Verb as a part of speech in English and Ukrainian languages

 

1. Verb as a part of speech: general characteristics

The verb is a system of systems. The main division within the English verb system is that between the finite verbs (finites) and non-finite verbs (non-finites or verbids). The finites can further be subdivided into three systems called moods (indicative, conditional (subjunctive), imperative). The infinitive, the gerund and the participle are also three systems within the verbids.

In Ukrainian this system is arranged in a slightly other way. The Ukrainian verb includes the conjugated verb forms (відмінювані форми) – the verbs and participles (дієслова та дієприкметники) and non-conjugated verb forms (невідмінювані форми) – infinitives, dijepryslivnyky, and forms ending with -но, -то (інфінітиви, дієприслівники та форми на -но, -то (окрема група пасивних дієприкметників: завдання виконано, лист написано). The subdivision can also be named in another way, that is: personal and non-personal verb forms. Depending on the system of endings of personal form verbs (both singular and plural) of the present and future tenses (simple form) Ukrainian verbs are subdivided into two conjugations. The first conjugation (перша дієвідміна) includes verbs that in the third person plural (in present and future tenses) have the endings -уть, -ють (читають, везуть); the second conjugation (друга дієвідміна) includes verbs that in the third person plural (in present and future tenses) have the endings -ать, ять (роблять, побачать).

The verb as a part of speech is characterized by the following properties in English and Ukrainian:

1) the lexico-grammatical meaning of “action/process” in both languages.

2) typical stem building elements, such as the suffixes -ize, -en, -ify, the prefixes re-, under-, over-, out-, super-, sub-, mis, un- in the English language;

– typical Ukrainian verb building elements are: suffixes -ти (платити), -ати (закапканити), or the combination of suffixes -ува and -ти in derivative verbs (перечитувати, пересилювати); prefixes: -о (оминати), у- (уможливити), об- (облегшувати), пере- (перебільшувати), ви- (видужати), з- (звузити, знеболити) and the peculiar Ukrainian postfix -ся (недорозвинутися, митися).

One more peculiarity of English verbs is their ability to be combined with the lexico-grammatical word-morphemes up, in, off, down, out, etc. which together with verbs form the so-called “phrasal verbs”, e.g.: put down, set off, etc.

3) grammatical categories: out of the six categories of the English verb (the categories of person, number, aspect, tense, mood and voice) three are found not only in the finites, but in English verbids as well. Two of them – voice (asks – is asked, to ask – to be asked, asking – being asked) and order (asks – has asked, to ask – to have asked, asking – having asked) – are found in all the English verbids, and the third – aspect (asks – is asking, to ask – to be asking) – in the infinitive.

In Ukrainian, grammatical categories of the verb are closely connected with its meaning and its syntactic function. The category of aspect and voice (категорії виду і стану) are characteristic of all verb forms. The category of mood (категорія способу) is characteristic of verbs that can be conjugated (читає, читай, читав би), the category of tense (категорія часу) – of the indicative mood verbs (читає – читав – читатиме), the category of person (категорія особи) – of the imperative and indicative mood verbs (читаєш, читаєте, читай, читайте), the category of number (категорія числа) – of all verb forms that can be conjugated.

4) its typicalcombinability: a verb can be associated with nouns (noun-equivalents) denoting the doer (agent) and the recipient of the action expressed by the verb; it is regularly modified by adverbs. Some classes of verbs can have their own peculiarities of the combinability.

5) its typical syntactic function of the predicate (possessed by the finites only, in Ukrainian by conjugated form of verbs). The verbids have other functions, but they are secondary predicates in secondary predication structures.

As we know, it is the stem that unites words into lexemes. Therefore, though stem-structure is not a reliable criterion for distinguishing parts of speech, it can show whether certain words belong to the same lexeme or not. Now finites and the corresponding verbids have identical stem-structure, which characterizes them as words of the same lexemes, in spite of certain differences in combinability, function, etc. Compare: gives – giving, gives up – giving up, nationalizes – nationalizing, whitewashes – whitewashing; стояти – стояв, стояв – стоячи, etc.

In accordance with their stem structure verbs, like other parts of speech, fall under the following groups:

a) Simple verbs (write, know, love; йти, їсти).

b) Derived verbs (organize, rewrite, purify, underestimate; викорінити, пересилити).

It should be mentioned here that among the English affixes of the verbs prefixes are of greater importance than suffixes. There is but one productive stem-building verbal suffix (-ize), while productive prefixes are more numerous (re-, un-, over-, under-, mis-, de-, etc.). Typical Ukrainian verb-building affixes have been shown above, among them prefixes are of greater variety.

Sound-interchange is unproductive (food – feed, blood – bleed), so is the change of stress, as in 'export – (to) ex'port, transport – (to) trans'port. In Ukrainian the following types are not characteristic of the verb.

The most productive way of forming verb lexemes in English is conversion: (a) book – (to) book, (a) man – (to) man, better – (to) better. In Ukrainian it is absent in regard to verbs.

c) Compound verbs consisting of two stems, as in (to) broadcast, (to) whitewash, (to) blindfold. Composition is of low productivity in the class of verbs. In Ukrainian this type of verb formation is also rare, e.g.: благодіяти, боготворити, зубоскалити, хліборобствувати.

d) Composite verbs – made up of a verb with a lexico-grammatical word-morpheme attached to it, as in give up, give in, take off, put on. This way of forming verbs is productive.

Before discussing the grammatical categories we shall consider some general classifications of English verbs based on their formal, semantic and functional properties, and thus the division of verbs into standard and non-standard, notional and semi-notional, subjective and objective, terminative and non-terminative. In Ukrainian there are usually differentiated two groups of verbs: transitive and intransitive (перехідні і неперехідні дієслова: написати листа, розповідати казку, зеленіти, дякувати). But if to compare English and Ukrainian classes of verbs what is lacking in Ukrainian is the subdivision of verbs into standard and non-standard (that is regular and irregular); the mentioned transitive and intransitive verb groups are correlated with the corresponding subjective and objective verbs.

The peculiar group of Ukrainian verbs is the so called reflexive verbs (зворотні дієслова) formed with the help of postfix -ся. They can be found of different kinds:

1) reflexive proper (власне зворотні: умиватися, взуватися);

2) indirectly reflexive (непрямо зворотні: запасатися (їжею), поратися (біля печі);

3) generally reflexive (загальнозворотні: сміятися, журитися);

4) objectless reflexive (безоб’єктно-зворотні: (корова) б’ється, (собака) кусається);

5) reciprocal-reflexive (взаємно зворотні: листуватися, зустрічатися).

One more peculiar group of Ukrainian verbs is impersonal verbs (безособові дієслова). From the semantic point of view they can be subdivided into the following groups:

1) verbs of the physical state (дієслова фізичного стану: морозить, трясе);

2) verbs of the mental state (дієслова психічного стану: спиться, сниться);

3) verbs denoting nature phenomena (дієслова, що означають явища природи: свіжіє, смеркає, похолодало);

4) verbs denoting disasters (дієслова, що означають стихійні явища: вигоріло, висушило, залило);

5) verbs denoting existence or the degree of availability (дієслова, що означають буття, міру присутності (відсутності): сталося, минулося, бракує);

6) verbs denoting success (дієслова успіху: пощастило, повелося) [15; 179].

Though based on grammatical meanings and categories, these classifications of verbs and the terms they involve will come in useful when we discuss the categories themselves and the functioning of verb grammemes in speech.

The overwhelming majority of English verbs resemble the verb ask in building their “past form” and “Participle II form” that is with the help of the suffix -ed and therefore they are called standard or regular.

Some two hundred verbs deviate from the standard verbs and are called non-standard or irregular. They do not present a uniform group. Some of them resemble the verb write (speak, drive, eat, etc.). Others form the “past” and “Participle II” without affixation (cut, put, shed, etc.). Still others use both vowel and consonant change and affixation to for the “past” and “Participle II” forms. Some make use of suppletivity (go, be, etc.).

As we see, the difference between the standard and the non-standard verbs is purely formal. We should therefore call this classification formal rather than morphological as the tradition goes.

Semantically verbs are divided into notional and semi-notional. Some linguists speak also of the third group, auxiliary verbs, completely devoid of lexical meanings, as, for instance, has in has written. As shown, they are words in form only. As to their meaning and function they are grammatical morphemes, parts of analytical words, hence the name – grammatical word-morphemes. In Ukrainian the analytical verb form of the future tense can be regarded as an example of this type: буду читати.

The majority of English as well as Ukrainian verbs are notional that is they possess full lexical meaning. Connected with it is their isolatability, that is the ability to make a sentence alone (Come! Read! Приходь! Читай!). Their combinability is variable.

Semi-notional verbs have very general, “faded” lexical meanings, as in be, have, become, seem, can, may, must, etc., where the meaning of 'action' is almost obliterated. Semi-notional verbs are hardly isolatable. Their combinability is usually bilateral as they serve to connect words in speech. They are comparatively few in number, but of very frequent occurrence, and include two peculiar groups: link verbs and modal verbs [24; 116–121]. Ukrainian verbs possess the mentioned two groups as well (link verbs: бути, ставати; modal verbs – могти, мусіти). Unlike English ones Ukrainian modal verbs are conjugated (він може читати, вони мусять робити).

Similarly to other parts of speech variants of the same verb lexeme may belong to different subclasses. The verb grow in the meanings “develop”, “increase in size”, etc. belongs to the class of notional verbs, e.g.: How quickly you are growing! In the meaning “become” it belongs to the link verbs, e.g.: He is growing old.

When the verb have means “possess”, it is a notional verb, e.g.: How much money do you have? When it expresses obligation, need or necessity, it is a modal verb, e.g.: He had to make the best of the situation.

Verbs can be also divided into subjective and objective, depending upon their combinability with words denoting the subjects and the objects of the actions they name.

Objective verbs are mostly associated with two nouns (or noun-equivalents) denoting the subject and the object of the action named by the verb. Subjective verbs are associated only with nouns (noun-equivalents) denoting the subject of the action.

In the sentence She sat up and kissed him tenderly the verb kissed is an objective verb because it is associated with the pronoun she denoting the subject of the action of kissing and with the pronoun him denoting the object of the same action. The verb sat up is a subjective verb since it is associated only with the person she denoting the subject of the action.

In the sentence You are interfering with him the verb form are interfering is also objective because it is associated with the pronoun him denoting the object of the action of interfering. But there is some difference between the two verbs in kissing him and interfering with him. The first verb is associated with the word denoting the object of an action (let us call it the “object word”) directly, the second verb is connected with the object word by means of a preposition.

Objective verbs that are connected with their object words directly are called transitive verbs. All the other verbs, both subjective and objective, are called intransitive.

As usual, variants of a verb lexeme may belong to different subclasses. Compare:

He opened the door (objective, transitive).

The door opened (intransitive, subjective).

Add some more water (objective, transitive).

The music added to our enjoyment (objective, intransitive).

The figures would not add (intransitive, subjective).

Verbs can be classified in accordance with the aspective nature of their lexical meanings into terminative (термінативний, кінцевий, той, що вказує на межу завершення певної дії) and non-terminative.

Terminative verbs denote actions which cannot develop beyond a certain inherent limit. The actions denoted by non-terminative verbs have no inherent meanings. Compare the two sentences:

He was carrying a box on his shoulders.

Take this empty box away and bring me a full one.

The verbs to carry and to bring may denote the same kind of action. But carry does not imply any time or space limits when or where the action would naturally stop, while bring does. So carry is a non-terminative verb and bring is a terminative one. Live, love, stand, sit, work, walk, etc. are non-terminative verbs. Come, take, stand up, sit down, etc. are terminative verbs.

As usual, variants of the same lexeme may belong to different subclasses. When meaning “(to) engage in physical or mental activity”, the verb (to) work is non-terminative, e.g.:

I have been working hard all day.

But when (to) work means “to produce as a result”, it is terminative, e.g.:

The storm worked great ruin [24; 122–125].

English terminative and non-terminative verbs can be to some extent correlated with Ukrainian verbs expressing the perfective and imperfective aspects (дієслова доконаного та недоконаного виду: нести – принести, любити – розлюбити, сидіти – присісти).

Following is the brief summary of the general characteristics of English and Ukrainian verbs. In comparison with other parts of speech in modern English the verb has the most developed system of the word-change (словозміна), in which the grammatical categories of person, number, aspect, tense, mood and state (категорії особи, числа, виду, часу, способу і стану) are revealed.

In Ukrainian the verb as well forms a rich and complex system of forms, which express the same grammatical categories. Besides, some Ukrainian verb forms also express the category of gender.

In both languages the verb has the meaning of transitiveness and intransitiveness (перехідність та неперехідність).

Grammatical categories in both languages are expressed with the help of synthetic and analytical forms. The difference is that in the system of English verb analytical forms are dominant ones, whereas in Ukrainian – synthetic forms are prevailing.

Verb forms in English and in Ukrainian are divided into personal and non-personal verbs (особові та неособові дієслова). Personal are those forms which perform only the function of predicate, and non-personal are those that are never used in this function and can be other different parts of sentences. There is a great difference both in the composition of personal and non-personal verb forms and in their characteristics in English and Ukrainian [5; 70].