Page images
PDF
EPUB

of relishing natural enjoyments is soon gone (Fuller); the minuteness of his descriptions often diminishes their effect (Mac. Ess. I. 342); so auch Mrs. Rawdon's dashing little carriage and ponies was whirling down the street (Van. Fair.) und carriage and four gewöhnlich mit Sing. (cf. auch Br. 569. Gri. IV. 196).

Haben Subject und Prädicat verschiedenen Numerus, so geht das Subject vor: the most hateful sight was the lice (Lilip. 147. 194), the first sight I met with was two men drowned (Crusoe 159); which was the cloaks (Andrews 49); a state of illness is the very dregs of life (Crusoe 260); whose only wealth is their flocks and herds (Rasselas); whose reign is the tainted sepulcres (Shel.); is not the King's name fourty thousand names? (Rich. 2. III. 2); the lowest we can fall to is our graves (B. Fl. I. 398); the consequence was many disputes (Jr.); that which grieved me, was the gentlewoman's shoes (B. J. 369). Falsch sind daher Verbindungen wie: the wordes of a flatterer is a snare (Ch.); merit and good works is the end of man's notion (Ba.); divers philosophers hold that the lips is parcel of the mind (Sh.); here two tall ships becomes the victor's prey (Rowe Lucan); perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep (Mi., Br. 556); andrerseits: the scripture are the oracles of God himself (Hooker), his pavilion were dark waters (Ps. XVIII, 11).

4) Bilden mehrere Dinge das Subject, so steht gewöhnlich der Plural (Br. 564): the spaciousness and gloom of this edifice produce a profound awe (Jr.); esteem and love were never to be sold (Pope); the strength and vigour of savages are.. impaired by what they suffer... (Rob. I. 285); in the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher much fancy and invention appear (Blair); the diction and versification of English poetry were correct (Mac. Ess. 2.329). Falsch sind so: the flax and the barley was smitten (Exod. 9. 31); hill and dale doth boast thy blessing (Mi.); doch wird bisweilen, besonders bei ähnlichen Begriffen, die Einheit mehr hervorgehoben und der Sing. gesetzt: doctrine and discourse maketh nature less. importune (Ba.); the hue and cry of the country pursues him (Ju.); flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee (Matth. 16. 17); whose joy current and compulsive course ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on (Sh.); besonders in sprüchwörtlichen Redensarten als little and often fills the purse; fair and softly goes far; poor and content is rich (Othello).

5) Werden die 2 Nominative durch and etc, emphatisch gc

...

trennt, so steht der Singular oft: ay, and no too, was no good divinity (Sh.); ambition, and not the safety of the state, was concerned (Go.); love, and love only, is the loan for love (Young); my poverty, but not my will, consents (Sh.); where danger or dishonour lurks (Mi. P. L. IX. 267); so bei neither nor; as well as Manche Schriftsteller aber, classischen Beispielen folgend (tunc nec mens mihi nec color certa sede manent Hor.) brauchen lieber den Plural; Dr.: neither Virgil nor Homer were deficient in any of the former beauties; Pope: no monstrous height, or breadth or length appear; Ford 2. 456 master is a title, my father nor his before him, were acquainted with; Rob. I. 1 neither history nor tradition furnish such information; id. I. 294 the powers of his nature as well as the necessity of his condition urge him to fulfil his destiny. Diese, zwar von Br. getadelte Construction ist wohl so häufig als die andre.

6) Steht nach griechischer Weise das Prädicat voran, oder steht es zwischen den beiden Subjecten, so ist der Singular erforderlich: now abideth faith, hope, charity. . (I. Corinth. XIII. 13); thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory; here comes those I have done good to (Sh. Shrew.); neither is money the sinews of war (Ba.); but is there no hopes for such a man? (Bu.); in the chirche was wont to be chanons (Mandev.); is weskets to be generally wore this summer? (popul. Punch). To Donauworth from Anspach is some 70 or 80 miles (C. Fred.); disdain forbids me and my dread of shame (Mi.).

7) So kann das vorangestellte Prädicat auch bei einem nachfolgenden plural. Subject sing. bleiben, besonders bei there is: per wes mony cniht god (L.); there was in that tyme many gode holy men (Mandev.); there's two or three of us (Caesar), there's toys abroad (John 1. 1); there's no great odds betwixt us (Bleak H.); there's others can eke out (B. Fl. 2. 390); there was so many witnesses (Spec.); there was not above three men (Crusoe), there was on every face such symptoms of content (Sent. Journey 28); there is among those two fellows (Ivanhoe); wherein is contained speciall principles (Gr.). He told me it was men of desperate fortunes (Crusoe 2); it was they who picked their way through a peat-boy (C.); is not thy reason all these powers in one? (Pope. Man.); it was her fingers (V. o. W.); here is two well favoured slaves (Grim the Collier 213); here is three poor men come (Pin

ner of W.); sure 'twas multitudes that made thee stoop to death (I. Jeronimo); who is my mother, or my brethren (Marc. 3. 33).

8) In der Volkssprache wird die 3. pers. sing. mit jeder Person sing. oder plur. verbunden, was seinen Ursprung in der ags. Form des Plural auf að hat: so schon in William of Wykeham's Motto: manners makyth man; Stapleton Beda: after long advisement, they taketh upon them to try the matter; Kentish Dial. an. 1340: ase and we worleteth oure yelderes; mon und me mit 3. sing. (L.): gentil mennes children beth ytaust for to speke Frenshe (Trevisa); wormes woweth under cloude, wymmen waxeth wounder proude (Wa. 1. 30); chyldren whych now despyseth my godlye instruccyons (Mir. Plays 247). Altenglisch hatte der plur. freilich die Endung en (s. Gram. I. 255); aber auch Ch. R. 5406: sithe we arne to Fortune comen and hath our sermon of her nomen; S. Slick: thou's but a lazy loord and rekes much of thy swinke. Burns, der sich selbst rühmt, durch manchen Schlag seines Lehrers ein excellent scholar geworden zu sein, hat oft die 3. pers. statt der 2., auch wo der Wohllaut nicht durch die 2. härtere Form gestört würde; Bur. to Ramsay: thou paints auld nature to the nines. Es ist ein schottischer Gebrauch, der sich schon bei Barbour findet: through lawty lives men righteously; so in den schott. acts of parliament, und sc. stets bis XVII. extr.; so auch nordbritisch: ah's cum (Lancash.); thinks I to myself (schon bei Mariott); says I, they was pets, was them rocks (Slick.). [Eine umgekehrte Verwechslung ist in arn't that being a very dutiful son (J. Faithful 71); enter Lady Macbeth (Macb. I.); Enter Mrs. Twitschel (B. St.), nach der herkömmlichen Bühnenweisung für mehrere; he don't statt he does not neben we doesn't. pop.].

9) Nicht auf einer solchen Verwechslung, sondern auf dem Streben, die durch einen Plural bezeichneten einzelnen Erscheinungen als solche hervorzuheben, beruht der Gebrauch wie: extremities was the trier of spirits (Sh. Coriol. 4. 1); which very manners urges (Lear 5. 3); wars hath not wasted it (Rich. 2. 2. 1). In anderen Fällen dient der Sing., das durch den Plural bezeichnete grade als eins zusammenzufassen z. B. every 20 paces gives you the prospect of some villa (Montague); when lodismen and maryners in al thing redy was (Ch. VI. 180); by all the powers that's given thee o'er my soul (Otw.); two thirds of the faith in the world is built on no better foundation (B. St.); two thirds of his income goes to increase the capital (Co. Water Witch 1. 19);

every 4 years adds another day (Smith Grammar); when the 20 L. was gone (War. D. 2. 92); when the lessons was ended (Rasselas); the wars was o'er (P. 48); as seer as eggs is eggs (Yorkshire); three drops preserves from wrinkles (B. J. 364); two and two is four (Pope, von Webster citirt, falsch nach Br. 566). Auf dieser Construction beruht es wohl, dass mehrere später zu besprechende plur. Substantive jetzt ganz zu Sing. geworden sind.

10) Ein plur. Subject, vom Verb durch einen Sing. getrennt, hat bei Sh. mitunter das Verb im Sing. Romeo 2. 4: both our remedies within thy help and holy physic lies; Macb. 2. 1: words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives (freilich schon Ch. VI. 176 my wordis doith the so sore smert).

11) Bei 2 Subjecten von verschiedenem Numerus folgt der Regel nach Plural: a peccant passage or two were gone to the press (Bur. Letters XII.) s. 4) und 6); doch kann das Verb zu einem der Subjecte herantreten und wird dann dadurch bestimmt: Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burntoffering (Jesaia 40, 16); seltner the trees with leaves, the earth with flowers is dressed (Gr.).

12) Im Ags. brauchte man bei der Anrede nur den sing.: ves thú hal (Beo. 808); aber auch jetzt wendet man bei Anrede eines Einzelnen oft, freilich incorrect (Br. 553) you mit dem Sing. an: before you left Sicily, you was reconciled to Verres (Duncan Cicero); knowing that you was my old masters good friend (Spec. 517), Bleak H. I. 183, Pelham 385, T. Jones oft; was you never at Canterbury (Grandison); when ye was in the tavern (Scotch. songs 46, Po. to Swift 56).

Dagegen steht stets der Plural des Verbs bei we im Plur. majestatis*), der auch von Schriftstellern ganz gewöhnlich, wenn sie von sich reden, angewandt wird, z. B. nu ville ve eor geopenjan (ags. sermon); we have, for some time past, observed with great regret (Mac. Ess. I. 215, Gri. IV. 299) und im Affect, zutraulich, von Einem selbst in gewöhnlicher Rede: bring us another pint (Mar. P. S. 9); who had us pressed (J. Faithful 361); lend us a hand (D. Twist), give us your fist, old boy (Pelham).

13) Titel einzelner Dinge im Plur. haben das Verb im Sing.:

*) So weit wie das Deutsche,,der Herr Graf haben befohlen, geht das E. nicht, es heisst stets: how great a hazard does your Lordship run (Otw.) etc.; aber it, is to Us his liege lord.. Q. D. 436.

the Birds of Aristophanes' was performed (Lewes Goethe I.); the Sols Arms melts into the shadowy night (Bleak. H.); the Tuileries was like no garden of the Earth (C. Fred.). J. aber sagt: my Lives are reprinting, weil es sich hier um mehrere einzelne handelt (s. Br. 547. 565).

14) Constructionen wie tu es deliciae meae; vulnera totus erat sind auch im E. ganz gewöhnlich: I am all the daughters of my fathers house (Sh. Twelfth N.); why, thou art all these (B. J.); he is all head and shoulders; thou art the ruins of the noblest men (Caesar 3. 1), I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame (Job. 29. 15); I was soon too many for him (D. Twist, Pickw. 2. 76); if we should find him too many for us (R. Random); besonders insofern man 2 aufeinander bezogene Personen bezeichnet, tritt das Prädicat oft neben dem sing. Subject in den Plural: I'll be friends with you (Span. tragedy, Lear I. 1, Caesar 3. 1, T. Brown 78); be enemies with me (Henry V. 2. 1); I went partners with him (D. Twist); I am your betters (Andr. 110); auch your ardour... is still the Antipodes to my indifference (Pelham 360).

5. Person.

Um sie zu bezeichnen, muss, je mehr die Personalendungen beim Verb sich abschleifen, das Pronomen zugesetzt werden, und im jetzigen E. kann dieses daher fast nicht mehr fehlen ausser beim Imperativ. Hier fehlte es auch im Ags., doch finden sich auch dort schon Beispiele seines Gebrauches, s. Gri. IV. 204: forgif (Matth. 6. 12), gang (5. 24); cum thú (Matth. 5. 24), thu gong (Beo. 5483); so im optativischen gedôn (C. 26. 10), wo altsächsisch das Pronom. steht: cf. Imperativ.

Im Indicativ fehlt das Pronomen oft im kaufmännischen wie im nachlässigen Conversationsstyl in allen Personen (s. Br. 558); wenn, wie selten, myself etc. allein als Subject steht, z. B. as myself hath often proved (Roger Williams); hoping to see thee as hopelesse, as myselfe is haplesse (Euph. 32); myself hath often heard them say (T. Andr. 4. 4); thyself shall see thee act (Sh. Merch. 4. 1); as hymself says (C. Fred. 2. 121); himself deals his blows (Dr. Virgil 2). Diese Construction, wo self substantivisch

« PreviousContinue »