In his first edition (1795), Murray does go on, after a semicolon, to list three examples: "man, virtue, London, &c." (p. 23).
Dwayne Strasheim
________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Edgar Schuster
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:28 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Anthimeria: Hell in a handbasket
Bill (and others),
For what it's worth---and I'm not sure it's worth much---I have a Murray definition of noun as "the name of any thing that exists, or of which we have any notion." Lowth wrote "the Name of a thing; of whatever we conceive in any way to subsist, or of which we have any notion."
Maybe this comment from Otto Jespersen is worth a lot more: "If there is one thing I dislike in grammar, it is definitions (of parts of speech) too often met with in our textbooks. They are neither exhaustive nor true; they have not, and cannot have, the precision and clearness of the definitions found in textbooks of mathematics . . . . And thus we might go on to the definitions found even in the best grammars: they are unsatisfactory, all of them, and I do not think they are necessary."
The English Journal [!!!], 1924
Ed Schuster
**************
Vote for your city's best dining and nightlife. City's Best 2008.
(http://citysbest.aol.com?ncid=aolacg00050000000102) To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
|