Si eee iesGaaee 
i ‘lang e" 
neces, In Eng.' 
blush ;” but we _ ferent 
ves 
substantive verb in a separate state. The 
mentioned are called neuter verbs, in conse- 
quence of the absence of certain qualities which we 
hall find other verbs to possess. 
Secr. V.  Assertions 
made by Verbs of Motion or of 
Action. 
“Ir has been already observed that the first object 
which a man has in view, in using speech, is to excite to 
action. Were mankind destitute of vocal language, 
they would imitate the particular actions which they in- 
tend the person to whom they speak to perform. This 
is always done by persons who wish to converse while 
' they are not acquainted with any common language. 
The case is necessarily the same with dumb persons. 
In tracing the origin of the words by which particular 
actions are represented, and the establishment of them 
as conventional signs, we find no general principle to 
guide us. The motive for using a particular sound is 
of so casual a nature that its history is lost before it re- 
ceives an established application. The want of written 
documents, and the total inattention to retrospective 
analysis, which exist in a state of society so rude, in- 
volve the origins of words in obscurity. Etymology can 
only trace a word from one application to another, and 
follow its variations through the different languages 
into which it has been adopted. Even this exercise is 
liable to deceptions which it is difficult to avoid. Yet 
it must be allowed that, when conducted with cau- 
tion, it may prove extremely useful, by discovering 
analogical principles of transition, which elucidate this 
a ent of human art. 
After men have learned to employ words for excit- 
ing one another to those actions by which reciprocal 
services are performed, the extent of the uses to which 
language may be applied must be soon more fully per-' 
- ceived. Men contrive to describe to each other various 
surrounding phenomena. Some of the most interesting 
of these consist of the actions of their fellow creatures. ° 
The same sign by which we desire a person to per- 
form a icular action, is naturally retained as a sym- 
ve bol of that action in describing any series of events of 
};, which it forms a part. After we have used the words 
* come,” go,” “ stand, “ sit,” “ run,” as imperatives, 
_ ‘we spontaneously apply the same words, either in the 
same form or with some slight addition or alteration, 
in affirmative sentences, such as “‘ John stands,” “ John 
sits,” or “ John runs,” . 
It has been already remarked that these indicative 
forms may be resolved into the copula with a participle, 
_and are equivalent to “John is standing,” “John is 
sitting,” and “ John is running.” The connexions ex- 
the participle are observed in the operations 
of the solitary mind before we are capable of using 
language, and form an extensive series of relations 
among the objects of our knowledge. But the earliest 
use that arises for connecting the significant words is 
the conve: — of raven On this account the 
‘opula and the participial sign are not originally sepa- 
pty but condensed into one sith with yd seesie of the 
action specified. This early date of the condensed 
phrase is the cause of a comparative simplicity in the 
indicative form. It is prior in formation to the partici, 
GRAMMAR, 
’ easily than oak.’ 
421 
ple. We’ have occasion to say that a man “ walks,” Universal 
soonér’ than we ‘have occasion to use the liu. Grammar, 
designation “ the wian walking” as the subject of a dif: ~~~ 
fere abet It follows'a fortiori that the simple 
indicative ‘is prior to that indicative which is formed 
by the participle and the The division of it 
into these two parts might make the indicative appear 
more complicated in metaphysical analysis, and some 
might be disposed, on this view of the subject, to con- 
sider the usual indicative as a ies of contraction. 
oe is = a character. e act which consists 
in the union e meaning of these two signs is s 
taneous, and of an early origin. On this parasts 
indicative has even’ less complexity of form than the 
participle. 
Sect. VI. The Active, Passive, and Middle Voices. 
Ir most frequently happens that, in describing an 
event, whether consisting of a voluntary human action 
or not, we have occasion to bring into view, by means 
of a noun, some object which has a conspicuous con- 
cern in it. The occasions on which no ‘inclination to 
do this exists are but few, and the events which are 
described in a manner so simple are not of the most in= some verbe 
teresting kind. They occur in Latin in the use of of no voice. 
such verbs as ningit and pluit, “it snows,” ‘it rains.” 
Each of these verbs, without any nominative, contains 
a full account of an event. 
When we describe an action which has an intimate Origin of 
connection with some other objects, we generally have voices. 
occasion to extend our description by the mention of ’ 
the object or objects so situated. We may eitlier men- 
tion one or more of the agents who perform the action, 
or an object affected by it. If the noun expressing 
this object is put in the nominative case, it becomes the 
leading subject of the sentence. 
When the nominative is the name of an agent, the Distinct 
verb is said tobe aclive. When it is the name of an forms not 
object affected, it is said to be passive. (This mode of #!ways re- 
expression is somewhat illogical. It is the noun that 14 
becomes active in the one instance, and passive in the 
other. The difference of these two uses of the yerb is, 
that they give these differences of character to the noun. 
We shall, however, adhere to the established nomencla- 
ture as established by common usage, and sessing the 
advantage of a convenient briefness.) There are not 
in every language two separate forms of the verb for 
these two applications of it. In modern English, 
some verbs are used in the same form in an active and 
in a passive application. We can use the verb “ cut” 
in any one of the three following ways: “ They cut 
the tree ;’’ «‘ These tools cut smoothly ;” « Fir cuts more 
We say, “ Look at that person’s 
face ;’’ also “ He looks well ;” “ Drink some wine ;” 
and “ This wine drinks pleasantly.” 
Some grammarians, impressed with the prominent 
distinction existing in the Latin language betwixt the 
verb in the active and the passive voice, would insist 
that * to drink” and “ to cut” are essentially active, and 
therefore that the phrases “ fir cuts easily” and “ this 
wine drinks pleasantly” are ungrammatical. But w@ 
shall probably entertain a more enlarged as well as a 
more correct idea of the verb, by conceiving that those 
which we call active verbs are in-their earliest applica- 
tion of no particular voice, though, from the agent ge- 
nerally appearing in the mind of'the speaker more im- 
portant than any object acted-on, the active application 
of them is the mostfrequent. The original indicative of 
4 
