3. The IMPERATIVE, the mode of command or demand: thus, go away! be silent! leave us, see him. 234. The indicative is the mode of ordinary use, and has the greatest variety of inflection for person and number. The subjunctive is gone almost wholly out of use in the pret erit tense; no verb except be has a preterit subjunctive different from the indicative thus, and even in the present tense, a difference, except in the same verb be, is found only in the second and third persons singular : thus, Hence the subjunctive, as a separate mode, is almost lost and out of mind in our language; in its place we put either the indicative, or some of the modal phrases, compound forms made with auxiliaries, which will be described later (279 etc.). The imperative has but a single form, which is used indifferently as singular and as plural. Its subject, thou, or you or ye, may be expressed, coming after the verb; but it is more usually omitted thus, go or go thou, go or go you or ye. 235. These are all the forms of inflection which the verb has in English. But there are certain derivative words, made from almost every verb in the language, which are so important, and so much used, and used in such ways, that they are always given along with the inflectional forms, as part of the conjugation of the verb, although they are not verbs at all, because they do not really assert anything; they are only nouns and adjectives. They are called INFINITIVES and PARTICIPLES. 236. The INFINITIVE is a verbal noun, expressing in noun-form the action or condition which the verb asserts. The PARTICIPLE is in like manner a verbal adjective. which may then, like any other noun expressing an action, be made the subject or object of a verb: thus, giving is better than receiving; to give is better than to receive; he likes giving ; he likes to give. And the person who gives is described as a giving person, and what he gives is a given thing. The same person may be described as a giver, and what he gives as a gift; and these words giver and gift are likewise derivatives from give, just as giving and given are; and words like giver are made from a very large part of the verbs of our language. But, besides that the infinitives and participles are formed from every verb in the language almost without exception, for certain regular and definable uses, they also have uses which are peculiar, like those which verbs have, and different from those of any other nouns and adjectives. They take the same adjuncts or limiting words that the verbs from which they come take; they are followed by objects, direct and indirect; and the infinitives are qualified by adverbs. Thus, as we say I give him gladly my forgiveness (where forgiveness is the direct and him the indirect object of give, and gladly is an adverb qualifying it), so we also say and to give him willingly my forgiveness, giving him willingly my forgiveness; while, if we used an ordinary noun, like giver or gift, we should have to say, for example, a gift to him, with willingness, of my forgiveness. 237. There are two infinitives. unlimited, indefinite,' be Infinitive means something like cause the general idea of action or condition in these words is not limited to a particular number or person, as in the ordinary verbal forms. One is the same with the root (87) of the verb, or the simplest verbal form (the same with the imperative, and, except in be, with the first person present): thus, go, see, walk, love, give. It often has the preposition to put before it as its SIGN: thus, to go, to see, to walk, to love, to give. The rules as to the presence or absence of the sign to will be given in another place (see 440–1). The other infinitive is made by the ending ing: thus, going, seeing, walking, loving, giving. The first is called simply the INFINITIVE, or the ROOTINFINITIVE; the second is known as the INFINITIVE IN ing, or as the PARTICIPIAL INFINITIVE (because it always has the same form as the present participle). The infinitive in ing is by some called the "gerund." 238. There are also two participles. Participle means 'participating, sharing,' because these words, while really adjectives, share also in the character of verbs. One ends in ing, and is called the PRESENT PARTICIPLE, because it more often denotes present action: thus, going, seeing, walking, loving, giving. The other has a variety of endingsd, or t, or n, or none at all and is called the PAST PARTICIPLE, or the PASSIVE PARTICIPLE, because it usually belongs to past time, or denotes completed action, or condition as the result of suffering or enduring (passive means 'enduring') the action expressed by the verb thus, gone, seen, walked, loved, taught, given. A person gone is one who has already performed the act of going; anything seen or given either is undergoing or has undergone the act of seeing or giving, as performed by some one : we can say, some one saw it, or gave it — and so on. CONJUGATIONS. 239. If we start from the simplest form of the verb, the base of verbal inflection or the verbal root (87), there are in English (as in the other languages most nearly related with English) two principal ways of making from it the preterit tense and the past participle. And, according as they follow the one or the other of these ways, English verbs are divided into two great classes, which are called CONJUGATIONS, because unlike one another in their mode of inflection or conjugation. 240. The one class or conjugation regularly forms its preterit and participle, both alike, by the addition of ed or d to the root of the verb: thus, love, loved, loved; wish, wished, wished. This is called the NEW conjugation (also often the WEAK, or sometimes the REGULAR conjugation). The other class regularly forms its preterit by a change in the vowel of the root, without any added ending, and its participle by adding en or n; and the vowel of the participle is either the same with that of the root, or the same with that of the preterit, or else different from both: thus, give, gave, given; bite, bit, bitten ; fly, flew, flown. This is called the OLD conjugation (also the STRONG, or the IRREGULAR conjugation). |