4. From a few Intransitive Verbs, Transitive derivatives are formed called Causatives, signifying to cause or produce the action indicated by the original verb: thus from sit we obtain set, meaning to 'make to sit'; from lie, lay; from fall, fell; from rise, raise; from drink, drench.

The student must be on his guard against supposing that an Intransitive is Transitive whenever a noun follows it. A noun of kindred meaning to that of the verb accompanies many Intransitives, not as an object but as an adverbial modification. In Latin Grammar this construction is called the Cognate Accusative: ludum ludere, 'to play a game,' vitam vivere, 'to live one's life,' are examples in both languages. 'To run a race,' 'to walk a mile,' 'to dream a dream,' 'to fight a good fight,' 'to sleep the sleep of death' are illustrations of this construction. We describe these nouns as Cognate Objectives. 140. Conversely, some Transitive Verbs are used Intransitively. Compare the following:

Transitive.

He broke the glass.
They moved the chair.
I slammed the door.
He opened the lid.

The sun melted the snow.
We reformed the criminal.

Intransitive.

The glass broke.
The chair moved.
The door slammed.
The lid opened.

The snow melted.

The criminal reformed.

Some writers regard these intransitive uses as apparent rather than real, and consider the verbs to be Reflexives with an object itself understood.

141. Verbs of Incomplete Predication. Many intransitive verbs make no sense as predicates, unless they are followed by some noun, adjective, or verb in the infinitive mood. To say 'He is,' 'They can,' 'We became,' 'You will,' 'She seems,' is meaningless until we add some word to complete the sense. Thus we give significance to these

incomplete assertions, if we say 'He is good,' 'He is captain,' 'He is killed,' 'He is come,' 'They can speak French,' 'We became rich,' 'We became partners,' 'You will win,' 'She seems vexed.' Such verbs are called Verbs of Incomplete Predication, and the word or words which are added to make sense are called the Complement of the Predicate. The verbs grow, look, feel, in some of their uses are intransitives of this kind.

Certain transitive verbs require, always or in some of their uses, a similar complement. If we say 'The king made a treaty,' the sense is complete: but if we say 'The king made Walpole,' the sense is incomplete until we add the complement 'a peer,' or 'angry,' or 'continue minister.' The verb 'called' is a complete predicate in the sentence 'The master called his valet,' meaning 'summoned him to his presence': it is an incomplete predicate if it signifies 'applied a name to him,' until the name is added; 'The master called his valet a thief,' or 'lazy'. 'I think you' requires a genius,' a fool,' 'clever,' 'mad,' to complete the

sense.

The name Neuter is applied in some books to Intransitive verbs generally, in others to Intransitive verbs of incomplete predication. As there is this ambiguity in its meaning, the best course is to dispense with its use altogether.

142. Auxiliary and Notional Verbs. When we come to the conjugation of the verb, we shall see that most of the different forms are made by means of other verbs, which are therefore called Auxiliaries (from Lat. auxilium, 'help,' because they help to conjugate the verb). The different parts of the verbs be, have, will, shall, may, are employed as Auxiliaries, and when so employed are the substitutes for inflexions of which in our English conjugation very few survive. Thus 'I shall have written' is in Latin expressed in one inflected form, scripsero, 'you were being loved,' amabamini.

But the verbs have, will, shall, may, possess meanings of their own which are dropped when the words are used as auxiliaries. 'He will do it' may mean 'He is determined to do it,' as well as 'He is going to do it.' In the former case will is not an auxiliary, in the latter it is. Have signifies possess when I say 'I have a bicycle,' but it is merely auxiliary when I say 'I have lost my bicycle.' May means permission in 'You may try if you like;' it is auxiliary when we say 'You won't find out, though you may try your best.' Verbs which are used with a meaning of their own, and not merely as substitutes for inflexions in the conjugation of other verbs, are called Notional Verbs.

143. An Impersonal Verb is one in which the source of the action is not expressed.

A true Impersonal Verb therefore has no subject. Only two examples of true Impersonals occur in modern English, methinks and meseems, and these belong to the diction of rhetoric rather than to every-day speech. Me is a dative case: hence it cannot be the subject. The meaning of the two Impersonals is the same, viz. 'It seems to me.' Thinks in methinks comes from the Old English thynkan, ‘to seem,' which was a different verb from thencan, 'to think.'

'It rains,' 'it freezes,' and similar expressions are commonly called Impersonal, but they have a grammatical subject, it. If we are asked however, 'What rains?' 'What freezes?' we cannot specify the thing for which the it stands: the grammatical subject represents no real source of the action.

1.

QUESTIONS.

Write sentences to illustrate the transitive use of the following verbs:-'We are resting.'-'Don't push.'-'How you squeeze!'Forty feeding like one.'-'They are pressing for payment.'-' The shadows lengthen.'-'The days draw in.'-'Times change.'-'How it pours ! '—' The meat will keep.'—'We mean to remove next spring.’— 'The king recovered.'

2. Write sentences to show that the following verbs may be used both transitively and intransitively :—strike, shake, stop, roll, boil, survive, wake, burst, upset, grow.

3. Distinguish the terms Transitive, Intransitive, Active, Passive.

State which of these terms you would apply to the verbs in the following sentences respectively, and point out any peculiarities of construction:-they are arrived, they ran a race, he overeats himself, the book is selling well, he swam the river, he lay down.

4. Refer to its class (as Transitive, Intransitive, Verb of Incomplete Predication, Impersonal, Notional or Auxiliary) each Verb in the following sentences:-'It will rain tomorrow.'-'I will do it my own way.'-'They will not succeed.'-'You may call if you like, but he may not be at home.'-' He feels his way.'-' He feels ill.'—‘The bonnet became a hat.'-'The bonnet became the lady.'-'You shall not go out.'-'We shall not go out.'-' He grows barley.'-' He grows stout.'

5. Give instances of verbs which can be used (1) both transitively and intransitively, (2) both as complete predicates and as incomplete.

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CHAPTER XVI.

INFLEXIONS OF VERBS.

144. VERBS undergo changes of form to mark differences of Voice, Mood, Tense, Number, Person.

As inflexions have almost entirely disappeared from English verbs, we have recourse to auxiliary verbs and pronouns to express these differences. Amaverimus, ama

bimur are inflexions of the Latin verb amo: we shall have loved, we shall be loved, their English equivalents, are not inflexions of the verb love; the required changes in the meaning of the verb are effected by the use of auxiliaries. Amo has over a hundred of these inflexions: love has seven, viz., love, lovest, loves, loveth, loved, lovedst, loving, and of these seven, the three forms lovest, loveth, lovedst, are no longer employed in ordinary speech.

Voice is the form of a verb which shows whether the subject of the sentence stands for the doer or for the object of the action expressed by the verb.

Mood is the form of a verb which shows the mode or manner in which the action is represented.

Tense is the form of a verb which shows the time at which the action is represented as occur