§ 427. Comparison of Adverbs. Some Adverbs admit of degrees of comparison. Like Adjectives, they are compared by the help of plus or moins: doucement plus doucement moins doucement The following Adverbs are anomalous. le moins doucement le plus doucement (Compare adjec Demain is from de, and mane, morning. In le lendemain, the morrow, the article occurs twice. Till the fifteenth century this word was correctly written l'endemain (le en demain). L'endemain, ils se desancrerent. (FROISSART.) Till the seventeenth century it was sometimes written in the old and correct way, sometimes as now. Compare le lierre, ivy (Lat. hedera), till the fifteenth century written without l: feuillage de yeire. § 429. Naguère, naguères. Naguère or naguères is an adverb compound, ne, a and guère. Guère beaucoup. Hence naguère = n'a beaucoup. The whole phrase would stand thus in Modern French il n'y a pas beaucoup de temps. Guère, or guères, is only employed now with a negative meaning, but originally guère had affirmative force only. Compare jamais rien, personne, etc. (§ 434). Seigneur d'une ville non gueres grande. (AMYOT, 16th cent.) Je ne suis pas homme qui me laisse gueres garotter le juge(MONTAIGNE, 16th cent.) ment. § 430. Aujourd'hui. Aujourd'hui = au jour de hui: hui is hodie (to-day). Hence aujourd'hui at the day of to-day. Till the sixteenth century hui (hodie) was freely employed by itself: = Qu'il sort ainsi plus tost huy que demain. (MAROT, 16th cent.) It is so employed by La Fontaine : Dans dix mois d'hui. § 431. Jamais, jadis, à jamais, déjà. Ja in each of these words is Latin jam (now). Ja was often used by itself in Old French. It is so employed by La Fontaine : Je l'ai ja dit d'autre façon. Jamais is sometimes found in two distinct words in Old French: Ja de mon cuer n'istra (ne sortira) mais la semblance. = Déjà, already dès ja! COUCY, 12th cent.) Des ja y avait cinq ou six enseignes du roi. (COMMINES, 15th cent.) § 432. Or, lors, lors de, lorsque, lors même que, dès lors, désormais, dorénavant, encore, All have their origin in hora, heure: = Or heure. = dès l'heure. d'ore en avant) Lors = = l'heure. Lors de de cette heure en avant. French, dès or mais de cette heure en avant. Encore (Old French, anc ore) = cette heure. Encore now means (1) à cette heure: Cela dit, maître loup s'enfuit, et court encore. (2) De nouveau: J'ai couru une fois, et je courrai encore. § 433. Devant and avant. Devant is mainly used in opposition to derrière, as an adverb of place, and avant in opposition to après, as an adverb of time; but they often interchange. This is true whether the words are employed as simple prepositions, as adverbs, as conjunctions with que, as substantives, or as adjectives. Avant, used of place : Mettre la fin avant le commencement. (LITTRÉ.) N'allons point plus avant, demeurons, chère Oenone. (RACINE.) Quelques-uns, passant plus avant, ont déclaré, etc. Si comme devant il vous faut encore suivre, j'y consens. (MOLIÈRE.) Un peu devant sa mort. (BOSSUET.) Devant ce temps (vingt ans) l'on est enfant. (PASCAL.) Comme nous avons dit ci-devant. (LITTRÉ.) Un ci-devant noble. § 434. Negation. In Latin, ne is essentially the negative particle, all other negatives contain it: nullus, neque, nec, neuter, non, nisi, nihil, nunquam, nemo, nusquam, nolo, etc. The French ne, obtained from Latin non, is similarly the particle to the influence of which all negatives can be traced; unless we except ni, nul, non, which are derived directly from Latin nec, nullus, non.* If such words as pas, point, personne, rien, jamais, etc., have any negative force, it is only by long association with ne, and by being constantly added to strengthen it. They are by nature affirmative, and can regain their affirmative meaning. Moreover, negation can be expressed by ne only. pas, a step rien, a thing personne, a person goutte, a drop mie (archaic), a crumb jamais, ever aucun, some one Lat. passus (p. 38, note.) ,, punctum ,, jam magis Compare English, not a jot, not a bit, etc., not to care a straw, not to care a button, etc. § 435. Adverbs in -ment. The exceptions to the rule, that adverbs in -ment (§ 426) are formed from the feminine of the corresponding adjective, admit of various explanations-as usual each 'irregularity' has a raison d'être. (1) 'Adjectives in -ant, -ent, form their adverbs in -amment, -emment respectively; constant, constamment; évident, évidemment.' Adjectives in -ant, -ent, are from Latin participial forms in -antem, -entem. Such words in Old French had but one form for the masculine and feminine (§ 207). Blanche (elle) fut et vermeille et plaisans† a devise. (Il y) avoit une escarboucle ardant. (Berte, 13th cent.) (Romancero, 12th cent.) With -ment added this form was maintained. Je le connois evidanment. (Lai d'Amours, 13th cent.) In the sixteenth century an attempt was made to place those adverbs under the rule, which was then almost general (§ 207), viz., that of adding e to all feminine adjectives; then only we find the form in -entement. Compare English none, naught, nor, neither, never, etc., in which the Old English ne also enters. † § 210. 2. A return was eventually made to the older form; assimilation has supervened, and the forms appear as now. Lentement is quite regular; the adjective is lent, from lentus, lenta.* (2) Traîtreusement was regularly formed from the adjective traitreux, feminine traîtreuse, which has been displaced by the substantive forms traître, traitresse (§ 229). (3) Gentiment is from gentil and ment. As gentil is from gentilis, the feminine was like the masculine in Old French (compare above, and § 207). The consonant is very weak and is apt to drop out in pronunciation. (Compare § 116. 6.) (4) Brièvement is from the adjective brief, brière (Lat. brevis), a dialectic variation of bref, brève. The Old French adverb was briement brie(f)ment. (Compare above.) 5. Some adjectives in e mute take an acute accent when -ment is added (§ 426). As explained in § 81, e is now sounded or not, according to the necessities of the case. Adverbs form a good illustration. At one end of the scale we have complete elision of the e, at the other its accentuation: vraie, vraiment : gai, gaiment or gaiement: commode, commodément, elided e silent e-may be elided or not silent e sounded e (je) sounded e (été). † *Présentement is more difficult. It seems to have arisen from the usage in Old French of present as a substantive, en present = presente, the common form in Latin. In any case it is anterior to the sixteenth century. Is it the Latin ablative imported, tel quel, and -ment added? Véhémentement would seem to be of this origin. Many an e which is now silent was distinctly pronounced in Old and Middle French (§ 81). We have not much direct evidence of the value attached to the medial e in Old French. But there is little doubt that its pronunciation depended more upon the position of the tonic accent, than upon the presence or absence of consonants after it. When e bore the tonic accent, whether it ended the syllable as dete, or was followed by a consonant as in dette, debte, no doubt the sound was that of the modern é or è. This does not seem, however, to be the explanation of the accent in these adverbs. We owe it, to all appearance, to the necessity of pronouncing the e for the sake of the consonants. We find the connecting link in such words as gouvernement, lestement, etc., where e is not accented, but yet is distinctly sounded as e in je. It is a common habit with Englishmen (and no doubt a natural one) to give the sound é (été) instead of e (je). The é in communément, etc., seems, so to speak, to be an illustration in France of the English mistake, and not to have had its origin in the older speech. |