INFLECTION OF THE NOUN. Nouns are inflected in number, gender, and case. 1. Number. Number is the distinction between one and more than one. Singular denotes one,-Plural more than one. The plural is formed from the singular in the following ways: (a) By adding s; as, boy, boys. (b) By adding es when the singular ends in s, sh, ch (soft), x, or o; as kiss, kisses; hero, heroes. Except quartos, grottos, cantos, and proper names like Catos, (c) When the singular ends in y preceded by a consonant, the y is changed into ies; as lady, ladies. When a vowel comes before the y, s only is added; as, day, days. (d) When the singular ends in for fe, the plural is in ves; as loaf, loaves; wife, wives. Except roof, hoof, turf, stuff. Staff has two plurals, staffs and staves, but each has a different meaning. (e) Some nouns of Saxon origin add en; as ox, oxen. Kine, e'en, shoon, &c., come under this rule. (f) Some Saxon nouns change the vowel in the middle of the word as, mouse, mice; tooth, teeth. Some nouns have no plural form; as, deer, salmon, grouse. Others have no singular form; as, scissors, oats, news, goods. Some have a double plural form, each of which has a different meaning; as, brothers, brethren; dies, dice; fish, fishes; pence, pennies. Most nouns of foreign origin have the plural of the language they belong to; as, axis, axes; focus, foci; phenomenon, phenomena. When, however, any such word has been in use with us for a long time, we often give it our own plural; as, memorandums (or-da), terminuses (or-mini), formulæ (or—las). In compound words, when the parts have coalesced, the sign of the plural is put to the end; as, spoonfuls ;-when they have not coalesced, it is put to the most important part of the compound; as, courts-martial, lordmayors, princes of Wales, fathers-in-law. The plural of proper names is a frequent source of error; when only single words they are dealt with according to the ordinary rules; e. g. We have two Smiths, and four Joneses in the school when they are of two words the mark of the plural may be put to either, as the Misses Thompson, or the Miss Thompsons. 2. Gender. Gender is the Distinction of Sex. There are two genders-Masculine and Feminine. Masculine denotes the male kind; feminine the female kind. When a noun is neither one nor the other it is called neuter. Nouns feminine are distinguished from nouns masculine in three different ways; (a) By an affix, such as, ess, ix, ine, &c.* e. g.— Abbot Duke Jew Lion Abbess. Duchess. Jewess. Lioness. (b) By a prefix, such as, he, she; cock, hen, &c., e. g.— He goat Jack ass She goat. Ster was once a very common feminine ending, as seen in spinster, brewster, baxter, huckster, &c., but with the exception of the first example it has lost its feminine meaning. The ending ess is from the Norman-French, and represents the Latin ix. En or in is a feminine suffix in many European languages-we see it in vixen, carlin, Czarina, Caroline, Pauline. B (c) By an entirely different word, e. g.— Neuter nouns are sometimes personified, and then are either masculine or feminine. Thus we speak of sun as he, of a ship as she, &c. 3. Case. Case is the form or position which a noun or pronoun takes to show its relation to some other word in the sentence. The words that affect case are Transitive Verbs and Prepositions. There are three Cases in English-Nominative, Possessive, and Objective. The Nominative Case comes before the verb, and is the subject of the action; as, Mary ran away, and Tom followed her. The Objective case comes after a transitive verb, or a preposition, and is the object of the action; as, He kissed her under the mistletoe. There is no difference in form in English nouns between the nominative and objective cases, and they can only be distinguished by the sense. Compare, Tom hurt Mary, with Mary hurt Tom. The Possessive case denotes possession, or origin, and is known by an apostrophe * and s ('s or s'); as, John's top; the boys' books, the sun's attraction. * The use of the apostrophe is of recent origin. The possessive or genitive case formerly ended in es, as, " in Godes name," "for Christes sake;" but as the plural of many nouns was in es, the two were liable to be confounded, consequently the apostrophe was introduced to mark the omission of the e in the possessive. The possessive case is formed from the nominative as follows: (a) When the noun, whether singular or plural, does not end in an s sound, add an apostrophe and s; as, lady, lady's; women, women's, (b) When the noun, whether singular or plural, does end in an s sound, add an apostrophe only; as, Moses, Moses'; boys, boys'; for conscience' sake. EXCEPTION. When a noun singular already ends in an s sound, but in pronouncing it in the possessive case another syllable is formed, add an apostrophe and 8; as, James's coat. Mr. Ross's house, the prince's motto, Bass's beer. The position of the apostrophe and s in compound terms is hardly settled yet, though usage (the real authority in such matters) seems to prefer treating the whole expression as an inflected noun; thus, The Queen of Spain's physician; anybody else's opinion; Smith of Hyde Park Corner's son. INFLECTION OF THE ADJECTIVE. Adjectives of quality are inflected in degrees of comparison. There are three degrees of comparison-the Positive, Com parative, and Superlative. An Adjective is in the Positive degree when in its simplest form; as, sweet, beautiful, little. The Comparative degree expresses a higher, or lower degree of the quality; as, sweeter, more beautiful, less. The Superlative expresses the highest, or lowest degree of the quality; as, sweetest, most beautiful, least. The Comparative and Superlative are formed from the Positive by adding er and est, or by prefixing more and most respectively; as, long, longer, longest; splendid, more splendid, most splendid. Whether "er" and "est," or "more" and "most" are used Some adjectives add most to the end of the word; as, hindmost, uppermost; or prefix less and least. Many adjectives are compared irregularly; as, A becomes an‡ before the sound of a vowel, or a silent h. In other languages, adjectives are inflected in number, gender, and case, and are made to agree with the nouns they qualify. We can say, however, a good man, a good woman, a good dinner, though in other tongues the word good would be different in each case. * The modern custom is for long words to take "more" and "most," short ones "er" and "est"; in Milton and Shakspere, and even in Carlyle, however, we meet with such words as virtuousest, artificialest, viciousest. With disyllables like handsome, lively, pretty, &c., it is entirely a matter of taste which method we adopt. + Best, worst, and most are regularly formed from obsolete positives, bet, weor, and moe respectively. Many modern writers of eminence still use such expressions as an union, an university, but the prevailing custom is as stated above. A becomes an before the aspirate when sounded, if the accent is on the second syllable of the word; e. g. a history; an historical painting. § It may be alleged that this is hardly a case of inflection; a change of form it certainly is not, but it is a very important one of sound, and cannot be too strongly impressed upon boys as a direction in reading. |