Contents

THE INFINITIVE 3

The general features of the Verbals. The double nature of the Verbals 3

The general features, forms and categories of the Infinitive 4

1. The forms and categories of the Infinitive. The use of ‘to’-Infinitive and the Bare Infinitive. ‘To’ without the Infinitive. 4

Exercises 6

The functions of the Infinitive in the sentence (Subject, Predicative, Part of Compound Verbal Predicate, Object, Attribute, Adverbial Modifier and Parenthesis) 10

2. The Infinitive in the function of the Subject 11

Exercises 11

3. The Infinitive in the function of Part of the Predicate 13

Exercises 14

4. The Infinitive in the function of Object 18

Exercises 21

5. The Infinitive in the function of Attribute 23

Exercises 25

6. The Infinitive in the function of Adverbial Modifier and Parenthesis 26

Exercises 28

Predicative Constructions with the Infinitive: the For-Complex, the Complex Object and the Complex Subject structures 32

7. The Complex Object, the For-Complex and the Complex Subject 32

Exercises 37

Revision of the Infinitive 40

Test on the Infinitive 44

THE GERUND 46

The general characteristics, forms and grammatical categories of the Gerund 46

8. The forms and categories of the Gerund. 46

Exercises 48

The functions of the Gerund in the sentence 49

9. The Gerund in the functions of Subject, Predicative, Part of Compound Verbal Predicate. 50

Exercises 52

10. The Gerund in the function of Object. 54

Exercises 56

11. The Gerund in the function of Attribute 58

Exercises 59

12. The Gerund in the function of Adverbial Modifier 60

Exercises 62

The alternative use of the Infinitive and the Gerund. The Gerund and the Verbal Noun. 65

13. The choice between the Gerund and the Infinitive after some Verbs. 65

Exercises 70

14. The Gerund and the Verbal Noun compared. 73

Exercise 76

Revision of the Gerund 76

Test on the Gerund 82

THE PARTICIPLES 84

The general characteristics, forms and grammatical categories of the Participles 84

15. The forms and categories of the Participles 84

Exercises 86

The functions of the Participles in the sentence 89

16. Participles in the functions of Attribute, Predicative, and Parenthesis. 89

17. Participles in the Functions of Adverbial Modifier. 92

93

Exercises 94

18. Participle I and the Gerund compared. 100

Exercises 102

Predicative constructions with the Participles 104

19. Complex Object with the Participles 104

20. Complex Subject with the Participles 106

21. Absolute Participial Constructions 106

Exercises 108

Revision of the Participles 114

Test on Participles 116

Revision of the Verbals 118

Keys 123

The infinitive

Module 1.

The general features of the Verbals. The double nature of the Verbals

Principal Ideas: Verbals include such principal parts of the verbal form series as Infinitive (INF) – to go, to take, Gerund (GER) – going, taking, Participle I (PI) – going, taking, and Participle II (PII) – gone, taken. Verbals have double nature: being verbal in origin and the structure of forms they display mostly non-verbal functions within a sentence or a phrase.

1. Verbals are characterized by verbal origin – they are non-finite forms of the Verb, their form structure is made of verbal affixes added to the stem of the verb (-ed, -en, -ing), they possess grammatical categories common to the verbal class (Aspect, Voice, Time Correlation). These morphological features constitute the verbal nature of the Verbals. Syntactic features of the Verbals – their combinability with words of other classes and functions in the sentence are mostly nominal and adjectival/adverbial, e.g. they are mostly used like Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs.

Examples: fallen/falling leaves (What kind of leaves? – Attributive function, PI and PII are used as Adjectives); a story to tell (What story? – Attributive function, INF is used as an Adjective); He came to say ‘good-bye’ (What (purpose) did he come for? – Adverbial function, INF is used as Adverb); Seeing is believing (The Ing-form seeing is Subject, it is used as a Noun; believing is Predicative (nominal part of the predicate is believing, it is used as an Adjective or Noun). Both Ing-forms are GER); After telling her story the girl started weeping (Both Ing-forms are GER – (after) telling is Adverbial Modifier of time (it is used as an Adverb), weeping is used as a verb – it is part of the compound Verbal Predicate).

2. The main Verbal features of INF, PI, and PII are their ability to be used as components of analytical verbal forms of:

• Continuous Aspect (is reading, are talking),

• Passive Voice (is discussed, were named),

• Perfect forms of Time Correlation (have done, had treated),

• Future Indefinite, Future-in-the-Past (will/would remain, shall/should/would prepare)

• analytical Moods (should explain, would have done).

3. In the series of verbal forms all Non-Finites do not differ lexically from the rest. Grammatically they differ in the morphological categories – the Verbals cannot have Person, Tense, Number and Mood forms.

4. Like finite verbs, the Verbals may have Objects – direct, indirect and prepositional: ‘Gone with the Wind’, to tell you the truth, picking the phone; they may be modified by Adverbial Modifiers: speaking in front of the audience, to tell immediately, torn apart, and by subordinate clauses: … speaking as if he were the manager, … to describe what we saw.

5. Verbals may participate in the Predicative Complexes (Predicative Constructions with INF, PI, PII) – binary syntactic units based on the predicative relations between a noun (pronoun) and a verbal (relations between the elements are similar to those of Subject-Predicate unit):

I saw Tom take out the gun and shoot (Tom took out the gun and shot. That is what I saw). We heard Linda practicing her violin (Linda was practicing the violin and we heard it). For Greg to behave this way is not possible (Greg cannot behave this way). I had the house decorated last spring (The house was decorated last spring. That was what I wanted/organized).

Module 2.

The general features, forms and categories of the Infinitive