JB_102_580.xml

Title: [25 Aug. 1813 D Logic Ch. Language]

Description: 25 Aug. 1813 D

Logic

Ch. Language-Grammar

Conjugation, Grammar

1

'. Of improper moods: or moods improperly so called.

Absoluteness and conditionality - Under the name of moods, these are the two modes of designation actually established by ancient use for the designation of time. Of the forms that occur in language, these are the only two to which the term mood can with propriety be applied, not but that in itself, for any one thing, any one term is just as applicable as any other; but that, after its having been applied to this purpose, to apply it to others so widely different and separate from it; in that it is that the impropriety consists.

Of these improper moods, the usage of language affords two examples:-

One is, that which by the Latin and Greek grammarians is so improperly termed the imperative: the optative, a term applied

by them in certain cases to another mood, would for this, it will be seen, have been the more proper adjunct, supposing the term mood properly applied.

The other is a form which may be termed the causal mood /mode/: in the Hebrew tongue it is exemplified and is termed /denominated/ hithpahel: in the Scottish dialect of the English language though there is no denomination for it it is exemplified in the form /phrase/ he caused make. So also in French, il fit faire.

59

JB_102_581.xml

Title: [24 Aug. 1813 Logic 2]

Description: 24 Aug. 1813

Logic

2

Ch. Language-Grammar

Conjugation, Grammar

2

The imperative form is /seems to be/ improperly put upon the same line with and designated by the same name as those other forms which as above are termed moods.

That which it expresses is, in all cases, the existence of a will an act of volition to a certain effect on the part of the discourse /speaker or writer/.

For the designation of this will the term imperative considered as applied to all the modifications of which the expression of that will is susceptible, is in a remarkable degree defective; and, by reason of that deficiency, improper, improper in no fewer than three out of four cases.

Be the case what it may, such will, so expressed, will have for its object either some event, or some state of things. In speaking of this event, or state of things, either some person will be considered in the light of a person by whose will and consequent agency it will or would be made to take place or not; if not, the will expressed is of that sort which is called a wish, and the mood by which expression is given to it has been termed the optative.

In the other case, the person in consequence by whose agency it is supposed that the event, or state of things in question would be made to take place, is either the person to whom the discourse is addressed, or some other person; in this latter case, likewise, the mood comes under the same denomination, the optative.

60

JB_102_428.xml

Title: [24 Aug. 1814 Logic Ch. Language]

Description: 24 Aug. 1814

Logic

Ch. Language

Conjugates &c.

'.1

3

Exactly of the same sort is the connexion, which, in the different parts or portions of the part of speech called a noun, has place.

In the instance of a noun, the several sources of modification, designated by the words person, gender, and number are designated by the same names, as in the instance of the verb. When, a noun being given, a man names the modifications called cases, together with those which regard person, number, and gender, he is not said to conjugate it - he is said to decline it.

The sources of diversification, in respect of which the noun differs from the verb, are, on the part of the verb, the moods and tenses, which the noun has not; on the part of the noun, the cases which the verb has not.

Connected /Associated/ with the import of the word case, is, according to the grammarians, the import of the words declension, to decline.

But in the instance of declension, the emblem or archetypal image exhibits no marks of such felicity as have been seen exhibited in the case of conjugation. Case is from cado to fall: an image borrowed by the Latin grammarians from the Greek grammarians. A rod is conceived to fall. In the nominative case, the mode of its falling - the direction in which it falls is considered as direct - perpendicular to the horizon, and is accordingly called - rectus: in the other cases, it is considered as oblique, viz. with reference to the horizon: accordingly, all these several cases are, besides their peculiar names, expressed by one common name, and called oblique cases.

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