The verb – meaning, form, function. Principles of classification.

The verb has the grammatical meaning of action which in a more detailed way is subdivided into:1)action proper,2)state: to fear, to like,3)process: to boil, to heat.

The form: of all parts of speech the verb has the most elaborate system of grammatical categories. They may be expressed synthetically with the help of inflection, inner inflection; analytically—with the help of auxiliaries (shall come, is written). Function & combinatorial abilities: of all parts of speech the verb has the greatest valency & can combine with almost all notional parts of speech. The verb plays the most important role in sentence generation, there exists the verbocentric theory according to which all the parts of the sentence are predicted by the verb.

E.g. Send Who What Whom Where When Why

Classification – WE MAY CLASSIFY THEM ON THE SEMAN.GROUNDS AND ON THE GRAM.GROUNDS. SEMANTICALLY VERBS FALL INTO: V. OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, SENSE PERCEPTION, SPEECH, MOTION, VOLITION, EMOTIONAL ATTITUDE (ONLY 4 NOTIONAL VERBS)

GRAMMATICALLY E-sh verbs can be subordinated into:1)notional; 2)functional.

Notional verbs have a distinct lexical meaning of their own & can express the predicate of a sentence even taken alone. Functional verbs can’t express the predicate taken by themselves. They can be only part of the predicate. Functional verbs are represented by 3 kinds: 1)auxiliaries; 2)link verbs; 3)modal verbs.

(1)Auxiliaries are completely devoid of their own & they are used for deriving various analytical forms of the verb such as Future Tense (shall, will), to be in the Continues or passive voice.

(2)Link verbs have a very generalised meaning & they are subdivided into:

a)link verbs of being. In this case a person or a thing preserves a certain quality. E.g. she is young. I feel tired. The children kept quiet. b)Link verbs of becoming: they show a transition into another state. E.g. to become, to turn pale, to grow old, to get angry. Link verbs are always followed by the predicative which is most usually express by an adjective or noun or a stative together with which the form link verbs form a compound nominal predicate.

(3)Modal verbs make the 1^st part of the compound modal predicate & they are followed by the infinitive or gerund & modal verbs show whether the action expressed by the following verbal (probable, possible, obligatory, desirable, advisable for the doer). Very often 1 & the same verb may function both as a notional or functional verb. E.g. He had three children (notional— to possess). He had finished the job before he went home. (functional—auxiliary). He had to go there. (functional—modal).

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