THE VERB.
1.General characteristics

The class of verbs is universal: no language has ever been discovered which
lacked a distinct class of verbs. The most prototypical verbs denote actions
performed by an agent, such as run, sing, throw, hit and give. But many other items
are verbs even though they have less typical meanings, such as sleep, believe,
understand, elapse, ensure, become, seem, have and be. Grammatically the verb is
the most complex part of speech. First of all it performs the central role in realizing
predication - connection between situation in the utterance and reality. That is why
the verb is of primary informative significance in an utterance. Besides, the verb
possesses quite a lot of grammatical categories. Furthermore, within the class of
verb various subclass divisions based on different principles of classification can
be found.
Semantic features of the verb. The verb possesses the grammatical meaning of
verbiality - the ability to denote a process developing in time. This meaning is
inherent not only in the verbs denoting processes, but also in those denoting states,
forms of existence, evaluations, etc. Кобрина !!!Actional verbs, which denote
actions proper (do, make, go, read, etc.) and statal verbs, which denote
state (be, exist, lie, sit, know, etc.) or relations (fit, belong, have, match,
cost, etc.).
Morphological features of the verb. The verb possesses the following
grammatical categories: tense, aspect, voice, mood, person, number, finitude and
phase. The common categories for finite and non-finite forms are voice, aspect,
phase and finitude. The grammatical categories of the English verb find their
expression in synthetical and analytical forms. The formative elements expressing
these categories are grammatical affixes, inner inflexion and function words. Some
categories have only synthetical forms (person, number), others - only analytical
(voice). There are also categories expressed by both synthetical and analytical
forms (mood, tense, aspect).
Syntactic features. The most universal syntactic feature of verbs is their ability

to be modified by adverbs. The second important syntactic criterion is the ability of
the verb to perform the syntactic function of the predicate. However, this criterion
is not absolute because only finite forms can perform this function while non-finite
forms can be used in any function but predicate. And finally, any verb in the form
of the infinitive can be combined with a modal verb.
2. Classifications of English verbs
According to different principles of classification, classifications can be
morphological, lexical-morphological, syntactical and functional.
A. Morphological classifications.
I. According to their stem-types all verbs fall into: simple (to go), sound-
replacive (food - to feed, blood - to bleed), stress-replacive (import - to im port,
transport - to transport, expanded (with the help of suffixes and prefixes):
cultivate, justify, overcome, composite (correspond to composite nouns): to
blackmail), phrasal: to have a smoke, to give a smile (they always have an
ordinary verb as an equivalent.) Кобрина!!! According to their morphological
composition verbs can be divided into simple, derivative, compound and
phrasal.
Simple verbs consist of only one root morpheme: to ask, to build, to come.
Derivative verbs are composed of one root morpheme and one or more
derivational morphemes (prefixes and suffixes). The main verbforming suffixes are
-ize, -fy, -en, -ate, as in: to criticize, to justify, to blacken, to enumerate.
Compound verbs consist of at least two stems: to overgrow, to undertake.
Phrasal verbs consist of a verbal stem and an adverbial particle, which is
sometimes referred to as postposition. The adverbial meaning is evident in phrasal
verbs of the type to come in, to look out, whereas it is quite lost in the verbs to give
up, to give in, to bring up.
2.According to the way of forming past tenses and Participle II verbs can be
regular and irregular.
B. Lexical-morphological classification is based on the implicit grammatical
meanings of the verb. According to the implicit grammatical meaning of
transitivity/intransitivity verbs fall into transitive and intransitive. According to the
implicit grammatical meaning of stativeness/non-stativeness verbs fall into stative
and dynamic. According to the implicit grammatical meaning of
terminativeness/non-terminativeness verbs fall into terminative and durative. This
classification is closely connected with the categories of Aspect and Phase.
C. Syntactic classifications. According to the nature of predication (primary and
secondary) all verbs fall into finite and non-finite. According to syntagmatic
properties (valency) verbs can be of obligatory (V2) and optional (V1) valency,
and thus they may have some directionality (V2) or be devoid of any directionality
(V1). In this way, verbs fall into the verbs of directed (to see, to take, etc.) and non-
directed action (to arrive, to drizzle, etc.): The verbs of the directed action, in their
turn, fall into three groups: V3 — the verbs of objective directionality, V4 — the
verbs of adverbial directionality and V5 — the verbs of mixed directionality:

Syntagmatic classification of English verbs
(according to prof.G.Pocheptsov)
V Vobj. She shook her head
Vaddr. He phoned me
V2 – V10 Vobj.-addr. She gave me
her pen
V11 – V15 Vadv. She behaved well
V1 V2 – V24 V16 – V24 Vobj.-adv. He put his hat
on the table

Vaddr.-adv. I won’t
keep
you long

D. Functional classification. According to their functional significance verbs can
be notional (with the full lexical meaning), semi-notional (modal verbs, link-
verbs), auxiliaries.
3. General survey of the grammatical categories of the
verb
The following grammatical categories find expression in the English verb forms:
Tense, denoting the reflection of objective divisions of time — present, past, and
future, plus, in English, time viewed from some point in the past, the so-called
future-in-the-past which will be named "future II" as opposed to "future I" (simple
future); Mood, expressing any supposition, non-fact (the subjunctive and
conditional moods) as opposed to the expression of fact (the indicative mood) or
command (the imperative mood); Voice, which denotes in the form of the verb that
the subject of the action is acted upon (in the majority of cases), is not the agent of
the action in the passive voice, as opposed to the active voice; Aspect (duration),
which marks the duration of the action in the form of the verb, as opposed to
unmarked duration in the other member of aspectual oppositions; Phase (temporal
relativity), marking the anteriority of the action to the temporal axis of orientation
(present, past, etc.), as opposed to simultaneity of the action with the temporal
axis; Person-number, which should be considered a joint category, as it has one
common exponent -s in the 3rd person singular, present, or finds formal expression
in the auxiliaries be and have; it stands outside meaningful oppositions in the
verbal system. The paradigmatic system of the verb adapted to the expression of
grammatical categories is structured according to some definite principles and
presents a systemic organization of correlated elements, both in form and in
meaning due to the fact that grammatical categories are always relational.
4. The category of voice
The form of the verb may show whether the agent expressed by the subject
is the doer of the action or the recipient of the action (John broke the vase - the
vase was broken). The objective relations between the action and the subject or

object of the action find their expression in language as the grammatical category
of voice. Therefore, the category of voice reflects the objective relations between
the action itself and the subject or object of the action:

Relations of actions The category of voice

The category of voice is realized through the opposition Active voice::Passive
voice. The realization of the voice category is restricted because of the implicit
grammatical meaning of transitivity/intransitivity. In accordance with this
meaning, all English verbs should fall into transitive and intransitive. However, the
classification turns out to be more complex and comprises 6 groups:
1. Verbs used only transitively: to mark, to raise;
2.Verbs with the main transitive meaning: to see, to make, to build;
3. Verbs of intransitive meaning and secondary transitive meaning. A lot of
intransitive verbs may develop a secondary transitive meaning: They laughed me
into agreement; He danced the girl out of the room;
4.Verbs of a double nature, neither of the meanings are the leading one, the verbs
can be used both transitively and intransitively: to drive home - to drive a car;
5.Verbs that are never used in the Passive Voice: to seem, to become;
6. Verbs that realize their passive meaning only in special contexts: to live, to
sleep, to sit, to walk, to jump.
Some scholars admit the existence of Middle, Reflexive and Reciprocal
voices. "Middle Voice" - the verbs primarily transitive may develop an intransitive
middle meaning: That adds a lot; The door opened; The book sells easily; The
dress washes well. "Reflexive Voice": He dressed; He washed - the subject is both
the agent and the recipient of the action at the same time. It is always possible to
use a reflexive pronoun in this case: He washed himself. "Reciprocal voice”: They
met; They kissed - it is always possible to use a reciprocal pronoun here: They
kissed each other.
We cannot, however, speak of different voices, because all these meanings are not
expressed morphologically.
5. The category of tense
The category of tense is a verbal category that reflects the objective category of
time. It correlates with the conceptual category of temporality. The essential
characteristic of the category of tense is that it relates the time of the action, event
or state of affairs referred to in the sentence to the time of the utterance (the time of
the utterance being 'now ' or the present moment). The tense category is realized
through the oppositions. The binary principle of oppositions remains the basic one
in the correlation of the forms that represent the grammatical category of tense.
The present moment is the main temporal plane of verbal actions. Therefore, the
temporal dichotomy may be illustrated by the following graphic representation (the

arrows show the binary opposition):
Present Past

Future I Future II
Generally speaking, the major tense-distinction in English is undoubtedly
that which is traditionally described as an opposition of past::present. But this is
best regarded as a contrast of past:: non-past. Quite a lot of scholars do not
recognize the existence of future tenses, because what is described as the 'future'
tense in English is realized by means of auxiliary verbs will and shall. Although it
is undeniable that will and shall occur in many sentences that refer to the future,
they also occur in sentences that do not. And they do not necessarily occur in
sentences with a future time reference. That is why future tenses are often treated
as partly modal. The symmetry of the English tense system, its structural regularity
produces another, controversial to it feature, which may be defined as redundancy.
Thus it is a well-known fact that such sets as the Future Perfect Continuous (I and
II) and the Future Perfect II are practically never actualized in speech, but they do
exist in the system, they may be formed from any verb (with some lexical
restrictions which only confirm the rule). Such forms are redundant because they
exist in the tense system but become not needed where their usage is concerned.
6. The Category of Aspect
Aspect is a grammatical category representing distinctions in the temporal
structure of an event. Quite independently of its location in time, an event may be
viewed as having a number of different temporal organizations: it may be seen as
having internal structure or as consisting of an unanlysable whole; it may be seen
as extending over a period of time or as occurring in a single moment; it may be
seen as a single occurrence or as a series of repeated occurrences; it may be seen as
beginning, continuing or ending. The grammatical category of aspect is a linguistic
representation of the objective category defined as Manner of action. The triangle
below shows how the objective category correlates with the conceptual category
and is represented in language as the grammatical category:

Aspectuality

Manner Category of aspect

It is realized through the opposition Continuous::Non-Continuous
(Progressive::Non-Progressive). The realization of the category of aspect is closely
connected with the lexical meaning of verbs.
The purpose of the continuous set is to serve as a frame which makes the
process of the action more concrete and isolated. Duration expressed in the
continuous sets cannot be limitless. This accounts for the fact that there are some

verbs in English that do not normally occur with progressive aspect, even in those
contexts in which the majority of verbs necessarily take the progressive form.
Among the so-called ‘non-progressive’ verbs are think, understand, know, hate,
love, see, taste, feel, possess, own, etc. The most striking characteristic that they
have in common is the fact that they are ‘stative’ - they refer to a state of affairs,
rather than to an action, event or process. It should be observed, however, that all
the ‘non-progressive' verbs take the progressive aspect under particular
circumstances. As the result of internal transposition verbs of non-progressive
nature can be found in the Continuous form: Now I'm knowing you. Generally
speaking the Continuous form has at least two semantic features - duration (the
action is always in progress) and definiteness (the action is always limited to a
definite point or period of time). In other words, the purpose of the Continuous
form is to serve as a frame which makes the process of the action more concrete
and isolated.
7. Category of Phase
The category of phase (it is also called "Perfect" or "Temporal Relativity") is a
significational category. It finds its realization through the opposition Perfect
Phase:: Non-Perfect Phase. It is closely connected with the category of tense and,
in fact, does not exist separately. The scope of relative temporal meanings rendered
by the category of phase usually shows the degree of completeness of the action
expressed by the perfect form. It is due to the terminative or non-terminative
meaning inherent in the verb as a concrete lexical unit. Thus the verbs of
terminative lexical character acquire the meaning of a completed action: Think a
moment what you have said! The Perfect (the Present Perfect) can also indicate the
connection of the past action with the present: Have you seen this movie?
However, if the action is cut off from the present the Past Indefinite will express
the same idea: Did you see this movie? Non-terminative verbs develop the meaning
of an action anterior to the moment of speech, but spreading into the present
moment, or completed on the threshold of the present (the Present Perfect): / have
kept you all the time for nothing. Generally speaking the perfect set on all temporal
planes has a general categorial meaning of anteriority to the given axis of
orientation, and is a purely relative tense.
8. The Category of Mood
The grammatical category of mood expresses the degree or kind of reality attached
to an utterance. The category of mood is a significational category that correlates
with nothing in the objective reality because it expresses the attitude of the speaker
to what he is saying. Graphically it may be shown in the following way:
Modality
↓
Mood
Grammatically the category of mood is realized through the set of two oppositions:
The Indicative Mood::The Subjunctive Mood and The Indicative Mood::The
Imperative Mood. The Indicative Mood in this case is an unmarked member of

both oppositions. There are, however, some lexical means used as markers of the
speakers conceptual modality: modal verbs, modal words and some verbs with the
meaning of supposition, certainty or doubt.
Based on the text, answer the questions:
1. Classification of verbs.

2. Category of Voice and its peculiarities.

3. Category of Tense. Examples to substantiate your answer.

4. Category of Aspect. Provide examples.

5. What grammatical categories find formal expression in the outward structure of the verb?

6. What grammatical categories does the infinitive distinguish?
7. What grammatical categories does the gerund have?
8. What grammatical categories differentiate the present participle from the
past participle?

9. Category of Phase. Provide examples.

10. Category of Mood and its features.