EXERCISE 6 Name each part of speech in the following sentences: 1. Blessed are the peacemakers. 2. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Life is but an empty dream. 8. Beneath the spreading chestnut tree CHAPTER III INFLECTION 30. We have seen that words are classified as parts of speech according to the particular office performed when they are grouped to form a sentence. Each part of speech has various uses. Thus, a noun may name one object or more than one; a pronoun may be used to denote the speaker or the person addressed; an adjective or adverb may denote several degrees of quality; and a verb may express action as of the present, past, or future. These variations are indicated partly by difference in word order and partly by variation of word form. Observe the following variations of form with the attendant difference in use and meaning: church changed to churches - difference in number Inflection is the change in the form of a word to indicate difference in use and meaning. The inflection of nouns and pronouns is called declension; of adjectives and adverbs, comparison; of verbs, conjugation. Prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections have no inflection. Declension 31. Nouns and pronouns have the same variations in use and meaning. They have variations of number, person, sex or gender, and word relationship or case; these four uses of the noun and pronoun are called their properties. 32. Number is the property of nouns and pronouns which denotes one or more than one. EXAMPLES: bell, bells; ox, oxen; man, men; he, they. 33. Person is the property of pronouns which denotes the speaker, or the first person; the person spoken to, or the second person; and the person spoken of, or the third person. EXAMPLES: I, you, he; we, you, they. Person is only indirectly a property of nouns, as when a personal pronoun stands with the name of a person: "I, John was in the isle that is called Patmos." In this case John is of the first person because it means the same person as I, the speaker. 34. Gender is the property of nouns and pronouns which denotes sex or the absence of sex. EXAMPLES: actor, actress; boy, girl; he, she; book, desk, it. Most English nouns have no sex meaning. Those which have such meaning are sometimes called sexwords. The pronoun always carefully distinguishes sex when it represents the name of a person. 35. Case is the property of nouns and pronouns which denotes their relation to other words in the sentence. Most of these relations are expressed by the position of the noun or by the use of prepositional phrases. Possession is frequently expressed by change of form, but this relation may be expressed also by the prepositional phrase; as, John, John's; man, man's; boys, boys'; life of man, man's life; address of Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith's address. The case relations of pronouns are usually indicated by inflection, rarely by the prepositional phrase; as, I, my or mine; we, our or ours; he, his. Comparison 36. The inflection of adjectives and adverbs is called comparison. The form is changed to indicate the different degrees of the quality expressed by the adjective or the adverb; as, large, larger, largest; good, better, best; brightly, more brightly, most brightly. Conjugation 37. The inflection of verbs is called conjugation. The verb has variations of form to indicate (1) whether the subject acts or is acted upon; (2) the manner of the action; (3) the time of the action; (4) the number; and (5) the person of the subject. These uses are the properties of the verb, viz., (1) voice, (2) mode, (3) tense, (4) number, (5) person. 38. Voice is the property of verbs which shows whether the subject acts or receives the action. The verb asserts an action as done either by the subject or to the subject; as, James sees. James is seen. We sent. We had been sent. 39. Mode is the property of verbs which shows the manner of the action asserted by the verb. The change in the manner of assertion causes some change of verb form, but is expressed chiefly by word order or by the use of conjunctions or auxiliaries with the verb; as, You go; go thou; if you go. 40. Tense is the property of verbs which denotes time. Variation of time is expressed by change of verb phrase or verb form; as, see, saw, shall see, have seen, had seen. 41. Number has the same significance with the verb as with the noun, but change of number in the verb is due wholly to a change in the number of its subject. In most cases the form of the verb remains the same and number can be determined only from the form of the noun; as, |