Теорграмматика / Блох М.Я. Семенова Т.Н. Тимофеева С.В. - Theoretical English Grammar. Seminars. Практикум по теоретической грамматике английского языка - 2010

way, it seems likely that the same answer would be obtained from both Frenchmen and Englishmen. If we were to ask: "Which of the two words hiver (winter) and decembre (December) is more of a proper name than the other?" it would probably be admitted that the latter should have the preference. The reason is both obvious and interesting. The stretches of time indicated by the names of the seasons are felt to be more contrasted in their nature than those indicated by the month-names. Contiguous months may be much of a muchness, but there is an unmistakable difference between the seasons. Consequently in the names of the seasons the meaning plays a greater part in marking the distinction than is played by the meaning attaching to the month-names, and in the latter correspondingly the distinctive name, i.e. the distinctive word-sound, exercises a more important role in indicating the period meant. The month-name is for that reason more of a proper name than the name of the season.

It is a peculiarity of the months and the days of the week that a fixed order belongs to their meaning. It is undeniable that Wednesday implies the day after Tuesday and that before Thursday. Still that modicum of constant meaning does not compensate for the fact that the other characters of the day designated by the name Wednesday are variable and intangible and differ from person to person, so that the name itself is the only thing which we can cling to in order to uphold the distinction between one day and another.

It is superfluous to discuss feast days like Easter, Whitsunday, Lupercalia. To the Englishman at all events the names of these are proper names, though on account of their recurring every year they must join the ranks of the "common proper names".

(pp. 43-54)

Questions:

1.What definition does A. Gardiner give to proper names?

2.Does A. Gardiner support the view of the meaninglessness of proper names? What does he include into their semantics?

3.Why does A. Gardiner refuse to regard vocatives of the type "Father", "Cook", names of birds and plants as proper names?

4.How does A. Gardiner view the month-names and the day-names?

References

Mokh M. Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar. - M., 2000. - P. 48-83.

. .

. . - ., 1975.- . 71-96. ., .

,

. - .: , 2001. .

. - .: ' , 2001.- . 6-21.

., ., . -

. - ., 1981. - . 21-33.

. : -

. - .: , 2001.

. . -

. - .: , , 1996. - . 83-100. ardiner A. The Theory of Proper Names. - Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 1954.-P. 43-54. ilyish B. The Structure of Modern English. - L., 1971. - P. 36-63.

irk R., Greenbaum S., Leech G., Svartvik J. A University Grammar of English. - M., 1982. ffitrang B. Modern English Structure. - London, 1962.

Seminar 6

VERB: GENERAL.

NON-FINITE VERBS

1.A general outline of the verb as a part of speech.

2.Classification of verbs (notional verbs / semi-notional verbs / functional verbs).

3.Grammatical subcategorization of notional verbs (actional / statal / processual; limitive / unlimitive).

4.The lexical aspect in English and in Russian.

5.The valency of verbs (complementive / uncomplementive verbs; transi tive / intransitive verbs).

6.A general outline of verbals: the categorial semantics, categories, syntac tic functions.

7.The infinitive and its properties. The categories of the infinitive. Modal meanings of infinitival complexes.

8.The gerund and its properties. The categories of gerund. The notion of half-gerund.

9.The present participle, the past participle, and their properties.

1. Classification of Verbs

Grammatically the verb is the most complex part of speech. This is due to the central role it performs in the expression of the predicative functions of the sentence, i.e. the functions of establishing the connection between the situation (situational event) named in the

«iterance and reality. The complexity of the verb is inherent not only . the intricate structure of its grammatical categories, but also in its tfarious subclass divisions, as well as in its falling into two sets of jrms profoundly different from each other: the finite set and the peon-finite set (verbals, or verbids).

The categorial semantics of the verb is process presented dynamfcally. This general processual meaning is embedded in the semantics Ipf all the verbs. It is proved by the verb valency and the syntactic function of the predicate.

The processual categorial meaning of the notional verb determines fits characteristic combination with a noun expressing both the doer Ipf the action (its subject) and, in cases of the objective verb, the reciplient of the action (its object); it also determines its combination with fan adverb as the modifier of the action.

In the sentence the finite verb invariably performs the functions }. of the verb-predicate, expressing the processual categorial features I of predication, i.e. time, aspect, voice, and mood.

From the point of view of their outward structure, verbs are chariacterized by specific forms of word-building, as well as by the formal f features expressing the corresponding grammatical categories.

The grammatical categories which find formal expression in the outward structure of the verb are, first, the category of fmitude dividing the verb into finite and non-finite forms (this category has a lexico-grammatical force); second, the categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood.

The class of verbs falls into a number of subclasses distinguished by different semantic and lexico-grammatical features. On the upper level of this division two unequal sets are identified: the set of verbs of full nominative value (notional verbs) which are opposed to the set of verbs of partial nominative value (semi-notional and functional verbs). The set of notional verbs is derivationally open. The second set is derivationally closed, it includes limited subsets of verbs characterized by individual relational properties. On the lower level of division each set can be subdivided into numerous subsets according to their relevant features.

Notional verbs are classified on the basis of three main principles: the relation of the subject of the verb to the process denoted by

the verb, the aspective verbal semantics, the verbal combinability with other language units.

According to the first criterion, all notional verbs are divided into two sets: actional and statal. This division is grammatically relevant since it explains the difference between the actional and statal verbs in their attitude towards the denotation of the action in progress. Actional verbs express the action performed by the subject, i.e. they present the subject as an active doer. Statal verbs, unlike their subclass counterparts, denote the state of their subject, i.e. they either give the subject the characteristic of the inactive recipient of some outward activity, or else express the mode of its existence.

Aspective verbal semantics (the second criterion) exposes the inner character of the process denoted by the verb. It represents the process as durative (continual), iterative (repeated), terminate (concluded), interminate (not concluded), instantaneous (momentary), ingressive (starting), overcompleted (developed to the extent of superfluity), undercompleted (not developed to its full extent), and the like. According to the aspective verbal semantics, two major subclasses of notional verbs are singled out: limitive and unlimitive. The verbs of the first order present a process as potentially limited. The verbs of the second order present a process as not limited by any border point. The demarcation line between the two aspective verbal subclasses is not rigidly fixed, the actual differentiation between them being in fact rather loose. Still, the opposition between limitive and unlimitive verbal sets does exist in English. This division of verbs has an unquestionable grammatical relevance, which is expressed, among other things, in peculiar correlation of these subclasses with the categorial aspective forms of the verbs (indefinite, continuous, perfect). It also reveals the difference in the expression of aspective distinctions in English and in Russian. The English lexical aspect differs radically from the Russian aspect. In terms of semantic properties, the English lexical aspect expresses a potentially limited or unlimited process, whereas the Russian aspect expresses the actual conclusion (the perfective, or terminative aspect) or non-conclusion (the imperfective, or non-terminative aspect) of the process in question. In terms of systemic properties, the two English lexical aspect varieties, unlike their Russian absolutely rigid counterparts, are but loosely distin-

jished and easily reducible. In accord with these characteristics, both e English limitive verbs and unlimitive verbs may correspond alter-itely either to the Russian perfective verbs or imperfective verbs, Depending on the contextual uses.

The syntactic valency of the verb falls into two cardinal types: Ipbligatory and optional. The obligatory valency is such as must necssarily be realized for the sake of the grammatical completion of the ntactic construction. The subjective and the direct objective valencies of the verb are obligatory. The optional valency is such as is not mecessarily realized in grammatically complete constructions: this type lof valency may or may not be realized depending on the concrete Imformation conveyed by the utterance. Most of the adverbial modiffiers are optional parts of the sentence, so in terms of valency the j adverbial valency of the verb is mostly optional.

Thus, according to the third criterion - the valency of the verb -I all notional verbs are classified into two sets: complementive (taking obligatory adjuncts) and supplementive (taking optional adjuncts). I Complementive and supplementive verbs fall into minor groups: com-| plementive verbs are subdivided into predicative, objective, and adverbial verbs; supplementive verbs are subdivided into personal and | impersonal verbs.

In connection with complementive and supplementive characteristics of verbs there arises the question of clarifying the difference between the two notions - "objectivity" and "transitivity". Verbal objectivity is the ability of the verb to take any object, irrespective of its type. Verbal transitivity is the ability of the verb to take a direct object. The division of the verb into objective and non-objective is more relevant for English than for Russian morphology because in English not only transitive but also intransitive objective verbs can be used in passive forms.

Semi-notional and functional verbs are united in the set of the verbs characterized by partial nominative value. To this set of verbs refer several subdivisions of verbs: auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, link verbs, and semi-notional verbid introducer verbs. All semi-function- al and purely functional verbs function as markers of predication showing the connection between the nominative content of the sentence and reality.

2. Non-Finite Forms of the Verb

Non-finite forms of the verb (verbids) are the forms of the verb which have features intermediary between the verb and the non-pro- cessual parts of speech. Their mixed features are revealed in their semantics, morphemic structural marking, combinability, and syntactic functions. Verbids do not denote pure processes but present them as peculiar kinds of substances and properties; they do not express the most specific finite verb categories - the categories of tense and mood; they have a mixed, verbal and non-verbal, valency; they perform mixed, verbal and non-verbal, syntactic functions.

The strict division of functions clearly shows that the opposition between the finite and non-finite forms of the verb creates a special grammatical category. The differential feature of the opposition is constituted by the expression of verbal time and mood: while the time-mood grammatical signification characterizes the finite verb in a way that it underlies its finite predicative function, the verbid has no immediate means of expressing time-mood categorial semantics and therefore presents the weak member of the opposition. The category expressed by this opposition is called the category of "fmitude". The syntactic content of the category of fmitude is the expression of verbal predication.

The peculiar feature of the verbid verbality consists in their expressing "secondary" ("potential") predication. They are not self-de- pendent in a predicative sense. The verbids normally exist only as part of sentences built up by genuine, primary predicative constructions that have a finite verb as their core. And it is through the reference to the finite verb-predicate that these complexes set up the situation denoted by them in the corresponding time and mood perspectives.

The English verbids include four forms distinctly differing from one another within the general verbid system: the infinitive, the gerund, the present participle, and the past participle. In compliance with this difference, the verbid semi-predicative complexes are distinguished by the corresponding differential properties both in form and in syntactic-contextual function.

The infinitive combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, as a result it serves as the verbal name of a process. By virtue of its general process-naming function, the infinitive should be considered as the head-form of the whole paradigm of the verb.

145

i Seminar 6. Verb: General. Non-Finite Verbs

SThe infinitive has a dual, verb-type and noun-type, valency. The infinitive has three grammatical categories: the aspective category of

development (the opposition of Continuous and Non-Continuous Informs), the aspective category of retrospective coordination (the op- I'position of Perfect and Non-Perfect forms), the category of voice (the I opposition of Passive and Non-Passive forms). Consequently, the {categorial paradigm of the infinitive of the objective verb includes » eight forms: the Indefinite Active, the Continuous Active, the Perfect I Active, the Perfect Continuous Active; the Indefinite Passive, the i Continuous Passive, the Perfect Passive, the Perfect Continuous Passive. The infinitive paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspondingly, includes four forms.

The gerund, like the infinitive, combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun and gives the process the verbal name. In comparison with the infinitive the gerund reveals stronger substantive properties. Namely, as different from the infinitive, and similar to the noun, the gerund can be modified by a noun in the possessive case or its pronominal equivalents (expressing the subject of the verbal process), and it can be used with prepositions.

The combinability of the gerund is dual: it has a mixed, verb-type and noun-type, valency. Like the infinitive, the gerund performs the syntactic functions of the subject, the object, the predicative, the attribute, and the adverbial modifier. The gerund has two grammatical categories: the aspective category of retrospective coordination and the category of voice. Consequently, the categorial paradigm of the gerund of the objective verb includes four forms: the Simple Active, the Perfect Active, the Simple Passive, the Perfect Passive. The gerundial paradigm of the non-objective verb, correspondingly, includes

"two forms.

The present participle serves as a qualifying-processual name. It combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective and

adverb.

The present participle has two categories: the category of retrospective coordination and the category of voice. The triple nature of the present participle finds its expression in its mixed (verb-type, ad- jective-type, adverb-type) valency and its syntactic functions (those of the predicative, the attribute, and the adverbial modifier).

10 - 3548

The present participle, similar to the infinitive, can build up semipredicative complexes of objective and subjective types.

The past participle combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective. The categorial meaning of the past participle is qualifying: it gives some sort of qualification to the denoted process. The past participle has no paradigmatic forms; by way of paradigmatic correlation with the present participle, it conveys implicitly the categorial meanings of the perfect and the passive. Its valency is not specific; its typical syntactic functions are those of the attribute and the predicative.

Like the present participle, the past participle is capable of making up semi-predicative constructions of complex object, complex subject, as well as absolute complexes.

The consideration of the English verbids in their mutual comparison, supported and supplemented by comparing them with their nonverbal counterparts, reveals a peculiar character of their correlation. The correlation of the infinitive, the gerund, and the verbal noun, being of an indisputably systemic nature and covering a vast proportion of the lexicon, makes up a special lexico-grammatical category of processual representation. The three stages of this category represent the referential processual entity of the lexemic series, respectively, as dynamic (the infinitive and its phrase), semi-dynamic (the gerund and its phrase), and static (the verbal noun and its phrase). The category of processual representation underlies the predicative differences between various situation-naming constructions in the sphere of syntactic nominalization.

Another category specifically identified within the framework of substantival verbids and relevant for syntactic analysis is the category of modal representation. This category, pointed out by L.S. Barkhudarov, marks the infinitive in contrast to the gerund, and it is revealed in the infinitive having a modal force, in particular, in its attributive uses, but also elsewhere.

In treating the ing-forms as constituting one integral verbid entity, opposed, on the one hand, to the infinitive, on the other hand, to the past participle, appeal is naturally made to the alternating use of the possessive and the common-objective nounal element in the role of the subject of the ing-form, the latter construction is known in linguistics

as "half-gerund". The half-gerund is an intermediary form with double features whose linguistic semi-status is reflected in the term itself. In fact, the verbid under examination is rather to be interpreted as a transferred participle, or a gerundial participle, since semantic accent in half-gerundial construction is made on the situational content of the ! fact or event described, with the processual substance as its core (e.g.: I / didn 't mind the children playing in the study).

Questions:

1.What is the general categorial meaning of the verb?

2.What does the processual categorial meaning of the verb determine?

3.What grammatical categories find formal expression in the outward struc ture of the verb?

4.What criteria underlie the subclassification of notional verbs?

5.What does aspective verbal semantics find its expression in?

6.What is peculiar to the English lexical aspect?

7.What combinability characteristics does the verb have?

8.What are the mixed lexico-grammatical features of the verbids revealed in?

9.What is peculiar to the predication expressed by the verbids?

10.Which of the verbids is considered the head-form of the whole paradigm of the verb?

11.What grammatical categories does the infinitive distinguish?

12.What grammatical categories does the gerund have?

13.What grammatical categories differentiate the present participle from the past participle?

14.What considerations are relevant for interpreting the half-gerund as gerun dial participle?

I.Define the modal meanings actualized by the infinitive and infinitival complexes (possibility, necessity, desire, expression of an actual fact):

a)

1.There is a Mr. Anthony Rizzoli here to see you (Sheldon).

2.I have a regiment of guards to do my bidding (Haggard).

3.I'll send a man to come with you (Lawrence).

4.I never saw anybody to touch him in looks (Haggard).

5.There is nothing in that picture to indicate that she was soon to be one of the most famous persons in France (Christie).

6.It was a sound to remember (Lawrence).

b)

1.There were several benches in advantageous places to catch the sun...

(Christie)

2."Why don't you get married?" she said. "Get some nice capable wom an to look after you." (Christie)

3.It occurred to Tommy at this moment with some force that that would certainly be the line to take with Aunt Ada, and indeed always had been (Christie).

4.With the choice of getting well or having brimstone and treacle to drink, you chose getting well every time (Christie).

5."I suppose there must be some people who are slightly batty here, as well as normal elderly relatives with nothing but age to trouble them." (Christie)

6."Pity she hadn't got a fortune to leave you," said Tuppence (Christie).

c)

1.I've got everything laid out tidily for you to look through (Christie).

2.There's really very little to tell (Christie).

3.Three sons were too much to burden yourself with (Christie).

4."There's nothing to find out in this place - so forget about Mrs. Blenkinsop." (Christie)

5.She must have been a tartar to look after, though (Christie).

6.But it's not the police she wants, it's a doctor to be called - she's that crazy about doctors (Christie).

II.Rephrase the sentences so as to use a gerund as an object:

1.I insist on it that you should give up this job immediately.

2.They were surprised when they didn't find any one at home.

3.He went on speaking and was not listening to any objections.

4.When the boy was found he didn't show any signs of being alive.

5.Do you admit that you have made a mistake by divorcing her?

6.They suspect that he has been bribed.

HI. Choose infinitive or gerund and give your reasons:

1.As some water had got in, the engine of the boat couldn't but... work ing (to stop).

2.I'm afraid our camera wants ... (to repair).

3.This is not the way ... children (to treat).

4.I soon regretted ... the doctor's recommendations (not to follow).

5.I regret ... that I can't come to your wedding (to say).

6.Did they teach you ... at school (to dance)?

7.Who has taught you ... so well (to dance)?

8.She demanded ... the whole truth (to tell).

( 9. On her way home she stopped ... with her neighbour (to talk). ''JO. Remember ... the gas-stove before leaving the fiat (to turn off).

IV. Point out Participle I, gerund or verbal noun:

a)

•1. Curtis Hartman came near dying from the effects of that night of waiting in the church... (Anderson)

2.They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication (O.Henry).

3.The stewardess announced that they were going to make an emergency landing. All but the child saw in their minds the spreading wings of the Angel of Death. The pilot could be heard singing faintly... (Cheever)

4.Soapy, having decided to go to the Island, at once set about accom plishing his desire. There were many easy ways of doing this (O.Henry).

b)

1.The loud groaning of the hydraulic valves swallowed up the pilot's song, and there was a shrieking high in the air, like automobile brakes, and the plane hit fiat on its belly in a cornfield and shook them so violently that an old man up forward howled, "Me kidneys! Me kidneys!" The stewardess flung open the door, and someone opened an emergency door at the back, letting in the sweet noise of their continuing mortality - the idle splash and smell of a heavy rain (Cheever).

2."At that time me and Andy was doing a square, legitimate business of

,selling walking canes. If you unscrewed the head of one and turned it : up to your mouth a half pint of good rye whiskey would go trickling

'<. down your throat to reward you for your act of intelligence." (O.Henry)

3.Now the shadow of the town fell over the valley earlier, and she remem bered herself the beginnings of winter - the sudden hoarfrost lying on the grapes and wild flowers, and the contadini coming in at dark on their asini, loaned down with roots and other scraps of wood, for wood was hard to find in that country and one would ride ten kilometri for a bundle of green olive cuttings, and she could remember the cold in her bones and see the asini against the yellow light of evening and hear the lonely noise of stones falling down the steep path, falling away from their hoofs (Cheever).

4.Johnsy lay, scarcely making a ripple under the bedclothes, with her face towards the window. She stopped whistling, thinking she was asleep (O.Henry).

c)

1."Can't you let a man die as comfortably as he can without calling him names? What's the use of slanging me?" "You're not going to die." "Don't be silly. I'm dying now. Ask those bastards." (Hemingway)

2."There was a girl standing there - an imported girl with fixings on - philandering with a croquet maul and amusing herself by watching my style of encouraging the fruit canning industry." (O.Henry)

3.At the first cocktail, taken at the bar, there were many slight spillings from many trembling hands, but later, with the champagne, there was a rising tide of laughter and occasional bursts of song (Fitzgerald).

4.Cutting the last of the roses in her garden, Julia heard old Mr. Nixon shouting at the squirrels in his bird-feeding station (Cheever).

d)

1.Old Behrman, with his red eyes plainly streaming, shouted his contempt and derision for such idiotic imaginings (O.Henry).

2.He certainly could not remember ever having felt arrogant or ever hav ing been pleased that he had slighted or offended anyone. He had never felt that plain work, for very little money, was beneath him, but he had always been eager to get back to his writing. Every now and then when the going was tough he had even grown fearful that he might never break through, and that he might find himself working steadily at a common job, solely because he had to provide for his family (Saroyan).

3.He floundered in the water. It went into his nose and started a raw stinging; it blinded him; it lingered afterward in his ears, rattling back and forth like pebbles for hours. The sun discovered him, too, peeling long strips of parchment from his shoulders, blistering his back so that he lay in a feverish agony for several nights (Fitzgerald).

4.And third, if he proved difficult in any way, as she knew he might, or if he went right on leering at every girl he happened to see, who was to stop her from getting a divorce and being none the worse for having been for a while Mrs. Andre Salamat? (Saroyan)

V.Translate the phrases into English finding a suitable place for Participle I or Participle II.

1.,

2.,

,

, ,

, ,

, ,

.

. Account for the use of Complex Subject and Complex Object Constructions:

He's talked about himself, making no sense at all, seeming to say only that it was a lonely thing to be a writer, it was a painful thing to be no longer the writer you were. . . (Saroyan)

Mrs. Wiley gathered her two rosy-cheeked youngsters close to her skirts and did not smile until she had seen Wiley laugh and shake his head (O.Henry).

1 3. When Julia called him to come down, the abyss between his fantasy and the practical world opened so wide that he felt it affect the muscles of his heart (Cheever).

4.The waiter poured something in another glass that seemed to be boiling, but when she tasted it it was not hot (O.Henry). This time there was no rush. It was a puff, as of wind that makes a candle flicker and the flame go tall (Hemingway). "Sit down on that stool, please. I didn't hear horse coming." (O.Henry) Stunned with the horror of this revelation, John sat there open-mouthed, feeling the nerves of his body twitter like so many sparrows perched upon his spinal column (Fitzgerald).

Willie Robins and me happened to be in our - cloakroom, I believe we called it - when Myra Allison skipped through the hall on her way downstairs from the girls' room (O.Henry).

. Translate the sentences into English and comment on the structure of the Complex Object or on the absence of this construction:

1 . , , -

.

2., , ,

.

3., , ?

4., , .

5., ?

6., , ,

.

7.He , .

8., .

9.. 10. .

Selected Reader

1. Biber D., Johansson S.,

Leech Q., Conrad S., Finegan E.

Longman Grammar of Spoken

and Written English

Major Verb Functions and Classes

There are three major classes of verbs: lexical verbs (also called full verbs, e.g. run, eat), primary verbs (be, have, and do), and modal verbs (e.g. can, will, might). These classes are distinguished by their roles as main verbs and auxiliary verbs. Lexical verbs comprise an open class of words that function only as main verbs; the three primary verbs can function as either main verbs or auxiliary verbs, and modal verbs can function only as auxiliary verbs. [...] In addition, verbs can be classified on the basis of their semantic domains and valency patterns (copular, intransitive, and transitive). Finally, we make a fundamental distinction between simple lexical verbs and the various kinds of multi-word verbs (phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and phrasal-prepositional verbs).

[...] The verb types are not distributed evenly across registers:

-Lexical verbs are extremely common in fiction and conversa tion. They are less common in news, and considerably less common in academic prose.

-The copula be occurs most commonly in academic prose and least commonly in conversation.

[...] Although many verbs have more than one meaning, we have found it useful to classify verbs into seven major semantic domains: ac-

: PRESSI ( HERSON )

tivity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, verbs of simple occurrence, verbs of existence or relationship, and aspectual verbs.

For the most part, the following classification of verbs is based on their core meanings (i.e. the meaning that speakers tend to think of first). However, it is important to note that many verbs have multiple meanings from different semantic domains, and in some cases a verb is most common with a non-core meaning. In those cases, the verb is listed in the category corresponding to its most typical use. For example, most speakers tend initially to think of the verbs start, stop, and keep as referring to physical activities, as in the following examples: We stopped at the market on the way back. I'll keep the coins.

It must have been fifteen minutes before he got it started. However, these verbs more commonly have an aspectual meaning, concerned with the progress of some other action: And it was two 'clock when they stopped talking. I keep doing garlic burps. Her car started to overheat.

As a result, these three verbs are listed under the aspectual category. There are two kinds of problem case we should mention. First, for some verbs there is no single correct classification, since their core meanings can be considered as belonging to more than one category. For example, the verbs hesitate, pretend, find, and resist can be regarded as ; both activity verbs and mental verbs. The verbs read, deny, confirm, and blame can denote both communication acts and mental acts or states. Also some verbs can be used with different meanings belonging to more than one semantic domain. This is especially true of activity

verbs, which often have secondary meanings in some other domain. For example, the verbs contact and raise can refer to physical activities or communicative acts, while the verbs admit and consult can refer to physical, communicative, or mental activities. The verbs follow, gather, face, and overcome can be physical or mental; change, rise, and open can refer to either a physical activity or a simple occurrence; look can refer to either a physical or mental activity or a state of existence (e.g. you look happy); and the verbs make and get can refer to physical activities, but they are also commonly causative in meaning.

Most verbs, however, have core meanings belonging to only one semantic domain. [...]

Activity verbs primarily denote actions and events that could be associated with choice, and so take a subject with the semantic role of agent. Examples are bring, buy, carry, come, give, go, leave, move, open, run, take, work. [...]

Activity verbs can be transitive, taking a direct object, or intransitive, occurring without any object. [...]

Communication verbs can be considered a special subcategory of activity verbs that involve communication activities (speaking and writing). Common communication verbs include ask, announce, call, discuss, explain, say, shout, speak, state, suggest, talk, tell, write [...].

Mental verbs denote a wide range of activities and states experienced by humans; they do not involve physical action and do not necessarily entail volition. Their subject often has the semantic role of recipient. They include both cognitive meanings (e.g. think or know) and emotional meanings expressing various attitudes or desires (e.g. love, want), together with perception (e.g. see, taste) and receipt of communication (e.g. read, hear) [...].

Many mental verbs describe cognitive activities that are relatively dynamic in meaning, such as calculate, consider, decide, discover, examine, learn, read, solve, and study. [ . . . ] Other mental verbs are more stative in meaning. These include verbs describing cognitive states, such as believe, doubt, know, remember, understand, as well as many verbs describing emotional or attitudinal states, such as enjoy, fear, feel, hate, like, love,prefer, suspect, want. [ . . . ]

Verbs of facilitation or causation, such as allow, cause, enable, force, help, let, require, and permit indicate that some person or inanimate entity brings about a new state of affairs. These verbs often occur together with a nominalized direct object or complement clause following the verb phrase, which reports the action that was facilitated. For simplicity, we will simply refer to these verbs as causative verbs [...].

Verbs of simple occurrence primarily report events (typically physical events) that occur apart from any volitional activity. Often their subject has the semantic affected role. For simplicity, we will refer to these verbs as occurrence verbs. They include become, change, hap-

. . I

pen, develop, grow, increase, and occur. [...]