ABSTRACT
103. (54) The arrangement of inflexions current in grammars, according to which all cases of the same noun, all tenses, persons, etc., of the same verb, are grouped together as a paradigm, is not a truly grammatical one : what is common to Old English dæg— dœge—dœges—dagas— dagum—daga, —for instance, is not the flexional element, but the word, or stem of the word; the tie between all these forms, accordingly, is not of a grammatical, but of a lexical character. That such an arrangement may offer some advantages from a practical point of view cannot, indeed, be denied; but, on the other hand, it causes many things to be wrested from one another which belong together grammatically, e.g., the termination -um, which is common to the dative plural of all the flexional classes. Besides, it forces us to separate from one another the two parts of grammar which treat respectively of the forms of words and of their uses. In the latter, we must of needs deal with (say) all datives under one head, all genitives under another, and so forth, while in accidence these forms are distributed according to declension classes. Such a disjunction, however, of accidence and syntax, beyond what is strictly necessary, is doubtless injurious in every respect (cf. above, § 101). At any rate, this paradigmatic arrangement of grammatical phenomena will not answer the purposes of this chapter, where we seek to get as perspicuous a survey as ible of the grammatical forms of two distinct stages of one and the same language.
