Twelve similarly contains two+lev, duo+decim, dw-deкa. Do not suppose however that eleven and twelve are derived from the Greek or Latin words: eleven and twelve are the forms assumed, among a people of the Teutonic stock, by old Aryan roots which are found in different forms in languages belonging to the other stocks.

Dozen is from douze, Latin duodecim. Here on the contrary we have a case of borrowing-from the French.

Score is from an Old English word, meaning 'to scratch, or notch': it is used now as a verb signifying 'to keep an account.' As a noun it sometimes means 'twenty,'-perhaps because twenty was the number of notches marked on one tally or stick,—and sometimes means an indefinite number: 'He made a good score.'

Million is from the Latin mille, 'a thousand,' with an augmentative suffix -on, signifying 'a big thousand,' just as balloon signifies 'a big ball' and trombone 'a big trumpet.'

2.

Ordinals indicate the position in a series of the things spoken of. First is the superlative of fore, 'most in front,' the o being altered by Umlaut. See p. 49.

Second is from the Latin secundus, 'following,' from sequor, ‘I follow.' Our native word was other.

Third was once thrid, retained in the word Riding Thriding= Thirding, 'a little third,' of Yorkshire. This transposition is called metathesis. See p. 50.

It should be noticed that with the exception of the words second, dozen, million, billion, &c., our numerals are of English origin.

3. Multiplicatives indicate how many times the thing spoken of exceeds some other thing. They are formed by adding -fold to the Cardinals: e.g. twentyfold, hundredfold.

108. The so-called Articles. The words the and an or a are Demonstrative adjectives. In parsing, we may describe the as a demonstrative adjective commonly called the definite article, and an or a as a demonstrative adjective commonly called the indefinite article.

In Old English the was a demonstrative pronoun, declined in three genders, singular and plural. That was its neuter singular.

An is another form of the numeral adjective one. The n is thus part of the root. We have not added n to a, but have dropped the n before words beginning with a consonantal sound.

109. Points of interest connected with the words the and an or a are discussed in the following paragraphs.

I. Do the and an differ so widely from Adjectives as to justify grammarians in regarding them as forming a separate Part of speech?

Let us inquire, first, in what respects they resemble the adjectives that and one, and secondly, in what respects they differ from the adjectives that and one.

In the first place, what are the points of similarity?

(1) They resemble that and one in their force: 'the book' is a weaker form of 'that book,' 'a book' of 'one book.'

(2) They are connected with that and one in their origin: that was the neuter of the, an was the older form of one.

On the other hand, what are the points of difference?

(1) That and one are used as adjectives and as pronouns, the and an are used only as adjectives. Thus we can say 'Give me that book,' 'Give me one book,' using that and one as adjectives, or we can say 'Give me that,' 'Give me one,' using that and one as pronouns or substitutes for nouns. But although we can say 'Give me the book,' 'Give me a book,' using the and a as adjectives, we cannot say 'Give me the,' 'Give me a,' using the and a as pronouns.

(2) An ordinary adjective can be used either attributively, as in the expression, 'the black horse,' or predicatively, as in the expression, 'The horse is black.' Now the Articles can be used only attributively. We can say 'Sovereignty is one and indivisible,' but we cannot say 'Sovereignty is an and indivisible.' We can say 'John is lazy: James is that also,' but we cannot say 'James is the also.'

But this restriction about the use of the and an affords quite insufficient reason for constituting a new Part of Speech which shall consist of these two words. For there are other adjectives which do not admit of being used to form predicates. We cannot say 'This is my, that is your,' any more than we can say 'This is the, that is an.' But this peculiarity does not prevent us from calling my and your adjectives. Why then should the and an be differently regarded?

2. When is an used instead of a?

Before words beginning with a vowel, or a silent h, as in heir, honest; but words beginning with a y, or with a u which has the sound of y before it, take a: thus we say 'an utter failure,' but 'a useful machine. To speak of 'an university' or 'an historian' sounds rather pedantic.

3.

What are the chief uses of the?

(a) to point out a thing: 'Give me the book,-not the red one, the black one.'

(b) to specify objects which are well known to us: 'Let us have a walk in the garden'; 'the village,' 'the church.'

(c) to indicate things of which only a single specimen exists: 'the Alps,' 'the Atlantic,' 'the Thames.' Hence also with superlatives, 'the meanest of mankind,' 'the highest point,' as these are singular objects.

(d) to signify a class, with nouns in the singular number or with adjectives: 'the horse,' 'the ant'; 'the rich,' 'the wise.'

(e) in colloquial language with emphasis on the word the, to give the force of a superlative: 'Here comes the cricketer,' meaning 'the best cricketer.'

(f) as an adverb with comparatives: 'the more the better.' This signifies ‘by that much the more by so much the better,' like the Latin quo and eo. The is here a survival of the Old English ablative or instrumental case, thi, from the definite article or demonstrative pronoun the.

4. What are the chief uses of an or a?

(a) to signify one: ‘three men in a boat', 'two of a trade': ‘In a year or two he will come down to a shilling a day.'

(b) to signify any one: 'If a body meet a body:' 'A horse is a vain thing for safety.'

(c) to signify some one, or a certain one: 'A policeman told me there was a fire:' 'He has a great liking for sport.'

QUESTIONS.

1. Give the derivation and definition of the term adjective.

Distinguish the different kinds of adjectives in the sentence:-'Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.'

Give one example of each kind of adjective not represented in the preceding sentence.

[Adjective is from Latin adjectivum, 'what can be added on.']

2. Distinguish the different kinds of adjectives in the lines:
In a corn field this poor child was seen

Impatient her little blue apron to fill
With the few scattered ears she can glean.

3. What is an adjective? Point out the adjectives in the lines: And his droop'd head sinks gradually low

4.

And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow
From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,

Like the first of a thunder shower. used separately.

Is it right to say that an Adjective marks the quality of a Noun?

.

5. Distinguish between the use of the Definite and of the Indefinite Article. Explain the use of the Article in a burnt child shuns the fire,' 'twice a day,' 'the red flag.'

[Note here that we might have expected 'a fire' rather than 'the fire,' as a burnt child shuns not only the fire at which it was once burnt, but any fire.

In 'twice a day,' although a has the form of the article now, it is a corruption of the preposition on, meaning in.]

6. Give examples of adjectives that are capable of being used substantively.

ギ

CHAPTER XIII.

INFLEXION OF ADJECTIVES.

110. ONE result which the Norman Conquest produced upon our language was this: the inflexions marking gender and case disappeared from our adjectives and, with the exception of these and those, the plurals of this and that, the inflexions marking number followed them. The adjective in English is thus in striking contrast with the adjective in Greek, or Latin, or German. In these languages the adjective is declined: with us it is invariable as regards gender, number, and case. Thus the only inflexion of adjectives which survives in modern English is that of Comparison.

111. What do we mean by the Comparison of Adjectives?

We saw that adjectives might be classified in three groups as Qualitative, Quantitative, or Demonstrative. A qualitative adjective indicates the presence of some quality in the thing of which we are speaking. If we say 'The sheep is black,' we assert that the sheep has the quality called blackness, or in other words that blackness is an attribute of the sheep. Now many qualities are variable in the amount or degree in which they are present. Blackness admits of different shades: height, weight, speed, cleverness, are qualities which admit of far greater differences of degree than blackness. We observe the varying extent to which