The Grammar of English Grammars Part 64

MAY.

PRESENT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL PRESENT.

_Sing._ I may, thou mayst, he may; _Plur._ We may, you may, they may.

IMPERFECT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL IMPERFECT.

_Sing._ I might, thou mightst, he might; _Plur._ We might, you might, they might.

CAN.

PRESENT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL PRESENT.

_Sing._ I can, thou canst, he can; _Plur._ We can, you can, they can.

IMPERFECT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL IMPERFECT.

_Sing._ I could, thou couldst, he could; _Plur._ We could, you could, they could.

MUST.

PRESENT TENSE; AND SIGN OF THE POTENTIAL PRESENT.

_Sing._ I must, thou must, he must; _Plur._ We must, you must, they must.

If must is ever used in the sense of the Imperfect tense, or Preterit, the form is the same as that of the Present: this word is entirely invariable.

OBS. 11.--Several of the auxiliaries are occasionally used as mere expletives, being quite unnecessary to the sense: as, 1. DO and DID: "And it is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest _do_ creep forth."--_Psalms_, civ, 20. "And ye, that on the sands with printless foot _do_ chase the ebbing Neptune, and _do_ fly him when he comes back."--_Shak._ "And if a man _did_ need a poison now."--_Id._ This needless use of do and did is now avoided by good writers. 2. SHALL, SHOULD, and COULD: "'Men _shall_ deal unadvisedly sometimes, which after-hours give leisure to repent of.' I _should_ advise you to proceed. I _should_ think it would succeed. He, it _should_ seem, thinks otherwise."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 65. "I _could_ wish you to go."--_Ib._, p. 71. 3. WILL, &c. The following are nearly of the same character, but not exactly: "The isle is full of noises; sometimes a thousand tw.a.n.ging instruments _will_ hum about mine ears."--_Shak._ "In their evening sports she _would_ steal in amongst them."--_Barbauld_.

"His listless length at noontide _would_ he stretch."--_Gray_.

OBS. 12.--As our old writers often formed the infinitive in _en_, so they sometimes dropped the termination of the perfect participle. Hence we find, in the infancy of the language, _done_ used for _do_, and _do_ for _done_; and that by the same hand, with like changes in other verbs: as, "Thou canst nothing _done_."--_Chaucer_. "As he was wont to _done_."--_Id._ "The treson that to women hath be _do_."--_Id._ "For to _ben_ honourable and free."--_Id._ "I am sworn to _holden_ it secre."--_Id._ "Our nature G.o.d hath to him _unyte_."--_Douglas_. "None otherwise negligent than I you saie haue I not _bee_."--_Id._ See _W. Allen's E. Gram._, p. 97.

"But netheless the thynge is _do_, That fals G.o.d was soone _go_."--GOWER: _H. Tooke_, Vol. i, p. 376.

OBS. 13.--"_May_ is from the Anglo-Saxon, _maegan_, to be able. In the parent language also, it is used as an auxiliary. It is exhibited by Fortescue, as a princ.i.p.al verb; 'They shall _may_ do it:' i. e. they shall be able (to) do it."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 70. "_May not_, was formerly used for _must not_; as, 'Graces for which we _may not_ cease to sue.'

Hooker."--_Ib._, p. 91. "_May_ frequently expresses doubt of the fact; as, 'I _may_ have the book in my library, but I think I have not.' It is used also, to express doubt, or a consequence, with a future signification; as, 'I _may_ recover the use of my limbs, but I see little probability of it.'--'That they _may_ receive me into their houses.' _Luke_, xvi, 4."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 247. In these latter instances, the potential present is akin to the subjunctive. Hence Lowth and others improperly call "I _may love_," &c. the subjunctive mood. Others, for the same reason, and with as little propriety, deny that we have any subjunctive mood; alleging an ellipsis in every thing that bears that name: as, "'If it (_may_) _be_ possible, live peaceably with all men.' Scriptures."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 61. _May_ is also a sign of wishing, and consequently occurs often in prayer: as, "_May_ it be thy good pleasure;"--"O that it _may_ please thee;"--"_Mayst_ thou be pleased." Hence the potential is akin also to the imperative: the phrases, "Thy will be done,"--"_May_ thy will be done,"--"Be thy will done,"--"_Let_ thy will be done,"--are alike in meaning, but not in mood or construction.

OBS. 14.--_Can_, to be able, is etymologically the same as the regular verbs _ken_, to see, and _con_, to learn; all of them being derived from the Saxon _connan_ or _cunnan_, to know: whence also the adjective cunning, which was formerly a participle. In the following example _will_ and _can_ are princ.i.p.al verbs: "In evil, the best condition is, not to _will_; the second, not to _can_."--_Ld. Bacon_. "That a verb which signifies knowledge, may also signify power, appears from these examples: _Je ne saurois, I should not know how_, (i. e. _could_ not.) [Greek: Asphalisasthe hos oidate], Strengthen it as you _know how_, (i. e. as you _can_.) _Nescio_ mentiri, I _know not how to_ (i.e. _I cannot_) lie."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 71. _Shall_, Saxon _sceal_, originally signified to _owe_; for which reason _should_ literally means _ought_. In the following example from Chaucer, _shall_ is a princ.i.p.al verb, with its original meaning:

"For, by the faith I _shall_ to G.o.d, I wene, Was neuer straungir none in hir degre."--_W. Allen's Gram._, p. 64.

OBS. 15.--_Do_ and _did_ are auxiliary only to the present infinitive, or the radical verb; as, _do throw, did throw_: thus the mood of _do throw_ or _to throw_ is marked by _do_ or _to_. _Be_, in all its parts, is auxiliary to either of the simple participles; as, _to be throwing, to be thrown; I am throwing, I am thrown_: and so, through the whole conjugation. _Have_ and _had_, in their literal use, are auxiliary to the perfect participle only; as, _have thrown, had thrown. Have_ is from the Saxon _habban_, to possess; and, from the nature of the perfect participle, the tenses thus formed, suggest in general a completion of the action. The French idiom is similar to this: as, _J'ai vu_, I have seen. _Shall_ and _should, will_ and _would, may_ and _might, can_ and _could, must_, and also _need, (if we call the last a helping verb,) are severally auxiliary to both forms of the infinitive, and to these only: as, shall throw, shall have thrown; should throw, should have thrown_; and so of all the rest.

OBS. 16.--The form of the indicative pluperfect is sometimes used in lieu of the potential pluperfect; as, "If all the world could have seen it, the wo _had been_ universal."--_Shakspeare_. That is,--"_would have been_ universal." "I _had been drowned_, but that the sh.o.r.e was shelvy and shallow."--_Id._ That is,--"I _should have been drowned_." This mode of expression may be referred to the figure _enallage_, in which one word or one modification is used for an other. Similar to this is the use of _were_ for _would be_: "It _were_ injustice to deny the execution of the law to any individual;" that is, "it _would_ be injustice."--_Murray's Grammar_, p. 89. In some instances, _were_ and _had been_ seem to have the same import; as, "Good _were_ it for that man if he had never been born."--_Mark_, xiv, 21. "It _had been_ good for that man if he had not been born."--_Matt._, xxvi, 24. In prose, all these licenses are needless, if not absolutely improper. In poetry, their brevity may commend them to preference; but to this style, I think, they ought to be confined: as,

"That _had been_ just, replied the reverend bard; But done, fair youth, thou ne'er _hadst met_ me here."--_Pollok_.

"The keystones of the arch!--though all were o'er, For us repeopled _were_ the solitary sh.o.r.e."--_Byron_.

OBS. 17.--With an adverb of comparison or preference, as _better, rather, best, as lief_, or _as lieve_, the auxiliary _had_ seems sometimes to be used before the infinitive to form the potential imperfect or pluperfect: as, "He that loses by getting, _had better lose_ than get."--_Penn's Maxims_. "Other prepositions _had better have been subst.i.tuted_."-- _Priestley's Gram._, p. 166. "I had as lief say."--LOWTH: _ib._, p. 110.

"It compels me to think of that which I _had rather forget_."-- _Bickersteth, on Prayer_, p. 25. "You _had much better say_ nothing upon the subject."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 147. "I _had much rather show_ thee what hopes thou hast before thee."--_Baxter_. "I _had rather speak_ five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."--_1 Cor._, xiv, 19. "I knew a gentleman in America who told me _how much rather he had be_ a woman than the man he is."--_Martineau's Society in America_, Vol. i, p. 153. "I _had as lief go_ as not."-- _Webster's Dict., w. Lief_. "I _had as lieve_ the town crier spoke my lines."--SHAK.: _Hamlet_. "We _had best leave_ nature to her own operations."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. 310. "What method _had he best take_?"--_Harris's Hermes_, p. ix. These are equivalent to the phrases, _might better lose--might_ better have been subst.i.tuted--_would_ as lief say--_would_ rather forget--_might_ much better say--_would_ much rather show--_would_ rather speak--how much rather he _would_ be--_would_ as lief go--_should_ best leave--_might_ he best take; and, for the sake of regularity, these latter forms ought to be preferred, as they sometimes are: thus, "For my own part, I _would rather look_ upon a tree in all its luxuriancy."--_Addison, Spect._, No. 414; _Blair's Rhet._, p. 223. The following construction is different: "Augustus _had like to_ have been slain."--_S. Butler_. Here _had_ is a princ.i.p.al verb of the indicative imperfect. The following examples appear to be positively erroneous: "Much that was said, _had better remained_ unsaid."--_N. Y. Observer_. Say, "_might better have remained_." "A man that is lifting a weight, if he put not sufficient strength to it, _had as good_ put none at all."--_Baxter_.

Say, "_might as well put_." "You _were better pour_ off the first infusion, and use the latter."--_Bacon_. Say, "_might better pour_;" or, if you prefer it, "_had better pour._" Shakspeare has an expression which is still worse:--

"Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, Thou _hadst been better have been born_ a dog."--_Beauties_, p. 295.

OBS. 18.--The form of conjugating the active verb, is often called the _Active Voice_, and that of the pa.s.sive verb, the _Pa.s.sive Voice_. These terms are borrowed from the Latin and Greek grammars, and, except as serving to diversify expression, are of little or no use in English grammar. Some grammarians deny that there is any propriety in them, with respect to any language. De Sacy, after showing that the import of the verb does not always follow its form of voice, adds: "We must, therefore, carefully distinguish the Voice of a Verb from its signification. To facilitate the distinction, I denominate that an _Active_ Verb which contains an Attribute in which the action is considered as performed by the Subject; and that a _Pa.s.sive_ Verb which contains an Attribute in which the action is considered as suffered by the Subject, and performed upon it by some agent. I call that voice a _Subjective_ Voice which is generally appropriated to the Active Verb, and that an _Objective_ Voice which is generally appropriated to the Pa.s.sive Verb. As to the Neuter Verbs, if they possess a peculiar form, I call it a Neuter Voice."--_Fosd.i.c.k's Translation_, p. 99.

OBS. 19.--A recognition of the difference between actives and pa.s.sives, in our original cla.s.sification of verbs with respect to their signification,-- a principle of division very properly adopted in a great majority of our grammars and dictionaries, but opinionately rejected by Webster, Bolles, and sundry late grammarians,--renders it unnecessary, if not improper, to place Voices, the Active Voice and the Pa.s.sive, among the _modifications_ of our verbs, or to speak of them as such in the conjugations. So must it be in respect to "a Neuter Voice," or any other distinction which the cla.s.sification involves. The significant characteristic is not overlooked; the distinction is not neglected as nonessential; but it is transferred to a different category. Hence I cannot exactly approve of the following remark, which "the Rev. W. Allen" appears to cite with approbation: "'The distinction of active or pa.s.sive,' says the accurate Mr. Jones, '_is not essential_ to verbs. In the infancy of language, it was, in all probability, not known. In Hebrew, the difference but imperfectly exists, and, in the early periods of it, probably did not exist at all. In Arabic, the only distinction which obtains, arises from the vowel points, a late invention compared with the antiquity of that language. And in our own tongue, the names of _active_ and _pa.s.sive_ would have remained unknown, if they had not been learnt in Latin.'"--_Allen's Elements of English Gram._, p. 96.

OBS. 20.--By _the conjugation_ of a verb, some teachers choose to understand nothing more than the naming of its princ.i.p.al parts; giving to the arrangement of its numbers and persons, through all the moods and tenses, the name of _declension._ This is a misapplication of terms, and the distinction is as needless, as it is contrary to general usage. Dr.

Bullions, long silent concerning princ.i.p.al parts, seems now to make a singular distinction between "_conjugating_" and "_conjugation._" His _conjugations_ include the moods, tenses, and inflections of verbs; but he teaches also, with some inaccuracy, as follows: "The princ.i.p.al parts of the verb are the _Present indicative_, the _Past indicative_ and the _Past participle._ The mentioning of these parts is called CONJUGATING THE VERB."--_a.n.a.lyt. and Pract. Gram._, 1849, p. 80.

OBS. 21.--English verbs having but very few inflections to indicate to what part of the scheme of moods and tenses they pertain, it is found convenient to insert in our conjugations the preposition _to_, to mark the infinitive; personal _p.r.o.nouns_, to distinguish the persons and numbers; the conjunction _if_, to denote the subjunctive mood; and the adverb _not_, to show the form of negation. With these additions, or indexes, a verb may be conjugated in _four ways_:--

1. Affirmatively; as, I write, I do write, or, I am writing; and so on.

2. Negatively; as, I write not, I do not write, or, I am not writing.

3. Interrogatively; as, Write I? Do I write? or, Am I writing?

4. Interrogatively and negatively; as, Write I not? Do I not write? or, Am I not writing?

1. SIMPLE FORM, ACTIVE OR NEUTER.

The simplest form of an English conjugation, is that which makes the present and imperfect tenses without auxiliaries; but, even in these, auxiliaries are required for the potential mood, and are often preferred for the indicative.

FIRST EXAMPLE.

_The regular active verb LOVE, conjugated affirmatively_.

PRINc.i.p.aL PARTS.

_Present. Preterit. Imperfect Participle. Perfect Participle._ Love. Loved. Loving. Loved.

INFINITIVE MOOD.[260]

The infinitive mood is that form of the verb, which expresses the being, action, or pa.s.sion, in an unlimited manner, and without person or number.

It is used only in the present and perfect tenses.

PRESENT TENSE.

This tense is the _root_, or _radical verb_; and is usually preceded by the preposition _to_, which shows its relation to some other word: thus,

To love.