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184 Notiser från den utländska bokmarknaden.
183
The former part of Dr. Sweet’s grammar, comprising the
introduction, phonology, and accidence, was reviewed in the Aïhenœum more
than six years ago, in an article which has been in part reprinted
in the collected writings of the låte Mr. H. D. Darbishire. In his
concluding sentence the reviewer expressed the hope that "this truly
admirable work" would soon be completed by the publication of the
part containing the syntax. Dr. Sweet’s other occupations, which
have included the very considerable task of preparing an
Anglo-Saxon dictionary, have delayed until now the appearance of the
much-desired second volume; and in order to prevent a still longer
delay, he has found himself obliged to issue it in a form less
complete than he originally intended. The preface explains that
the scope of the second part is limited to "formal syntax/’ that is
to say, the doctrine of the functions of grammatical forms, as
distinguished from "logical syntax/’ which starts from those
distinctions in thought which it is the purpose of grammatical forms to
express; and that this limited field has been still further narrowed
by "excluding what can be found in a dictionary, such as the use
of prepositions." Even with these restrictions it is a little
surprising to find the book contains only 126 pages. However, Dr.
Sweet is skilful in economizing space, and besides, as the reader
is reminded in the preface, a considerable amount of syntax has
already been included in Part. I. We are sorry that the book is
not longer, because the omitted portions of the subject include many
points which the author is peculiarly well qualified to treat; but
there is nothing perfunctory in its execution so far as it goes.
There is hardly a page which does not contain some new and
valuable observations. The first forty-four pages of the volume are
occupied with subjects which have hitherto almost escaped the
attention of writers on, English grammar, namely, word-order,
sentence-stress, and intonation. The first of these is unquestionably an
integral and important part of syntax. The reason why it has
received so little attention is probably that it is so difficult to treat.
Dr. Sweet’s remarks on the differences of meaning produced by
varying the position of words in the sentence are always acute,
and nearly always undeniably correct. Here and there we meet
with a statement that seems to require qualification; for example,
in section 1875 it is stated that ’’’causal clauses introduced by as
always precede, for, if they followed the head-sentence, they would
be understood as clauses of comparison." If we correctly understand
this remark, it implies that Dr. Sweet would not use such a
sentence as aI declined the invitation, as I had a previous engagement/’
which certainly does not appear to be contrary to good English
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