How to parse. ...

140

IRREGULARITIES. [Par. 214, 2I5.

was confused with the Adjective. In the same way,
in earlier English, we find(3) "A score sheep," " a ten furlongs."
And even in our Authorized Version of the Bible
we have
(4) " About an eight days after these sayings."
214 In some of these cases probably the Adjective
and Noun are regarded as one Compound Noun.
Compare "a fortnight," i.e. " a fourteen-night," " a
twelve-month."
But in modern English the irregularity is only
licensed with a few much-used Adjectives-" dozen,"
"hundred," " thousand " (perhaps "million ").
215 1. " All."
(1) "All of us rejoiced."
Regular Construction " All we." Cause of Irregularity, partly (III.) the harshness of "all we," partly
(II.) Confusion of (I.) with " ten, twenty, many, &c.,
of us." Note the following various uses: —
(2) "He rushed up all out of breath," "all the
better," Adverb.
(3) "All is in vain: he will not help us at all,"
Noun.
(4) In " The men all perished"
- " all" may be parsed as an Adjective, just as we
can say "The men - twenty in number - perished."