4.Verb, classifications

A verb is a word (part of speech) that in syntax conveys an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), or a state of being (be, exist, stand). In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive.

A verb may also agree with the person, gender, and/or numberof some of its arguments, such as its subject, or object.

Classification of verbs:

1. finites – non-finites

2. regular – irregular

3. notional – semi-notional (auxiliary, link and modal verbs) e.g. The girl is reading. The room is large. The soup tastes delicious. The trousers have grown short. We needn’t have opened the door. We didn’t need to open the door.

4. transitive – intransitive · Primary meaning – transitive (I’m reading) · Primary meaning – intransitive (He walks his dog every evening) · It’s difficult to say which meaning is primary (The weather changes. The Dean changed the timetable) 

5. terminative – non-terminative (durative – non-durative) e.g. close, shut, put, take – sleep, walk, love, live e.g. We are building a cottage – We have built a cottage.

Verb Classification

We divide verbs into two broad classifications:

1. Helping Verbs

Imagine that a stranger walks into your room and says:

• I can.

• People must.

• The Earth will.

2. Main Verbs

Now imagine that the same stranger walks into your room and says:

• I teach.

• People eat.

• The Earth rotates.

5. Verb, the category of tense

A verb is a word (part of speech) that in syntax conveys an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), or a state of being (be, exist, stand). In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive.

Time and tense (He likes to read. He will read for hours. – He will read at 5 o’clock.)

3 basic categories of the verb: aspect, correlation and voice. They are constituted by 2 forms of the verb – analytical and non-analytical. The categories of mood, tense and person are basically different. They are characteristic of only finite forms of the verb. The category of tense, being a predicative category, differs from other categories in its structure, grammatical meaning and its syntactic function because it is connected with the essence of the speech act, with interpersonal relations.

The opposition of past and present is not the opposition of just 2 verbal forms but the opposition of 2 systems of forms:

Works

Worked

Functionally all the forms, entering these two systems, are the same. They’re used in the syntactic function of the predicate in the sentence. But in speech in the plane of communication the present forms reveal their specific character: they reflect facts and evens as actual, immediately related to the participants of the speech act. On the contrary, the forms of the past reflect something that is already the past, history, not immediately related to the participants of the speech act. What is represented by the past forms is of some cognitive interest to the addressee.

• e.g. I have just seen him. I saw him just now.

• e.g. They are coming tomorrow.

If we admit that the tense forms of the present express reality and make the information actual for the participants of the speech act, it is possible then to account for the rule ‘in clauses of time and condition forms of the present are used instead of the future’ (though the verb expresses a future action). The same is relevant for the use of the forms of the present in object clauses after the verbs with the meaning know, learn, find, imagine, see (that), look, take care, mind, etc.:

• I’ll let you know what happens when I speak to him.

• I’ll take care that he doesn’t.

• If you watch, you’ll certainly find that he gets a good job in a few months.