CHAPTER XVIII.

ON DERIVED VERBS.

[§ 347]. Of number, person, mood, tense, and conjugation, special notice is taken in their respective chapters. Of the divisions of verbs into active and passive, transitive and intransitive, unless there be an accompanying change of form, etymology takes no cognisance. The forces of the auxiliary verbs, and the tenses to which they are equivalent, are also points of syntax rather than of etymology.

Four classes, however, of derived verbs, as opposed to simple, especially deserve notice.

I. Those ending in -en; as soften, whiten, strengthen, &c. Here it has been already remarked that the -en is a derivational affix; and not a representative of the Anglo-Saxon infinitive form -an (as lufian, bærnan=to love, to burn), and the Old English -en (as tellen, loven).

II. Transitive verbs derived from intransitives by a change of the vowel of the root.

Primitive Intransitive Form.	Derived Transitive Form.
Rise	Raise.
Lie	Lay.
Sit	Set.
Fall	Fell.
Drink	Drench.

In Anglo-Saxon these words were more numerous than they are at present. The following list is taken from the Cambridge Philological Museum, ii. 386.

Intrans. Infinitive.	Trans. Infinitive.
Yrnan, to run	Ærnan, to make to run.
Byrnan, to burn	Bærnan, to make to burn.
Drincan, to drink	Drencan, to drench.
Sincan, to sink	Sencan, to make to sink.
Liegan, to lie	Lecgan, to lay.
Sittan, to sit	Settan, to set.
Drífan, to drift	Dræfan, to drive.
Fëallan, to fall	Fyllan, to fell.
Wëallan, to boil	Wyllan, to make to boil.
Flëogan, to fly	A-fligan, to put to flight.
Bëogan, to bow	Bígan, to bend.
Faran, to go	Feran, to convey.
Wacan, to wake	Weccan, to awaken.

All these intransitives form their præterite by a change of vowel, as sink, sank; all the transitives by the addition of d or t, as fell, fell'd.

III. Verbs derived from nouns by a change of accent; as to survéy, from a súrvey. For a fuller list see the Chapter on Derivation. Walker attributes the change of accent to the influence of the participial termination -ing. All words thus affected are of foreign origin.

IV. Verbs formed from nouns by changing a final sharp consonant into its corresponding flat one; as,

The use	to use,	pronounced	uze.
The breath	to breathe	—	breadhe.
The cloth	to clothe	—	clodhe.