3. Verbal valency subgroups.

The notion of ‘valency’ allows the analysis of verbal combinability potential in greater detail. It involves the whole range of subordinate syntactic elements (valents, or adjuncts) either required or specifically permitted by a verb. For example, the valency of the verb to eat includes a subject and an object, as in I am eating cheese. The valency of the word can be either obligatory (required), or optional (permitted). The obligatory adjuncts (the valents required by the verb) are called “complements” and the verb itself is called “complementive”; without a complement a syntactic construction with a complementive verb is grammatically incomplete and semantically defective, cf.: He is a writer. - *He is…. The optional adjuncts are called “supplements” and the verb is called “uncomplementive” (or “supplementive”); the supplemenive verb can be used with or without a supplement in a syntactic construction, cf.: They are singing a song. - They are singing.

- Uncomplementive verbs are further subdivided into two groups of verbs: personal and impersonal verbs. Personal verbs imply the subject of the action denoted (animate or inanimate, human or non-human), e.g.: to work, to laugh, to grow, to start, etc., as in I’m working; The concert started. Impersonal verbs usually denote natural phenomena, e.g.: to rain, to snow, to drizzle, etc.; the number of impersonal verbs is limited; in English they are combined with a formal subject, e.g.: It’s raining (in Ukrainian impersonal uncomplementive verbs can be used without any subject at all, cf.: Моросить; Темніє).

- Complementive verbs are further subdivided according to the members of the sentence which they must be obligatorily used with. Predicative complementive verbs are link verbs obligatorily combined in a sentence with their predicatives, e.g.: He is a writer. Adverbial complementive verbs are verbs which are obligatorily combined with adverbial modifiers of time, or space, or manner, e.g.: He lives in Paris; They married and lived happily. Objective complementive verbs require either one object-complement (monocomplementive verbs) or two compliments (bicomplementive verbs).

The following verbs are monocomplementive: - to have – the possession objective verb, non-passivized; - to take, to grasp, to enjoy, etc. – direct objective verbs, e.g.: Take the book; - to look at, to point to, to send for, etc. – prepositional objective verbs; in spite of their prepositional use they are easily passivized in English, e.g.: Everyone looked at her; She was looked at.; - to cost, to weigh, to fail, to become, etc. – direct objective verbs, non-passivized; - to belong to, to abound in, to merge with, etc. – prepositional objective verbs, non-passivized.

The following verbs are bicomlementive: - to give, to bring, to pay, to show, etc. – direct objective and addressee objective verbs, e.g.: Give the book to your neighbor; Give the neighbor your book; - to teach, to forgive, to ask, to excuse, etc. – double direct objective verbs, e.g.: My mother taught me this song; - to argue, to agree, to cooperate, etc. – double prepositional objective verbs, e.g.: I agree with you about his latest book; - to remind of, to apologize for, to pay for, etc. – addressee objective verbs, e.g.: Don’t remind me of that awful day; - to put, to send, to bring, etc. – adverbial objective verbs which are obligatorily used with a direct object and an adverbial modifier, e.g.: Put the book on the table.

Many verbs in English in different contexts migrate easily from one group to another, and the boundaries between the subclasses are less rigid than in Ukrainian For example: to work is an uncomplementive verb, but in modern English, especially in its American variant, one can use it with a direct object too, e.g.: She worked her team hard; She worked the phones.

4. The category of finitude: finite and non-finite forms of the verb (finites and verbids). Problematic status of the non-finite forms of the verb. Verbids as phenomena of mixed (hybrid, intermediary) nature.

As was mentioned in the previous unit, on the upper level all verbal forms fall into two major sets: finite and non-finite. The term “finite” is derived from the Latin term “verbum finitum”, which shows that these words denote actions developing in time.

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 verbal features of verbids are as follows: their grammatical meaning is basically processual; like finites, they do have (most of them have) aspect and voice forms and verbal combinability with direct objects and adverbial modifiers; they can express predication in specific semi-predicative constructions. Thus, verbids can be characterized as intermediary phenomena between verbs and other non-verbal parts of speech.

The opposition between finite and non-finite forms of verbs expresses the category of “finitude”. The grammatical meaning, the content of this category is the expression of verbal predication: the finite forms of the verb render full (primary, complete) predication, the non-finite forms render semi-predication, or secondary (potential) predication. The formal differential feature is constituted by the expression of verbal time and mood, which underlie the predicative function: having no immediate means of expressing time-mood categorial semantics, the verbids are the weak member of the opposition.

It is interesting to note that historically verbids in English were at first separate non-verbal nominative forms, but later they were drawn into the class of verbs by acquiring aspect and voice forms, verbal combinability, etc.