nominal; _sovereign_ and _supreme governor_ being different
names for the same object. In all nominal disjunctives the inference is,
that if an agent (or agents) do not perform a certain action under one
name, he does (or they do) it under another.

Nominal disjunctives are called by Harris _sub_disjunctives.

In the English language there is no separate word to distinguish the
nominal from the real disjunctive. In Latin, _vel_ is considered by Harris
to be disjunctive, _sive_ subdisjunctive. As a periphrasis, the combination
_in other words_ is subdisjunctive.

Both nominal and real disjunctives agree in this,--whatever may be the
number of nouns which they connect, the construction of the verb is the
same as if there were but one--Henry, _or_ John, _or_ Thomas, _walks_ (not
_walk_); the sun, _or_ solar luminary, _shines_ (not _shine_). The
disjunctive _isolates_ the subject, however much it may be placed in
juxtaposition with other nouns.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE SYNTAX OF THE NEGATIVE.

s. 515. When the verb is in the infinitive mood, the negative precedes
it.--_Not to advance is to retreat_.

When the verb is not in the infinitive mood, the negative follows it.--_He
advanced not_. _I cannot_.

This rule is absolute. It only _seems_ to precede the verb in such
expressions as _I do not advance_, _I cannot advance_, _I have not
advanced_, &c. However, the words _do_, _can_, and _have_, are no
infinitives; and it consequently follows them. The word _advance_ is an
infinitive, and it consequently precedes it. Wallis's rule makes an
equivalent statement, although differently. "Adverbium negandi _not_ (non)
verbo postponitur (nempe auxiliari primo si adsit; aut si non adsit
auxiliare, verbo principali): aliis tamen orationis partibus praefigi
solet."--P. 113.

That the negative is rarely used, except with an auxiliary, in other words,
that the presence of a negative converts a simple form like _it burneth
not_ into the circumlocution it _does not burn_, is a fact in the practice
of the English language. The syntax is the same in either expression.

s. 516. What may be called the _distribution_ of the negative is pretty
regular in English. Thus, when the word _not_ comes between an indicative,
imperative, or subjunctive mood and an infinitive verb, it almost always is
taken with the word which it _follows_--_I can not eat_ may mean either _I
can--not eat_ (i.e., _I can ab