HOW TO PARSE VERBS AND VERBALS.
I. VERBS.
275. In parsing verbs, give the following points:—
(1) Class: (a) as to form,—strong or weak, giving principal parts; (b) as to use,—transitive or intransitive.
(2) Voice,—active or passive.
(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.
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 principal verb followed by an infinitive, and should always be analyzed 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.
278. (1) Participle. Tell (a) from what verb it is derived; (b) whether active or passive, imperfect, perfect, etc.; (c) to what word it belongs. If a participial adjective, give points (a) and (b), then parse it as an adjective.
(2) Infinitive. Tell (a) from what verb it is derived; (b) whether indefinite, perfect, definite, etc.
(3) Gerund. (a) From what verb derived; (b) its use (Sec. 273).
Exercise.
Parse the verbs, verbals, and verb phrases in the following sentences:—
1. Byron builds a structure that repeats certain elements in nature or humanity.
2. The birds were singing as if there were no aching hearts, no sin nor sorrow, in the world.
3. Let it rise! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit.
4. You are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance.
5. Read this Declaration at the head of the army.
6.
Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing,Down all the line, a deafening shout, "God save our Lord the King!"
7. When he arose in the morning, he thought only of her, and wondered if she were yet awake.
8. He had lost the quiet of his thoughts, and his agitated soul reflected only broken and distorted images of things.
9.
So, lest I be inclinedTo render ill for ill,Henceforth in me instill,O God, a sweet good will.
10. The sun appears to beat in vain at the casements.
11. Margaret had come into the workshop with her sewing, as usual.
12.
Two things there are with memory will abide—Whatever else befall—while life flows by.
13. To the child it was not permitted to look beyond into the hazy lines that bounded his oasis of flowers.
14. With them, morning is not a new issuing of light, a new bursting forth of the sun; a new waking up of all that has life, from a sort of temporary death.
15. Whatever ground you sow or plant, see that it is in good condition.
16. However that be, it is certain that he had grown to delight in nothing else than this conversation.
17. The soul having been often born, or, as the Hindoos say, "traveling the path of existence through thousands of births," there is nothing of which she has not gained knowledge.
18. The ancients called it ecstasy or absence,—a getting-out of their bodies to think.
19. Such a boy could not whistle or dance.
20. He had rather stand charged with the imbecility of skepticism than with untruth.
21. He can behold with serenity the yawning gulf between the ambition of man and his power of performance.
22. He passed across the room to the washstand, leaving me upon the bed, where I afterward found he had replaced me on being awakened by hearing me leap frantically up and down on the floor.
23. In going for water, he seemed to be traveling over a desert plain to some far-off spring.
24. Hasheesh always brings an awakening of perception which magnifies the smallest sensation.
25. I have always talked to him as I would to a friend.
26. Over them multitudes of rosy children came leaping to throw garlands on my victorious road.
27. Oh, had we some bright little isle of our own!
28.
Better it were, thou sayest, to consent;Feast while we may, and live ere life be spent.
29. And now wend we to yonder fountain, for the hour of rest is at hand.
