16. Distinguish derivatives and compounds. Comment on the following formations:―witticism, oddity, wondrous, honeyed. [Some of the words are hybrids. For honeyed read p. 202.] 17. Reverse the meaning of each of the following words by adding a prefix: happy, possible, rational, contented, valid, noble, sense. Give four examples of diminutive forms in English nouns. What is meant by saying that the word bicycle is a hybrid? 18. Write three derivatives with English suffixes, three with Latin, three with Greek, and three with French. 19. What suffixes are used in English to express diminutiveness (a) in nouns, (b) in adjectives, (c) in verbs? Mention suffixes which indicate (1) agency, (2) state. [With reference to (c) observe that the frequentative endings have also in some instances a diminutive force: glim-m-er (from gleam), gam-b-le (from game), dazz-le (from daze), wadd-le (from wade) are examples.] 20. In the following words what is the force of the parts printed in italics?-around, numerous, governesses, recite, English. 21. Why is it important which part of a compound word is placed first? 22. State the meaning of the following prefixes and suffixes:forlorn, misuse, abstract, bespeak, livelihood, whiten, swinish, satchel. 23. Mention the force of the following suffixes and the language from which each is derived: -fy, -ness, -ion, -ible, -en, -isk, -ly, -tude. 24. What is the force of the following prefixes and suffixes ?—fore-, in-, meta-, -en, -le, -er. Explain and derive the words umpire, icicle, jovial, tawdry, sirloin, squirrel, trivial, utopian, solecism, boycott. 25. By the addition of prefixes or suffixes convert the following adjectives into verbs:—large, just, strong, wide, dim, clean, dear. 26. Mention some suffixes by the addition of which we form (1) adjectives from nouns, (2) nouns from adjectives, (3) verbs from nouns or adjectives, (4) adverbs from pronouns. 27. With what familiar English root-words can you connect the following derivatives?-ditch, wander, gift, month, husband, length, woof, seed, burden, forlorn, vixen, shadow. 28. Give the meaning and account for the form of each of the following words :-kine, riches, rather, naught, hillock, surname. 29. Comment on the forms of the words empress, alms, nearer, none, atheism, surface. 30. By the use of a suffix change each of the following nouns into an adjective:-sister, fame, quarrel, slave, silver. 31. Distinguish the meanings of older and elder; latest and last; masterly and masterful; virtuous and virtual; stationary and stationery; idiotic and idiomatic; idol and idyll; politic and political; confident and confidant; expedient and expeditious; credible and creditable. 32. Write short notes on the etymology of the following words :— cambric, dandelion, drawing-room, laconic, nostril, posthumous, tantalise, profusely, bicycle, surgeon. 33. What is the force of the suffix in darkness, hillock, friendship, drunkard, farthing? Can you explain the vowel in the first syllable of elder, thimble, vixen? [See § 54, (3).] 34. Explain the force of the adjectival endings -ish, -ine, -en, -Y, -al, -ic, -ous, -less, -some, adding an example of each. 35. Comment on the structure of the following words and state whether any of them are anomalous in form:-kine, shepherdess, spinster, unjust, mineralogy, deodorize, children, sovereign, talkative, laughable. 36. What ideas are indicated by the following suffixes and prefixes?— Jew-ry, duck-ling, wit-ness, trump-et, tromb-one, a-board, Arch-duke. 37. Mention English words containing prefixes and suffixes of Latin and Greek origin corresponding in their force to the following of native origin:-al-mighty, ill-starred, thorough-fare, with-stand, wood-en, black-en, learn-ed. · 38. In word-building, Prefixes alter the meanings of words and Suffixes alter their functions.' Illustrate this statement. [The term 'functions' is explained in § 64. The antithesis in the passage quoted above is scarcely accurate, for a word which changes its function must change to some extent its meaning. The writer wishes to call attention however to a distinction which is sometimes real and important. Take, for instance, kind. Unkind reverses its meaning: kindly and kindness change its functions. Treat the roots man, trust, dress, truth, in a similar way.] 39. Mention some of the chief ways in which the vocabulary of a language may be increased. Give illustrations. [See the note to Q. II, p. 20, and think what processes there are, besides importation from foreign sources, by which fresh words may be added to an existing stock.] 40. Mention other English words cognate with hospital, vision, tenant, victor, sequel. [As an example of what is required, let us take the word frail and give some of its cognates. Frail is a derivative from Latin frango, fractum, and from the same ultimate source we obtain fragile, fracture, fragment, fraction, refraction, &c. These are called 'cognates.'] 209 CHAPTER XXII. ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES AND PARSING. 219. Syntax deals with the combination of words in sentences, their government, agreement, and order. In the course of our treatment of Etymology, many points belonging strictly to the province of Syntax have been already touched upon. The remaining chapters will contain a brief recapitulation of these points, with the addition of such details as are required to complete the information, on the subject of Syntax, which may fairly be looked for in an elementary text-book. When, in dealing with Conjunctions, we explained the difference between a Compound and a Complex Sentence, our transition from Etymology to Syntax was complete. The student is recommended to read again the remarks on this difference which were made in Chapter xx., as they form a suitable introduction to the concluding section of this book. Syntax has to do with the relations of words to each other in sentences. To enable us intelligently to discuss these relations, it is essential that we should clearly understand the nature of a sentence, the elements of which it is composed, and the varieties of form which it assumes. 220. We described a Sentence as a collection of words by which we say something about a thing. W. E. G. 14 This account of the nature of a sentence served our purpose at the time when we made use of it, but as a definition applicable to sentences generally it is clearly incomplete. A Sentence may express (a) A Judgment; 'Birds fly,' 'The Bill will not pass,' 'Brutus killed Caesar.' In such cases we do 'say something about a thing,' or 'make assertions,' and sentences of this kind we took as the type of sentences in general. But in other sentences we give utterance to— (b) A Command; 'Come,' 'Give it me.' (c) A Question; 'Will he come?' 'Did you go?' (d) A Wish; 'Would he were here!' 'May you grow wiser !' 'God save the Queen!' These four varieties of sentences may be called (1) Declaratory, (2) Imperative, (3) Interrogative, (4) Optative. Shall we say then that a Sentence is a collection of words expressing a statement, command, question, or wish? This would be an enumeration of different kinds of sentences rather than a definition of a Sentence itself; just as it would be no definition of a triangle, if one were to say that a triangle is an equilateral, isosceles, or scalene figure. Perhaps a better as well as a shorter definition is this : A Sentence is the complete expression of a thought in words. In defining the Subject and the Predicate of a Sentence, for the sake of simplicity and conciseness we shall take cognisance only of sentences in which statements are expressed: The Subject of the sentence is the word which stands for the thing about which the assertion is made. The Predicate is the word by which the assertion is made. 221. The following points require careful notice: (1) The Subject of a Sentence is a word, but the assertion is made about the thing. When we say 'The sun shines,' the word sun is the subject of the sentence, but we do not assert that the word shines. (2) Our definition of the Subject of a Sentence, as the word which stands for the thing about which the assertion is made, has been attacked on the ground that, when we say 'Brutus killed Caesar,' we make an assertion about Caesar as much as about Brutus: yet 'Caesar' is not the Subject. To this criticism we may reply that, in the sentence 'Brutus killed Caesar,' our assertion is made directly, or explicitly, about Brutus, but only indirectly, or by impli cation, about Caesar. The assertion implied about Caesar is given in a direct form when we say 'Caesar was killed by Brutus.' (3) Cannot a sentence be formed by a single word? Is not 'Go' a sentence? Here the subject is understood, though not expressed. 'Go' is equivalent to 'Go (you),' and in analysing a sentence in the Imperative mood, we must supply the subject which is omitted in modern English. The (4) The Predicate is a verb or contains a verb. sentence 'Birds fly' contains a complete predicate 'fly.' But in 'They are,' 'I shall be,' 'You became,' 'Walpole was created,' something is wanting to make sense; the verbs are incomplete predicates and require a complement to produce a meaning: "They are happy,' 'I shall be there,' 'You became secretary,' 'Walpole was created Earl of Orford.' Again, some verbs need another verb in the Infinitive mood to carry on, or complete, their construction. Thus, 'I wish,' 'You must,' are meaningless unless we supply, in thought or expression, some complement; 'I wish to go,' |