ple of _Improper Omissions_; for it may be greatly bettered by the
addition of some words, thus: "The verb is so called, because [in French]
it [is called _le verbe_, and in Latin, _verbum_, which] means _word_: as
there can be no sentence without _a verb, this_ [most important part of
speech] is called, emphatically, [_the verb_,--q.d.,] _the word_." (7.) It
might be put under Critical Note 11th, among _Literary Blunders_; for there
is at least one blunder in each of its members. (8.) It might be set down
under Critical Note 13th, as an example of _Awkwardness_; for it is but
clumsy work, to teach _grammar_ after this sort. (9.) It might be given
under Critical Note 16th, as a sample of the _Incorrigible_; for it is
scarcely possible to eliminate all its defects and retain its essentials.

These instances may suffice to show, that even gross errors of grammar may
lurk where they are least to be expected, in the didactic phraseology of
professed masters of style or oratory, and may abound where common readers
or the generality of hearers will discover nothing amiss.

[446] As a mere assertion, this example is here sufficiently corrected;
but, as a _definition_, (for which the author probably intended it,) it is
deficient; and consequently, in that sense, is still inaccurate. I would
also observe that most of the subsequent examples under the present head,
contain other errors than that for which they are here introduced; and, of
some of them, the faults are, in my opinion, very many: for example, the
several definitions of an _adverb_, cited below. Lindley Murray's
definition of this part of speech is not inserted among these, because I
had elsewhere criticised that. So too of his faulty definition of a
_conjunction_. See the _Introduction_, Chap. X. paragraphs 26 and 28. See
also _Corrections in the Key_, under Note 10th to Rule 1st.

[447] In his explanation of _Ellipsis_, Lindley Murray continually calls it
"_the_ ellipsis," and speaks of it as something that is "_used_,"--"_made
use of_,"--"_applied_,"--"_contained in_" the examples; which expressions,
referring, as they there do, to the mere _absence_ of something, appear to
me solecistical. The notion too, which this author and others have
entertained of the figure itself, is in many respects erroneous; and nearly
all their examples for its illustration are either questionable as to such
an application, or obviously inappropriate. The absence of what is
_needless_