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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface iii
Special Features xviii
1 Introduction 1
5. 1.1 Computer Programs 2
1.2 The Anatomy of a Computer 3
CS 1 Computers Are Everywhere 5
1.3 The Python Programming Language 5
1.4 Becoming Familiar with Your Programming Environment 6
PT 1 Interactive Mode 8
PT 2 Backup Copies 9
ST 1 The Python Interpreter 10
1.5 Analyzing Your First Program 11
1.6 Errors 13
CE 1 Misspelling Words 14
1.7 PROBLEM SOLVING: Algorithm Design 15
CS 2 Data Is Everywhere 17
HT 1 Describing an Algorithm with Pseudocode 18
WE 1 Writing an Algorithm for Tiling a Floor 20
2 Programming With Numbers and Strings 23
2.1 Variables 24
Defining Variables 24
Number Types 26
Variable Names 27
Constants 28
Comments 29
CE 1 Using Undefined Variables 30
PT 1 Choose Descriptive Variable Names 30
PT 2 Do Not Use Magic Numbers 30
6. 2.2 Arithmetic 31
Basic Arithmetic Operations 31
Powers 32
Floor Division and Remainder 32
Calling Functions 33
Mathematical Functions 35
CE 2 Roundoff Errors 36
CE 3 Unbalanced Parentheses 37
PT 3 Use Spaces in Expressions 37
ST 1 Other Ways to Import Modules 38
ST 2 Combining Assignment and Arithmetic 38
ST 3 Line Joining 38
2.3 PROBLEM SOLVING: First Do It By Hand 39
WE 1 Computing Travel Time 40
2.4 Strings 41
The String Type 41
Concatenation and Repetition 42
Converting Between Numbers and Strings 43
Strings and Characters 44
String Methods 45
ST 4 Character Values 46
ST 5 Escape Sequences 47
CS 1 International Alphabets and Unicode 47
2.5 Input and Output 48
User Input 48
7. Numerical Input 49
Formatted Output 50
PT 4 Don’t Wait to Convert 53
HT 1 Writing Simple Programs 53
WE 2 Computing the Cost of Stamps 56
CS 2 Bugs in Silicon 58
2.6 GRAPHICS: Simple Drawings 58
Creating a Window 59
Lines and Polygons 60
Filled Shapes and Color 62
Ovals, Circles, and Text 64
HT 2 GRAPHICS: Drawing Graphical Shapes 65
TOOLBOX 1 Symbolic Processing with SymPy 68
3 Decisions 73
3.1 The if Statement 74
CE 1 Tabs 77
PT 1 Avoid Duplication in Branches 78
ST 1 Conditional Expressions 78
3.2 Relational Operators 79
CE 2 Exact Comparison of Floating-Point Numbers 82
ST 2 Lexicographic Ordering of Strings 82
HT 1 Implementing an if Statement 83
WE 1 Extracting the Middle 85
3.3 Nested Branches 87
PT 2 Hand-Tracing 89
8. CS 1 Dysfunctional Computerized Systems 90
3.4 Multiple Alternatives 91
TOOLBOX 1 Sending E-mail 93
3.5 PROBLEM SOLVING: Flowcharts 96
3.6 PROBLEM SOLVING: Test Cases 99
PT 3 Make a Schedule and Make Time for Unexpected Problems 100
3.7 Boolean Variables and Operators 101
CE 3 Confusing and and or Conditions 104
PT 4 Readability 104
ST 3 Chaining Relational Operators 105
ST 4 Short-Circuit Evaluation of Boolean Operators 105
ST 5 De Morgan’s Law 106
3.8 Analyzing Strings 106
3.9 APPLICATION: Input Validation 110
ST 6 Terminating a Program 112
ST 7 Interactive Graphical Programs 112
CS 2 Artificial Intelligence 113
WE 2 GRAPHICS: Intersecting Circles 113
TOOLBOX 2 Plotting Simple Graphs 117
4 Loops 125
4.1 The while Loop 126
CE 1 Don’t Think “Are We There Yet?” 130
CE 2 Infinite Loops 130
CE 3 Off-by-One Errors 131
ST 1 Special Form of the print Function 132
9. CS 1 The First Bug 132
4.2 PROBLEM SOLVING: Hand-Tracing 133
4.3 APPLICATION: Processing Sentinel Values 135
ST 2 Processing Sentinel Values with a Boolean Variable 138
ST 3 Redirection of Input and Output 138
4.4 PROBLEM SOLVING: Storyboards 139
4.5 Common Loop Algorithms 141
Sum and Average Value 141
Counting Matches 142
Prompting Until a Match is Found 142
Maximum and Minimum 142
Comparing Adjacent Values 143
4.6 The for Loop 145
PT 1 Count Iterations 148
HT 1 Writing a Loop 149
4.7 Nested Loops 152
WE 1 Average Exam Grades 155
WE 2 A Grade Distribution Histogram 157
4.8 Processing Strings 159
Counting Matches 159
Finding All Matches 160
Finding the First or Last Match 160
Validating a String 161
Building a New String 162
4.9 APPLICATION: Random Numbers and Simulations 164
10. Generating Random Numbers 164
Simulating Die Tosses 165
The Monte Carlo Method 165
WE 3 GRAPHICS: Bull’s Eye 167
4.10 GRAPHICS: Digital Image Processing 169
Filtering Images 170
Reconfiguring Images 172
4.11 PROBLEM SOLVING: Solve a Simpler Problem First 174
CS 2 Digital Piracy 180
5 Functions 183
5.1 Functions as Black Boxes 184
5.2 Implementing and Testing Functions 185
Implementing a Function 186
Testing a Function 186
Programs that Contain Functions 187
PT 1 Function Comments 189
PT 2 Naming Functions 190
5.3 Parameter Passing 190
PT 3 Do Not Modify Parameter Variables 191
CE 1 Trying to Modify Arguments 192
5.4 Return Values 192
ST 1 Using Single-Line Compound Statements 193
HT 1 Implementing a Function 194
WE 1 Generating Random Passwords 196
5.5 Functions Without Return Values 201
11. CS 1 Personal Computing 202
5.6 PROBLEM SOLVING: Reusable Functions 203
5.7 PROBLEM SOLVING: Stepwise Refinement 205
PT 4 Keep Functions Short 209
PT 5 Tracing Functions 210
PT 6 Stubs 211
WE 2 Calculating a Course Grade 211
WE 3 Using a Debugger 214
5.8 Variable Scope 219
PT 7 Avoid Global Variables 221
WE 4 GRAPHICS: Rolling Dice 221
5.9 GRAPHICS: Building an Image Processing Toolkit 224
Getting Started 224
Comparing Images 225
Adjusting Image Brightness 226
Rotating an Image 227
Using the Toolkit 228
WE 5 Plotting Growth or Decay 230
5.10 Recursive Functions (Optional) 232
HT 2 Thinking Recursively 234
TOOLBOX 1 Turtle Graphics 236
LISTS 245
6.1 Basic Properties of Lists 246
Creating Lists 246
Accessing List Elements 247
12. Traversing Lists 248
List References 249
CE 1 Out-of-Range Errors 250
PT 1 Use Lists for Sequences of Related Items 250
ST 1 Negative Subscripts 250
ST 2 Common Container Functions 251
CS 1 Computer Viruses 251
6.2 List Operations 252
Appending Elements 252
Inserting an Element 253
Finding an Element 254
Removing an Element 254
Concatenation and Replication 255
Equality Testing 256
Sum, Maximum, Minimum, and Sorting 256
Copying Lists 256
ST 3 Slices 258
6.3 Common List Algorithms 259
Filling 259
Combining List Elements 259
Element Separators 260
Maximum and Minimum 260
Linear Search 261
Collecting and Counting Matches 261
Removing Matches 262
13. Swapping Elements 263
Reading Input 264
WE 1 Plotting Trigonometric Functions 265
6.4 Using Lists with Functions 268
ST 4 Call by Value and Call by Reference 271
ST 5 Tuples 271
ST 6 Functions with a Variable Number of Arguments 272
ST 7 Tuple Assignment 272
ST 8 Returning Multiple Values with Tuples 273
TOOLBOX 1 Editing Sound Files 273
6.5 PROBLEM SOLVING: Adapting Algorithms 275
HT 1 Working with Lists 276
WE 2 Rolling the Dice 278
6.6 PROBLEM SOLVING: Discovering Algorithms by Manipulating Physical Objects 282
6.7 Tables 285
Creating Tables 286
Accessing Elements 287
Locating Neighboring Elements 287
Computing Row and Column Totals 288
Using Tables with Functions 289
WE 3 A World Population Table 290
ST 9 Tables with Variable Row Lengths 292
WE 4 GRAPHICS: Drawing Regular Polygons 293
7 Files and Exceptions 299
7.1 Reading and Writing Text Files 300
14. Opening a File 300
Reading from a File 301
Writing from a File 302
A File Processing Example 302
CE 1 Backslashes in File Names 303
7.2 Text Input and Output 304
Iterating over the Lines of a File 304
Reading Words 306
Reading Characters 308
Reading Records 309
ST 1 Reading the Entire File 312
ST 2 Regular Expressions 312
ST 3 Character Encodings 313
TOOLBOX 1 Working with CSV Files 314
7.3 Command Line Arguments 316
HT 1 Processing Text Files 319
WE 1 Analyzing Baby Names 322
TOOLBOX 2 Working with Files and Directories 325
CS 1 Encryption Algorithms 327
7.4 Binary Files and Random Access (Optional) 328
Reading and Writing Binary Files 328
Random Access 329
Image Files 330
Processing BMP Files 331
WE 2 GRAPHICS: Displaying a Scene File 334
15. 7.5 Exception Handling 337
Raising Exceptions 338
Handling Exceptions 339
The finally Clause 341
PT 1 Raise Early, Handle Late 342
PT 2 Do Not Use except and finally in the Same try Statement 342
ST 4 The with Statement 343
TOOLBOX 3 Reading Web Pages 343
7.6 APPLICATION: Handling Input Errors 344
TOOLBOX 4 Statistical Analysis 348
WE 3 Creating a Bubble Chart 352
CS 2 The Ariane Rocket Incident 355
8 Sets and Dictionaries 357
8.1 Sets 358
Creating and Using Sets 358
Adding and Removing Elements 359
Subsets 360
Set Union, Intersection, and Difference 361
WE 1 Counting Unique Words 364
PT 1 Use Python Sets, Not Lists, for Efficient Set
Operations 366
ST 1 Hashing 367
CS 1 Standardization 368
8.2 Dictionaries 368
Creating Dictionaries 369
16. Accessing Dictionary Values 370
Adding and Modifying Items 370
Removing Items 371
Traversing a Dictionary 372
ST 2 Iterating over Dictionary Items 374
ST 3 Storing Data Records 375
WE 2 Translating Text Messages 375
8.3 Complex Structures 378
A Dictionary of Sets 378
A Dictionary of Lists 381
ST 4 User Modules 383
WE 3 GRAPHICS: Pie Charts 384
TOOLBOX 1 Harvesting JSON Data from the Web 388
9 Objects and Classes 393
9.1 Object-Oriented Programming 394
9.2 Implementing a Simple Class 396
9.3 Specifying the Public Interface of a Class 399
9.4 Designing the Data Representation 401
PT 1 Make All Instance Variables Private, Most Methods Public 402
9.5 Constructors 402
CE 1 Trying to Call a Constructor 404
ST 1 Default and Named Arguments 404
9.6 Implementing Methods 405
PT 2 Define Instance Variables Only in the Constructor 407
ST 2 Class Variables 408
17. 9.7 Testing a Class 409
HT 1 Implementing a Class 410
WE 1 Implementing a Bank Account Class 414
9.8 PROBLEM SOLVING: Tracing Objects 416
9.9 PROBLEM SOLVING: Patterns for Object Data 419
Keeping a Total 419
Counting Events 420
Collecting Values 420
Managing Properties of an Object 421
Modeling Objects with Distinct States 421
Describing the Position of an Object 422
9.10 Object References 423
Shared References 424
The None Reference 425
The self Reference 426
The Lifetime of Objects 426
CS 1 Electronic Voting 427
9.11 APPLICATION: Writing a Fraction Class 428
Fraction Class Design 428
The Constructor 429
Special Methods 430
Arithmetic Operations 432
Logical Operations 433
ST 3 Object Types and Instances 435
WE 2 GRAPHICS: A Die Class 436
18. CS 2 Open Source and Free Software 439
10 Inheritance 443
10.1 Inheritance Hierarchies 444
PT 1 Use a Single Class for Variation in Values, Inheritance for Variation in Behavior 447
ST 1 The Cosmic Superclass: object 447
10.2 Implementing Subclasses 449
CE 1 Confusing Super- and Subclasses 451
10.3 Calling the Superclass Constructor 452
10.4 Overriding Methods 455
CE 2 Forgetting to Use the super Function When Invoking a Superclass Method 458
10.5 Polymorphism 458
ST 2 Subclasses and Instances 461
ST 3 Dynamic Method Lookup 461
ST 4 Abstract Classes 462
CE 3 Don’t Use Type Tests 463
HT 1 Developing an Inheritance Hierarchy 463
WE 1 Implementing an Employee Hierarchy for Payroll Processing 468
10.6 APPLICATION: A Geometric Shape Class Hierarchy 472
The Base Class 472
Basic Shapes 474
Groups of Shapes 477
TOOLBOX 1 Game Programming 480
11 Recursion 489
11.1 Triangle Numbers Revisited 490
CE 1 Infinite Recursion 493
19. ST 1 Recursion with Objects 493
11.2 PROBLEM SOLVING: Thinking Recursively 494
WE 1 Finding Files 497
11.3 Recursive Helper Functions 498
11.4 The Efficiency of Recursion 499
11.5 Permutations 504
CS 1 The Limits of Computation 506
11.6 Backtracking 508
WE 2 Towers of Hanoi 512
11.7 Mutual Recursion 515
TOOLBOX 1 Analyzing Web Pages with Beautiful Soup 519
12 Sorting and Searching 525
12.1 Selection Sort 526
12.2 Profiling the Selection Sort Algorithm 528
12.3 Analyzing the Performance of the Selection Sort Algorithm 530
ST 1 Oh, Omega, and Theta 531
ST 2 Insertion Sort 532
12.4 Merge Sort 534
12.5 Analyzing the Merge Sort Algorithm 536
ST 3 The Quicksort Algorithm 538
CS 1 The First Programmer 540
12.6 Searching 541
Linear Search 541
Binary Search 542
12.7 PROBLEM SOLVING: Estimating the Running Time of an Algorithm 544
20. Linear Time 545
Quadratic Time 546
The Triangle Pattern 547
Logarithmic Time 548
PT 1 Searching and Sorting 549
ST 4 Comparing Objects 549
WE 1 Enhancing the Insertion Sort Algorithm 549
Appendix A Python Operator Summary A-1
Appendix B Python Reserved Word Summary A-3
Appendix C The Python Standard Library A-5
Appendix D The Basic Latin and Latin-1 Subsets of Unicode A-22
Appendix E Binary Numbers and Bit Operations*
Appendix F HTML Summary*
Glossary R-1
Index R-6
Credits R-22
Quick Reference R-23
22. following specimens of ‘doublets’ which he gives: from BATTUERE,
Low Latin for ‘to fight,’ he derived both battre (to fight) and tuer (to
kill): from GRAVIS (heavy), grave, serious; brave, brave: from MARMOR
(marble), marble, marble; marmot, guinea-pig.137 A. Brachet has
collected many other specimens in the work cited below: Coelho has
made a collection from the Portuguese in the Romania, II. 281,
sqq.138
It must, however, be noticed that many of the doublets cited in
these works stand outside of the class of those with which we have
to deal, and such cannot be taken as real cases of differentiation.
For instance, a loan word may immediately upon its introduction
have been accepted in a sense different from that borne by the word
of the same origin which already existed in the language: as in the
case of chantée (sung, fem. past part.) and cantata (cantata, a piece
which is sung, as distinguished from a sonata, a piece which is
sounded or played), borrowed from the Italian by the French; of
sexte (term in music and ‘the sixth book’) with its doublet sieste (the
hour of rest) borrowed from the Spanish siesta, both derived from
the Latin sextam; of façon (manner) with its doublet fashion,
borrowed from the English, both from Latin factionem, ‘a making.’
Thus, again, the French chose (a thing) and cause (a cause) alike
owe their origin to the Latin causam, but the meanings were not
differentiated in France: cause was borrowed as a law-term long
after chose had developed into the general meaning of thing. It is
the same, moreover, with such English doublets as ticket, etiquette:
army, armada: orison, oration: penance, penitence. Such doublets
as these, and guitar, zither, cithara may be called pseudo-doublets,
producing as they do the effect of differentiation, but serving really
as labels to designate a foreign idea or object. Nor, again, must we
include cases in which a word became grammatically isolated and
then received a special meaning; such as where ‘bescheiden,’ in
German, is now employed with the signification of ‘modest,’ while
‘beschieden’ is used as the true participial form, and never means, or
has meant, ‘modest.’ Similarly, in French, we have savant (a scholar)
originally used as synonymous with present participle sachant
23. (knowing) but in modern French as an adjective or noun only, whilst
sachant has always remained present participle and no more:
amant, the present participle of amare (to love) is used as a
substantive only.139
There are, however, other cases in which words are really
differentiated; that is to say, cases in which two words, whose
meaning we know to have been identical, have come to be accepted
in different meanings. This is a genuine process of economy in
language. In French s’attaquer à and s’attacher à at one time were
used with identically the same meaning and employed indifferently.
Attaquer is used in the sense of ‘attacher’ in this line of the
fourteenth century—Une riche escarboucle le mantel ataqua (‘a rich
carbuncle attached (= held) the mantel’) (Bauduin de Sebourc, i.
370). On the other hand, attacher is used in the sense of ‘to attack:’
as in the following passage, quoted by M. Brachet140 from a letter of
Calvin to the regent of England,—Tous ensemble méritent bien
d’estre réprimés par le glayve qui vous est commis, veu qu’ils
s’attaschent non seulement au roy, mais à Dieu qui l’a assis au siège
royal, = ‘All together deserve to be put down by the sword which
has been entrusted to you, seeing that they attack not merely the
King, but God who has set him on the royal seat.’ (Lettres de Calvin
recueillies par M. Bonnet, ii. 201). In modern French attacher is used
exclusively in the sense of ‘to attach’ ‘to fasten;’ attaquer = ‘to
attack.’ Another instance is found in chaire and chaise, both of which
words came into French from cathedram, and both of which once
signified the same thing (Theodore Beza, in 1530, complains of the
faulty pronunciation of the Parisians who say chaise instead of
chaire). At the present day, of course, chaise means ‘chair,’ and
chaire is confined to the signification of ‘pulpit’ or ‘professor’s chair.’
In English, shoal and shallow seem to have been used
synonymously, and to have become differentiated.141 Other
instances are of, off; naught, not; assay, essay; upset, set up;
Master, Mister (Mr.); Miss, Mistress, Mrs. (pronounced Missus). In
these cases, the differentiation took place within the given language;
and such cases should be carefully distinguished from those cases in
24. which the differentiation was made outside of the language. For
instance, in squandered and scatter, both of which seem to have
signified the same thing, simply ‘to disperse’; cf., squandered abroad
(Merchant of Venice, I. iii. 22). Indict and indite seem to have borne
the same meaning, but are now differentiated.
To these may be added the German doublets reiter (a rider) and
ritter (a knight), which may be paralleled by the use of the English
squire and esquire; of which the latter word has lately come into use
simply as a title of society, whereas both forms were once used as in
Scott’s nine and twenty squires of fame. Other instances are
scheuen, ‘to fear,’ and scheuchen, ‘to scare:’ jungfrau, ‘maiden,’ and
jungfer, ‘virgin.’
Double forms arising from the confusion of different methods of
declension are often used in different senses, as in the case of the
Latin locus, whose plurals loca and loci mean ‘places,’ and ‘passages
in books’ respectively: the German Franke, the Franconian franken,
‘a franc’ (9½d.): this difference is utilised, together with a difference
of gender, in the German der lump, ‘the worthless fellow;’ die lumpe,
‘the rag;’ etc. The difference of gender cannot be utilised in English,
but is thus utilised—in German—in such cases as DER band, ‘volume;’
DAS band, ‘ribbon:’ DER see, ‘the lake;’ DIE see, ‘the sea:’ DIE
erkenntniss, ‘the act of judging;’ DAS erkenntniss ‘the judgment:’—in
French, UN foudre de guerre, ‘a thunderbolt of war’ (personified);
UNE foudre, ‘a thunderbolt:’ UN critique, ‘a critic;’ UNE critique, ‘a
criticism:’ UN office, ‘a duty;’ UNE office, ‘a pantry:’ LE mémoire,
‘memorandum;’ LA mémoire, ‘memory:’ LE politique, ‘politician;’ LA
politique, ‘politics:’ LE Bourgogne, ‘Burgundy wine;’ LA Bourgogne,
‘Burgundy:’ LE paille, ‘straw colour;’ LA paille, ‘the straw.’ To these
must be added the cases in which double plural formations are
differentiated, as in English clothes, cloths; brothers, brethren; cows,
kine (poetical); pence, pennies:—in German, Band, ‘bond’ and
‘ribbon;’ Bande, ‘bonds:’ Bänder, ‘ribbons:’ Bank, ‘bench’ and ‘bank;’
Bänke, ‘benches;’ Banken, ‘banks:’ Gesicht, ‘face’ and ‘vision;’
Gesichte, ‘vision;’ Gesichter, ‘faces:’ Laden, ‘shop’ and ‘shutter;’
25. Läden, ‘shops;’ Laden, ‘shutters:’ etc.142 In French, we have l’aïeul,
‘the grandfather;’ les aïeux, ‘ancestors;’ and aïeuls, ‘grandfathers:’
les travaux, ‘works;’ and les travails, ‘a minister’s reports:’ l’œil, ‘eye;’
les yeux, ‘eyes;’ and les œils (small oval windows commonly called
œils de bœuf). The singular appât means ‘bait;’ les appas signifies
‘charms,’ and has a doublet, les appâts, meaning ‘baits.’ In Russian,
the accusative plural is the same as the nominative in the case of
inanimate objects: it is in the case of animate beings identical with
the genitive form. In Dutch, the plurals in -en and -s are used in the
case of some words indifferently, as vogelen and vogels, ‘birds:’ in
the case of some others, one alone is commonly used, as engelen,
‘angels,’ but pachters, ‘farmers:’ again, in the case of others, both
forms are used, but with different meanings; thus hemelen, ‘the
heavens;’ but hemels, ‘canopies of a bed:’ letteren, ‘letters,’ or
‘literature;’ letters, ‘letters of the alphabet;’ etc. From the Danish, we
may cite skatte, ‘treasures;’ skatter, ‘taxes;’ vaaben, ‘weapons;’
vaabener, ‘armorial bearings.’ From Italian, we may instance braccia,
‘the two arms of the body;’ bracci, ‘arms of the sea;’ membra, ‘the
members of the body;’ membri, ‘the members of an association.’
Similarly, in Spanish the neuter of the second declension takes in
many cases a feminine form in the plural; and in Portuguese this
manner of differentiation is more common than in any other
European language: cf. serra, ‘saw,’ ‘mountain ridge;’ serro, ‘a high
mountain;’ etc. In Russian, synovya means ‘descendants’; synui,
‘sons;’ etc. The words (to) purvey and (to) provide have arisen from
the same original form, as have respect and respite; deploy and
display; separate and sever.
The word as, like also, took its rise from the A.S. ealswâ; it is simply
a short form of also; and an intermediate form exists in O.E. alse
and als. In Maundeville, p. 153, we find the two forms used
convertibly: As foule as thei ben, als evele thei ben = so evil they
are; and again, als longe as here vitaylles lasten, thei may abide
there, p. 130.
26. Than and thanne were used in Chaucer’s time where we should use
then: Now thanne, put thyn hond down at my bak (Chaucer, Cant.
Tales, 7721); and in comparisons then was used where we should
employ than, as: ‘I am greater then (i.e. than) you.’
In German, the word verdorben means ‘spoiled’ in a material sense:
verderbt is employed in a moral sense only. It is the same with
bewegt, ‘moved,’ and bewogen, ‘induced.’ In English we employ
aged mostly as a participle proper, but agèd as an adjective; cf. also
molten and melted.
The words formed with the suffixes -hood, -ness, -dom generally
cover the same ground in English as in Anglo-Saxon. There are,
however, here also, a few cases in which differentiation seems to
have set in. Such are hardihood and hardiness; humble-hede,
humble-ness, humility: young-hede, youth. In German, kleinheit and
neuheit were used convertibly with kleinigkeit and neuigkeit: now
the former = smallness, newness, the latter = trifle, novelty.
In the case of adjectives, we may see the same process in mobile,
movable: and in German, in ernstlich and ernsthaft which were once
used convertibly, but are now differentiated.
Sometimes a word originally of a different meaning encroaches on
the domain of another word, and gradually arrogates the latter’s
meaning to itself. Thus, in French, the meaning of en, the form
taken in French for the Latin in, has been encroached upon by the
preposition à, and by the adverb dans (O.Fr. denz = de intus), and
dans has completely ousted the prepositional meaning of dedans.
Molière could still write dedans ma poche = ‘in my pocket.’ Böse, in
German, is now almost restricted to the sense of ‘morally bad’ by the
encroachments of schlecht (originally ‘smooth,’ ‘straight’) English
slight. The English word sick, once the general word for ill, has been
restricted in meaning by the encroachments of the latter word.
27. Sometimes a newly formed word encroaches on the domain of
meaning covered by a word in existence, as to utilise on to use;
serviceable upon useful; gentlemanly upon genteel and gentle;
magnificence on munificence:143 mainly is encroached upon by
chiefly, pursuer by persecutor and prosecutor: and sometimes it
practically ousts it from its previous meaning, as in the case of
methodist, naturalist, purist, etc.
The above examples may serve to show us some of the main factors
in the differentiation of meaning, and with how little conscious
design on the part of the speakers they were carried out.
28. CHAPTER XV.
CATEGORIES: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
The divisions into which grammarians have distributed words, such
as gender, number, and, in the case of verbs, voice and tense, are
based upon the function which each word discharges in the
sentence. Now, these functional differences rest ultimately upon
psychological categories: that is to say, upon differences which
depend upon the view taken by our mind of the natural grouping
and classification of ideas. In other words, the divisions formed by
grammarians depend ultimately upon the classification of the
relations in which the ideas suggested by words stand to each other,
as it appears to our imagination. Grammatical classification was, in
fact, originally nothing but an attempt to express and group the
order and connection of ideas as they were conceived of by the
human mind. Immediately that this influence of imagination has
made itself felt in the usage of language, it becomes a grammatical
factor: and the groups which it forms become grammatical
categories. But the action of the psychological category does not
cease when it has thus produced the grammatical; and the
difference between the two kinds is that, whereas the grammatical
categories become, so to speak, stereotyped and fixed, those
created by the imagination are ever changing; just as the human
mind itself is ever changing its ideas. Besides this, changes in sound-
groups are always occurring, and are constantly operating to prevent
the grammatical categories coinciding with the psychological. Then,
as a tendency makes itself felt to bring about a coincidence of the
two categories, the grammatical category suffers a displacement,
whence arise what we are accustomed to call grammatical
irregularities. A consideration of the way in which these irregularities
29. arise may help us to understand the origin of the grammatical
categories, to which we now proceed.
Gender.
The foundation of grammatical gender is the natural distinction
between the sexes in mankind and animals. Fancy may endow other
objects or qualities with sex; but sex, whether fanciful or real, has
no proper connection with grammar. The truth of this may be well
seen from the English language, in which we have in most cases
discarded the use of grammatical gender. In order, therefore, to
study the conditions of gender, we have to turn to languages more
highly inflected than English.
The test whereby we now recognise the grammatical gender of a
substantive is the concord existing between the substantive and its
attribute and predicate, or between it and a pronoun representing it
—Domus nigra est, ‘The house is black;’ Domus quam vidi, ‘The
house which I saw;’ It is the moon; I ken her horn (Burns); etc. The
rise, therefore, of grammatical gender is closely connected with the
appearance of a variable adjective and pronoun. One theory to
explain this is, that the difference in form, before it yet marked the
gender, had become attached to a particular stem-ending: as if, e.g.,
all stems ending in n- admitted the ending -us—as bonus, ‘good,’—
and all those in g- the ending -ra—as nigra, ‘black;’—and that the
ending may have been an independent word which, while yet
independent, had acquired a reference to a male or female.144
Gender appears in English, in the first place, as an artificial and
often arbitrary personification, as when the sun and moon are
spoken of as he and she respectively, under the influence of the
ideas attaching to Sol and Luna: Phœbus and Diana, etc.: and,
again, as an expression of interest in objects or animals, it
frequently occurs in the language of the people and of children;
though it sometimes enters into the language of common life, as
30. when a dog is referred to as he and a cat as she, in cases where sex
is not spoken of. (See Storm, die lebende Sprache, p. 418.)
In the pronoun, as in the adjective, the distinction of gender may
appear in the stem-ending: as ‘une’ (‘one,’ ‘a’); ‘quæ,’ (‘which’). It
may, however, also be expressed by distinct roots, such as er, sie; he
and she. It is, indeed, probably in substantive pronouns that
grammatical gender was first developed, as in fact it has longest
maintained itself; as in English, where, in adjectives and nouns, it
has almost entirely disappeared.
Grammatical gender probably corresponded originally to natural sex.
Exceptions to this rule must gradually have come about, partly
through changes of meaning setting in,—as where a word is used
metaphorically, like love (neuter, abstract), love (masc. or fem.—‘the
beloved object’); or where it has ‘occasionally’ modified its meaning,
like Fr. le guide, strictly ‘the guidance,’ and so used in Old French;
your fatherhoods (Ben Jonson). Consequently we find natural sex
again influencing the genders as fixed by grammar. Thus, in German,
Die hässlichste meiner kammermädchen = ‘the ugliest of my
chambermaids’ (Wieland), where the article die is of the feminine
gender, though the word kammermädchen, being a diminutive in
chen is, like all others of that class, neuter. In French, we have UNE
(fem.) brave enfant, ‘a brave girl.’ The word gens, again, is, properly
speaking, feminine, like the word la gent, which still survives in the
restricted sense of ‘a race:’ but in combinations like ‘tous les braves
gens’ (‘all worthy people’) the grammatical gender is neglected; and
this neglect is fostered by the use of such a word as braves, which in
form might apply to either sex. On the other hand, in combinations
like ‘les bonnes gens,’ (‘good people’), where an adjective with a
specifically feminine termination is joined to the substantive, the
grammatical gender maintains itself. Cf., also, instances like ‘un
enseigne’ (‘an ensign’), ‘un trompette’ (‘a trumpeter’); and, in
Provençal, ‘lo poestat,’ for ‘the magistrate’ (‘il podestà’). In Latin and
Greek, these so-called violations of the concord in gender are very
common; we are familiar with them as constructions πρός σύνεσιν,
31. i.e. according to the sense; cf. Thracum auxilia (neuter) ... cæsi
(masc.) (Tac., Ann., iv. 48), ‘The Thracian auxiliaries were killed;’
Capita (neut.) conjurationis virgis cæsi (masc.) ac securi percussi
(masc.) (Livy, x. 1), ‘The heads of the conspiracy were slain and
their heads cut off;’ Septem millia (neut.) hominum in naves
impositos (masc.) (Livy, xl. 41), ‘Seven thousand men put on board
ships;’ Hi (masc.) summo in fluctu pendent ... tres Notus abreptas
(i.e. naves—fem.) in saxa latentia torquet (Vergil, Æn., i. 106-8),
‘Some (of the ships) hang on the crest of the waves ...; three, swept
away, the South wind whirls upon hidden rocks.’ In Greek, ὦ φίλτατ’,
ὦ περισσὰ τιμηθεὶς (masc.) τεκνον (neut.) (Eur., Tro. 735), ‘O
dearest, O much honoured child;’ τὰ τέλη (neut.) καταβάντας
(masc.) (Thuc., IV. xv. 1), ‘The magistrates having descended:’ and
similar instances frequently in Thucydides.
We next find cases where the grammatical gender has completely
changed. Thus, in Greek, masculine designations of persons and
animals are turned into feminines by simply referring them to female
objects: thus, we have either ὁ or ἡ ἄγγελος (‘messenger’),
διδάσκαλος (‘teacher’), ἰατρός, (‘healer’), τύραννος (‘ruler’), ἔλαφος
(‘deer’), ἵππος (‘horse’ or ‘mare’), etc. In Christian times, a form ὁ
παρθένος (‘an unmarried man’) was constructed (Apocal., xiv. 4),
translated into Italian by Vergine. Neuter diminutives in German
readily become masculine or feminine when the diminutive meaning
has been obscured: as, e.g., the occasional construction die
Fräulein, ‘the young lady;’ cf., also, in Latin, Glycerium mea,
Philematium mea (Plaut., Most., I. iii. 96), mea Gymnasium (Plaut.,
Cist., I. i. 2). In English, there are a great number of words which
would, in the first instance, be thought of as masculines, as
containing a suffix commonly associated with masculine words.
These are, however, very frequently used as feminines; and, in some
cases, even when a feminine termination exists side by side with the
masculine one—as, She is heir of Naples (Shakespeare, Tempest, II.
i.): others are enemy, rival, novice, astronomer, beggar, teacher,
botanist, etc. Cf. she is a peasant (Longfellow); The slave loves her
master (Lord Byron); His only heir a princess (Temp., I. 2); She is his
32. only heir (Much Ado, I. i.); The daughter and heir of Leonato (ibid.,
I. iii.); She alone is heir to both of us (ibid., V. i.); etc.
If collectives or descriptions of qualities become descriptions of
persons, the result may be a change of gender. The Fr. le garde (‘the
watchman’) was once identical with la garde (‘the watch,’ vigiliæ); cf.
further, in Spanish, el cura (‘the priest’), el justicia (‘the magistrate’):
the Old Bulgarian junota (‘youth’), as a masculine, means ‘a youth.’
The Russian Golova means ‘a head,’ and, in the masculine, ‘a
conductor.’ Portuguese furnishes numerous instances of this; as, a
bolsa (fem.), ‘the purse,’ ‘exchange;’ o bolsa (masc.), ‘the treasurer:’
a corneta, ‘the cornet;’ o corneta, ‘the trumpeter:’ a lingua, ‘the
tongue;’ o lingua, ‘the interpreter:’ etc.145 In Italian, podestà
(‘magistrate’) is an instance of this. Feminine surnames, again, are
frequently added to masculine personal names: cf. Latin Alauda,
Capella, Stella; Ital. Colonna, Rosa, Barbarossa, Malespina, etc. So,
in French, we find names like Jean Marie.
A word often takes a particular gender from the fact that it belongs
to a particular category. The gender of the type of the species, in
fact, fixes the gender for other members classed with it. Thus, in
English, the word for beast comes from the O.Fr. beste (bête), which
is feminine: but this word, and the names of beasts generally, are
treated in poetry as masculines, because the Teutonic usage is to
treat beasts generally as masculine. Cf. The beast is laid down in his
lair (Cowper); And when a beste is deed he ne hath no peyne
(Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 1321); The forest’s leaping panther shall hide
his spotted hide (Bryant). Numerous other instances are given by
Mätzner.146 It is probable that personification aids in fixing the
gender in these cases. Similarly, in French, été (‘summer’), from
æstatem, has become masculine because the other seasons of the
year were masculine. Minuit (‘midnight’) has followed midi
(‘midday’); val (‘valley’) has followed mont (‘mountain’), font (‘fount’)
fontaine (‘fountain’); aigle (‘eagle’) is masculine because oiseau
(‘bird’) is masculine; brebis (‘wether’) is feminine because ovis
(‘sheep’) is feminine; sort (‘lot’) is masculine because bonheur
33. (‘happiness’) is masculine; art (‘art’) is masculine because métier
(‘profession’) is masculine: mer (‘sea’) is feminine because terra
(‘land’) is feminine. In German, again, the names of Tiber and Rhone
have followed the model of most German river names, and appear
as feminine. In Greek, many names of plants and trees have become
feminine, following the model of δρῦς (‘tree’) and βοτάνη (‘grass’);
cf. ὁ κύανος (‘steel’), ἡ κύανος (‘the corn-flower’), so called from a
fancied resemblance between the plant and the metal. Towns, again,
in Greek, show an inclination to follow the gender of πόλις, ‘a city:’
cf. ἡ Κέραμος, from ὁ κέραμος, ‘clay;’ ἡ Κισσός, from ὁ κισσός, ‘ivy;’
ἡ Μάραθος, from ὁ μόραθος, ‘fennel.’
In other cases formal reasons have brought about a change in
gender. We have a striking example of this in the feminine gender
assumed by abstract nouns in -or in the Romance languages, to
which flos (‘flower’) has also added itself. The fact was felt that most
abstract substantives were feminine, e.g. those terminating in -tas, -
tus, -tudo, -tio, -itia, -ia; and, especially, the feminine termination -
ura sometimes was employed as an alternative to -or; cf. pavor
(‘fear’), Ital. paura. Again, in Latin, words in -a, when these were
not, like poeta, the names of males, were commonly feminine.
Consequently, we find that Greek neuters in -μα appear in popular
Latin as feminines, a gender which they have in many cases
preserved in the Romance languages. Examples of this are seen in
schème, dogme, diademe, anagramme, énigme, épigramme, etc. In
the same way, in Modern Greek, the old Greek feminines in -ος have
in many cases became masculine, as ὁ πλάτανος, ὁ κυπάρισσος, ‘the
plain,’ ‘the cypress.’
Sometimes the termination appears altered to suit the gender; thus
the Lat. socrus (‘a father-in-law’) produces the Spanish word suegra
(‘a mother-in-law’): and, again, sometimes the traditional was the
natural gender; and this was an additional reason why the word
should alter its termination, instead of being modified by the gender,
—thus, in Greek, the α stems which have become masculine, like
34. νεανίας (‘a youth’), have adopted the characteristic s of the
masculine nominative.
The way in which natural gender, as viewed by imagination, has
affected grammatical gender may be well seen in English. The
personal pronouns give the only real traces of grammatical gender
left in English, he, she, it; his, her, its, etc. On the other hand,
substantives are very commonly referred to one sex or another by
writers, and to some extent personified. In these cases sometimes a
faint tradition of their Anglo-Saxon gender seems to have lingered,
as when, for instance, mammals and reptiles are in poetry spoken of
as masculine; e.g., Like the roe (A.S. rá, fem.) when he hears
(Longfellow); I have seen the hyena’s (Lat. and Fr. fem.) eyes of
flame, and heard at my side his stealthy tread (Bryant). Birds, on the
other hand, are treated very often as feminines, irrespective of the
grammatical gender possessed by their Anglo-Saxon or French
original; cf. But the sea-fowl has gone to her nest (Cowper); A bird
betrays her nest by striving to conceal it (Byron); Jealous as the
eagle of her high aiery (ibid.); The raven flaps her wing (ibid.); A
hawk hits her prey (Halliwell, s.v. ruff); The swan rows her state
(Milton).
We must mention one more point which ought not to be overlooked,
though, owing to the scanty survival of grammatical gender in
modern English, it cannot easily be illustrated by English examples.
We have indicated some of the causes which have been active in
producing a change of gender; but, besides these, there is a
negative one, viz., the absence of impediment to such change,
which, in a certain sense, may be said to have contributed to the
same effect. The distinction in gender which is even yet marked in
French and German by the different forms of the singular article (le,
der, masc.; la, die, fem.; das, neut.) has long since disappeared in
the plural. We find les, die for all genders. And hence it is clear that
such words as were most frequently used in the plural were least
closely associated with a particular gender, and were therefore more
especially amenable to the influence of any force tending to group
35. them with words of a gender different from their own. For instance,
most feminine nouns in German form their plural by adding -en to
the singular, while few masculine and only six or seven neuter nouns
do the like; as a result of which many nouns, formerly masculine,
are now feminine, and this especially applies to cases where the
plural was in frequent use.
The neuter, the sexless, owes its origin as a grammatical category
merely to the development and differentiation of the two other
genders.
Number.
As in the case of gender, so, before number passed into a
grammatical category, concord must have been developed. Even in
languages which, like English, would naturally express the plural by
some plural termination, we find words denoting a plurality, and,
indeed, a definite number, conceived and spoken of as a unity. Such
are a pair, a leash, a brace, a triplet, a trio, a quartette, a dozen, a
score.
We find similar cases in the most varied languages: cf. the Fr. une
dizaine (‘a collection of ten’), une douzaine (‘a dozen’), centaine (‘a
collection of a hundred’), etc.; Ital. una diecina, dozzina, etc.; trave,
in Danish, means ‘a score of corn sheaves;’ schock, in German,
means ‘sixty;’ tchetvero, in Russian, means ‘a set of four.’ We may
add, the curious Latin word quimatus, ‘the age of five years.’
Thus, in like manner, so-called collective nouns are simply
comprehensive singular designations of plurality. Now, the speaker
or writer may choose to think of the collective of which he is
speaking as a unity or as a plurality, and the way in which he
chooses to regard it may affect the concord; nay, it may even affect
the gender.
36. The most common case is where a plural verb follows a singular
collective noun: as, ‘The whole nation seem to be running out of
their wits’ (Smollett, Humphrey Clinker); ‘The army of the Queen
mean to besiege us’ (Shakespeare, 3 Hen. VI., I. ii.);147 cf. ‘Even
until King Arthur’s table, man by man, had fallen in Lyonness about
their Lord’ (Tennyson, Idylls of the King); ‘Pars perexigua, duce
amisso, Romam inermes delati sunt’ (Livy, ii. 14) = ‘A very small
part, their leader lost, were brought unarmed to Rome;’ ‘Cetera
classis, prætoria nave amissa, fugerunt’ (Livy, xxxv. 26) = ‘The rest
of the fleet, with the loss of the prætorian ship, fled (plur.).’
Sometimes there is a mixture of singular and plural, e.g. ‘Fremit
improba plebes (sing.) Sontibus accensæ (plur.) stimulis’ (Stat.,
Theb., v. 488) = ‘The impatient people murmur (sing.), inflamed
(plur. part.) etc.:’ cf. the following examples from the Greek—Μέρος
τι (sing.) ανθρώπων οὐκ ἡγοῦνται (plur.) θεούς (Plato., Leg., 948) =
‘A portion of mankind do not believe in gods;’ Τό στράτευμα
ἐπορίζετο (sing.) σῖτον, κόπτοντες (plur.) τοὺς βοῦς καὶ ονους (Xen.,
Anab., II. i. 6) = ‘The army provided itself with food (by) cutting up
(plur. part.) the oxen and asses.’
In A.S., when ðæt or ðis is connected with a plural predicate by
means of the verb ‘to be,’ the verb is put in the plural: ‘Eall ðæt
sindon micle and egeslice dæda’ (‘All that are great and terrible
deeds.’) Conversely, where we should say ‘each of those who hear,’
the idiom in Anglo-Saxon was to say ‘each of those who hears:’ as,
‘Ælc ðára ðe ðás míne word gehyrð’ (= ‘Each of those who hears
these my words’, where the verb is made to agree, not with ðara ðe,
but with ælc. Cf. Sweet, Anglo-Saxon Reader, p. xci.).
We find many words so commonly combined with the plural, that we
more naturally apprehend them as plural than as singular; such a
word is the English ‘people,’ which we instinctively connect with a
plural verb. In such cases, we sometimes even find that the
grammatical form actually assimilates itself to the psychological
number, as when we speak of folks; cf. also sheeps in Shakespeare
(Love’s Labour’s lost, II. i.); while from the French word gent, which
37. was used in Old French with the plural, we find formed, in the same
way, the word gens: in Italian we find genti beside gente. In Anglo-
Saxon, -waru denotes ‘a nation,’ ‘a defence:’ the plural -ware,
‘citizens;’ as Rómware, ‘the men of Rome;’ Cantwáre, ‘the men of
Kent,’ etc. In Gothic, there is a collective neuter fadrein, which we
may illustrate or parallel, though not exactly translate, by the word
‘fathership.’ In the singular (genitive) it is used in the meaning of
‘race’ or ‘family’ (Eph. iii. 15), thus showing its original abstract and
then collective sense; and again it is found (Luke viii. 56) still
singular but with a plural verb: jah usgeisnodedun fadrein izos = and
were-astonished fathership (i.e. PARENTS) her = and her parents
were astonished. We even find the singular noun with the article
(i.e. demonstrative pronoun) in the plural: Andhofun ðan im ðai
fadrein is jah qeðun = Answered then to him those fathership his
and said = Then answered his parents and said (John ix. 20). It is,
thus, this plural meaning which caused the word to be used in the
plural form, exactly as we use folks quoted above, while the
etymological meaning as abstract collective was overlooked. For
example: Ni auk skulun barna FADREINAM huzdjan, ak FADREINA
barnam = not eke shall bairns for FATHERSHIPS hoard, but
FATHERSHIPS for bairns, i.e. For the children shall not hoard for the
parents, but the parents for the children (2 Cor. xii. 14).148
The converse of this also happens. A plural expression receives the
function of a singular when the parts thus indicated are thought of
as a whole. Thus we can talk of another sixpence, another hundred
yards; or even use phrases like There’s not another two such women
(Warren); this seven year (Shakes., Much Ado, III. 3.); What is six
winters? (Rich. II., I. iii.). Amends, gallows, sessions, shambles are
plurals, but are generally treated as singulars; e.g., a shrewd
unhappy gallows (Love’s Labour’s lost, V. ii. 12). So, too, works,
scales, etc.: e.g., that crystal scales (Rom. and Jul., I. ii. 101);
Stoppage of a large steelworks (Weekly Times and Echo, August 19,
1888); Fire in a Liverpool chemical works (Liverpool Daily Post, June
30, 1884, p. 7); This is good news; etc. Finally, such plurals become
singular, not only in sense, but even in form, and are treated and
38. declined as such. Thus, in English, we talk of an invoice (Fr. envois,
plur.). In Latin, castra (plur.) sometimes formed a genitive of singular
form, castræ:149 the plural litteræ, in sense of ‘an epistle,’ has
passed into the French lettre as singular, with a new plural, lettres;
the Latin plural vela, ‘sails,’ into French une voile: minaciæ has
become the French menace, ‘threat,’ and the Italian minaccia:
nuptiæ, ‘nuptials,’ has become, in French, noce, ‘a wedding,’ as well
as noces: tenebræ, ‘darkness’ has become, in Spanish, tiniebla, as
well as tinieblas; deliciæ, ‘delights,’ in French, délice, as well as
délices. Pâques, ‘Easter,’ Athènes, ‘Athens,’ are used as singulars.
Pronouns referring to abstract expressions stand sometimes in the
plural; as, Nobody knows what it is to lose a friend till THEY have lost
him (Fielding). Again, the predicate may stand in the plural;150 as,
Quisque suos PATIMUR manes (Verg., Æn., 743)—‘We each suffer our
own ghostly punishment,’ where quisque ‘each’ in singular, but the
verb patimur is plural. Similar are uterque educunt (Cæs., C., iii. 30);
uter ERATIS (Plaut., Men., 1119); neuter ad me IRETIS; Every one of
these letters ARE in my name (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II. v.);
Neither of them ARE remarkable (Blair); Every one to rest THEMSELVES
BETAKE (Rape of Lucrece, 125); when neither ARE alive (Cymb., IV. ii.
252). Most Indo-European languages possess pairs of pronouns, in
each of which sets one properly denotes the singular, the other
plurality; as in English all, every; or each, and any: and these are
readily interchanged; e.g., without all doubt (Shakes., Hen. VIII., IV.
i. 113), less attemptable than any the rarest of our ladies (Cymb., I.
iv. 65). Thus, even in Latin, the singular omnis is used where we
should have expected omnes; as, militat omnis amans (Ovid, Amor.,
I. ix. 1). Tu pulses omne quod obstat (Hor., Sat. II., vi. 30). Thus
totus has passed into the French tout, ‘all.’ We find both in
Shakespeare, connected with the singular; Both our remedies within
thy help and holy physic lies, i.e. the remedy for us both (Rom. and
Jul., II. iii. 51). Thus, also, autrui, ‘others,’ in French, really the
oblique case of autre, is in fact a singular, but is looked upon as a
plural; as, la rigueur envers autrui (Massillon).
39. Number, in the sense of singular or plural, cannot, again, be properly
predicated of the simple names of materials. We do not think of
them as individuals, except in connection with form as well as
matter,—in fact, till we think of substances as divided as well as
divisible. Hence it is that the names of materials occur mostly in the
singular number; the fact being that if there were a neuter number,
i.e. a grammatical form expressive of neither plural nor singular, we
should naturally employ it.
But the name of a material is readily used as that of an individual
object, and, on the other hand, the name of an individual object
may easily come to be the designation of a material. The
imagination supplies or withdraws, as it may be, the form and
definite shape which, as we have seen, is essential to number. Take
such instances as hair, grass, bloom, fruit, weed, grain, cloth, stone,
wood, field, meadow, marsh, heath, earth, land, bread, cake, etc.
Similarly, when we talk of fowl as a viand, we individualise and give
form to a general conception; as, in French, when we talk about du
porc, du mouton. In the same way, we have in Latin such
expressions as leporem et gallinam et anserem for ‘the flesh of the
hare, the fowl, and the goose;’ and fagum atque abietem for ‘the
beech tree and the fir-tree’ (Cæsar, Bell. Gall., v. 12). In the same
way, we must explain the singular in cases like The enemy is
approaching; The Russian is within hail. Similarly, Livy uses the
singular, as Romanus for ‘the Romans,’ Poenus for ‘the
Carthaginians,’ eques for ‘the cavalry,’ pedes for ‘the infantry,’ etc.;
nay, he even goes as far as to combine Hispani milites et funditor
Balearis (xxvii. 2).
Thus, too, Horace ventures on the combination miles nautæque
(Sat. I., i.). Vergil has plurima mortis imago, ‘many an image of
death’ (Æn., ii. 369); in Seneca, we even find multo hoste, ‘many an
enemy.’
In German, the singular of many words stands constantly after
numerals; as, tausend mann, ‘a thousand men,’ zehn stück Pferde,
40. ‘ten head (lit. pieces) of horses.’ Similarly it was usual to write in
English such expressions as many score thousand: twenty score
paces.151 The fact is, that there is no need for any special
designation of plurality to follow a number; the plurality is already
sufficiently denoted by the number itself.152 We thus see that the
form taken by such a word would naturally be numberless, or
absolute, in fact, would be treated in the same way as it would have
been treated before the rise of grammatical number.
Tense.
It is the function of the various ‘tenses’ to express the temporal
relation of an event, when considered with regard to a certain
moment. At the outset, however, we must observe that the tenses
actually existing in any given language do not by any means
perfectly correspond to the varieties possible and logically
distinguishable in these relations. We will first consider what would
be indispensable to a logically complete system.
Any event whatever must necessarily be anterior, contemporary, or
posterior, to the moment with respect to which it is considered; and
this moment must itself be past, present, or future. Hence,
according as the moment of comparison is varied, we get the
following sets:—
I. Moment of comparison Present.
The event is stated as—
(a1) NOW past.
(b1) NOW present.
(c1) NOW still to come.
41. II. Moment of comparison Past.
The event is stated to have been—
(a2) THEN already past.
(b2) THEN present.
(c2) THEN still to come.
III. Moment of comparison Future.
It is stated that the event—
(a3) will THEN be past.
(b3) will THEN be present.
(c3) will THEN be still to come.
The above nine subdivisions exhaust all possibilities as long as we
employ but a single ‘moment of comparison’ in each case; and it is
so important that this point should be fully realised, that, simple as it
appears, we proceed to illustrate each division as follows:—
(a1) Cæsar once said, ‘Veni, vidi, vici.’
(b1) I now believe that this is true.
(c1) I expect that he will come.
(a2) When I entered, he had gone.
(b2) When I entered, he was speaking.
(c2) When I entered, he was going to speak.
(a3) On New Year’s day I shall have completed my fiftieth year.
(b3) I shall then receive a letter.
(c3) I shall then be going to write.
42. It is at once apparent here that in some of these cases we are
forced to have recourse to periphrasis, and that in some we use
tenses which might also serve in other divisions. This, for instance,
may be seen by comparing b2 and a1, or, at any rate, c1 and c3. But
before discussing these points we must pay a little more attention to
the above scheme, not, indeed, as it actually exists, but as it might
conceivably exist.
It is by no means inconceivable, and quite in accordance with logic,
that we should wish to employ two moments of comparison instead
of one, especially in some of the cases falling under II. and III. In
c2, for instance, the event might be then still to come, but now α)
past, (β) present, (γ) even yet to come.
This at first seems fanciful; but while the example we employed to
illustrate c2 does not necessarily convey as much, still most hearers
would naturally interpret it as follows: “When I entered, his speaking
was still in the future, but now (unless some hindrance, as yet
unstated, has intervened) it belongs to the past.” Again, if, on the
other hand, we take a sentence like He has promised to do so; in
the first place, it is found to STATE that the promise was given in the
past, when as yet the action of fulfilment belonged to the future;
and, secondly, to IMPLY that this action of fulfilment belongs to the
future still.
Further, it is logically possible, and often necessary, to make a
statement about some event without any reference to time; when,
for instance, a statement is true at any time, or at no time at all. The
form employed in such cases ought, in strict agreement with our
definition of ‘tense,’ to be called ‘tenseless’ or ‘absolute;’ but it is well
known that, in English and all Indo-European languages, the
‘present’ is the tense employed. In Man is mortal the copula is
cannot justly be called ‘present’ tense, for the statement is wholly
abstract, and applies equally to past, present, and future; yet it is
customary and convenient to apply the term ‘present’ even to the
word is as thus used.
43. This use of the present sometimes gives rise to a certain ambiguity.
If, in speaking of a child, we say He is very troublesome, the
statement may mean He is at this moment very troublesome, in
which case the verb is is present tense proper; or it may mean He is
a troublesome child, whence the sentence becomes abstract-
concrete153 and the verb is tense absolute.
If, as in the case of grammatical gender and number, these
distinctions of form are to be regarded as later developments in the
case of the grammatical tenses of the verb, we must assume (i.) that
the same form must once have served indifferently for all tense
relations, and (ii.) expect that the tenses actually differentiated will
(a) correspond only incompletely with the scheme of logical
distinctions, (b) will in various languages show various deviations
from the ideal scheme, and (c) will, in the same language at
different periods of its history, show similar variations in those
deviations.
i. Though the conclusion under head i. is actually inevitable, it
seems, at first sight, improbable and doubtful; but, in addition to the
use of the present tense discussed and exemplified above, there is
much in modern English which may help to illustrate and enable us
to realise it, while older languages afford much more material for the
same purpose. A usage closely akin to that of the present tense for
tense absolute occurs when the present is used for the future, and
more especially when some other word in the sentence definitely
refers the event to the future. Thus, in I am going to London to-
morrow, we actually employ that specially English periphrasis which
is never used in the absolute sense, but, as a rule, emphatically
expresses that the action belongs to the present time.154 Nay, where
circumstances are sufficiently unequivocal to absolutely preclude the
meaning of the present tense, the addition of such words as to-
morrow, etc., is not even needed. If two friends, for instance, were
speaking about some coming holidays, and the one had said, I think
I will go to Wales, the other might answer, I don’t care for Wales, I
am going to London; or, again, without such explanatory
44. circumstances, or any special words, the present in a subordinate
clause can stand for a future event, provided that the main clause
grammatically expresses the future; e.g., I will call you when he
comes.
We also sometimes use the PRESENT TENSE FOR THE PAST. This we do
(a) where the event is equally true of the past as of the present;
e.g., I know that = I know it, and knew it some time ago—a case in
which the present tense expresses past AND present together: or (b)
where the event belongs, indeed, entirely to the past, but the result
is represented as actually present. Of (b) these are instances:
‘Master sends me to tell you,’ ‘He tells me that he is going away,’ ‘I
hear he is better now.’ This usage approaches closely to a third (c),
the so-called Historic present, which, however, we should probably
not consider as a present tense expressing the past, but as a simple
present, whose use is due to the vivid imagination of the speaker,
when it leads him to regard the past as actually present.
We have said that the consciousness of the result of an action
sometimes causes the use of a present tense for a past event. The
same cause may also lead to an exactly opposite usage, viz., that of
a past tense for an event in the present. Thus, as the result of
seeing is knowing, it came to pass that a form originally signifying I
have seen acquired the meaning I know; the Ger. Ich weisz means ‘I
know,’ but is derived from the same root as the Lat. Video, ‘I see.’
Thus, again, the root which we find in Lat. gno-sco (= I begin to
learn, I get to know) appears in the English I can, which, exactly as
the Lat. novi (for *gnovi, cf. agnovi for ad-gnovi), meant I have got
to know (= I know), has developed its present meaning, I am able,
from one expressive of something like I have become able, or I have
learned. It is thus that arose the so-called ‘præterito-presentia,’ can,
must, will, shall, etc., which still betray, one and all, their origin from
a former grammatical past tense, by absence of s as a characteristic
termination of the third person singular—a termination which we add
to the stem in the case of all other present tenses.