alytical practical grammar - Toronto Public Library

APPENDIX-DIVISION OF VERBS. 2&1
infinitive expresses no affirmation, though it evidently, without affirming
attributes dying to a person, expressed by the word mo. So when w~
say, .. I see a man walking," the word walking expresses an act of the
person man, though there is properly no affirmation. In like manner,
when I say, " Do this," the v~rb do attribu~es action imperatiYcly to the
perEon addressed, but there IS no affirmation. To speak of .. affirming
Imperatively" is certainly not very intelligible, though, for want of a bet.
tel' expression, we sometimes use it in a loose sense.
For these reasons, the definition of a verb which eays it is "a part of
speech which asserts or affirms," appears to me to be defective. It stateR
one function of this class of words, but excludes, or at least does not ;".
eluJe, others. It gives. as the distingui5hing characteristic of a "erb, tbat
which does not belong to it in several of its parts and uscs. It is too r'··
strictive.
The definition formerly given in my" Principles of English Gmlomar,"
is liable to an objection of an opposi te kiud: it is too general, and not
sufficiently distinctive. A verb does, indeed, "express nn IIction or Male,"
but there arc other words that do 60 nlso. Nouns such as luve, drsin',
wis!t, !tope, &c., aDd most verbal nouns, such liS eruption,fiction, cullisioll,
d!ff"sion, progreBsion, &e" express action, and many worde, both n0l111~
and adjectives, express a state.
The definition given in the text, though perhaps uot unexceptionable,
occupies a middle place between these extremes, avoids the indcfioitenes",
of the old definition, and is probably less liable to objection than most of
those which have been given.
APPENDIX YII.
DIVISION OF VERns.
The division of verbs into Tranaitive aud Intl'an"itiue is now eo gene·
rally adopted by grammarians, instead of the former division into Active,
Passive, and Neuter; and its propriety and simplicity so obvious, that it
seems now unnecessary to argue the point. Of this division, it is need·
ful only to observe-
1st. It divides all verbs into two classes, Transiti"e nnd Intrausitive,
distinguished by a clear and definite cbaracteristic, derived from tbeir use
in the construction of sentences. To tbe first belong tho~e which are used
transitively, whatever be their meaning or form; and to the second, all
that are used intransitively, wbether they denote action or not (319),
2d. This arrangement and nomenclature leaves the term Acti~e an(1
Pauive at liberty to be applied exclusively to the two forms winch all
transitive verbs assume, called the actil'e and the passive voice.
3d. It dispenses with the term tlmter altogether, as applied to verbs,
and leaves it to bc appropriated in grammar to the desi~nation of gender
only.