53. When a common noun denotes an object in the sense of a proper noun, it becomes a proper noun.

Ex.-The Park; the Commons; the Blue Ridge; Niagara Falls; Mammoth Cave. "And Hope enchanting smiled." These words are viewed as merely denoting particular objects rather than as characterizing them by the ordinary meanings of the words.

54. A common noun is a generic name.

Ex.-Man, boy, engineer, hunter, woman, horse, foxes, hill, oak, white-oak, apple, steamboat, anger, happiness, reason, sun, moon, earth, winter.

Common nouns have meaning, and admit of definition. They distinguish different kinds or sorts from one another, by reference to their nature. A common noun is applied to more objects than one on account of something in which they resemble, and from which the same name is given to them all. Those nouns in a dictionary which are defined, are common nouns. Of these, our language is said to have about 30,000.

55. When a proper noun assumes a meaning, or implies other objects having the same name, rather than similar objects having different names, it becomes a common noun.

66

Ex.-"He is neither a Solomon nor a Samson." "Bolivar was the Washington of South America." "No Alexander or Cesar ever did so." "Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest." Alps on Alps [great difficulties] arise." Massachusetts has produced her Demosthenes." "I saw the Russians, and also a Turk and several Persians, at the Astor House."

It is sometimes very difficult to determine whether a given noun is proper or The same word is sometimes a proper, and sometimes a common,

common. noun.

Ex.-Proper: 66

noun."

Sunday precedes Monday." "B follows A." "I is a pro"The planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth," &c. Common: "We have

preaching on every Sunday." "The b is followed by an a." "An I or a you."

The sun shines upon the earth." When a word is used to name itself, universally considered, Mr. Goold Brown calls it a common noun, similar to such words as water and virtue denoting the objects universally; but when a letter is used to name itself, he calls it a proper noun. The distinction is very nice,-perhaps too much so.

A proper noun can not, as such, be extended in its application to any other similar objects: it is designative and exclusive. But a common noun is descriptive and inclusive; that is, when we have once named an object by it, we are ready to give the same name to any other similar object as soon as it appears to us; as, Jupiter has four moons. "According to Mr. Mills, the former denotes; the latter, "connotes." The ordinary household names that denote the objects which permanently and necessarily make the world, are considered common nouns, even when the word can denote but one object, or the thing universally; as, Thé sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the angels; time, space, spring, winter, grass, virtue, beauty, man. Such plurals as Alps, Alleghanies, Andes, Orkneys, denoting contiguous parts rather than similar individuals, are undoubtedly proper nouns, analogous to the common nouns ashes, scissors, assets, minutia. Such terms as "the Comanches, the Mohawks, the Gauls, the Belgians, the Spaniards, the Mexi cans, the Jews, the Israelites, the Junizaries, the Mamelukes, the two Adamses, the Marshalls of Virginia, the Muses, the Sirens, the Sibyls, the Graces, the Naiads, are considered proper nouns by some grammarians; and common nouns by others, who argue that whenever a proper noun is so used as to imply more objects than one having the same name, it becomes common.

56. A collective noun is a noun denoting, in the singular form, more than one object of the same kind.

Ex-Assembly, swarm, flock, crowd, pair, family; "a hundred head."

57. But a noun in the singular number, that denotes a collection of things resembling in their general character, but differing in their particu lar character, is not a collective noun.

Ex.-Furniture, jewelry, machinery, finery, baggage, clothing.

An abstract noun denotes a quality, an action, or a mode of being.

Abstract signifies drawn from, and these nouns are so termed because they are not the names of certain substantive objects or things in the world, but the names of certain notions which the mind has drawn from them, or conceived concerning them. Thus, as we advance from childhood, in our acquaintance with the world, we form some idea of what is meant by time, space, life, death, hope, virtue, wisdom, magnitude, disease, war, peace, government, goodness, youth, happiness, beauty, sorrow, murder, revenge, cold, heat, whiteness, softness, hardness, brightness, darkness, motion, rest, flight, silence, existence, height, depth, growth, custom, fashion, strife, honor, glory, in lustry, economy, indolence, grandeur, religion, knowledge, honesty, deception, drunkenness, poverty, destiny, ambition, power. These and such nouns are abstract.

58. Most abstract nouns readily pass into concrete nouns. Ex.-"The sisters were famous beauties." "Pride, Poverty, and Fashion, once undertook to keep house together." Concrete, including the substance with its qualities.

59. A material noun denotes some kind of matter or substance.

Ex.-Bread, meat, water, wood, stone, wheat, flour, metal, gold, cabbage.

Abstract nouns and material nouns have a universal, indivisible application, and generally also special applications. Some writers consider them abstract or material, only when used in the former sense. .

Ex.-1. "Beauty is attractive;" "Rain moistens the ground;" "Vice, fire, whiteness." 2. "The beauty of the rose;" "The whiteness of snow;" "The rain that fell last night;" "A vice, a fire, vices, fires."

60. To the classes of nouns already given, some grammarians add verbal nouns,-participles and infinitives used in the sense of nouns, the former of which are sometimes called gerundives,or participial nouns; correlative nouns, such as father and son, husband and wife, master and servant, and diminutive nouns,―—or such as gosling from goose, hillock from hill, lambkin from lamb, floweret from flower.

The foregoing classification is in accordance with the teachings of grammarians generally. The two following classifications are perhaps more philosophical.

1. Nouns are either concrete or abstract.

Concrete nouns denote self-existent objects, or objects having attributes; as, God, earth, rose.

Abstract nouns denote attributes; as, Goodness, power, wisdom, color, fragrance, motion, existence.

2. Nouns may be divided into the following classes: proper, abstract, material, verbal, all of which imply unity or oneness, and common including collective, both of which imply plurality.

A proper noun is such a name of an object or a group, as is not applicable to every other similar object or group.

An abstract noun denotes an attribute universally considered as, Truth, duration.

A material noun denotes a kind of substance universally considered as, Water, corn.

A verbal noun is a participle or an infinitive used as a noun. The abstract nouns include the verbal nouns.

A common noun is such a name given to one or more objects, as is applicable to any others like them.

Collective nouns denote groups of similar objects, as other nouns denote single objects. The common nouns include the collective nouns.

The common nouns come near to the other classes in such expressions as, "The lion is courageous;" "The oak is an emblem of strength."

Abstract or material nouns denoting objects personified, and common nouns deprived of "connotation," generally become proper.

Proper, abstract, material, or verbal nouns, when modified, become common. The modification at once suggests plurality of objects. The modification may be effected by pluralizing the noun, or by using an article, adjective, adverb, adjunct, or other modifying expression.

Ex.-"There were Macphersons and Macdonalds." "The hauling of the stones and other materials, was a heavy expense,' "The honors of the society." 66 To think always correctly, is a great accomplishment." "The Hudson, the Pyrenees," &c. The river Hudson, or the Hudson river, &c.; or they may be deemed exceptions.

Pronouns.

61. A pronoun is a word that supplies the place of a noun. Ex." The father and his son cultivated the farm which they had purchased.". There are three great classes of names in all; pronouns, common nouns, and proper nouns. The pronouns are the fewest in number, only about sixty-six, and the most comprehensive in application; the common nouns are the next greater in number and less comprehensive in application; and the proper nouns are the most numerous and least comprehensive. It seems not improbable that pronouns were the first names, being the simplest words for denoting, under all circumstances, whatever was about the persons conversing; and that they were afterwards adopted almost wholly as substitutes for nouns. Their nature and very irregular declension indicate great antiquity, and sometimes pronouns-especially the personal pronouns of the first and second persons, the neuter pronoun it, and the relative pronoun what-are even yet so used as to refer, not so much to the names of objects, as to the objects themselves.

To avoid tiresome and disagreeable repetition of nouns, pronouns are used to represent persons or things already mentioned, inquired after, or easily recognized by them.

Ex.-Alexander told Elizabeth that Elizabeth might write Elizabeth's name in Elizabeth's book with Alexander's pen-" Alexander told Elizabeth that she might write her name in her book with his pen." "Who was it?" "He is a fine

scholar."

62. The antecedent of a pronoun is the substantive in reference to which the pronoun is used. It usually precedes the pronoun, but sometimes follows it.

Ex.-"John obeys his instructor." Here John is the antecedent of his. "Can storied urn or animated bust

Back to ITs mansion call the fleeting breath?"—Gray.

63. The antecedent may be a different pronoun, a phrase, or a clause, as well as a noun.

Ex.-" He WHO is well, undervalues health." "Who THAT is strictly honest, would flatter?" "I wished to return, but IT was impossible." "It is the novelty and delicacy of the design, THAT makes the picture so beautiful." "IT is dangerous to wake a sleeping lion." "He sold his farm, and now he regrets IT."

It is worthy of notice, that when a pronoun has a modified antecedent, it represents it with all its modifications.

Ex.-"The largest tree of the grove spread its shade over us." Here its represents not tree merely, but The largest tree of the grove.

When a pronoun is used, we may nearly always put some noun in its place. It is not, however, customary to regard this word as its antecedent, but the corresponding word elsewhere used, which it represents. To a pronoun having an antecedent, Rule 9th, of page 46th, should be applied in parsing. When a pronoun is applied directly to the object itself; when the speaker can not be thought to have the supposed antecedent in his mind; and when the supposed antecedent does not first present, in the order of the sense, the object meant,— I doubt the necessity or even the propriety of applying Rule 9th. Hence the Rule may generally be dispensed with, in parsing interrogatives, pronominals, responsives, and frequently, personal proncuns and relative pronouns. Even in such sentences as, "Who knows himself a braggart, let him fear this ;" "Whomsoever you can not manage, him you need not send ;' "Whatever you do, do it well,"-him and it are probably not antecedents: the relatives do not refer to them; but more directly, or as directly as they, to the objects themselves.

Classes.

Pronouns are divided into three chief classes; personal, relative, and interrogative.

64. The personal pronouns are those whose chief use is, to distinguish the different grammatical persons.

65. They are I, thou or you, he, she, and it, with their declined forms, and their compounds. See p. 8.

66. You, your, yours, yourself, are now preferred, in familiar or popular discourse, to the other forms.

67. Thou, thy, thine, thee, thyself, and ye, may rather be regarded as antiquated forms. They generally have an antique, scriptural, or poctic air. They are much used in the Bible, and frequently in other sacred writings and in poetry. They are also habitually used by the Friends, or Quakers. They seem, too, at one time, to have occasionally carried with them something of a blunt or insulting air; of which use, traces are still visible in our literature.

Ex.-" Ye are the salt of the earth."-Bible. "Thou Almighty Ruler, hallowed be thy name."-Book of Prayers. "Thy words had such a melting flow." "Ye winds, ye waves, ye elements !"-Byron. "All that Lord Cobham did, was at thy instigation, thou viper! for I thou thee, thou traitor !"-Lord Coke: Trial of Essex.

"I have no words, my voice is in my sword;

Thou bloodier villain than terms can give thee out!"-Shakespeare.

"She who

68. He, she, and they, sometimes refer to persons indefinitely. Ex.-" He who trifles away his life, will never be rich in honors." knows merely how to dress, dance, and flirt, will never make a good wife." "They who deserve most blame, are apt to blame first."

69. The pronoun it is sometimes used to denote what the speaker can not well designate in any other way, or what he deems sufficiently obvious when thus mentioned; and often to introduce at once what is nore definitely denoted by some following word or words.

Ex.-"It rains." "It thunders." "It was moonlight on the Persian sea." "Who is it?" "Who is it that calls the dead ?" "It ran into a hollow tree, bat

I do not know what it was."
"How goes it with you?"
as you go." "It is he."
ness that leads to vice."

"Lo! there it comes !"-Shakespeare's Hamlet "It is not well with me to-day." "Come and trip it "It is I." "It was you." "It was they." "It is idle"It is now well known that the earth is round." "It is mean to take advantage of another's distress." The following remark tells the truth in many instances: "It denotes the state or condition of things."

70. The compound personal pronouns are used to denote persons or things as emphatically distinguished from others.

Ex. "I will go myself; you may stay." "I spoke with the man himself." "I once felt a little inclined to marry her myself."

"Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not,

Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow ?"—Campbell. 71. These pronouns are further used, when that which is denoted by the subject of the verb, is also that on which the act or state terminates. Ex. "They drew themselves up by ropes." "She saw herself in the glass." "He killed himself." "Said I to myself, I am myse'ƒ again.'

72. A relative pronoun makes its clause dependent on another clause or word.

Ex. "There is the man whom you saw." "Nobody knows who invented the letters." "I have what you need." "I can not tell what ails him." "Spirit that breathest through my lattice, thou," &c.-Bryant. Here, "whom you saw,' for instance, can not stand by itself, and make sense.

73. The relative pronoun stands at or near the head of its clause, and the clause itself generally performs the office of an adjective or of a substantive.

Ex.-" "The boy who studies, will learn"-The studious boy will learn. "I know who he is." (Know what?) "I will do what I promised to do"-I will do the thing which I promised to do.

The relative pronouns are who, which, what, that, and as, with their declined forms and their compounds.

See p. 9.

74. Who is applied to persons, and to other objects when regarded as persons.

Ex.-"The MAN who feels truly noble, will become so." "And AVARICE, who sold himself to hell."-Spenser. "Now a faint tick was heard below, from th PENDULUM, who thus spoke."-Jane Taylor.

"Dear Madam, I pray,' quoth a Magpie one day,

To a MONKEY, who happened to come in her way."—Sargent's Speaker. 75. Which is applied to things, or to what we regard so, to rute ani mals, to groups of persons denoted by collective nouns when all the individuals of the collection are viewed together as one thing; and frequently to children.

Ex.-"The ROSE which," "The BIRD which" "The ELEPHANT which," "The WORLD which," "The ARMY which." "He was the soul which animated the party." "The NATIONS which encompass the Mediterranean." "CONGRESS, which is a body of wise men.' "" "The CHILD which we met."

76. Which is used in connection with some word denoting the object referred to, or when the object is present, or has been already mentioned or brought to mind.

Ex.-"The MISFORTUNES which crushed him." "I can not tell which is which." "I do not know which you mean."