Lecture 6: Verb Classifications PDF

Lecture 6 Verb, as the central part of speech. Its different classifications. Grammatically verbs are the most complex and central part of speech. The centrality of the verb implies the essential role it plays in the sentence. The centrality of the ve...

Lecture 6 Verb, as the central part of speech. Its different classifications. Grammatically verbs are the most complex and central part of speech. The centrality of the verb implies the essential role it plays in the sentence. The centrality of the verb is also conditioned by the complex system of its grammatical categories and various classifications according to their functional, semantic, morphological, structural, and valency characteristics. 1. Functional classification of verbs According to their functions, verbs can be divided into three major categories or classes: lexical or full verbs, primary verbs, and auxiliary modal verbs (Biber et al. 2003; Greenbaum & Quirk 1991). a) The grammatical categorical meaning of lexical or full verbs is to denote action, process or state dynamically, developing in time. The full verbs are only used as main verbs because of their lexical meanings (e.g.: Every morning he goes to the office and comes back at eight). They belong to an open class of words since the English language is always adding new lexical verbs to designate new concepts. E.g.: to download, to upload, to e-mail, etc. b) There are only three primary verbs in Modern English: BE, HAVE, and DO. These verbs form a separate class because they can be used either as main verbs or as auxiliary verbs. Primary verbs can act as main verbs when they realize their lexical meaning of existence or location (BE), possession or owning (HAVE), and acting or performing something (DO): He was in the hotel with his family. He has a big family – a wife and six children. They did everything to save the child. When the primary verbs lose their lexical meaning they are used as auxiliaries to show how the main verb is to be understood. 1. The auxiliary BE is used to form the progressive/continuous aspect (e.g. He is having lunch; Bess is writing a letter.) and the passive voice (Football is watched by millions of people). 2. The auxiliary HAVE is used to form the perfect or perfect progressive aspects: I have just come home. It has been raining since morning. 3. The auxiliary DO is used to form negative statements and questions. For instance: Where do you live? He does not speak French at all. c) Modal verbs (can, may, must, could, might, ought, have to, be able to, shall, will, should, would, need, etc.) are used only as auxiliary verbs to express ability (უნარი), possibility (შესაძლებ-ლობა), obligation (მოვალეობა), necessity (აუცილებლობა), volition (ნებელობა) or prediction (წინასწარგანჭვრეტა, პროგნოზირება) of the action, process or state which is denoted by the main verb. 1 For instance, in the sentence – People thought he might have been joking. – the modal “might” expresses possibility, while in the sentence – He would probably come. – the modal “would” already expresses the prediction of the action, denoted by the main verb. 2. Semantic classification of lexical verbs American and British linguists differentiate seven semantic classes of English lexical verbs: activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, verbs of occurrence, verbs of existence or relationship, and verbs of aspect (Biber et al. 2003; Greenbaum & Quirk 1995). 1. Activity verbs (მოქმედების აღმნიშვნელი ზმნები) usually refer to an action performed intentionally by an agent or ‘doer’. e.g.He bought biscuits and condensed milk. According to Biber, Conrad and Leech (2003), there are twenty most commonly used activity verbs in conversation, fiction, newspaper writing and academic prose. They are: bring, get, make, play, take, buy, give, meet, put, try, come, go, move, run, use, follow, leave, pay, show, work. 2. Communication verbs (კომუნიკაციური აქტივობების აღმნიშვნელი ზმნები) form a special subclass of activity verbs that involve communication activities, particularly verbs describing speaking and writing. For instance: You said you didn’t have it. There are twelve most commonly used ‘communication’ verbs: ask, talk, call, say, tell, claim, speak, shout, thank, describe, suggest, write and offer. 3. Mental verbs (გონებრივი მდგომარეობის და აქტივობების აღმნიშვნელი ზმნები) designate mental states and activities. Mental verbs express a wide range of meanings such as:  mental states or processes (think, know, believe)  attitudes or desires (love, want, wish, need)  perceptions (feel, see, touch, taste, smell)  emotional attitudes (hate, like, love, etc.) There are twenty most frequently used ‘mental’ verbs: believe, hear, feel, love, think, listen, read, consider, remember, expect, see, understand, know, mean, want, like, find, need, suppose, wonder. 4. Causative verbs (კაუზატიური ზმნები), such as allow, let, enable, require, cause, force and help indicate that some person or thing helps bring about a new state of affairs. a) This information enables the formulation of precise questions. b) Still other rules cause the deletion of elements from the structure. 5. Verbs of occurrence (მოვლენებისა და ხდომილების აღმნიშვნელი ზმნები) report events that occur without an actor. Seven verbs of occurrence are especially common in English: become, grow, change, happen, develop, occur, die. The lights have changed. This incident occurred many years ago. 6. Verbs of existence or relationship (ეგზისტენციური და ლოგიკური ურთიერთო–ბების აღმნიშვნელი ზმნები) report a state of existence or a logical relationship that exists between entities. Some of the most common existence 2 verbs are: be, seem, appear, go, grow, look, feel, sound, smell, taste, remain, keep, turn, get, become, prove, exist, etc. Witnesses said he appeared happy and relaxed. It was growing dark when we set out. 7. Verbs of aspect (ასპექტური ზმნები) characterize the stage of progress of an event or activity. Some common aspect verbs are: begin, start, commence, continue, proceed, keep, go on, stop, give up, etc. He couldn’t stop talking about me. Tears started to trickle down his cheeks. 3. Morphological classification of verbs Verbs traditionally fall into two sets of morphological classes: 1) regular and irregular verbs, and 2) finite and non-finite verbs. 1. The main principle of the morphological classification of verbs into regular and irregular is the way they form simple past and past participle forms. Regular verbs form past simple and past participle by adding the inflectional suffix –ed, while irregular verbs form them individually. 2. The second morphological classification of verbs is based on the discrimination between their finite and non-finite forms. They differ both in the number of their grammatical categories and their syntactical functions. There are three non-finite forms of the verb in English: the infinitive, the participle, and the gerund. The participle has two forms: present participle (participle I), which is formed with the help of the inflectional suffix –ing (dancing, singing, etc.), and past participle (participle II) with the inflectional suffix –ed for regular verbs and other means of word-forming for irregular verbs (danced, brought, taken, etc.). Finite forms are distinguished from the non-finite forms as follows: 1. Finite verbs can occur only INDEPENDENTLY as a simple predicate (e.g. Nick speaks five languages.), while non-finite verb forms can function as part of a complex verbal predicate (Nick can speak five languages). They can also perform other syntactic functions in a sentence. The most common functions of non-finite forms are the following:  Nick can speak five languages. (infinitive as part of a compound modal verbal predicate.)  Dancing is my favorite pastime. (gerund as a subject)  I like dancing. (gerund as a direct object)  He sat on the sofa reading a book. (participle I as an adverbial modifier of attending circumstances)  He saw a dancing girl. (participle I as an attribute)  There was a broken vase in the box. (participle II as an attribute) 2. Finite verbs have TENSE contrast (i.e. the distinction between present and past tenses: She works hard. She worked hard.) while non-finite verb forms don’t have tense distinction, in other words, they don’t have the grammatical category of tense. 3  3. Finite verbs have grammatical categories of PERSON and NUMBER while non-finite verbs don’t have any of these distinctions. Full verbs are restricted to a contrast between the 3rd person singular present and other persons or plural number: He / She / Jim reads the paper every morning. I / We / You / They read the paper every morning. 4. Both, finite and non-finite verbs have different grammatical forms for ASPECT distinction. Aspect requires a choice between the non-perfect and the perfect forms, on the one hand, and between the non-progressive and progressive (i.e. non-continuous and continuous) forms, on the other. You can compare these forms: Finite verb forms: He writes poems. (simple: non-perfect, non-progressive). He has written poems. (perfect: auxiliary have + participle II; non- progressive) He is writing poems. (progressive: auxiliary be + participle I; non- perfect) He has been writing poems. (perfect, progressive) Non-finite verb forms (modal auxiliary must + bare infinitive): He must write poems. (bare infinitive simple, non-perfect, non- progressive) He must have written poems. (bare infinitive, perfect, non-progressive) He must be writing poems. (bare infinitive, progressive, non-perfect) He must have been writing poems. (bare infinitive, perfect, progressive) 5. Both, finite and non-finite verbs (except the gerund) have different grammatical forms for VOICE DISTINCTION. Voice involves a contrast between active and passive. For instance: He writes poems (active) Poems must be written by him (passive) 6. And finally, finite verbs have different forms to mark the grammatical category of MOOD, which requires a choice between the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive mood, while non-finite verb forms are devoid of this grammatical category. Due to the above-mentioned grammatical categories of tense, person, number, aspect, voice, and mood, finite verbs are capable of independently performing the syntactic function of a simple predicate in a sentence, whereas the number of these categories being restricted to aspect and voice, non-finite verb forms are devoid of this feature. 4. Structural classes of verbs According to their structure, English verbs are divided into simple (i.e. root) verbs, derived verbs, compound (composite) verbs, and phrasal verbs. 1. Simple or root verbs consist of a content morpheme that cannot be subdivided any further into smaller parts. Such verbs are not numerous. For instance: ask, go, play, take, tell, declare, etc. 4  2. Derived verbs fall into four subclasses according to their word-building peculiarities: a) Derived verbs, which are formed by means of conversion (zero- suffixation). The most common type of conversion is “noun – verb” conversion, such as: a cloud – to cloud; a house – to house; a park – to park, an iron – to iron, a book – to book, etc. b) Derived verbs, which are formed by means of vowel interchange: food – to feed, blood – to bleed, etc. c) Derived verbs, which are formed by means of replacing the stress: 'import – to im'port, 'transport – to trans'port, etc. d) Derived verbs, which are formed by means of affixation (a root morpheme + prefix or suffix). There are many derivational prefixes used to form new verbs in English: re-: rebuild, rename, etc. dis-: disarm, dislike, etc. over-: overeat, overtire, etc. un-: unload, unfold, etc. mis-: misinform, misunderstand, etc. out-: outbid, outdo, etc. However, there are only a few derivational suffixes (realize, stabilize, lengthen, moisten, activate, regulate, beautify, notify, etc.). 3. Compound (composite) verbs consist of two or more roots: blackmail, broadcast, whitewash, etc. 4. Phrasal verbs are represented by two specific types: a) the first is a combination of the head verb have, give, and take (occasionally some others) and a noun. Such phrasal verbs have ordinary simple verbal equivalents. e.g. to have a smoke = to smoke; to give a smile = to smile; to take a stroll = to stroll; to have a look at = to look at, etc. b) The second is a combination of a head-verb with a preposition which determines the semantics of the phrase. e.g.look at, look after, look for, look through, look up, look out, etc. 5. Valency patterns The finite verb, being the centre of predication, organizes the sentence structure. In other words, the main verb with its semantics determines the configuration of other elements that are required in the sentence. This combining power of the verb is called VALENCY. British and American grammarians differentiate five major valency patterns of the verb in Modern English: intransitive, mono-transitive, ditransitive, complex transitive, and copular patterns (Biber et al. 2003: 119-123): 1. Intransitive pattern (S + V) is a combination of a subject and an intransitive (გარდაუ-ვალი) main verb. For instance: More people came. He sleeps badly. 2. Monotransitive pattern (S + V + DO) represents a subject-verb combination with a single direct object (i.e. complement). Cf.: She was carrying a heavy bag. Tom has built a new house. 5  3. Ditransitive [dai'trænzitiv] pattern (S + V + IO + DO) represents a subject- verb combination with two object phrases: an indirect object followed by a direct object. For instance: His father gave him the money. They called him Johnny. 4. Complex transitive patterns are represented by two types in which a transitive verb (რთული გარდამავალი მოდელები) occurs with a direct object followed either by an adjective (as in: The boy made his mother angry.) or by an obligatory adverbial (as in this example: He put his hand on the child’s shoulder.). 5. Copular pattern (S + Copula + P) represents a combination of a subject and a copular verb followed by a predicative which is expressed by a noun, adjective, adverb, or prepositional phrase. For instance: She was a school teacher then. (noun, predicative) Carrie felt a little less bold. (adjective, predicative) She felt well. (adverb, predicative) Study Questions: 1. What does the centrality of the verb imply? 2. How are verbs differentiated functionally? 3. Characterize lexical (full) verbs. 4. Name and characterize English primary verbs. 5. Enumerate and characterize functionally modal verbs. 6. Enumerate and characterize semantic classes of full verbs (7 classes). 7. How are verbs classified morphologically? 8. What is the main principle of the morphological differentiation of verbs into regular and irregular classes? 9. Name and comment on the non-finite forms of the verb. 10. How do finite forms of the verb differ functionally from the non-finite verb forms? 11. Name the structural classes of verbs. Give examples. 12. Describe the main types of derived verbs in modern English. 13. Describe the main types of phrasal verbs in modern English. 14. What does the valency of verbs imply? Name the major valency patterns of verbs in English grammar. 6