24) Verbs of complete predication, link verbs, auxiliary verbs.

Full verbs can function alone as predicate. These verbs may convey a message by themselves, without any other additional information. In the example below, the predicate expresses by itself a particular ability concerning the subject of the sentence. E.g. Mary writes. The verbs of complete predication may usually be the intransitives and the reflexives: the auxiliaries, the link verbs, the modals, and the (in)transitives.

Auxiliary verbs function as predicate together with the past participle or the infinitive of a full verb. Auxiliaries are used to form the complex tenses. They are basically used as marks of grammatical categories, and quite often as modals, link verbs, or as parts of compound predicates. As marks of grammatical categories they will help the speakers chronologically order the events they are talking about, to describe the phase of a process or activity or even a state, to underline who is doing something for someone else, to ask questions or to give negative answers. This group of verbs is subdivided by most of the grammarians into ‘primary auxiliaries’ (BE, HAVE, DO) and ‘modal auxiliaries’ (CAN, MAY, WILL, SHALL, COULD, MIGHT, SHOULD, WOULD and MUST). Despite this classification the auxiliary verbs share one common syntactic feature: they may act as operators when holding the first position within a verbal phrase.

The link or linking verbs are those verbs, which link together the subject and the complement of one sentence to express qualities or features regarding the subject. They may be used to convey two different meanings: to indicate a state or to indicate a result. The former group of link verbs represents the current linking verbs whose purpose is that of indicating a state and they include to appear (happy), to lie (scattered), to remain (uncertain, perplexed, a bachelor), to seem (restless, a mindful person, an efficient secretary, successful businessman), to stay (young), to smell (sweet), to sound (surprised), to taste (bitter).

25) Syntagmatic properties of verbs.

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.):

26) Finite and non-finite forms of the verb. The category of finitude.

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 (at least, 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, genuine) predication, the non-finite forms render semi-predication, or secondary (potential) predication.

The Infinitive is the most generalized, the most abstract form of the verb, serving as the verbal name of a process; it is used as the derivation base for all the other verbal forms. to write, to be writing, to have written, to be written, to have been written.

The gerund is another verbid that serves as the verbal name of a process and combines verbal features with those of a noun; the gerund, like the infinitive, can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-substantive nature, intermediary between the verb and the noun. e.g.: Thank you for listening to me; Your careful listening to me is very much appreciated.

Participle I (present participle) is fully homonymous with the gerund: it is also an ‘ing-form’ (or, rather, four ‘ing-forms’, cf.: writing, being written, having written, having been written). But its semantics is different: it denotes processual quality, combining verbal features with features of the adjective and the adverb; participle I can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-qualifying nature, intermediary between the verb and the adjective/adverb.

Participle II, like participle I, denotes processual quality and can be characterized as a phenomenon of hybrid processual-qualifying nature. It has only one form, traditionally treated in practical grammar as the verbal “third form”, used to build the analytical forms of the passive and the perfect of finites, e.g.: is taken; has taken. The categorial meanings of the perfect and the passive are implicitly conveyed by participle II in its free use, for example, when it functions as a predicative or an attribute, e.g.: He answered through a firmly locked door (participle II as an attribute); The room was big and brightly lit (participle II as a predicative).