18. Sun and shower alternated like day and night, making the

hours longer by their variety.

19. Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

20. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.

21. What a piece of work is man!

22. The summer's flower is to the summer sweet.

23. Far, vague, and dim

The mountains swim.

24. There was not a sound audible but that of the sheep-bells in some meadows by the river, and the creaking of a cart down the long road that descends the hill.

25. What I required was something cheap, and small and handy; and all these requisites pointed to a donkey.

26. There was something neat and high-bred about the rogue that hit my fancy upon the spot.

27. What a noble gift to man are the forests! What a debt of gratitude and admiration we owe to their utility and their beauty!

How pleasantly the shadows of the wood fall upon our heads when we turn from the glitter and turmoil of the world of man! The winds of heaven seem to linger amid their balmy branches, and the sunshine falls like a blessing upon the green leaves; the wild breath of the forest, fragrant with bark and berry, fans the brow with grateful freshness; and the beautiful woodlight, neither garish nor gloomy, full of calm and peaceful influences, sheds repose over the spirit.

VERBS.

170. A VERB IS A WORD THAT ASSERTS. (See Section 23.) A COPULATIVE VERB IS ONE WHOSE PRINCIPAL USE IS THAT OF A COPULA.

AN ATTRIBUTIVE VERB IS ONE THAT IN ITSELF CONTAINS THE PREDICATE ATTRIBUTE.

A COMPLETE VERB IS ONE THAT REQUIRES NO COMPLEMENT. (See Section 26.)

AN INCOMPLETE VERB IS ONE THAT REQUIRES A COMPLEMENT, -ATTRIBUTE, OBJECT, OR OBJECT AND OBJECTIVE.

If the attribute complement is a noun, the word is often called a predicate noun. If the attribute complement is an adjective, it is often called a predicate adjective.

EXERCISE.

171. Write five sentences containing copulative verbs, and five containing attributive verbs. Tell of each whether it is complete or incomplete.

VERBS - TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE.

172. A TRANSITIVE VERB IS ONE THAT ASSERTS AN ACTION RECEIVED BY SOME OBJECT, WHICH IS NAMED BY THE SUBJECT OR THE OBJECT COMPLEMENT. (See Section 33.)

AN INTRANSITIVE VERB IS ONE THAT DOES NOT ASSERT AN ACTION THAT IS RECEIVED BY AN OBJECT.

Many verbs are at one time transitive and at another intransitive. The use of the verb in a sentence determines whether it is transitive or intransitive.

(a) Speak gently to the erring one.

(b) Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounce it to you. (c) He ran to the brook.

(d) He ran the horse to the brook.

(e) He ran a race.

(f) Many men walk for exercise.

(g) The groom walked the horse.

(h) I have lived to-day.

(i) He lived a worthless life.
(j) Some persons laugh too much.

(k) He laughed at his own folly.

Point out the instances in the sentences in which a verb is used transitively and intransitively. What is the object of speak in (b) ? Is there any relation in meaning between speak and speech? Is there any relation in meaning between lived and life? In a dictionary find the meaning of cognate. Is there a reason why such an object could be called a cognate object? Ran in (d) and walked in (g) are used with the meaning of causing the action named. Many verbs take an object when used in a causative sense.

Can (j) be turned into a passive construction? Can (k) be turned into a passive construction? In the passive, what is the subject ? What, then, do you think is the object in (k)? If folly is the object complement, is the verb laughed or laughed at? Does laughed at express one definite action? Is the action different from that expressed by laughed ?

Some verbs usually intransitive may become transitive

1. by taking a cognate object;

(A cognate object is one that names the action or the result of the action asserted by the verb.)

2. by being used in a causative sense;

3. by adding a preposition to form a phrase-verb;

Great care must be used to know the difference between a verb modified by a prepositional phrase and a phrase-verb taking an object complement. All prepositional phrases modifying verbs express some adverbial relation, such as time, place, manner, or condition. In the sentence, "He walked along the bank," "along the bank” is clearly a prepositional phrase, since it tells the place of the action. Again, it is generally true that when the sentence can be changed to the passive construction and the noun which follows the preposition can be made the subject of the passive sentence, the sentence contains a phrase-verb. For an example, see (k).

VOICE.

173. VOICE IS THAT MODIFICATION OF A VERB WHICH INDICATES WHETHER THE SUBJECT NAMES THE DOER OR THE RECEIVER OF THE ACTION ASSERTED. (See Section 36.)

A VERB IS IN THE ACTIVE VOICE WHEN THE SUBJECT NAMES THE DOER OF THE ACTION ASSERTED.

A VERB IS IN THE PASSIVE VOICE WHEN THE SUBJECT NAMES THE RECEIVER OF THE ACTION ASSERTED.

Need of a
Passive
Voice.

The passive voice is a convenience in language, because it enables a writer to express his thought

1. When the name of the actor is unknown; EXAMPLE. The Maine was destroyed in Havana harbor.

2. when the name of the actor is of little importance; EXAMPLE. The laws have been enforced.

3. when the speaker prefers not to name the actor. EXAMPLE. A pencil has been taken from my desk.

(a) A wise man governs his temper.

(b) His temper is governed by a wise man.

(c) A just man gives all their due.

(d) Their due is given to all by a just man.
(e) All are given their due by a just man.
(f) Suffering makes us men.

(g) We are made men by suffering.

(b) Men are made of us by suffering.

Active to
Passive.

Analyze sentences (a), (c), and (f). Pick out the sentences in which an object complement in the active construction becomes the subject in the passive construction. In which sentence has the indirect object of the active become the subject of the passive construction? In which has the objective complement of the active become the subject of the passive construction?

An active construction may be changed to a passive construction in three ways:

1. The object complement of the active may become the subject in the passive. In this case the doer of the action is named by the principal word of a prepositional phrase.

When in a sentence of the fourth type the object complement of the active, us in (f), becomes the subject in the passive, we in (g), the objective complement, men in (f), becomes the attribute complement in the passive, men in (g). In this case the passive verb-phrase, are made in (g), serves as copula, uniting the subject and attribute complement. This is the only construction in which a transitive verb-phrase is copulative in its use. It may well be termed a transitive-copulative or a passive-copulative verb-phrase.

2. The indirect object of the active may become the subject in the passive. In this case the doer of the action is named by the principal word of a prepositional phrase; and by an idiom of our language the direct object of the active remains in the objective case, though in general a passive verb cannot be completed by an object complement. The noun or pronoun in this construction is called a retained object; as due in (e).

3. Very rarely the objective complement of the active becomes the subject in the passive. In this case both the receiver and the doer of the action are named by principal words of prepositional phrases; as in (h).

VERBS.

EXERCISE.

174. Can an incomplete verb be transitive? If so, give two examples in sentences. Can a complete verb be transitive? If so, give two examples in sentences. Can an attributive verb be transitive? If so, give three examples in sentences. Can a transitive verb ever be copulative? If so, give two examples in sentences. Can a transitive verb be complete? If so, give two examples in sentences.

EXERCISE.

175. Make eight columns on your papers headed copulative, attributive, complete, incomplete, transitive, intransitive, verb, verb-phrase. At the left of these columns make a list of the verbs and verb-phrases in the following sentences. Place opposite each verb and verbphrase a dash in the columns naming the classes to which it belongs.

proclaimed

was proclaimed

MODEL.

COP. AT. COMP. INCOMP. TRANS. INTR. VERB. VERB-PHRASE.

1. The people proclaimed Cæsar emperor.

2. Cæsar was proclaimed emperor by the people.

3. The pot called the kettle black.

4. Men do not become rich by what they get, but by what they keep.

5. He who spends more than his wages will always be a beggar, and so will his family after him.

6. Whenever the snow lies long and deep upon the ground, a flock of cedar-birds comes in mid-winter to eat the berries on my hawthorns.