An English Grammar Part 38

206. Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, according to their use in the sentence, It can be said, "The boy _walked_ for two hours," or "The boy _walked_ the horse;" "The rains _swelled_ the river," or "The river _swelled_ because of the rain;" etc.

The important thing to observe is, many words must be distinguished as transitive or intransitive by _use_, not by _form_.

207. Also verbs are sometimes made transitive by prepositions.

These may be (1) compounded with the verb; or (2) may follow the verb, and be used as an integral part of it: for example,--

Asking her pardon for having _withstood_ her.--SCOTT.

I can wish myself no worse than to have it all to _undergo_ a second time.--KINGSLEY.

A weary gloom in the deep caverns of his eyes, as of a child that has _outgrown_ its playthings.--HAWTHORNE.

It is amusing to walk up and down the pier and _look at_ the countenances pa.s.sing by.--B. TAYLOR.

He was at once so out of the way, and yet so sensible, that I loved, _laughed at_, and pitied him.--GOLDSMITH.

My little nurse told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly _picked out_ from her mother.--SWIFT.

Exercises.

(_a_) Pick out the transitive and the intransitive verbs in the following:--

1. The women and children collected together at a distance.

2. The path to the fountain led through a gra.s.sy savanna.

3. As soon as I recovered my senses and strength from so sudden a surprise, I started back out of his reach where I stood to view him; he lay quiet whilst I surveyed him.

4. At first they lay a floor of this kind of tempered mortar on the ground, upon which they deposit a layer of eggs.

5. I ran my bark on sh.o.r.e at one of their landing places, which was a sort of neck or little dock, from which ascended a sloping path or road up to the edge of the meadow, where their nests were; most of them were deserted, and the great thick whitish eggsh.e.l.ls lay broken and scattered upon the ground.

6. Accordingly I got everything on board, charged my gun, set sail cautiously, along sh.o.r.e. As I pa.s.sed by Battle Lagoon, I began to tremble.

7. I seized my gun, and went cautiously from my camp: when I had advanced about thirty yards, I halted behind a coppice of orange trees, and soon perceived two very large bears, which had made their way through the water and had landed in the grove, and were advancing toward me.

(_b_) Bring up sentences with five transitive and five intransitive verbs.

VOICE, ACTIVE AND Pa.s.sIVE.

[Sidenote: _Meaning of active voice._]

208. As has been seen, transitive verbs are the only kind that can express action so as to go over to an object. This implies three things,--the agent, or person or thing acting; the verb representing the action; the person or object receiving the act.

In the sentence, "We reached the village of Sorgues by dusk, and accepted the invitation of an old dame to lodge at her inn," these three things are found: the actor, or agent, is expressed by _we_; the action is a.s.serted by _reached_ and _accepted_; the things acted upon are _village_ and _invitation_. Here the subject is represented as doing something. The same word is the subject and the agent. This use of a transitive verb is called the active voice.

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

209. The active voice is that form of a verb which represents the subject as acting; or

The active voice is that form of a transitive verb which makes the _subject_ and the _agent_ the same word.

[Sidenote: _A question._]

210. Intransitive verbs are _always active voice_. Let the student explain why.

[Sidenote: _Meaning of pa.s.sive voice._]

211. In the a.s.sertion of an action, it would be natural to suppose, that, instead of always representing the subject as acting upon some person or thing, it must often happen that the subject is spoken of as _acted upon_; and the person or thing acting may or may not be expressed in the sentence: for example,--

All infractions of love and equity in our social relations are speedily punished. They are punished by fear.--EMERSON.

Here the subject _infractions_ does nothing: it represents the object toward which the action of _are punished_ is directed, yet it is the subject of the same verb. In the first sentence the agent is not expressed; in the second, _fear_ is the agent of the same action.

So that in this case, instead of having the agent and subject the same word, we have the _object_ and _subject_ the same word, and the agent may be omitted from the statement of the action.

_Pa.s.sive_ is from the Latin word _patior_, meaning _to endure_ or _suffer_; but in ordinary grammatical use _pa.s.sive_ means _receiving an action_.

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

212. The pa.s.sive voice is that form of the verb which represents the subject as being acted upon; or--

The pa.s.sive voice is that form of the verb which represents the _subject_ and the _object_ by the same word.

Exercises.

(_a_) Pick out the verbs in the active and the pa.s.sive voice:--

1. In the large room some forty or fifty students were walking about while the parties were preparing.

2. This was done by taking off the coat and vest and binding a great thick leather garment on, which reached to the knees.

3. They then put on a leather glove reaching nearly to the shoulder, tied a thick cravat around the throat, and drew on a cap with a large visor.

4. This done, they were walked about the room a short time; their faces all this time betrayed considerable anxiety.

5. We joined the crowd, and used our lungs as well as any.

6. The lakes were soon covered with merry skaters, and every afternoon the banks were crowded with spectators.