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

Verb types and their usages 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 semi-auxiliaries, 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 non-progressive 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 hard-and-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 non-volitional 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 to-infinitive), 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 non-factual 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, be-subjunctive and were-subjunctive. The be-subjunctive takes the base form and the were-subjunctive 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 PASSIVE VOICE Simple Present does is done Simple Past did was done Present Progressive is doing is being done Past Progressive was doing was being done Present Perfective has done has been done Past Perfective had done had been done Present Perfective has been doing Progressive Past Perfective had been doing 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