An English Grammar Part 37

5. To the herdsman among his cattle in remote woods, to the craftsman in his rude workshop, to the great and to the little, a new light has arisen.

6. When the manners of Loo are heard of, the stupid become intelligent, and the wavering, determined.

7. The student is to read history actively, and not pa.s.sively.

8. This resistance was the labor of his life.

9. There was always a hope, even in the darkest hour.

10. The child had a native grace that does not invariably coexist with faultless beauty.

11. I think a mere gent (which I take to be the lowest form of civilization) better than a howling, whistling, clucking, stamping, jumping, tearing savage.

12. Every fowl whom Nature has taught to dip the wing in water.

13. They seem to be lines pretty much of a length.

14. Only yesterday, but what a gulf between now and then!

15. Not a brick was made but some man had to think of the making of that brick.

16. The cla.s.s of power, the working heroes, the Cortes, the Nelson, the Napoleon, see that this is the festivity and permanent celebration of such as they; that fashion is funded talent.

VERBS AND VERBALS..

VERBS.

[Sidenote: _Verb,--the word of the sentence._]

199. The term _verb_ is from the Latin _verb.u.m_ meaning _word_: hence it is _the_ word of a sentence. A thought cannot be expressed without a verb. When the child cries, "Apple!" it means, _See_ the apple! or I _have_ an apple! In the mariner's shout, "A sail!" the meaning is, "Yonder _is_ a sail!"

Sentences are in the form of declarations, questions, or commands; and none of these can be put before the mind without the use of a verb.

[Sidenote: _One group or a group of words._]

200. The verb may not always be a single word. On account of the lack of inflections, _verb phrases_ are very frequent. Hence the verb may consist of:

(1) _One word_; as, "The young man _obeyed_."

(2) _Several words of verbal nature, making one expression_; as, (_a_) "Some day it _may be considered_ reasonable," (_b_) "Fearing lest he _might have been antic.i.p.ated_."

(3) _One or more verbal words united with other words to compose one verb phrase_: as in the sentences, (_a_) "They knew well that this woman _ruled over_ thirty millions of subjects;" (_b_) "If all the flummery and extravagance of an army _were done away with_, the money could be made to go much further;" (_c_) "It is idle cant to pretend anxiety for the better distribution of wealth until we can devise means by which this preying upon people of small incomes _can be put a stop to_."

In (_a_), a verb and a preposition are used as one verb; in (_b_), a verb, an adverb, and a preposition unite as a verb; in (_c_), an article, a noun, a preposition, are united with verbs as one verb phrase.

[Sidenote: _Definition and caution._]

201. A verb is a word used as a predicate, to say something to or about some person or thing. In giving a definition, we consider a verb as one word.

Now, it is indispensable to the nature of a verb that it is "a word used as a predicate." Examine the sentences in Sec. 200: In (1), _obeyed_ is a predicate; in (2, _a_), _may be considered_ is a unit in doing the work of one predicate; in (2, _b_), _might have been antic.i.p.ated_ is also one predicate, but _fearing_ is not a predicate, hence is not a verb; in (3, _b_), _to go_ is no predicate, and not a verb; in (3, _c_), _to pretend_ and _preying_ have something of verbal nature in expressing action in a faint and general way, but cannot be predicates.

In the sentence, "_Put_ money in thy purse," _put_ is the predicate, with some word understood; as, "Put _thou_ money in thy purse."

VERBS CLa.s.sIFIED ACCORDING TO MEANING AND USE.

TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS.

[Sidenote: _The nature of the transitive verb._]

202. By examining a few verbs, it may be seen that not all verbs are used alike. All do not express action: some denote state or condition.

Of those expressing action, all do not express it in the same way; for example, in this sentence from Bulwer,--"The proud lone _took_ care to conceal the anguish she _endured_; and the pride of woman _has_ an hypocrisy which _can deceive_ the most penetrating, and _shame_ the most astute,"--every one of the verbs in Italics has one or more words before or after it, representing something which it influences or controls. In the first, lone _took_ what? answer, _care_; _endured_ what? _anguish_; etc. Each influences some object, which may be a person, or a material thing, or an idea. _Has_ takes the object _hypocrisy_; _can deceive_ has an object, _the most penetrating_; (can) _shame_ also has an object, _the most astute_.

In each case, the word following, or the object, is necessary to the completion of the action expressed in the verb.

All these are called transitive verbs, from the Latin _transire_, which means _to go over_. Hence

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

203. A transitive verb is one which must have an object to complete its meaning, and to receive the action expressed.

[Sidenote: _The nature of intransitive verbs._]

204. Examine the verbs in the following paragraph:--

She _sprang up_ at that thought, and, taking the staff which always guided her steps, she _hastened_ to the neighboring shrine of Isis. Till she _had been_ under the guardianship of the kindly Greek, that staff _had sufficed_ to conduct the poor blind girl from corner to corner of Pompeii.--BULWER

In this there are some verbs unlike those that have been examined.

_Sprang_, or _sprang up_, expresses action, but it is complete in itself, does not affect an object; _hastened_ is similar in use; _had been_ expresses condition, or state of being, and can have no object; _had sufficed_ means _had been sufficient_, and from its meaning cannot have an object.

Such verbs are called intransitive (not crossing over). Hence

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

205. An intransitive verb is one which is complete in itself, or which is completed by other words without requiring an object.

[Sidenote: _Study_ use, _not_ form, _of verbs here._]