23. As compared with the two other writers, Epictetus shortens his sword; that is, his sentences.—Higginson.
CHAPTER XXV
THE DIRECT OBJECT
The direct object of a transitive verb is so familiar a sentence-element that it makes itself understood without much special investigation. It presents few peculiarities, and these are not difficult.
The transitive verb is usually defined as one that denotes action terminating on an object. This definition does not cover all verbs called transitive, for instance, the verb have, meaning own, which does not denote any action whatever. But it would be difficult indeed to make a better definition. The definition, a transitive verb is one that takes an object, is open to the objection that it applies only to transitive verbs in the active voice, whereas passive verbs are also transitive in meaning. We may say this much, however,—(a) no verb is considered transitive unless it has two substantives, a subject and a complement, the two meaning different things, an agent and a non-agent. (b) A sentence containing a transitive verb can always be changed to the passive form, the complement becoming the subject, and the subject of the active verb becoming the object of the preposition by. This second point is a better test of the transitive verb than the definition is.
For example, take the verb earn in the sentence,—“Indeed, a man may earn twenty thousand dollars a year by writing ‘sensation-stories,’ and have nothing to do with literature in any high sense.”—Higginson. It is true that when a man earns he acts, but his action is not performed upon the twenty thousand dollars. In so far this verb does not come under the definition of a transitive verb; but it answers the test, that is, it may be changed to the passive; thus, “Twenty thousand dollars was earned by him.” This does not mean that the twenty thousand dollars received an action; it means that twenty thousand became his possession as a result of his work.
Of transitive verbs denoting action performed directly upon some object, examples are in the following sentences.
(a) “Let us build altars to the Beautiful Necessity, which secures that all is made of one piece.”—Emerson.
(b) “When Gabriel blows his trumpet I hope he will select the moment before sunrise for his summons.”—Bolles.
(c) “Many men eat finer cookery, drink dearer liquors, with what advantage they can report and their doctors can.”—Carlyle.