Verb. General characteristics.

Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech. First of all it performs the central role in realizing predication - connection between situation in the utterance and reality. That is why the verb is of primary informative significance in an utterance. Besides, the verb possesses quite a lot of grammatical categories.

The verb as a notional part of speech has the following features:

1. they express the meanings of dynamic process, or process developing in time, including not only actions as such (to work, to build), but also states, forms of existence (to be, to become, to lie), various types of attitude, feelings (to love, to appreciate), etc.;

2. they have the grammatical categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood, order and posteriority most of which have their own grammatical means; 3. the function of verbs entirely depends on their forms: if they in finite form they fulfill only one function – predicate. But if they are in non-finite form then they can fulfill any function in the sentence but predicate; they may be part of the predicate;

4. verbs can combine actually with all the parts of speech, though they do not combine with articles, with some pronouns. It is important to note that the combinability of verbs mostly depends on the syntactical function of verbs in speech;

5. verbs have their own stem-building elements:

postfixes: -fy (simplify, magnify, identify…)

-ize (realize, fertilize, standardize…)

-ate (activate, captivate…)

prefixes: re- (rewrite, restart, replant…)

mis- (misuse, misunderstand, misstate…)

un- (uncover, uncouple, uncrown…)

de- (depose, depress, derange…) and so on.

Concerning their structure, verbs are characterized by specific word-building patterns. The verb-stems may be simple, sound-replacive, stress-replacive, expanded, compound, and phrasal. The group of simple verb-stems (e. g. come, take, give, etc) has been greatly enlarged by conversion as one of the most productive ways of forming verb lexemes in Modern English (cf. a park — to park).

The sound-replacive type and the stress-replacive type are nonproductive (e. g. food — to feed, blood — to bleed, import — to import, export — to export, transport — to transport). The suffixes of expanded verb-stems are: -ate (cultivate), -en (broaden), -ify (clarify), -ise/ize (normalize). The verb-deriving prefixes are: be- (belittle), en-/em- (embed), re- (remake), under- (undergo), over (overestimate), sub- (submerge), mis- (misunderstand), un- (undo).

The compound verb-stems in English are rare enough; they usually result from conversion (blackmail — to blackmail, a benchmark — to benchmark).

Phrasal verbs can be of two different types. The first is a combination of a head-verb (have, give, take) with a noun; this combination has an ordinary verb as its equivalent (e. g. to have a smoke to smoke; to give a smile — to smile). The second type is a combination of a head-verb with a postposition (go on, give up, get out, sit down, etc).

When taking the formal aspect of the English verbs, we are also to consider two different morphological groups: the regular verbs and the irregular verbs. With the regular verbs, making the bulk of the verb lexicon, the Past Indefinite and the Past Participle are formed by adding the suffix -ed. The other verbs referred to as irregular comprise various paradigmatic patterns (put — put — put; send — sent — sent; come —came — come; begin — began — begun; go — went — gone; be —was/were — been; etc).

 

Non-Finite Verbs. (Verbids)

All verbal forms fall into two major sets: finite and non-finite. Non-finite forms of the verb, the infinitive, the gerund, participle I (present participle) and participle II (past participle), are otherwise called “verbals”, or “verbids”. The term, introduced by O. Jespersen, implies that they are not verbs in the proper sense of the word, because they combine features of the verb with features of other notional parts of speech. Their mixed, hybrid nature is revealed in all the spheres of the parts-of-speech characterization: meaning, formal features, and functions. The non-verbal features of verbids are as follows: they do not denote pure processes, but present them as specific kinds of substances and properties; they are not conjugated according to the categories of person and number, have no tense or mood forms; in some contexts they are combined with the verbs like non-verbal parts of speech; they never function as independent predicates; their functions are those characteristic for other notional parts of speech.

The infinitive is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, serving as the verbal name of a process. The infinitive is used in three fundamentally different types of functions: first, as a notional, self-positional syntactic part of the sentence; second, as the notional constituent of a complex verbal predicate built up around a predicator verb; third, as the notional constituent of a finite conjugation form of the verb.

The combinability of the infinitive also reflects its dual semantic nature, in accord with which we distinguish between its verb-type and noun-type connections. The verb-type combinability of the infinitive is displayed in its combining, first, with nouns expressing the object of the action; second, with nouns expressing the subject of the action; third, with modifying adverbs; fourth, with predicator verbs of semi-functional nature forming a verbal predicate; fifth, with auxiliary finite verbs (word-morphemes) in the analytical forms of the verb. The noun-type combinability of the infinitive is displayed in its combining, first, with finite notional verbs as the object of the action; second, with finite notional verbs as the subject of the action.

The self-positional infinitive, in due syntactic arrangements, performs the functions of all types of notional sentence-parts, i. e. the subject, the object, the predicative, the attribute, the adverbial modifier.

The English infinitive exists in two presentation forms. One of them, characteristic of the free uses of the infinitive, is distinguished by the pre-positional marker to. This form is called traditionally the "to infinitive", or in more recent linguistic works, the "marked infinitive". The other form, characteristic of the bound uses of the infinitive, does not employ the marker to, thereby presenting the infinitive in the shape of the pure verb stem, which in modern interpretation is understood as the zero-suffixed form. This form is called traditionally the "bare infinitive", or in more recent linguistic works, respectively, the "unmarked infinitive".

The infinitive is a categorially changeable form. It distinguishes the three grammatical categories sharing them with the finite verb, namely,the aspective category of development (continuous in opposition), the aspective category of retrospective coordination (perfect in opposition), the category of voice (passive in opposition). Consequently, the categorical paradigm of the infinitive of the objective verb includes eight forms: the indefinite active, the continuous active, the perfect active, the perfect continuous active; the indefinite passive, the continuous passive, the perfect passive, the perfect continuous passive. E.g.: to take — to be taking — to have taken — to have been taking; to be taken —to be being taken — to have been taken — to have been being taken. The infinitive paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspondingly, includes four forms. E.g.: to go —to be going — to have gone — to have been going. The continuous and perfect continuous passive can only be used occasionally, with a strong stylistic colouring. But they underlie the corresponding finite verb forms. It is the indefinite infinitive that constitutes the head-form of the verbal paradigm

The gerund is the non-finite form of the verb which, like the infinitive, combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun. Similar to the infinitive, the gerund serves as the verbal name of a process, but its substantive quality is more strongly pronounced than that of the infinitive. Namely, as different from the infinitive, and similar to the noun, the gerund can be modified by a noun in the possessive case or its pronominal equivalents (expressing the subject of the verbal process), and it can be used with prepositions.

The general combinability of the gerund, like that of the infinitive, is dual, sharing some features with the verb, and some features with the noun. The verb-type combinability of the gerund is displayed in its combining, first, with nouns expressing the object of the action; second, with modifying adverbs; third, with certain semi-functional predicator verbs, but other than modal. Of the noun-type is the combinability of the gerund, first, with finite notional verbs as the object of the action; second, with finite notional verbs as the prepositional adjunct of various functions; third, with finite notional verbs as the subject of the action; fourth, with nouns as the prepositional adjunct of various functions. The gerund, in the corresponding positional patterns, performs the functions of all the types of notional sentence-parts, i.e. the subject, the object, the predicative, the attribute, the adverbial modifier.

The categorial paradigm of the gerund of the objective verb includes four forms: the simple active, the perfect active; the simple passive, the perfect passive. E.g.: taking — having taken — being taken — having been taken. The gerundial paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspondingly, includes two forms. E.g.: going — having gone. The perfect forms of the gerund are used, as a rule, only in semantically strong positions, laying special emphasis on the meaningful categorial content of the form.

The present participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective and adverb, serving as the qualifying-processual name. In its outer form the present participle is wholly homonymous with the gerund, ending in the suffix -ing and distinguishing the same grammatical categories of retrospective coordination and voice. The present participle has its own place in the general paradigm of the verb, different from that of the past participle, being distinguished by the corresponding set of characterisation features. Since it possesses some traits both of adjective and adverb, the present participle is not only dual, but triple by its lexico-grammatical properties, which is displayed in its combinability, as well as in its syntactic functions.

The verb-type combinability of the present participle is revealed, first, in its being combined, in various uses, with nouns expressing the object of the action; second, with nouns expressing the subject of the action (in semi-predicative complexes); third, with modifying adverbs; fourth, with auxiliary finite verbs (word-morphemes) in the analytical forms of the verb.

The past participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective, serving as the qualifying-processual name. The past participle is a single form, having no paradigm of its own. By way of the paradigmatic correlation with the present participle, it conveys implicitly the categorial meaning of the perfect and the passive. As different from the present participle, it has no distinct combinability features or syntactic function features specially characteristic of the adverb. Thus, the main self-positional functions of the past participle in the sentence are those of the attribute and the predicative.

The past participle is included in the structural formation of the present participle (perfect, passive), which, together with the other differential properties, vindicates the treatment of this form as a separate verbid. The past participles of non-objective verbs are rarely used in independent sentence-part positions; they are mostly included in phraseological or cliche combinations like faded photographs, fallen leaves, a retired officer, a withered flower, dream come true, etc.

Finite verb: Introduction.

The finite forms of the verb express the processual relations of substances and phenomena making up the situation reflected in the sentence. These forms are associated with one another in an extremely complex and intricate system. The peculiar aspect of the complexity of this system lies in the fact that, the finite verb is directly connected with the structure of the sentence as a whole.The finite verb, through the working of its categories, is immediately related to such sentence-constitutive factors as morphological forms of predication, communication pur­poses, subjective modality, subject-object relation, gradation of proba­bilities, and quite a few other factors of no lesser importance.

· A finite verb is a verb which has a subject and shows tense.

· A finite verb is a form of a verb that has a subject (expressed or implied) and can function as the root of an independent clause; an independent clause can, in turn, stand alone as a complete sentence.

· A form of a verb that shows agreement with a subject and is marked for tense.

· It is a verb being a verb as opposed to a verbal which is another part of speech formed form a verb.

· Finite verbs are distinguished from non-finite verbs which do not show a distinction in tense and number, and cannot stand alone as the main verb in an independent clause.

· A finite verb is a form of a verb that has a subject and exhibit tense and number in an independent clause or sentence.

· Finite verbs indicate a person, number and tense.

· It shows tense (past / present etc..) or number (singular / plural).

· The finite verb always shows an agreement with a subject.