An idiom, Latin idioma, a construction peculiar to a language, may be an anomaly, or it may not.  An idiomatical expression which is not an anomaly, can be analyzed.

Feet and years, in the 1st and 2d examples, are not in the nominative after is, according to Rule 21, because they are not in apposition with the respective nouns that precede the verb; but the constructions are anomalous; and, therefore, no rule can be applied to analyze them.  The same ideas, however; can be conveyed by a legitimate construction which can be analyzed; thus, “The height of the wall is three feet;” “The age of my son is eight years.”

An anomaly, when ascertained to be such, is easily disposed of; but sometimes it is very difficult to decide whether a construction is anomalous or not.  The 3d, 4th, and 5th examples, are generally considered anomalies; but if we supply, as we are, perhaps, warranted in doing, the associated words which modern refinement has dropped, they will cease to be anomalies; thus, “My knife is of the worth of a shilling;” “—­of the worth of him,” &c.  “He has been there for three times;” as we say, “I was unwell for three days, after I arrived;” or, “I was unwell three days.”  Thus it appears, that by tracing back, for a few centuries, what the merely modern English scholar supposes to be an anomaly, an ellipsis will frequently be discovered, which, when supplied, destroys the anomaly.

On extreme points, and peculiar and varying constructions in a living language, the most able philologists can never be agreed; because many usages will always be unsettled and fluctuating, and will, consequently, be disposed of according to the caprice of the grammarian.  By some, a sentence may be treated as an anomaly; by others who contend for, and supply, an ellipsis, the same sentence may be analyzed according to the ellipsis supplied; whilst others, who deny both the elliptical and anomalous character of the sentence, construct a rule by which to analyze it, which rule has for its foundation the principle contained in that sentence only.  This last mode of procedure, inasmuch as it requires us to make a rule for every peculiar construction in the language, appears to me to be the most exceptionable of the three.  It appears to be multiplying rules beyond the bounds of utility.

The verbs, cost, weighs, and measures, in the 6th, 7th, and 8th examples, may be considered as transitive.  See remarks on resemble, have, own, &c., page 56.

EXAMPLES.

1.  “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”  “Let us make man.”  “Let us bow before the Lord.”  “Let high-born seraphs tune the lyre.”

2. “Be it enacted.” “Be it remembered.” "Blessed be he that blesseth thee; and cursed be he that curseth thee.”  “My soul, turn from them:—­turn we to survey,” &c.