The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (free ebook reader .txt) 📕

point of time relate to each other, a due regard to that relation should be observed."—Ib., p. 146; see L. Murray's Rule xiii. "The same observations, which have been made respecting the effect of the article and participle, appear to be applicable to the pronoun and participle."—Murray's Gram., p. 193. "The reason that they have not the same use of them in reading, may be traced to the very defective and erroneous method, in which the art of reading is taught."—Ib., p. 252. "Since the time that reason began to exert her powers, thought, during our waking hours, has been active in every breast, without a moment's suspension or pause."—Murray's Key, p. 271; Merchant's Gram., p. 212. "In speaking of such who greatly delight in the same."—Notes to Dunciad, 177. "Except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live."—Esther, iv, 11.—"But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all."—Luke, xvii, 29. "In the next place I will explain several cases of nouns and pronouns which have not yet come under our notice."—Kirkham's Gram., p. 129. "Three natural distinctions of time are all which can exist."—Rail's Gram., p. 15. "We have exhibited such only as are obviously distinct; and which seem to be sufficient, and not more than sufficient."—Murray's Gram., p. 68; Hall's, 14. "This point encloses a part of a sentence which may be omitted without materially injuring the connexion of the other members."—Hall's Gram., p. 39. "Consonants are letters, which cannot be sounded without the aid of a Vowel."—Bucke's Gram., p. 9. "Words are not simple sounds, but sounds, which convey a meaning to the mind."—Ib., p. 16. "Nature's postures are always easy; and which is more, nothing but your own will can put you out of them."—Collier's Antoninus, p. 197. "Therefore ought we to examine our ownselves, and prove our ownselves."—Barclay's Works, i, 426. "Certainly it had been much more natural, to have divided Active Verbs into Immanent, or such whose Action is terminated in it self, and Transient, or such whose Action is terminated in something without it self."—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 273. "This is such an advantage which no other lexicon will afford."—DR. TAYLOR: in Pike's Lex., p. iv. "For these reasons, such liberties are taken in the Hebrew tongue with those words as are of the most general and frequent use."—Pike's Heb. Lexicon, p. 184. "At the same time that we object to the laws, which the antiquarian in language would impose upon us, we must enter our protest against those authors, who are too fond of innovations."—Murray's Gram., Vol. i, p. 136. CHAPTER VI.—VERBS.

A Verb is a word that signifies to be, to act, or to be acted upon: as, I am, I rule, I am ruled; I love, thou lovest, he loves. VERBS are so called, from the Latin Verbum, a Word; because the verb is that word which most essentially contains what is said in any clause or sentence.

An English verb has four CHIEF TERMS, or PRINCIPAL PARTS, ever needful to be ascertained in the first place; namely, the Present, the Preterit, the Imperfect Participle, and the Perfect Participle. The Present is that form of the verb, which is the root of all the rest; the verb itself; or that simple term which we should look for in a dictionary: as, be, act, rule, love, defend, terminate.

The Preterit is that simple form of the verb, which denotes time past; and which is always connected with some noun or pronoun, denoting the subject of the assertion: as, I was, I acted, I ruled, I loved, I defended.

The Imperfect Participle is that which ends commonly[221] in ing, and implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion: as, being, acting, ruling, loving, defending, terminating.

The Perfect Participle is that which ends commonly in ed or en, and implies a completion of the being, action, or passion: as, been, acted, ruled, loved.

CLASSES.

Verbs are divided, with respect to their form, into four classes; regular and irregular, redundant and defective.

I. A regular verb is a verb that forms the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed; as, love, loved, loving, loved.

II. An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed; as, see, saw, seeing, seen.

III. A redundant verb is a verb that forms the preterit or the perfect participle in two or more ways, and so as to be both regular and irregular; as, thrive, thrived or throve, thriving, thrived or thriven.

IV. A defective verb is a verb that forms no participles, and is used in but few of the moods and tenses; as, beware, ought, quoth.

Verbs are divided again, with respect to their signification, into four classes; active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive, and neuter.

I. An active-transitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has some person or thing for its object; as, "Cain slew Abel."—"Cassius loved Brutus."

II. An active-intransitive verb is a verb that expresses an action which has no person or thing for its object; as, "John walks."—"Jesus wept."

III. A. passive verb is a verb that represents its subject, or what the nominative expresses, as being acted upon; as, "I am compelled."—"Cæsar was slain."

IV. A neuter verb is a verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being; as, "There was light."—"The babe sleeps."

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—So various have been the views of our grammarians, respecting this complex and most important part of speech, that almost every thing that is contained in any theory or distribution of the English verbs, may be considered a matter of opinion and of dispute. Nay, the essential nature of a verb, in Universal Grammar, has never yet been determined by any received definition that can be considered unobjectionable. The greatest and most acute philologists confess that a faultless definition of this part of speech, is difficult, if not impossible, to be formed. Horne Tooke, at the close of his Diversions of Purley, cites with contempt nearly a dozen different attempts at a definition, some Latin, some English, some French; then, with the abruptness of affected disgust, breaks off the catalogue and the conversation together, leaving his readers to guess, if they can, what he conceived a verb to be. He might have added some scores of others, and probably would have been as little satisfied with any one of them. A definition like that which is given above, may answer in some degree the purpose of distinction; but, after all, we must judge what is, and what is not a verb, chiefly from our own observation of the sense and use of words.[222]

OBS. 2.—Whether participles ought to be called verbs or not, is a question that has been much disputed, and is still variously decided; nor is it possible to settle it in any way not liable to some serious objections. The same may perhaps be said of all the forms called infinitives. If the essence of a verb be made to consist in affirmation, predication, or assertion, (as it is in many grammars,) neither infinitives nor participles can be reckoned verbs, without a manifest breach of the definition. Yet are the former almost universally treated as verbs, and by some as the only pure verbs; nor do all deny them this rank, who say that affirmation is essential to a verb. Participles, when unconnected with auxiliaries, are most commonly considered a separate part of speech; but in the formation of many of our moods and tenses, we take them as constituent parts of the verb. If there is absurdity in this, there is more in undertaking to avoid it; and the inconvenience should be submitted to, since it amounts to little or nothing in practice. With auxiliaries, then, participles are verbs: without auxiliaries, they are not verbs, but form a separate part of speech.

OBS. 3.—The number of verbs in our language, amounts unquestionably to four or five thousand; some say, (perhaps truly,) to eight thousand. All these, whatever be the number, are confessedly regular in their formation, except about two hundred. For, though the catalogues in our grammars give the number somewhat variously, all the irregular, redundant, and defective verbs, put together, are commonly reckoned fewer than two hundred. I admit, in all, two hundred and nineteen. The regular verbs, therefore, are vastly more numerous than those which deviate from the stated form. But, since many of the latter are words of very frequent occurrence, the irregular verbs appear exceedingly numerous in practice, and consequently require a great deal of attention. The defective verbs being very few, and most of these few being mere auxiliaries, which are never parsed separately, there is little occasion to treat them as a distinct class; though Murray and others have ranked them so, and perhaps it is best to follow their example. The redundant verbs, which are regular in one form and irregular in an other, being of course always found written either one way or the other, as each author chooses, may be, and commonly have been, referred in parsing to the class of regular or irregular verbs accordingly. But, as their number is considerable, and their character peculiar, there may be some advantage in making them a separate class. Besides, the definition of an irregular verb, as given in any of our grammars, seems to exclude all such as may form the preterit and the perfect participle by assuming d or ed.

OBS. 4.—In most grammars and dictionaries, verbs are divided, with respect to their signification, into three classes only; active, passive, and neuter. In such a division, the class of active verbs includes those only which are active-transitive, and all the active-intransitive verbs are called neuter. But, in the division adopted above, active-intransitive verbs are made a distinct class; and those only are regarded as neuter, which imply a state of existence without action. When, therefore, we speak of verbs without reference to their regimen, we may, if we please, apply the simple term active to all those which express action, whether transitive or intransitive. "We act whenever we do any thing; but we may act without doing any thing."—Crabb's Synonymes.

OBS. 5.—Among the many English grammars in which verbs are divided, as above mentioned, into active, passive, and neuter, only, are those of the following writers: Lowth, Murray, Ainsworth, Alden, Allen, Alger, Bacon, Bicknell, Blair, Bullions, (at first,) Charles Adams, Bucke, Cobbett, Cobbin, Dilworth, A. Flint, Frost, (at first,) Greenleaf, Hall, Johnson,[223] Lennie, Picket, Pond, Sanborn, R. C. Smith, Rev. T. Smith, and Wright. These authors, and many more, agree, that, "A verb neuter expresses neither action nor passion, but being, or a state of being."—L. Murray. Yet, according to their scheme, such words as walk, run, fly, strive, struggle, wrestle, contend, are verbs neuter. In view of this palpable absurdity, I cannot but think it was a useful improvement upon the once popular scheme of English grammar, to make active-intransitive verbs a distinct class, and to apply the term neuter to those few only which accord with the foregoing definition. This had been done before the days of Lindley Murray, as may be seen in Buchanan's English Syntax, p. 56, and in the old British Grammar, p. 153, each published many years before the appearance of his work;[224] and it has often been done since, and is preferred even by many of the professed admirers and followers of Murray; as may be seen in the grammars of Comly, Fisk, Merchant, Kirkham, and others.

OBS. 6.—Murray himself quotes this improved distribution, and with some appearance of approbation; but strangely imagines it must needs be inconvenient in practice. Had he been a schoolmaster, he could hardly have so judged. He says, "Verbs have been distinguished by some writers, into the following kinds:—

"1st. Active-transitive, or those which denote an action that passes from the agent to some object: as, Cæsar conquered Pompey.

"2d. Active-intransitive, or those which express that kind of action, which has no effect upon any thing beyond itself: as, Cæsar walked.

"3d. Passive, or those which express, not action, but passion, whether pleasing or painful: as, Portia was loved; Pompey was conquered.

"4th. Neuter, or those which express an attribute that consists neither in action nor passion: as, Cæsar stood.

"This appears to be an orderly arrangement. But if the class of active-intransitive verbs were admitted, it would rather perplex than assist the learner: for the difference between verbs active and neuter, as transitive and intransitive is easy and obvious: but the difference between verbs absolutely neuter and [those which are] intransitively active, is not always clear. It is, indeed, often very difficult, if not impossible to be ascertained."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 60.[225]

OBS. 7.—The following note, from a book written on