The principles of Latin grammar; comprising the ... - Essan.org

84 THE VEKB. § 38Obs. 2. The verbs that express being simply, in Latin, aresum, fio, existo, signifying, in general, " to be," or " exist."The state of being expressed by intransitive verbs may be astate of rest, as dormio, " I sleep ;" or of motion, as cado, " Ifall;" or of action, as curro, " I run."Obs. 3. The action expressed by an intransitive verb doesnot, like the action expressed by a transitive verb, pass overfrom the agent or actor to an object. It has no immediaterelation to any thing beyond its subject, which it represents ina certain state or condition, and nothing more ;and hencethey may always be distinguished thus :—A transitive verbalways requires an object to complete the sense; as, amo te," I love thee;"—the intransitive verb does not, but the sense iscomplete without such an object ; as, sedeo, "I sit ;" curro, "I run."Obs. 4. Many verbs considered intransitive in Latin, aretranslated by verbs considered transitive in English; as,placeo," I please ;" obedio, " I obey ;" credo, " I believe ;" &c.Obs. 5. Many verbs are used sometimes in a transitive, andsometimes in an intransitive sense. Such are /agio, inclino,timeo, &c. ; as,fuge dextrum littus (tr.), "avoid the right handshore;" tempus fug it (intr.), "time flies;" timeo Danaos (tr.),"I dread the Greeks;" timeo (intr.), "I am afraid."—In some,ine transitive and intransitive are distinguished by a differencein form and conjugation ;thus, jaeio, jaceo; pen do, pendeo; albo,albeo; fugo, fugio; placoq placeo; sedo, sedeo; &c.Obs. 6.Verbs usually intransitive assume a transitive sense,when a word of signification similar to that of the verb itselfis introduced as its object ; as, vivere viiani, " to live a life;"jurare jusjurandum, "to swear an oath."Obs. 7. When we wish to direct the attention, not so muchto any particular act of the subject of discourse, as to the employmentor state of that subject, the object of the act—notbeing important—is omitted, and the transitive verb assumesthe character of an intransitive ;thus, in the sentence, pnerlegit, " the boy reads," nothing more is indicated than thepresent state or employment of puer, "the boy," and the verbhas obviously an intransitive sense : still, an object is necessarilyimplied, as he who reads must read something. Butwhen we s&y puer legit Ilomerum, "the boy reads Homer,"the attention is directed to a particular act, terminating on acertain object, " Homerum" and the verb has its propertransitive sense.