§ 4. According to the syntactic function of verbs, which depends on the extent to which they retain, weaken or lose their meaning, they are divided into notional verbs, auxiliary verbs and link verbs.

1. Notional verbs are those which have a full meaning of their own and can be used without any additional words as a simple predicate. Here belong such verbs as to write, to read, to speak, to know, to ask.

e.g. Ricky surrounded her with great care and luxury. (Stern)

2. Auxiliary verbs are those which have lost their meaning and are used only as form words, thus having only a grammatical function. They are used in analytical forms. Here belong such verbs as to do, to have, to be, shall, will, should, would.

Be is added to other verbs to make progressive and passive forms.

e.g. Is it raining?

She was engaged for two months.

Do is used to make questions, negatives and emphatic forms of notional verbs.

e.g. She doesn’t love her husband.

Do you get on with your brother?

Do remember me.

Have is used to make perfect forms.

e.g. What have you done?

e.g. I don't recollect that he ever did anything, at least not in my time. (Galsworthy)

Their father... had come from Dorsetshire near the beginning of the century. (Galsworthy)

But all this time James was musing... (Galsworthy)

He would have succeeded splendidly at the Bar. (Galsworthy)

3. Link verbs are verbs which to a smaller or greater extent have lost their meaning and are used in the compound nominal predicate.

e.g. The house was too big. (Galsworthy)

The old face looked worn and hollow again. (Galsworthy)

Manson no longer felt despondent, but happy, elated, hopeful. (Cronin)

In different contexts the same verb can be used as a notional verb and an auxiliary verb or a link verb:

e.g. ... She turned her head sullenly away from me. (Collins) (notional verb)

She... turned deadly pale. (Collins) (link verb)

No one was there to meet him. (Lindsay) (notional verb)

She was not a ten-year-old girl any more... (Dreiser) (link verb)

This evening Bathsheba was unusually excited, her red cheeks and lips contrasting lustrously with her shadowy hair. (Hardy) (link verb)

There is a special group of verbs which cannot be used without additional words, though they have a meaning of their own. These are modal verbs such as can, may, must, ought, etc.

e.g. A slow swell of feeling choked the little boy's heart. Though he could not, dared not question the consul's strict command, its purpose lay beyond his comprehension. (Cronin) "We ought to have stayed in Italy," he said. "We ought never to have come back to Manderley." (Du Maurier)

The same verb in different contexts can be modal and auxiliary.

e.g. I crouched against the wall of the gallery so that I should not be seen. (Du Marnier) (auxiliary verb) I don't honestly think Lady Crowan was exaggerating when she said something should be done in your honour. (Du Marnier) (modal verb)

§ 5. As has been stated above a verb can be transitive and intransitive. Transitive verbs can take a direct object, i.e. they express an action which passes on to a person or thing directly. Here belong such verbs as to take, to give, to send, to make, to see, to show, to bring, to love, etc.

e.g. Jon had never loved her so much as in that minute which seemed to falsify Fleur's fears and to release his soul. (Galsworthy)

Youth only recognizes Age by fits and starts. Jon, for one, had never really seen his father's age till he came back from Spain. (Galsworthy)

There are some transitive verbs which are hardly ever used without a direct object, such as to take, to make, to give, to have.

e.g. Arthur signed the receipt, took his papers and went out in dead silence. (Voynich)

There are other verbs which can be used either with or without a direct object, such as to read, to write, to hear, to see.

e.g. On Friday night about eleven he had packed his bag and was leaning out of his window... when he heard a tiny sound, as of a finger-nail, tapping on his door. (Galsworthy)

The starch, as he soon heard, was valued at ten dollars a barrel and it only brought six. (Dreiser)

Intransitive verbs cannot take a direct object. Here belong such verbs as to stand, to sleep, to laugh, to think, to lie, to swim.

e.g. She shrank slowly away from him, and stood quite still. (Voynich)

There are verbs whose primary meaning is transitive and whose secondary meaning is intransitive. Here belong such verbs as to sell, to read, to add, to act, etc.

e.g. This book sells well.

Though Dora tried hard the figures would not add.

There are verbs whose primary meaning is intransitive and whose secondary meaning is transitive. Here belong such verbs as work, to starve, to walk, to run, etc.

e.g. For that man, I've been running people through the front line!

The stream which worked the mill came bubbling down in a dozen rivulets. (Qalsworthy)

In these examples the verbs are used in a causative meaning i. e. the person or thing denoted by the object is made to perform the action denoted by the verb.

There are verbs which in different contexts can be transitive or intransitive. It is impossible to say which meaning is primary and which is secondary. Here belong such verbs as to open, to move, to turn, to change, to drop, etc.

e.g. The woman opened the door at once almost breathlessly. (Hardy)

While she stood hesitating, the door opened, and an old man came forth shading a candle with one hand. (Hardy)

§ 6. A. verb can also have some aspect characteristics depending solely on its lexical meaning. Accordingly verbs are divided into terminative, non-terminative and verbs of double lexical (aspect) character.

1. Terminative verbs denote an action implying a certain limit beyond which it cannot go. Here belong simple and composite verbs, such as to come, to bring, to build, to give, to take, to receive, to find, to fall, to kill, to die, to become, to stand up, to sit down, to come to. They can correspond both to Ukrainian verbs of imperfective and of perfective aspect: to come — приходити, прийти; to build — будувати, збудувати; to give — давати, дати; to die — вмирати, вмерти.

e.g. He went to the kitchen and brought him a cake and a plate of biscuits. (Carter)

Every head turned. Row after row of men and women stood up to see who it was making his way to the front. (Carter)

2. Non-terminative verbs denote a certain action which does not imply any limit. Here belong such verbs as to live, to exist, to sleep, to love, to be, to have, to possess, to work, to speak, to respect, to hope, to sit, etc.

They correspond to Ukrainian verbs of imperfective aspect only: to live — жити, to exist — існувати, to sleep — спати.

e.g. She sat erect in the hard chair, her gloved hands gracefully folded in her lap. (Carter)

3. Verbs of double lexical character in certain contexts have a terminative meaning, and in others, a non-terminative meaning. Here belong such verbs as to sее, to hear, to write, to read, to translate.

e.g. Arthur looked round the room, saw that everything was hidden, and unlocked the door. (Voynkh)

I don't believe in fairies. I never see any. (Galsworthy)