Download Verbs Types and Their Usages Traditional Classification of verbs for

Verbs Types and Their Usages
Traditional Classification of verbs
for the purpose of form
New classification of verbs for the
purpose of meaning/content
Usages of different verb types
Prepositional Copula
Phrasal Copulas
Reciprocal Verbs
Delexical Verbs
Ergative Verbs
Measure Verbs
Middle Verbs
Dynamic Verbs
Sativa Verbs
Stance Verbs
1) Main verbs and auxiliaries
• Verbs are divided into two major classes: main
verbs and auxiliaries. As we know, a verb phrase
may consist of a main verb only; this is called a
simple verb phrase. A verb phrase may also take
the form of a main verb preceded by one or more
auxiliaries; this is called a complex verb phrase.
Main verbs are also called notional verbs
functioning as the head and indicating the basic
meaning of a verb phrase.
• The grammatical function of auxiliaries is to
help main verbs, which will be dealt with
more fully in a number of ways later on, to
express various grammatical and modal
meanings such as progressive or perfective
aspect and obligation or removal of
obligation.
• Auxiliaries fall into three categories:
• Primary auxiliaries
• Modal auxiliaries
• Semi-auxiliaries
Primary auxiliaries
• There are three primary auxiliaries: be, do, have. With
no lexical meanings of their own, these auxiliaries have
only grammatical functions or grammatical meanings.
• Auxiliary be, for example, is usually used to help the
main verb to form the progressive aspect or the passive
voice.
• Auxiliary do is usually used to help the main verb to
express negative meanings or to form questions, and
sometimes to help express the emphatic affirmative. The
function of auxiliary have is to help the main verb to
form the perfective or the perfective progressive aspect.
bake
Modal auxiliaries
• There are thirteen modal auxiliaries including some past
tense forms. They are: can / could, may / might, will /
would, shall / should, must, ought to, dare, need, used to.
Modal auxiliaries express modal meanings; their past
tense forms do not necessarily express past time. In a
finite verb phrase, we can use only one modal auxiliary
which is invariably followed by the bare infinitive or the
base form.
bake
Semi-auxiliaries
• Semi-auxiliaries constitute a category of
verbs between auxiliaries proper and main
verbs.
• Semi-auxiliaries, such as have to and seem to,
can help the main verb to form the complex
verb phrase and express the modal meaning
on the one hand, and can, when preceded by
other auxiliaries, function as main verbs on
the other. (For detailed information on semiauxiliaries, see 18, 1. )
Transitive verbs
• Transitive verbs, intransitive verbs and
linking verbs
• Main verbs can be divided into transitive
verbs, intransitive verbs and linking verbs in
accordance with whether or not they must be
followed by obligatory elements functioning
as complementation and what kind of
elements that must follow.
Transitive verbs
• Transitive verbs must be followed by an object:
John is playing cricket.
• Some can be followed by two objects, i.e., indirect
object and direct object.
The new lamp gave us more light.
• Some can be followed by an object and an object
complement:
The jury found the defender not guilty.
• Some can be followed by an object and an obligatory
adverbial.
I put the book on the shelf.
Intransitive verbs
• Intransitive verbs do not require an object:
The president is speaking.
• But some must be followed by an adverbial
without which the meaning of the sentence
will be incomplete:
Daffodils bloom in early spring.
Linking verbs
Linking verbs are followed by a subject complement:
When did you become suspicious?
• It is to be noted that many of the main verbs may belong
to more than one of the three verb classes mentioned
above. The verb smell, for instance, may fall into all the
three verb classes, as is illustrated in the following
sentences.
The fish is fresh from water. You don't have to smell it.
The milk is going bad. It smells.
This dish smells delicious.
Dynamic verbs and stative verbs
• According to lexical meaning, main verbs
can be dynamic and stative. Dynamic verbs
are verbs that refer to actions. Stative verbs
are verbs that refer to states, i.e. to a
relatively stable state of affairs.
Dynamic verbs
• Dynamic verbs can be sub-classified into three
categories: durative verbs, transitional verbs
and momentary verbs. These verbs normally
admit of both the progressive and the nonprogressive aspect. With momentary verbs, the
non-progressive form indicates a single
movement and the progressive form a repeated
movement.
Stative verbs
• Stative verbs are verbs that refer to present or past
states. Stative verbs are normally incompatible with the
progressive except uncertain cases where there is a
transfer of meaning.
• This class of verbs can be subclassified into four
categories. The first subclass includes main verb be and
main verb have.
Jim is a teacher, but 20 years ago he was a soldier.
We have friends all over the world.
• The second subclass includes verbs that include,
as part of their meaning, the notion of being and
having, such as apply to, belong to, differ from,
cost, weigh, measure, fit, hold, lack, resemble,
etc.
This rule applies to ( = is applicable to) everyone.
French differs from ( = is different from) English
in having gender for all nouns.
The auditorium holds ( = has the capacity for)
2000 people.
• The third subclass includes verbs that refer
to a sense perception, such as hear, see, feel,
taste, smell, etc:
• She doesn't hear very well.
• I (can) taste pepper in the soup. It tastes hot.
• The fourth subclass includes verbs that
refer to a feeling, a state of mind or an
opinion, such as assume, believe, consider
( = think), detest, fear, hate, hope, imagine,
know, like, love, mean, mind, notice, prefer,
regret, remember, suppose, think,
understand, want, wish, etc:
I believe we have met before.
Jim knows Chinese.
• As pointed out in 10.1.3, there is no hardand-fast distinction between dynamic and
stative verbs. Here are a few examples to
illustrate that the above-mentioned stative
verbs can sometimes be used dynamically.
• The verb be and the verb have are in most
cases used as stative verbs, but when be is not
used as a linking verb and have is not used in
the sense of "possession", they are dynamic
verbs and therefore admit of the progressive
aspect, e.g.:
He/s being foolish ( = is acting foolishly).
We're having a wonderful time ( = are enjoying
ourselves).
• The verbs resemble and cost are stative verbs
when they are used to mean respectively "be
like" and "be worth", but when used in other
meanings, these two verbs just like dynamic
verbs can occur in the progressive. Compare:
•
He resembles his father. / He is resembling his
father ( =is becoming more and more like his
father) as the years go by.
•
This camera costs 140 dollars. / This mistake is
costing us dearly ( = is bringing great injury to us).
• Perception verbs when used in a nonvolitional sense are stative verbs, but when
used in a volitional sense are dynamic verbs.
Compare :
•
I (can) feel a pin in it somewhere. / I'm
feeling this cushion.
•
I (can) taste pepper in it. / I'm tasting this
soup.
• Attitudinal verbs such as think,, imagine, understand
are stative verbs, but they can occasionally be used
dynamically to express different meanings, e.g.,
Be quiet. I'm thinking ( = giving thought to a problem).
Surely you're imagining things ( = entertaining or
indulging yourself with illusions).
There are also cases of a special polite use of the
progressive with verbs like want, hope, wonder, etc.
Were you wanting to see me?
I'm hoping you'll look after the children for us.
Classification of verbs ( II )
• According to word formation and
grammatical forms, English verbs may be
divided into single-word verbs and phrasal
verbs, finite verbs and non-finite verbs,
regular verbs and irregular verbs.
Single-word verbs and phrasal verbs
• A single-word verb is a verb that consists of
only one word. Most verbs are single-word
verbs.
• A phrasal verb is a verb that is composed of
two or more words. Phrasal verbs are
subclassified into three categories:
• a) Verb + preposition, e.g..
He couldn't account for his long absence from
school. In the valley we came across a group of
Mexicans.
The police are looking into the case.
• b) Verb + adverb particle, e.g..
A fire broke out during the night.
The meeting has been called off.
Put the light on, would you?
C) Verb + adverb particle + preposition, e.g..
Will this enthusiasm carry over to the next week?
I don't want to come down with the flu again.
I will have to fill in for Wally until he gets back.
• Compare the transitive pattern with a particle and
preposition.
I don't think it's fair that you should come home
after a bad day at work and take it out on me and the
children.
• Phrasal verbs are verbal idioms which are
equivalent to single word verbs, transitive
or intransitive, and which are different from
simple verbal combinations where the
meanings are easily guessed from the parts.
• There are also constructions such as verb +
noun + preposition and verb + noun, which are
also grouped under the category of phrasal
verbs, e.g....
•
She soon realized that she was being made fun
of.
•
She indulged in luxury and made a mess of
her life.
•
The house has changed hands several times.
•
Very soon the seeds germinated and took root.
• Finite verbs and non-finite verbs
English main verbs have two finite forms and three
non-finite forms. The two finite forms are the present
tense and the past tense; the three non-finite forms are
the infinitive (including the bare infinitive and the toinfinitive), the -ing participle and the –ed participle.
Finite verbs are marked for tense, and non-finite verbs
have no tense distinctions. The five forms mentioned
above are known as the five grammatical forms. The
so-called base form is the uninflected form which is
given in dictionaries.
Most auxiliaries have the present and past tense forms
but not all the three non-finite forms except for the
primary auxiliary be. The modal auxiliaries do not
have the non-finite forms or the base.
Regular verbs and irregular verbs
Verbs whose past tense and -ed participle
forms are predictable are referred to as regular
verbs, and those with unpredictable past and / or
-ed participle forms are called irregular verbs.
The large majority of verbs are regular verbs;
they derive their past tense and -ed participle
forms by adding -ed to the base. In addition, any
new verb which enters the lexicon adopts the
regular pattern.
• Irregular verbs do not derive their past tense and -ed
participle forms in the predictable way of adding -ed
to the base but take on irregular forms. Irregular
verbs are limited in number and can be listed in three
groups: the first group of irregular verbs have one
and the same form for the base, past tense and -ed
participle; the second group have one form for the
base, and a different form for the past tense and -ed
participle; the third group have different forms for
the base, past tense and -ed participle.
A Survey of Tense, Aspect, Voice and Mood
In this section we are going to have a quick
survey of the four important grammatical
categories of the English verb: tense, aspect,
voice and mood.
• Tense and aspect
•
TENSE is a grammatical form associated with
verbs that tells of the distinctions of time; that is
to say, tense and time are at once related and
different. Time is a universal concept with three
divisions: past time, present time and future time.
When the notion of time, which is common to all
mankind, is expressed linguistically, one way of
doing this is by means of tense.
• In this respect, English differs from French, for
instance, which is capable of referring to future
time by means of future tense. English verbs have
two tenses: the present tense and the past tense.
There is no obvious future tense corresponding to
the time / tense parallel for present and past.
Instead there are a number of possibilities of
denoting future time. Chinese, which is not an
inflectional language, is all the more different. All
this goes to show that despite universality each
language has its own particularity.
• ASPECT as a grammatical term indicates
whether an action or state at a given time is
viewed as complete or incomplete. English
verbs have two aspects: the progressive
aspect and the perfective aspect.
• A combination of the two tenses and the two
aspects makes it possible for a finite verb
phrase to take the following eight forms
(with the main verb play as an example) :
• TENSE-ASPECT
ACTIVE VOICE
Simple Present
plays
Simple Past
played
Present Progressive
is playing
Past Progressive
was playing
Present Perfective
has played
Past Perfective
had played
Present Perfective Progressive has been playing
Past Perfective Progressive
had been playing
• Active voice and passive voice
•
VOICE is a grammatical category. It is a form
of the verb which shows whether the subject of a
sentence acts or is acted on. English verbs have
two voices: the active voice and the passive voice.
When the subject is the agent or doer of an action,
the verb takes the form of active voice; if, on the
other hand, the subject is the recipient of the
action, the verb takes the form of passive voice. A
sentence / clause whose predicator (predicate verb)
is passive is called a passive sentence.
• The passive voice is formed by the auxiliary
be + -ed participle of the transitive verb.
Since the auxiliary be can take different
forms of tense and aspect, we have six
passive constructions: the simple present,
the simple past, the present progressive, the
past progressive, the present perfective and
the past perfective, e.g.:
• The boy/s regarded as brilliant.
•
This book was published in 1998.
•
The visitors are being met at the airport.
•
He told me that the machine was being
repaired.
•
The car has been tuned up.
•
Last month, the new road had been opened
to traffic.
• Of the three non-finite forms, the infinitive
and the -ing participle can occur in the passive,
simple and perfective. The passive infinitives
(with the main verb play as an example) are:
(to) be played and (to) have been played. The
passive -ing participles are being played and
having been played.
• "Modal auxiliary / semi-auxiliary +
infinitive" combinations are made passive
by using a passive infinitive, which may
occur in the simple or in the perfective form,
e.g.:
•
These shoes will have to be repaired.
•
His hair must have been dyed.
• When the passive is formed by get + -ed
participle, it is called get-passive, as
distinguished from be-passive, which is
formed by auxiliary be + -ed participle. In the
get-passive, which also has the six finite forms,
the Verb get performs the same function as the
auxiliary be, but get is not itself an auxiliary.
Unlike the auxiliary be, get cannot be used as
operator in a negative statement or in a
question.
• Compare:
It was broken.
It got broken
It wasn't broken.
It didn't get broken.
How was it broken? How did it get broken?
• When a get-passive is used, stress is usually
laid on the result of the action, rather than
on the action itself. This construction is
often used to denote sudden and unexpected
happenings in contexts initiated by such
expressions as "In the end", "Eventually",
"At last", etc.
• Indicative mood, imperative mood and
subjunctive mood
•
MOOD, as a grammatical category, is a finite verb
form that indicates whether an utterance expresses a
fact (indicative mood), a command or request
(imperative mood), or a non-fact and hypothesis
(subjunctive mood), e.g.:
•
He goes to church every Sunday.
•
Don ' t be late for school. Go to school at once.
•
Mother insisted that he go to hospital at once.
• The indicative mood is unmarked, and over
90% of English sentences are expressed in
this mood. The imperative mood is marked
only when it occurs in an imperative sentence.
Likewise, the subjunctive mood is marked
only when it occurs in certain contexts, and is
not so complicated as described in traditional
grammars.
• In modern English, hypothetical and nonfactual meanings can be expressed by a
number of grammatical constructions, ie by
the simple past / the past progressive / the
past perfective, by the past tense of modal
auxiliaries + infinitive / perfective infinitive,
or by a special verb form denoting
hypothesis---the subjunctive mood, e.g.
• It's time we had a rest.
• How I wish I had gone there with you!
• I would be there by now if I had started
earlier.
• It is a good thing that he recognize his faults.
• If I were you, I would not go there.
• There are two forms of the subjunctive, besubjunctive and were-subjunctive. The besubjunctive takes the base form and the weresubjunctive has only the were form. Both are
remnants of Old English.
•
All this goes to show that modern English has
not a developed mood system, on which we are
not going to dwell too much in the present book.
Finite verb phrases and non-finite
verb phrases
• Depending on whether they are marked for
tense, a distinction is made between finite
verb phrases and non-finite verb phrases.
Finite verb phrases
As has been mentioned before, the verb phrase is a
phrase with a main verb as its head. A verb phrase
may consist of a main verb only; it may also be
composed of one or more than one auxiliary +
main verb. Whatever the form of a verb phrase, so
long as its first element is finite, it is a finite verb
phrase.
• As English verbs have two tenses (the
present tense and the past tense) and two
aspects (the progressive aspect and the
perfective aspect), a combination of the two
tenses and the two aspects makes it possible
for a finite verb phrase to take the following
forms (with the verb do as an example)
• TENSE-ASPECT ACTIVE VOICE
VOICE
• Simple Present
does
• Simple Past
did
• Present Progressive is doing
• Past Progressive
was doing
• Present Perfective
has done
• Past Perfective
had done
• Present Perfective
has been doing
• Past Perfective
had been doing
PASSIVE
is done
was done
is being done
was being done
has been done
had been done
Progressive
Progressive
Non-finite verb phrases
• A non-finite verb phrase is a verb phrase
whose first element is a non-finite verb
form--an infinitive, an -ing participle or an
–ed participle. Though not marked for tense,
non-finite verb phrases except for the -ed
participle phrase, may take the following
aspect forms (with the verb do as an
example):
• INFINITIVE
ACTIVE VOICE
PASSIVE VOICE
• Simple Form
(to) do
(to) be done
• Progressive
(to) be doing
• Perfective
(to) have done
(to) have been done
• Perfective
• Progressive
(to) have been doing