Nay, more.
They may even be reduced to one. Verbs do not, in reality, _express_
actions; but they are intrinsically the mere _names_ of actions. The
idea of action or being communicated by them, as well as the
_meaning_ of words in general, is merely _inferential_. The
principle of reasoning assumed by the celebrated Horne Tooke, if
carried to its full extent, would result, it is believed, in proving
that we have but one part of speech.
_Adnouns_ or _adjectives_ were originally nouns. _Sweet, red,
white_, are the _names_ of qualities, as well as _sweetness,
redness, whiteness_. The former differ from the latter only in their
_manner_ of signification. To denote that the name of some quality
or substance is to be used in connexion with some other name, or,
that this quality is to be _attributed_ to some other name, we
sometimes affix to it the termination _en, ed_, or _y;_ which
signifies _give, add,_ or _join_. When we employ the words wood_en_,
wooll_en_, wealth_y_, grass_y_, the terminations _en_ and _y_, by
their own intrinsic meaning, give notice that we intend to _give,
add, or join_, the names of some other substances in which are found
the properties or qualities of _wood, wool, wealth_, or _grass_.
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