13. The Verb: Voice, Mood.

Verb is a part of speech which denotes an action. Categories: person, number, tense, aspect, voice and mood. Can be expressed by means of affixes, inner flexion and form words. Verbs –transitive, intransitive. an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This distinguishes it from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Verbs have finite forms which can be used as predicate of a sentence and non-finite forms may be used as any member of the sentence but the predicate..

Morphological structure-simple, derived (having affixes-decompose), compound (consisting of 2 stems – daydream), composite (consisting of a verb and a postposition of adverbial origin – sit down, go away)

Syntactic function:Notion verbs have full meaning (to write, to read).Auxiliary verbs have lost their meaning and used only as form words. They are used in analytical forms-to do, to have, to be, shall, will, should, would, may.

Link verbs-lost their meaning and are used in the compound nominal predicate

(the house was too big.

Voice is the category of the verb which is indicates the relation of the predicate to the subject and the object. The active voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject is the doer of the action expressed by the predicate.The passive voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject is acted upon.The neuter-reflexive voice shows that the action expressed by the predicate passes on to the subject. This voice is formed by means of a reflexive pronoun.(Helen lifted herself up and looked towards nurse)

Mood is a grammatical category which indicates the attitude of the speaker towards the action expressed by the verb from the point of view of its reality. The indicative mood shows that the action or state expressed by the verb is presented as a fact. (we went home early in the morning). It is also used to express a real condition. (If it rains, I shall stay at home).The imperative mood expresses a command or a request (Be quiet and hear what I tell you. Don’t be angry...)The Subjunctive mood shows that the action or state expressed by the verb is presented as a non-fact, as something imaginary or desired. To express an emotional attitude of the speaker to real facts. ( i wish I were 10 years older-I said

14. Syntax. Phrases.

The syntax -In linguistics, the study of the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. Syntax is one of the major components of grammar.(2) The arrangement of words in a sentence.

Phrase - Any small group of words within a sentence or a clause.

A phrase functions as a unit and includes a head (or headword), which determines the type or nature of the phrase.A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition (which is the head of the prepositional phrase, of course) and a noun phrase. If the language uses postpositions, we call it a postpositional phrase.

Noun phrase (NP) with a noun as head (e.g. the black cat, a cat on the mat) "a whole other problem", "the man who came to dinner"Verb phrase (VP) with a verb as head ) "stop!", "walk carefully", "will soon greatly regret", "came in the middle of the night", "hurt his pride", "put out the cat"Appositive It renames noun as a pronoun and is always placed between commas (e.g. "Bob, my annoying neighbor, is short")Absolute Modifies the entire sentence and is linked with commas. (e.g. "Mike threw the book, his eyes are red").Finally, there are adjectival phrases and adverbial phrases. If you say "that man is full of bull", "full of bull" (an adjective "full" followed by a prepositional phrase "of bull") is an adjective phrase. Similarly, in "he walked very slowly", "very slowly" (an adverb "slowly" preceded by a modifier "very") is an adverbial phrase.

15. Verb: Person and Number.

Verb is a part of speech which denotes an action. A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand by their own as complete sentences. The finite forms of a verb are the forms where the verb shows tense, person or singular plural. Non-finite verb forms have no person, tense or number.

I go, she goes, he went - These verb forms are finite.To go, going, gone - These verb forms are non-finite.

The Category of Person

The category of person serves to associate the process with three categories in a communicative act: the speaker, the addressee and the one (ones) not participating in a communicative act. The speaker is first person (I, we); the addressee is second person (you) and the one (ones) not participating in the act is thirdperson (he, she, it, they). The three categories, or persons, are, as a rule, lexicalized in languages, i.e. special words are used. These words are called personal pronouns.

In English, only the third person present tense singular form expresses person grammatically; therefore, the verb forms are obligatorily associated with personal pronouns.Special mention should be made of the modal verbs and the verb be. Modal verbs, with the exception of shall/should and will/would, do not show person grammatically.

I can speak English.I shall speak English.You can speak English.You will speak English.He, she can speak English.He, she will speak English.

The Category of Number shows whether the process is associated with one doer or with more than one doer, e.g. He eats three times a day. The category of number is a two-member opposition: singular and plural. As person is a feature of the present tense, number is also restricted to the present tense. Eg. John goes to college. vs. John went to college.

Goes is singular + third person; the remaining forms are not marked for number.

The forms am, is are first and third person singular; the remaining forms are not marked for number. Consider now examples in which be is used in the past tense:I was at home.John was at college.

Some verbs - modals - do not distinguish number at all. The boys crowded round him. The boy crowded round him.

The analysis of the examples demonstrates the weakness of the English verb as concerns the expression of person and number and its influence on the subject: it is the subject that is generally responsible for the expression of person and number in English.