CRITICAL GRAMMAR OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. BOOK THIRD. SYNTAX. CHAPTER I. SENTENCES. § 694. SYNTAX () is that department of grammar whose object is to investigate and exhibit the laws followed by lan. guage in connecting and arranging its materials, viz. words, for the correct expression of thought and feeling in all their varieties. Syntax then differs from Etymology in this, that while the latter treats both of the formation of the various species of words considered as individual existences, and of the changes they undergo, the former shows on what occasions and for what purposes these changes are made use of in the course of rational speech, and how all the modes and relations of thought may be expressed by the combinations of words with one another aided by their inflections. Accordingly Syntax, which discusses the laws that regulate the entire structure of language, is a far higher and more complicated branch of grammatical science than Etymology, which relates merely to its materials in their unconnected state. § 695. The order followed in the treatment of Syntax should be made conformable to that of the operations of the human mind, which language is designed to represent; and these are essentially progres. sive, passing by easy gradations from the simple perception of an object to the formation of the most complicated judgments respecting it. The expression of these different modes of perception and judg. ment gives rise to a great variety in the forms of sentences; but they may all be reduced to the simple fact, that something is declared of something: hence the two principal members of every sentence are the something declared, called in grammar the predicate (id quod prædicatum est) or statement, and the something concerning which a declaration is made, called the subject (id quod prædicato subjectum est) or foundation of discourse. Such a declaration of something concerning something, or in other words, an expression containing a grammatical subject and predicate, is termed a proposition. Propositions are of various kinds, according as these principal terms remain simple in their nature, or are specified and extended in a multitude of ways. § 696. It is the business of Syntax to trace all these species of propositions through their manifold ramifications, and explain their construction down to the minutest points; observing, as we have said, to follow the order pursued by nature in producing them. Now as the mind must first have a perception of a thing before it can form a judgment respecting it, and as the perception of some. thing necessarily involves the fact of its existence, the first and simplest kind of proposition is that which affirms the existence of something. After becoming cognizant of the existence of something, the mind by a further operation ascertains the manner in which its existence is manifested, that is, it perceives what attributes are proper to it besides that of its mere existence; and from the declaration of these further perceptions results that infinite variety of propositions, declaratory of every possible form of existence, which is to be found in language. Simple Propositions. § 697. The simplest kind of proposition then, and that with the consideration of which Syntax should commence, is one that affirms the existence of something. The name of this something whose existence is affirmed, or in other words, the subject of the proposition, must be the representative of a member of the material or immaterial world, that is to say, a concrete or abstract noun (§ 490). This must be considered with respect to its inherent or subjective quality called gender, which in Hebrew is either masculine, feminine, or common (i. e. which may be viewed as masculine or feminine); and likewise as to its accidental or objective quality called number, which may be either singular, plural, or common (the latter is the case with collective nouns, which are viewed sometimes as singular and sometimes as plural). § 698. In Hebrew the predication of existence is made in the following ways. 1. a. By the particle (lit. existence, being), used as an impersonal verb, equivalent to there exists, there is. This word when closely connected to a noun, predicates existence of the object denoted by such noun, that is, affirms it to exist, e. g. there is a prophet in Israel, 2 Kings 5:8., right way, Prov. 14: 12., 11:18. Eccl. 5 : 12., 8 DI there is a there is hope, Prov. 19: 18. Job there are righteous men, Eccl. 8 : 14. b. As affirms existence absolutely, it is not subject to any change as respects gender, number, or person; the noun whose existence it declares forms its complement, and, by designating the object of which existence is predicated, specifies it in the manner of a noun placed with another in regimen. This is proved also by the fact that takes the pronominal suffixes to indicate such object, e. g. thou art, Gen. 43: 4. Judg. 6: 31., it he is, Deut. 29: 14. 1 Sam. 14:39. 23:23., you are, Gen. 24: 49.* 2. a. The corresponding negative is made by the particle (lit. non-existence, nothing), which in construction with a following noun assumes the form 7 (§ 569. d. note), and is thus used as an impersonal verb, equivalent to there is not, instead of te. g. 7 there was no king in Israel, Judg. 21: 25., there is no God, Ps. 14: 1. 53: 1., mynbaa nnbuy there is no discharge in the war, Eccl. 8: 8.. □ □ 18 there were no graves in Egypt, Ex. 14: 11. This particle also like takes the ⚫ It also appears followed by the illustrative particle, which serves to point out the noun to which the predication of existence refers, e. g. Da N, ON if it be your desire, Gen. 23 : 8. The expression, although almost entirely supplanted by its equivalent 7, appears in Job 9: 33. In biblical Chaldee (3) is the com mon formula for the denial of existence, being synonymous with the Hebrew, there is not a man, Dan. 2: 10.; the same may also be said of e. g. the Chaldee or, the Syriac , and the Arabic and Ý, where the two words are fused into one. Negative verbs of existence corresponding to the above are to be found in many of the Indo-European languages, e. g. Pers. is is not, compounded of & not and is; so also Russ. niest', Angl. Sax. and Old Eng. nis or nys: these however may all be inflected to some extent. In Ps. 135: 17. we meet with the pleonastic formula . |