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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