A redundant verb is a verb that forms the preterit or the perfect participle in two or more ways, and so as to be both regular and irregular; as, thrive, thrived or throve, thriving, thrived or thriven. Of this class of verbs, there are about ninety-five, beside sundry derivatives and compounds. OBS. 1.-Those irregular verbs which have more than one form for the preterit or for the perfect participle, are in some sense redundant; but, as there no occasion to make a distinct class of such as have double forms that are never regular, these redundancies are either included in the preceding list of the simple irregular verbs, or omitted as being improper to be now recognized for good English. A few old preterits or participles may perhaps be account ed good English in the solemn style, which are not so in the familiar: as, "And none spake a word unto him.”—Job, ii, 13. "When I brake the five loaves."-Mark, viii, 19. "Serve me till I have eaten and drunken."-Luke, xvii, 8. "It was not possible that he should be holden of it."—Acts, ii, 24. "Thou castedst them down into destruction."-Psalms, lxxiii, 18. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity.”—Ib., li, 5. "A meat-offering baken in the oven." -Leviticus, ii, 4. "With casted slough, and fresh celerity."-Shakspeare. OBS. 2.-The list which is given below, (one that originated with G. B., and was prepared with great care,) exhibits the redundant verbs as they are now generally used, or as they may be used without grammatical impropriety. If the reader would see authorities for the forms admitted, he may find a great number cited in Brown's largest Grammar. No words are inserted in the following table, but such as some modern authors countenance. A word is not necessarily ungrammatical by reason of having a rival form that is more common; nor is every thing to be repudiated which some few grammarians condemn. OBS. 3.-This school grammar, as now revised by the author in 1854, exhibits the several classes of verbs in the same manner as does the Grammar of English Grammars, which was first published in 1851. All former lists of our irregular and redundant verbs are, in many respects, defective and "Writ and wrote were formerly often used as participles, and writ also as a pre terit, but they are now generally discontinued by good writers."- Worcester's Dict. erroneous; nor is it claimed for those which are here presented, that they are absolutely perfect. I trust, however, they are much nearer to perfection, than are any earlier ones. Among the many individuals who have published schemes of these verbs, none have been more respected and followed than Lowth, Murray, and Crombie; yet are these authors' lists severally faulty in respect to as many as sixty or seventy of the words in question, though the whole number but little exceeds two hundred, and is commonly reckoned less than one hundred and eighty. OBS. 4.-The grammatical points to be settled or taught by these tables, are very many. They are more numerous than all the preterits and perfect participles which the lists exhibit; because the mere absence therefrom of any form of preterit or perfect participle implies its condemnation, and the omission from both, of any entire verb, suggests that it is always regular. A defective verb is a verb that forms no participles, and is used in but few of the moods and tenses; as, beware, ought, quoth. OBS.-When any of the principal parts of a verb are wanting, the tenses asually derived from those parts are also, of course, wanting. All the auxiliaries, except do, be, and have, are defective; but, as auxiliaries, they become parts of other verbs, and do not need the parts which are technically said to be "wanting." The following brief catalogue contains all our defective verbs, except methinks, with its preterit methought, which is not only defect ive, but impersonal, irregular, and deservedly obsolescent. OBS. 1.-Beware is not used in the indicative present. Must is never varied in termination. Ought is invariable, except in the solemn style, where we find oughtest. Will is sometimes used as a principal verb, and as such is regular and complete. Quoth used only in ludicrous language, and is not varied. It seems to be properly the third person singular of the present; for it ends in th, and quod was formerly used as the preterit: as, "Yea, so sayst thou, (quod Tröylus,) alas !"-Chaucer. OBS. 2.-Wis, preterit wist, to know, to think, to suppose, to imagine, appears to be now nearly or quite obsolete; but it seems proper to explain it, because it is found in the Bible: as, "I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest."—Acts, xxiii, 5. “He himself 'wist not that his face shone."" -Life of Schiller, p. iv. Wit, to know, and wot, knew, are also obsolete except in the phrase to wit; which, being taken abstractly, is equivalent to the adverb namely, or to the phrase, that is to say. OBS. 3.-Some verbs from the nature of the subject to which they refer, can be used only in the third person singular; as, It rains; it snows; it freezes; it hails, it lightens; it thunders. These have been called impersonal verbs. The neuter pronoun it, which is always used before them, does not seem to represent any noun, but, in connexion with the verb, merely to ex press a state of things. CHAPTER VII.-OF PARTICIPLES. A Participle is a word derived from a verb, partici ating the properties of a verb, and of an adjective or a houn; and is generally formed by adding ing, d, or ed to the verb: thus, from the verb rule, are formed three participles, two simple and one compound; as, 1. ruling, 2. ruled, 3. having ruled OBS. 1.-Almost all verbs and participles seem to have their very essence in motion, or the privation of motion-in acting, or ceasing to act. And to all motion and rest, time and place are necessary concomitants; nor are the ideas of degree and manner often irrelevant. Hence the use of tenses and of ad verbs. For whatsoever comes to pass, must come to pass sometime and somewhere; and, in every event, something must be affected somewhat and somehow. Hence it is evident that those grammarians are right, who say, that "all participles imply time." But it does not follow that the English participles divide time, like the tenses of a verb, and specify the period of action; on the contrary, it is certain and manifest that they do not. The phrase, men labouring," conveys no other idea than that of labourers at work; it no more suggests the time, than the place, degree, or manner of their work. All these circumstances require other words to express them; as, "Men now here awkwardly labouring much to little purpose.' 66 OBS. 2.-Participles retain the essential meaning of their verbs; and, like verbs, are either active-transitive, active-intransitive, passive, or neuter, in their signification. For this reason, many have classed them with the verbs. But their formal meaning is obviously different. They convey no affirmation, but usually relate to nouns or pronouns, like adjectives, except when they are joined with auxiliaries to form the compound tenses; or when they have in part the nature of substantives, like the Latin gerunds. Hence some have injudiciously ranked them with the adjectives. We have assigned them a separate place among the parts of speech, because experience has shown that it is expedient to do so. OBS. 3.-The English participles are all derived from the roots of their respective verbs, and do not, like those of some other languages, take their names from the tenses. They are reckoned among the principal parts in the conjugation of their verbs, and many of the tenses are formed from them. In the compound forms of conjugation, they are found alike in all the tenses. They do not therefore, of themselves, express any particular time; but they denote the state of the being, action, or passion, in regard to its progress or completion. [See remarks on the Participles, in the Port-Royal Latin and Greek Grammars.] CLASSES. English verbs have severally three participles; which have been very variously denominated, perhaps the most accurately thus: the Imperfect, the Perfect, and the Preperfect. Or, as their order is undisputed, they may be conveniently called the First, the Second, and the Third. I. The Imperfect Participle is that which ends commonly in ing, and implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion; as, being, loving, seeing, writing-being loved, being seen, being writing. II. The Perfect Participle is that which ends commonly in ed or en, and implies a completion of the being, action, or passion; as, been, loved, seen, written. III. The Preperfect Participle is that which takes the sign having, and implies a previous completion of the being, action, or passion; as, having loved, having seen, having written-having been loved, having been writing, having been written. The First or Imperfect Participle, when simple, is always formed by adding ing to the radical verb; as look, looking: when compound, it is formed by prefixing being 159898 |