ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 



number). A or an, another, none, and both belong 

 to this class. 



(b.) Indefinite Numeral Adjectives : Ex., many 

 days ; any books ; all men. Does no (as in ' no 

 horses ') belong to the definite or indefinite class? 



(c.) Distributive Numeral Adjectives : Ex., each 

 man ; neither way. 



4. Demonstrative Adjectives, which point out 

 some particular object or objects. They are : the, 

 this, that (these, those), yon, yonder. 



5. Possessive Adjectives. Ex., my, thy, his, her, 

 their, my own, &c. In point of origin, these 

 words are considered as possessive cases of the 

 personal pronouns. (See page 585.) 



A, or an, and the are usually classed apart, under 

 the name of Articles. But the history of a, or an, 

 shews that it is nothing else than the numeral 

 one (in Anglo-Saxon, an; Scotch, ane) used - 

 emphatically ; that is, not to denote one as opposed 

 to two or three, or any definite number, but merely 

 that an individual of a class is meant. Words in 

 frequent unemphatic use are specially liable to 

 -drop some of their letters ; so that an (one) or ane 

 readily became a, whenever ease of pronunciation 

 was promoted by the change. Similarly, the is an 

 unemphatic and mutilated that; and the one may 

 generally be substituted for the other without essen- 

 tially changing the meaning ; as, ' The book we 

 were speaking of,' or, ' That book we were speak- 

 ing of.' 



It is a peculiarity of the English language to 

 \ise nouns, in a great many cases, as adjectives. 

 Thus, ' a gold crown ; ' ' the cotton districts ; ' ' the 

 Berlin decrees.' Sometimes several nouns are 

 joined one to another to form a kind of compound 

 adjective. Ex., 'The Health of Towns Bill.' 

 On the other hand, adjectives are sometimes 

 used as nouns : Ex., ' The rich (that is, rich 

 persons) are thought happy.' ' We naturally love 

 the beautiful wherever we see it.' Here, 'the 

 beautiful,' is equal to 'beauty,' or more accurately 

 perhaps to ' whatever is beautiful.' 



Verbs. 



The end of speaking is to assert or affirm some- 

 thing with a view to being believed or disbelieved ; 

 and we have seen (page 578) that the word that 

 performs this function that of predicating is the 

 very soul of the sentence. Hence this class of 

 words have received the name of Verbs or Words 

 (Lat. verbum} par excellence. 



Verbs affirm either some action or some state ; 

 as, 'John reads;' 'The sun shines;' 'The book 

 lies on the table.' When the nature of the action 

 requires an object to complete the sense, the verb 

 is called Transitive, because the action passes 

 over (Lat. transit} to an object ; as, ' the child 

 strikes the dog' Some verbs complete the con- 

 ception of the action in themselves, and require 

 no complement ; as, 'The child sleeps,' 'The bird 

 files' These are called Intransitive. A distinc- 

 tion is attempted to be made between intransitive 

 verbs expressing action (as flies, moves], and verbs 

 expressing merely a state (as sleeps, lies], the latter 

 being called neuter verbs. But it is often impos- 

 sible to draw the line where activity ends and 

 neutrality begins. Even in such a verb as sleeps, 

 it is implied that the sleeper shews certain outward 

 manifestations that make an impression, or act, 

 on the beholder. 



Nor can any exact or permanent division be 

 made of verbs into transitive and intransitive. We 

 can say whether a given verb in a particular 

 sentence is used transitively or intransitively ; but 

 not that it is absolutely, and in itself, transitive or 

 intransitive. It would be difficult perhaps to find 

 a verb that cannot be shewn to be both the one 

 and the other. ' The child sees the candle,' is un- 

 questionably an instance of a transitive verb ; in, 

 ' The new-born child sees, but the puppy is blind,' 

 the same verb is unquestionably intransitive. 



There are two classes of transitive and intrans- 

 itive verbs, related to each other in the following 



way : 



INTRANSITIVE. 



He sits, 

 lies, 

 falls, 

 rises, 

 sucks, 

 drinks, 

 dives. 



TRANSITIVE. 



He sets (causes to sit). 



lays 

 fells 



raises 

 soaks 

 drenches 

 dips 



lie). 



fall). 



rise). 



suck). 



drink). 



dive). 



Those in the second column are called causative 

 verbs. In the ancient forms of our language, 

 there were many more such causative verbs, formed 

 from root-verbs by a change, generally of the 

 vowel. In Hebrew, every verb is capable of 

 assuming the causative form. Modern English 

 does not stand much on forms, but employs almost 

 any verb in a causative sense without change of 

 any kind. Thus: 'The horse walked' 'the 

 groom walked the horse ;' ' The wood floated' 

 ' raftsmen floated the wood down the stream.' 



Passive Form, or Voice, of Verbs. Instead of 

 ' Csesar defeated Pompey,' we may say, ' Pompey 

 was defeated by Cassar.' In the former, the verb 

 is in the active voice ; in the latter, in the passive 

 voice. In using the passive voice, the thing or 

 person acted upon is made the subject of the 

 sentence, and has the chief attention directed 

 thereto ; with the active voice, the doer and his 

 action are more prominent Of course, it is only 

 transitive verbs that can thus have a passive 

 voice. 



One class of intransitive verbs become transitive 

 by the addition of one of the class of words called 

 prepositions ; as, speak speak to ; fall fall upon. 

 Some verbs already transitive take prepositions 

 simply to modify the sense ; as, set set up, break 

 break down. In such cases, the verb and pre- 

 position are to be considered as forming one com- 

 pound verb, and might be written with a hyphen 

 speak-to, break-down. With the addition of 

 a preposition, what was an intransitive verb be- 

 comes capable of being used in the passive voice. 

 Thus, ' The king spoke to the duke about it ' 

 ' the duke was spoken to about it by the king.' 

 ' Robbers fell upon him ' ' he was fallen upon by 

 robbers.' 



Not, however, in all cases. For, ' The Thames 

 runs into the sea,' we could not say, ' The sea is 

 run into by the Thames.' And yet, with this same 

 verb, we can say, ' The mail-train was run into by 

 the express.' The distinction seems to be, that 

 when we think of the object as sensibly affected 

 by the action, and wish to call the chief attention 

 to the effect so produced, the object may become 

 the subject, and the verb be passive. 



Pronouns. 



' 7 am sick.' ' Thou knowest the truth.' 

 was here, but he went away again.' 



'John 

 ' Peter 



551 



