22 J. A. Fontaine, 



Thirdly : Different Classes of Neuter Verbs. 



With reference to conjugation, neuter verbs must be 

 divided into three classes : — 



First, neuter verbs, the radical significance of which being 

 still felt, are conjugated with etre ;■ not at all because they 

 express a state or condition rather than an action, but be- 

 cause they are elliptical reflexive verbs. , 



Secondly, neuter verbs still under the influence of their 

 origin, but yielding in a great measure to the effect of what 

 I should call the Romance tendency. Under that tendency 

 Romance languages have been substituting, in a less or 

 greater degree, active and reflexive for passive expressions, 

 and active verbs for passive verbs ; hence .active auxiliary for 

 passive auxiliary. As a consequence, the verbs under the 

 influence of these two principles will have a wavering use of 

 the auxiliaries etre and avoir, with a slight preference for avoir. 



Thirdly, neuter verbs subject to the influence of the Ro- 

 mance active tendency, and taking the auxiliary avoir exclu- 

 sively. This third class of neuter verbs is the only class to 

 be found at present in some of the Romance languages. 



I will now take a certain number of verbs belonging to the 

 first class, and prove that they have been used in the Old 

 French as true reflexive verbs. For instance, with aller, Je 

 suis alle is ec[uivalent to Je vie suis alle. The study of the 

 verb aller in Old French literature is very interesting. The 

 frequency of its use may be said not to be exceeded by that 

 of any other verb. When the different ways in which aller 

 is conjugated are observed, the student is at no loss to 

 explain its auxiliary, and can no longer say with grammarians 

 that aller takes the auxiliary etre because it expresses a state 

 or condition ; as if any verb could express more clearly an 

 action than the verb aller. This verb was used, first, in the 

 reflexive form with en: s' en aller ; secondly, in the reflexive 

 form without en: smaller; thirdly, in the so-called neuter 

 form with en : en aller ; fourthly, in the so-called neuter form 

 without en : aller. 



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