TREATISE ON THE GREEK VERB; WITH REFERENCE TO THE EVOLUTION OF IT FROM PRIMARY ELEMENTS, THE CAUSES OF ITS AMPLIFICATION, AND THE PROPER POWER OF ITS VARIOUS FORMS. BY L. JUNIUS. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1843. PREFACE. WHETHER the Theory here advanced be the true Theory of the Greek Verb or not, there appear to be a unity and a completeness in it, which will claim the attention of scholars who have any taste for the investigation of such subjects. It unfolds itself with ease and simplicity; and is far enough carried out to show that there can be no difficulty in applying it to all forms and modifications of the Verb, with very few cases of exception. No one Verb, indeed, will be found to lie over the whole system; but the whole of almost every Verb will be sustained by it; anomalies being comparatively rare, whether in form or peculiar meaning and use. It is no mere love of theorising which has led to this production: the observance of facts and materials, with their affinities, accounts for the whole of it. Of course it will have its opposed opinions. The Author takes his stand, it is true, upon ground now generally settled, namely, that short and simple forms are the roots or originals of the rest yet, when he produces arrangements, and gives explanations of causes and effects, which have not been given before, he cannot expect them to be generally received, even though they be true, without severe and long criticism. He has weighed them, however, for twenty years since the main body of the work was written, other things being gradually added; and he thinks that they will mostly survive the ordeal, and prove themselves more and more to be sound and valid, the more they are severely investigated. Some writers, not of the largest minds, may forthwith contemn the opinions here advanced; and some may adopt them without acknowledgement: but others, whose really great learning and reputation permit them to afford to be generous to one soliciting their regard, will give them a fair consideration, and vindicate main truths, even though errors also, of minor character, may appear amongst them. Relying upon this, and having little leisure for literary contentions amidst more important occupations, the Author presents his work to Grecian scholars without further anxiety on the one hand, and (as he hopes) without presumption on the other. It is unimportant to say wherefore he determines to assume a name, or why it should be ERRATA. JUNIUS. Page 8. line 2., for " Imperfectum read" Perfectum." 3. from bottom, for "xxI. note k "read" XXII. note b." 15. ... THE EVOLUTION OF THE GREEK VERB. The I. In order to understand the Greek Verb, with respect to For many obvious remarks, in themselves of little moment, but, as parts of a system, important, I ask the candour of the learned reader; and as to the new assumptions which I make, I hope that they will either be so fairly self-evident, or so supported by simple and clear proof, that the system propounded will generally commend itself to the understanding with the unassuming force of truth and nature. If we glance over all the forms of a Greek Verb at one general view, it is obvious to suppose, or to assume, that the most simple forms are the earliest, and that the others have arisen out of them. It will be granted as a general, though not as a universal, theory, that the tendency of design, in generating or multiplying distinctive verbal signs, is to lengthen words a; though the tendency of common use, without any design of making new forms, is to shorten them. But since there are other differences between verbal forms having similar power, * As ἔτυπτον, οι τύπτομαι, from τύπτω. Second persons singular, and third persons plural, in passive verbs. B |