LECTURE IX.

STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE.-ENGLISH TONGUE.

Of the whole class of words that are called attributive, indeed of all the parts of speech, the most complex, by far, is the verb. It is chiefly in this part of speech that the subtile and profound metaphysic of language appears; and, therefore, in examining the nature and different variations of the verb, there might be room for ample discussion. But as I am sensible that such grammatical discussions, when they are pursued far, become intricate and obscure, I shall avoid dwelling any longer on this subject than seems absolutely necessary.

The verb is so far of the same nature with the adjective, that it expresses, like it, an attribute, or property, of some person or thing. But it does more than this. For, in all verbs, in every language, there are no less than three things implied at once; the attribute of some substantive-an affirmation concerning that attribute-and time.

Thus, when I say, "the sun shineth;" shining is the attribute ascribed to the sun; the present time is marked; and an affirmation is included, that this property of shining belongs, at that time, to the sun. The participle shining," is merely

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an adjective, which denotes an attribute, or property, and also expresses time; but carries no affirmation. The infinitive mood, "to shine," may be called the name of the verb; it carries neither time nor affirmation, but simply expresses that attribute, action, or state of things, which is to be the subject of the other moods and tenses. Hence the infinitive often carries the resemblance of a substantive noun; and both in English and Latin, is sometimes constructed as such. As, "scire tuum nihil est." "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." And, in English, in the same "To write well is difficult; to speak But as,

manner:

eloquently is still more difficult."

through all the other tenses and moods, the affirmation runs, and is essential, to them; "the sun "shineth, was shining, shone, will shine, would "have shone," &c. the affirmation seems to be that which chiefly distinguishes the verb from the other parts of speech, and gives it its most conspicuous power. Hence there can be no sentence, or complete proposition, without a verb either expressed or implied. For, whenever we speak, we always mean to assert, that something is, or is not; and the word which carries this assertion, or affirmation, is a verb. From this

sort of eminence belonging to it, this part of speech hath received its name, verb, from the Latin verbum, or the word, by way of distinction.

Verbs, therefore, from their importance and necessity in speech, must have been coeval with men's first attempts towards the formation of language: Though, indeed, it must have been the work of long time, to rear them up to that accurate and complex structure which they now possess. It seems very probable, as Dr Smith has suggested, that the radical verb, or the first form of it, in most languages, would be what we now call the impersonal verb. "It rains; it thunders; "it is light; it is agreeable;" and the like; as this is the very simplest form of the verb, and merely affirms the existence of an event, or of a state of things. By degrees, after pronouns were invented, such verbs became personal, and were branched out into all the variety of tenses and moods.

The tenses of the verb are contrived to imply the several distinctions of time. Of these I must take some notice, in order to shew the admirable accuracy with which language is constructed. We think commonly of no more than the three great divisions of time, into the past, the present, and the future; and we might imagine, that if verbs had been so contrived as simply to express these, no more was needful. But language proceeds with much greater subtilty. It splits time

into its several moments. It considers time as never standing still, but always flowing; things past, as more or less perfectly completed; and things future, as more or less remote, by different gradations. Hence the great variety of tenses in most tongues.

This

The present may, indeed, be always considered as one indivisible point, susceptible of no variety. "I write, or I am writing; scribo." But it is not so with the past. There is no language so poor, but it hath two or three tenses to express the varieties of it. Ours hath no fewer than four. 1. A past action may be considered as left unfinished; which makes the imperfect tense, "I was writing; "scribebam." 2. As just now finished. makes the proper perfect tense, which, in English, is always expressed by the help of the auxiliary verb, "I have written." 3. It may be considered as finished some time ago; the particular time left indefinite. "I wrote; scripsi ;" which may either signify, "I wrote yesterday, or I wrote a twelvemonth ago." This is what grammarians call an aorist, or indefinite past. 4. It may be considered as finished before something else, which is also past. This is the plusquam-perfect. "I had written, scripseram. I had written before I received his letter."

Here we observe, with some pleasure, that we have an advantage over the Latins, who have only

three varieties upon the past time. They have no proper perfect tense, or one which distinguishes an action just now finished, from an action that was finished some time ago. In both these cases they must say, " scripsi." Though there be a manifest difference in the tenses, which our language expresses by this variation, "I have written,” meaning, I have just now finished writing; and, "I wrote," meaning at some former time, since which other things have intervened. This difference the Romans have no tense to express; and therefore can only do it by a circumlocution.

The chief varieties in the future time are two: a simple or indefinite future; "I shall write; "scribam ;" and a future, relating to something else, which is also future. "I shall have written ; "scripsero." I shall have written before he arrives.*

Besides tenses, or the power of expressing time, verbs admit the distinction of voices, as they are called, the active and the passive; according as the affirmation respects something that is done, or something that is suffered; "I love, or I am "loved." They admit also the distinction of

* On the tenses of verbs, Mr Harris's Hermes may be consulted by such as desire to see them scrutinized with metaphysical accuracy; and also, the Treatise on the Origin and Progress of Language, vol. ii. p. 125.