if adverbs of this class may be compared regularly, after the manner of adjectives, there can be little or no occasion to use the primitive word otherwise than as an adjective.  But, according to present usage, few adverbs are ever compared by inflection, except such words as may also be used adjectively.  For example:  cleanly, comely, deadly, early, kindly, kingly, likely, lively, princely, seemly, weakly, may all be thus compared; and, according to Johnson and Webster, they may all be used either adjectively or adverbially.  Again:  late, later, latest, is commonly contrasted in both senses, with early, earlier, earliest; but if lately, latelier, lateliest, were adopted in the adverbial contrast, early and late, earlier and later, earliest and latest, might be contrasted as adjectives only.

OBS. 4.—­The using of adjectives for adverbs, is in general a plain violation of grammar.  Example:  “To is a preposition, governing the verb sell, in the infinitive mood, agreeable to Rule 18, which says, The preposition TO governs the infinitive mood.”—­Comly’s Gram., p. 137.  Here agreeable ought to be agreeably; an adverb, relating to the

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The Grammar of English Grammars from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.