CHAPTER XXI IDIOMS WHAT AN IDIOM IS 268. An idiom is a construction peculiar to a language; one belonging to its own manner of expression, and unlike constructions of equivalent meaning in kindred tongues (Greek idion, "one's own"). English abounds in idiomatic phrases. Some of them, when we refer them to the older, better inflected forms of the language, are found to be regular constructions. Such are to be explained by citing the older, clearer forms and tracing their development, as we have done for "the more" in Section 164, and for the sentence "I would better go than stay" in Section 260. Some of our idioms are ellipses for regular constructions, and such are to be explained by supplying the ellipses and so reproducing the regular syntax (see Chapter XV). A number of idiomatic phrases have already been noticed; others, so common and perplexing as to call for attention even in a school grammar, will be discussed in the following pages. 66 AGO 269. Ago is an old past participle from agān, and is parallel in derivation to gone (from gān), which has kept its final -n. Ago means gone by, past.' As a participle, it is, of course, an adjective. In Modern English it always follows the word it modifies, usually an adverbial noun. 1. I learned that years ago. 2. The danger became apparent some six weeks ago. The expression long ago means "long since gone by." See N. E. D. The complete expression is [a] long [time] ago, in which ago appears in its usual position after an adverbial noun. The omission of the noun leaves the old past participle associated with the adjective long; hence the N. E. D. speaks of ago in this phrase as an adverb. In "a week ago yesterday" the adverb (or adverbial noun) yesterday modifies the adverbial noun group that precedes it: a week ago, counting that week from yesterday. OWN 270. Own was originally the past participle of Old English agan, "to possess." It occurred in adjective syntax, agreeing in inflection with the noun to which it was attached. 1. Hiera agnes cynnes, "of their own kind." Compare the German eigen. It is commonly used now to strengthen a possessive. 2. My own book; his own brother; their own house. Its older inflection would lead us to call it an adjunct of the noun, and not of the possessive. The noun may be omitted after the possessive and own. 3. That is my own [book]. Furthermore, own, like other adjectives, may be used as a substantive, meaning, with emphasis, "possessions." 4. I do what I please with my own. From the old past participle is derived the verb own, "to possess." 5. I own that house. NOTE. Compare of our own with the idiomatic genitive after of, Section III, note. ELSE 271. Else was an old genitive case of an adjective (Old English elles "of other "), and was found even in Old English in the construction of an adverb; see N. E. D. It therefore performs both functions in modern times. It often depends on an indefinite pronoun, following it in the manner of a partitive genitive (Section 47, note). 1. Something else is in the window. It may refer to an additional object or to a substitute; i. e., something more," or "something different." It is joined also to indefinite adverbs: 2. Somewhere else, elsewhere. Out of such adverbial use grows its function as a connective, in which it is equivalent to or, otherwise, if not. 3. Else how should any be saved.-NEWMAN. 4. Boughs above Darken, deform the path, else sun would streak.-BROWNING. 5. Remember this, "whoso believes," And get more faith; then shall you victors be -BUNYAN, The Pilgrim's Progress. It is even joined pleonastically, for emphasis, to its synonym or. 6. Follow me, child; or else the stones will be thy bier.-KEATS. BUT 272. The various uses of such a word as but can well be studied from N. E. D. We shall find it doing duty as a preposition, a conjunction (subordinate and co-ordinate), an adverb, an adjective, and a relative pronoun. One of its most confusing offices is that of the preposition; rather, there is some uncertainty, when it appears before a nominative case, as to whether it is a preposition or a conjunction. See N. E. D. but c. i. 1, and Kellner, English Syntax, §§ 207, 425. 1. The boy stood on the burning deck Whence all but he had fled.-MRS. HEMANS, Casabianca. Does the poet mean that "all had fled but he had not fled," or "all except him had fled"? Emerson uses the same construction in his essay on Self-Reliance. 2. None but he knows. Does Emerson mean, "None knows but he knows," or "None except him knows"? Which is more logical? See Section 78, note. Is not the word but in such cases as those cited above logically a preposition? And may not a good writer have inadvertently followed it by a nominative? The word is itself very often a conjunction and properly followed by a subject-nominative. And in the cases cited above the pronoun is immediately succeeded by a verb that is not its predicate, but looks, to a careless reader, as if it might be. We can understand that a writer, absorbed in his thought and not in his grammar, might put a nominative in such a position. But, meaning "except," is a preposition. It introduces a phrase depending on a noun or pronoun which, without such modification would be too inclusive. (See all and none in the sentences above.) Even in the best writers we find an occasional confusion of cases in ellipses after conjunctions, the conjunctions then appearing to be prepositions. Milton's 3. Than whom, Satan except, none higher sat (Paradise Lost ii. 299–300), has been often quoted to prove that than is a preposition, to be followed by an objective case. But no person that observes the con struction of than in our language as a whole, and the construction of parallel words in other languages, can doubt that it is a conjunction (Section 219). As early, however, as the middle of the sixteenth century than was sometimes used with an objective case; and Milton was by no means the first to follow it by the objective when it should take a nominative. Since his time than whom has become confirmed as standard English. Compare the following examples (numbers 4-6 are quoted from Baskervill and Sewell, English Grammar, p. 280): 4. One I remember especially-one than whom I never met a bandit more gallant.—THACKERAY. 5. The camp of Richard of England, than whom none knows better how to do honor to a noble foe.-SCOTT. 6. She had a companion who had ever been agreeable, and a steward than whom no one living was supposed to be more competent.— PARTON. 7. And I will set up three shouts at this very gate, than which none were ever more deadly.-LADY GUEST, Mabinogion. Jespersen (Progress in Language, page 201) quotes, somewhat distrustfully, a nominative after than: 8. Mr. George Withers, than who no one has written more sensibly on this subject.-G. WASHINGTON MOON, The King's English, p. 338. The objective case is, of course, logically correct in such sentences as 9. She saw you sooner than me; an ellipsis for "She saw you sooner than she saw me.' In Shakespeare's As You Like It (i. 1. 172-73) Oliver says, 10. My soul . . . hates nothing more than he; where the correct form is clearly him. LONG 273. "All day long." See N. E. D. long, adverb, 6. This is evidently an adverbial group, expressing duration of time. He worked all day long. All night long the whistles blew. The word long here is not our ordinary long, in "He worked long," i. e., a long time; it is a word of quite different origin (compare along, and Old English andlang, German entlang), meaning "throughout, from beginning to end." The notion of time expressed by the ad verbial group all day, which modifies worked, is in turn modified by long, "from the beginning to the end." See Section 161, note 5. Compare Middle High German den sumerlangen tac, logically equivalent to den sumertac-lanc, "extending throughout the summer day." This is quoted from G. Ehrismann, who discusses the word in Paul and Braune's Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur xviii. 233-5. SOME ADVERBIAL NOUNS 274. Some oblique cases of nouns used as adverbs are perplexing. The genitive of time, measure, value (Section 6od) is a sort of adverbial noun. a. Needs and noways are old genitives, and retain the genitive ending -s. So also sideways, lengthways, and ways in such colloquial expressions as “a long ways off.” 1. He must needs [=of necessity] go. Sometimes the subject of the verb is omitted. 2. Needs must when one is bidden [i. e., one of necessity must when one is bidden]. b. Yore is an old genitive plural noun, geara, "of years." We commonly use it with of, suggesting the genitive idea. In days of yore. c. Days and nights are genitives used as adverbs in the sentence, 1. He worked days and studied nights. We sometimes use an of-phrase with the same meaning. 2. He would often drop in of an evening. So in Old English, 3. And fōron ānstreces dæges and nihtes, "And they marched continuously by day and by night.”—Old English Chronicle 894. The ordinary adverbial nouns in 4. He worked day and night show no case sign, if ever they were genitives or datives. Now-a-days is a phrase, made up of an adverb now, a preposition a (=on), and the adverbial noun days (genitive singular). |