24 Aug. 1814

Logic

Ch. Language

Conjugates &c.

'.1

2

With the same propriety and convenience as that with which the terms conjugation and to conjugate were applied to the cluster of intimately connected words called a verb, might they have been applied to the other cluster of {intimately connected words} called a noun, as diversified by the several modifications called cases in addition to those by which the designation of the several varieties of which sex, person (viz. with relation to the speaker, the hearer, and others) and number are susceptible, - by which so many correspondent varieties, in respect of sex, person, and number, are expressed and brought to view.

As it happened, no such extension, however, was made. In the case of a noun, instead of conjugation and to conjugate, declension and to decline, were the words employed.

In their application /Applied/ to the cluster to which they were applied, viz. to the verb, the terms conjugation and to conjugate were apposite and expressive. Jugum is the Latin word for a yoke: an instrument by which a number of animals employed in draught are connected with each other and with the burthen which is to be drawn: connected with each other for that common purpose.

In the case /the instance/ of a verb /The cluster of words called a verb/ presents to view a fundamental or radical import to which, throughout the whole cluster, expression is given by some letter, or combination of letters, which has place in every one of the component words, and by which, as by a bond of union, they are connected together, and made up into one whole.

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