An English Grammar Part 53

(1) _Part of the verb_, making the definite tenses.

(2) _Pure participles_, which express action, but do not a.s.sert.

(3) _Participial adjectives_, which express action and also modify.

(4) _Pure adjectives_, which have lost all verbal force.

(5) _Gerunds_, which express action, may govern and be governed.

(6) _Verbal nouns,_ which name an action or state, but cannot govern.

Exercise.

Tell to which of the above six cla.s.ses each _-ing_ word in the following sentences belongs:--

1. Here is need of apologies for shortcomings.

2. Then how pleasing is it, on your leaving the spot, to see the returning hope of the parents, when, after examining the nest, they find the nurslings untouched!

3. The crowning incident of my life was upon the bank of the Scioto Salt Creek, in which I had been unhorsed by the breaking of the saddle girths.

4. What a vast, brilliant, and wonderful store of learning!

5. He is one of the most charming masters of our language.

6. In explaining to a child the phenomena of nature, you must, by object lessons, give reality to your teaching.

7. I suppose I was dreaming about it. What is dreaming?

8. It is years since I heard the laughter ringing.

9. Intellect is not speaking and logicizing: it is seeing and ascertaining.

10. We now draw toward the end of that great martial drama which we have been briefly contemplating.

11. The second cause of failure was the burning of Moscow.

12. He spread his blessings all over the land.

13. The only means of ascending was by my hands.

14. A marble figure of Mary is stretched upon the tomb, round which is an iron railing, much corroded, bearing her national emblem.

15. The exertion left me in a state of languor and sinking.

16. Thackeray did not, like Sir Walter Scott, write twenty pages without stopping, but, dictating from his chair, he gave out sentence by sentence, slowly.

HOW TO Pa.r.s.e VERBS AND VERBALS.

I. VERBS.

275. In parsing verbs, give the following points:--

(1) Cla.s.s: (_a_) as to _form_,--strong or weak, giving princ.i.p.al parts; (_b_) as to _use_,--transitive or intransitive.

(2) Voice,--active or pa.s.sive.

(3) Mood,--indicative, subjunctive, or imperative.

(4) Tense,--which of the tenses given in Sec. 234.

(5) Person and number, in determining which you must tell--

(6) What the subject is, for the form of the verb may not show the person and number.

[Sidenote: _Caution._]

276. It has been intimated in Sec. 235, we must beware of the rule, "A verb agrees with its subject in person and number." Sometimes it does; usually it does not, if _agrees_ means that the verb changes its form for the different persons and numbers. The verb _be_ has more forms than other verbs, and may be said to _agree_ with its subject in several of its forms. But unless the verb is present, and ends in _-s_, or is an old or poetic form ending in _-st_ or _-eth_, it is best for the student not to state it as a general rule that "the verb agrees with its subject in person and number," but merely to _tell what the subject of the verb is_.

II. VERB PHRASES.

277. Verb phrases are made up of a princ.i.p.al verb followed by an infinitive, and should always be a.n.a.lyzed as phrases, and not taken as single verbs. Especially frequent are those made up of _should_, _would_, _may_, _might_, _can_, _could_, _must_, followed by a pure infinitive without _to_. Take these examples:--

1. Lee _should_ of himself _have replenished_ his stock.

2. The government _might have been_ strong and prosperous.

In such sentences as 1, call _should_ a weak verb, intransitive, therefore active; indicative, past tense; has for its subject _Lee_.

_Have replenished_ is a perfect active infinitive.

In 2, call _might_ a weak verb, intransitive, active, indicative (as it means could), past tense; has the subject _government_. _Have been_ is a perfect active infinitive.

For fuller parsing of the infinitive, see Sec. 278(2).

III. VERBALS.