come adjectives? How may adjectives become nouns? Give illustrations. 4. What is meant by the comparison of the adjective? 5. Name the three degrees of comparison. 6. What two ways has the adjective of indicating comparison? 7. Give some illustrations of irregular comparison. 8. What is meant by the term predicate adjective? By objective complement? Give illustrations. 9. In some passage of literature find five examples of prepositional adjective phrases, and the same number of relative adjective clauses. IO. Name the definite and the indefinite articles. II. State the conditions under which the two forms of the indefinite article are used. 12. State the rule for the use of the article with two or more nouns referring to the same person or thing and to different persons or things. Give sentences in illustration. The Verb. 127. The Verb.-It is the function of the verb in the sentence to make a statement with respect to the person or object named by the noun or pronoun. The verb may express action with respect to the noun or pronoun, as in the sentence, The citizens elected him mayor; or it may express merely the state of being of the person or object named by the noun or pronoun, as in the sentence, He is the mayor. We therefore define the verb as follows: The Verb is a word, or, in the case of the verb-phrase, a wordgroup, which asserts action or state of being with respect to some noun or pronoun. EXERCISE. Review 10-16, and pick out all the verbs in the exercises given under 23 and 96. 128. Classification of the Verb.-Verbs are classified with respect to the way in which they make assertions as Transitive, Intransitive, and Copulative Verbs. 129. Transitive Verbs.-A transitive verb is one in which the assertion of the verb passes over from one person or thing, the grammatical subject, from which or whom the action proceeds, to another person or thing, the grammatical object, which is directly affected by the action of the verb. Every sentence which contains an object must contain a transitive verb. EXAMPLES OF TRANSITIVE VERBS: (1) John struck James. (2) The hunter shot the squirrel. (3) Charles whistled a tune. (4) I found the book which you lost. (5) I have met your brother. (6) Have you seen my hat? (7) I heard that you were ill. 130. Intransitive Verbs.-An intransitive verb is one in which the action of the verb does not pass over from the subject causing the action to an object immediately affected by the action, but in which the action is completely expressed by the subject and predicate. Intransitive verbs, therefore, do not have objects. (1) The wind rose. EXAMPLES: (2) You have come in good season. (3) The rain fell in torrents. (4) The workmen struck for higher wages. (5) Why do you laugh? (6) We lay on the grass and talked. 131. Transitivity.-Some verbs which are transitive in one sentence may be intransitive in another. The verb write, in This child can't write, is intransitive, but in He wrote an essay, it is transitive. Whether a verb is transitive or intransitive can only be told from its use in the sentence. The following are only a few of the many 132. Cognate Object.-Some verbs which are usually intransitive become transitive when they are followed by an object of like meaning. This object is called the Cognate Object. It should be noted that ran in He ran a mile, talk in He talked two hours, etc., are not transitive verbs, and that mile and hours are not objects of ran and talked, but are adverbial modifiers of the verbs; see 206 (2). 133. Copulative Verbs.-Notice how the verbs in the following sentences make assertions with respect to their subjects: (1) That man is the mayor of the city. (2) The brothers were members of the same organization (3) He has been president for two years. (4) They remained trustees of the club. (5) The captain seemed a well-meaning person. In these sentences the verbs do not express positive action, not what the subject does, but rather what it is. They assert, therefore, a state of being rather than an action which passes over from a subject to an object. What these verbs do is simply to join two nouns into a sort of equation; they assert that the object named by the noun or pronoun which precedes the verb is the same as that which follows it. Thus we might replace the verbs merely by the sign of equality and get the same meaning: That man=the mayor of the city, or He-president for two years, etc. Since the chief use of these verbs is to unite words into this sort of equation, they are called Copulative Verbs, a word which means to couple or link together. The principal copulative verbs are am, is, are, was, were, been, seem, remain, become. The subjects of all verbs are in the nominative case; the object of a transitive verb is in the objective case; but the noun or pronoun which the copulative verb joins to the subject is in the Predicate Nominative Case. The forms of the personal pronoun which are used after the copula are therefore the nominative forms. (1) It is I. EXAMPLES: (2) That man on the last seat was he. (3) I thought it was she. (4) I should not have guessed that it was he. The copulative verb is not always followed by a predicate nominative, but it may assert state of being with respect only to a subject. EXAMPLES: (1) The apples were in the house. (2) Were you here yesterday? I was. Are these: It might have been. NOTE.-In colloquial speech It is me is often used and must be regarded as permissible, though not the most careful, use. But It is him and It is her are heard only in the speech of the very careless and the uneducated. 134. Predicate Adjective. When the copulative verb is followed by an adjective, as in He is sick, They were glad to see him, Your father seems well, the adjective is called a Predicate Adjective. The number of verbs which can be used thus as copulative verbs followed by predicate adjectives is much larger than the number of those which are followed by predicate nominatives. The following are a few of the more common: (1) He grew old rapidly. |