Singular. I could be loved Perfect. Plural. We could be loved. Thou couldest be loved He could be loved Singular. You could be loved. Other auxiliaries, should, would, might. Pluperfect. I could have been loved Plural. We could have been loved. All Language arises from the same necessity of human nature, being a method of making known what passes in the mind. Therefore the impressions to be made known will mould that which is outwardly to represent them. And the common laws of language will be determined by the necessities which arise immediately there is any attempt to make known what passes in the mind. All languages therefore will have common points of agreement, by whatever names these may be called. The first of these is a set of outward tokens whether spoken or written; that is, words. But words must be arranged so as to have a connected meaning. That is, words must be arranged in sentences. A sentence being, words arranged so as to have a meaning. That is, every sentence tells something. But we must mention what that something is, before there can be any speech about it. Having done this, the speech about it naturally comes next. Every sentence therefore must contain at the least two things: Ist. That which is mentioned. 2ndly. The speech about it. That which is mentioned is called the Subject. The speech about the subject is called the Predicate or Speech, i.e. what is predicated or spoken of the subject. There cannot therefore be less than two words in a sentence; because nothing can be mentioned in less than one word, and no speech can take place about it in less than one word. For instance, 'Man walks,' is as short a sentence as can be framed. The Subject 'Man,' being one word, and the Predicate or Speech-clause' walks,' being one word. N.B. The question, 'Who or what is mentioned?' will always return the Subject as its answer. And, 'What is said of the Subject?' will return the Speechclause or Predicate. Rule. No Sentence can be without a Subject, and a Predicate, or Speechclause, about the Subject. NOUN AND VERB. Man walks. It is evident that no mention can be made of anything unless it is named. In Grammar, everything that is named in one word is called a Noun*. The word 'nomen,' that is, noun, in Latin, meaning name. Nouns, or things named in one word, form a distinct Class of words. Every distinct class of words is called a Part of Speech. The Noun therefore, or Name-word, is a part of speech, and every noun can stand as the Subject of a Sentence. And no sentence can be without a noun, or something representing a noun, as its subject. But something more than a subject is wanted for a sentence; there must be a Predicate or Speech-clause. That is, something must be said of the subject. If this is done by one word, that word is called a Verb. Verbs, therefore, are words which tell or speak of something. Verbs form a distinct class. The verb therefore, or speechword, is a part of speech. In the simplest form of sentence, therefore, the subject is a noun, and the predicate, or speech-clause, a verb. And by definition the predicate must speak of the subject. This then is the simplest form of subject, one noun, 'Man ;' and the simplest form of predicate, one verb, 'walks.' N.B. The subject is not necessarily a single noun, though it must always represent a noun. *The Noun is frequently called a Noun Substantive, or a Substantive only. |