118. A defective verb is one that is wanting in some of its parts; as, Can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, ought, quoth, beware, and hark. REMARK 1. Wis, and its past tense wist, are found only in old writers. Wit, to know. and its past tense wot, are seldom found, and only in old writings; but its infinitive to wit, meaning namely, is still used. *Hang, to deprive of life by hanging, pen, to write, and sew, to sew cloth, are regular. Stew is going out of use; it is pronounced like strow, and the latter spelling is Shew, pronounced like show, has given place to it. prevailing 2. Quoth I, quoth he, and quoth they, in the present and past tenses, are used only by quaint writers. Beware (be aware) is 1.sed chiefly in the Imperative and Infinitive. Hark is mostly confined to the Imperative. Ought becomes rughtest in the Solemn or Formal style. IMPERSONAL VERBS. 119. An impersonal verb asserts being, action, or a state of things, where the agent, well known, unknown or indefinite, is represented generally by the pronoun it; as, it rains, it thunders, it lightens, it freezes, it hails, &c. Such expressions are used chiefly in respect to the state of the weather, atmosphere, &c. REMARK 1. Methinks I think, methought I thought, meseems it seems to me, and meseemed it seemed to me, &c., are anomalies, and may De classed here. 2. In such expressions as "they say," &c., they is used to represent indefiritely persons unknown or persons in general, somebody, &c. TRANSITIVE FORMS - Simple Active, Emphatic, Progressive, Passive. INTRANSITIVE FORMS-Simple Active, Emphatic, Progressive. MOODS-Indicative, Potential, Subjunctive, Imperative, Infinitive. - Present, Past, Future, Perfect, Past Perfect, Future Perfect. TENSES NUMBER Singular, Plural. PERSON- First, Second, Third. PARTICIPLES. ACTIVE FORMS — Imperfect, Simple Perfect, compound Perfect, PASSIVE FORMS-Imperfect, Compound Perfect. What is an impersonal verb? Give examples. How are such expressions used? What anomalies? - general expressions? Give the forms and properties of verbs of par ticiples. FORM FOR PARSING THE VERB. Regular or irregular in formation of principal parts; give the parts; how formed; transitive or intransitive, and why; in what form; how the subject is affected by the manner of the assertion; what mood, and why; what tense, and why; varied or not on account of the number and person of its subject, and how. FORM FOR PARSING THE PARTICIPLE. From what verb derived; the form; in what relation used; when in the relation of the adjective, parse it as an adjective; when in the relation of a noun, as a noun. MODEL. Were John successful, it might render him anxious to try again. In this compound sentence the dependent and subordinate clause is connected with the independent clause by the conjunction “if” implied; as, "Were John successful": if John were successful: if John should be successful, &c. 66 = "It," substituted for the clause containing the supposition, is the subject, unmodified, of the independent clause, and "might render" is the predicate, which is directly modified by 66 him," and "him" by "anxious," and "anxious" indirectly by the phrase "to try again." The modified predicate, then, is all of the clause except the subject "it." "John" is the subject of the subordinate or dependent clause, and " were is the predicate, which is modified by "successful; " the quality denoted by "successful" is asserted of John in the predicate, instead of being assumed. "John" is a proper ncun, name of an individual; masculine gender, of a male being; singar, of one; third person, spoken of; nominative case, because it is the subject of the assertion, and if a personal pronoun be substituted for "John" the appropriate form will be "he," which is the special form for the nominative of that gender and number. Were," the predicate of the subjoined clause, is used to assert, and is, therefore, a verb. Be, was, been, irregular. Intransitive, cannot take a direct object after it. Subjunctive mood, used in a Give the forms for parsing a verb and participle. subjoined and dependent clause to express a supposition, by one of the peculiar forms found only in this verb or auxiliary, “if” being implied. Past tense, and not varied for the person and number of its subject. "It" is a personal pronoun, showing by a special form the person, number, and gender, of what it represents; here substituted for the dependent or subordinate clause, and representing the fact supposed in it. Third person, singular; nominative case, and is the grammatical subject of the clause. The form being the same in the nominative and objective, does not indicate the case. "Might render” is a verb, here used to assert. Principal parts, Present render, Past rendered, Perfect Participle rendered. Regular, because its past tense and perfect participle are formed by adding ed to the simple form of the verb. Transitive, as it takes after it a direct object, him," which has the form of the objective case. The Simple Active form, the subject-nominative being the agent or doer, not the receiver of the action; the receiver or object of the action is “him” in the objective. Potential mood, expressing possibility or power, by the auxiliary might. Past tense in form, but future in meaning, the definitions of the tenses seldom applying in this mood. A verb in this mood is not varied by the person and number of its subject. 66 "To try" is a regular verb, try, tried, tried; intransitive, takes no object after it, and here used in the sense to make an attempt, to make an effort; Infinitive mood, simple form used to denote purpose, and limits "anxious," showing for what "it would render him anxious." EXERCISES. DIRECTION. Give clausal and phrasal analysis, and, according to model, parse the verbs and their subjects, giving kind, form, properties, and modifying relations. We may scatter the seeds of courtesy and kindness around us at little expense. We shall not see in life the end of human actions. Half a quire of foolscap had been folded into the shape of a writing-book for me by the maternal hand, and I had succeeded in obtaining a penknife. Avoid slander as you would a scorpion. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools wil. learn in no other. Charity should begin at home, but should not end there. |