Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

Transcriber's Note

Italic text is indicated by _underscores_, and bold text by =equals signs=.

AN OUTLINE OF ENGLISH SPEECH-CRAFT

BY WILLIAM BARNES, B.D.

‘_Præsens Angli sermonis forma magis magisque recedit a stirpe
antiquâ_’--Lexicon Frisicum, by JUSTUS HALBERTSMA, under ‘Dunsi’

LONDON
C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1878

(_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved_)

FORE-SAY.

This little book was not written to win prize or praise; but it is put forth as one small trial, weak though it may be, towards the upholding of our own strong old Anglo-Saxon speech, and the ready teaching of it to purely English minds by their own tongue.

Speech was shapen of the breath-sounds of speakers, for the ears of hearers, and not from speech-tokens (letters) in books, for men’s eyes, though it is a great happiness that the words of man can be long holden and given over to the sight; and therefore I have shapen my teaching as that of a speech of breath-sounded words, and not of lettered ones; and though I have, of course, given my thoughts in a book, for those whom my voice cannot reach, I believe that the teaching matter of it may all be put forth to a learner’s mind, and readily understood by him, without book or letters. So, for consonants and vowels, as letters, I put breath-pennings and free-breathings, and these names would be good for any speech, of the lettering of which a learner might know nothing. On the grounds here given, I have not begun with _orthography_, the writing or spelling of our speech, or of any other, while as yet the teaching or learning of the speech itself is unbegun.

I have tried to teach English by English, and so have given English words for most of the lore-words (scientific terms), as I believe they would be more readily and more clearly understood, and, since we can better keep in mind what we do than what we do not understand, they would be better remembered. There is, in the learning of that charmingly simple and yet clear speech, pure Persian, now much mingled with Arabic, a saddening check; for no sooner does a learner come to the time-words than he is told that he should learn, what is then put before him, an outline of Arabic Grammar. And there are tokens that, ere long, the English youth will want an outline of the Greek and Latin tongues ere he can well understand his own speech.

The word _grammar_ itself seems a misused word, for _grapho_ is to write, and _graphma_, worn into _gramma_, means a writing, and the word _grammatikē_ meant, with the Greeks, booklore or literature in the main, and not speech-teaching alone.

Whether my lore-words are well-chosen is a question for the reader’s mind. I have, for better or worse, treated the time-words, and nearly all the parts of speech, in a new way. I have clustered up the time-words as weak or strong on their endings, rather than on their headings, which had nothing to do with their forshapening or conjugation. Case I have taken as in the thing, and not in the name of it, as case is the case into which a thing falls with a time-taking, and case-words (prepositions) and case-endings are the tokens of their cases. The word _preposition_ means a foreputting, or word put before; but then _from_ and _to_, in _herefrom_, and _therefrom_, and _hitherto_, and _thereto_, are postpositions.

I have tried, as I have given some so-thought truths of English speech, to give the causes of them, and hope that the little book may afford a few glimpses of new insight into our fine old Anglo-Saxon tongue.

To any friend who has ever asked me whether I do not know some other tongues beside English, my answer has been ‘No; I do not know English itself.’ How many men do? And how should I know all of the older English, and the mighty wealth of English words which the English Dialect Society have begun to bring forth; words that are not all of them other shapes of our words of book-English, or words of their very meanings, but words of meanings which dictionaries of book-English should, but cannot give, and words which should be taken in hundreds (by careful choice) into our Queen’s English? If a man would walk with me through our village, I could show him many things of which we want to speak every day, and for which we have words of which Johnson knew nothing.

Some have spoken of cultivated languages as differing from uncultivated ones, and of the reducing of a speech to a grammatical form.

What is the meaning of ‘cultivate’ as a time word about a speech? The Latin dictionary does not help us to its meaning, and it might be that of the French _cultiver_, from which we should have, by the wonted changes, to _cultive_. The Romans said _colere deum_ and _colere agrum_, but not _agrum cultivare_; and we may believe that _colo_, with _deus_ or _ager_, bore the same meaning, ‘to keep or hold (with good care),’ and a speech is cultivated by the speaking as well as by the writing of it, and a speech which is sounding over a whole folkland every moment of the day cannot be uncultivated. ‘Not with good care,’ it may be said. Yes; most people speak as well as they can, as they write as well as they can, from the utterer of a fine rede-speech (oration), and the clergyman who gives unwritten sermons, down to the lowly maiden who dresses as finely as she can; and to try to dress herself well is a token that she will try to express herself well.

King Finow, of the Tonga Islands, gave a fine speech, as Mr. Mariner tells us, at his coming to the throne; and it may be well said that he made it, as he had made it in thought, ere he came to the meeting.

What is meant by the reducing of a speech to a grammatical form, or to grammar, is not very clear. If a man would write a grammar of a speech, of which there is yet none, what could he do but show it forth as it is in the shape which its best speakers over the land hold to be its best? To hold that a tongue had no shape, or a bad one, ere a grammar of it was written, seems much like saying that a man had no face, or a bad one, till his likeness was taken.

HEADS OF MATTER.

PAGE

Free Breathings 1

Breath-pennings 2

Word-strain and Speech-strain 3

Thing-names 4

Thing-sundrinesses 4

Thing Mark-words:
Sex 5
Kindred 5
Size 5
Tale 6-9

Outshowing Mark-words 10, 12

Persons 11

Suchness 12

Pitches of Suchness 13

Time-taking and Time-words 14

Intransitive 14

Transitive 15

Cause Time-takings 15

Time-giving 15

Words in _-ing_ 17

Strong and Weak Time-words 18-26

Sundriness of Time-taking 26

Helping Time-words, _can_, _may_, _shall_, _must_ 27

Person, Tale, Mood, Time 27, 30

Historic Time-wording 30

Case 31

Way-marks and Stead-marks 33

Thought-wording, Speech-wording 35

Twin Time-takings 35

Speech-trimming 36

Miswording 36-42

Word-sameness 38

Odd Wordshapes 42, 43

Wordiness 44

Hard Breathing 44

Mark Time-words (Participles) 45

Words of Speech-craft, and others 47

Power of the Word-endings 83

Goodness of a Speech 86

SPEECH-CRAFT.

SPEECH-CRAFT (Grammar), called by our Saxon fore-fathers _Staef-craeft_ or _Letter-craft_, is the knowledge or skill of a speech.

The science of speech in the main, as offmarked from any one speech (Philology), may be called _Speech-lore_.

Speech is the speaking or bewording of thoughts, and is of sundry kinds of words.

Speech is of breath-sounds with sundry breathings, hard or mild, and breath-pennings, which become words.

(1) A freely open breathing through the throat, unpent by tongue or lips, as in the sounds =A=, =E=, =O=, =OO=, which are pure voicing. The main ones in English are--

1. =ee=, in _meet_.
2. =e=, in Dorset speech.
3. =a=, in _mate_.
4. =ea=, in _earth_.
5. =a=, in _father_.
6. =aw=, in _awe_.
7. =o=, in _bone_.
8. =oo=, in _fool_.

Besides this open speech-breathing there are two kinds of breath-penning.

(2) The dead breath-penning, as in the sounds =AK=, =AP=, =AT=, =AG=, =AB=, =AD=, which end with a dead penning of the sounding breath.

In =AK= and =AG= it is pent in the throat.

In =AP= and =AB= with the lips.

In =AT= and =AD= on the roof.

=K=, =P=, =T= are hard pennings; =G=, =B=, =D= are mild pennings, the breathing being harder in the former and softer in the latter.

Then there are half-pennings of the sounding breath, which is more or less but not wholly pent, but allowed to flow on as through the nose in

=AMH=,
=ANH=,
=AM=,
=AN=,
=ANG=;

as in the half-pent sounds--

=AKH=,
=AF=, =AV=,
=ATH=, =ATHE=,
=ALL= (Welsh), =AL=,
=ARH=, =AR=,
=AS=, =AZ=,
=ASH=, =AJ= (French),

half-pent by the tongue and mouth-roof.

For a hard breathing the mark is =H=, as _and_, _hand_; _art_, _hart_.

+---------------------+----------------+---------------+--------------+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | | Dead Pennings, | Half-Pennings, | Dead-Pennings,|Half-Pennings,| | Hard | Hard | Mild | Mild | +---------------------+----------------+---------------+--------------+ |(1) =C=, =K= (Throat)|(5) =KH= German |(14) =G= |(18) =GH= | |(2) =NK= in _ink_ | and |(15) =NGH= like|(19) =NG= | |(3) =P= (Lip) | Welsh | =NG= in |(20) =V=, =BH=| | | | _finger_, | Irish | |(4) =T= |(6) =F= | not |(21) =M= | | |(7) =MH= | _singer_ |(22) =TH= in | | |(8) =TH= in |(16) =B= | _thee_ | | | _thin_ |(17) =D= |(23) =L= Welsh| | |(9) =LL= Welsh | |(24) =R= Welsh| | |(10) =RH= Welsh | |(25) =Z= | | |(11) =S= | |(26) =J= | | |(12) =SH= | | French | | |(13) =NH= | |(27) =N= | +---------------------+----------------+---------------+--------------+

Words are of breath-sounds, and some words are one-sounded, as _man_; and others are tway-sounded, as _manly_; and others many-sounded, as _unmanliness_.

There is word-strain and speech-strain.

The high word-strain (accent) is the rising or strengthening of the voice on one sound of a word, as _man´ly_.

The high speech-strain (emphasis) is the rising or strengthening of the voice on a word of a thought-wording.

The voice may both rise and fall on the same sounds, as _nō_.

In English and its Teutonic sister speeches the strain keeps on the root or stem-word, as _man_, _man´ly_, _man´liness_; though in clustered words, with their first breath-sounds the same, the strain may shift for the sake of clearness, as ‘Give me the _tea_´pot’--the tea_kettle_ is given, and thereupon the bidder may say ‘the teaPOT´,’ not the teaKETTLE.

In Greek the accent shifts in word-building, and likes mainly to settle at about two times or short breath-sounds from the end of the word; and in Welsh it settles mostly on the last breath-sound but one, as _eis´tedd_, a sitting; _eistedd´fod_, a sitting-stead; _eisteddfod´an_, sitting-steads, or bardic sessions.

Besides the word-strain (accent) and the speech-strain (emphasis), there is a speech-tuning (modulation) of the voice (voice-winding), which winds up or down with sundry feelings of the mind, and with question and answers and changes of the matter of speech.

Things may be _matterly_ (concrete) or bodies of matter, as a _man_, a _tree_, a _stone_; or

Things may be _unmatterly_ (abstract), not bodies of matter, as _faith_, _hope_, _love_, _shape_, _speed_, _emptiness_.

It is not altogether good that a matterly and unmatterly thing should be named by the very same word, as _youth_, a young man, and _youth_, youngness.

THINGS AND THING-NAMES.

Things are of many kinds, as a _man_, a _bird_, a _fish_; an _oyster_, a _sponge_, a _pebble_; _water_, _air_, _earth_; _honey_, _gold_, _salt_.

The names of things may be called THING-NAMES.

But there are one-head thing-names (proper names), the names each of some one thing of its kind; as _John_, the miller; _Toby_, the dog; _Moti_, the lady’s Persian cat.

With Christian names may be ranked the so-called _patronymics_, or _sire-names_, taken from a father’s name, as William _Johnson_, Thomas _Richardson_; or in Welsh, Enid Verch _Edeyrn_; or in Hebrew Jeroboam _Ben-nebat_.

Thing Sundriness and Thing Mark-words.

☛ _Mark_ is here to be taken in its old Saxon meaning, _mearc_--what bounds, defines, describes, distinguishes.

The Welsh call the adjective the _weak name_ or noun, _enw gwan_.

Sundriness of Sex, Kindred, Youngness, and Smallness.

Marked by sundry names or mark-words, or mark endings.

SEX.

The stronger or _carl_ sex, as a _man_; the weaker or _quean_ sex, as a _girl_; the _unsexly_ things, as a _stone_.

Husband, wife.
Father, mother.
Brother, sister.

In Saxon the sexes in mankind were called _halves_ or _sides_, the spear-half and the spindle-half.

Man, woman.
Boy, girl.
Buck, doe.
Stag, hind.
Ram, ewe.
Cock, hen.
_He_-goat, _she_-goat.
King, queen.
Duke, duchess.

KINDRED, YOUNGNESS, OR SMALLNESS.

Father, son.
Mother, daughter.
Mare, foal.
Hind, fawn.
Cat, kitten.
Duck, duckling.
Goose, gosling.
Ethel, etheling.

SMALL THINGS.

By forlessening mark-endings:

-_y_, -_ie._

Lass, lassie.
Dog, doggie.

-_kin._

Man, mannikin.

-_el_, -_l._

Butt, bottle (of hay).
Pot, pottle.
Nose, nozzle.

By mark-words:

A _wee_ house, a _little_ boy.

For bigness the English tongue wants name-shapes.

We have _bul_, _horse_, and _tom_, which are mark-words of bigness or coarseness.

Bulfinch.
Bullfrog.
Bulhead (the Miller’s Thumb. Pen-bwll, _Welsh_).
Bulrush.
Bulstang (the Dragonfly).
Bullspink.
Bulltrout.

_Horse._

Horse-bramble.
Horse-chesnut.
Horse-laugh.
Horse-leech.
Horse-mushroom.
Horse-mussel.
Horse-tinger.
Horse-radish.

_Tom._

Tomboy.
Tomcat.
Tomfool.
Tomnoddy.
Tomtit.

The words _bul_ and _horse_ are not taken from the animals.

Sundriness in Tale.

By tale mark-words, as _one_, _five_, _ten_, and others onward.

Sundriness in Rank.

By rank-word, as _first_, _fifth_, _tenth_, _last_.

_An_, _a_, the so-called indefinite article, is simply the tale mark-word _an_, one.

_Saxon_, an man.
_Ger._, ein mann.
_West Friesic_, in.
_East Friesic_, en.
_Holstein_, en.
_New Friesic_, ien.

We use _a_ before a consonant, and _an_ before a vowel, as _a_ man, _an_ awl. But it is not that we have put on the _n_ to _a_ against the yawning, but it is that the _n_ has been worn off from _an_.

The Frieses and Holsteiners now say _ien man_ and _en mann_.

The mark-word _an_, _a_ is of use to offmark a common one-head name, as ‘I have been to _a white church_’ (common); or, without the mark-word, ‘I have been to _Whitechurch_’ (one-head), the name of a village so called. ‘He lives by _a pool_’; ‘he lives by _Pool_’ (a town in Dorset). ‘He works in _a broad mead_’; ‘he works in _Broadmead_’ (in Bristol).

As the Welsh has no such mark-word, it might be thought that it cannot give these two sundry meanings; and the way in which it can offmark them shows how idle it is to try one tongue only by another, or to talk of the unmeaningness or uselessness of the Welsh word moulding.

_Llan-Tydno_ would mean _a church of Tydno_, but the parish called ‘The Church of Tydno’ is in Welsh _Llandydno_, which, as a welding of two words, hints to the Welsh mind that _Llandydno_ is a proper name, and so that of a parish.

_Hoel da_ would mean _a good Hoel_; but to Hoel, the good king, the Welsh gives as a welded proper name _Hoel dda_; and to _Julius Cæsar_ the Welsh gives, as one welded proper name, _Iolo-voel_, Julius-bald, whereas _Iolo-moel_ would mean some bald Julius.

One sundriness of tale, the marking of things under speech--as _onely_ (singular) or _somely_ (plural)--is by an onputting to the thing-name for _someliness_ a mark-ending, or by a moulding of the name into another shape or sound.

By mark-endings, _-es_, _-s_, _-en_, _-n_.

Lash, lashes.
Cat, cats.
House, housen.
Shoe, shoon.

By for-moulding, as _foot_, _feet_--_tooth_, _teeth_; or by both word-moulding or sound-moulding and an ending, as _brother_, _brethren_.

When the singular shape ends in _-sh_, _-ss_, or _-x_, _-ks_, it takes on _-es_ for the somely, as _lash_, _lashes_; _kiss_, _kisses_; _box_, _boxes_.

And surely, when the singular shape ends in _-st_, our Universities or some high school of speech ought to give us leave to make it somely by the old ending -_en_ or _-es_ instead of _-s_--_fist_, _fisten_, _fistes_; _nest_, _nesten_, _nestes_.

What in the world of speech can be harsher than _fists_, _lists_, _nests_?

It is unhappy that the old ending in _-en_, which is yet the main one in West Friesic, should have given way to the hissing _s_.

Where common names with the definite mark-word become names of places they are wont to lose the article, as _The Bath_, in Somerset, is now _Bath_; _The Wells_, in Somerset, _Wells_; _Sevenoaks_, not _The Seven Oaks_, in Kent.

In our version of Acts xxvii. 8, we have a place which is called _The Fair Havens_, instead of _Fairhavens_ without the mark-word, as the Greek gives the name.

Other thing mark-words offmark all of the things of a name or set from others of another name or set.

_All_ birds, or _all_ the birds in the wood; or all taken singly, as _each_ or _every_ bird; or somely, as _set_ or _share_; _some few_ or _a few_; _many_ or _a many_ birds.

_Another_ or _others_ beyond one or some under speech.

_Any one_ or _more_ of a some, either apple or any apples.

_Both_, for the two without others; or

_Much_ or _little_ grass.

Many mark-words were at first thing-names.

_Many_ was a _menge_, a main or upmingled set; and a great many men would mean a great set or gathering of men.

_Few_ was _feo_, which seems to have meant at first a cluster or herd; and a few men was a few (cluster) of men.

_Some_ was a _sam_ or _som_, a set or upmingled mass; and _some_ men was a _sam_ or _som_ of men.

Now if the speech is about the set, it may be onely, as ‘There _is_ a great many,’ ‘there _is_ a small few,’ or ‘a few’; but if the speech is about the bemarked things, the mark-word may well be somely--‘many men _are_’; ‘few men _are_’; ‘some men _are_.’

In the queer wording, ‘many a man,’ ‘many a flow’r is born to blush unseen,’ it is not at all likely that _a_ is the article. It is rather a worn shape, like _a_ in _a-mong_ (an-menge), or _a-hunting_ (an-huntunge), of the Saxon case-word _an_ or _on_, meaning _in_; and it is not unlikely that _man_ has, by the mistaking of _a_ for an article, taken the stead of _men_--‘an maeng an men,’ a many or mass in men; as we say ‘a herd in sheep,’ ‘a horde in gold.’ So far as this is true the mark-word may be somely--‘many a man or men,’ ‘a main in men _are_.’

_None_ (Saxon _na-an_, no one) should have a singular verb--‘None _is_ (not _are_) always happy.’

Some mark-words are for a clear outmarking (as single or somely) of things outshown from among others.

Outshowing Mark-words.

(Near things.)
Single. Somely.
_This_ man. | _These_ men.

(Farther off.)
_That._ | _Those._

(Still farther off, or out of sight.)
_Yon._

The so-called definite article _the_ is a mark-word of the same kind as _this_, _that_, _these_, and _those_.

The word _the_ in ‘the more the merrier’ is not the article _the_--to a name-word. It is an old Saxon outshowing mark-word meaning with that (_mid þy_). ‘The more the merrier’; _þy_ (with that measure), they are more; _þy_ (with that measure), they are merrier.

In the wording ‘the man _who_’ or ‘the bird _which_ was in the garden,’ _who_ and _which_ are not the names, but are tokens or mark-words of the things--_who_ of the _man_, and _which_ of the _bird_.

A thing may be marked by many mark-words, as ‘the (never to be forgotten) day,’ ‘the (having to me shown so many kindnesses) man is yet alive.’

A long string of mark-words may, however, be found awkward, and so we may take a name-token _who_ for the _man_, and, instead of the words ‘having to me shown so many kindnesses,’ say, ‘who showed me so many kindnesses.’

_Who_ or _that_ is the name-token for menkind, and _which_ or _that_ for beings of lower life or of no life, as ‘the man _who_’ or ‘the bird or flower _which_ was in the garden.’

_Who_ and _which_ are used in the asking of questions--‘_Who_ is he?’ ‘_What_ is that?’

The name-token should follow close on the forename for the sake of clearness. ‘Alfred sold, for a shilling, the _bat which_ William gave him,’ not ‘Alfred sold the bat for a _shilling which_ William gave him,’ if it was the _bat_ that was given to him by William.

These mark-words take the stead of thing-names, and are _Name-stead words_, and clear the speech of repetitions of the names. The baby may say ‘Baby wants the doll,’ but at length learns to say ‘_I_ want the doll’; or ‘_Papa_, take _baby_,’ and afterwards ‘_You_ take _me_’; or ‘Give _baby_ the _whip_--the _whip_ is _baby’s_,’ for ‘_It_ is _mine_.’

A man may be beholden to the speech in three ways:--

(1) He may be the speaker, called the First Person;

(2) He may be spoken to, the Second Person (the to-spoken thing);

(3) He may be spoken of, the Third Person (the of-spoken thing);

and some mark-words are for the marking of things without their names, both in tale and their sundry beholdenness to the speech:--

Single. Somely.
1st Person.
|
_I._ _We_.
2nd Person.
|
_Thou._ _Ye_, _you_.
3rd Person.
_He_, _she_, _it_.

Here the sex is marked.

_It_ is sometimes put for an unforeset thing-name of an unbodily cause or might, as ‘_it_ rains’; ‘_it_ freezes.’

For a child or an animal of unknown sex we may take the neuter (or sexless) mark-word _it_. ‘_It_ (the child) cries.’

SUCHNESS OR QUALITIES,

and mark-words or mark-wording of suchness, as _good_, _bad_, _long_, _heavy_.

Suchness may be marked by one word, as ‘a _white_ lily,’ or by a some or many of words, as ‘a _very white_ lily,’ or ‘a _most dazzlingly white_ lily,’ or ‘a lily as _white as snow_.’

Things are marked as having much of something, as _hilly_, _stony_, _watery_; or made of something, as _golden_, _wooden_, _woollen_; or having some things, as _two-legged_, _three-cornered_, _long-eared_, or _loved_ or _hated_; of the same set or likeness of something, as _lovely_, _quarrelsome_, _manly_, _childish_; wanting of something, as _beardless_, _friendless_.

Pitches of Suchness.

The Suchnesses of Things are of sundry pitches, which are marked by sundry shapes or endings or bye-words of the mark-words, as ‘My ash is _tall_, the elm is _taller_, and the Lombardy poplar is the _tallest_ of the three trees’; or ‘Snow is _whiter_ than chalk,’ or ‘Chalk is _less white_ than snow,’ or ‘John is the _tallest_ or _least tall_ of the three brothers.’

These Pitch-marks offmark sundry things by their sundry suchnesses, as ‘The _taller_ or _less tall_ man of the two is my friend,’ or ‘The _tallest_ man is _less tall_ than the tree,’ or ‘The _least tall_ man is _taller_ than the girl.’

The three Pitches may be called the _Common Pitch_, the _Higher Pitch_, and the _Highest Pitch_.

The Welsh has a fourth Pitch-word, called the _Even Pitch_, as _pell_, far; _pellach_, farther; _pellaf_, farthest; _pelled_, as far (as something else).

_Younger_ may mean _younger_ reckoned from young, or _younger_ reckoned from _old_; as ‘Alfred at 80 is younger than Edward at 85.’ In this case we may well say _less old_.

_Worse_ (wyrse) is shapen from _wo_, _wa_, _we_, a stub-root which means _wrong_, _atwist_, _bad_ in any way, and is our _woe_.

The _r_ in _weor_ is most likely of a forstrengthening and not a comparative meaning--_weor_, _wyr_, very bad; _weorer_, _wyrer_, still more strongly bad. But, not to double the _r_, men might have put a strengthening _s_, and so had _weors_.

TIME-TAKING.

You cannot behold a thing in your mind otherwise than in or under some doing or in some form of being.

Every case of being or doing is a taking of time, as ‘the lily _is_ white,’ ‘the man _strikes_,’ ‘the bird _flies_ or _was hit_.’ For though the _being_ white, or the _striking_ or _flying_ or _hitting_ was only for the twinkling of an eye, it took time; for the eyelid takes time, however short it may be, to flit down and up over the eyeball. Thence the word commonly called the _verb_ may be called the _Time-taking word_ or _Time-word_, as it is called by the Germans _Das Zeitwort_; or, as it is the main word of the thought and speech, it is the _Thought-word_ or _Speech-word_; or, as it is called in Latin and other tongues, the _Word_.

Welsh speech-lore has called the verb the _soul_[1] of the thought-wording.

[1] ‘Enaid yr ymadrod yw’r ferf.’

Among the thousands of sundriness of time-taking there are some wide differences which should be borne in mind.

Unoutreaching or Intransitive.

Time-takings, which must or may end with the time-taking thing, as

_To be._ John cannot _be_ another man.

_To sleep_; _to walk_. John cannot _sleep_ or _walk_ another man.

Outreaching (Transitive).

Time-takings that may begin with the time-taking thing, and reach out to another, as

_To strike_; _to see_. John may _strike_ or _see_ another man.

Time-giving.

If a man, A, takes time against another, B, as _to see_ B, we should more truly say of B that he _gives_, not _takes_, the time which A takes.

The time-words for unoutreaching time-takings may be called _Unoutreaching_; of the outreaching ones, _Outreaching_; of the time-givings, _Time-giving_.

In some cases there is between the time-taking thing and the time-giving thing a middle one--the thing, tool, or matter with which the time is taken, as ‘John hit William _with_ a stone’ or ‘a cane.’ But then, again, this wording is shortened by the putting of the name of the mid-thing as a time-word, as ‘John _stoned_ or _caned_ William.’ And this brings in a call for the marking of two sundry kinds of time-words--the strong or moulded, and weak or unmoulded time-words.

A time-word, when it tells a taking of time by one thing against another, is in the outreaching (active) _voice_--‘John strikes the iron.’ When it tells of the giving of time, it is in the time-giving (passive) _voice_. When it tells of an unoutreaching time-taking it is in the middle _voice_.

For the causing of another thing to take time some tongues have set shapes of the time-word, as, in Hindustani, _durna_, to run; _durāna_, to make another run.

We have hardly any of such words, though such are--

Lie, lay.
Sit, set.
Rise, raise.

Time-takings for becoming or making another thing become otherwise are marked by the ending _-en_ on the mark-word, as

To blacken.
To whiten.

_Misdoing_ by the fore-eking _mis-_:--

Mistake.
Misread.

_Longer-lasting time-takings_ marked by the ending _-er_, as

Chat, chatter (to chatter much or long).
Fret, fritter.
Sway, swagger.

_Short_ or _small time-takings_ by endings such as

_-ock_, _-ick_.
Whine, whinnock.
whinnick (to whine smally).

_-el_, _-l_.
Prate, prattle.
Jog, joggle.
Crack, crackle.

A time-taking, taken as a deed or being without any time-taking thing, is taken as a _thing_, and its name is a _Thing-name_, as _to write_.

As in Greek the Infinitive mood, _tò gráphein_, the ‘to write’; and in Italian, _il scrivere_, the ‘to write’ (the deed of writing or a writing), so the Infinitive mood-shape of the Saxon time-word was taken as a thing-name after the preposition _to_, to or for, as _to huntianne_ (to or for the deed to hunt or hunting), as ‘Why does Alfred keep those dogs?’ ‘To huntianne.’

Thence we have our wording--

‘Any chairs _to mend_?’ (any chairs to or for the deed mending),
‘A house _to let_,’
‘Letters _to write_,’
‘A tale _to tell_,’

which is all good English.

It is an evil to our speech that the thing-shape now ending in _-ing_ should be mistaken for the mark-word ending in _-ing_.

Unhappily two sundry endings of the old English have worn into one shape. They were _-ung_ or _-ing_ and _-end_.

_Singung_ is the deed of singing, a thing. _Singend_ is a mark-word, as in the wording ‘I have a _singing_ bird.’

_Sailing_ and _hunting_, in the foregiven thought-wordings, are thing-names, and not mark-words. _Sailing_ is _segling_, as ‘ne mid _seglinge_ ne mid rownesse’ (neither with sailing nor rowing).--Bede 5, 1.

‘_Wunigende_ ofer hyne’ (_woning_ [mark-word] over him).--Matt iii. 16.

‘Sy _wunung_ heora on west’ (be their _woning_ [thing-name] waste).--Ps. lxviii 30.

‘Ða genealaehton hym to Farisaer hyne _costigende_’ (then came near to him the Pharisees _tempting_ [mark-word] him).--Matt xix. 3.

‘Ne gelaede þu us on _costnunge_’ (lead us not into _tempting_ [thing-name]).--Lord’s Prayer.

So ‘haelende,’ Matt v. 23; ‘haeling’; ‘bodigende,’ Matt. x. 35; ‘bodung,’ Luke xi. 32.

‘Waere þu to-daeg, on huntunge?’ (not _huntende_) (wert thou to-day on or in hunting?)--Aelfric’s Dialogue.

‘Hwaet dest þu be þinre huntunge?’ (not _huntende_) (what dost thou by thy hunting?)--Aelfric.

‘_The_ CALLING _of_ assemblies I cannot away with.’--Isa. i. 13. Not ‘calling assemblies,’ which, if _calling_ were a mark-word, would mean assemblies that call.

The right speech-trimming with the thing-names in _-ing_ is to trim them in the old English way as thing-names in their cases; as,

‘We are the _offscouring_ of all things unto this day.’--1 Cor. iv. 13. Not ‘We are the offscouring all things.’

‘For that righteous man, IN _seeing_ and _hearing_, vexed his righteous soul.’

‘By _the_ WASHING _of_ regeneration and (_the_) RENEWING _of_ the Holy Ghost.’--Titus iii. 5. Not ‘He saved us by the washing regeneration and renewing the Holy Ghost.’

The ending _-er_ of the time-taker (_deeder_, name-word) is, not unclearly, the Celtic, Welsh _gwr_, or in word-welding _-wr_, the Latin _-or_; as,

Welsh, _barn_, doom; _barnwr_, a doom-man.
Latin, _canto_, to sing; _cantor_, a sing-man.

Thence _-er_ seems a far less fitting ending for a tool-name than the old Saxon _-el_; and a tool for the whetting of knives would be more fitly called a _whettel_ than a whetter. _Choppel_, chopper; _clippels_, clippers.

All new time-words now taken or shapen from other tongues must be unmoulded.

We say _shoot_, shot (not _shooted_); but _loot_, looted (not _lot_), _loot_ being the Hindustani _lootna_, to rob or plunder.

So time-words, which are known English words, of another kind, names or mark-words, are mostly unmoulded.

The shapening of the time-words hangs rather more on their endings than on their headings.

The oddest are those which end in the throat-pennings--=NG=, =NK=, =K=, =G=; and those ending in roof-pennings--=T=, =D=.

Because the _-d_ of the roof-penning _-ed_ is so unlike a throat-penning, which cannot easily stand with it: and because the =T= and =D= are like _d_ as roof-pennings, and (_see_ Table) they may run into them.

=-ING= ROOT-WORDS (strong).

The wording of a time-taking (predicate) with its speech-thing (subject) is a _Thought-wording_ (proposition).

_Strong_ or _moulded time-words_ are such as, for a time-taking of foretime, are moulded (without any out-eking) into another shape or sound, as

I sing, I sang.
It flies, it flew.

The _weak_ or _unmoulded time-words_ take on, unmoulded, an ending such as _-ed_, as

He stones, he _stoned_.
He canes, he _caned_.

All time-words that are known names of things are unmoulded, as

To Plaster, plastered.
Bud, budded.
Comb, combed.
Cap, capped.
Dust, dusted.
Fish, fished.
Gate, gated.
Water, watered.
Heap, heaped.
Mind, minded.
Name, named.
Pen, penned.
Stone, stoned.

Very many of our time-words are unmoulded from the same cause--that they are names of things; although such names of things, having become worn more or less out of shape, or having fallen out of use, may not show themselves to our minds what they are.

_To hunt_ makes _hunted_; why? From _hound_, to hunt, meaning at first to seek with a hound.

It may, however, be said, ‘Is to hunt from _hound_, or hound from _to hunt_?’

Such a point is, in very many cases, cleared out by the Anglo-Saxon, in which ‘to hunt’ is _hunt-i-an_, not _hunt-an_; and the _i_, a worn shape of _ig_, shows that _huntian_ is from _hund_, hound, and so hound is not from hunt.

The time-word from the thing _hunt-ig-an_, _hunt-i-an_, is to _houndy_, to take time with a hound.

We say

Cling, clung.
Fling, flung.
Sling, slung.

But we should say ‘he _ringed_ (not rung) his pig’; ‘he _stringed_ his harp’; _ring_ and _string_ being _things_.

The _strong_ or _moulded time-words_ are nearly or quite all words ending in one single breath-penning, and of a close sound (1, 2, 3, or 4 of the Table), as

=-ING=, Cling, clung.
=-INK=, Sink, sank.
=-K=, Speak, spoke.
=-L=, Steal, stole.
=-T=, Smite, smote.
=-R=, Tear, tore.
=-V=, Weave, wove.

Other time-words, name-words, or stem-words, and broad-sounded ones (5, 6, 7, 8 of the Table), are nearly all weak or unmoulded.

WEAK.

The ending =-NG= in broad-sounded words--

Clang, clanged.
Bung, bunged.
Long, longed.

=-NK,= BROAD.

Bank, banked.
Clank, clanked.
Flank, flanked.

And in

Blink, blinked.
Link, linked.
Clink, clinked.

=-K,= BROAD, LONG STEM-WORDS (weak).

Bake, baked.
Croak, croaked.
Hawk, hawked.
Rake, raked.

_Make_ was heretofore _maked_:

‘For aevric rice man his castles _makede_.’--Sax. Chron. MCXXXVI.

=K= wore out, whence

Maked, ma-ed, maed, made.

=-K,= SHORT.

Back, backed.
Clack, clacked.

=-G,= SHORT.

Beg, begged.
Clog, clogged.

All but _dig_, dug. What a pity to put it out of keeping with all of the others! It is _digged_ in the Bible.

=-T,= LONG STEM-WORDS.

Bait, baited.
Bate, bated.
Bleat, bleated.
Bloat, bloated.
Clout, clouted.
Float, floated.

=-T,= SHORT STEM-WORDS.

Bat, batted.
Bet, betted.
Clot, clotted.

=-TH.=

Breathe, breathed.

=-T=, SHORT (weak shortened).

Cut, cut.
Hit, hit.
Let, let.
Set, set.
&c.

The wear of these words was thislike:

Let-_ede_.
Let-_de_.

The mild penning, _d_, after a hard one, _t_, became hard, _t_. Whence _lette_, let, with the two _tt run into one_. A pity!

So were shapen _feed_, _fedde_, _fed_; _lead_, _ledde_, _led_; _read_, _redde_.

WEAK =-D= (long).

Crowd, crowded.
Fade, faded.

WEAK =-D= (short).

Bed, bedded.
Bud, budded.

=-L=, BROAD SOUND (long).

Brawl, brawled.
Call, called.

A few of them are shortened, as _feel_, _feeld_, _felt_.

=-N=, LONG.

Clean, cleaned.
Frown, frowned.

=-N=, SHORT STEM-WORDS.

Din, dinned.
Pin, pinned.
Sin, sinned.

=-R=, BROAD SOUNDS.

Blare, blared.
Care, cared.

_Dare_ now makes _durst_; but in Friesic it is unmoulded--‘and ne _thuradon_ nâ wither forskina’ (and _dared_ not to show themselves again).

=-R=, SHORT.

Bar, barred.
Purr, purred
Stir, stirred.

=-S= and =-Z=, LONG.

Pose, posed.
Praise, praised.
Blaze, blazed.
Close, closed.
Daze, dazed.
Raze, razed.

=-SS.=

Bless, blessed.
Guess, guessed.

=-SH.=

Blush, blushed.
Clash, clashed.

=-P=, LONG.

Heap, heaped.
Peep, peeped.
Reap, reaped.
Gape, gaped.
Cope, coped.
Hope, hoped.
Mope, moped.
Stoop, stooped.

Weak. Shortened.
Creep, crep’d.
Keep, kep’d.
Leap, lep’d.
Sleep, slep’d.
Weep, wep’d.
Sweep, swep’d.

=-P=, SHORT.

Cap, capped.
Hap, happed.
Hop, hopped.
Stop, stopped.

WEAK =-B= (short).

Blab, blabbed.

=-V=, LONG.

Crave, craved.
Grave, graved.
Rave, raved.

=-F=, SHORT.

Huff, huffed.
Cough, coughed.

=-M=, LONG.

Blame, blamed.
All but _come_, came.

Stub-roots.

Time-words ending in an open breathing. Most of them are weak:--

Bay, bayed.
Bow, bowed.
Brew, brewed.
Claw, clawed.
Say, said.
Stew, stewed.

A few of them are moulded:--

Blow, blew.
Crow, crew.
Grow, grew.
Slay, slew.

All those that end in two or three sundry breath-pennings are weak:--

=-NCH=, Pinch, pinched.
=-ND=, Land, landed.
=-NGE=, Lounge, lounged.
=-NT=, Grant, granted.
=-PL=, Cripple, crippled.
=-PT=, Intercept, intercepted.
=-RB=, Barb, barbed.
=-RC=, Cork, corked.
=-RD=, Hord, horded.
=-RG=, Charge, charged.
=-RL=, Hurl, hurled.
=-BL=, Bubble, bubbled.
=-CL=, Cackle, cackled.
=-DL=, Huddle, huddled.
=-FL=, Ruffle, ruffled.
=-FT=, Heft, hefted.
=-GL=, Naggle, naggled.
=-LP=, Gulp, gulped.
=-LK=, Chalk, chalked.
=-LD=, Mould, moulded.
=-LP=, Help, helped.
=-LV=, Calve, calved.
=-MB=, Climb, climbed.
=-MP=, Pump, pumped.
=-MT=, Tempt, tempted.
=-RM=, Harm, harmed.
=-RN=, Burn, burned.
=-RP=, Carp, carped.
=-RT=, Flirt, flirted.
=-RTH=, Earth, earthed.
=-SS=, Miss, missed.
=-SP=, Clasp, clasped.
=-ST=, Consist, consisted.
(All but _cast_, formerly _casted_.)
=-TCH=, Hatch, hatched.
=-TL=, Bottle, bottled.
=-RST=, Burst, bursted.

A few time-words ending with a throat-penning mark the heretofore time by some oddness of shape; as,

Bring, brought.
Think, thought.

They were opened in sound, and also took the ending _ode_, _od_ (our _ed_), and then came into our shapes by sundry wonted changes:--

_-ing_ (as of _bring_) became _-ong_.
_-ing-ed_ became (1) _-ong-ed_.
_-ong-ed_ „ (2) _-ong’d_.
_-ong’d_ „ (3) _-onk’d_.

Then the _d_, a mild penning after a hard penning (_k_), became hard, _t_:--

_-onk’d_ became (4) _-onk’t_.
_-onk’t_ „ (5) _-ok’t_.
_-ok’t_ „ (6) _-o’t_,

as _k_ and _t_ are harsh together. Whence--

Bring bro’t (brought).
Buy (_bycg_, A.S.) bo’t.
Seek (_sec_, A.S.) so’t.
Teach (_taec_, A.S.) to’t.

Our _gh_ as in _taught_ is the now unuttered (though still written) throat-penning.

Time-takings or time-givings may be taken as thing-marks, as ‘the _hunting_ dog’; ‘the _hunted_ hare.’

The sundry moods of time-takings are marked by sundry shapes of the time-word, or by bye-words or mark-words--_shall_, _will_, _can_, _may_, _must_.

The timings of time-takings are marked by sundry shapes of the time-word, and by bye-words or mark-words to it, as ‘the bird flies’ or does fly, or flew or did fly, or will fly.

Under-Sundrinesses of Time-takings.

Time-takings are of sundry kinds, under sundry names, as _to be_, _to walk_, _to strike_.

Under-time-markings may be by single words, as ‘to write _well_ or _ill_, _slowly_ or _quickly_’; or by two or three words, as ‘he runneth _very swiftly_’; or by clusters of words, as ‘he runs _with most amazing speed_’; or ‘he works _in a very skilful way_.’

Fitting of the Time-word to all the cases of Person, Time, and Mood.

In this fitting the time-word is helped by sundry bye-words or under-mark-words.

_Can_, from the Saxon _cun-n-an_, to ken, know, to know how. ‘I _can_ write,’ I know how to write.

The heretofore time-shape of _Ic can_ was _Ic cuðe_, for which we have now _I could_, with an _l_ which was never in the root of the word, and for which there is not any ground.

_May._--_Mag-an_, the stem of maht, _might_, means _to strongen_, to be or become strong (Lat. _valere_), as is shown by cases of its use in Saxon and other Teutonic tongues.

In an old Friesic good wish at the drinking to the health of a bride and bridegroom we find ‘Dat se lang lave en wel mage,’ that they long live and well _may_ (_strongen_, _bene valeant_); and in Saxon, ‘Hu maeg he?’ how mays he? (_strongens_ or _valet_).

_Shall._--_Sceal-an_, meant, as a stem, to offmark, distinguish, or to _skill_ in the meaning of 1 Kings v. 6--‘Ic sceal dón,’ I offmark or skill to do; as what I am bent to do.

‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.’ Thou markest or clearly seest to love the Lord thy God.

‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Thou markest this. Not to steal.

_Must._--_Mot-an_, _most-an_, is most likely a stem of the word _mag-an_, to strongen (_valere_).

The _-st_ would strengthen the meaning of _mag_ (may) as it does in _-est_ of _longest_. So ‘I must go’ (Ic moste gán) would mean ‘I am overmighted by another’s might to go.’

Time-words are fitted

To _Person_, as

I am. | Thou art. | He is.

To _Tale_, as

I am. | Thou art. | He is.
We are. | Ye are. | They are.

To _Time_, as

I am (now). | I was (heretofore).
I shall be (hereafter).

To _Mood_, as

I write, or shall write.
I may or can write, or might or could or should write.
If I write, or if I had written.

Things and Time-takings.

Timing of time-takings is the marking of their times, as _now_, _heretofore_, or _hereafter_.

TIME.

_Now_ or _hereat_.
I am, or I love, or am loved.

_Heretofore done._
I was, or I loved, or was loved.

_Heretofore ongoing._
I was, or I was a-loving or I did love.

_Now ended._
I have been, or I have loved, or have been loved.

_Heretofore ended._
I had been, or I had loved, or had been loved.

_Heretofore ongoing, ended._
I had been a-loving.

_Hereafter doing._
I shall be, or I shall love, or shall be loved.

_Hereafter ongoing._
I shall be a-loving.

_Hereafter ended._
I shall have been, or shall have loved, or shall have been loved.

_Hereafter ended, ongoing._
I shall have been a-loving.

Single and stringly time-takings of the same name, as ‘Mary _sold_ me some apples yesterday.’ There was a single selling; but under the wording ‘Mary formerly _sold_ apples in the market,’ it is clear that under the same word _sold_ is meant a string of sellings.

So under the wording ‘_Write_ your name’ is understood a single writing; but under the wording ‘If you would write readily, write every day,’ the same word _write_ implies a string of writings.

Some tongues (as the Greek and Russian) have two shapes of the time-words for these two cases of time-taking; as, Greek--

‘Take thy bill and write fifty’ (γράψον, _aorist_).--Luke xvi. 6.

‘Jesus, stooping down, wrote on the ground’ (ἔγραφεν, _imperfect_, ondoing shape, _wrote on_).

But Acts xxv. 26, ‘About whom I have nothing certain to write’ (γράψαι, _aorist_, to write off once for all).

See the Greek text of the 3rd Epistle of John v. 13--‘I had many (things or many times?) to _write_ (γράφειν, ondoing shape), but I will not with pen and ink _write_ (γράψαι) to thee’ (_aorist_, offdoing form).

An understanding of the difference between the _aorist_ and ondoing shapes is of weight in the reading of the Gospel. ‘To _make intercession_, to _intercede_ for them.’--Heb. vii. 25. To intercede once for all, at the doom-day? No. To intercede on always; for the word is not in the _aorist_ shape, but in the present ondoing form, _to be interceding_.

Historic Time-wording.

A time-shape of a time-word used in an unwonted way for the telling of a string of deeds, as, in English, the present time-shape is so used for deeds of foretime, as ‘He _opens_ the door, _walks_ in, coolly _takes_ a chair, _sits_ down, and _tells_ the maid he wishes to see me.’

So ‘Philip _findeth_ Nathanael, and _saith_ unto him,’ &c.--John i. 45.

The Moods of Time-takings.

MOOD.

The wording of the time-taking may be; as,

(1) Now or heretofore true, or hereafter sure, as ‘He _is_, or _was_, or _will be_’; ‘He _sings_, or _sang_, or _will sing_.’ _The Truth Mood._

(2) That it may or can, or could or might be so taken, as ‘He may or can go.’ _The Mayly Mood._

(3) Or that it is to be wished that it may or might be taken, as ‘I wish,’ or ‘Oh that I could go.’ _The Wish Mood._

Or that it is a hinge time-taking on which another hangs, as ‘If you ask (hinge), you will receive (on-hang).’

Or as bidden to be taken, as ‘Go thy way.’

Stead-marks and Way-marks of Time-takings.

CASE.

Things named in speech, so as to mark the stead of the beginning or end, or of the way of the time-taking at any point of its length or outreach in time or room, are Case-things.

There are, however, two cases which are speech-cases and not stead-marks or way-marks:--

(1) That of the of-spoken thing (nominative), the thing of which the speech speaks, as ‘The bird flies’; and

(2) The to-spoken thing (vocative), as ‘O sing, sweet bird.’

Cases are marked by shapes of thing-names or by case-words, or by the setting of the case-word either after or before the time-word, as ‘The dog drove out the cat,’ where the dog is the beginning of the time-taking; or ‘The cat drove out the dog,’ where the dog is the end of it, and is shown to be so by the setting of its name after the time-word.

_Source._

‘The bird flew from, or off, or out of the _tree_.’

‘He died of or from _intemperance_.’

The _tree_ and _intemperance_ are source-marks of _flew_ and _died_.

_End or Aim._

‘John loved _George_.’

‘He went to or towards _London_.’

‘Edwin worked for _wages_, or strolled along by the _stream_.’

_The Stead Case._

‘John was in the _field_ or at the _church_.’

_The Tool._

‘Alfred wrote with a _pen_.’

‘The bird flew before, behind, over, under, above, below, by, around, or through the _gate-turret_,’ which is the way-mark of _flew_.

There is a Source-mark which is a source of the time-taking, not as being only that thing, but as being a thing then in some shape or kind of time-taking.

‘(_a_) The wind being against us, (_b_) we made but little way.’ _a_ is the source of _b_, ‘we made but little way,’ not from the wind simply as wind, but as also being against us.

‘You being my leader, I shall overcome.’

This is commonly called the absolute case (allfree case); though the wind is not free of a time-taking (being against us). It may be called the ‘thing-so-being’ case.

Some tongues mark many of the cases by sundry endings of the thing-name, but we have in common names only one ending for case, the possessive, as ‘the horse’s mane,’ ‘John’s house.’

In name-tokens we have three case-forms, as _thou_, _thy_, _thee_--_thy_ for the possessive, and _thee_ for all the other cases.

‘The bird flew _from_ the apple-tree _in_ the corner _of_ the garden, _through_ the archway, and _under_ the elm _by_ the barn, _round_ the hayrick, and on _over_ the stream just _below_ the willow, and _above_ the bridge, and then _to_ the stall, and on _towards_ the wood, and _into_ an ivy-bush.’

Here the sundry named things are way-marks which mark the place of the _flying_ in its beginning and end, and at sundry points of its length.

Such stead-marks or way-marks may be taken as in either of one or two or three cases, as they may be either stead-marks or way-marks, and as their beholdingness to the time-taking may be reckoned to it or from it to themselves.

‘The bird flew _over_ or _under_ or _by_ the tree.’ The flying at first reached on nearer towards the tree, and then reached off again farther from it, so that the tree was at first in the case of a toness, and then in the case of a fromness, with the flying.

But under the wording ‘the roof is _over_ the floor,’ or ‘the floor is _under_ the roof,’ the time-taking _is_ is a staid and not an ongoing one, and either the roof or the floor may be in the fromness or toness case, as the height may be reckoned from it to the other, or to it from the other.

A housemother may say ‘We live near (_to_) Fairton’ (toness case); yet an hour afterwards she may say ‘We live too far _from_ Fairton (fromness case) to step in readily for errands.’

Her abode may be four miles from Fairton, so that the time-taking _live_ is as far from Fairton in one case as the other; and yet it puts it in two sundry cases.

‘If Alfred gave to Edred a field,’ the time-taking _gave_ ended in the mid-thing, the field (the endingness case), but it put the field to Edred, as his, in the toness case.

The place of a time-taking may be shown by one place-mark, or by two or three, of which a latter may mark the place of a former, as ‘The rooks build _in_ the elms, _above_ the house,’ where the elms mark the place of the _building_, and the house marks that of the place-mark (the _elms_).

But some case-words are made up of a smaller case-word and a thing-name, as ‘Alfred sat _beside_ the wall.’ _Beside_ being ‘by the _side_,’ and the side of the wall (whereof case).

The figure for _case-shifting_, or the changing of the case-tokens, is called in Gr. _enallage_ as

‘I have ten sovereigns _in my purse_’; ‘_My purse_ contains ten sovereigns.’

‘_The pump has_ a new handle’; ‘There is a new handle _to the pump_.’

‘The carpet _in_ the hall’; ‘The carpet _of_ the hall.’

‘The brother _of_ or _to_ that lady.’

‘John _likes_ cricket or is _fond of_ cricket.’

‘Greedy _of_ gain or _for_ gain.’

‘Think _of_ me or _on_ me.’

‘He was killed by a blow _of a club_ or _with a club_.’

‘He spoke _in_ the balcony or _from_ the balcony.’

THOUGHT-WORDING, SPEECH-WORDING,

is the setting of words or a bewording of thought or speech (syntax).

A thought-wording (proposition) is a bewording of the case of a thing with its time-taking. ‘The boy is good’ or ‘the boy plays.’

A thought-wording may have more thing-names and time-words, as ‘The boys and girls read and play.’

Thought-wordings (propositions) may be linked together in sundry ways, though mostly by Link-words (conjunctions). ‘Men walk _and_ birds fly’; ‘I sought him, _but_ I found him not’; ‘I waited at the door _while_ Alfred went into the house.’

Twin Time-takings.

The _Hinge_ Time-taking, on which the other hangs, and the _Hank_ Time-taking which hangs on the Hinge one, as ‘If ye ask (_hinge_), ye shall receive (_hank_).’

There are sundry kinds of hinge time-takings, as one or the other or both of the time-takings may or may not be trowed or true or sure.

(1) _Hinge_ and _hank_, trowed--‘As ye ask (as I trow you do), so ye receive (I trow).’

(2) _Hinge_, untrowed; _hank_, trowed--‘If ye ask (I trow not whether ye will or no), then ye will receive (I trow).’

The hinge-word put down as trowedly untrue, and the hank one trowed, as ‘If ye asked (as I trow you do not), ye would receive (I trow)’; or ‘If ye had asked (ye have not), ye would have received (I trow).’

The hinge time-taking trowed, and the other untrowed, as ‘Ye ask (I trow), that ye may receive (I trow not that ye will).’

Speech-trimming.

The putting of speech into trim; _trim_ being a truly good form or state. To _trim_ a shrub, a bonnet, or a boat, is to put it into trim.

1. The first care in speech-trimming is that we should use words which give most clearly the meanings and thoughts of our mind, though it is not likely that unclear thought will find a clear outwording; and either of the two, as clear or unclear, helps to clearen or bemuddle the other.

With most English minds, and with all who have not learned the building of Latin and Greek words, English ones may be used with fewer mistakes of meaning than would words from those tongues; though Englishmen should get a clearer insight into English word-building ere they could hope to keep English words to their true sundriness of meaning.

The so-seeming miswordings (solœcisms) of writers in the Latinised and Greekish speech-trimming are not uncommon or unmarkworthy.

One man writes of something which _necessitates_ another, though Latin itself has no _necessito_ to back ‘necessitate’; another gives _eliminate_ as meaning _elicit_, or outdraw; a third calls a _failure_ of a rule an _exception_ from it. There is no EXCEPTION to a rule but that which is _excepted_ from it at and in the downlaying of it. If a man gives a simple rule ‘that if it rains on St. Swithin’s day it rains forty days after it,’ and it did not so rain last year, the case is a _breach_ or _failure_ of the rule, and not an _exception_ to it. He gave no exception.

Some say ‘Mrs. A. has had _twins_’ or ‘Alfred was one of _twins_.’ A twin is a _twain_, a _two_, or a couple of things of the same name or kind; and twins of children must be at least four. I should say ‘Alfred was one of _a_ twin.’ In the latter case it would be correct to say ‘There IS _one_ or a _twain_ of fat men,’ &c., in which _is_ would match both.

One has written ‘ideas are _manufactured_.’ By whose hands? Another talks of ‘a _dilapidated_ dress’; and a third has ‘found the stomach of a big fish _dilapidated_.’ What are _lapides_? and what means _delapido_?

A man has written of an old Tartar that he was ‘a _tameless_ gorilla’--a gorilla without a _tame_! as if _tame_ were a thing-name.

Another says ‘It imposed _absolute limits_ upon the choice of positions.’ What are _absolute limits_ if absolute (from _absolvo_, to offloosen) means offloosened from all check and all limits?

A man writes of ‘a photograph reproduced by a new permanent process.’ Is it the process or the sunprint that is permanent?

_Preposterous_, foreaft, as when what should be _præ_, foremost, is put _post_ or behind; whereas a writer gives a structure as ‘preposterously overgrown,’ as if ‘preposterous’ meant only very much, vastly.

One takes _irretrievable_ as nohow amended. If ‘retrieve’ is the French _retrouver_ (to find again), ‘irretrievable’ would mean not to be found again; and ‘the irretrievable defeat of the whole nation’ would be one which they could not _find_ again, as most likely they would not wish to find it.

Twy-meanings.

From want of words in English, or of care, our wording may seem to bear two meanings, as ‘John played with Edwin, and broke his bat.’ The bat of which boy?

‘One Robert Bone of Antony shot at a little bird sitting upon his cow’s back, and killed it--the bird (I mean), not the cowe.’--_Carew._

Word-sameness (Synonyms).

Words of the same meaning are less often so than they are so called; and we sometimes give lists of synonyms showing the differences of their meanings.

A twin of words of one very same meaning is rather evil than good; and if they are not of one very same meaning they should not be given as such.