5. The verb. Its grammatical categories.

A verb is a part of speech that in syntax conveys an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), an occurrence (happen, become), 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. In many languages, verbs are inflected (modified in form) to encode tense, aspect, mood and voice. A verb may also agree with the person, gender, and number of some of its arguments, such as its subject, or object.

The general categorial meaning of the verb is process presented dynamically, i.e. developing in time. The grammatical categories which find formal expression in the outward structure of the verb and which will be analysed further are, first, the category of finitude dividing the verb into finite and non-finite forms. The term "verbids" for the non-finite forms of the verb was introduced by O. Jespersen. Its merit lies in the fact that, unlike the more traditional term "verbals", it is devoid of dubious connotations as well as homonymic correlations.); this category has a lexico-grammatical force); second, the categories of person, number, tense, aspect, time correlation, voice, and mood, whose complete set is revealed in every word-form of the notional finite verb.

Person 1st person 2nd person 3rd person I go You go She goes

Number Singular Plural He has written They have written

Tense present past future I eat I ate I will eat

Aspect simple progressive perfect perfect-progressive I study every day.

I am studying today. I have studied for years. I have been studying for hours.

Mood indicative imperative subjunctive I am always on time. Be there on time!

If I were on time, I would…

Voice active passive He wrote this letter yesterday. This letter was written yesterday.

PERSON AND NUMBER

The categories of person and number are closely connected with each other. In modern English, a few grammatical forms of the verb indicates person and number. They are:

1) 3rd person singular present indef.

She dances gracefully. Она танцует грациозно. He speaks Russian. Он говорит по-русски.

2) the Future Indefinite tense. “I”, “we” are used with “shall”, the others with “will”

I / we shall speak. Я буду/мы будем говорить. He / they will speak. Он будет / они будут говорить.

3) “to be” has different forms in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd persons of singular and plural.

TENSE

Tense is the form of the verb which indicates the time of the action. The category of tense in English is made up by a set of forms opposed to each other in referring the event or state described to the present, past or future.

Traditional grammar speaks of 16 tense forms in English but actually there exist only 4 of them.

In English exists one more specific tense form which is called the "Future-in-the-Past". This tense form is used when we want to say that the action is treated as Future in reference to some Past moment of time.

TIME CORRELATION

There are the Perfect forms which are opposed to the Non-Perfect forms. The grammatical meaning of the Perfect forms is to express retrospectiveness, which consists of two elements – priority and relevance. In some grammars this category is named as time correlation.

ASPECT

Aspect is the form of the verb which serves to express the manner in which the action is regarded. There are two opposing sets of aspect forms in English – the Continuous forms and the Non-Continuous (Indefinite) forms. It is built by the auxiliary be plus the Present Participle, it is represented by the formula be+Ving. The categorial meaning of the Continuous is "action in progress".

The unmarked member is the indefinite, which leaves the meaning unspecified. Four combinations of the continuous and the indefinite are possible in principle in Modern English. E.g.: While I was typing, Mary and Tom were chatting in the adjoining room. While I typing, Tom and Mary were chatting in the adjoining room. While I was typing, they chatted in ... While I typed, they chatted.

VOICE

The category of Voice expresses relations between the subject and the object of the action or between the subject and the action. In English grammar voice shows whether the subject of a sentence is doing the action, or having the action done to it. If the subject is the agent or actor of the verb in a sentence, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the target of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice. Ex.: Wrote – was written. He wrote this letter yesterday. – This letter was written yesterday.

MOOD

The category of MOOD is the most controversial category of the verb.

The category of MOOD expresses the character of connection between the process denoted by the verb and the actual reality, either presenting the process as a fact that really happened, happens or will happen, or treating it as an imaginary phenomenon, i.e. the subject of a hypothesis (предположение), speculation (размышление), desire.

In the sentences He listens attentively; Listen attentively; You would have listened attentively if you had been interested, we deal with the same action of listening, but in the first sentence the speaker presents the action as taking place in reality, whereas in the second sentence the speaker urges the listener to perform the action,; and in the third sentence the speaker presents the action as imaginary.

These different relations of the action to reality are expressed by different mood-forms of the verb: listens, listen, would have listened.

The most important are indicative, imperative and subjunctive moods.

The indicative mood is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it is the most developed system including all the categories of the verb. It serves to present an action as a fact of reality. It conveys minimum personal attitude to the fact. Ex. Water consists of oxygen and hydrogen. He works at a factory. He worked at a factory. He will work at a factory.

The imperative mood represents an action as a command, urging, request, exhortation addressed to one's interlocutor. It is a direct expression of one's will. The imperative mood is morphologically the least developed of all moods. In fact, the “write”, “know”, “warn”, “search”, “do”, etc. is the only one regularly met in speech (as to “don't write”, “do write”). The 'continuous' and 'passive' opposites (“be writing”, “be searching”, etc; “be known”, “be warned”, etc.) are very rare. Ex. Don’t smoke in this building. Be careful! Don’t drown that puppy!

Verb is the only part of speech that has the category of tense, because actions is always associated with time

The Infinitive

Among the various forms of the verb the infinitive occupies a unique position. Its status is that of the principal representative of the verb-lexeme as a whole.

The Participle.

The Participle is intermediate between the verb and the adjective and adverb.

The Present Participle is the non-finite form of the verb ,the present participle is wholly homonymous with the gerund and distinguishes the same grammatical categories.

Past Participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective, serving as the qualifying processual name

The Gerund.

The gerund is the non- finite form of the verb, which like the infinitive combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun. Similar to the infinitive, gerund serves as verbal name of a process, but its substantive quality is more strongly pronounced than that of the Infinitive.

The formal sign of the gerund is wholly homonymous with that of the present participle: it is the suffix ”-ing” added to the grammatically leading element.