grammatical categories of the verb

8/10/2019 Grammatical Categories of the Verb

1/26

1.

Grammatical Categories of the verb

The verb is part of the speech denoting action, process or state. The meaning of the verb is

combination between its semantic and grammatical structure. Compared to the other parts of the

speech the verb has the largest number of grammatical categories: person, number, tense, aspect,

voice, mood and modality.

Person and number:

There is only s for third person singular in present simple tense. All others have zero morphemes.!.: ", #ou, $e, They % play &e, 'he, "t % plays

Tense:

This is grammatical term with which we denote time. Tense and time are different. Tense bears the

morphological and grammatical concept and time( real time, astrological.

)ast tense *uture tense

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

+ow real time-

AT)

very tense may have different time reference. There are two tenses( present and past. $e dont

spea about future tense but only about the way of e!pressing futurity.

present 'imple( wor wors( /rdsg- past'imple( wored

Continuous( is0are woring Continuous( was0were woring

)erfect( have0has wored )erfect( had wored

)erfect continuous( have0has been woring )erfect continuous( had been woring

Futurity 'imple- will wor

Continuous( will be woring

)erfect( will have wored

)erfect continuous( will have been woring

The clear tenses are present simple and past simple. All other tenses have aspects.

Aspect:

"t refers to the manner in which the verb action is regarded or e!perienced. The choice of aspect is

matter of a particular view of the doer. There are two aspects( perfective and imperfective. They are

opposed to verbs that are not mared for aspect. )resent simple and past simple are not mared for

aspect.!.: At the beginning " was really surprised to see her and " dropped my glasses.

The choice of aspect depends on the semantics of the verb and basically verbs are divided into

stative and dynamic verbs.

'tative verbs: that present or mean e!istence( go, become, get, come

related to mental process( now, remember, thin

emotional states( love, lie, hate

have, be( they can be used as stative or dynamic-

The basic difference is that stative verbs do not present process and cannot tae progressive aspect

while dynamic verbs can tae both. 1erbs which present a process of development have progressive

aspect and have continuous tenses.

!.: 2ohn loves 3ary. 'he is playing basetball at the moment.

There are e!clusions of this rule. There is possibility for stative verbs to be used in continuous

tenses but in such case they bear different meaning.


2/26

oice:

1oice is grammatical category of the verb which maes it possible to view the action in a sentence

in two different ways regarding the participant in the situation- without changing the reported facts.

nglish has two voices( active and passive.

!.: &e wrote a letter. active-

A letter was written by him-. passive-

)assive voice e!presses the point of view of the speaer to rearrange the information in the

sentence-. $hen we are taling about passive voice we should distinguish transitive and intransitive

verbs. "ntransitive verbs do not need an ob4ect and they dont have passive aspect.

!.: &e 4umped.

Transitive verbs need ob4ect and they form passive.

!.: 2ohn built these houses. active- sub4. predicate direct ob4ect

These houses were built by 2ohn. passive- sub4. predicate prep. 5b4ect

6itransitive verbs have two ob4ects and they can form two sentences in passive.!: 2ohn gave 3ary a iss.

3ary was given a iss by 2ohn-.

A iss was given to 3ary by 2ohn-.

$hat is important for active and passive verb sentences is that in passive we are changing only the

surface structure but the deep structure remains the same, we change the syntactic roles but there is

no change in the semantic roles.

agent theme theme agent

2ohn wrote a letter. A letter was written by 2ohn. sub4. pred. d. ob4ect sub4. pred. prep. ob4ect

"n these sentences we have one and the same prop. content. $ith the sentences in passive voice we

show our interest towards the result and that is why we often omit the by(phrase. $e use the passive

voice in order to sound impersonal.

There are three characteristics in passive voice:

7. noun(phrase movement sub4ect (8ob4ect and ob4ect(8sub4ect-

9. verb movement active(8passive-

/. topicalization new information(8old information-

3iddle verbs( they appear to be transitive as the basic structure is the same but they cannot form

passive.

!: This suit suits you well.

)seudo passive( clauses that loo lie passive but they are not. !: The door was opened. The door was open.

rgative constructions: active form but passive meaning

!: The cheese cuts easily.

et passive: in spoen language when something is not all right, it shows irritation.

!: They were awarded a +obel prize.0They got awarded a +obel prize.

!ood:

"t shows the attitude of the speaer0writer to the action or state described by the verb. "t is the way

in which verb forms are used to show whether the clause is a statement, a command, a re;uest or

if clause. There are four types of mood:( indicative

( imperative

( sub4unctive


3/26

( conditional

"ndicative mood represent the verbal situation reported by the speaer as part of reality. They are

used to mae a statement or a ;uestion.

!: 2ohn often visits the pool.

&as 3arry given you the booocative place-: go to the grocers0chemists

[. Time: in two wees time\ in two wee time

]. Bouble: a friend of mine

^. roup: my mother and my fathers house

_. )artitive: a cats tail part of a whole-

7@. enitive of origin: a generals letter he is a receiver or a sender-

$.

%ord &rder in !odern 'nglish

Traditionally the word has been defined as a unit covering a single meaning or e!pressing a single

thought. 'ingle meaning however can be conveyed not only by single words but also by word

se;uences. *or e!ample phrasal verbs and idioms:

3ary winds him around her little finger.

ach word can cover two or more bits of meaning. $ords are certainly the largest units which

resist rearrangement, interruption and insertion of additional material between their constituentparts.

$ords have different combinatory power. *rom syntactic point of view they fall into:

( open clauses( le!ical items that are the head of phrases( +, 1, A, Adv.

( closed clauses( prepositions )-, comp., con4., etc.

( uni;ue function clauses( inter4unctions

All words have fi!ed position in the sentences and they have different combinatory power. $ord

order plays an important role in nglish. The analytic character of the language has contributed for

some fi!ed syntactic patterns some of which have not only grammatical but also emotional

meaning. The position of any element is of primary importance because of the lac of many

morphological mars. The usual word order in nglish is '(1(5 which is the seleton of the simple

sentence. "n such structure the most important rule is that the sub4ect should stand in front of theverb.

!: )eter beats 2ohn.

' 1 5


7/26

ach element determines in a way the ne!t one and this is called linear structure. 'entences are

produced and received in linear se;uence. The se;uence of the elements carries the meaning of the

sentence. The directionality is from left to right. This reflects the basic word order which is '(1(5.

!: 2ohn illed 6ill.

6ill illed 2ohn. the rearrangement causes ill(formedness-

nglish is a sub4ect constrained language. The sub4ect is always an obligatory overt constituent. "t

doesnt leave its position. "f omitted the sentence turns to be ungrammatical. As the basic word

order is '15 the sub4ect is always in the initial position which means it functions as topic. very

sentence possesses:

( syntactic form: word classes( head, le!ical categories, phrasal categories

!: 2ohn ordered a cup of tea.

'

+) 1)

2ohn 1 +)

ordered a cup of tea

( syntactic function: sub4ect, predicate, operator

'

'ub4. )redicate 2ohn )redication

1erb 5b4ect``.

ordered a cup of tea

2ohn will bring a cup of tea.

'

+) 1)

2ohn 5per. 1 1)

will bring a cup of tea

(istributionis the set of possible appearance for an element. The two basic procedures used in

syntactic test are substitution and combination. 6asic test operation is substitution. "f an element canbe substituted by another one in the sentence structure then both elements belong to one and the

same word class. "f an element can be combined with another one then each of them belongs to a

different word class as they tae different syntactic position, which reflects the syntagmatic relation

between the elements in the syntactic structure " saw 2im.0" saw him.-.

very sentence presents a multilevel structure in which each individual element at the lowest level

belongs to either on its own or together ad4acent element at the ne!t higher level and further to the

highest level, which in synta! is the category sentence. The elements are referred to as constituents.

Constituent is a linguistic unit which is an element of a larger construction.

!: The police e!pelled Dthe teachers Dfrom 'ofiaEE.

According to their formal feature sentences are:

7. 3inor( not '() structure, allow substitution of elements, cannot be transformed into passive&appy Christmas=, Bown with 2ohn=-

9. 3a4or( fully developed '() structure, substituted by other elements turn into passive, can

e!pand by addition of other elements. 3a4or sentences fall into four sub types according to

their function:

(eclaratives )*&

"n the declarative word order the sub4ect of the sentence appears first followed by the predicate.

!: " saw your dog in the par.

'ometimes some elements of the complete predicate may be placed at the beginning of the sentence

in front of the sub4ect. *ronting shifts emphasis from the sub4ect to the fronted element.

!: At the beach " always feel content.

The sentence begins with the adverbial at the beach. Though the phrase precedes the sub4ect " itis still part of the complete predicate. The adverbial at the beach modifies the verb to feel.

Biagrams of declarative sentences are very straight forward.

!: Those four small dogs dug the holes.


8/26

' 1 5

dogs dug holes

those four small

+nterrogative ) &perator *&

There is no inversion. They as ;uestions. They are divided into three types: general ;uestions yes(

no ;uestions-, special ;uestions wh(- and tag ;uestions.

!: &e is crazy. declarative-

"s he crazy< general-

$hat is he< special-

&e is crazy, isnt he< tag ;uestion-

The difference between declaratives and interrogatives is in the surface structure and it is a result of

a movement called operator fronting. The operator is the only element of the compl. predicate

which can move, the sub4ect never leaves its position.

&e is playing football.0< 1@ 17 19 1/ 1Y

operator au!. au!. au!. verb

eneral ;uestions( #es(+o ;uestions

The formation is a one(step(operation( operator fronting. The operator leaves its position and goes

in compl. slot, leaving a trace in the deep structure.

'

Comp. '

+) 1)

5p. +)

&e is reading a boo.

'pecial ;uestions $h( ;uestions-

They begin with an interrogative word. There are several steps in forming:

( replacement of part of the preposition in declarative sentence with wh(word substitution-

( movement of wh(word( movement of the operator

There are two traces in the deep structure because there are two movements.

'

Comp. '

+) 1)

5p. +)

&e is reading a boo.

whateech there seven 7 Z 7- types of meaning: conceptual meaning

denotative, referential-, connotative, stylistic, affective, reflective, collocative and thematic. *ive of

them connotative, stylistic, affective, reflective and collocative- constitute the so called general

category of associative meaning.

Conceptual meaning( it is about the neutral le!is, sometimes called cognitive or denotative(

assumed to be the central factor in linguistic communications. "t can be interpreted as a bundle of

distinctive features. "t is based on two structural principles:

( the principle of contrastiveness:

!: boy human, (adult, (female

irl human, (adult, female

( the second principle is mainly concerned in synta! it is called constituent structure( larger

syntactic units are built of small ones:

!: sentence

sub4. predicate

determiner noun verb complement

The boy is tall.

The colourless green ideas sleep furiously.The second e!ample presents a sentence that is acceptable form grammatical point of view but it is

unacceptable from semantic point of view meaningless-.

Connotative meaning presents the relation between the linguistic sign and its user. "t includes the

semantic features of the referent and also the socio(cultural specific of the users of different

languages and the particular period of time. "t varies according to culture, historical periods and the

e!perience of the individual e!: marsist( 6ulgarian before and after 7_^_-.

'tylistic meaning refers to the situation in which the communicative act taes place. The stylistic

variations depend on the dialect time from a historical point of view, participation( field

communication- social status, individuality. The most general distinction is between spoen and

written language -domicile( very formal, residence( formal, home( general, abode( poetic-.

Affective meaning reflects the speaers attitude and feelings. "t has something in common withpoliteness and rudeness.

!: " am terribly sorry to interrupt, but " wonder if you would be so ind as to open the

window, please=

5pen the window right now=

eflective meaning deals with words which have more than one conceptual meanings and one of

the meanings influence ones understanding of another meaning. "t is usually met with polysemantic

words that have taboo meanings.

!: gay( 7. 4oyful, 9. homose!ual coc( rooster

Collocative meaning regards the association which a word re;uires depending on the other words

that appear in its immediate environment.

!: pretty( girl, woman, flower handsome( boy, man, carThematic meaning deals with the focus and emphasis of the message. "t is mainly a matter of choice

between alternative grammatical constructions. 5ne and the same propositional content can be

given different prominence by different le!ico(grammatical and international means.

!: &is father owns this car.

"t is this car that is owned by his father.

This car belongs to his father.

This is his fathers car.

11.

Polysemy and 3omonymy

Polysemy


23/26

The bul of nglish words are polysemantic, that is to say possess more than one meaning

polysemy-. )olysemy has language economy effect. The various additional meaning of one and the

same word are also called connotations head( part of the body, chief, the highest part-. Those

connotations have different abilities to combine with other words semantically but not

grammatically. The grammatical forms of the various meanings are the same. The conte!t gives the

clue to which connotation of a given word functions at the moment. 'ome words preserve all their

old meaning and may meanwhile ac;uire new ones, while others may lose some of the older

meanings connotations-.

Biachronic approach( polysemy implies that a word may retain its previous meaning or meanings

and at the same time ac;uire one or several new ones.

!: table( the primary meaning is a flat slot of stone or wood in 5 tabule from >atine

tabula- all other meanings are secondary as they are derived from the primary meaning and

appeared later.

'ynchronic approach( polysemy as the co(e!istence of various meanings of the same word at a

certain historical period of the development of the nglish language. 'ome of the meanings are

more central, others( peripherical. A criterion of the comparative value of individual meaning seems

to be the fre;uency of their occurrence in speech.

&owever as the semantic structure is never static, the relationship between the diachronic andsynchronic evaluation of individual meaning may be different in different period of the historical

development of the language.

'ources of )olysemy

7. 'hift of application. This is the main source of polysemy green( color, unripe, young,

tender wear( one wears a dress and from a long use it wears out-.

9. 'pecialization( technical terms parts of the body( hand, finger, foot-. The opposite tendency

may also be observed in everyday speech to gear( to put into gear-.

/. *igurative e!pression &e combed the streets. 3ountains of language.-.

Y. 6orrowing( in nglish a word of foreign origin may have a different meaning from what it

has in other language. "n some cases the old meaning is preserved actual-.

3echanisms of shifting of the meaning7. adiation( the basic meaning is at the center and all other connotations are directly

connected with it.

9. Concetenation( union by lining together one meaning develops from the basic one though

it gives rise to yet another one and so no-

!: heart: ( set of emotion ( set of love ( set of courage

/. )olysemy and conte!t( the meaning or meaning of polysemantic words observed only in

certain conte!ts may be view as determined either by linguistic conte!ts or e!tra(linguistic

conte!ts. The two types of linguistic conte!ts which serve to determine individual meaning

of words are the le!ical conte!t and the grammatical conte!t.

!: le!ical conte!t: heavy( heavy load, heavy rain, heavy industry

grammatical conte!t: to mae( mae tea, mae good friend3omonymy

&omonyms are words identical in form but different in meaning.

Classification of homonyms

7. Complete homonyms( only words belonging to one and the same grammatical category

words are homonyms all through their grammatical paradigms-

!: bo!: 7. " put my shoes in the bo!. 9. very 'unday " play bo! with my friend.

club: 7. They go to disco clubs. 9. " broe my club.

9. )artial( includes words homonymous in some of their grammatical forms

!: lie( lied( lied( RUS

lie( lay( lain( RQUS

lay( laid( laid( NLWMPXSV, RQUS( words belonging to different grammatical categories may become partial homonyms e!:

provided( ad4., past tense of to provide-


24/26

( another case of partial homonymy is due to conversion where usually the infinitive of the

verb and the singular form of the noun are e!actly the same but the rest forms are different

e!: fires( pl. of fire and /rdp. sg. of to fire-

*ormal classification

7. &omophones( homonyms which coincide in sound but differ in spelling now0no pair0

pear hair0hare-.

9. &omographs( homonyms which coincide in spelling but differ in sound and meaning bow

DbouE0DbauE lead Dli:dE0DledE tear DtiE0DtE-.

/. )erfect homonyms( identical both in spelling and sound but different in meaning grave(

n.0ad4., long( ad4.0v.-

'ources of homonymy

7. &istorical reasons( some words which were not homonyms in 5ld and 3iddle nglish

became homonymous due to certain changes either in their written form or in their

pronunciation right( write 3ay( may by( buy meat(met sea(see-.

9. 6orrowings( the borrowed word may preserve its original spelling and 0or pronunciation or

may undergo some changes form *rench ;uai( ey, rein(rain from ree scene( seen-

/. 'emantic reasons( in some cases it is difficult to distinguish homonymy from polysemy.

!: Dflau:E % flower0flour from *rench fleur"n contemporary nglish the two words are felt to be homonymous rather than forms of a

pysemantic words.

Y. Contractions: flu( flew

Z. Bialecticism, 4argonism and childrens speech are also sources of homonymy 3ummy(

mummy- in cocney dialects DeiE is pronounced as DaiE( day(die, may(my

[. )aradigmatic homonyms( girls( girls( girls( ways of avoiding misunderstanding.

]. 'tress:

( noun e!port, ob4ect, refuse- ( verb e!port, ob4ect, refuse-

^. 'pelling( sun( son, right( write

_. 'ubstitution: mean( interior mean( intermediate, meantime, meanwhile

7@. Addition( by adding something the sole of her foot, instead of her sole, which can bemistaen for soul-.

1".

*ynonymy and &ppositeness

*ynonymsare words different in their sound(form but similar in their denotational meaning and

interchangeable at least in some conte!ts. They belong to one and the same part of speech

beautiful, pretty, handsome( ad4.-. 'ynonyms refer the same e!tralinguistic phenomena and they

have the same denotative meaning. &owever, every meaning may have different nuances. Thusdifferent words may stress one feature or another, or other words, they have different connotations.

*rom paradigmatic point of view in a given group of synonyms the separate word may belong to

different style, register or genre( some of them may be more collo;uial, more formal, slang, others

may be technical or vulgar, etc. goodbye, farewell, adieu-. "n every cluster of synonyms there is

usually one word which is stylistically neuter and stands for the basic general concept. This word is

called the synonym dominant.

'ources of synonymy

7. eference to the emotions is a productive source of synonyms and this is especially true for

phrases a big fish, to drin lie a fish-.

9. Affected speech also gives rise to synonyms

/. Archaism and borrowings e!: cowardice *r.-( fear, answer( reply, buy( purchase-.Y. veryday speech, 4argon, dialects man(fellow, guy, chap-

Classification of synonymy


25/26

7. Absolute synonyms( words identical in meaning without any difference whatever. They can

be always substituted for one another in any ind of conte!t without changing the meaning

of the te!t. They are very rare. Fsually this is the case with some scientific terms grouped

around one invention z( spirant, fricative-

9. elative synonyms are words standing for the same notion but varying in the shade of

meaning they may differ in the degree, emotional colors and range of usage. This is actually

the largest group of synonyms.

!: to do and to mae( " do my homewor, she maes a cae.

to shine, to glare, to glitter, to sparle, to flash

ill, assassinate, murder, slaughter

The choice of one or another word from a group of synonyms depends on the semantic

conte!t. 'ynonyms can also be dialectal and regional flesher( butcher, glen( valley, autumn(

fall-. egister varies along three dimensions: field, mode, style. *ield refers to the topic or

field of discourse: legal, political. 3ode is concerned with the manner of transmission of a

linguistic message( whether it is spoen, written, phone(call, etc.

/. 'tylistic synonyms( they often differ not so much in meaning as in their emotional

connotations poetry, for instance, maes use of such words: maid for girl, eve for

evening, vale for valley-.Y. )hraseological synonyms are words synonymous only in phrases. That is a wod has to have

several connotations which become clear from the conte!t0phrase.

&ppositeness

6asic types of opposites:

5ppositeness

Complementarity Autonomy Converseness

single(married good(bad husbad(wife

! 8 y y 8 (! passive, case

y 8 (! compatibility

incompatibility

Complementariness is a special is a special use of incompatibility dead(alive, male(female, single(

married-. 'yntactic test: ;uestion0logical relation

(! 8 y &e is dead. &e is alive.

y 8 (! &e is not alive. &e is not dead.

Benial of ! implies ynot single % married

Assertion of y implies !married % not single

Benial of both is impossibleThe door is neither open nor shut.

+on(gradableslightly pregnant, very dead

Color terms are specific case of complementaries as the # is a range of possibilities.

Antonyms

6asic characteristics:

( they are fully gradable

( both elements denote degrees of a particular property

( allow preceding intensifiers as a result of their attachment the final phrases denote more

distant relation than the original words very good( very bad-

( present different stages of appro!imation to @ but never reach @ value

( there is neuter area between the e!tremes, negation test allows: 2ohn neither lies nor

dislies 3ary.

Test: negation, syntactic transformations # 8 (

Assertion of # implies the denial of . !: 2ohn is good.2ohn is bad.

2ohn is bad.2ohn is not good.

2ohn is not good.< 2ohn is bad.


26/26

2ohn is not bad.< 2ohn is good.

Converses( use of incompatibility e!: husband(wife, tae(bring, buy( sell, lend( borrow-. There

are two tests( syntactic and pasivization:

( 'yntactic: +)7 is of +)9 \ +)9 is # of +)7.

2ohn is 3arys husband. \ 3ary is 2ohns wife.

)eter is &elens brother. \ &elen is )eters sister.

+)7 +)9 from +)/ \ +)/ # +)9 to +)7

2ohn bought a boo from 'am. \ 'am sold a boo 2ohn.

( )assivization

+)9 was en by +)7 \ A boo was bought by 2ohn.

+)9 was #en by +)/ \ A boo was sold by 'am.

grammatical categories of the verb

Documents