VERAZZA'NO, GIOVANNI DA, 1480-1527; b. Italy; of a noble family; In the ser vice of Francis I. of France sailed on a voyage of discovery to North America in 1524. He went by way of Madeira, in command of the frigate Dauphin, and after weathering a groat storm reached the c. codst of North America, and sailed along it from the 84th degree of latitude to Newfoundland. Ile discovered the continent at cape Fear or New 'Jersey, and is supposed to have discovered New York bay. The genuineness of a letter to Francis I., giving an account of his discoveries, has been questioned. He is said to have been put to death iu Spain for piracy.
VERB (Lat. verbum, a word), the name given in grammar to that part of speech (see PARTS OF St'KEcu) which predicates or affirms. See SENTENCE. As the very end of speaking Is to assert or affirm something with a view to being believed or disbelieved, the part of speech which performs this office is, as it were, the soul of the sentence, and ' is called " the word," or verb, par excellence. Verbs affirm either some action or some state; as, "John reads;" "the sun shines;" "the book lies on the table." When the nature of the action requires an object to complete the sense, the verb is called transitive, because the action passes over (Lat. transit) to an object; as, " the child strikes Use dog." Some verbs complete the conception of the action in themselves, and require no com plement; as, " the child sleeps," bird flies." These are called intransitive. A dis tinction is attempted to be made between intransitive verbs expressing action (as flies, moves), and verbs expressing merely a state (as sleeps, lies), the latter being called neuter verbs. But it is often impossible to draw the line where activity ends and neutrality begins. Even in such a verb as sleeps, it is implied that the sleeper shows certain out ward manifestations that make an impression, or act, on the beholder; when we affirm that an object stands, lies, or even only exists, or is. we in fact affirm that it "acts," in this sense. All verbs, then, agree in affirming action.
Nor can any exact or permanent division be made of verbs into transitive and intran sitive. We can say whether a given verb in a particular sentence is used transitively or intransitively; but not that it is absolutely, and in itself, transitive or intransitive. It would be difficult, perhaps, to find a verb that cannot be shown to be both the one and the other. "The child sees the candle" is unquestionably an instance of a transitive verb; in, "the newborn child sees, but the puppy is blind," the same verb is unques tionably intransitive. A verb used transitively has reference to particular acts; when the action is to be generalized, all specification of an object is dropped, and the verb becomes intransitive. Ex., "men build houses" (trans.); "men build, and time pulls down" (intraus.).
Intransitive verbs generally express a kind of action that we think of, at least, as composed of a number of parts, all like each other; as, he walks, runs. Now, with
regard to the particular parts, we generally find that the same verb takes an object after it; as, " he walks a step, a mile, a long way;" " John played a stroke, a piece, a game; " he did not sleep a wink" (sleep being a prolonged winking). That any intransitive verb can take its cognate noun as an object, is a received doctrine. Ex "he ran a race;" " they died an easy death." There are two classes of transitive and intransitive verbs, related to each other, in the following way: Intransitive. Transitive.
he sits. he sets (causes to sit).
" lies. " lays ( " " lie).
" falls. " fells ( le fall).
" rises. • " raises ( " " rise).
" sticks. " soaks ( " " suck).
" drinks. " drenches ( " " drink).
" dives. " clips ( " " dive).
Those in the second column are called causative verbs. In the ancient forms of our language there were many more such causative verbs, formed from root-verbs by a oliange, generally of the vowel. In Hebrew every verb is capable of assuming the causative form. 'Modern English does not stand much on forms, but employs almost any verb in a causative sense without change of any kind. Thus, " The horse walked" —"the groom walked the horse;" the wood raftsmen floated the wood down the stream." Passive Form, or Voice, of of "Caesar defeated Pompey," we may say, " Pompey was defeated by Omar." In the former, the verb is in the active voice; in the latter, in the passive voice. In using the passive voice, the thing or person acted upon Is made the subject of the sentence, and has the chief attention directed thereto; with the active voice, the doer and his action arc more prominent. Of course it is only transitive verbs that can thus have a passive voice.
One class of intransitive verbs become transitive by the addition of one of the class of words called prepositions; as, to; upon. Some verbs already transitive take prepositions simply to modify the sense: as, up, down. In such cases, the vet and preposition are to be considered as forming one sompound verb, and might be ritten with a hyphen—speak-to, break-down. With the addition of a preposition, what was an intransitive verb becomes capable of being used in the passive voice. Thus, "the king spoke to the duke about it"—" the duke was spoken to about it by the king." "Robbers fell upon him"—" lie was fallen upon by robbers." Not, however, in all cases. For, " the Thames runs into the sea," we could not say, " the sea is run into by the Thames." And yet, with this same verb, we can say, "the mail-train was run into by the express." The distinction seems to be that when we think of the object as sensibly affected by the action, and wish to call the chief attention to the effect so produced, the object may become the subject, and the verb be passive.