PRINCIPLES OF GROUPING.

Among our practical directions, we enjoin as the most important precept for managing the mind in delivery, "to think intensely while speaking." It will be necessary therefore, to investigate in this place so much of the action of the mind in thinking, as immediately influences the voice in utterance. It belongs to elocution as a branch of physiology, to describe the joint action of the mental as well as the vocal impulses, which produce the varying modifications of the voice that occur in the utterance of thought and feeling.

Though the first impulses from which thought and reasoning spring, do not exist in the form of words, yet these immediately follow; and whatever may in some cases be possible, it is unquestionable that we ordinarily think by means of words. Words however, take in the mind the forms, not of written but of spoken language.* Even in silent thought, the words which we employ are imagined as sounds. More especially in uttered thought, words are sounds expressed by articulation, and have as necessary accompaniments the various modifications of the voice which we are investigating.

From the account given in the second chapter of Genesis, and from the earliest efforts of children in learning to talk, it would seem that the first act of speech is to articulate names of things; that is, to employ nouns as the first elements of language. Some, however, have supposed that verbs must, in the history of language, be of earlier origin than nouns. It will not

* When we learn a language, without studying the pronunciation, we still associate some sort of sound with the written characters. If, as in the case of Chinese characters or Egyptian hieroglyphics, we know nothing about their sound, we still associate with them words or phrases which express their meaning in our own tongue. We pronounce the written characters by means of our own language.

be necessary for our purpose to adopt either opinion to the exclusion of the other. It is certainly the earliest effort in all speech, to make use of words, which by themselves convey ideas. These words are nouns (including adjectives) and verbs.

If a noun or verb consists of several syllables, the unity with which the mind regards them collectively, is vocally expressed by means of a strong accent on one of the syllables, as described in the first part of this treatise. This strong effort on one syllable, causes the others, by the laws of muscular action, to have a weaker utterance.

The mind being more strongly interested in these words of primary importance, they are uttered with more force than those which convey no ideas by themselves, but which are merely subservient to the others. On account of this subserviency, secondary words of speech are united, in the view which the mind takes of them, to the primary ones. This union is represented by the voice, through the medium of such a close junction as admits of no pause between them. The actual words of utterance are what we have called groups, and are often compounded of a primary word, and one or more of these secondary ones which have no meaning except in union with the primary.

The law of repeated muscular action also, being that of an alternation of stronger and weaker efforts, secondary words are uttered in the weaker action. Thus, as they are weaker, and also united to the stronger primary ones, we have a succession of groups, each of which has a single strongly accented syllable, and is separated from those which precede and follow, by some degree of pause, i. e. by a break in the continuity of articula

tion.

We have thus, by a strictly scientific investigation, demonstrated the doctrine of the grouping of speech, which we had before explained and illustrated in a general and popular way. We formerly mentioned however, that numerous exceptions occur to the law, by which the secondary parts of speech are either

monosyllabic and unaccented words, or, if polysyllabic, are accented with less force, and inseparably connected, by grouping, with nouns or verbs. It is necessary to notice these exceptions more carefully.

Ordinary speech is always in a considerable degree elliptical and abridged. It is often also irregular in respect to the most logical arrangement of its words. But if speech be made perfect, by supplying words for every idea, and relation of thought, the law which we have just described will be invariably observed. The more complete and regular the style of a written composition, the more simple are the laws of its elocution.

In many cases however, this natural grouping is broken in upon, for no other reason than simple physical convenience of utterance. Take for instance such a phrase as, The weather— is cloudy; we have two groups of easy utterance. Lengthen the last group by a monosyllabic adverb, and it still will have but one strong accent, e. g. The weather—is quite cloudy. But if the qualifying adverb is a polysyllabic word, and of considerable length, it will require an accent on one of its syllables to give the word a unity, e. g. The weather-is extraordinarily cloudy. Now if we utter this last sentence with particular care in reference to making ourselves understood, the accent which we shall give to the syllable or, will be less strong than that on the ou of cloudy, and by taking breath beforehand, the two words will be uttered at one impulse, and be closely connected. They will thus form no exception to the law of grouping. But if the mind is in a more careless state, and we suffer ourselves to be influenced by mere bodily convenience, the accent on the adverb extraordinarily, may become equally strong with that on the adjective cloudy, and the two words may be dissevered from each other by a pause for convenience of respiration, or for rest on the part of the organs of speech.

So too, the adverb may be emphatic, in which case it will be uttered with peculiar force and energy. In the case however,

of emphatic force on the secondary parts of speech, it is not in fact the ordinary accent of nouns and verbs, by which they are made prominent. Instead of receiving this, they take on that higher energy, which on all words alike, distinguishes accent from emphasis. This will be considered in a subsequent chapter.

It was also mentioned in part first, that these secondary words may be divided from those with which they group, by intervening words. E. g. The weather-is extraordinarily—and disagréeably-cloudy. Or, The weather—is to-day-extraordinarily cloudy. It will readily however be perceived, that these cases form no true exceptions to the doctrines just stated, respecting the different strength of the two classes of accent.

These last examples are likewise very instructive, in reference to the way in which words are united into groups. In the latter, to-day interrupts the connexion between is and the subsequent words. This interruption causes is to be united with it, so that is to-day becomes in utterance, a polysyllabic word. The principle by which this takes place, is simply one of convenience of enunciative effort, and has little reference to the meaning. Being unaccented, a pause cannot be made after it without causing it to receive an accent. But in the mean time, as to-day is an intervening circumstance, it is separated from the following words by a pause; and a single pause answers the purpose as fully as if the circumstance were preceded as well as followed by one. So too, in the other example, the two adverbs extraordinarily and disagreeably are separated by a pause from each other, while the latter is separated from the adjective cloudy, by the same means. The result is, that both alike are shown to qualify the adjective, while at the same time one adverb does not qualify the other. Both these objects are effectually accomplished, although for convenience of utterance, is is inseparably united to the first adverb, while and is in equally close union with the second.

The law of grouping, then, is the following.

Words are of two classes; nouns and verbs, which are strongly accented; and other parts of speech, which are weakly accented.

Words with no accent, or with a weak one, are if possible, united to accented words, according to their connexion in meaning.

But if they are separated by intervening words, they are united to the first subsequent word that has an ac

cent.

Articles and adjectives must be united to nouns; adverbs to verbs; auxiliary verbs to their principals; pronouns to verbs, (as nominative or objective cases;) a preposition to a word which it connects; and a conjunction to one of the two words which it connects, or to the first accented word of the phrase to which it belongs.

Adjectives generally receive an accent equally strong with that upon nouns. If but a single adjective qualifies a noun, it cannot (unless for emphasis) be separated from it by a pause. When an adjective intervenes between an unaccented word and the noun to which it belongs, the unaccented word groups with the adjective.

In the latter case, they all form one group, so far as a pause of meaning is concerned. In rhythm, they often form two groups, because they have two strong accents.

In the following examples, the parts of speech in each group are indicated by abbreviations placed over the words.