Exercise.
Parse the articles in the following:—
1. It is like gathering a few pebbles off the ground, or bottling a little air in a phial, when the whole earth and the whole atmosphere are ours.
2. Aristeides landed on the island with a body of Hoplites, defeated the Persians and cut them to pieces to a man.
3. The wild fire that lit the eye of an Achilles can gleam no more.
4. But it is not merely the neighborhood of the cathedral that is mediæval; the whole city is of a piece.
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 passively.
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 class 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.
Verb,—the word of the sentence.
199. The term verb is from the Latin verbum 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.
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 anticipated."
(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.
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 anticipated 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 CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO MEANING AND USE.
TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS.
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
203. A transitive verb is one which must have an object to complete its meaning, and to receive the action expressed.
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
Definition.
205. An intransitive verb is one which is complete in itself, or which is completed by other words without requiring an object.
Study use, not form, of verbs here.
206. Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, according to their use in the sentence, It can be said, "The boy walked for two hours," or "The boy walked the horse;" "The rains swelled the river," or "The river swelled because of the rain;" etc.
The important thing to observe is, many words must be distinguished as transitive or intransitive by use, not by form.
207. Also verbs are sometimes made transitive by prepositions. These may be (1) compounded with the verb; or (2) may follow the verb, and be used as an integral part of it: for example,—
Asking her pardon for having withstood her.—Scott.
I can wish myself no worse than to have it all to undergo a second time.—Kingsley.
A weary gloom in the deep caverns of his eyes, as of a child that has outgrown its playthings.—Hawthorne.
It is amusing to walk up and down the pier and look at the countenances passing by.—B. Taylor.
He was at once so out of the way, and yet so sensible, that I loved, laughed at, and pitied him.—Goldsmith.
My little nurse told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother.—Swift.