VERAZZANO, va'rft-tsiVntf. See VERRAZ.tNO.
VERB (Lat. rerbum, word; connected with Lith. icardas, name, OPruss. wirds, word, 01r.
for, says, Goth. 011G. wort, Ger. Wort, AS., Eng. word). In grammar, a word denoting an assertion or .declaration. Of the eight so called parts of speech (see GRAMMAR), the verb is one of the four primitive ones• the others being the noun (q.v.). the pronoun (q.v.). and the interjection (q.v.). In most languages, especially in those of the Indo-Germanic and Semitic groups. the verb is sharply distin guished from the noun not only by its func tion, but by its inflection (q.v.). On the other band, the verb possesses certain affinities with the noun and the adjective, particularly in the infinitives and partieiples, which are nouns and adjectives respectively in form. but verbs in force. Furthermore, in many languages, as in ancient Egyptian and the Vet of the Mande Negro group, there is no distinction in inflection between the noun and the verb. as Egyptian meh-a, fill:' mrh-ten. 'ye fill:' Deena, 'my house;' per-ten. 'your house;' i-ro, 'thou sagest;' inure, 'we say;' 1-fa, `thy father;' in fr , our father' Certain remnants of this iden tity seem to survive even in Indo-Germanic., as Latin (mamba. 'he ye loved.' a participle (com pare the Greek passive participle in -Aavos and the Sanskrit in -mana). and the occasional occurrence even in Latin of a direct object of a noun. as the Plantine quid tihi Banc faetiost, `why do you touch her?' In the American In dian languages the verb tends to absorb within itself the objects and the pronouns, as in the Tarasean Impfplii, 'to wash hopo-ku-ni, 'to wash the !midst' hopo-ndu-ni, 'to wash the feet ;' hopo-nyari-ni, 'to wash the face.' Fhe verb is normally inflected for mood, tense, voice, person, and number, and in some language-groups, as in Semitie, for gender. The number of all these
categories may vary greatly in different lan guages, and numerous sub-conjugations, as causative, reflective, negative, and passive, are also found. In English, as in the other languages of the Indo-Gormanie group, verbs are conventionally divided into transitive and in transitive, the former class requiring an object, and the verbal force of the latter being complete in itself. The mood of a,verb denotes the de gree of certainty of its action, while the tense expresses the time of action. If a verb forms its tenses aeeording to one of the usual systems in a language, it is said to be regular, as in English lore, lured, but otherwise it is called irregular, as mcim, summ. A verb is said to be active, passive, or middle (reflexive, de ponent) in voice if the subject is an actor, or is the recipient of an action by another, or performs an act whieh affects himself. Person denotes whether the subject is the person or per sons speaking, or spoken to, or spoken of, and number shows whether the subject is one, or more than one. Auxiliary verbs are those which are necessary to complete the meaning of other verbs, especially in the formation of periphrastic tenses and moods, and impersonal verbs are those which, apparently at least, have no subject.
Consult: Fr. Mtiller, Grandriss der Sprf/ch wissensehaft, vol. i., part i. (Vienna, 187(i) ; Von der Gabelentz, Spraehirissensehaf t (2d ed., Leip zig, 1901) ; Brugmann, l'ergleicheade Gram matik der indogermanisehen Spraehen, von. ii. (Strassburg, ISS9-92,) ; Delbriiek, Fergiciehende Syntax der indogermanisehen Spraehen, vol. ii. (lb_ 1897) ; Sigwart, Imprrsonalicn (Freiburg ins Breisgau, 1888) ; Vergleiehende Grammatik der sonitisehen Sprachcn (Berlin, 1S97).