Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:10:58 -0400 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
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
**************
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/
|
|
|