y come to
their syntax, they all forget, that if a verb has no person and number, it
cannot agree with a nominative in these respects. Thus KIRKHAM: "_Person_,
strictly speaking, is a quality that belongs _not to verbs_, but to nouns
and pronouns. We say, however, that the verb _must agree_ with its
nominative in _person_, as well as in number."--_Gram. in Familiar Lect._,
p. 46. So J. W. WRIGHT: "In truth, number and person _are not properties of
verbs_. Mr. Murray grants that, 'in philosophical strictness, both number
and person might (say, _may_) be excluded from every verb, as they are, in
fact, the properties of substantives, not a part of the essence of the
verb.'"--_Philosophical Gram._, p. 68. This author's rule of syntax for
verbs, makes them agree with their nominatives, not in person and number,
but in _termination_, or else in _nobody knows what_: "A verb _must vary
its terminations_, so as to agree with the nominative to which it is
connected."--_Ib._, p. 168. But Murray's rule is, "A verb must agree with
its nominative case in _number and person_:" and this doctrine is directly
repugnant to that interpretation of his words above, by which these
gentlemen have so egregiously misled themselves and others. Undoubtedly,
both the numbers and the persons of all English verbs might be abolished,
and the language would still be intelligible. But while any such
distinctions remain, and the verb is actually modified to form them, they
belong as properly to this part of speech as they can to any other. De Sacy
says, "The distinction of number _occurs_ in the verb;" and then adds, "yet
this distinction does not properly _belong to_ the verb, as it signifies
nothing which can be numbered."--_Fosdick's Version_, p. 64. This deceptive
reason is only a new form of the blunder which I have once exposed, of
confounding the numbers in grammar with numbers in arithmetic. J. M.
Putnam, after repeating what is above cited from Murray, adds: "The terms
_number_ and _person_, as applied to the verb are _figurative_. The
properties which belong to one thing, for convenience' sake are ascribed to
another."--_Gram._, p. 49. Kirkham imagines, if ten men _build_ a house, or
_navigate_ a ship round the world, they perform just "_ten actions_," and
no more. "Common sense teaches you," says he, "that _there must be as many
actions as there are actors_; and that the verb when it has no form or
ending to show it, is as strictly plural, as whe