Grammar and Parts of Speech by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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There are seven parts of speech, and they agree with the five grand and / universal divisions into which all things finite, by which I mean to / exclude the idea of God, will be found to fall; that is, as you will often / see it stated in my writings, especially in the Aids to Reflection[1]: --

/ Prothesis. / 1. / Thesis. Mesothesis. Antithesis. / 2. 4. 3. / Synthesis. / 5.

Conceive it thus: --

1. Prothesis, the noun-verb, or verb-substantive, _I am_, which is the / previous form, and implies identity of being and act.

2. Thesis, the noun.

3. Antithesis, the verb.

Note, each of these may be converted; that is, they are only opposed to / each other.

4. Mesothesis, the infinitive mood, or the indifference of the verb and / noun, it being either the one or the other, or both at the same time, in / different relations.

5. Synthesis, the participle, or the community of verb and noun; being and / acting at once.

Now, modify the noun by the verb, that is, by an act, and you have --

6. The adnoun, or adjective.

Modify the verb by the noun, that is, by being, and you have --

7. The adverb.

Interjections are parts of sound, not of speech. Conjunctions are the same / as prepositions; but they are prefixed to a sentence, or to a member of a / sentence, instead of to a single word.

The inflections of nouns are modifications as to place; the inflections of / verbs, as to time.

The genitive case denotes dependence; the dative, transmission. It is / absurd to talk of verbs governing. In Thucydides, I believe, every case has / been found absolute.[2]

Dative: -- [Greek: -- -- ] / Thuc. VIII. 24. This is the Latin usage.

Accusative. -- I do not remember an instance of the proper accusative / absolute in Thucydides; but it seems not uncommon in other authors: / [Greek: -- -- ]

Yet all such instances may be nominatives; for I cannot find an example of / the accusative absolute in the masculine or feminine gender, where the / difference of inflexion would show the case. -- ED.]

The inflections of the tenses of a verb are formed by adjuncts of the verb / substantive. In Greek it is obvious. The E is the prefix significative of a / past time.

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