Verb: the Category of Mood

The Verb

The general review

Grammatically, the verb is the most complex part of speech. This is due to the central role it performs in the expression of the predicative function of the sentence, i.e. the functions establishing the connection between the situation named in the utterance and reality.

The complexity of the verb is inherent not only in the intricate structure of its grammatical, categories, but also in its various subclass divisions.

The complicated character of the grammatical and lexico-grammatical structure of the verb has given rise to much dispute and controversy and also terminological disagreements among the scholars. The general categorical meaning of the verb is process.

A verb is a word (e.g.: to run) or a phrase (e.g.: run out of), which expresses the existence of a state (love, seem) or the doing of an action (take, play).

From the point of view of their outward structure, verbs may be simple, composite and phrasal.

The original simple verbs are not numerous (go, take, real, etc).

But conversion (zero-suffixation) as means of derivation, greatly enlarges the simple stem set of verbs. It is one of the most productive ways of forming verbs in ME.

Ex.: a cloud - to cloud, a house - to house, a man - to man, a park - to park.

The typical suffixes expanding the stem of the verb are: -ate; -en; -ify; -izy.

The verb-deriving prefixes are:

Be- (e.g.: belittle, befriend, bemoan);

En- (e.g.: engulf, embed);

Re- (e.g.: remake);

Under- (e.g.: undergo);

Over- (e.g.: overestimate);

Sub- (e.g.: submerge);

Mis- (e.g.: misunderstand)

The composite verb stems (blackmail, whitewash, etc).

Phrasal verbs occupy an intermediate position between analytical forms of the verb and syntactic word combinations. Among such stems 2 specific constructions should be mentioned:

A) a combination of the head-verb (have, give, take and some others) with a noun; the combination has its equivalent an ordinary verb. Ex.: to have a smoke - to smoke; to give a smile - to smile; to take a stroll - to stroll.

B) а combination of a head verb with a verbal postposition that has a specificational value. Ex. stand up; go on; give in; be off, get along.

On the basis of the subject-process relation all the notional verbs be divided into actional and statal.

Actional verbs express the action performed by the subject. To this class belong such verbs as do, act, make, go, read, learn, discover, etc.