NOTES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16883, 2 August 1919, Page 9

NOTES.

Mr Heiuemann's forthcoming books include a new collection of short stories by Richard Dchan entitled "A Saiior'a Home." "Mr Punch's Histoiy of the Great "War" is announced by Messrs Cassoll. The woik, which consists of 320 pages u th about 150 pictures— supplied "by -Mi Punch's correpondents and contributors on all fronts —is intended to servo as a reflex of the British character during the last five years. "That indispensible political quarterly." So Mr J. 'L. Garvin, in the Economic Foundations of Peace styles "The Round Table." The June number justifies the description. • It contains an impartial examination of the 'Peace terms and a severe criticism of the proposed trial of the ex-Kaiser, and deals with matters so diverse as the League of Nations, and the relation to it of (he Empire, Russia's revolt againslfc 'Bolshevism, the Empire's iniliiaj-y effort, the recent outbreak in India, the industrial unrest in England, the financial position and reparaifcion, the one big union proposal in Australia, and the Nationalist demand for independence in. Soiith Africa. It is the epitome of-. .modern history in the making, and is essent'.al to every thinking citizen. "The Round Table" carries no advertisements, it is not run for profit, and is a purely co-operative patriotic enterprise. At last week's meeting of -the W.E.A. English Literature Class, Mr Palmer, in dealing with the forms of words-iii Chaucerian English, commented upon

the recent discussions in Timaru concerning the Council's "Drive Slow" notices. There are, he said, many adverbs in modern English, which have no distinctive ending, but are identical in form with the corresponding -adjectives. Such are: Fast, slow, cheap, high, sound (in "to sleep sound"), etc. .School books usually make the erroneous statement that ';sucli words are used as adverbs." They are, however, the survivors of a. largo class of adverbs ending in "c." The lecturer exemplified irom Chaucer's Prologue (1) "He was late y'come from his viage." (2) "He could faire ride." (3) "But faooro wept, she," etc. In common with- all weak final e's in our language these adverbial terminations disappeared, -leaving the adverbs coincident iii form with the adjectives from which they were derived. Hence these "flat adverbs" are an ancient and dignified part of .the language, and the pedantry which discountenances them is apt to be encouraged, though it obeys a'naturallinguisitic law, viz., the tendency to associate particular endings witho particular syntactic functions. Most adverbs of manner end in ly, and it is easy to see how such a termination comes to be regarded as indepehsablc. But until the language has shown n tendency to reject the "flat adverbs," it is pedantic, said Mr Palmer/ to put them under a ban.