It is in line to be observed, that the special sentential preposition and the sentence subjoined by it taken as a i whole, occupy the place of an adverb, or of a noun in the ablative case. In some instances we find single words in this form equivalent to such sentences. Cita is equivalent to priusquam multum temporis preterierit. In the following sentence, " He was appointed to the office till the propriety of the continuance of that measure should be ascertained ;" the whole subjoined ideas marked in italics may be fully expressed by the single adverb " provisionally." When ita is used without any subjoined regimen, ;t is an adverb implying a reference to some assertion previously made, or some connection of ideas exhibited at the instant of speak ing: When it is employed as the antecedent to ut, with a subjoined sentence, the whole sentence along with the ita and ut occupy the place of an adverb, or the ablative of a Mtn).
The following is Mr Tooke's account of the etymology of some English words belonging to this part of speech. " If" is from Gif, the imperative of G flan " to give." The old synonyme " an," front Anan " to grant." " Unless," from Onlesan " to dismiss." " Though," from Thafigan or thafian, to " Without," from lryrthanutan, to " be out." " Lest," from Lesan, " to dismiss." " Since," from the participle of Seon, " to see." " As" is es, a Ger man word for " it," " that," or " which." Some words are used as sentential prepositions which still retain the form of gerunds or participles ; as " sup posing," " provided," " providing that," " granting that." " Seeing," was formerly used in the same manner.
Of Conjunctions and Miscellaneous Particles.
Conjunctions connect words or sentences on equal terms, without regimen or subjunction. They continue the syntax of the introducing word to that which they in troduce. General words of this description are not nume rous, and the purposes to which they are applied do not admit of great variety. One kind of them may be termed Conjunctions of union, as they unite the meanings of the words which they connect. Such are the English word " and," and the Latin et, ac, atque. Another kind may be termed Conjunctions of alternation, as ant and vel in Latin, and " or" in English. The negative " nor" is a conjunc tion combined with a negation. It might appear in its ety mology the reverse of "or," but in meaning it is the reverse of a and." It is equivalent to " and not." In Latin this is also its etymology. It is not non vel or ne vel, but nee from ne ac, and neque from ne and que.
Sometimes the first of the nouns or verbs connected by conjunctions is preceded by a peculiar word. " Both" is used to precede words connected by " and ;" " either" those connected by "or ;" and " neither" those connected by " nor." It is natural to ask to what head " both," " either," and " neither" are to be referred. In the English lan guage, their etymology might strongly lead a grammarian to refer them to the class of adjectives when they precede nouns, and thus make them equivalent to anibo, ?der, and neuter. When they precede verbs, they might be rec koned adverbs, and in English would be equivalent to ad verbs formed by adding the termination " ly" to the adjec tive, as if we said " bodily," eitherly," neitherly." They perform the office of an adverb referring to concomitance. In Latin the same word is used both as the preceding and the conjoining word. ET We et alter ; ET venit et vidit. It will be found, on the whole, that conjunctions at•e near akin to adjectives and adverbs. They arc necessarily fre quent in the use of language, and therefore have received an abbreviated form.
Some miscellaneous particles may be called special con junctions, as including a more particular character of mu tual relation betwixt the ideas contained in the words or sentences which they connect. Such are the words " al so," " farther," " moreover," "but," " likewise," " yet," " notwithstanding," however." Of Interjections.
TrIE term interjection is applied to those words which express by short exclamation certain overpowering emo tions of mind. Such as 'Ai Ur.' Heu 1 Atat Proh 1 " Alt!" " Oh !" " Alas !" This part of speech is treated by Mr Tooke with great contempt, as a brutish inarticulate sound which has as lit tle to do with speech as the neighing of a horse, the bark ing of a dog, coughing, groaning, shrieking, or any other involuntary convulsion with oral sound. These words, however, though at first involuntary, are afterwards utter ed from design. A man desirous of impressing another with a particular passion, first contrives to excite it in his own mind, and then utters the sound by which it is ex pressed. Hence corresponding syllables are -committed to writing in works which depict human passions and man ners. They belong to language, as language must in clude every sound addressed by one man to another, from the highest to the lowest state of mental cultivation. In terjections may be considered as a mixture of involuntary expression with social discourse. In the use of this part of speech, man is seen to rise from the character of an ani mal impelled by passion to that of a reflecting being, who displays intelligence and address in influencing his fellow creatures.
Sometimes words belonging to other parts of speech, and expressing definite ideas, are introduced abruptly to express emotion, and numbered among interjections ; as " Amazing!" " Wonderful !" "Prodigious !"" Shocking!" " Horrible !" " Mercy !" " Pitiful !" " Woe's me !" Whe ther we call such exclamations as these interjections, or abbreviations by ellipsis, is of little importance. Their meaning is never ambiguous.
In the introductory part of this article we described lan guage as essentially imperative ; and the slightest reflec tion will chew, that interjections, in so far as they partake of the nature of social discourse, possess an imperative cha racter.
Books of merit on universal grammar are but few. But numerous observations on the subject are to be found in all good and complete grammars of particular languages, and in the larger Dictionaries. Some parts of it are also occasionally discussed in books of metaphysics. The prin cipal English and French works on this subject are the fol lowing : Monboddo's Treatise on the Origin and Progress of Language ; Harris's Hermes ; Beauzee's Grammaire Generale ; Grammaire Generale et Raisonnee, par M. M. de Port Royal ; Condillac's Grammaire in his Cours d'etu des ; Tooke's Diversions of Purley ; Beddoes on the Na ture of Demonstrative Evidence ; Pickbourne's Dissertation on the English Verb ; Mr Dunbar's Analysis of the Greek Verb ; Dr Gregory on the Theory of the Moods of Verbs in the 2d vol. of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ; Mr. Bonai's Essay on the Greek Prepositions, in the 5th vol. of the same work ; Dr. Jamieson's Hermes Scythicus ; Beattie's Essay on the Theory of Language ; Hutton's Dissertation on the Theory of Language ; Dr Adam Smith's Essay on Language, (published with his Theory of Moral Sentiments); Mr Stewart's Philosophical Essays, Part I. Essay 5th ; and the article Grammar in the _Encyclopedia Britannica, and that of Dr Rees.*