I suspect I misremembered Lowth's definition as Murray's -- which is a real disservice to Murray. Mea Culpa!
 
Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University

________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Edgar Schuster
Sent: Wed 6/11/2008 12:28 PM
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


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