Chapter 1.

The Verb as a Lexical Class

THE VERB AS A LEXICAL CLASS Main issues: 1. Introduction and definition; 2. Verb classification criteria: the criterion of lexical interpretation; the criterion of formal interpretation; the criterion of functional interpretation; the criterion of structural interpretation; the criterion of distribution; the criterion of semantic interpretation. Learning objectives When you have studied this presentation you will be able: - to distinguish between various kinds of verbs (applying various criteria) - to analyze English verbs and characterize them from various perspectives 1. Introduction and definition Various tendencies have been recorded concerning the most accurate classification of the branches of general linguistics. The distinctions and the borderlines are sometimes so fuzzy that it is very difficult to both state and be unanimously accepted by the great majority of the linguists where one field stops and the other one begins. A huge amount of terminology has been accumulated in all these fields and, consequently, based on the same reality students have to face and get familiar with a considerable set of metalanguage. What follows is an attempt to simplify and clarify things, if verbs are considered to be one of the most important parts of speech. Many metaphors to emphasize their role have been produced along the years. Some say that the verb should be looked upon as the backbone of the English language, while the rest of the parts of speech would stand for its ribs. I should consider verbs to be the bricks of the language and the other lexical classes to be its mortar. This attitude explains the structure of this chapter which consists of two major directions, (a) a modest inquiry regarding the types of definitions provided for the English verb, and (b) the criteria according to which verbs are more easily described in terms of common features (be they formal or semantic). The definitions given to the verb as a lexical class vary both from one school of grammar to another and, very often from one linguist to another. Starting from didactical purposes if some definitions given to the verb are interpreted in point of the criterion they are based on, one could distinguish the ontology, the form or the function to have been used as primary criteria. Each of them may stand by itself to constitute the basis of the definition or one of the three may combine with another one. To make a good approach to the English verb some words on the definitions assigned to this lexical class should be considered. Grammarians very often say that it is practically impossible to give the exact and exhaustive definitions of the parts of speech (Jespersen 1966: 66). In an attempt to exemplify several types of definitions, we shall begin with a special version provided by Jespersen (1966:67), who does not explicitly define verbs, but exemplifies them using the terms activity, state and process:
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class [I] go, take, fight, surprise, eat, breathe, speak, walk, clean, play, call ([I am in] activity) [I] sleep, remain, wait, live, suffer ([I am in] a state) [I] become, grow, lose, die, dry, rise, turn ([I am in] a process) This stage of non-formulating a definition was not a common practice either at the beginning of the 20 th century or even much earlier. Palmer (1971:59) critically quotes Nesfields definition of the verb which is even worse [than that of the noun] because it is utterly uninformative A verb is a word used for saying something about something else. 1 Considering simplicity as a feature of the definitions given to the English verb, we shall quote Alexanders version (1988:159) A verb is a word ( run) or a phrase (run out of) which expresses the existence of a state ( love, seem) or the doing of an action (take, play). This is a late 20th century example of how simply a verb could be defined. Nevertheless, there also exist complex definitions to combine two criteria, which is the case of the following one which is based on a contrast between the noun group and the verb group: a clause which is used to make a statement contains a noun group, which refers to the person or thing that you are talking about, and a verb group, which indicates what sort of action, process, or state you are talking about. (CollinsCobuild 1994:137) Schibsbye (1970:1) defined the English verb taking into consideration the function and the content of the verb. In his system of reference the verb is functionally defined as the sentence-forming element of a word-group. Semantically, a definition of the verb in terms of its content is the most comprehensive, but also the vaguest. Generally, verbs may express an activity (and in this case their denominator is the auxiliary DO), a state (and in this case their denominator is the auxiliary BE), and a change (and in this case their denominator is the auxiliary GET), Although defining the English verb is a task, we suggest a simple version: the verb is the lexical class which includes words expressing actions, events, states, and processes. To classify English verbs is a very difficult task since literature offers a wide variety of criteria for such an end. Nevertheless, most of them show overlaps, viz. basic forms, composition, content, predication, etc. This presentation will also consider them and, possibly, some others, following the same linguistic description from form to content. 2. Verb Classification Criteria As mentioned in the preceding paragraph the classification of the verbs in English may prove difficult in that there may be numerous criteria to consider. This presentation does not intend to join all the possible criteria according to which verbs may be classified with a view to a certain purpose. a) the criterion of lexical interpretation Lexicologically classified, the verbs of the English language may be the result of derivation carried out either by means of prefixes or suffixes or by means of the double adding of the two lexical morphemes resulting in parasynthetic formations. Most frequently used verb forming suffixes are those of O.E., Latin or Greek origin. The prefixes of O.E. origin include fore(foresee, forego), out- (outlive, outnumber), and un-(uncover, undo), while those of Latin origin could be exemplified by ante- (antedate), con(concentrate) or col- (collaborate, collocate). The verb forming prefixes of
1

J.C. Nesfields Manual of English Grammar and Composition was published in 1898 .
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class Greek origin are usually exemplified by anti- (anticipate) and en- (enlarge, enrich, encourage). The most frequently used verb forming suffixes are en (strengthen, shorten), -ify (purify, humidify), -ise / -ize (oxidize, vaporize, civilise, modernise. organise). The combination of the above mentioned affixes may act to produce parasynthetic formations, such as simple simplify, oversimplify. Since English is known to be a very flexible language, this flexibility may account for the use of various parts of speech as verbs. Thus, as a result of conversion not only nouns may be used as verbs (hand to hand, face to face, paper to paper, iron to iron ) but adjectives and adverbs, too (for instance, black to black and slow to slow, out to out, respectively) . A very small number of verbs result from back-formation, where nouns are reduced to verbs, as in the following examples baby-sitter to baby-sit, blood-transfusion to blood-transfuse, or electrocution - to electrocute. Very frequently used in pop music, especially American pop music, are the contracted forms of verbs, such as aint (isnt or hasnt), lemme (let me), wanna (want to), gimme (give me). b) the criterion of formal interpretation Formally, the English verbs are regular (i.e. they form the past tense, the past participle and the indefinite participle according to several spelling and pronunciation rules) or irregular (where such rules are not applicable). The spelling rules for the basic forms of the regular verbs are included in the great majority of the volumes dedicated to the English verb and that is why we encourage the possible readers of this volume to look for further information in more popular grammars. c) the criterion of functional interpretation Functionally, the English verbs fall into two large categories: the full meaning, main or notional verbs and the (semi-)auxiliaries. c.1. Main verbs The English verbs have been defined considering their form and function. Thus, verbs may have a full meaning and play the key role to the whole sentence, which is the case with the lexical, main, principal or full verbs. Very numerous, they represent the larger group of verbs in English and they were denominated differently by the authors dealing with them. These notional, main, lexical or principal verbs (or full verbs) have an independent meaning and function in the sentence. They are used to form the simple verbal predicate and express an action, a state, an event of or about the person or the thing denoted by the subject. Palmer (1979:24) asserts that both modals and main verbs are basically verbs and both can, in theory, share the same grammatical features. Nevertheless, things are different with the two groups of verbs. The main verbs are thoroughly described in various books of grammar and because of this reason they will not be insisted on in this presentation. The aim of this volume is that of spotlighting those features or details not very frequently considered in the specialized literature. c.2. Auxiliary verbs They may be used in different positions. They are basically used as marks of grammatical categories, and quite often as modals, link verbs, or as
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class parts of compound predicates. As marks of grammatical categories they will help the speakers chronologically order the events they are talking about, to describe the phase of a process or activity or even a state, to underline who is doing something for someone else, to ask questions or to give negative answers. When they play the part of link verbs they are followed by a predicative to make up the nominal predicate. Out of these link verbs mention shall be made only of: to be, to become, to get, to remain, to appear, and to grow. The link verbs may be interpreted as a syntactical category by means of which the subject is connected with the predicative. They may be considered a morphological category similar to but not identical with that of the auxiliary verbs. Unlike auxiliaries, link verbs actually represent the tense and they preserve some of their lexical value. A special category of verbs which partially play the part of an auxiliary are the catenative verbs and they will be described in the last section dedicated to the auxiliary verbs. AUXILIARITY is a grammatical function which affects the verb phrase in various ways. It is expressed by the auxiliary or helping verbs. This group of verbs is subdivided by most of the grammarians into primary auxiliaries (BE, HAVE, DO) and modal auxiliaries (CAN, MAY, WILL, SHALL, COULD, MIGHT, SHOULD, WOULD and MUST). Despite this classification the auxiliary verbs share one common syntactic feature: they may act as operators when holding the first position within a verbal phrase. Thus, no matter whether expressed by primary or secondary or modal auxiliaries, operators will help building the interrogative and negative verb forms, as below: Is she working on our project or on her paper? Have they been building houses or blocks of flats? They wont do that job. She cannot play computer games. Does she not know the answer? Had they not finished that job before noon? Auxiliarity may join together up to four components, as exemplified by Quirk et al. (1985:120, figure 3.21): He Subject migh t aux.1 hav been being questione e d Verb phrase aux2 aux3 aux4 main verb by the police. by-phrase

c.2.1. Primary Auxiliaries The auxiliaries very few in number, have no lexical meaning, they are simply instruments by means of which grammatical or stylistic shades of meaning or are implied. They build up the analytical forms of the English verb. They may be the marks of grammatical specifications, such as: tense (perfect tenses), aspect (the progressive), tempo-aspectuality (perfective and imperfective progressivity), mood (subjunctive, conditional and imperative), voice (active, passive or causative patterns) and verbal forms (interrogative, negative and interrogative negative). The auxiliary carrying out a stylistic function is TO DO, when it is emphatically used. Even if these primary auxiliaries are mainly described for
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class their use as labels for the grammatical categories of tense, aspect and voice, they may frequently play the part of the verbal predicate of any sentence. BE This is the first of a long list of verbs, which may carry different meanings and may play different roles. It is intended to facilitate the understanding of the flexibility, which characterizes the English language. As a main verb, BE expresses existence, and displays a copular function: Jimmy is in his room. That is the Empire State Building. Mary is a beautiful girl. As an auxiliary it can occur in two different patterns: with the present participle of the full verbs to express aspectuality, i.e. progressivity or perfective progressivity: Miriam is learning Arabian. Her behaviour has been improving lately. or to express agentivity, with a main verb in the past participle: Madonna has been awarded lots and lots of prizes. Unlike the rest of the auxiliaries BE has a very high frequency of occurrence due to its flexibility in being both a mark of aspectual forms as well as an auxiliary for passive constructions. HAVE Have displays two different functions in the grammar of the English language, acting either as a main/full verb or as an auxiliary. In its full meaning value, have may be: statively used it expresses possession and may be replaced by the verbs to own and to possess or by the informal construction to have got: They have (got)/possess an impressive house. He does not have (own/possess) a ship but a fleet. I have (got) a splitting headache. dynamically used to subsume the senses of the verbs to receive, to take, to experience and of many other verbs, which may result from the combination have + eventive object as in to have a shower/dream/walk/talk/chat, etc.. Dynamically used the verb to HAVE normally expresses the interrogative and the negative with the help of the verb to DO: Does she have eggs with her breakfast? Did you have a good time on your holidays? With the same meaning, the verb may be followed by an object and a past participle in order to express the fact that the grammatical subject of a sentence causes someone else to carry out an action for him/her. The causal meaning of the verb to have is obvious in a context as: They subject had causal have their house object redecorated past participle last year. time adverbial

Quirk et al. (1985:132) include this pattern among the uses of the verb to HAVE as a main verb.
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class As an auxiliary the verb to HAVE is the mark of perfectivity (either simply used or in combination with progressivity or modality): She has just finished the translation. They had already translated the poem when the teacher entered the classroom. He will have been working in this shop for two years by the end of this month. You must have been working very hard for the last eight hours since you look exhausted. She may have said the truth but I doubt it. DO This is the last verb of the current section to exemplify the double status of some verbs, that of auxiliaries and full meaning/lexical verbs. As a main verb DO may be used: transitively She has done her homework and now she will go out for a walk. intransitively, as a verbal predicate: What have you been doing lately? Nothing of importance, Im afraid. as a pro-predication: I cannot work as hard as I did when I was younger. Like the verb to HAVE, DO may acquire various meanings depending on the object following it: The children will have to do the dishes: Mary will wash and Fred will dry them. Ben has always done my old alarm clock. (to repair) Bernadette has done really good essays this term. (to write) Have you done the silver, Maureen? (to polish) Betsy, do these potatoes, will you? (to peel or to cook) As an auxiliary, DO is the mark of the interrogative and in association with the negation not, the mark of the negative. Thus, with its auxiliary role it is used in: yes/no questions: Do they work hard? special questions (in the present or past tense simple): How did they start their business? When do they usually meet to discuss the further steps of their business? in negations (in the present or past tense simple): They dont earn as much as they dreamt they would. You didnt meet John yesterday. in question tags (when the verb in the assertive is in the present or past tense simple): They know the poem, dont they? Thomas does not understand Italian, does he? He stole his parents savings, didnt he? in reduced clauses where DO is the dummy operator preceding the ellipsis of a predication: Emily runs faster than I do. I did not watch TV but my sister did. unlike the other verbs DO is used emphatically (when the verb to be emphasized is in the present or past tense simple):
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class In emphatic positive constructions: I do love my children. Miriam did say she would help you, didnt she? in persuasive imperative: Do come and have a coffee with us tomorrow! May I use your phone? Yes, by all means, do. This very concise presentation of the dual character of some verbs should be well remembered. It particularizes one feature of the English verbs which arises from their flexibility in usage and which will be mentioned again in the case of other verbs (catenatives or marginal modals). c.2.2. MODAL AUXILIARIES The last group of verbs is represented by the modals or semi-auxiliaries (the pseudo-auxiliaries, or the quasi-auxiliaries) which have no independent meaning and consequently no independent function in the sentence. They are used as part of a (verbal or nominal) predicate. The main lexical meaning is comprised in the second element of the predicate which is expressed by a noun, an adjective or verbal. Syntactically, they are used in a finite form and express the predicative categories of person, and the rest of them already mentioned in the foregoing. As part of compound predicates these auxiliaries may equally accompany verbal and nominal predicates: They can go immediately. (compound verbal predicate) They must be being working very hard at this time of the day. (compound verbal predicate) They may be happy with their daughters success. (compound nominal predicate) The modal verbs which may display the two functions are shall, should, will and would. SHALL Shall behaves as an auxiliary in declarative sentences, in combination with the first person subject (both in the singular and in the plural) to express futurity related to a present reference: I/we shall go on a packing tour on 1 of July. SHOULD This is considered an auxiliary by those authors who admit the existence of the conditional mood in English. According to them, SHOULD combines with a first person subject and the bare infinitive of a main verb to suggest condition either seen from a present or past perspective. The combination I/we + should + present infinitive suggests present conditional: I should go to the theatre on condition we went Dutch. A merge cu tine la teatru cu condiia ca fiecare s-i plteasc biletul. The pattern I/we + should + have + past participle will suggest the idea of past conditional: I should have gone to the theatre on condition we had gone Dutch. Should is also considered as an auxiliary to express (perfect) futurity related to a past reference:
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class I/we admitted I/we should go on a packing tour the next week. I promised I should have copied the text in less than an hour. WILL This verb behaves as an auxiliary in declarative sentences having a second or third person subject to suggest (perfect) futurity related to present reference: You/She/They will go on a packing tour next month. You/She/They will have made up their minds by this time tomorrow. WOULD This is another example of verb displaying a double function: As an auxiliary it is always preceded by a second or third person subject (singular or plural) and followed by an infinitive to suggest condition: the pattern You /she/ they + would + infinitive suggests a) a present conditional (in subordinate clauses expressing a condition): She would join him to the theatre on condition they went Dutch. b) simple futurity related to a past reference: They told us they would set out on a cruise on the Mediterranean next year. the pattern you / she / they + would + have + past participle suggests: a) a past conditional: She would have accepted his invitation on condition they had gone Dutch. b) perfect futurity related to a past reference: The children promised their parents they would have done their homework before 5 p.m. c.2.3. LINK/COPULATIVE VERBS The link or linking verbs are those verbs, which link together the subject and the complement of one sentence to express qualities or features regarding the subject. They may be used to convey two different meanings: to indicate a state or to indicate a result. The former group of link verbs represents the current linking verbs whose purpose is that of indicating a state and they include to appear (happy), to lie (scattered), to remain (uncertain, perplexed, a bachelor), to seem (restless, a mindful person, an efficient secretary, successful businessman), to stay (young), to smell (sweet), to sound (surprised), to taste (bitter). Why, indeed, he does seem to have had some filial scruples on that head, as you will hear. (J. Austen, 1970: 97) The latter group i.e., the linking verbs expressing result indicate that the role of the verb complement is a result of the event or process described in the verb. This group includes examples as to grow (tired), to fall (sick), to run (wild), to turn (sour), to become (old-fashioned), to get (nervous). c.2.4. CATENATIVES They represent a special group of verbs, which also have a dual character sharing the position of auxiliaries but the morpho-syntactical patterns of the main verbs. Some grammarians include among the catenatives to appear, to carry (on), to come, to fail, to get, to happen, to manage, to
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class seem, to start out, to tend, to turn out and to keep (on). As catenatives their main feature is that they are always followed by the infinitive. Your brother wishes to marry my daughter, and I wish to find out what sort of a young man he is. A good way to do so seemed to be to come amd ask you, which I have proceeded to do. ( H. James. W.ZS. 69-70) Used as catenatives to carry on, to go on, to keep (on) and to start out may be followed by the present participle (in progressive constructions) or by the past participle (in passive constructions): The gardener started out / kept (on) / went on working in the garden. Our team got beaten by the visitors. (Quirk et al. 1985: 147) For didactic purposes we shall have to consider that auxiliaries represent a special class of verbs whose main purpose is that of helping the full meaning verbs to express tenses, aspectual meanings, agentivity, as well as interrogative and negative patterns. To simplify things, the auxiliaries may be further subclassified into: primary auxiliaries (BE, HAVE, DO) which are marks of progressivity, perfectivity, i.e. of tempo-aspectuality, and interrogation and negation constructing patterns; secondary (modal) auxiliaries which are, in turn, grouped into: - central modals (those modals which share a set of morphosyntactic features) ; - marginal modals (which share only some of the generally acknowledged morpho-syntactic features of the modals) In spite of various particular features they still share one common trait they behave as operators (to switch their position with the subject to build the interrogative or to accept the enclitic negation NOT to build the negative). Unlike the primary auxiliaries, which are marks for the previously mentioned grammatical categories, the secondary or modal auxiliaries add various shades of meaning to the verb they accompany. They are considered to produce the compound verbal predicates and to express the spearkers personal opinion or attitude. Special subdivisions were dedicated to some verbs, which have a double status in the grammar of the English language: (1) verbs which overlap meanings of full verbs and auxiliary verbs (BE, HAVE, DO); (2) verbs which develop characteristics of primary auxiliaries and modals (SHALL, SHOULD, WILL, WOULD) (3) verbs which display meanings and characteristics of both full verbs and modal auxiliaries ( NEED and DARE) d) the criterion of structural interpretation Structurally, the verbs are divided into single-word verbs and multi-word verbs. The considerable majority of the English verbs is represented by this first category. 1. The single-word verbs are simple (do, go, ask, look, take, etc.) and compound. The compounding elements are parts of speech belonging to the same or to different sets: adjective + verb: to whitewash,
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class noun+ noun/verb: to pinpoint, to spotlight adjective + noun/verb: to highlight, to lowrate preposition + verb: to understand, to undertake, to undergo, to overestimate. adverb + verb: to broadcast, to outcast. 2. The multi-word verbs are not so numerous but they are very frequently used due to their simple structure which makes them more practical for the economic, pragmatic and well-calculated native speaker of English. This label accounts for the so-called complex verbs, which like the simple-word verbs may be further classified into four different subgroups, as follows: type A combinations, also called the completive intensives are those complex verbs where the particle does not change the meaning of the verb but it is used to suggest that the action described by the verb is performed thoroughly, completely or continuously. For example, in the case of spread out to the basic meaning of the verb to spread the ideas of direction and thoroughness are added; in the case of to link up, the particle up adds the suggestion of completeness to the initial meaning of connection and finally, in the case of to slave away and to slog away, the element which is common to the two examples adds an idea of continuousness to the idea of hard work. type B combinations, also known as literal phrasal verbs are the combinations where the verb and the particle both have meanings which may be found in other combinations and uses, but there is overwhelming evidence that they (may) occur together: to fight back, to sing back, to phone back, to strike back. type C combinations, traditionally these are the verbs with compulsory preposition these are the combinations where the verbs are always accompanied by a particular preposition and they are not normally found without it. Some of the verbs with compulsory preposition are to allude to, to aim at, to debate on/upon, to decide on/upon, to interfere with but their more comprehensive list may be found in Annex 1. type D combinations or phrasal verbs are more common in spoken or informal English but rarely used in formal or technical contexts. Unlike the verbs with compulsory preposition, the phrasal verbs share the following features: - they may produce derived forms, i.e. nouns or adjectives: If someone makes a getaway, they get away from a place in a hurry, perhaps after committing a crime. An off-putting person is s/he who puts you off or causes you to dislike him. The two examples illustrate individual situations where the derived form may or may not reverse the order of the compounding elements; there are cases where one combination may produce these two derived forms, the identical pattern is turned into the derived nouns or adjective but the newly formed derivative may also have the reversed order. This case may be exemplified by the phrasal to break out, that is to begin suddenly:
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class A fire broke out on the 4th floor. War broke out in Europe on 4th of August. An outbreak is a sudden occurrence of something unpleasant: a severe outbreak of food poisoning. A break-out is an act of escaping from a place: we debated whether to make our break-out on Christmas Eve. - they accept a direct object between the verb proper and the particle: To take off ones hat may also be expressed as a) Take your hat off! and b) Take it off! - they may consist of more than two elements, as to look forward to, to look down on, to put up with, etc. The complex verbs may be made up of: verb + preposition this structure accounts both for verbs with compulsory preposition and for the phrasal verbs. We shall sustain the preceding statement with the example of the verbs to look after and to fall: A verb with compulsory preposition B phrasal verb

TO LOOK AFTER Im looking after the dog They look after their sons children. chasing the cat. (m uit dup...) (ei au grij de) TO FALL ON to be/set on: to attack suddenly: My birthday falls on a Thursday Terrorist groups were falling this year. indiscriminately on men and women in (cade pe) the street. (atacau fr discriminare) to hug eagerly with happiness and excitement: People were falling on each other in delight and tears. (se mbriau) verb + adverb the meaning of the phrasal verbs cannot be inferred from its compounding elements. Thus, there are some verbs which are accompanied by meaningfully opposite particles but their new patterns do not convey the sum of the meanings of the compounding elements. This is the case of the verb to lead : to lead in means to start a formal discussion or meeting by making a short speech and to lead out means to connect directly (used about buildings/ rooms, etc) Two tiny rooms led off the living room. Some other examples of patterns of this kind are included in Annex 2. verb + adjective this structure is not so very actively used; for instance to fall flat. verb + adverb + preposition this pattern will be exemplified with: - to lead up to to gradually guide the conversation to a point when they can introduce the subject
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class to hedge around with: to cause something to be very difficult or complicated : Her freedom was hedged around with duties and restrictions. to fall in wih: to accept (a plan, idea, system) and not to try to change it: I didnt know whether to fall in with this management to live up to/ match up to = to be as (good as ) the subject expects you to be. The film didnt live up to my expectations. She succeeded in living up to her extraordinary reputation.

e) the criterion of distribution Distribution considers the elements meaningfully connected to the verb. Thus, six types of verbs may be drawn by the way they are complemented or distributed within larger contexts: intransitive verbs: these verbs may be accompanied by adverbials only: to arrive, to die, to come, to fall, to go I lay there for hours. link verbs: they take a complement He looked trained and respectable. She seemed a child. mono-transitive verbs: they take a direct object I lost my suitcase. di-transitive verbs: they may take both a direct and an indirect object They kept the pie for me. They had to give the key to the landowner. complex transitive verbs: they take both objects and complements I considered it too large for my room. I shall make my position perfectly clear. catenatives: they are ordinary verbs which are followed by non-finite forms of other ordinary verbs ( Broughton 1990 : 59) The cars began climbing through wooded countryside.2 f) the criterion of predication When considering the semantics of the English verb a new concept might be used with a view to meaningfully classifying this lexical class, i.e. predication. Predication is a lexico-grammatical category referring to all the instances when a verb makes sense by itself or requires something else to be added to complete its meaning. According to this criterion verbs are subdivided into: verbs of complete predication; these verbs may convey a message by themselves, without any other additional information. In the example below, the predicate expresses by itself a particular ability concerning the subject of the sentence. Mary writes. verbs of incomplete predication; they need a kind of complementation to convey a meaningful message. This is usually the case of the transitive verbs.
2

For further information on catenatives see Geoffrey Broughton, 1990, Penguin English Grammar. A Z for Advanced Students, Penguin Books
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class Mary writes e-mails. verbs of double predication (depending on the context they are part of, some verbs may have either complete or incomplete predication). Mary writes e-mails to her friends every week. The verbs of complete predication may usually be the intransitives and the reflexives: the auxiliaries, the link verbs, the modals, and the (in)transitives. g) the criterion of semantic interpretation Although most of the English verbs bear more than meaning it is convenient for the Romanian learner to have them classified into seven major semantic domains: activity, communication, mental, causative, aspectual, of simple occurrence and of existence or relationship. Biber et al. (1999) distinguish two kinds of meanings, the core meaning (the meaning the speakers tend to think of when they first hear the word as a part of the communication process) and the non-core meanings. Many verbs have multiple meanings which derive from different semantic domains. A verb is most coming with a non-core meaning. 1. Activity verbs: denote actions and events that could be associated with choice: bring, buy, carry, come, give, go, leave, move, open, run, take, work. The airline had opened the route on the basis that it would be the first of many. They can be used transitively (for example: Even the smallest boys bought little pieces of wood and threw them in) or intransitively (From Haworth they went to Holyhead and to Dublin) 2. Communication verbs: can be considered a special category of activity verbsthat involve communication activities: ask, announce, call, discuss, explain, say, shout, speak, state, suggest, talk, tell, write. You said you didnt have it. I would shout my love to you. 3. Mental verbs denote a wide range of activities and states experienced by humans; they do not involve physical action and do not necessarily entail volition. This category includes: cognitive meanings (think, know), and emotional meanings expressing attitudes or desires (love, want), perception (see, taste), receipt of communication (read, hear). Many mental verbs describe cognitive activities that are relatively dynamic in meaning, for example calculate, consider, decide, discover, examine, learn, solve, study. More stative in meaning (describing cognitive states) believe, doubt, know, remember, understand and emotional and attitudinal states (enjoy, fear, feel, hate, like, love, prefer, suspect, want ). The cognitive states: we all believe that. I somehow doubt it. Emotional or attitudinal states: I feel very sorry for you. As a child he hated his weekly ritual of bathing. I preferred life as it was. 4. Verbs of facilitation or causation are exemplified by allow, cause, enable, force, help, let, require, permit . They indicate that some person or inanimate entity brings about a new state of affairs. Distributionally, these verbs often occur together with a nominalized direct object or complement clause which reports the action that was facilitated. From a distributional point of view, the causatives are followed by a nominalized direct object:
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class Still other rules cause the deletion of elements from the structure. This information enables the formulation of precise questions. or by complement clauses: Police and council leaders agreed to let a court decide the fate of the trees. This law enables the volume of gas to be calculated. 5. Verbs of simple occurrence primarily report events (typically physical events) that occur apart from any volitional activity; they are also called occurrence verbs and are exemplified through become, change, happen, develop, grow, increase, occur. The word of adults has once again became law. The lights changed. 6. Verbs of existence or relationship report a state that exists between entities (most of these verbs are link or copular verbs), which is the case of be, seem and appear. Some of them report a particular state of existence (exist, live, stay) or a particular relationship between entities (contain, include, involve, represent ). The state of existence is illustrated by: I go and stay with them. She had gone to live there during this summer holiday. Relationship will be expressed by: The exercise will include random stop checks by police, and involve special constables and traffic wardens. Well, she has a day off school. 7. Aspectual verbs normally characterize the aspectual features which describe an activity, event or process, namely stage, duration, attitude of the subject, the (non)repeated character of an activity or event and, last but not least the natural end or limit of a process or an activity. - the stage of progress of some other event or activity, typically reported in a complement clause following the verb phrase. Examples of aspectual verbs should include: begin, continue, finish, keep, start, stop, cease, end. She kept running out of the garden. He couldnt stop talking about me. After another day he began to recover. - the duration of an activity or a process or even a state is the feature according to which verbs may be considered durative and time-point verbs. The durative verbs which express actions, processes and states which last in time may be illustrated by examples as to work, to exist, to fly, to run, to sleep, to read, to study. The time-point or momentary verbs, expressing actions and states spanning a very short interval of time): to come across, to run into, to start, to enter, to get out, to win. The attitude of the subject group of aspectual verbs denominate voluntary actions or involuntary actions, volition thus becoming a selecting feature in the case of these aspectual verbs. The voluntary actions are expressed by verbs of active perception as to watch, to look at, to contemplate, to listen to. The verbs expressing involuntary actions or inert perception are to see and to hear. The iteration or frequency divides the aspectual verbs of this group into semelfactives, i.e. those verbs expressing an event or activity which lasts an extremely short time interval, such as to hit, to knock, to cough, to jump, and iteratives whose meaning is that of underlying the fact that the
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class activity expressed by any of the semelfactives and many other verbs keeps repeating for a specified moment or interval. Telicity (or the reaching of a natural end, or limit or boundary or the feature of boundness) divides verbs into telic and atelic verbs. The former group is represented by those verbs whose activity or process reaches a natural end: She is smoking a cigarette. He is making a chair. The latter group of verbs is outlined by those verbs whose contextual meaning shows that no end will ever be reached: She smokes (implicature she belongs to the category of smokers) They make chairs (possible meaning to earn their living) This is a controversial criterion because there may also exist situations where the sentence subject is an inanimate entity which cannot be said to intervene and produce a natural end to the action expressed by the verb: The stone was rolling to the river bank is the example Charlotta Smith provides to sustain a statement similar to the preceding statement. To sum up, understanding the meaning of telicity is a must since this feature distinguishes between the uses of progressive or common verb forms in the correct production of an English sentence. This section aimed at offering a wide range of criteria helpful for a better understanding of the English verb system. These are not the only classifying criteria, but it is worth mentioning that their being included in this chapter is supported by the following reasons: - main and auxiliary verbs behave differently in statements, interrogations and negations; - regular and irregular verbs show different grammatical patterns in statements, interrogations and negations; - modality, as an issue peculiar to the English language, requires not only grammatical knowledge and experience but a clear understanding of its concepts and implicatures, also; - modals verbs represent a high degree of difficulty verbal class, due to both their morphological features and to their semantics which relies mainly on the context they are part of; - the semantic classification of verbs is helpful in the learning of aspectual distinctions, which again are difficult to understand for Romanian learners since aspect is not a fully represented grammatical category in the Romanian verb system. To find a perfect correspondence between English and Romanian verbs would be an impossible thing to do, if we consider catenatives, central modals or aspectual verbs. Nevertheless, some of the English groups of verbs are to be found in Romanian, too (as it is the case with the primary auxiliaries BE and HAVE, or with the classification into transitive and intransitive, as well as with the semantic classification of verbs, which at least partially, shows some common elements). Suggested assignments 1. Answer the following questions:

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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class 1. Could you enumerate some of the criteria which were used to classify the verbs in English? 2. How many types of multi-word verbs do you know? (give examples) 3. Could you name the primary auxiliaries? 4. What is the major difference between the primary auxiliaries and the modal auxiliaries? 5. How do you distinguish the central from the marginal modals? 6. How would you define the catenatives? (give examples) 7. How would you define the link verbs? (give examples) 8. What is a transitive verb? 9. What is a verb of complete predication? 10.How do you distinguish between a verb with compulsory preposition and a complex (or phrasal) verb? 11.Could you give examples of three ditransitive verbs in sentences of your own? 12.Which of the classifications seems more practical to you and why? 2. Translate the following verbs using causatives: 1. Mi-am aranjat astfel programul zilei de astzi nct s am timp s ajung la coafor s m coafez i s-mi fac unghiile. 2. La spital, nainte s fie introdui n sala de operaie, tuturor pacienilor li se dezinfecteaz rnile. 3. L-am ntlnit ieri cam pe la ora 10 i mi-a spus c se ducea la croitor si fac un costum pentru balul care urma s aib loc peste 2 sptmni. 4. Pentru c au fost invitai de onoare nu au avut de cheltuit prea muli bani; astfel, li s-a pltit hotelul ctre Consiliul Britanic, iar transportul de ctre compania Tarom. 5. Preedintele companiei a fost pus ntr-o situaie dificil: el a trebuit s-i amne vizita pentru c nu i s-a tradus cuvntarea la timp. 6. Deoarece capitala Germaniei unite trebuia s fie ntr-un singur ora, guvernul acestei ri a promis c va muta toate ministerele la Berlin pn la sfritul lunii august 1990. 7. Pentru c au ctigat la loterie, s-au hotrt s-i construiasc o cas i, n acest scop, au negociat cu managerul unei firme de construcii din Bucureti. 8. Ori de cte ori vine la ora, i repar maina la service-ul Victoria i le explic tuturor prietenilor lui c muncitorii de aici sunt nu numai foarte pricepui, ci i foarte serioi, coreci i de ncredere. 3. Translate the following sentences into English, using phrasal verbs: 1. Odinioar casele romneti de la ar erau construite numai din lut i lemn. 2. Plria aceasta a fost fcut din fetru, mtase i panglici. 3. Grupul de greviti se ndreapt acum spre cldirea guvernului. 4. Maina era destul de departe de mine aa c nu i-am putut vedea numrul. 5. Chiar dac am auzit doar frnturi din conversaia lor, mi-am dat seama c se ntmplase ceva neateptat.
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Chapter 1. The Verb as a Lexical Class 6. Unii reporteri sunt att de talentai nct fac o poveste interesant dintrun eveniment banal. 7. Apa este alctuit din hidrogen i oxigen. 8. Au renunat la ultima excursie a vacanei lor la Roma pentru c erau extenuai de vizitele la obiectivele turistice din ora. 9. Multe grupri politice s-au separat din partide(le mai) mari dup 1992. (break away) 10.M-am nelat din cauza prezentrii produsului prin reclama tv. (to be taken in by) 11.Florile rspndeau un parfum discret n ntreaga ncpere. 12.Era foarte atent la cel mai mic detaliu ca s nu se dea de gol artnd ct de multe tia despre povestea lor. 4. Translate into English using verbs with compulsory preposition: 1. Pentru c se abinuse s dea replica pe care interlocutorul o merita, tremura de mnie i era alb ca varul. (tremble in wrath) 2. n fiecare zi citeti n ziarul local c un oarecare i-a ucis mama/tatl/fiul/fiica ntr-un acces de mnie i apoi s-a sinucis. 3. La aflarea vetii c un urs a scpat din captivitate vizitatorii au nceput s tremure de fric i s-au grbit s plece acas. 4. Cnd a fost acuzat c a furat banii colegelor ei de camer nimeni nu a crezut c este vinovat; cnd au gsit ns banii ascuni sub perna ei am crezut c fata va muri de ruine. (die for shame) 5. Cei doi tenismeni au fost felicitai pentru demonstraia de talent i ambiie cu care au luptat pn la sfritul meciului. 6. Spectatorii au reuit s-i exprime sprijinul pentru cel mai tnr dintre actorii de circ: un bieel de numai patru ani. 7. Muli medici i-au urmat lui Popescu la conducerea spitalului, dar puini dintre ei au reuit s in pasul cu cerinele ministerului mai mult de un an. 8. Dramaturgia lui Shakespeare const din tragedii, comedii i piese istorice. 5. Translate into Romanian, paying attention to phrasal verbs and verbs with compulsory preposition: There was in him a union of the manly grace and sublime simplicity, of chivalry with the intellectual splendour of the Attic Academe. The only character in English history that would, in some respects, draw near to him is Sir Philip Sidney: the same high tone, the same universal accomplishments, the same blended tenderness and vigour, the same rare combination of romantic energy and classic repose." As for his own acquaintance with the Prince, it had been, he said, "one of the most satisfactory incidents of his life: full of refined and beautiful memories, and exercising, as he hopes, over his remaining existence, a soothing and exalting influence."

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