4. The verb as a part of speech, its categorical meaning.
Formal characteristics of verbs
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. Furthermore, within the class of verb various subclass divisions based on different principles of classification can befound.
Semantic features of the verb. The verb possesses the grammatical meaning of verbiality - the ability to denote a process developing in time. This meaning is inherent not only in the verbs denoting processes, but also in those denoting states, forms of existence, evaluations, etc.
Morphological features of the verb. The verb possesses the following grammatical categories: tense, aspect, voice, mood, person, number, finitude and phase. The common categories for finite and non-finite forms are voice, aspect, phase and finitude. The grammatical categories of the English verb find their expression in synthetical and analytical forms. The formative elements expressing these categories are grammatical affixes, inner inflexion and function words. Some categories have only synthetical forms (person, number), others - only analytical (voice). There are also categories expressed by both synthetical and analytical forms (mood, tense, aspect).
Syntactic function of the verb
Syntactic features. The most universal syntactic feature of verbs is their ability to be modified by adverbs. The second important syntactic criterion is the ability of the verb to perform the syntactic function of the predicate. However, this criterion is not absolute because only finite forms can perform this function while non-finite forms can be used in any function but predicate. And finally, any verb in the form of the infinitive can be combined with a modal verb.
Syntactic classifications. According to the nature of predication (primary and secondary) all verbs fall into finite and non-finite. According to syntagmatic properties (valency) verbs can be of obligatory and optional valency, and thus they may have some directionality or be devoid of any directionality. In this way, verbs fall into the verbs of directed (to see, to take, etc.) and non-directed action (to arrive, to drizzle, etc.
Semantic classification of verbs
Notional verbs: actional and statal; limitive and unlimitive.
Notional verbs are subdivided into several groups as follows.
On the basis of subject-process relations the verbs are subdivided into actional and statal verbs. The terms are self-explanatory: actional verbs denote the actions performed by the subject as an active doer, e.g.: to go, to make, to build, to look, etc.; statal verbs denote various states of the subject or present the subject as the recipient of an outward activity, e.g.: to love, to be, to worry, to enjoy, to see, etc. Mental and sensual processes can be presented as actional or statal; they can be denoted either by correlated pairs of different verbs, or by the same verbal lexeme, e.g.: to know (mental perception) – to think (mental activity), to see, to hear (physical perception as such) - to look, to listen (physical perceptional activity); The cake tastes nice (taste denotes physical perception, it is used as a statal verb). – I always taste food before adding salt (taste denotes perceptional activity, it is used as an actional verb). The difference between actional and statal verbs is grammatically manifested in the category of aspect forms: actional verbs take the form of the continuous aspect freely, and statal verbs are normally used in indefinite forms in the same contexts, cf.: What are you looking at? Do you hear me? The use of the continuous aspect forms of the statal verbs finds its explanation in terms of the oppositional theory as a specific case of transposition and involves certain transformations in the meaning of the verb, e.g.: The doctor is seeing a patient right now; I’m not seeing much of her lately (seeing acquires the meaning of activity close to “meeting”); You are being naughty (= “behaving”)
limitive verbs and unlimitive verbs. Limitive verbs present a process as potentially limited, directed towards reaching a certain border point, beyond which the process denoted by the verb is stopped or ceases to exist, e.g.: to come, to sit down, to bring, to drop, etc. Unlimitive verbs present the process as potentially not limited by any border point, e.g.: to go, to sit, to carry, to exist, etc. Some limitive and unlimitive verbs form semantically opposed pairs, denoting roughly the same actual process presented as either potentially limited or unlimited, cf.: to come – to go, to sit down – to sit, to bring – to carry; other verbs have no aspective counterparts, e.g.: to be, to exist (unlimitive), to drop (limitive). But the bulk of English verbs can present the action as either limitive or unlimitive in different contexts, e.g.: to build, to walk, to turn, to laugh, etc. Traditionally such verbs are treated as verbs of double, or mixed aspective nature.
(semi)functional verbs
Functional and semi-functional (or, semi-notional) verbs make a closed group of verbs of partial nominative value. They are dependent on other words in the denotation of the process, but through their forms the predicative semantics of the sentence is expressed (they function as predicators).
Functional and semi-functional verbs are further subdivided into a number of groups.
Auxiliary functional verbs are used to build the analytical grammatical forms of notional verbs, e.g.: have done, was lost, etc.
Link verbs connect the nominative part of the predicate (the predicative) with the subject. They can be of two types: pure and specifying link verbs. Pure link verbs perform a purely predicative-linking function in the sentence; in English there is only one pure link verb to be; specifying link verbs specify the connections between the subject and its property, cf.: He was pale. – He grew pale. The specification of the connections may be either “perceptional”, e.g.: to seem, to look, to feel, etc., or “factual”, e.g.: to grow, to become, to get, etc. The semi-functional link verbs should be distinguished from homonymous notional verbs, e.g.: to grow can be a notional verb or a specifying link verb, cf.: The child grew quickly. – He grew pale.
Modal verbs are predicators denoting various subject attitudes to the action, for example, obligation, ability, permission, advisability, etc.: can, must, may, etc. A group of semi-notional verbs function as verbid introducers, i.e., they introduce non-finite forms of verbs into the structure of the sentence: they are grammatically inseparable from the verbids and these two lexemes jointly make the predicate of the sentence, e.g.: He happened to know all about it.
Verbid introducers render the following meanings: modal identity, when the speaker evaluates the action denoted by the following verbid as seeming, accidental, or unexpected, e.g.: to seem, to prove, to appear, to happen, etc.; subject-action relations (conation), e.g.: to try, to fail, to manage, etc.; phasal semantics, e.g.: to begin, to start, to continue, to finish, etc. These semi-notional verbs should also be distinguished from homonymous notional verbs, cf.: It happened ten years ago (happen is a notional verb). – He happened to be there at the same time with her (happen is a semi-notional verbid introducer of modal identity – the process denoted by the infinitive is presented as unexpected).
4-Grammatical categories of verbs
Category of tense
4. The category of tense
The category of tense is a verbal category that reflects the objective category of time. The essential characteristic of the category of tense is that it relates the time of the action, event or state of affairs referred to in the sentence to the time of the utterance (the time of the utterance being 'now ' or the present moment). The tense category is realized through the oppositions. The binary principle of oppositions remains the basic one in the correlation of the forms that represent the grammatical category of tense. The present moment is the main temporal plane of verbal actions. Therefore, the temporal dichotomy may be illustrated by the following graphic representation (the arrows show the binary opposition):
