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183. Dare is (1) an Intransitive Verb, meaning 'I venture,' and (2) a Transitive Verb, meaning 'I challenge.'

(1) The Intransitive dare was originally a past tense which came to be treated as a present, and a past tense durst was then formed from it. The s of durst is part of the stem, and not of the inflexion of the second person singular, which would be durstest. As dare was a past tense, the third singular of the present indicative properly takes no -s, 'He dare not say so.' But the Intransitive Verb has been confused with the Transitive, and before an Infinitive with to the form dares is used: 'He actually dares to say so.'

(2) The Transitive Verb is regularly conjugated: 'He dared me to do this:'

184. Ought was originally the past tense of the verb owe which meant, first, 'to have,' and then 'to have as a duty,' 'to be under an obligation.' Shakespeare often uses owe in the sense of own, or 'possess.' It seems a little odd that 'I owe a thousand pounds' might signify in the Elizabethan age either 'I possess a thousand pounds,' or 'I am a thousand pounds in debt,' but our modern words own and owe express the same contrast, and the notion of possession is the older meaning of the two. As ought is now used with the sense of a present, we have to express past obligation by altering the tense of the dependent infinitive. Thus we render non debet hoc facere, he ought not to do this,' non debuit hoc facere, he oughtn't to have done this,' which is less defensible logically than the vulgar form of expression, he hadn't ought to do this.'

185. Need is used without the final s in the third singular present, when it means 'to be under the necessity': 'He need not go.' The reason for the omission is not clear, as need was not originally a past tense which has acquired a present force. Hence we cannot explain the absence

of the s from need as we explain its absence from can, may, shall, will, dare.

186. Do represents two verbs originally distinct. Do, meaning 'to be good for' (Latin valere), which occurs in such expressions as 'This will do nicely,' 'Will that do?' had no connexion originally with the do of general use, 'to make, perform,' Latin facere. The former verb was confused however in its conjugation with do, meaning 'make,' and assumed its inflexions, did, done.

Do (Latin facio) forms compounds, don, 'to do on,’‘to put on,' of clothing: doff, 'to take off': dout, 'to quench,' 'to put out,' of a light or fire: dup, 'to do up,' or 'fasten,' of a door.

The forms dost, doth are mainly confined to the auxiliary use doest, doeth are never auxiliary.

The uses of do are important:

I. As a Notional Verb, meaning 'make, perform': 'He did his work.'

2. As an Auxiliary—

(a) in place of the present or past indefinite: 'I do repent' for 'I repent'; 'He did rejoice' for 'He rejoiced'; 'They did eat' for 'They ate.' The auxiliary do is here unemphatic.

(b) to emphasize our meaning: 'I do think so;' 'He did try hard'; 'They did eat.'

(c) in interrogative sentences: Do you think so?' 'Did he go?'

(a) in negative sentences: 'He does not think so'; ‘I did not go.'

The verb dependent on the auxiliary is in the infinitive mood.

3. As a substitute for other verbs, except 'be': 'He reads more than you do (read)'; 'I said I wouldn't take the

money and I didn't (take it)'; 'You play well and so does (play) your brother.'

187. The following verbs are practically obsolete:

Wit, 'to know,' has a Present wot and Past wist, (used to-day only in affectation of archaic style): 'I'll find Romeo to comfort you: I wot well where he is'; 'He wist not what to say.' The old gerund to wit now signifies 'namely.'

Worth is all that remains of an old verb signifying to be or become. 'Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day' means 'Woe betide,' or 'befal.'

Quoth is a Past Tense, the Present of which appears in the compound bequeath. It occurs now only in the first and third persons singular and always precedes the pronoun: 'quoth I,' 'quoth he.'

QUESTIONS.

1. Explain the term Copula. Make the copula explicit in the sentence 'The fire burns.'

[The word copula belongs to Logic rather than to Grammar. In Logic, the proposition 'Man is mortal' would be described as consisting of two terms and a copula: the term man is the subject, the term mortal is the predicate, and the word is, which connects the two, is the copula. In Grammar, mortal is not the predicate, but together with is it forms the predicate. To bring the sentence 'The fire burns' into the form of the proposition in Logic we must say 'The fire is burning.' We have then made the copula explicit.]

2.

Give in outline the history of the Auxiliary Verbs. Discuss the following constructions:

(1) 'I did come.'

(2) 'I have come.'

(3) I ought to come.'

(4) I ought to have come.'

3. Make sentences in which the word have is used (a) as a transitive verb in the indicative mood, (6) as a transitive verb in the subjunctive, (c) as an auxiliary.

W. E. G.

12

4. Conjugate the verbs can, shall, will, ought, must, and show how the places of the missing forms are supplied.

[Think, e.g., how we express ourselves instead of saying, 'I shall not can go,' 'They will must stop.']

5. Write short notes on the following italicised words:—' He must go.'.'-'He need not go.'-' He dare not go.'-' Methinks.'—' I wis.'— 'This will never do.'-' So mote it be.'

[I wis is not a verb at all, but an adverb ywis, 'truly,' where y represents an older form ge, as in yclept; compare German gewiss, ' certainly.'

Mote is the subjunctive of mot, 'I can, I may,' (but of different origin from the verb may,) from which must was formed as a past tense, though used also as a present.]

6. Write short notes on the following italicised verbal forms:'How do you do?'—' I do you to wit.'—'Woe worth the day!'—' Seeing is believing.'-'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.'

[In 'How do you do?' the first do is the auxiliary. The second is now considered to be do, Latin facere, not do, Latin valere, as was once supposed. The expression resembles the Old French equivalent, Comment le faites vous? literally, 'How do you make it?' and the German Was machen Sie? literally, 'What make you?'

I do you to wit means 'I cause you to know.']

7. As English verbs possess no inflexions to form the future tense, how are the ideas of simple futurity, of intention, and of compulsion respectively expressed?

8. Define mood, tense, auxiliary verb.

Write two sentences, each containing a verb in the subjunctive mood. Explain the meaning of the word perfect as applied to tense.

Distinguish the various uses of do as an auxiliary verb.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

ADVERBS.

188. An Adverb is a word which modifies the meaning of a verb, adjective, or other adverb.

Verbs usually indicate an action, and this action may be performed in various ways and in different circumstances. These variations in the conditions under which the action takes place are expressed by adverbs. Thus the action asserted in the sentence 'He bowled' is described as limited or modified, as regards the time when it occurred, if I say 'yesterday'; as regards the place, if I say 'here'; as regards the manner, if I say 'badly.' The vagueness of the statement 'He bowled' has been in large measure removed when I say 'Yesterday he bowled here badly.' Just as adjectives limit the application of nouns to things, so adverbs limit the application of verbs to actions. Just as the words 'clever boy' are applicable to fewer objects than the word 'boy,' so the words 'bowled yesterday' are applicable to fewer actions than the word 'bowled.'

Again, Adjectives denote attributes, and these attributes are such as, in many instances, but by no means in all, vary in degree. One way of indicating this variation is by comparison another is by the use of adverbs which denote degree. If the reader will refer to the chapter on the Inflexion of Adjectives, he will see that the Demonstrative

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