Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Lecture 7

Verb, as the central part of speech. Its different

classifications.

Grammatically verbs are the most complex part of speech. This is due to the central role
they play in the expression of predicativity of the sentence, establishing the relationship
between the target situation or event named in the utterance and the reality. Besides this, the
finite verb, being the centre of predication, determines the configuration of the sentence,
specifying a meaning relation among its components. The centrality of verbs is also conditioned
by the complex system of their grammatical categories, as well as by their various classifications
according to the functional, semantic, structural and valency characteristics of the verb.

1. Functional classification of verbs

According to their functions, verbs can be divided into three major categories or classes:
lexical or full verbs, primary verbs and auxiliary modal verbs (Biber et al. 2003: 104; Green-
baum & Quirk 1991: 24-40).
a) The grammatical categorical meaning of lexical or full verbs is to denote action, process
or state dynamically, i.e. developing in time. The full verbs are only used as main verbs because
of their lexical meanings. E.g.: Every morning he goes to the office and comes back at eight.
This class of verbs is an open class, which means that the English language is always add-
ing new lexical verbs. E.g.: to download, to e-mail, etc.
b) There are only three primary verbs: be, have and do, the most common verbs in Eng-
lish. They form a separate class because they can be used either as main verbs or as auxiliary
verbs.
Primary verbs can act as main verbs when they realize their lexical meaning of existence,
possession or performing something:
He was in the hotel with his family.

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He has a big family – a wife and six children.

The did everything to save the child.
Special attention should be paid to the primary verb be. Opinions differ concerning its
functional status. British and American scholars consider that, when be is used as a copula, or a
linking verb (e.g.: He is angry; She is a dancer, etc.) it functions as a main verb, while Russian
linguists refer to such use of be as the “pure link-verb” connecting the subject with its nominal
predicative (Blokh 1983: 91).
When the primary verbs lose their lexical meaning they are used as auxiliaries to show
how the main verb is to be understood.
 The auxiliary have is used to form the perfect aspect: I have just come home.
 The auxiliary be is used to form the progressive or continuous aspect: He is having
lunch.
 The auxiliary be is also used to form the passive voice: The letter was sent to him.
 The auxiliary do is used in negative statements and in questions; this is known as do
insertion. For instance:
Where do you live?
He does not speak French.
c) modal verbs (can, may, must, could, might, have to, be able to, have to, shall, will,
should, would, need, etc.) are used only as auxiliary verbs to express ability, possibility,
obligation, necessity, volition or prediction of the action, process or state which is denoted by
the main verb.
Cf.: People thought he might have been joking.(possibility)
He would probably go there. (volition/prediction)

2. Semantic classification of lexical (full) verbs

Linguists differentiate seven semantic classes of full verbs (Biber et al. 2003: 106-114).
They are: activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, verbs of occur-
rence, verbs of existence or relationship, and verbs of aspect.

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1. Activity verbs usually refer to an action performed intentionally by an agent or ‘doer’.

Thus, in the following example, the subject (underlined below) performs the action: He bought
biscuits and condensed milk.
The twenty most commonly used activity verbs in conversation, fiction, newspaper writ-
ing and academic prose are: bring, get, make, play, take, buy, give, meet, put, try, come, go,
move, run, use, follow, leave, pay, show, work.
2. Communication verbs form a special subclass of activity verbs that involve communi-
cation activities, particularly verbs describing speech and writing: You said you didn’t have it.
The twelve most commonly used ‘communication’ verbs are: ask, offer, talk, call, say, tell
claim, speak, shout, thank, describe, suggest, write.
3. Mental verbs refer to mental states and activities. Mental verbs express a wide range of
meanings such as:
 mental states or processes (e.g. think, know)
 emotions, attitudes, or desires (e.g. love, want)
 perceptions (e.g. see, touch, taste)
 emotional attitudes (hate, like, love, etc.)
The twenty most common ‘mental’ verbs are: believe, find, listen, read, think, consider,
hear, love, remember, understand, expect, know, mean, see, want, feel, like, need, suppose,
wonder.
They decided to watch TV.
Somehow I doubt it.
He remembered all our names.
4. Causative verbs, such as allow, let, enable, require, cause, force and help indicate that
some person or things help to bring about a new state of affairs. These verbs often occur with a
derived noun as the direct object, which reports the action or event that was facilitated (in the
examples below the direct object is underlined). For instance:
This information enables the formulation of precise questions.
Still other rules cause the deletion of elements from the structure.

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In other cases , the resulting action or event is expressed in a complement (i.e. objective) clause
that follows the causative verb:
What caused you to be ill?
This would help the volume of gas to be calculated.
5. Verbs of occurrence report events that occur without an actor. Often the subjects of
these verbs are effected by the event that is described by the verb, as in these examples
(subjects are underlined):
The lights changed.
Resistant organisms may develop in the alimentary tract.
The term ‘feature’ has occurred many times in this chapter.
Seven verbs of occurrence are especially common in English: become, grow, change, hap-
pen, develop, occur, die.
6. Verbs of existence or relationship report a state of existence or a logical relationship
that exists between entities. Some of the most common existence verbs are copular verbs: be,
seem, appear, go, grow, look, feel, sound, smell, taste, remain, keep, turn, get, become, prove,
exist, etc.
Witnesses said he appeared happy and relaxed.
It was growing dark when we set out.
7. Verbs of aspect characterize the stage of progress of an event or activity. These verbs
usually occur with a non-finite complement clause following the verb. Some common ‘aspect’
verbs are: begin, start, commence, continue, proceed, keep, go on, stop give up, etc.
She kept running out of the room.
He couldn’t stop talking about me.
Tears started to trickle down his cheeks.

3. Morphological classification of verbs

Verbs traditionally fall into two sets of morphological classes: regular and irregular verbs,
and finite and non-finite verbs.

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1. The main principle of the morphological classification of verbs is the way how they
form simple past and past participle or participle II. Accordingly verbs are divided into two
large groups: regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs form past simple and past participle by
adding the inflectional suffix –ed, while irregular verbs form these forms individually. English
irregular verbs can be differentiated into the following subgroups:

 verbs that form simple past and participle II by means vowel gradation:
drink – drank – drunk begin – began - begun
sing – sang – sung sink – sank – sunk
 verbs with vowel gradation + affixation for participle II:
break – broke – broken take – took -taken
give – gave – given write – wrote – written
 verbs with vowel gradation + the same suffixation forms for simple past and participle
II:
bring – brought – brought catch – caught – caught
teach – taught - taught buy – bought – bought
 verbs with consonant gradation:
build –built – built send – sent –sent
lend – lent –lent rend – rent –rent
 verbs with homonymous forms:
burst – burst –burst cut – cut – cut
let – let –let set – set – set
 verbs with suppletive forms:
be – was, were – been
go – went

2. Finite and non-finite forms of the verb differ both in the number of the categories
they possess and in their syntactical functions. There are three non-finite forms of the verb: the
infinitive, the participle (two forms of participle: participle I or present participle, which is
formed with the help of inflectional suffix -ing: dancing, and participle II or past participle with

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the inflectional suffix -ed for regular verbs and other means of word-forming for irregular
verbs: danced, taken, etc.), and the gerund.

Finite forms are distinguished from the non-finites as follows:

1. Finite verbs can occur independently (i.e. without copular verbs or modal auxiliaries)
as a simple predicate, while non-finite verb forms can function as part of a complex verbal
predicate. This functional distinction between finite and non-finite verbs is called FINITNESS.
Non-finite verbs can also perform other syntactic functions in a sentence. Cf.:
finite verb: Nick speaks five languages. (simple verbal predicate)
Non-finite verb forms: 1. Nick can speak five languages. (infinitive, part of a compound
modal verbal predicate.)
2. Dancing is my favorite good pastime. (gerund, subject)
3. I like dancing. (gerund, direct object)
4. He sat on the sofa reading a book. (participle I, adv. modifier
of attending circumstances)
5. He saw a dancing girl. (participle I, attribute)
6. There was a broken vase in the box. (participle II, attribute)
2. Finite verbs have TENSE contrast (i.e. the distinction between present and past tenses:
She works hard. She worked hard.) while non-finite verb forms don’t have tense distinction,
i.e. they don’t have grammatical category of tense.
3. Finite verbs have grammatical categories of PERSON and NUMBER while non-finite
verbs don’t have any of these distinctions. There is a person and number concord between the
subject of a clause and the finite simple verbal predicate. This concord is particularly clear with
the present tense of the verb be (I am; you are; he/she/it is; we/you/they are). But with most full
verbs overt (თვალსაჩინო, აშკარა) concord is restricted to a contrast between the 3rd person
singular present and other persons or plural number:
He / She / Jim reads the paper every morning.
I / We / You / They read the paper every morning.

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4. Both, finite and non-finite verbs have different grammatical forms for ASPECT dis-
tinction. Aspect requires a choice between the non-perfect and the perfect forms, and between
the non-progressive and progressive (i.e. non-continuous and continuous) forms. Compare:
Finite verb forms:
He writes poems. (simple: non-perfect, non-progressive).
He has written poems. (perfect: auxiliary have + participle II; non-progressive)
He is writing poems. (progressive: auxiliary be + participle I; non-perfect)
He has been writing poems. (perfect, progressive)

Non-finite verb forms (modal auxiliary must + bare infinitive):

He must write poems. (bare infinitive simple, non-perfect, non-progressive)
He must have written poems. (bare infinitive, perfect, non-progressive)
He must be writing poems. (bare infinitive, progressive, non-perfect)
He must have been writing poems. (bare infinitive, perfect, progressive)
5. Both, finite and non-finite verbs (except the gerund) have different grammatical forms
for VOICE DISTINCTION. Voice involves a contrast between active and passive. The active
form of the verb shows that the action denoted by it is performed by the subject of the
sentence, while the passive form indicates that the action is performed upon the subject. Cf. the
following:
Active voice Passive voice
He writes poems. Poems must be written by him.
He has written poems. Poems must have been written by him.
Having written the letter, he left the room. The letter having been written, he left the room
6. Finite verbs have different forms to mark the grammatical category of MOOD (which
requires a choice between the indicative, imperative and subjunctive mood) while non-finite
verb forms are devoid of this grammatical category.
Due to the above-mentioned grammatical categories of tense, person, number, aspect,
voice and mood, finite verbs are capable to perform independently syntactic function of a
simple predicate in a sentence. The number of these categories being restricted to aspect and
voice, non-finite verb forms are devoid of this feature.

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4. Structural classes of verbs

Verbs are characterized by specific forms of word-building. The verb stems may be sim-
ple, derived, composite and phrasal.
a) Simple or root verbs consist of a content morpheme that cannot be analyzed any fur-
ther into smaller parts. Such verbs are not numerous. For instance: ask, go, play, take, tell,
declare, etc.
b) Derived verbs fall into four subclasses according to their word-building peculiarities:
 Derived verbs, which are formed by means of conversion (zero-suffixation). The most
common type of conversion is “noun – verb” conversion, such as: a cloud – to cloud, a
house – to house, a park – to park, a book – to book, etc.
 The sound-replacive type of derivation. Cf.: food – to feed, blood – to bleed;
 The stress-replacive type of derivation which is unproductive. Cf.: 'import – to
im'port,
'transport – to trans'port, etc.
 Derived verbs, which are formed by means of affixation (a root morpheme + an affix:
prefix or suffix), represent the most common type of derivation.
There are many different derivational prefixes used to form new verbs in English. The
most common derivational prefixes, in order of frequency of occurrence, are:

prefix meaning of prefix examples

re- again rearm, rebuild, redefine, refinance, rename

dis- opposite, apart disarm, disconnect, discontinue, dislike
over- too much, across, beyond overcome, overeat, overtire, overwork
un- opposite, in reverse unbend, uncouple, unfold, unload, unpack
mis- wrong, poorly misinform, mispronounce, misunderstand
out- beyond, further outbid, outdo, outgrow, outweigh

There are only a few derivational suffixes used for verb formation. The suffixes are listed
below in order of frequency of occurrence:

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suffix meaning of suffix examples

-ize/-ise2 to (cause to) become computerize, energize, realize, stabilize

-en to (cause to) become awaken, flatten, lengthen, moisten
-ate to (cause to) become activate, congratulate, liquidate, regulate
-(i)fy to (cause to) become beautify, codify, exemplify, notify

c) Compound or composite verbs consist of two or more roots: blackmail, broadcast, whi-
tewash, etc.
d) Phrasal verbs are represented by two specific types: the first is a combination of the
head verb have, give and take (occasionally some others) with a noun. This type of phrasal
verbs has as its equivalent an ordinary simple verb. Cf.: to have a smoke – to smoke; to give a
smile – to smile; to take a stroll – to stroll.
The second is a combination of a head-verb with a preposition that has a specifying value.
Cf.: stand up, go on, give in, give up, get along, etc.

5. Valency patterns

The finite verb, being the centre of predication, organizes all the sentence constituents. In
other words, the main verb with its semantics determines the configuration of other elements
that are required in the sentence. This combining power of the verb is called VALENCY.
The pattern of the sentence (clause) elements is called the valency pattern of the verb (Bi-
ber et al. 2003: 119). The patterns are differentiated by the required elements that follow the
verb within the sentence (the subject, the direct object, indirect object, adverbial, etc.). All
valency patterns include a subject while optional adverbials can always be added. The morpho-
logical relevance of the combining power of the verb is manifested in the categorical voice
distinction of the verb.
British grammarians differentiate five major valency patterns: intransitive, monotransi-
tive, ditransitive, complex transitive and copular (Biber et al. 2003: 119-123):

2
The suffix -ize is often spelled -ise in British English.

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A. Intransitive pattern (S + V), which is a combination of the subject and the main verb.
Intransitive verbs occur with no obligatory element following the verb. For instance: More
people came.
B. Monotransitive pattern (S + V + DO), which represents a subject-verb combination
with a direct object. Monotransitive verbs occur with a single direct object. Cf.: She was
carrying a heavy bag.
C. Ditransitive [dai'trænzitiv] pattern (S + V + IO + DO), which represents a subject-verb
combination with two object phrases: an indirect object and a direct object. For instance: His
father gave him the money. They called him Johnny.
D. Complex transitive patterns are represented by two types, in which transitive verbs
occur with a direct object followed either by an object predicative expressed by an adjective,
i.e. when a transitive verb is followed by a complex object (1) or by an obligatory adverbial (2):
1. The boy made his mother angry. (S + V + DO + OP)
2. He put his hand on the child’s shoulder. (S + V + DO + Adv)
E. Copular pattern (S + Copula + P), which represents a combination of a subject and a
copular verb followed by a predicative (a noun, adjective, adverb or prepositional phrase). For
instance:
She was a school teacher then. (noun, predicative)
Carrie felt a little less bold. (adjective, predicative)
She felt well. (adverb, predicative)
The monotransitive, ditransitive and complex transitive patterns are the transitive pat-
terns, as they all require some type of object. The most common structure for the objects is a
noun phrase. However, in some cases other structures, such as a complement clause, can
function as objects. For example;
 Monotransitive pattern with a complement clause for the direct object:
He said he was going to make a copy.
 Ditransitive pattern with a noun or pronoun for the indirect object and a complement
clause for the direct object:
The staff in the information office told me that the train had been delayed until 18.15.

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Verbs in all patterns can occur with optional adverbials, which are called adverbial sup-
plements. For instance:
 Intransitive pattern with an adverbial supplement:
He went to the corner shop. (adverbial supplement of place)
 Transitive pattern with and adverbial supplement:
He left the office at six o’clock. (office – direct object, at six o’clock – adv. of time)

Study Questions:

1. What does the centrality of the verb imply?

2. How are verbs differentiated functionally?
3. Give functional characteristics of lexical or full verbs.
4. Name and give functional characteristics of the primary verbs.
5. Enumerate and characterize functionally modal verbs.
6. Enumerate and characterize semantic classes of full verbs (7 classes).
7. How are verbs classified morphologically?
8. What is the main principle of the morphological differentiation of verbs into regu-
lar and irregular classes?
9. How do finite forms of the verb differ functionally from the non-finite verb forms?
Comment on the notion of finitness.
10. Discuss tense, person and number, aspect, voice and mood distinction between fi-
nite and non-finite forms of English verb.
11. Name the structural classes of verbs. Give examples.
12. Describe the main types of derived verbs in modern English.
13. Describe the main types of phrasal verbs in modern English.
14. What does the valency of verbs imply?
15. What are the major valency patterns in English grammar? Describe each of them.

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