be singular; and one 'false singular,' i.e. a Noun in the singular, which has been formed in consequence of a mistake with regard to the present plural.

A. The false plurals are alms, riches, and eaves, all of which may be traced to singular forms. Alms is the French almesse, which represents the six-syllabled Greek word for pity;' riches is richesse, and eaves the Anglo-Saxon efese, an edge' or 'margin.' The s of pease belongs to the root, as the word comes from Lat. pisum. The singular, therefore, ought to have been written pese, and the plural peses or pesen.

6. Q. Which is the correct expression-spoonfuls or spoons full; the Miss Browns or the Misses Brown?

A. (a) Both expressions are correct. If we wished to denote a certain number of spoons, each of them filled with a particular liquid, we should speak of so many 'spoons full.' But if we meant to express that the quantity contained in a spoon was taken several times over, we should say 'spoonfuls.' (b) Both 'the Miss Browns' and 'the Misses Brown' are good English, but the one is a colloquial, the other a more formal expression.

7. Q. Of what is the -s significant in the words peas, alms, riches, and summons?

A. In peas the -s belongs to the root, and the forms pea, peas are therefore irregular. Pease was the singular in Anglo-Saxon. Compare Lat. pisum. Alms is from almesse, wherefore -s is what remains of the termination -esse. Riches in Norman French is richesse. Summons is from Fr. semonse, not from

Lat. summoneas, as is sometimes asserted. Alms and riches are used as plurals, but the -s is apt to give an erroneous idea of their origin. 8. Q. 'I have not wept this forty years. Is this forty years a correct expression?

A. The expression 'forty years,' though plural in form, may perhaps be regarded as expressing a single idea, i.e. a period of time, like a fortnight.' Hence the use of the singular this may be justified. The case of years is the (Adverbial) Objective.

9. Q. Take the following Nouns, and gather from them rules for the formation of English plurals:-deer, sugar, bag, lady, goose, child, hypothesis, loaf, brief, son-in-law.

A. Deer, sing. and plur. alike; sugars, only when varieties are expressed; bags, usual plural by addings; ladies, y preceded by a consonant is changed into -ies; geese, modification of the rootvowel; children, Anglo-Saxon suffix; hypotheses, Greek Nouns in -is form plur. in -es; loaves, Teutonic Nouns in ƒ form plur. in -ves; briefs, Romance words retain the f unchanged; sons-in-law, the -s is added to the significant part of the compound rather than the descriptive.

10. Q. Mention some Anglo-Saxon plural forms that have become obsolete. Which of these were retained the longest?

A. In the Anglo-Saxon language there were plurals in -as, -an, -a, -u, etc., as wulf-as, wolves; tung-an, tongues; dur-a, doors; scip-u, ships. After some time only -as and -an were retained, and these became changed into -es and -en. Then the of -es was omitted

whenever s could be sounded alone, as kings for kinges.

II. Q. What is meant by Grammatical Gender? What true Gender suffixes still exist in English?

A. Grammatical Gender is a distinction in the form of Nouns or Pronouns, to show whether they stand for persons or animals of the male or female sex, or for things without sex. The only true suffixes of Gender that still exist are-ess, -ine, -trix in words of Latin origin, also -ster in the single instance of spinster, and -en in vixen, both Saxon; -ster in all other instances merely denotes the agent.

12. Q. What do you remark in regard to the signification of the proper names Baxter and Webster?

ori

A. The termination -ster ginally belonged to names of employments that were chiefly carried on by women. It afterwards came to denote the agent merely. Baxter is for bag-ster.

13. Q. Make a list of the suffixes, existing and obsolete, that are or have been employed to mark the distinction of Gender in English Nouns.

A. Suffixes still in use: -ess (the most common), as giant-ess; -or and ix appear in several words from the Latin; -ine in heroine (Greek), and margravine (GerInan); -ina, -ana in Czarina, Sultana. Suffixes nearly obsolete: -en only survives in vixen, -ster only survives in spinster. Suffixes quite obsolete: -a (masc.) and -e (fem.), as in widuw-a, widuw-e. 14. Q. Can 'cow' be called, strictly, the Feminine of bull? If not, why cannot it be so called? A. It cannot be, strictly, so called,

because though the word 'cow' represents an opposite sex from what is represented by bull,' and is thus related to it, there is still no relation between the forms of the words. It should be noticed that there are only two modes of forming the Feminine of Nouns (viz. by prefixes and affixes), though there is a third method by which to indicate the distinction of male and female. 15. Q. In modern English the sun is personified as Masculine and the moon as Feminine. In Anglo-Saxon the distinction is reversed. Can this be accounted for?

A. The gender of Nouns denoting sexless things is, of course, arbitrary. In Anglo-Saxon sun is Feminine, moon is Masculine; in modern English the genders of these words are reversed. We, thinking mainly of the beauty and gentle motion of the moon, make moon Feminine. Our forefathers, when they made moon' Masculine, probably thought of the moon as the measurer, the ruler of days and weeks and seasons, the regulator of the tides, the lord of their festivals, and the herald of their public assemblies' (Max Müller). This is probably a sufficient explanation, so far as regards one of these Nouns.

16. Q. Why does the addition of -en change the word cat into kitten? Account also for the first vowel of vixen and thimble.

A. The fact to which attention is called in this question is the change of the root-vowel which accompanies the addition of a syllable. Vixen is from fox, and thimble from thumb. This change is produced by an assimilation of the two vowels, and is called by

the Germans Umlaut, i.e. vowel modification,' or, more accurately, the law of the modification of the root-vowel by a suffix. In plainer language, the vowel of the after member of the word causes an alteration of the vowel that goes before.

17. Q. What is displeasing in the following ?

'Her power extends o'er all things that have breath.'

'A cruel tyrant, and her name is Death.'

A. Death should be personified as a man. In personification the Masculine Gender is most usually assigned to such things as suggest the ideas or seem to manifest the qualities of strength, majesty, or destructiveness. A tyrant, again, is more often a man than a woman. 18. Q. Make a list of words which were once of the Common Gender, but which are now restricted to a particular sex. A. Girl, shrew, coquet, harlot, wench, slut, termagant, hag, hoyden, jade, servant, niece, man, witch.

19. Q. Mention instances of Mas

culine Nouns that have been formed from the Feminine, contrary to the general rule. Can this ever be accounted for? A. Drake was derived from duck, gand-er from goose, and widow-er from widow. Also bride-grvom bryd-guma of bride-man') from bride. In the first two instances this may perhaps be explained by the fact that the flocks of ducks and geese are composed chiefly of female birds. Hence the distinguishing name would at first be applied to the females. Afterwards became necessary to distinguish the less numerous males, and a

Masculine suffix was added to the existing word. Widower and widow were denoted in Anglo-Saxon by the words widuw-a and widuw-e. When the final vowels were lost, widow was at first of the Common Gender, but was afterwards restricted to women. Then the Masculine suffix was added to form widower. 20. Q. What causes brought about the gradual disuse of Grammatical Gender after the Norman Conquest?

A. Grammatical Gender went gradually out of use after the Norman Conquest owing to the following causes :-(a) The confusion between Masc. and Fem. suffixes; (b) The loss of suffixes marking gender; (c) The loss of case in flections in the Masc. and Fem. forms of Demonstratives.'-(Morris's Historical Outlines, p. 82.) 21. Q. What is the origin of the Romance suffix -ess, which denotes the Feminine of so many English Nouns ?

A. There was a Low Latin Feminine suffix -issa, which became in French -isse, and afterwards -esse. In the 14th century this ending began to be added not only to Romance, but to English roots. Thus Wyclif has frendesse, a female friend; neighbouresse, a female neighbour; and techeresse, a female teacher; and we still have goddess, baroness, etc. Lass is probably a

contraction of laddess.

22. Q. Define the terms inflection and declension.

A. Inflection is the change which a word undergoes in order to vary the meaning. Declension is a collection of the various forms that a Noun may assume. 23. Q. Form Nouns denoting office or jurisdiction from the follow

ing-protector, Pope, bishop, professor, pontiff, earl, Christian, sheriff, mayor, deacon. A. Protectorate, papacy, bishopric, professorship, pontificate, earldom, Christendom, shrievalty, mayoralty, diaconate.

24. Q. It has been said that in English Nouns there is no Objective Case. Is this statement correct?

A. If inflection alone be the criterion of case, then it is true that English Nouns have now no Objective Case, for we have no Nouns that indicate the Objective relation by their form. If, however, it be considered that the case of a Noun may be determined as well by its relation in the sentence as by inflection, there does exist an Objective Case of English Nouns. Pronouns, moreover, have an Objective Case that is indicated by inflection. It is therefore convenient to speak of an Objective Case in Nouns also, more especially as the Nominative and Objective Cases are alike in other languages besides English. This is true, for instance, of Nouns in Greek and Latin, and our grammars are frequently based on the grammars of the classic tongues.

25. Q. Explain the force of of in such expressions as 'a brute of a dog,' 'a milksop of a boy,'

a palace of a house,' etc.

A. By far the best explanation is that which regards this curious use of of as replacing the relation of apposition. These expressions are therefore equivalent to a dog, a brute; a boy, a milksop; and a house, a palace. On the other hand,

a

pposition has sometimes replaced the use of of, as in a hundred sheep,' 'a dozen yards.' These

expressions were originally a hundred of sheep' and a dozen of yards,' but the preposition has fallen into disuse.

26. Q. Point out the subject in each of the following sentences:(1) Reign thou over us. (2) The second of April died your noble mother. (3) One great error he committed. (4) Here with Columbus were beings of a new world. (5) The main difficulty was to get the ship off the rocks. (6) Whitebreasted like a star fronting the dawn he moved. (7) Brass is the vessel below, and brass the cover above it. (8) To answer that question is by no means easy.

A. The subjects are, in (1) thou, (2) mother, (3) he, (4) beings, (5) to get the ship, etc., (6) he, (7) vessel and cover, (8) to answer that question.

27. Q. What does Genitive mean? (A question set at the London Univ. Matriculation Examination, June 1877.)

A. The Genitive (says Dr. Angus) indicates primarily origin, as, 'The sun's rays.' Origin often creates ownership; hence this case is also called Possessive. It may indicate, moreover, not only origin, but quality belonging to a substance (as,

Arms of iron,' Feet of clay '), and even something done to an object, as, The king's murderers.' The last is called the Objective Genitive. 28. Q. Is Max Müller's explanation

of the word Genitive' the same as that given by other grammarians?

A. No; he seems to object to the statement that the Genitive is the case of origin. He says, 'The Latin genitivus (genitive) is a mere

blunder, for the Greek word genike could never mean the same as genitivus. Genitivus, if it is meant to express the case of origin or birth, would in Greek have been called gennetike, not genike. Nor does the Genitive express the relation of son to father; for though we may say “the son of the father," we may ikewise say "the father of the son." Genike in Greek had a much wider, a much more philosophical meaning. It meant casus generalis, the general case, or rather the case which expresses the genus or kind. This is the real power of the Genitive. Moreover, the termination of the Genitive is, in most instances, identical with those derivative axes by which Substantives are changed into Adjectives.

29. Q. What is the difference between the king's picture,' picture of the king,' and picture of the king's'?

a

4. The first expression means the picture in the possession of the king; the second, a picture or representation of the king; and the third, a picture out of the king's collection.

3. Q. How is the absence of caseendings supplied in English? State and illustrate the effect of this absence on the general structure of sentences.

A. The absence of case-endings is supplied by the use of Prepositions, and by the position of the Noun or Pronoun in the sentence. The effect of the absence of caseendings on the general structure of sentences is that the relative posifion of words has become more or less fixed. While case - endings were in use, the position of words was not of much importance. For instance, Brutus Cassium amabat

and Cassium amabat Brutus are equally intelligible; but in order to express the same meaning, without ambiguity, in English, it is necessary to place the word that is in the Objective Case after the Verb, as, 'Brutus loved Cassius.'

31. Q. What is meant by the Re-
dundant Object? Give an
example of this construction.
A. When the Object of a Verb
is a dependent clause, Shakespeare
sometimes introduces before the
dependent clause another Object,
so as to make the dependent clause
a mere explanation of the latter.
Thus-

'I know you who you are.'-Lear.
'Conceal me what I am.'
'You hear the learned Bellario
what he writes.'-Merchant
of Venice.

In the two first examples the
sense is the same as if you were
omitted before who, and me before
what. The last means the same as
"You hear what the learned Bel-
lario writes.' This idiom is of
frequent occurrence in Greek.
32. Q. He was promised his salary;'
He was offered a scholarship.'
In what case are the words in
italics, and why?

A. They are in the Objective Case, but not, of course, a governed Objective, for Passive Verbs are incapable of governing a case. It is best to explain this as an Adverbial Objective. Both words limit the Predicate.

33. Q. What is remarkable in the lines following?— • His virtues Will plead like angels, trumpettongued, against

The deep damnation of his taking off.

A. The words his taking off