But in what is usually denominated the active
voice of the verb, the English language has undifferentiated parts of
speech. An examination of the history of the verb _to be_ in the English
language exhibits the fact that it is coming more and more to be used as
the predicant; and what is usually called the common form of the active
voice is coming more and more to be limited in its use to special
significations.
The real active voice, indicative mode, present tense, first person,
singular number, of the verb to eat, is _am eating_. The expression
_I eat_, signifies _I am accustomed to eat_. So, if we consider the
common form of the active voice throughout its entire conjugation,
we discover that many of its forms are limited to special uses.
Throughout the conjugation of the verb the auxiliaries are predicants,
but these auxiliaries, to the extent that they are modified for mode,
tense, number, and person, contain adverbial and connective elements.
In like manner many of the lexical elements of the English language
contain more than one part of speech: _To ascend_ is _to go up_;
_to descend_ is _to go down_; and _to depart_ is _to go from_.
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