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are, in Grammar, applied to the words themselves as they stand in a proposition.

In this sentence, 'The book is good,' we have a 'proposition,' that is an indicative or declaratory sentence;' and it is also called an 'affirmative proposition,' because it affirms or says yes.'

But in the sentence, 'The book is not good,' we have a 'negative proposition; that is, a declaratory sentence which denies, or 'says no.'

In both these sentences, Logicians call' the book' the subiect of the proposition, and 'good' the predicate; and they term 'is' the copula, that is the 'link' or 'tie' which joins the subject and the predicate together. In negative sentences, they attach the negation to the copula; thus, in the sentence 'The book is not good,' they make is not the copula.

In such propositions as, 'The sun shines,' the Logicians say that both predicate and copula are contained in the word 'shines;' for 'shines' is equivalent to is shining;' and so they analyse

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Of those writers who have applied logical analysis to the grammar of a modern language, one of the most distinguished is Dr. Karl Ferdinand Becker, whose Grammar of the German Language enjoys a high reputation. In our own country, Dr. Latham has written on 'Logic in its application to Language;' but his treatise on that subject is not so extensively known as his works on the 'English Language.'

The principal followers of Becker, in England, are Dr. Morell and Mr. Mason; to each of whom I have to acknowledge many obligations, though I am often at variance with both, in theory and in detail. Where I am obliged to differ from them, I have endeavoured to state my views with moderation and candour.

More recently, Professor Bain, of Aberdeen, has published an English Grammar founded upon the Analysis of Sentences. This work I have consulted with advantage from time to time.

Now the application of Logic to Grammar is attended with considerable difficulty. If, indeed, the logical subject and predicate were always represented, each by a single word, the application of logical terms to Grammar would be comparatively easy. But in Logic, the subject and the predicate may each be represented by several words; thus

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Predicate. brightly shining. utterly defeated.

Those writers who apply Logic to Grammar have generally retained the terms subject and predicate, but with a distinction. Thus, in the sentences just given, sun' (the old-fashioned 'nominative to the verb') is called the grammatical subject; the words 'the early' are then an enlargement of the grammatical subject; and so 'the early sun' is termed the enlarged subject. Hence it follows that the early sun,' which is the logical subject, is the enlarged grammatical subject. In like manner, 'army' is the grammatical subject; and 'the royal army' (the subject in Logic) is the enlarged subject in Grammar.

First, they restrict the term, and then they enlarge it; with the additional disadvantage of employing the same term (subject), in one sense in Logic, and in another in Grammar.

Similarly the grammatical predicate does not always coincide with the logical predicate; for, in some instances, the logical predicate is, in a grammatical point of view, the 'extended predicate.' Dr. Morell says (Grammar, p. 66), 'In grammatical analysis, it is more convenient to regard the copula as belonging to the predicate; so that, instead of having three essential elements to every sentence, as is the case in Logic, we shall have only two, namely (1) the Subject, which expresses the thing about which we are speaking; and (2) the Predicate, which contains what we affirm of the subject.' According to this view, we have, in the examples given, 'is shining,' and 'is defeated,' for the grammatical predicates; but we are further informed that the adverbs 'brightly' and 'utterly' are extensions of the predicate; whence 'is brightly shining' and 'is utterly defeated' are extended predicates.

Here, again, we observe a restriction followed by an extension.

But the difficulties presented by the Copula are not so easily surmounted. According to the more recent works on Logic, the copula is explained as merely indicating the agreement or disagreement of two terms. But in the system hitherto received, Logicians reduce every proposition to the form 'A is B' or 'A is not B;' and accordingly the verb of the predicate (or the predicate-verb, as we shall term it) is resolved into is with a participle; for example, 'The sun shines' is resolved, 'The sun is shining.'

Further, as they maintain that an adjective or participle is. not significant by itself, they tell us that some substantive must be supplied to complete the sense. Thus, 'Thomas is wise' is explained to be 'Thomas is a wise man.' So, 'The sun is shining' is 'The sun is a shining body,' or a shining substance.' Hence the sentence 'John walks' is resolved into 'John is walking,' and this is explained 'John is a walking

man.'

They are not, however, all agreed as to the exact form of the copula. Some of them say, that any finite part of the. verb be may be so used; others restrict the copula to the present tense indicative of that verb. According to the view taken by the latter, this sentence, 'The way of the wicked shall be darkness,' must be resolved,

The way of the wicked

is

or

is

a way which shall be darkness,
a way tending to darkness.

(See Hill's Aldrich, p. 18.)

All this seems very artificial. But further, it gives rise to numerous ambiguities; and we shall see that the word is, innocent as it looks, is one of the most deceptive little words in the language.

First of all, the word is, apart from its use as a copula, may be employed by itself as a predicate-verb, denoting existence; for example, 'God is,' that is, 'God exists.' And so here:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not.

Macbeth, i. 3.

We find an emphatic use of is in a remarkable passage in the Winter's Tale, iv. 3, touching upon the relation of art to nature:

This is an art

Which does mend nature, change it rather; but

The art itself is nature.

Shakespeare often dwells upon the distinction between 'being' and 'seeming;' as in the dialogue between the Queen and Hamlet:—

Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids

Seek for thy noble father in the dust:

Thou know'st, 'tis common; all that live must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

Hamlet. Ay, madam, it is common.
Queen.

If it be,

Why seems it so particular with thee?

Hamlet. Seems, madam! nay it is: I know not
'seems.'

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly; these, indeed, seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings, and the suits of woe.
Hamlet, i. 2.

Compare the assertion of Iago:

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Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:

For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Now contrast the following passage:

Sir Toby. Jove bless thee, master Parson.

Othello, i. 1.

Clown (personating Sir Topas the Curate). Bonos dies, Sir Toby for, as the old hermit of Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily said to a niece of King Gorboduc, 'That that is is'; so, I being master Parson, am master Parson; for what is 'that' but that, and 'is' but is?

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This is the very point. No doubt, whatever is, is,' in the sense that 'whatever exists, exists.' But let us consider the various significations which may be implied in the word is, used as a copula, in the simple sentence 'A is B.'

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