d. The ablative was used to limit the comparative of adjectives Se lichama was sponne lengra thære thryh. (The body was a span longer than the coffin.) It Many of these adverbial constructions are often explained by supplying prepositions to govern the objective case. should be remembered, however, that these prepositions have not dropped out of the construction, but have been stuck in. The syntactical function of the adverbial object was indicated, not by a preposition, but by inflexion. Questions. 1. What do you mean by a Direct Object ? 2. Give instances of the Cognate Object. 3. After what verbs does the Factitive Object occur? 4. Parse the objectives in the following passages— a. Give sorrow words.-Shakspere. b. I yielded and unlocked her all my heart.-Milton. c. I gat me to my Lord right humbly.-Bible. d. He lived a life of infamy, and died a death of shame. An hour they sat in council; e. At length the mayor broke silence : For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell; I wish I were a mile hence.-R. Browning. f. What were you looking at? g. Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes.—Bible. h. But no more like my father than I to Hercules.-Shakspere. Earthly power doth then show likest God's i. When mercy seasons justice.-Id. k. I thought him a gentleman. 1. I was asked a question, and was found fault with because I could not answer it. m. He wrote two hours a day. n. 0. Soprano, basso, even the contra-alto, Wished him five fathoms under the Rialto.-Byron. The battle and the breeze.-Campbell. p. He was a head and shoulders taller than his countrymen. She shuddered and paused like a frighted steed, Then leaped her cable's length.-Longfellow. 7. Renowned Spenser lie a thought more nigh To learned Chaucer.-Basse. s. And if his name be George I'll call him Peter.-Shakspere. t. But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, u. Let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come.-Id. r. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass.-Bible. w. He was nothing the better for his voyage. x. The salmon measured twenty inches round, and weighed forty pounds. y. Whip me such honest knaves.—Shakspere. 2. Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk.-Id. 5. What do you mean by the Adverbial Object? Give instances of your own of its various uses. 6. Explain the following constructions- a. I wish you all sorts of prosperity with a little more taste. Gil Blas. b. For evil news rides post, while good news baits.-Milton. c. It may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.-Brewster. d. My Lord St. Alban said that Nature did never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high.-Bacon. e. O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.-Shakspere. h. For riches certainly make themselves wings.-Bible. i. He will laugh thee to scorn.—Id. k. The hope of truth grows stronger day by day.—Lowell. m. n. His locked, lettered, braw brass collar Showed him the gentleman and scholar.-Burns. ADJECTIVES. 161. It is sometimes said that English adjectives have the same gender, number, and case as the nouns they qualify, but this is no longer true; they have wholly lost their inflexions for gender and case, and it is only 'this' and 'that,' with their plurals 'these' and 'those,' that agree in number with their nouns This is the boy. These are the boys. Shakspere sometimes uses the plural demonstrative with collective nouns, but the example is not to be followed These kind of knaves I know.—Lear, ii. 2. Adjectives used as nouns sometimes take a plural form, e.g. 'edibles,' ' opposites,' 'goods,' 'equals,' 'coevals,' 'contemporaries,' annuals,' weeklies,' &c. In the Athanasian Creed we find incomprehensibles' and 'eternals.' 6 162. Adjectives are used to qualify or limit nouns or their equivalents. The qualification may be attributive, predicative, or factitive. When the adjective forms part, as it were, of a compound noun, it is said to qualify it or limit it attributively, e.g.The little girl has the blue dress. The seven children were there. Occasionally we find the adjective used to qualify pronouns attributively, e.g. 'Poor me!' When the adjective follows a copulative verb, it qualifies or limits the subject predicatively— That he holds these views is notorious. Verbs relating to the senses are often similarly followed by adjectives that qualify their noun or pronoun predicatively He looked angry. It felt cold. It tasted hot. When the adjective follows verbs of making, thinking, considering, &c., it is said to qualify its noun or pronoun factitively We made him happy. We thought him strange. He was considered clever. 163. Adjectives are often used both as abstract and as concrete nouns, and when so used should be parsed accordingly. Abstract Nouns. The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.-Paine. Concrete Nouns : Formed by thy converse happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe.-Pope. Then happy low, lie down.-Shakspere. 161. The adjective form is often used adverbiallySlow rises worth by poverty depressed.-Dr. Johnson. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.-Pope. In adverbial phrases the word qualified by the adjective is often not expressed; as, at large,' 'from the least to the greatest,' 'in short,' 'in general,' 'in particular.' 165. When the participle of a transitive verb is used adjectively, it loses its power of governing a noun : He was very sparing of his speech. 166. Position of Adjectives.-The adjective may be used before or after its noun He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. Byron. Occasionally in archaic English we find one adjective precede, and another follow, the same noun— And he was a good man and a just.—Luke xxiii. 50. A great door and effectual is opened unto me.-1 Cor. xvi. 9. The question is sometimes raised whether we should say 'the two first' or 'the first two.' Both expressions are correct if used in their proper places. 'The two first' compares the two at the head of a series with all the rest; 'the first two,' with other twos. 167. Certain adjectives can be used only predicatively, e.g., ware, aware, afraid, &c. Ware (O.E. wær) was formerly used attributively as well as predicatively. Now we use wary instead of ware in attributive constructionsThey were ware of it.-Acts xiv. 6. Of whom be thou ware.-2 Tim. iv. 15. Abroad, asleep, awake, and many other similarly formed words, are not adjectives but adverbs. The a has the force of on An ambassador lies abroad for the good of his country. Adjectives that have words dependent on them are never used attributively, and may precede or follow their nouns Reckless of criticism, the premier followed the dictates of conscience. He was a man full of learning. 168. Comparison of Adjectives.-The comparative form should never be used when more than two objects or classes of objects are compared, nor the superlative when only two are compared. In archaic English double comparatives and double superlatives are sometimes employed for emphasis He shall find Th' unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. This was the most unkindest cut of all.-Id. Shakspere The superlative form is sometimes used to indicate that the quality denoted by the adjective is possessed in a preeminent degree. In such constructions it is called the Superlative of Pre-eminence, e.g. 'He was the truest of friends, and the kindest of parents.' 'Ben Jonson says: 'This is a certain kind of English Atticism, or eloquent phrase of speech, imitating the manner of the most ancientest and finest Grecians, who, for more emphasis and vehe. mencies' sake, used so to speak.' N |