252. VERBS may be classified into (a) transitive, requiring an object, as "he learns his lessons;" (b) intransitive, requiring no object, as "the sun shines."

253. Transitive verbs only have a passive voice.

Transitive verbs include (1) reflexive verbs, in which the agent and object are identical, as "he hurt himself," "I'll lay me down ;" and reciprocal verbs, as to love one another." These verbs admit of no passive voice.

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254. Intransitive verbs include a large number that might be classed as frequentative, diminutive, inceptive, desiderative, &c.

Some intransitive verbs, by means of a preposition, become transitive, and may be used passively, as "the man laughs at the boy," "the boy was laughed at by the man.

Some intransitive verbs have a causative meaning, and take an object, as "he ran," "he ran a thorn through his finger." See Causative Verbs, under the head of VERBAL SUFFIXES.

he keeps

255. Some transitive verbs are reflexive in meaning, though not in form, and appear at first sight as if used intransitively, as aloof from danger," i.e. he keeps himself, &c. Cp. "he stole away to England."

Sometimes a transitive verb has a passive sense, with an active form, as "the cakes ate short and crisp" = the cakes were eaten short and crisp.

256. Intransitive verbs may take a noun of kindred meaning or object, called the cognate object, as to die a death, to sleep a sleep,

to run a race.

257. Verbs used with the third person only are called impersonal verbs, as me thinks, me seems, it rains, it snows.

258. The verb affirms action or existence of a subject, under certain conditions or relations, called voice, mood, tense.

In some languages verbs undergo a change of form for voice, mood, and tense; the root being modified by certain suffixes before the person-endings are added. Thus in Latin the root reg is modified by the suffix s,I to express time or tense; so the root reg becomes by this addition a stem to which the person-ending.¿ is suffixed; whence rexi, the perfect of reg-ere.

Voice. There are two voices-(a) the active, in which the subject of the verb is represented as acting, as "I love John;" (b) the passive, in which the subject of the verb is represented as affected by the action, as "I am loved by John."

The passive voice has grown out of reflexive verbs; but our language has never developed, by change of the verb, a reflexive form, so that the passive voice in English is expressed by the passive participle combined with auxiliary verbs. The Scandinavian dialects have a special form for reflexive verbs. See p. 6.

:

259. There are five moods-(1) the indicative makes a simple assertion, states or asks about a fact; (2) the subjunctive expresses a possibility it is sometimes called the conditional or conjunctive mood; (3) the imperative denotes that an action is commanded, desired, or entreated; (4) the infinitive states the action without the limitations peculiar to voice, tense, &c., and is merely an abstract substantive; (5) participles are adjectives.

260. The tenses are three (a) present, (b) past, (c) future.

An action may be stated with reference to time, present, past, and future, as (a) indefinite, (b) continuous and imperfect, (c) perfect, (d) perfect and continuous.

Hence we may arrange the tenses according to the following scheme :

261. For I praise, I praised, we sometimes use I do praise, I did praise, which are by some called emphatic present and past tenses.

In English we have only change of form for the present and past; the other tenses are expressed by the use of auxiliary verbs.

262. There are two numbers, singular and plural; three persons, first, second, and third.

263. Conjugation.-Verbs are classified according to the mode of expressing the past indefinite tense, into (a) strong verbs, (b) weak verbs.

Strong Verbs.-The past tense of strong verbs is expressed by a change of vowel only; nothing is added to the root.

Weak Verbs.-The past tense indefinite of weak verbs is expressed by adding to the verbal root the syllable d or its euphonic substitute t. The e before d unites the suffix to the root.

The distinction between strong and weak verbs must be clearly borne in mind. (1) Strong verbs have vowel change only; their past tense is not formed by adding -d or -t.

(2) The passive participles of strong verbs do not end in -d or -t, as do those of weak verbs.

(3) All p. participles of strong verbs once ended in -en (-n); but in very many p. participles this suffix has dropt off. The history of a word is sometimes necessary to be known before its conjugation can be decided.

Weak verbs sometimes have a change of vowel, and the addition of -d'or -t, as bough-t; but this change is no result of reduplication.

STRONG VERBS.

264. All strong verbs in the Aryan languages originally formed their perfect tense by reduplication, that is by the repetition of the root: thus from the root bhug = bend was originally formed (1) bhug-bhug; (2) bhu-bhug (by shortening the first root); then by adding the personal ending (3) bhu-bhoga, which is the Sanskrit verb = I bowed or bent, and this is found in Gr. Té-pevya, Lat. fûgi (= fufugi), Goth. baug, O.E. beth, English bowed.

In the Latin, Gothic, and O.E. forms, the vowel change shows that the initial letter of the root has gone, and the first consonant is

I The passive participle in -n is only an adjective like wooden. Cp. Lat. plenus original form = (1) na, whence (2) an = = (3) en.

Thus, Latin, fugi = fu +

the initial of the reduplicated syllable. fug-i= fu + ug-i.1

Thus, we see, the perfect of facio was probably formed: (1) fa-fac-i, (2) fe-fic-i, (3) feici, (4) feci.

In languages belonging to the Teutonic group, we have even clearer examples of reduplication, as well as of the loss of it.

The verb held (past definite of hold, O.E. heald-an) was originally heold; but Gothic preserves the fuller form, hai-hald; O. H. Ger. hialt (i.e. heihalt); Ger. hielt.2

In our verb held the first h is the reduplicated letter. The vowel e is the result of the union of the vowel of the reduplicated syllable with that of the root.

265. The several stages would be (1) ha-hald, (2) ha-hild, (3) haild, (4) held.3

266. In Old English we have two verbs that preserve the reduplicated syllable and the initial root letter

(1) Did, the past tense of do, O.E. dide, O. Sax. dë-da. belongs, therefore, to the class of strong verbs.

It

We have a cognate root in rienu, and Lat. do; Sansk. dha. The Sans. perf. is dadhâu Lat. dedi.

(2) Hight

"An ancient fabric rais'd t' inform the sight,

There stood of yore, and Barbican it hight."-Dryden.

"That wretched wight

The Duke of Gloucester, that Richard hight."

SACKVILLE, Duke of Buckingham.

"Johan hight that oon, and Alayn hight that other."

=

CHAUCER, The Reeve's Tale.

Behight promised. So little was this form understood in the sixteenth century that we actually find behighteth promiseth, used by Sackville, as if from a present behight: cp. ought and must, originally past tenses which have acquired a present meaning.

Hight

=

was called is the past indefinite of hate, hote, to call, corresponding to Goth. haihait.

'I bent my steps, fled.

24The change of vowel in the perfect is due to the coalescence of the vowel of the reduplicated syllable with the root vowel.

3 For ai = ê, see § 47, p. 58.

267. DIVISION I. Class I.

The first division of strong verbs includes those whose past tenses clearly point to an original reduplication; the vowel of passive participles undergoes no change.1

(1) Many verbs once belonging to this division have either become obsolete or have adopted a weak form for the past tense and p. participle, as

Well (O.E. weallan, to well up), fold, walk, low, row, span, leap, sweep, weep.

In the provincial dialects we find strong forms of some of these verbs still in use, as to row, past rew, p. p. rowen; to leap, past lop,

I Forms marked * are obsolete, and weak forms have taken their places, as slept, hewed, wept, leap, rowed. Some of these weak forms came in earlyslepte, dredde dreaded, as in the Ormulum.

2 Let in twelfth century has a weak form, let-te, lætte.