Mr Tooke (vol. ii. p. 60.) derives " the" from the Saxon verb the-an," to take," of which he supposes it to be the imperative. The man," accordingly, means " take man ;" and implies a direction to the hearer to select an individual from the rest of the class. This is its meaning, when the object is first introduced for the purpose of being describ ed. When afterwards used for reference, it must mean 44 taken" or " selected." Very nearly allied to the adjective " the" are the words " this" and " that," which have been denominated by gram marians adjective pronouns. " That" is considered by Mr Tooke as also derived from the-an, " to take ;" and as, in fact, its past participle. In actual application " this" means 66 near," and " that" " at a distance." Another adjective, 44 yonder," signifies, 66 at a considerable distance," or on the other side of something referred to. " This" and " that" are either prefixed to nouns, as " this man," " that thing," or are used by themselves, as " this is good," " that is indifferent." In the last form of speech there is a sub audition of the noun ; or the adjective may be considered as converted into a substantive noun, in the same manner as we have shown that many substantives are created. Like them, it expresses one quality, with a subaudition of the rest. An adjective used with the subaudition of a sub stantive, is very nearly akin to a substantive formed from an adjective by subaudition.
THE verb, as exhibited in elementary grammars, espe cially those of the Greek and Latin, is much more varied than any of the other parts of speech. Some ingenious attempts have been made to trace its complications, and to analyse its different forms. We find the offices per formed by words called verbs to be various, and it would be satisfactory to discover the cause of the application of one common term to words so diversified.
The following are the queries which this subject sug gests. Does the verb perform any office which is pecu liar to itself, and is this common to every word which, in the present practice of grammarians, receives the appel lation of a verb ? Are there more points of coincidence than one in the application of the various forms of the verb ? Is this coincidence in office strictly universal ? Or are these different offices sometimes united in one verbal sign, while only one of them is perfotmed by others ? Are the offices performed by the respective words called verbs thus different among themselves ? Are there any functions common to the verb with some other parts of speech, though more advantageously and more frequently per formed by verbs than by these others ? Does this circum stance render it advisable in any instance to retain the name of verb, even while the office performed by it is not peculiar ? Or ought scientific accuracy to concur with convenience in leading us to alter in this instance the no menclature of the parts of speech ? These questions can only be answered by investigating the nature and use of every sort of word which, in the habitual language of gram marians, is denominated a verb, and making a compre hensive survey of their applications, in order to assign to all of them respectively their just rank in universal gram mar. We must therefore suspend the discussion of the
leading problem implied in the title of the present Sec tion, and leave the reply to be gradually unfolded in the sequel of this Chapter.
One important form of the verb, the imperative, cre ated by the earliest occasions for the invention of lan guage, has already come under our notice. We have found imperatives to be the shortest of all words, and to consist of the roots from which the greater part of other words derive their origin. But, since we have considered all language as imperative, that subject does not form an appropriate commencement to our inquiries into the pecu liar nature of the verb ; and, in fact, it scarcely requires any additional observations to those already made on it. :Many verbs from their meaning do not admit of direct im peratives, (to wit, those which do not signify the voluntary acts of mankind,) yet possess many forms in common with active verbs.
We shall first consider those forms of the verb which are subservient to affirmation, or, as it has been sometimes termed, predication, for the sake of including negations.