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PARTS OF SPEECH IN ENGLISH
The words of every language fall into classes which are called
parts of speech. Each part of speech has characteristics of its
own. Parts of speech differ from each other in meaning, form
and function.
Different parts of speech have different lexical meanings. For
example, verbs are words denoting processes (to work, to live);
nouns are names of objects (table, boy); adjectives are words ex-
pressing characteristics (good, bad), etc.
Some parts of speech have different grammatical categories,
e.g. verbs have the categories of mood, tense, aspect, phase, voice,
person and number; nouns have the categories of number and case;
adjectives have degrees of comparison, etc.
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Other parts of speech are invariable, they have only one form.
Here belong such parts of speech as prepositions and conjunctions.
Parts of speech also differ from each other in their syntactic
functions. For example, verbs have the function of the predicate in
the sentence, nouns are often used as the subject or the object of
the sentence, adjectives serve as attributes or predicatives; adverbs
are generally adverbial modifiers, etc.
These characteristic features will be described in detail when
each part of speech is considered individually.
In addition, all words may be divided into two main groups:
notional and structural.
Notional words have distinct lexical meanings and perform in-
dependent syntactic functions in the sentence: they serve either as
primary or secondary parts of the sentence. To this group belong
the following parts of speech: verbs, nouns, adjectives, numerals,
pronouns and adverbs.
Structural words differ from notional words semantically:
their lexical meaning is of a more general character than that of
notional words (e.g. in, and, even). Moreover, they are sometimes
altogether devoid of it (e.g. the articles the and a, the conjunction
that, the preposition of, etc.). Structural words do not perform
any independent syntactic function in the sentence but serve either
to express various relations between words in a sentence (e.g. the
trees in the garden, Tom and Joe, etc.) or to specify the meaning
of a word (e.g. the book, a book, etc.). The following parts of
speech are to be treated as structural words: articles, prepositions
and conjunctions.
The division of words into notional and structural is connected
with certain difficulties. For example, verbs, which, on the whole,
are to be treated as notional words, include certain words which
serve as structural elements (e.g. modal verbs), some other verbs
may function either as notional words or as structural words (e.g. to
look is a notional verb in He looked at me and a structural word
a link-verb in He looked tired; the verb to have is a notional
verb in I have a car and a structural word a modal verb in I
had to do it). Pronouns may be quoted as another example since,
on the one hand, they have, like all notional words, independent
syntactic functions in the sentence but, on the other hand, they
are devoid of distinct lexical meaning.
VERBS
1. According to content, verbs can be described as words de-
noting actions, the term "actions" embracing the meaning of activ-
ity (e.g. to walk, to speak, to play, to study), process (e.g. to sleep,
to wait, to live), state (e.g. to be, to like, to know), relation (e.g. to
consist, to resemble, to lack) and the like.
According to form, verbs can be described as words that have
certain grammatical features that are not shared by other parts of
speech, e.g. they have the categories of tense, aspect, voice, etc.
According to function, verbs can be defined as words making
up the predicate of the sentence.
2. Verbs can be classified under different heads.
1) According to their meaning verbs can be divided into two
groups terminative and durative verbs.
Terminative verbs imply a limit beyond which the action can-
not continue. To put it differently, they have a final aim in view,
e.g. to open, to close, to bring, to recognize, to refuse, to break.
With the verb to open, for example, that means that after opening
the door it is impossible to go on with the action as the door is al-
ready open.
Durative verbs do not imply any such limit, and the action can
go on indefinitely, e.g. to carry, to live, to speak, to know, to sit,
to play.
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But as most verbs in English are polysemantic they may be ter-
minative in one meaning and durative in another. For example, to
see may have the terminative meaning '' and the durative
meaning ''; to know may denote '' and '- The
meaning of the verb becomes clear from the context. Compare: I
saw him at once and I saw his face quite clearly. As will be seen,
the distinction between terminative and durative verbs is of great
importance as it affects the use of certain tense-aspect-phase
forms.
2) According to their relation to the continuous form, English
verbs fall into two groups: dynamic verbs, i.e. verbs which admit
of the continuous form (a) and stative verbs, i.e. verbs which do
not admit of the continuous form (b).
e.g. a) We were eating dinner when he called.
You'll find Mother in the kitchen. She is making a cake,
b) I understand what you mean.
I don't see him in the crowd.
The distinction between dynamic, and stative verbs is funda-
mental in English grammar, and it is also reflected in a number of
other ways than in the continuous form.
It is normal for verbs to be dynamic, and even the minority that
are almost always stative can be given a dynamic use on occasion.
The following is the list of most commonly used stative verbs:
a) verbs denoting physical perceptions: to hear, to notice, to see;
b) verbs denoting emotions: to adore, to care for, to detest, to
dislike, to hate, to like, to love, to respect;
c) verbs denoting wish: to desire, to want, to wish;
d) verbs denoting mental processes: to admire (= to be of high
opinion), to appreciate, to assume, to believe (= to consider), to con
sider (= to regard), to doubt, to expect (= to suppose), to feel (= to
consider), to imagine, to know, to mind (= to object), to perceive, to
presume, to recall, to recognize, to recollect, to regard, to remember,
to suppose, to think (= to consider), to trust, to understand;
e) relational verbs: to apply, to be, to belong, to concern, to con-
sist, to contain, to depend, to deserve, to differ, to equal, to fit, to
have, to hold (= to contain), to include, to involve, to lack, to mat-
ter, to need, to owe, to own, to possess, to remain, to require, to re-
semble, to result, to signify, to suffice;
f) some other verbs: to agree, to allow, to appear (= to seem),
to astonish, to claim, to consent, to displease, to envy, to fail to
do, to feel (intr) l, to find, to forbid, to forgive, to intend, to inter-
est, to keep doing, to manage to do, to mean, to object, to please,
to prefer, to prevent, to puzzle, to realize, to refuse, to remind, to
satisfy, to seem, to smell (intr),1 to sound (intr),1 to succeed, to
suit, to surprise, to taste (intr),1 to tend, to value.
1 As in: The surface feels rough. The song sounds nice. The soup tastes (smells) nice.
3) English verbs are also classified according to the type of ob-
ject they take. Verbs that do not require any object are called
intransitive.
e.g. We walked across the fields.
Nobody knew where the old man lived.
Verbs that require some kind of object to complete their mean-
ing are called transitive. The objects transitive verbs take may be
direct (a), indirect (b) or prepositional (c).
e.g. a) I swear I'm telling the truth.
b) His mother never gave him advice.
c) Now let's talk of something sensible.
Polysemantic verbs may be transitive in one meaning and in-
transitive in another.
e.g. I didn't know where to find him as he had changed his address.
I was glad to see that he had not changed at all.
He ran uphill past a block of houses.
She ran the shop quite competently.
3. According to their meaning and function in the sentence
English verbs are classified into notional and structural ones.
Notional verbs always have a lexical meaning of their own
and can have an independent syntactic function in the sentence.
e.g. During the war he lived in London.
When a verb is used as a structural word, it may either pre-
serve or lose its lexical meaning. But even if it has a lexical
meaning of its own, the latter is of a specific character and the
verb cannot have an independent syntactic function in the sen-
tence it is always closely connected with some other word.
Here belong modal verbs and link-verbs.
A modal verb is always accompanied by an infinitive to-
gether they form a modal predicate.
e.g. The party is at eight. You must dress suitably for it.
I couldn't do anything under the circumstances.
A link-verb is followed by a predicative; together they form a
nominal predicate.
e.g. He was a middle-aged man.
It became very hot by noon.
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The hotel remained empty all through the winter.
The cottage seemed deserted.
Sometimes a verb is entirely devoid of lexical meaning and is
then called an auxiliary verb. Combined with a notional verb it
serves to build up analytical forms.
e.g. We had arranged to meet in the usual place.
Do you know why he said that?
The young man was sitting at the table alone.
Polysemantic verbs may be notional as well as structural words.
e.g. He is married and has three children (a notional verb used in
the meaning 'to possess').
I had to reconsider my position (a structural word: a modal
verb denoting obligation, part of a modal predicate).
"It has happened now," he said, "so there's nothing to do"
(a structural word: an auxiliary verb which serves to build
up an analytical form).
He looked at me, waiting for the next words (notional verb
meaning 'glanced').
He looked quite happy (a structural word: a link-verb meaning
'seemed').
4. English verbs are characterized by a great variety of forms
which can be divided into two main groups according to the func-
tion they perform in the sentence: the finite forms and the non-fi-
nite forms.
The finite forms have the function of the predicate in the sen-
tence and may also be called the predicative forms.
The non-finite or non-predicative forms can have various other
functions; they are used as the predicate of the sentence only by
way of exception. These forms are often called the verbals (see
"Verbs", 163-254).
The finite forms of the verb have the following grammatical
categories:
1) Person and Number. These categories of the verb serve to
show the connection between the subject and the predicate of the
sentence the subject agrees with the predicate in person and
number. We find three persons (the first, the second, and the
third) and two numbers (the singular and the plural) in finite
verbs (see the formation of finite forms, "Verbs", 9, 11, 15, 17,
22, 25, 29, 33, 38, 40, 43, 45).
2) Tense, Aspect and Phase (see "Verbs", 7).
3) Voice (see "Verbs", 61-63).
4) Mood (see "Verbs", 122-125).
5. The forms that serve to express the above mentioned
grammatical categories may be built up in different ways.
We find three basic forms that serve as a foundation for build-
ing up all the other forms of the English verb. These forms are:
1) the plain verb stem which is also often referred to as the infini-
tive without the particle to, 2) the Past Indefinite, and 3) the par-
ticiple.
According to the way of forming the Past Indefinite and the
participle, all verbs can be divided into two classes: regular and ir-
regular verbs.
With regular verbs, the Past Indefinite and the participle are
formed by adding the suffix -ed. It is pronounced [d] after vowels
and voiced consonants (e.g. played, answered, opened, closed), [t]
after voiceless consonants (e.g. looked, passed), and [id] after
verbs ending in [t] or [d] (e.g. wanted, wasted, ended, landed).
In writing the following spelling rules should be observed:
1) Verbs ending in -y preceded by a consonant change the -y
into -led (e.g. study studied, envy envied). But if the -y is
preceded by a vowel, it remains unchanged (e.g. play played,
stay stayed).
2) A final consonant is doubled if it is preceded by a short
stressed vowel or if a verb ends in a stressed -er (-ur) (e.g. stop
stopped, admit admitted, occur occurred, prefer pre-
ferred). But if the preceding vowel is long or unstressed, the final
consonant remains single (e.g. limit limited, perform per-
formed, conquer conquered, appear appeared).
3) A final -l is always doubled in British English (e.g. trav-
el travelled, quarrel quarrelled).
All other verbs should be regarded as irregular in modern En-
glish. They are a miscellaneous group comprising various patterns
(e.g. sing sang sung, write wrote written, send
sent sent, teach taught taught, etc.)- Some verbs have a
regular form by the side of an irregular one (e.g. learn learnt
learnt and also learn learned learned). A number of
verbs remain unchanged (e.g. cut cut cut, hit hit hit).
Two verbs take their forms from different roots and are called
suppletive systems. They are the verbs to be and to go. (For a
complete list of irregular verbs see Appendix.)
6. The forms of the verb which are built up with the help of
the above described basic forms may be of two different kinds
synthetic or analytical.
Synthetic forms are built up by a change in the word itself: by
means of suffixes (e.g. I work, he works, we worked), by means of
vowel change (e.g. I find, I found), and sometimes by combining
both means (e.g. I think, I thought).
Analytical forms consist of two components, e.g. He has
worked hard. The first component is an auxiliary verb which has
no lexical meaning it expresses only grammatical meaning. The
second component is a notional verb which is the bearer of lexical
meaning (' '). The auxiliary verb
shows that has worked is the third person singular, the Indicative
Mood, the Active Voice. But the specific meaning of this particu-
lar form, that of the Present Perfect, results only from the combi-
nation of both components.
In the analytical form was written (as in: The letter was written
yesterday), written is the bearer of lexical meaning; was shows that
we are dealing with the third person singular, the Indicative Mood,
the Past Indefinite, But again the specific grammatical meaning of
this particular form, that of the Passive Voice, is expressed by the
whole combination of the auxiliary and the notional verb.
Thus an analytical form consists of two words a structural
word and a notional word which form a very close, inseparable
unit. It functions in English as the form of a single word by the
side of synthetic forms (e.g. he works, he has worked, he worked,
he was working, he had worked, etc.).
The auxiliary verb itself may be an analytical form (e.g. He
has been working. He will be working. The letter has been written,
etc.). Such forms may be called complex analytical forms.
FINITE FORMS OF THE VERB
Tense, Aspect and Phase
7. Tense is the form of the verb which indicates the time of
the action. The category of tense in English is made up by a set of
forms opposed to each other in referring the event or state de-
scribed to the present, past or future.
Aspect is the form of the verb which serves to express the
manner in which the action is regarded. There are two opposing
sets of aspect forms in English the Continuous forms and the
Non-Continuous (Indefinite) forms. The Non-Continuous (Indefi-
nite) forms have a very broad meaning, they have no specialized
aspect characteristics of their own and merely represent an action
as occurring. Conversely, the Continuous forms have a clear-cut
aspect characteristic, which is to represent an action in its tempo-
rary development. The Continuous forms have a number of other
concomitant meanings or overtones that go with the basic meaning
of process and duration. They are incompletion, simultaneity, viv-
idness of description, emotional colouring and emphasis.
Besides, there are the Perfect forms which are opposed to the
Non-Perfect forms. The latter have no definite grammatical char-
acteristics. The grammatical meaning of the Perfect forms is to
express retrospectiveness, which consists of two elements prior-
ity and relevance. In some grammars this category has been given
the name phase.
The three grammatical categories of the English verb are so
closely merged together that it is impossible to treat them sepa-
rately.
We find the following finite forms in English: the Present In-
definite, the Present Continuous, the Present Perfect, the Present
Perfect Continuous, the Past Indefinite, the Past Continuous, the
Past Perfect, the Past Perfect Continuous, the Future Indefinite,
the Future Continuous, the Future Perfect, the Future Indefinite-
in-the-Past, the Future Continuous-in-the-Past, and the Future
Perfect-in-the-Past.
8. 1) In discussing the use of English finite forms it is neces-
sary to understand that in most cases the choice is free: the form
is chosen in accordance with the meaning the speaker wishes to
convey and does not depend on the structure of the sentence, e.g.
He knows English. He knew English. He will know English.
In certain cases, however, the choice of the form is determined
by the structure of the sentence, usually the kind of clause in
which it is used. For example, the use of the Present Indefinite
with reference to the future in a clause of time or condition (a),
or the use of a finite form under the rules of the sequence of
tenses (b).
e.g. a) When you feel hungry, I'll bring you some sandwiches.
If I want anything I'll call you up.
b) She knew that Henry would be waiting for her.
I wondered if he had kept his promise.
In such cases we have the structurally dependent use of finite
forms.
In still other cases the choice of the finite form in a sub-
ordinate clause is determined not so much by the kind of clause
as by the lexical character of the head-word, i.e. the word in the
principal clause which the subordinate clause modifies or refers
to. For example, in object clauses subordinated to the verbs to
see to, to take care or to make sure the future forms are not
used.
e.g. He'll take care that she comes in time.
She saw to it that they had plenty of food in the house.
In such cases we have the lexically-dependent use of finite
forms.
2) Closely connected with the above notion is the absolute and
relative use of finite forms. The forms may refer an action direct-
ly to the present, past or future time. We are dealing in this case
with the absolute use of finite forms, which, as a rule, is structur-
ally independent.
But in certain types of clauses the verb form of the sub-
ordinate clause only shows whether the action of the clause is si-
multaneous with that of the principal clause, precedes it or follows
it. (These relations may be termed as simultaneity, priority and
posteriority respectively.) In this case we are dealing with the rela-
tive use of finite forms. It is usually structurally dependent (see,
for example, the rules of the sequence of tenses).
e.g. He discovered that his wife knew London far better than he did.
He knew that she had read his thoughts.
He thought that he would hate the place.
3) Last but not least, students of English should differentiate
between present-time contexts and past-time contexts.
In present-time contexts, i.e. in conversations, letters, newspa-
per and radio reports, lectures and scientific prose, the situation is
viewed from the moment of speaking. (The moment of speaking is
to be understood as present from the speaker's point of view but
not as the present moment.) Any finite form that is required by
the sense can be used in present-time contexts. The only reserva-
tion should be made for the Past Perfect and the Past Perfect Con-
tinuous and all the Future-in-the-Past forms which are, in present-
time contexts, mainly found in reported speech or thought.
In past-time contexts, i.e. in narration, the situation is viewed
from a past moment. Hence, the use of finite forms is restricted
only to past forms including the Future-in-the-Past.
