Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-09-15

It'll JQWNA VI AAAC III
= guage itself. Just in proportion
n the genius of language is strong
n marked and progressive, the la
s guage itself is strong, living, al
e expansive; even as that man
s strongest who has the most decide
: character, or that people stronge
! which has the most distinctive N
1 tionality. Not only, then, is IL
e idiOm the supreme and living la
e of each language, but the princip
/ of idiomatic growth, comprehendin
: all the progressive changes that b,
l long to it, is the principle of powC
: and expansion in the language itsel
r To deny this principle for ou
mother tongue would be to strangl
? its growth and to wrong its destiny
: Let us now briefly conclude on
2 observations upon our mothe
} erent study our object has been, thu
far, to assert its independence i'm tn
supremacy of its own usages and il
: the laws of its development. TIL
: illustration of these principles Nigh
fill a volume. In scarcely any Ian
guage are they as important as il
J English.
English is pre-eminently n Ian
guage of idiOms. In casting asid,
the grammar of form and structur,
which characterized the ancient Ian
guages, the modern languages, anC
among them especially English
have supplied its place by the null
titude and fiexibility of their idiom.
| otto aou1 hinafipnc I'm tho onaiani
languages we have a variety Oi
forms in simple combinations; hence
the eminently logical structure OF
their grammars, and hence also, in
part, their superiority for the dis
ciplinary study of language. In the
modern languages, on the other
hand, we have few and simple forms,
| but in manifold combinations and
this variety of combination, ever de-
velOping to meet the growing re-
quirements of modern thought, gives
to these languages their idiOmdtic
character.
Offormal grammar the French Ian
guage, for example, has hardly any.
Its whole etymOlOgy, and its syntaX
such as it has-can be written
within few pages; yet its idioms
are endless, and it is from the vain
attempt to encompass these, which
cannot be taught by grammatical
rule, that French grammars, So
called, grow into such terrible pro-
portions. a Latin or Greek word,
for example, win give us variety
of grammatical forms, yet but few
and simple meanings, varying for
the most part only with the gram
matical form. A French lexicon,
on the other hand, under every inn
portant word will present, with the
slightest possible variation of gram
matical form, a sometimes almost
endless variety of idiomatic combi-
nations; so that the search fOr the
meaning, in any given case, becomes
really a search among phrases, in
almost every one of which the sim
pie signiticatiOn is modified, and al
most every one of which, too, finds
its English equivalent in a similar
idiOmatic phrase. Herein lies the
true difficulty of such a language as
the French-a difficulty realized i'm
deed by the student only after the
grammar itself has been mastered.
Herein, too, i'm this infinite variety
of .idiOmdtic as distinguished from
grammatical forms, lie the wealth,
the sublety, the refinement of the
modern languages, to which, i'm their
kind-with all allowance for other
eXcellencies-the ancient classical
languages present no parallel. And
in this contrast we have again a
picture-for language is always true
to history as well as to nature-Of
the subtlety and variety of modern
thought and civilization, as COM
pared with the simple and plastic
forms and institutions of antiquity.
The units of language, as well as the
elements of life and thought, have
become more complex i'm the mod
ern world; phrase and idiOm have
taken the place of infection and
syntaX.
In no language perhaps is all this
so distinctively true as in the Eu-
glish. Perhaps no language is so
devoid of formal grammar none
certainly is richer in the variety and
of its idiOms. The
tendency of modern grammatical
criticism seems now to be towards
the full recognition of at least the
first of these truths. We have moth |
ing to fear from this iconoclasm for
it helps to clear away the dead rub |
bish of a false and effete system. |
But it were a great mistake if we |
should stop there, or if, in establish !
ing this negative argument however |
fully, we should imagine that we
had done with the English language,
and that because it does not possess /
the formal grammar and structure |
of the Latin or the Greek, therefore |
it has nothing else in place Of them
no principles or laws of its own. |
Let US hope that some able scholar |
may turn his attention to the yet |
wealth of the English |
idiOnl, and by the study of this idiOm,
in its infinite richness and variety, |
set forth the true genius of the lam |
mark its development and |
and thus establish the |
laws of its grammar and of its life |
as language. This is the true field |
for the student of English, and here
i'm is a rich and unexplored mine of |
linguistic treasure.
In passing to our conclusion, let
us here remark, only as an obvious
if this is true, how absurd
must be the attempts, such as have
been constantly made, to construct
the English grammar upon the basis
Of the Latin and the Greek. These
are indeed the very oppO-
site of the English in their gram
matical character. They represent
the opposite type of linguistic de-
and their structure rests
for the most part upon wholly diff
ferent principles. The examples of
their grammar are useful indeed In
the study of English; but their use
Is rather for contrast than analogy.
Yet almost without exception our
English grammarians have commit
ted this fundamental mistake. AS
ssuming the classical languages, q
griOyi, as the norm of all language,
they seek to find in English some
thing to fit all the names and rules
that are found i'm them if they do
not find what they want, they make
.t, TO suit their needs. To a whole
phrase or group of words they will
rive Latin name of tense or mood.
10 simple juxtapositiOn they will
apply a Latin rule, without regard
10 the fact that the concord or gov
eminent (fOr such are the words
they employ has no trace even in
The English construction and such
L i a. l.