CHAPTER X.

THE VERB.

175. Verbs may be classified, according to their meaning, as Transitive and Intransitive.

Transitive verbs express an action which does not terminate in the agent, but passes over to an object; as, "he learns his lesson." Transitive verbs are used reflexively; as, "he killed himself;" "sit thee down," and reciprocally, as "they helped one another."

Intransitive verbs express an action that is confined to the agent, as, 66 corn grows." Some intransitive verbs, by the addition of a preposition, become transitive; as, "the man laughs at the boy;" "he talks of himself." Sometimes verbs compounded with prepositions become transitive; cp. come and overcome, speak and bespeak, go and forgo, &c.

176. Some intransitive verbs have a causative form which is always transitive, as,

As we are not now able to form new causative verbs, we are often obliged to give a causative meaning to an intransitive verb, and it then takes an object; as, "he flies his kite," "he ran the knife into his leg." Intransitive verbs may take a noun of kindred meaning as object; as, "he lived a good life," "he died a horrible death."

177. Verbs used with the third person only are called Impersonal verbs, as "me thinks," "it rains," &c. These verbs were much more numerous in the older stages of the language. (See Syntax of

Impersonal Verbs).

178. The verb affirms action, or existence of a subject under certain conditions or relations, called voice, mood, tense, number, person. In some languages the verbal root undergoes a change of form to express these various relations.

Voice.

179. Transitive verbs have two voices, the Active and the Passive. When a verb is used in the Active Voice, the subject of the verb represents the actor, or agent; as, "the lion killed the elephant."

A verb is said to be in the Passive Voice where the subject denotes the object to which the action is directed; as, "the elephant was killed by the lion."

In English we have no inflexions for the passive voice, as in Latin and Greek, but express the same notion by means of the passive participle and the verb to be. We have a very good substitute for the

passive form in the use of an indefinite pronoun for the subject of the verb; as, "somebody killed the boy" the boy was killed; one knows not how it hap

pened," say,"

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it is not known how it happened; "they it is said. We can also express the passive voice by means of the verb be, and a verbal noun ; as, "the book is printing" (= "the book is a printing" "the book is in printing") = "the book is being

printed."

=

The passive voice has grown out of reflexive verbs. The r in amo-r is supposed to be a corruption of the pronoun se. Cp. Fr. s'appeler, "to be called." Of the Teutonic languages only the Scandinavian dialects have formed a passive voice by means of the suffix st sk sik = = self, Lat. se; we have instances of this in busk, "to prepare oneself," "to be ready," and bask from bake.

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Mood.

180. Mood has reference to the manner or mode in which anything is predicated of the subject.

The Indicative mood makes a direct assertion, or asks some direct question about a fact; as, "John has a book," "Has John a book?”

The Subjunctive mood expresses some condition or supposition, as "I may go, if the day be fine;" "Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; "" 66 Had I the book, I would give it to you;" "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”

As the Subjunctive mood depends upon the construction of sentences, its peculiarities belong to Syntax. The Subjunctive is almost gone out of use; its place is supplied by auxiliary words.

The Imperative mood expresses a command, entreaty, desire, request, &c., as, "follow me," "grant our request."

In this mood we employ the verbal root without any inflexion. It has only one person, the second (singular and plural). In the oldest southern English the plural took the termination -th.

Some languages inflect the imperative mood for all persons. We have a substitute for the first and third persons in the use of let; "let me call," "let him call," In old English ́ let = cause. Formerly the Subjunctive had the sense of the Imperative, traces of which we have in such expressions as,

"But fall I first

Amongst my sorrows, ere my treacherous hand,
Touch holy things."

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER, The Maid's
Tragedy, Act. iii. Sc. I.

"My soul turn from them, turn we to survey."

GOLDSMITH, Trav. 165. "Fall he that must beneath his rival's arms."-POPE.

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The Infinitive mood is an abstract noun, and has no inflexions for voice, mood, &c.; as, “to see," to know." See p. 164 for a fuller treatment of the Infinitive Mood.

Participles are verbal adjectives, and always refer to some noun in the sentence. Many adjectives take a participial form in -ing, or -ed, or -en. § 76, p. 59.

σ Thou to the untamed horse

Didst use the conquering bit ;
And here the well-shaped oar,
By skilled hands deftly plied,

See

Still leapeth through the sea,
Following in wondrous guise

The fair Nereids with their hundred feet."

PLUMPTRE'S Edipus at Colonus.

A Verbal Noun in -ing (O.E. -ung), often corresponds to a Latin gerund, as "he thanked him for saving his life." Here saving is not a participle, because "for saving" represents an older, "for the saving of."

"Thonkyng him for the saving of his life."
Gesta Rom. p. 7.
"In knowing of the tid of day."

CHAUCER, Astrolabe, p. 19.

"Concerning the means of procuring unity, men must beware that in the procuring or muniting of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity and of human society."-BACON, Essays, 3.

Here procuring = the procuring of.

In such expressions as a "walking stick," "the church-going bell," the words walking and going are verbal nouns. In the earlier periods these nouns in -ing were preceded by various prepositions-an, a, on, in, at, to.