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VI. A Grammatical Essay on the Nature, Import, and Effect of certain Conjunctions; particularly the Greek ΔE.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2013
Extract
It is a maxim in physics, that “an effect ought not to be “ ascribed to the joint operation of many causes, if fewer “ are adequate to the production of it.” Frustra fit per plura, quod fieri potest per pauciora. This maxim is no less just when applied to language. It is equally unphilosophical in grammar and in physics, to multiply without necessity the principles from which the phænomena are to be explained.
- Type
- Papers Read Before the Society
- Information
- Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , 1788 , pp. 113 - 134
- Copyright
- Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1788
References
page 114 note * In the progress of the essay, it will appear, that the reasoning proceeds upon an analogy much more strict and close than here it seems to do.
page 114 note † ΠΡΟΣ τῃ σοφιᾳ.
page 116 note * In fact they are always accented, though their accent may sometimes be obscured by an equal or superior accent given to an adjoining word, as, “He did not walk in, “but rushed in.”
page 117 note * Added to—where accumulation only, or the increase of number or magnitude, is attended to.
page 117 note † Livy.
page 118 note * Eun. Act. ii. Sc. 1.
page 118 note † Joined to, in respect of time, as cause and effect, &c.
page 119 note * Cap. 4.
page 119 note † The frequent application of AT, to mark the union of incongruous objects, first gave rise to the habit of annexing an emphatic meaning to it; and, when once this habit was form. ed, the word necessarily raised an expectation of something incongruous to follow. And hence it has come at last to be mistaken for a symbol of incongruity or opposition.
It would be difficult to collect examples of all the various applications of the word AT, that may be met with in the Latin authors. In those, however, that most frequently occur, it is evidently expressive, not of opposition, but of union. When there is no incongruity in the objects united, and consequently nothing unexpected in their union, the effect of it will be perceived by rendering it to simply; and, when the objects united appear incongruous, by rendering it to with emphasis, or even to.
I. To simply—as in the form of surrender recorded by Livy, [Lib. 1. cap. 38.] “. Deditisne vos populumque Collatinum in meam populique Romani ditionem ? De-“. dimus. At ego recipio;” “Joined To that, I receive them.” Et might have been used in this instance. In imprecations, and the like, it represents the amount of the prayer, as joined to an action mentioned, perceived, dreaded, &c. 1. To an action mentioned; as in Terence; “Ch. Factum est hoc, Dave ? Da. Factum. Ch. Hem! quid “ais, Scelus ? At tibi dii dignum factis exitium duint!” 2. To an action perceived; as in Virgil, when Priam, upon seeing his son killed by Pyrrhus, exclaims :
“At tibi pro scelere, exclamat, pro talibus aufis,
“Dî, si qua est cœlo pietas, quæ talia curet,
“Persolvant grates dignas, et præmia reddant
“Digna,—qui nati coram me cernere letum
“Fecisti, et patrios fœdasti funere vultus.” [Æn. ii. 535.]
II. Even to—as in Terence; “Si ego digna hac contumeliâ fum maximè, at to “indignus qui faceres tamen;” “Joined even to that, it was unworthy of you to do it.” So when Chremes, after he has heard many circumstances tending to prove that Pamphila is his daughter, says, “At mihi unus scrupulus etiam restat.”Joined even “to [what I have heard] there still remains one difficulty.” i.e. “All I have heard is “ not sufficient to remove it.” It is used precisely in this manner, when it introduces an objection, or the answer to an objection. 1. An objection; as in Cicero pro Milone; “ At valuit odium, fecit iratus, &c.” “Joined even to [what you have said] his hatred “ got the better of him, he acted from passion:” i. e. “For all that you have said,” &c.“ All that you have said does not hinder the deed to have proceeded from hatred or passion.” 2. The answer to an objection; as, “Domus tibi deerat ? At habebas. Pecunia superabat ? At egebas.” “ You will say you wanted a house; joined even to “ that, you had one,” &c. It is used in this manner too, when it introduces the circumstances of an action which tend to heighten our surprise. “Vidit Clodius necesse esse “ Miloni proficisci Lanuvium illo ipso, quo prosectus est, die; itaque antevertit. At “quo die ? Quo, ut ante dixi, infanissima concio ab ipsius mercenario tribuno plebis est “ concitata : Quem diem ille, quam concionem, quos clamores, nisi ad cogitatum facinus “ approperaret, nunquam reliquisset;”— “ On what day, too ?” &c. This is an instance extremely fortunate for our purpose; because, although the action of Clodius and the time which he chose for it appear incongruous, yet the practice of the English language admits of our rendering At literally; “ Clodius was beforehand with him, on a day “ too when his presence was necessary at Rome.”
In the foregoing examples, which comprehend all the common applications of At, it ieems to mark the union, [expected or not expected], not the opposition, of the objects connected by it.
page 121 note * Lib. i. cap. 7.
page 126 note * Iliad. έ. 252.
page 127 note * 
page 127 note * V. 265.
page 129 note * Doctr. Particul. L. Gr. p. 245.
page 130 note * Orest. 455.
page 131 note * Doctr. Particul. L. Gr. p. 262.
page 131 note † With regard to the accentual marks, they seem to have owed their origin to an unsuccessful attempt to perpetuate a particular mode of pronunciation.
page 131 note ‡ As far at least as a thing so little known as the nature of Greek accent can be allowed to have weight in the present case.
page 132 note * The observation in the text, although extremely common, appears to mistake the half of science for the whole. It'is undoubtedly the part of science to investigate what, in dissimilar objects, is generic, or common to the whole : But to discern and to mark what is specific, or peculiar to each, is no less the business of science; and, as it is commonly of greater difficulty, so it is at least of equal importance. The author, therefore, has attempted, whether successfully or not, to ascertain what is peculiar with regard either to grammatical nature, or to signification, in the various applications of the words he has discussed.
page 134 note * The author is fully sensible that, in several places of this essay, he has used expressions which, to an English reader, must appear extremely uncouth. Convinced as he is, that the word AD or AT, and ΔE, however variously applied, are always representative of the same idea, he has attempted to hold that circumstance up to view, by using always the same English word, TO, in translating them. Now, in this attempt, such uncouthness was unavoidable; for it happens that the Greek, Latin and English languages have not followed always the fame range in the application of these words, although they are in themselves strictly synonymous. And whenever the usage of our language does not correspond with that of the Greek or Latin, a literal translation cannot be attempted, without a manifest violation of the propriety of the English idiom :—In truth, it frequently happens that words of the same generic meaning are found in very different special applications, in different languages. For example, the Greek preposition ANTI, and the Latin ANTE, not only represent the same idea, viz. priority, but they are really the same word; and yet the special applications of them are by no means correspondent with each other, ANTE, in Latin, never marking opposition, nor ANTI, in Greek, priority in respect of time.—On the other hand, words that are very different in their original import, frequently produce the same ultimate effect. Thus the words AD and EX are not only of different, but nearly of opposite meaning; and yet, of the two expressions, “ AD suam “ naturam singere cæteros,” and “ EX sua natura singere cæteros,” the effect is ultimately the same.