Every word is the sign of some idea. Each of the words _horse,
he, blue, speaks, merrily, at_, and _because_, has a certain naming value,
more or less definite, for the mind of the reader. Of these, _horse, blue,
he, merrily_, have a fairly vivid descriptive power. In the case of _at_
and _because_, the main office is, evidently, to express a relation
between other ideas: ["I am _at_ my post"], ["I go _because_ I must"]. The
word _speaks_ is less clearly a relational word; at first thought it would
seem to have only the office of picturing an activity. That it also fills
the office of a connective will be evident if we compare the following
sentences: He _speaks_ in public. He _is_ a public _speaker_. It is
evident that _speaks_ contains in itself the _naming_ value represented in
the word _speaker_, but also has the _connecting_ office fulfilled in the
second sentence by _is_.
All words have, therefore, a naming office, and some have in addition a
connecting or relational office.
PARTS OF SPEECH
+18. Parts of Speech.+--When we examine the different words in sentences
we find that, in spite of these fundamentally similar qualities, the words
are serving different purposes. This difference in purpose or use serves
as the basis for dividing words into eight classes, called Parts of
Speech. Use alone determines to which class a word in any given sentence
shall belong. Not only are single words so classified, but any part of
speech may be represented by a group of words.
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