c. Remain, continue, stay, and the like: thus,

John remained silent; he continues grateful.

d. Seem, appear, look, and the like: thus,

she seems a goddess;

it looks terrible.

e. Sound, smell, feel, and the like thus,

we feel outraged ; it smells sweet.

f. Verbs of condition and motion, like stand, sit, go, move, and so on thus,

the door stands open;
he will go mad;

they sat mute;

my blood runs cold.

g. The passives of verbs which take an objective predicate (below, 369): thus,

he was made angry;

they are called cannibals.

354. The predicate use of the adjective shades off into an adverbial construction, and the two are not always to be readily or clearly distinguished from each other. Their distinction depends on the degree to which the added word is intended to qualify the subject on the one hand, or the action of the verb itself on the other. Thus, we may say,

when we mean 'feel ourselves to be warm,' 'buried so as to be deep'; or we may say

we feel warmly,

it is buried deeply,

when we mean that the feeling is a warm one, that the burying was a deep one. And in

he looks well,

we understand well to be predicate adjective when the sense is 'he looks in good health, he appears as if he were well'; but adverb if the sense is 'he is good-looking.' But in

he sits next,

next may be understood in either way without any important difference. Again, we say of a fruit,

it looks ripe, it feels ripe, it smells ripe, it tastes ripe; because the meaning is that in these various ways we judge it actually to be ripe. And well-established usage allows us to say

the girl looks pretty; the rose smells sweet; the wine tastes sour; although in each case the adverb, prettily and so on, would in strict theory be better.

355. With the verbs of condition and motion (353 f), especially, the qualifying force of the predicate adjective is very often really distributed between the subject and the verb. Thus, in he stands firm,

we mean not only that he is firm in his standing, but also that the standing itself is firm. So also in

the sun shines bright;

the messenger comes running; the tone rings clear and full.

An adjective thus used may be distinguished as an ADVERBIAL

PREDICATE.

The predicate adjective, especially the adverbial predicate, shades off into the appositive adjective (376).

Yet another kind of predicate adjective or noun, an objective or factitive predicate, will be described farther on (369).

356. A word in the predicate (except a predicate possessive, 388) ought, since it qualifies the subject, to be in the same case with it; and this rule is generally observed in English — that is to say, in the pronouns, the only words which distinguish nominative and objective. Thus, we say

and so on.

it is ; it was we; if it were she;

Careless and inaccurate speakers, however, often use

such expressions as

it is them; it was us; if it were her;

and in the case of

it is me,

the practice has become so common that it is even regarded as good English by respectable authorities.

357. We have, then, the definition and rule :

IV. A predicate adjective or noun is one which is brought by a verb into relation with its subject, as qualifying or describing the subject.

V. A predicate (pronoun) agrees regularly in case with the subject which it qualifies.

[See Exercise XIV., at the end of the chapter.]

OBJECT OF THE VERB.

358. A very much larger class of verbs than those spoken of above are seldom used alone with a subject to form a sentence, on account of being incomplete in another way-namely, as they call for the addition of a word to express some person or thing on which the action they signify is exerted.

Thus, for example,

I fold...;

she tells...; the man clutches...;

where we expect an addition telling what is folded, or told, or clutched, and the sense is made complete in some such way as this:

I fold the paper;

she tells a story;

the man clutches the rope.

Such an added word is always a name of something, a noun (or else a pronoun or other equivalent of a noun); and it is called the OBJECT of the verb (71), because it signifies that at which the action of the verb is directed, that which receives or endures or suffers the effect of the action, of whatever kind it may be.

The verb which takes such an object to complete its meaning is called a TRANSITIVE verb, (223), because its action, instead of being merely asserted of the subject, 'passes over' and affects another noun, the object.

359. When we use a pronoun in this way thus,

the case in which the object is put is the objective: indeed, this case is so named as being especially that belonging to the object of the verb.

Hence, as we have already seen (74), we say that a transitive verb governs the objective case, or governs a noun in that case : that is, its object is compelled or required to be of that case.

360. But verbs which can take an object in the way here described, and which are therefore ordinarily called transitive, may in English, almost without exception, be used without any expressed object, or INTRANSITIVELY. In that case, they signify simply the doing of the action, without taking any account of whom or what it is done to. For example:

I love,

he strikes,

they see, you speak.

361. On the other hand, there are verbs which do not properly take after them such an object: thus, for example,

sit, fall, run, lie.

We may sit on something, fall from somewhere, run over some one, and so on; but we do not sit any one or anything. Such verbs are called INTRANSITIVES.

They are also sometimes called neuter; but this is a term belonging to the division into active, passive, and neuter; and in English we have no passive verbs, but only passive verb-phrases (297 etc.): all our verbs are active," and therefore no one of them needs to be defined as such.

362. But even some intransitive verbs take an object in certain peculiar constructions.

Thus :

a. An object expressing in noun-form the action, or a variety of the action, signified by the verb itself: as,

he has lived a long life;

they ran their race;

I slept a deep sleep;

you will dance a jig;

let us die the death of the righteous.

This is called a COGNATE object: that is, one 'allied' or 'related' in meaning to the verb itself.

b. An object along with a "factitive predicate," the verb being taken in the sense (see below, 370) of producing a certain effect by the action which it expresses: as,

he walked himself weary;

they yawned their jaws out of joint.

c. An indefinite or impersonal object it (163 b), in such phrases as

they frolic

along;

she coquettes it with every fellow she sees.

d. Occasionally, a reflexive (306) object: as,

stand thee close, then.

she went and sat her down over against him; As for certain apparent objects which are not really so, see below, 390. 363. The kind of object which we have thus far considered is also called a DIRECT object, because its relation to the "governing" verb is so close and immediate as not to admit the help of any auxiliary word, as a preposition, to define it.

364. But some verbs take, along with such a direct object, another of a different character, in a relation which we more usually express by to or for: for example, he gave me the book;

I made him a coat;

they paid the man his wages;

we forgive our friends their faults.

In the first sentence, me points out to whom the action of giving the book was done; in the second, him shows for whom the action of making the coat was performed; and

so on.

This appears clearly enough when we change the place of the words in question, putting them after the direct object. Then we are obliged to use prepositions, saying

I made a coat for him.

he gave the book to me; 365. Such a second object, then, is called an INDIRECT object, because it represents what is less directly affected by the action of the verb, and because the same relation may be, and often is, expressed by prepositions — namely, by to, or, more rarely, by for.

One common verb, ask, takes a second or indirect object in a relation usually expressed by of: thus,

but

I asked him his name;

I asked a favor of him;

and a like construction is now and then met with, irregularly, in the case of other verbs.

366. The indirect object, like the direct, is put in the objective case. But the objective in this use is to be