NOMINAL prepositions have been described by many grammarians as 44 words which signify the mutual rela tions of objects." But these relations are equally expres sed by every part of speech. Mr Ruddiman with greater propriety describes the preposition as An indeclinable part of speech signifying the relation of one substantive to another." We prefer saying that it signifies "a relation subsisting betwixt the idea expressed by one substantive noun and that expressed by another." It is to be observed that, with the exception of the preposition " of" in Eng lish, and some rare expressions already alluded to under the head of the genitive case, a verb, adjective, or parti ciple, is interposed between the first of the nouns and the preposition. The preposition " of" is as frequently em ployed immediately after a noun in English as the geni tive ease is in Latin ; but such phrases as " Newcastle-on Tyne," and " Ashton-under-line," are in very small num ber. The prepositions " on," " under," and all the others except " of," subjoin a noun to an adjective, a participle, or a verb ; as " fit for use," " good at singing," ,4 depend ing on bis fidelity," " connected with the government." " Ile has gone from home, along the road, to a distant place." Mr Tooke has shewn great learning and ingenuity in proving that the prepositions, both in ancient and modern languages, are derived from nouns or verbs. C'hez he derives from casa," a house." Avec from avez que," you. have that :" Sens in French, and sen:a in Italian, from assenza " absence :" The,Latin sine from sit ne, i. e. ne sit, " let it not be :" The Italian fuori, the Spanish off the French hors, (formerly fors,) from the Latin foris ; and this from the Greek word even, in the Doric dialect pea, a door or gate." " Through" is derived from a Teutonic word thuruh, signifying door or passage." Ad he de rives from the past participle of the verb agere, by these steps of transmutation, agitum, agtum, agd, ad. Ho con siders the English " to" as the same word with the verb cc do ;" and " till" as derived from " to while." " For" conies ft om a Gothic word signifying cc a cause ;" "of" from ofora, 64 progeny ;" " by" from be-on," to be ;" with" from withan, " to join ;" cc betwixt" from the imperative " be," and twos, the Gothic word for " two." " Before," "behind," " besides," are from the same imperative, con joined with nouns which are either still separately used, or have left familiar traces in different forms. cc Beneath" is from an old word neath, signifying 46 bottom ;" 64 under" from on and neder ; " beyond" from geund, which has the same meaning with "gone" or " past." The termination 66 ward," which is used both in forming adverbs and pre positions, is from the Saxon verb weardian, " to look at," which also gives origin to the word 66 regard." " Athwart" conies from thweorian, " to wrest or twist ;" cc among" is from gemengan, " to mix ;" " along" means cc on long," i. e." on length ;" " round" and " around" come from a word signifying cc a circle ;" 64 near" from neahg, ii neigh bouring ;" " instead" is " in station," or " in place ;" '' down" is from dufen," to dive or ;" upon," " over," " above," he derives from ufa, " high." The same sort of investigation has been with considerable suc cess applied to the Greek prepositions by Mr Bonar, in the 5th volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and by Professor Dunbar in a separate work on the subject.
The grammatical system founded on these etymologies is in a great measure the contrivance of Mr Tooke. Some of his etymologies have been called in question by Mr Bonar and others. The author of the article Grammar in Dr Rees's Cycloluedia attempts to controvert the greater part of them in support of a different system, in which he traces the modern languages of Europe to an Oriental origin. Some of Mr Tooke's etymologies however are unquestionable ; and it is of great importance to observe, that the author has shown that all prepositions are resolva ble, with regard to their meaning, into nouns or verbs. The same ideas may be expressed by all these parts of speech. This property is independent of any opinion that may be formed regarding their particular etymology. cc From," for example, may have its place supplied by the noun " be ginning." " The figs came from Turkey," means " The figs came beginning Turkey." cc The lamp fell from the ceiling," " The lamp fell beginning the ceiling. 6C The
lamp hangs from the ceiling," " The lamp hangs beginning the ceiling." Mr Tooke's opinion was, that prepositions represent objects in the saute manner as nouns. This is denied by other authors, who proceed on the presumption that nouns are the names of things, but prepositions the names of the relations of things. And some have derided the absurdity of pronouncing things and their relations to be the same. It might however be maintained that, as variety is essen tial to the existence of human knowledge, its objects wholly consist in relations. If there should be any diffi culty in conceding that point, it ought to be remembered, even in a grammatical view, that the relations of things may be expressed by nouns as well as by prepositions, and that therefore no distinction betwixt these two parts of speech can be founded on such data. Mr Tooke, how. ever, is not content with observing this coincidence be twixt nouns and prepositions. Ile considers prepositions as invariably derived from concrete nouns, or verbs con taining these, and insists that they are the names of sub stantial material objects. The preposition cc through," for example, being according to him derived from a word signifying "a door," carries along with it the full mean ing of that concrete noun. This statement has been sup posed to favour the system of materialism, and perhaps it was so intended ; but it is in itself too inaccurate, or at least imperfect, to lead to any general conclusion. If the whole meaning of the concrete noun is retained in the pre positions thus derived, it is only in the form of allusion. A language is not pure and perfect till the allusion itself disappears, and till the word is employed to express an appropriate and well-defined of generality, inde pendently of the concomitant ideas contained in the subject from the name of which it has been borrowed. cc Through" expresses only one property of a door, and a property in which it resembles many other objects which have dif ferent names. This preposition is indeed equivalent to a noun, but it is to a more general one than that which sug gested the term. The noun to which it is nearly equiva lent is " passage," or " medium." It is from its properties in syntax that the preposition must take its rank among the parts of speech. In this respect it deviates from the noun. When, instead of the preposition, we employ simply a substantive noun, as in the examples formerly mentioned, in which the noun " be ginning" was substituted for the preposition " from," the sentence labours under an awkward chasm. The mean ing may be fully understood, but it appears to be imper fectly expressed. There seems to be as great a deficiency as it in an affirmative sentence we should omit the copula, saying, like a lisping child, or an unpractised foreigner, " That man good," instead of " that man is good." In order to complete the syntax, we must either use an addi tional word along with the noun thus substituted, or sup ply its place by a different part of speech. The force of those Latin prepositions which govern the accusative is, on the whole more completely expressed by a word which has the regimen of an active verb. This character will apply to all the prepositions of the English language, as they all govern the noun in the same form. Those Latin prepositions which govern the ablative must be considered as less transitive in their regimen. (See our observations on the Ablative Case, at p. 23.) The part of speech to which the preposition is most nearly allied in the mode in which it is introduced, will differ according to the sort of words to which it is im mediately subjoined. When it is subjoined to a verb, the verb will govern it nearly in the same manner as it go verns the gerund of another verb in the ablative. Trans will be represented by transeundo ; per by /zerforando, or permeando. The English preposition "from" might be represented by the Latin gerund linquendo ; the Latin a, ab, or abs, by abeundo. The prepositions imply no such specification as is signified by any of the verbs with which, for the sake of pointing out the properties of their syntax, we have here combined them. It was necessary to make gerunds by combining them with verbs, and thus appear ing to add to the ideas which they express rather than to explain them, because we have no verb exactly corres ponding to the simple preposition. The preposition itself is the gerund, though indeclinable.