I. The verb: a general outline

I. 1. The General Meaning of the Verb.

The verb is a part of speech which denotes an action (“walk”, “speak”, “play”), process (“sleep”, “wait”, “live”) or relation (“consist”, “resemble”, “lack”).

I. 2. The Grammatical Categories of the Verb in English.

Here are the grammatical categories of the English verb:

FINITUDE →

Finite forms

vs.

Non-finite forms (Infinitive, Gerund, Participle I (the Present Participle), Participle II (the Past Participle))

Finite forms always perform the function of the predicate of the sentence. They have the following grammatical categories:

1. PERSON →1^st vs. 2^nd vs. 3^rd

2. NUMBER → Singular (sg) vs. Plural (pl)

3. TENSE → Past vs. Present vs. Future

4. ASPECT → Continuous vs. Non-continuous

5. PHASE → Perfect vs. Non-perfect

6. VOICE → Active vs. Passive

7. MOOD → Indicative vs. Imperative vs. Oblique * (Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II,

Suppositional & Conditional)

* According to Academician V.V. Vinogradov’s conception.

Non-finite forms perform a variety of functions in the sentence.*

* Non-finite forms are to be looked into in the corresponding part of this work. Here we just mention their functions.

The infinitive may be the subject, the predicative (i.e. part of a compound predicate), the object, the attribute, the adverbial modifier of purpose or result. Cases when it may be treated as the predicate of the sentence are very few.

The infinitive has the following grammatical categories:

1. ASPECT → Continuous vs. Non-continuous

2. PHASE → Perfect vs. Non-perfect

3. VOICE → Active vs. Passive

Gerund may be the subject, the predicative (i.e. part of a compound predicate), the object, the attribute, the adverbial modifier of time, manner, cause, attending circumstances and some others. Its grammatical categories are:

1. PHASE → Perfect vs. Non-perfect

2. VOICE → Active vs. Passive

Participle I (the Present Participle) may be part of a Continuous Tense verb-form, the attribute or the adverbial modifier of time, manner, cause, attending circumstances and some others. Here are its grammatical categories:

1. PHASE → Perfect vs. Non-perfect

2. VOICE → Active vs. Passive

Participle II (the Past Participle) may be part of a Perfect Tense verb-form, part of a Passive Voice verb-form, the attribute or the adverbial modifier of time, manner, condition, concession. It has no grammatical categories, i.e. it is unchangeable.

I. 3. Basic Verb Forms.

Following the list of the grammatical categories of the verb-forms, we can make up a set of all possible grammatical forms of a verb – the so-called “grammatical paradigm of a verb”.

Here is the paradigm of the finite forms of the verb “give” (an irregular verb) (Indicative Mood only): “I give.” “He gives.” “I am giving.” “He is giving.” “We are giving.” “I have given.” “He has given.” “I have been giving.” “He has been giving.” “I am given.” “He is given.” “We are given.” “I am being given.” “He is being given.” “We are being given.” “I have been given.” “He has been given.” “I gave.” “I was giving.” “They were giving.” “I had given.” “I had been giving.” “I was given.” We were given.” “I was being given.” “We were being given.” “I had been given.” “I shall give.” “He will give.” “I shall be giving.” “He will be giving.” “I shall have given.” “They will have given.” “I shall be given.” “He will be given.” “I shall have been given.” “He will have been given.”

Can you explain the grammatical meaning of the given verb-forms?

The present paradigm enables us to single out the three basic verb-forms used to build all possible synthetic and analytical verb-forms: 1. “give” – the plain stem of the verb (the infinitive without the particle “to”), 2. “gave” – the Past Simple Tense form, 3. “given” – the Past Participle form.

On top of these, some grammarians also mention the fourth verb-form as well – 4. “giving” – the Present Participle form, but it can hardly be termed basic since it is made up after the pattern “give + -ing”.

N.B. Regular verbs have homonymous forms of the 2nd (the Past Simple Tense) and the 3^{rd (}the Past Participle) forms. They are built up after the pattern “V + -ed”, e.g. “wish – wished – wished”.