The English Language Part 89

The following couplet from Dryden's "Mac Flecnoe" exhibits a construction which requires explanation:--

An ancient fabric, raised to'inform the sight, There stood of yore, and Barbican _it hight_.

Here the word _hight_=_was called_, and seems to present an instance of the participle being used in a pa.s.sive sense without the so-called verb substantive. Yet it does no such thing. The word is no participle at all; but a simple preterite. Certain verbs are _naturally_ either pa.s.sive or active, as one of two allied meanings may predominate. _To be called_ is pa.s.sive; so is, _to be beaten_. But, _to bear as a name_ is active; so is, _to take a beating_. The word, _hight_, is of the same cla.s.s of verbs with the Latin _vapulo_; and it is the same as the Latin word, _cluo_.--_Barbican cluit_=_Barbican audivit_=_Barbican it hight_.

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CHAPTER XXIII.

ON THE AUXILIARY VERBS.

-- 578. The auxiliary verbs, in English, play a most important part in the syntax of the language. They may be cla.s.sified upon a variety of principles. The following, however, are all that need here be applied.

A. _Cla.s.sification of auxiliaries according to their inflectional or non-inflectional powers._--Inflectional auxiliaries are those that may either replace or be replaced by an inflection. Thus--_I am struck_=the Latin _ferior_, and the Greek [Greek: tuptomai]. These auxiliaries are in the same relation to verbs that prepositions are to nouns. The inflectional auxiliaries are,--

1. _Have_; equivalent to an inflection in the way of tense--_I have bitten=mo-mordi_.

2. _Shall_; ditto. _I shall call_=_voc-abo_.

3. _Will_; ditto. _I will call_=_voc-abo_.

4. _May_; equivalent to an inflection in the way of mood. _I am come that I may see_=_venio ut vid-eam_.

5. _Be_; equivalent to an inflection in the way of voice. _To be beaten_=_verberari_, [Greek: tuptesthai].

6. _Am, art, is, are_; ditto. Also equivalent to an inflection in the way of tense. _I am moving_=_move-o_.

7. _Was, were_; ditto, ditto. _I was beaten_=[Greek: e-tuphthen]. _I was moving_=_move-bam_.

_Do_, _can_, _must_, and _let_, are non-inflectional auxiliaries.

B. _Cla.s.sification of auxiliaries according to their non-auxiliary significations._--The power of the word _have_ in the combination of _I have a horse_ is clear enough. It means possession. The power of the same word in the combination _I have been_ is not so clear; nevertheless it is a power which has grown out of the idea of possession. This shows that {460} the power of a verb as an auxiliary may be a modification of its original power; _i. e._, of the power it has in non-auxiliary constructions.

Sometimes the difference is very little: the word _let_, in _let us go_, has its natural sense of permission unimpaired. Sometimes it is lost altogether. _Can_ and _may_ exist only as auxiliaries.

1. Auxiliary derived from the idea of possession--_have_.

2. Auxiliaries derived from the idea of existence--_be_, _is_, _was_.

3. Auxiliary derived from the idea of future destination, dependent upon circ.u.mstances external to the agent--_shall_. There are etymological reasons for believing that _shall_ is no present tense, but a perfect.

4. Auxiliary derived from the idea of future destination, dependent upon the volition of the agent--_will_. _Shall_ is simply predictive; _will_ is predictive and promissive as well.

5. Auxiliary derived from the idea of power, dependent upon circ.u.mstances external to the agent--_may_.

6. Auxiliary derived from the idea of power, dependent upon circ.u.mstances internal to the agent--_can_. _May_ is simply permissive; _can_ is potential. In respect to the idea of power residing in the agent being the cause which determines a contingent action, _can_ is in the same relation to _may_ as _will_ is to _shall_.

"_May_ et _can_, c.u.m eorum praeteritis imperfectis, _might_ et _could_, potentiam innuunt: c.u.m hoc tamen discrimine: _may_ et _might_ vel de jure vel saltem de rei possibilitate dic.u.n.tur, at _can_ et _could_ de viribus agentis."--WALLIS, p. 107.

7. Auxiliary derived from the idea of sufferance--_let_.

8. Auxiliary derived from the idea of necessity--_must_.

"_Must_ necessitatem innuit. Debeo, oportet, necesse est urere, _I must burn_. Aliquando sed rarius in praeterito dicitur _must_ (quasi ex _must'd_ seu _must't_ contractum). Sic, si de praeterito dicatur, _he must_ (seu _must't_) _be burnt_, oportebat uri seu necesse habuit ut ureretur."--WALLIS, 107.

9. Auxiliary derived from the idea of action--_do_.

C. _Cla.s.sification of auxiliary verbs in respect to their mode_ {461} _of construction._--Auxiliary verbs combine with others in three ways.

1. _With participles._--_a_) With the present, or active, participle--_I am speaking_: _b_) With the past, or pa.s.sive, participle--_I am beaten_, _I have beaten_.

2. _With infinitives._--_a_) With the objective infinitive--_I can speak_: _b_) With the gerundial infinitive--_I have to speak_.

3. _With both infinitives and participles._--_I shall have done, I mean to have done._

D. _Auxiliary verbs may be cla.s.sified according to their effect._--Thus--_have_ makes the combination in which it appears equivalent to a tense; _be_ to a pa.s.sive form; _may_ to a sign of mood, &c.

This sketch of the different lights under which auxiliary verbs may be viewed, has been written for the sake of ill.u.s.trating, rather than exhausting, the subject.

-- 579. The following is an exhibition of some of the _times_ in which an action may take place, as found in either the English or other languages, expressed by the use of either an inflection or a combination.

_Time considered in one point only_--

1. _Present._--An action taking place at the time of speaking, and incomplete.--_I am beating_, _I am being beaten_. _Not_ expressed, in English, by the simple present tense; since _I beat_ means _I am in the habit of beating_.

2. _Aorist._--An action that took place in past time, or previous to the time of speaking, and which has no connection with the time of speaking.--_I struck_, _I was stricken_. Expressed, in English, by the praeterite, in Greek by the aorist. The term aorist, from the Greek [Greek: a-oristos]=_undefined_, is a convenient name for this sort of time.

3. _Future._--An action that has neither taken place, nor is taking place at the time of speaking, but which is stated as one which _will_ take place.--Expressed, in English, by the combination of _will_ or _shall_ with an infinitive mood. In Latin and Greek by an inflection. _I shall_ (or _will_) _speak_, [Greek: lek-so], _dica-m_. {462}

None of these expressions imply more than a single action; in other words, they have no relation to any second action occurring simultaneously with them, before them, or after them.--_I am speaking now_, _I spoke yesterday_, _I shall speak to-morrow_. Of course, the act of mentioning them is not considered as an action related to them in the sense here meant.

By considering past, present, or future actions not only by themselves, but as related to other past, present, or future actions, we get fresh varieties of expression. Thus, an act may have been going on, when some other act, itself an act of past time, interrupted it. Here the action agrees with a present action, in being incomplete; but it differs from it in having been rendered incomplete by an action that has past. This is exactly the case with the--

4. _Imperfect._--_I was reading when he entered._ Here we have two acts; the act of _reading_ and the act of _entering_. Both are past as regards the time of speaking, but both are present as regards each other. This is expressed, in English, by the past tense of the verb substantive and the present participle, _I was speaking_; and in Latin and Greek by the imperfect tense, _dicebam_, [Greek: etupton].

5. _Perfect._--Action past, but connected with the present by its effects or consequences.--_I _have_ written, and here is the letter._ Expressed in English by the auxiliary verb _have_, followed by the _participle pa.s.sive in the accusative case and neuter gender of the singular number_. The Greek expresses this by the reduplicate perfect: [Greek: te-tupha]=_I have beaten._

6. _Pluperfect._--Action past, but connected with a second action, subsequent to it, _which is also past_.--_I _had_ written when he _came_ in._

7. _Future present._--Action future as regards the time of speaking, present as regards some future time.--_I shall _be speaking_ about this time to-morrow._

8. _Future praeterite._--Action future as regards the time of speaking, past as regards some future time.--_I shall _have spoken_ by this time to-morrow._ {463}

These are the chief expressions which are simply determined by the relations of actions to each other, and to the time of speaking, either in the English or any other language. But over and above the simple idea of _time_, there may be others superadded: thus, the phrase, I do _speak_ means, not only that _I am in the habit of speaking_, but that I also _insist_ upon it being understood that I am so.

Again, an action that is mentioned as either taking place, or as having taken place at a given time, may take place again and again. Hence the idea of _habit_ may arise out of the idea of either present time or aorist time.