SIXTH DEFINITION:--"_An_ Adverb is _a part of speech joined_ to a verb, an adjective, _and sometimes to_ another adverb, to express some _quality_ or _circumstance_ respecting _it_."-- _Murray's Gram._, pp.

28 and 114.

See _Dr.Ash's Gram._, p.47.This definition contains many errors; some of which are gross blunders.1.The first word, "_An_," is erroneously put for _The: an_ adverb is _one_ adverb, not the whole class; and, if, "_An_ adverb is a part of speech," any and every adverb is a _part of speech_; then, how many parts of speech are there?
2.

The word "_joined_" is not well chosen; for, with the exception of _not_ in _cannot_, the adverb is very rarely _joined_ to the word to which it relates.3.The want of a comma before _joined_, perverts the construction; for the phrase, "_speech joined_ to a verb," is nonsense; and to suppose _joined_ to relate to the noun _part_, is not much better.4.The word "_and_" should be _or_; because no adverb is ever added to three or four different terms at once.
5.

The word "_sometimes_" should be omitted; because it is needless, and because it is inconsistent with the only conjunction which will make the definition true.6.The preposition "_to_" should either be inserted before "_an adjective_," or suppressed before the term which follows; for when several words occur in the same construction, uniformity of expression is desirable.7.For the same reason, (if custom may be thus far conformed to analogy,) the article "_an_" ought, in cases like this, if not always, to be separated from the word _other_; thus, "An adverb is a word added to _a_ verb, _a_ participle, _an_ adjective, or _an_ other adverb." Were the eye not familiar with it, _another_ would be thought as irregular as _theother_.8.The word "_quality_" is wrong; for no adverb ever expresses any _quality_, as such; qualities are expressed by _adjectives_, and never, in any direct manner, by adverbs.9.The "_circumstances_" which we express by adverbs never belong to the _words_, as this definition avers that they do, but always to the _actions_ or _qualities_ which the words signify.