VERB
VERB General categorial MEANING is a dynamic process, i. e. developing in time, or a state General processual meaning is embedded in the semantics of all the verbs, including those that denote states, forms of existence, types of attitude, evaluations, etc. , rather than actions
Structurally the verb stems may be 1. Simple (go, take, read) not numerous But conversion (zero-suffixation) as means of derivation, especially conversion of the "noun — verb" type, greatly enlarges the simple stem set of verbs, since it is one of the most productive ways of forming verb lexemes in modern English: a cloud — to cloud, a house — to house; a man — to man; a park — to park.
Structurally the verb stems may be not productive 2. Sound-replacive: food — to feed, blood — to bleed 3. Stress-replacive: 'import — to im'port 'transport — to trans'port
Structurally the verb stems may be 4. Expanded Typical suffixes expanding the stem of the verb: -ate (cultivate), -en (broaden), -ifу (clarify), ise(-ize) (normalise). Verb-deriving prefixes: be- (belittle, beshut) and en-/em- (engulf, embed), re- (remake), under(undergo), over- (overestimate), sub(submerge), mis-(misunderstand), un- (undo).
Structurally the verb stems may be 5. Composite (compound) of conversion type blackmail n. — to blackmail v. of the reduction type proof-reader n. — to proof-read v.
Structurally the verb stems may be 6. Phrasal verb stems occupy an intermediary position between analytical forms of the verb and syntactic word combinations. combination of the head-verb have, give, take, and noun: to have a smoke — to smoke; to give a smile — to smile; to take a stroll — to stroll. combination of a head-verb with a postposition: stand up, go on, give in, be off, get along.
Four Types of Verb-Formation • Affixation (productive): reads, asked • Variation of sounds: run – ran • Suppletive ways: be – is – am – are • Analytical means: have asked, is helped
Function • finite verb invariably performs the function of the verb-predicate, expressing the processual categorial features of predication, i. e. time, aspect, voice, and mood. • non-finite verb / verbid performs different functions according to its intermediary nature: subject, object, adverbial modifier, attribute.
Notional and Functional Verbs • have full lexical meaning of their own • lack lexical meaning of their own
NOTIONAL VERBS 1. category of finitude divide the verb into finite and non-finite forms or "verbids“ 2. categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood, whose complete set is revealed in every wordform of the notional finite verb
NOTIONAL VERBS • Actional verbs do, act, perform, make, go, read, learn, discover, express the action performed by the subject, i. e. they present the subject as an active doer.
NOTIONAL VERBS • Statal verbs be, live, survive, worry, suffer, rejoice, stand, see, know, denote the state of their subject. That is, they either give the subject the characteristic of the inactive recipient of some outward activity, or else express the mode of its existence.
Verbal sets of mental processes • the correlation between the verbs of mental perception and mental activity: know — think; notice — note; admire — assess; forget — reject.
Verbal sets of sensual processes the correlation between the verbs of physical perception as such and physical perceptional activity: see — look; hear — listen. The initial member of each correlation pair presents a case of a statal verb, while the succeeding member, respectively, of an actional verb.
Non-finite verbs VERBIDS Verbals INFINITIVE occupies a unique position. Its status is that of the principal representative of the verb-lexeme as a whole. This head-form status is determined by the two factors: gives the most general dynamic name to the process serves as the actual derivative base for all the other regular forms of the verb.
VERB A. T. Iriskulov • Meaning of action and state; • Function entirely depends on the forms: if they in finite form they fulfill only one function – predicate; if non-finite form they fulfill any function in the sentence but predicate; (part of the predicate); • Form: stem-building elements: postfixes: -fy (simplify); -ize (realize); -ate (activate); prefixes: re- (rewrite); mis- (misuse); un- (uncover); Grammatical categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood, order and posteriority; • Combine with all the parts of speech, but articles and some pronouns.
VERB Prof. B. A. Illish • Meaning: expresses a process • Form: variable (system categories: tense, aspect, mood, voice, person, and number) • Function: (a) Verbs are connected with a preceding noun (children play); following noun (play games); adverbs (write quickly); adjective (married young). (b) In a sentence a verb (finite forms) is always the predicate or part of it (link verb)
FUNCTION VERBS N. N. Raevskaya • auxiliaries and half-auxiliaries • copulas or link-verbs • substitute verbs • representing verbs • verb-intensifiers (do, go )
Upper level division of verbs • full nominative value (notional verbs) derivationally open • partial nominative value (semi-notional and functional verbs) -derivationally closed Semi-notional and functional verbs serve as markers of predication: auxiliary, modal, semi -notional verbid introducer verbs, and linkverbs.
AUXILIARY VERBS • constitute grammatical elements of the categorial forms of the verb: be, have, do, shall, will, should, would, may, might.
Semi-notional verbid introducer verbs • Semi-notional predicators seem, happen, turn out, try, fail, manage, begin, continue, stop should be strictly distinguished from their grammatical homonyms in the subclasses of notional verbs. They began to fight - semi-notional predicator They began the fight - notional transitive verb
LINK-VERBS M. Ya. Blokh • introduce the nominal part of the predicate (the predicative) which is commonly expressed by a noun, an adjective, or a phrase. • Not devoid of meaningful content. Performing their function of connecting ("linking") the subject and the predicative, they express the actual semantics of this connection.
LINK-VERBS M. Ya. Blokh • All the link-verbs other than the pure link be are "specifying" link-verbs which fall into two main groups: those that express perceptions (seem, appear, look, feel, taste) and those that express non-perceptional, or "factual" link-verb connection (become, get, grow, remain, keep)
MODAL VERBS M. Ya. Blokh • are used with the infinitive as predicative markers expressing ability, obligation, permission, advisability. By way of extension of meaning, they also express relational probability, serving as probability predicators. • The modal verbs can, may, must, shall, will, ought, need, used (to), dare defective in forms, they lack finite forms and non-finite forms.
Regular and Irregular Verbs • Regular verbs are formed by means of productive suffixes • Irregular verbs are formed by non-productive means as: • a) variation of sounds in root: vowel, consonant change of the root • b) suppletion: be – was / were; go – went • c) unchanged forms: cast - cast – cast
Transitive and Intransitive Verbs • Verbs can be classified in terms of their ability to take objects • Transitive verbs are combined with direct object: to have a book; to find the address • Intransitive verbs express a) state: be, exist, live, sleep, die; b) motion: go, come, run, arrive, travel; c) position in space: lie, sit, stand
Separation of Transitive and Intransitive Verbs • Verbs, intransitive in their origin, sometimes are used as transitive: to fly a kite, to sail a ship, to nod approval. • The same is found in cognate object: to live a long life, to die the death of a hero.
VERB GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES
Grammatical Categories of Verbs • B. Ilyish identifies 6 grammatical categories in present-day English verb: tense, aspect, mood, voice, person and number. • L. Barkhudarov, D. Steling distinguish 4: voice, order, aspect, and mood, adding, that the finite forms have special means expressing person, number and tense. • B. Khaimovich and B. Rogovskaya 7: voice, order, aspect, mood, posteriority, person, number.
Category of Voice • By the category of voice different grammatical ways of expressing the relation between a transitive verb and its subject and object are meant. • M. Ya. Blokh: The verbal category of voice shows the direction of the process as regards the participants of the situation reflected in the syntactic construction.
Category of Voice • A. I. Smirnitsky, L. S. Barkhudarov, D. A. Steling, B. S. Khaimovich and B. I. Rogovskaya distinguish two voices: active and passive. • But some others maintain that there are three voices in English: + reflexive voice which is expressed by the help of semantically weakened self-pronouns as in the sentence: he washed himself. • B. A. Ilyish, M. Ya. Blokh besides the three voices mentioned considers two more voices: the reciprocal which is expressed with the help of each-other, one another and the neuter (“middle”) voice in such sentences as: The door opened. The college was filling up.
REFLEXIVE VOICE M. Ya. Blokh • I will shave and wash. I'm afraid Mary hasn't dressed up yet. • The indicated verbs are used in active voice. But the real voice meaning rendered by the verb is not active, since the actions expressed are not passed from the subject to any outer object; on the contrary, these actions are confined to no other participant of the situation than the subject, the latter constituting its own object of the action performance. This kind of verbal meaning of the action performed by the subject upon itself is classed as "reflexive".
VOICE B. S. Khaimovich and B. I. Rogovskaya • in cases like he washed himself it is not the verb that is reflexive but that pronoun himself used as a direct object; • if we regard washed himself as an analytical word, it is necessary to admit that the verb has the categories of gender, person, non-person (washed himselfwashed itself), that the categories of number and person are expressed twice in he washed himself; • similar objection can be raised against regarding washed each-other, washed one another as analytical forms of the reciprocal voice
Grammatical Category of Mood • The problem of the category of mood i. e. , the distinction, between the real and unreal expressed by the corresponding forms of the verb is one of the most controversial problems of English theoretical grammar. • The main theoretical difficulty is due: • 1) to the coexistence of both synthetical and analytical forms of the verb with the same grammatical meaning of unreality • 2) to the fact that there are verbal forms homonymous with the Past Indefinite and Past Perfect of the Indicative Mood which are employed to express unreality. Another difficulty consists in distinguishing the analytical forms of the subjunctive with the auxiliaries should would, may (might) which are devoid of any lexical meaning.
Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive • The three moods are found in all the grammars of Russian grammarians. • - in the indicative mood the speaker presents the action as taking place in reality; • - in the imperative mood the speaker urges the listener to perform some action. • - in subjunctive mood the speaker presents the action as imaginary.
Category of Mood • L. S. Barkhudarov and D. A. Steling consider indicative and subjunctive. • Smirnitsky Alexander Ivanovich and some others speak of six moods: indicative, imperative, subjunctive II, conditional and suppositional.
MOOD Harold Whitehall From Structural Essentials of English “Although the subjunctive is gradually dying out of the language, English is rich in devices for expressing one’s psychological moods toward happenings that are imaginary”.
Category of Tense B. A. Ilyish • is the system of three-member opposition. • B. A. Ilyish: The category of tense is a verbal category which reflects the category of time and expresses the relations between the time of the action and the time of the utterance. There are three of them, past, present, and future.
FUTURE TENSE M. Ya. Blokh • The combinations of the verbs shall and will with the infinitive have become subject of renewed discussion. The controversial point about them is, whether these combinations really constitute, together with the forms of the past and present, the categorial expression of verbal tense, or are just modal phrases, whose expression of the future time does not differ in essence from the general future orientation of other combinations of modal verbs with the infinitive. • The view that shall and will retain their modal meanings in all their uses was defended by O. Jespersen. In our times, quite a few scholars, among them the successors of Descriptive Linguistics, consider these verbs as part of the general set of modal verbs, "modal auxiliaries", expressing the meanings of capability, probability, permission, obligation. • A well-grounded objection against the inclusion of the construction shall/will + Infinitive in the tense system of the verb has been advanced by L. S. Barkhudarov.
FUTURE TENSE B. A. Ilyish Strangely enough, some doubts have been expressed about the existence of a future tense in English by O. Jespersen. The reason why Jespersen denied the existence of a future tense in English was that the English future is expressed by the phrase "shall/will + infinitive", and the verbs shall and will which make part of the phrase preserve some of their original meaning (shall an element of obligation, and will an element of volition). Thus, in Jespersen's view, English has no way of expressing "pure futurity" free from modal shades of meaning, i. e. it has no form standing on the same grammatical level as the forms of the past and present tenses.
FUTURE TENSE B. A. Ilyish • However, this reasoning is not convincing. Though the verbs shall and will may in some contexts preserve or indeed revive their original meaning of obligation or volition respectively, as a rule they are free from these shades of meaning and express mere futurity. This is especially clear in sentences where the verb will is used as an auxiliary of the future tense and where, at the same time, the meaning of volition is excluded by the context: I am so sorry, I am afraid I will have to go back to the hotel (R. WEST). Since the verb will cannot preserve even the slightest shade of the meaning of volition here, it can have only one meaning — that of grammatical futurity.
Category of Order B. S. Khaimovich and B. I. Rogovskaya • is a system of two-member opposition: prior and non-prior. • So the prior order marker have + ed is opposite to the zero of non-prior. As in English there are three tenses this grammatical category can be expressed in all of them. Present: I work – I have worked. Past: I worked – I had worked. Future: I shall work – I shall have worked.
The category of Aspect • is a system of two-member opposition: Continuous – Non-continuous • This category is found in all the three tenses. Present: I work – I am working; Past: I worked – I was working. Future: I'll work – I'll be working. • B. A. Ilyish uses the terms continuous and common aspect to denote the action going on continuously during a given period of time, and an action not limited and not described by the very form of the verb as proceeding in such a manner.
Category of Posteriority • is distinguished by B. S. Khaimovich and B. I. Rogovskaya. This category is the system of two member opposition: shall come - should come; will come - would come; their meaning is: absolute and relative posteriority. • When posteriority is expressed in relation to the moment of speech it is called absolute. If posteriority is with regard to some other moment then it is relative. • If we accept this category, according to the definition of the grammatical category it is expressed by auxiliary verbs shall and will for absolute posteriority and should and would for relative.
Categories of Number and Person • The category of person is the system of two member opposition. It is available only in the Present Tense in singular number. • B. Khaimovich and B. Rogovskaya state that “the third person with a positive morpheme being opposed to the first person with a zero morpheme”.
ADVERB Meaning some adverbs indicate time or place of an action (yesterday, here), others indicate its property (quickly) others the degree of a property (very) Central meaning of the adverb is "property of an action or of a property".
ADVERB • Form - invariable. Some of them, however, have degrees of comparison (fast, faster, fastest).
• Function. (a) An adverb combines with a verb (run quickly), with an adjective (very long), occasionally with a noun (the then president) and with a phrase (so out of things). (b) An adverb can sometimes follow a preposition (from there). (c) In a sentence an adverb is almost always an adverbial modifier, or part of it (from there), but it may occasionally be an attribute.
