Contents of Verb (Article)
DEFINITIONCLASSES.
Transitive.
Causatives.
Intransitive Linking.
Auxiliary
COMPOUND VERBS
Derivative verbs
Definition of Verb
The verb is that part of speech that predicates, assists in predications, asks a question, or expresses a command: 'The wind blows.' 'He is blind.' 'Did he do it?' Hurry!"Classes of Verb
There are four classes transitive, intransitive, linking, and auxiliary.1. Transitive Verbs.
A transitive verb is a verb that requires an object — noun, pronoun, or clause — to complete its meaning: 'The boy struck his dog.' "The girl loves her doll.' "The cat sees a bird, and is watching it.' "They raise chiefly corn in this section of the country.' 'I see by the tracks in the snow that somebody has been here.' 'I believe that he is honest.' In 'He struck me' the object me indicates a person toward whom the activity is directed, but in 'He struck a light' the object light indi cates the result of the action. In other sentences the object may have other meanings. The characteristic thing about an object is that it stands in a close relation to the verb, completing its meaning: 'I heard a groan.'Where the action passes back to the doer we call the transitive verb a reflexive: 'She is dressing herself.' 'He hurt himself.' 'I usually shave myself.' The object here is always a reflexive pronoun.
Verbs which are usually intransitive often become transitive by taking a cognate object, i.e. a noun of a meaning cognate or similar to that of the verb, repeating and explaining more fully the idea expressed by the verb. The cognate object is usually modified by one or more adjectives or by an of-genitive, which makes it possible to describe the action still more accurately: 'He died a violent death.' 'He is living a sad and lonely life.' 'He laughed a little short ugly laugh.' 'He sighed a sigh of ineffable satisfaction.' Of course, a large number of other verbs usually intransitive be come transitive when they take an object to complete their mean ing: 'Many workless are walking the streets.' 'He went the shortest way.' 'He looked daggers.' 'She wept bitter tears.' 'He ran errands.' 'They sat out the dance.' 'He slept off his vexation.' 'She cried herself to sleep.' 'He smoked himself into calmness."
a. CAUSATIVES.
There is in our language, as a survival of a once much wider usage, a little group of causatives formed from intransitives and now distinguished from them by a change of vowel or by a change of vowel and a change of consonant: 'The baby is sitting (intrans.) on a chair by the windows,' but 'The mother picks up the baby and sets (trans. caus.) it on a chair by the window' (i.e. makes it sit on a chair). 'The baby is lying (intrans.) in the cradle,' but 'The mother lays (trans. caus.) the baby into the cradle.' "The tree falls' (intrans.), but 'The wood man fells (trans. caus.) the tree.' 'He always rises (intrans.) to the occasion,' but 'Her family is rearing (or raising; both trans. caus.) a sumptuous mausoleum over her remains.' 'He drinks (intrans.) hard,' but 'The storm is drenching (trans. caus.) our clothes' (i.e. is making them drink).Today we have little feeling for the construction just described. We often simply use an intransitive as a transitive causative without a change of form, in accordance with the common English principle of using the same form as an intransitive or a transitive: 'The horse swam (intrans.) across the river.' 'He swam (trans. caus.) his horse across the river.' The snow is melting' (intrans.). 'The sun is melting (trans. caus.) the snow.' 'Here once stood (intrans.) a huge oak.' 'I stood (trans. caus.) my rifle against the oak. 'She flew (intrans.) across the Atlantic and flew (trans. caus.) her own plane.'
In most cases, however, the causative idea is expressed by placing an auxiliary cause, make, have, get, and let - before the infinitive or the past participle of the verb to be employed: 'Black spot (disease) is causing the rosebush to drop its leaves.' 'He didn't want to do it, but I made him do it.' 'I shall have him cut the grass soon.' 'I had (or got) a new suit made.' 'I finally got him to do it.' 'He soon let his power be felt.' 'He let it be known to only a few friends.'
There is another quite different group of causatives, which have come into wide use in the modern period. They are formed by suffixing -en to adjectives: 'Travel broadens our view of life.' 'Suffering deepens our feeling and widens our sympathy.' 'A few kind words lighten our burdens.' Some of these forms are used either transitively or intransitively: 'Exposure hardens (trans.) this stone.' 'This stone hardens (intrans.) with exposure.' The suffix -en is sometimes added to nouns to form causatives: 'A little encouragement often heartens us to further effort.' 'Discouragements from outside only serve to heighten his determination.'
2. Intransitive Verbs.
An intransitive verb denotes a state or simple action without any reference to an object: 'John is sleep ing.' 'I dream every night.' 'He often acts rashly.' 'The sun is melting (trans.) the snow,' but 'The snow is melting' (intrans.).Transitive verbs are often used intransitively without an object when the thought is directed to the action alone: 'Mary is dress ing (herself).' 'He hid (himself) behind a tree.' 'He overeats (himself).' 'He likes to give.' 'We wash (the linen) every Monday.'
A large number our present-day intransitives were once transitives with a reflexive object: 'Which way will I turne me?' (Lyly, Euphues and His England, Works, II, p. 142, A.D. 1580).
'At the breach of day we six made us for the mountaine' (Lithgow, Travels, VI, p. 377, A.D. 1632), i.e. set (or headed) ourselves for. Gradually the reflexive disappeared, as the verb seemed to the English mind sufficient of itself. This development started very early, even in the Old English period. In English it has become perfectly natural to employ a reflexive verb as an intransitive: 'I dressed and shaved as quickly as I could.' 'She bowed to me.' 'I must wash before dinner.' In some cases, however, the old reflexive object still lingers: 'Behave!' or 'Behave yourself!' In some verbs the reflexive pronoun is still always used: bestir, betake, pride, etc.: 'She prides herself on her cooking.' Sometimes the simple and the reflexive form are both used, each with a difference of meaning: 'He proved himself worthy of the position,' but 'He had made acquaintance with a lady who proved to be the countess of Drogheda.' There is the same fluctuation with the use of the reciprocal pronoun. The pronoun may be used or dropped, with a strong tendency for it to disappear: 'The two had never met each other before' or more commonly had never met before. 'We soon came to a place where two roads crossed each other' or more commonly crossed. In 'They kissed each other tenderly' we still feel the force of the pronoun, but we say 'Kiss and be friends' without the pronoun as we desire to express action pure and simple.
Many intransitives both the original stock and those developed from the reflexive form- have developed passive force:
'Snow is blowing (= is being blown) in at the window.' 'His hat blew (= was blown) into the river.' 'The grave had closed (= had been closed) over all he loved.' 'Some letters of a typewriter get more worn than others, and some wear (= get worn) only on one side.' 'Some builders prefer receiving the graystone lime ground dry as it mixes (= gets mixed) more readily when it is made up into mortar.' 'These pears don't cook (= can't be cooked) well.' 'This cloth won't wash' (= can't be washed). This wood doesn't split (can't be split) straight.' 'The boat steers (= can be steered) well under all circumstances.' This usage is most common, as in these examples, where the action seems to take place of itself. We think of the activity pure and simple when we use these verbs and those in the two preceding paragraphs.
3. Linking Verbs.
Although we very commonly make assertions and ask questions by means of verbs, they are not absolutely necessary, and in fact we often do without them: 'A sad experience! 'Our sister dead!' 'John a cheat! Everything in good order. This is an old type of sentence, once more common than now. It is employed when the thing predicated of the subject is an adjective, noun, adverb, or prepositional phrase. It was originally thought sufficient to place the predicate adjective, noun, adverb, or prepositional phrase alongside of the subject, before it or after it. This old type of sentence is called the appositional type as the predicate lies alongside of the subject and predicates of itself without the aid of a finite verb. It is still quite commonly employed when something is predicated of an object: 'I found him reconciled to his lot.' 'I have always found him a true friend.' 'I found him in poor health.' 'She boiled the egg hard.' Even in the earliest records of the oldest languages in our family a new style of predication had begun to appear. The predicate adjective, noun, adverb, or prepositional phrase was joined to the subject by means of the copula be, as in the following modern English sentences: 'The boy is tall.' 'He is a carpenter.' 'He is up al ready.' 'Everything is in good condition. The copula be per forms here merely the function of announcing the predicate. It does not itself predicate; it only links the predicate to the subject. We can still often dispense with it and after a direct object it is still for the most part lacking, although it is now sometimes used here. In the prehistoric period there was a time when there was no such thing as a copula. Later it gradually came into use, but even in the earliest records of the oldest languages it was not freely used as today. Its use spread because there was an absolute need of such a linking word. Its introduction into our family of languages was one of the greatest events in the history of our family. It has a quality of great value. It has tenses. This copula, like all copulas, was once a full verb with concrete meaning. Later it lost its concrete meaning and developed into a copula, but fortunately it retained its old tenses which it had when it was a full verb. The original appositional type of sentence has no tense forms and hence has only a limited field of usefulness. It can be employed only where the context or the situation makes the thought clear. The introduction of the copula be opened up new possibilities of human expression.We have about sixty copulas in English Their wide and varied use is the most pro.ninent feature of our language. They have been springing up for centuries and within the modern period have been especially active. As these copulas have all with the exception of be come into use within the historic period we can study them and see what they are. Become in the ninth century meant come to a place, arrive, with concrete meaning. In the twelfth century the old concrete meaning began to fade away and go over into the abstract sense of come to be something, become something so abstract that become could serve as a copula: 'He became blind.' The oldest copula, be, was once, like become, a concrete verb and later gradually lost its concrete meaning and developed into a copula. In our own time a cow not only runs into the barn, but it also runs ( becomes) dry. For centuries run has been becoming more abstract, but its old concrete meaning is still common, so that it has not yet become a pure copula. Similarly, come is still widely employed as a concrete verb and at the same time is widely used as a copula: 'He came (concrete verb) home at ten,' but 'His prediction came (copula) true' and 'My shoestring came (copula) untied.' With such copulas, especially feel, smell, taste, sound, ring, care should be taken that the form following the copula should be an adjective, not an adverb: 'I feel sad' (not sadly). 'It smells bad.' 'It tastes sour.' 'His excuse sounds hollow. His words rang true.' The long list of copulas given in Syntax, 6 B contains many words in different stages of develop ment toward the state of copula. No other language shows such a vigorous growth of copulas As many of them are used also with their old concrete meaning they naturally retain something of it when employed as copulas, so that these words, though copulas, are variously shaded in meaning, thus greatly enriching English expression. Each of these copulas has two forms, the common form and the expanded form, each with a different shade of meaning: 'He soon gets tired.' 'He is getting tired.' Thus the use of two forms with differentiated force increases the number of shades in the meaning. The usefulness of these different shades of meaning will become apparent in the next two para graphs.
Our two participles, present and past, though often true verbs in force, frequently remain adjectives in function, so that they, like any adjective, can serve as predicate after a copula: 'He is working in the garden.' 'He got married yesterday.' 'This paper on account of its public-spirited editorials and its good news service has become widely read by both political parties.' Thus the copulas are used to form our active and passive verbal systems. Compare 4 below.
The copulas not only link a predicate adjective, noun, etc., to the subject but also, on account of the different meanings of the different copulas, give various shades of meaning to the predication. They indicate a state, continuance in a state or the continuance of an activity, entrance into a state or the beginning of an activity, a becoming something represented the outcome of a development or of events or the closing stage of an activity. Simple state: 'He is sick.' Continuance in a state: 'He keeps still. Continuing act: 'He is working in the garden.' Entrance into a state: 'He got sick.' Beginning of an act: 'He is just getting up.' Outcome of a development: 'He became (or went) blind.' 'He has lived down a youthful escapade and has become respected by everybody. The ideas now expressed by copulas were in Old English expressed by verbal prefixes: a-deafian to become deaf, ge-ealdian to grow old, etc. The later wholesale intro duction of French and Latin words replacing native verbs with prefixes greatly reduced their number and blunted English feeling for the native prefixes. Moreover, the large Danish population in England had no feeling for the common English prefix ge- and dropped it. Conditions were ripe for the development of copulas. In the twelfth century become arose followed by seem, wax, grow, turn, and look. This new development proved so useful that new copulas kept springing up. One of the most handy of the later comers is intransitive get, which arose in Shakespeare's day.
We have become so fond of the copula construction that we often use it even when there is a verb which expresses the same thing as copula and predicate noun or adjective: 'There was a heavy snow last night,' instead of 'It snowed heavily last night.' 'I am fond of (like) fruit.' The noun snow and the adjective fond bring pictures before the mind. The English mind is fond of such concrete expression. The predicate adjective, however, is not so common as it once was. Many of the expressions are now only literary: 'You are forgetful of ( forget) the fact that,' etc. 'I was ignorant of (= didn't know) these facts.' 'It was a contest fruitful of (that produced) animosity and discontent.' 'On every side Oxford is redolent of ( suggests) age and authority.' Of these predicate adjectives only fond of is widely used in col loquial speech. On the other hand, the predicate noun has become very common in colloquial language. A verb is often replaced by a copula and a predicate noun, not only when the noun has a concrete meaning, as snow in the example given above, but frequently also when the noun is a verbal noun after the transitive copulas have, get, do, give, or make: 'After dinner we had a quiet smoke,' instead of 'After dinner we smoked quietly.' 'We had several falls,' instead of 'We fell several times." 'I had a look at her just now,' instead of 'I looked at her just now.' 'I got a good shaking up,' instead of 'I was shaken up thoroughly.' 'I have not done much walking since I saw you last,' instead of 'I haven't walked much since I saw you last.' 'She gave, or made, no answer,' instead of 'She didn't answer.' We feel that have, get, do, give, and make have a little concrete meaning left. They are not quite like the copula be. Be is intransitive, while have, get, do, give, and make are transitives, but they are all copulas, though in different stages of development. Often their main function is, as copulas, to link the predicate noun to its subject. To English feeling a predicate verbal noun is felt as more concrete and forcible than a pure verb.
4. Auxiliary Verbs.
An auxiliary verb is one that, although originally independent, now only helps other verbs, transitive, intransitive, or linking, to form some of their parts. Tense aux iliaries: 'He has done it.' 'He has been sick.' 'He will come tomorrow. Modal auxiliaries: 'He shall do it whether he will [do it] or not. One of the characteristic forms of English is the auxiliary do employed in the so-called do-form. We often use a causative auxiliary with a dependent infinitive or participle instead of a simple causative: 'I had him cut the grass." There are other common auxiliaries of quite a different type the copulas. These forms link a predicate participle to the subject.Compound Verbs
A verb often enters into a close relation with an adverb, preposition, prepositional phrase, or object, forming with it a unit, a compound.There are three classes:
a. Adverb and verb often form a firm, inseparable compound in which the stress rests upon the verb, often with figurative meaning: upróot, uplift, undernóurish, overchárge, etc. A preposition often forms such a compound with a verb: "The river is overflowing its banks.' Where the preposition or adverb is no longer in use outside of these com pounds, as in the case of be- (= over, upon), it is called a prefix: 'to bemóan (= moan over) one's fate,' 'befriénd (= bestow friendly deeds upon) one,' etc., but with privative force in behéad. Such verbs are called derivative verbs.
Such compounds and derivatives are very common in verbs of foreign origin: pervade, coöperate, proceed, precede, etc.
b. The verb often enters into a close relation with a more strongly stressed element, usually an adverb, prepositional phrase, or object, forming with it a unit in thought, a real compound, although the parts are often separated and are not written to gether: 'His father sèt him up in business.' 'I took him to tásk for it.' 'He took part in the play.'
c. (A newer group of compounds)
The inflectional preposition is not only placed before words, but often also after them in case of verbs: 'You can depend upon him.' The preposition, as upon in this example, which once be longed to the word following it, is now often felt as belonging to a preceding intransitive verb, serving as an inflectional particle with the office of converting the intransitive into a transitive. That the preposition and the verb have fused into one word, a real com pound, can be seen in passive form, where the preposition remains with the verb: 'He can be depended upon.'
