The Structure of Verb Phrases. Their Grammatical Categories

2.4 The Structure of Verb Phrases. Their Grammatical Categories.

The Verb Phrases exist of two types: finite VP and nonfinite VP. A finite VP is a verb phrase in which the first or only word is a finite verb, the rest of the verb phrase consisting of nonfinite verbs. Finite VPs can be distinguished as follows:

a)  Finite verb phrases can occur as the VP of independent clauses.

b)   Finite verb phrases have tense contrast, i.e. the distinction between present and past tenses:

Dear June is so original [59, p.87]

James sat down, all knees, elbows, frock-coat, and long white whiskers.[59, p.66]

c)There is person concord and number concord between the subject of a clause and the finite verb phrase. Concord is particularly clear with the present tense of be:

I am He/She/It is

 } here } here

 You are We/They are

But with most full verbs overt concord is restricted to a contrast between the 3^rd person singular present and other persons of plural number.

He/She/Jim reads

} the paper every morning.

I/We/You/They read

With modal auxiliaries there is no overt concord at all:

I/You/She/ We/They can play the cello.

d)  Finite verb phrases have mood, which indicates the factual, or counterfactual status of predication. In contrast to the “unmarked” Indicative Mood, we distinguish the “marked” moods Imperative (used to express commands and other directive speech acts), and Subjunctive (used to express a wish, recommendation, etc.)

A clause with a finite verb phrase as its Verb element is called a “finite verb clause” or, just a “finite clause”. Similarly, a clause with a nonfinite verb phrase as its Verb element is called a “nonfinite (verb) clause”.

The infinitive ((to)call), the –ing participle (calling), the –ed participle (called) are the nonfinite forms of the verb. Hence any phrase in which one of these verb forms is the first or only word (disregarding the infinitive marker to) is a nonfinite verb phrase. Such phrases do not normally occur as the verb phrase of an independent clause. Compare:

The past subjunctive (or were-subjunctive) survives only in were as a past form of be. It is distinguishable from the past indicative of be only in the 1^st and 3^rd persons singular:

If she was leaving, you would have heard about it. [indicative]

If she were leaving, you would have heard about it.[subjunctive]

The indicative was is more common in less formal style.

Uses of the subjunctive. We distinguish two main uses of the present subjunctive:

a)  the Mandative Subjunctive is used in a that-clause after an expression of such notions as demand, recommendation, proposal, intention (e.g. We insist, prefer, request; It is necessary, desirable, imperative ; the decision, requirement, resolution ).

b)   The Formulaic (or optative) Subjunctive is used in certain set expressions:

God save the Queen Heaven forbid that…

Long live the King Be that as it may…

Come what may Suffice it to say that…

The past subjunctive is hypothetical in meaning. It is used in conditional and concessive clauses and in subordinate clauses after wish and suppose:

If I were a rich man, I would…

I wish the journey were over.

Just suppose everyone were to act like you.

Subjunctive were is often replaced in informal style by indicative was.

Voice. Active and Passive. The distinction between active and passive applies only to sentences where the verb is transitive. The difference between the active voice and the passive voice involves both the verb phrase and the clause as a whole. In the verb phrase, the passive adds a form of the auxiliary be followed by the –ed participle of the main verb. For example:

Kisses is kissed

Has kissed has been kissed

May be kissing may be being kissed

At the clause level, changing from active to passive has the following results:

a)  the active subject, if retained, becomes the passive agent.

b)  the active object becomes the passive subject.

c)   the preposition by is inserted before the agent.

Aspect. Aspect is a grammatical category that reflects the way in which the action of a verb is viewed with respect on time. We recognize two aspects in English, the perfect and the progressive, which may combine in a complex verb phrase, and are marked for present or past tense:

Present perfect - has examined

Past perfect - had examined

Present progressive - is examining

Past progressive - was examining

Present perfect progressive - has been examining

Past perfect progressive - had been examining

Conclusions to Part II

1.  Verbs are the very large lexical word class in English. Verb is a part of speech which denotes an action.

2.  The verb has the following grammatical categories: person, number, tense, aspect, voice and mood. These categories can be expressed by means of affixes, inner flexion and by form words.

3.   As a word class verbs can be divided into three main categories, according to their function within the verb phrase: the open class of Full Verbs (or lexical verbs), and the very small closed classes of Primary Verbs, and Modal Auxiliary Verbs.

4.  The verb has finite and nonfinite forms (called verbals). There are three verbals in English: the participle, the gerund and the infinitive.

5. The subclasses of lexical verb that can be identified tend to depend on the context in which they occur. Whilst the traditional grammars distinguished between transitive and intransitive verbs.

6. Verbs are the nucleus around which sentences are typically built.

7. Whether an item takes a specifier or not is an important characterizing feature for the functional categories. Those lexical categories that take a specifier are verbs; those that do not are nouns and adjectives.

8. Verb phrase is the part of the predicate constituent that does not contain optional adverbials.

9. The simplest verb phrase will be a main lexical verb on its own. The other constituents of the verb phrase will be modal auxiliary, perfect auxiliary, progressive auxiliary, and passive verb.

10. The Verb Phrases exist of two types: finite VP and nonfinite VP. They have the grammatical categories of the verb itself.

Part III. Discourse Analysis of Verb Phrases in John Galsworthy’s

FORSYTE SAGA. Part I. THE MAN OF PROPERTY (pp.1-10)

In his novel “FORSYTE SAGA” John Galsworthy preferably uses perfective and lexical verb phrases. The following table shows the prevailing quantity of lexical verb phrases, that mainly denote human feelings, emotions, thoughts, decisions. And the other major group of verb phrases the author uses is the perfective verb phrases. Galsworthy uses them in order to show, how his personages’ intentions are put into life, what means do they use, and what kind of results they bring out. Rarely he uses modal verbs, passive voice, and progressive verbs. Summary of verb phrase structures

Type of VP	Example	Sum	%
Modal	She ought to be very happy. This it was that she would have to lay down when it came to her turn to die. How impossible and wrong would it have been for any family, with the regard for appearances which should ever characterize, the great upper middle-class, to feel otherwise than uneasy!	11	16
Perfective	A very sweet look had come into the old lady's face, she kissed the girl's check with trembling fervour.   It was her world, this family, and she knew no other, had never perhaps known any other.   Still, he had forfeited his right to be there, had cheated her of the complete fulfilment of her family pride, deprived her of the rightful pleasure of seeing and kissing him.	20	22
Progressive	Old Jolyon's coachman, was driving June and Bosinney to the theatre, and remarked to the butler…..   At the window his father, James, was still scrutinizing the marks on the piece of china..	6	12
Passive	Soames Forsyte, flat-shouldered, clean-shaven, flat-cheeked, flat-waisted, yet with something round and secret about his whole appearance, looked downwards and aslant at Aunt Ann.   Her hands, gloved in French grey, were crossed one over the other, her grave, charming face held to one side, and the eyes of all men near were fastened on it.	9	15
Lexical	Aunt Ann turned her old eyes from one to the other. When Winifred married Dartie, I made him bring every penny into settlement--lucky thing, too--they'd ha' had nothing by this time!"	33	35

The verb phrase can have just a verb, or a verb followed by a noun phrase, or a verb followed by an adjective phrase, or a verb followed by an adverb phrase, or a verb followed by a preposition phrase, or a verb followed by preposition phrase+ verb phrase, or a verb followed by two or more different phrases.

Verb phrase followed by other phrases	Example	Sum	%
VP having just a verb	“What are you givin?” If Irene had no money she would not be so foolish as to do anything wrong; for they said--they said--she had been asking for a separate room; but, of course, Soames had not....   Timothy, indeed, was seldom seen.	17	9
VP followed by a NP	He was an architect, not in itself a sufficient reason for wearing such a hat. Never had there been so full an assembly, for, mysteriously united in spite of all their differences, they had taken arms against a common peril. There was warmth, but little colour, in her cheeks.	37	20
VP followed by an AdjP	If he were sleek, well-brushed, prosperous-looking, it was more necessary to give him nice things.   Her large, dark eyes were soft.	21	11
VP followed by AN AdvP	In the end each gave exactly what was right and proper. His forehead sloped back towards the crown of his head, and bulged out in bumps over the eyes, like foreheads seen in the Lion-house at the Zoo.  And every now and then a Forsyte would come up, sidle round, and take a look at him.	27	14
VP followed by PP	Had she not said to Mrs. Soames--who was always so beautifully dressed—that feathers were vulgar? Like cattle when a dog comes into the field, they stood head to head and shoulder to shoulder, prepared to run upon and trample the invader to death.   How impossible and wrong would it have been for any family, with the regard for appearances which should ever characterize, the great upper middle-class, to feel otherwise than uneasy!   A tall woman, with a beautiful figure, which some member of the family had once compared to heathen goddess, stood looking at these two with a shadowy smile.	34	17
VP followed by a PP+VP	He had never committed the imprudence of marrying, or encumbering himself in any way with children.	11	6
VP followed by two or more phrases.	The eldest by some years of all the Forsytes, she held a peculiar position amongst them. The author of the uneasiness stood talking to June by the further door.   He stretched out his hand to meet that of a dapper, clean-shaven man, with hardly a hair on his head, a long, broken nose, full lips, and cold grey eyes under rectangular brows.	42	23

Conclusions to Part III

1.  We have made a discourse analysis of the verb phrases in Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. As we may conclude the author frequently uses verb phrases.

2.  According to the data from the tables we come to a conclusion that Galsworthy mainly describes people’s acts, deeds and the results of these acts. This is why the author preferably uses the verb phrases of movement.

3.  Galsworthy also uses simple lexical verbs to show feeling, emotions, thoughts of his heroes.

Conclusions

1. Syntax is the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence.

2. The main object of syntax is sentence construction.

3. One of the most obvious yet important ways in which languages differ is the order of the main elements in a sentence.

4. The basic word order in English clauses is subject–verb–object, articles precede the noun they modify, and auxiliary verbs precede the main verb. These are English-specific syntactic rules.

5. The connection between the words in a sentence is realized through the changes in their forms and these changes in the form of the words to indicate their function in the sentence are called ‘inflections’, and the study of the formation of words and how they may change their form is called morphology.

6. Syntax investigates simple sentences, as well as their combinations called complex sentences.

7. A central part of the description of what speakers do is characterizing the grammatical (or well-formed) sentences of a language and distinguishing them from ungrammatical or (ill-formed) sentences.

8. Two interrelated aspects of syntax: relational structure and constituent structure.

9. Words organization into phrases. Types of phrases.

10. In order to check if word combination is a phrase, the tests for phrases are to be done.

11. Verbs are the very large lexical word class in English. Verb is a part of speech which denotes an action.

12.Verb has the following grammatical categories: person, number, tense, aspect, voice and mood. These categories can be expressed by means of affixes, inner flexion and by form words.

13. As a word class verbs can be divided into three main categories, according to their function within the verb phrase: the open class of Full Verbs (or lexical verbs), and the very small closed classes of Primary Verbs, and Modal Auxiliary Verbs.

14.The verb has finite and nonfinite forms (called verbals). There are three verbals in English: the participle, the gerund and the infinitive.

15.The subclasses of lexical verb that can be identified tend to depend on the context in which they occur. Whilst the traditional grammars distinguished between transitive and intransitive verbs.

16. Verbs are the nucleus around which sentences are typically built.

17.Whether an item takes a specifier or not is an important characterizing feature for the functional categories. Those lexical categories that take a specifier are verbs; those that do not are nouns and adjectives.

18.Verb phrase is the part of the predicate constituent that does not contain optional adverbials.

19. The simplest verb phrase will be a main lexical verb on its own. The other constituents of the verb phrase will be modal auxiliary, perfect auxiliary, progressive auxiliary, and passive verb.

20. The Verb Phrases exist of two types: finite VP and nonfinite VP. They have the grammatical categories of the verb itself.

21. We have made a discourse analysis of the verb phrases in Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. As we may conclude the author frequently uses verb phrases.

22. According to the data from the tables we come to a conclusion that Galsworthy mainly describes people’s acts, deeds and the results of these acts. This is why the author preferably uses the verb phrases of movement. Out of about 80 sentences examined on pp.1-10 35% contain simple lexical verb phrases, 22% - perfective verb phrases, 16% - with mostly modal verbs, in 15% of the sentences are preferably used passive VP and only in 6% of all sentences Galsworthy uses progressive verb phrases.

23. To make his language rich and colorful John Galsworthy uses verb phrases in combination with another word phrases. According to our research verb phrases are mainly proceeded by two or more different word combinations – 23% out of 226 sentences investigated, including 20% of the noun phrases. Verb phrases are also followed by preposition phrases – 17%, adverb phrases – 14%, adjective phrases – 11%. The minority of the word combinations following verb phrases is after verb phrases containing just a verb itself – 9%, and phrases including preposition phrase and verb phrase again.

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59. Illustrative material J.Galsworthy “ Forsyte Saga ”

Glossary of Linguistic Terms

Adjective – is a word expressing a quality of a substance.

Adverb – is a part of speech which expresses some circumstances that attend an action or state, or points out some characteristic features of an action or a quality.

Article – is a structural part of speech used with nouns.

Aspect - is a grammatical category that reflects the way in which the action of a verb is viewed with respect on time.

Auxiliary verbs – verbs that have little or no lexical meaning. verbs, they help to form complex verb forms.

Cleft test - taking the original sentence, and putting it into the frame like: It is/was/will be ____ that/who ____, without changing it in any way except for taking one part of it out and putting it in the first slot, and putting the rest of the sentence in the second slot.

Constituent structure - the hierarchical organization of the units into a sentence.

Finite forms - lexical verbs that do not need an auxiliary verb in order to function in main clauses.

Intransitive verb - occurs with both indirect and direct objects.

Modal verbs express the attitude of the speaker to the reality, possibility or probability of the action he speaks about.

Morphology - the study of the formation of words and how they may change their form.

Movement test – a specific case of movement and the formation of a passive sentence.

Nonfinite forms – verbs that do not express person, number or mood and cannot be used as the predicate of a sentence.

Noun – is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word.

Noun phrase - the constituent composed of a noun and an article.

Object – is a secondary part of the sentence which completes or restricts the meaning of the verb or sometimes an adjective, a word denoting state, or a noun.

Predicate – is the second principal part of the sentence which expresses an action, state, or quality of the person or thing, denoted by the subject.

Preposition – is a part of speech which denotes the relations between the objects and phenomena.

Pronoun – is a part of speech which points out objects and their qualities without naming them.

Relational structure – kind of syntax investigating grammatical relations like subject and direct object; encompassing relationships like modifier–modified possessor–possessed .

Sentence – is a unit of speech whose grammatical structure conforms to the laws of the language and which serves as the chief means of conveying a thought.

Subject – is the principal part of two-member sentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the second principal part (the predicate) is grammatically dependent, i.e. in most case sit agrees with the subject in number and person.

Substitution test - substitution of a set of words with a single other word, without changing the overall meaning, in order to check if the words form a phrase.

Syntax - the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence

Transitive verb - occurs with an object in subject-predicator-object structures

Verb – is a part of speech which denotes an action.

Verb phrase - that part of the predicate constituent that does not contain optional adverbials.