Classification of verbs according to their morphological structure and syntactical function

It is but natural that the verb should take up as much, or indeed, more space than all the other parts of speech we have so far con-sidered, put together. It is the only part of speech in present-day English that has a morphological system based on a series of cate-gories. It is the only part of speech that has analytical forms, 1 and again the only one that has forms (the infini-tive, the gerund and the participle) which occupy a peculi-ar position in its system and do not share some of the charac-teristic features of the part of speech as a whole.

In analysing the morphological structure of the English verb it is essential to distinguish between the morphologi-cal categories of the verb as such, and the syntactic features of the sentence (or clause) in which a form of the verb may happen to be used. This applies especially to the category of voice and, to a certain extent, to the categories of aspect and tense as well. The order in which we shall consider the categories of the verb may to a certain extent be arbitrary. However, we should bear in mind that certain categories are more closely linked together than others. Thus, it stands to reason that the categories of aspect and tense are linked more closely than either of them is with the category of voice. It is also plain that there is a close connec-tion between the categories of tense and mood. These relations will have to be borne in mind as we start to analyse the catego-ries of the verb. One last preliminary remark may be necessary here. It is always tempting, but it may prove dangerous, to approach the morphological system of the verb in one language from the point of view of another language, for example, the student's mother tongue, or a widely known language such as Latin. Of course the system of each language should be analysed on its own, and only after this has been done should we pro-ceed to compare it with another. Anyway the assessment of the system of a given language ought not to be influenced by the student's knowledge of another language. Neglect of this principle has often brought about differences in the treatment of the same language, depending on the student's mother tongue.

Transitive and intransitive verbs. Classification of verbs according to their lexical meaning.

A verb can be described as transitive or intransitive based on whether it requires an object to express a complete thought or not. A transitive verb is one that only makes sense if it exerts its action on an object. An intransitive verb will make sense without one. Some verbs may be used both ways.The word transitive often makes people think of transit, which leads to the mistaken assumption that the terms transitive and intransitive are just fancy ways of describing action and nonaction. But these terms have nothing to do with whether a verb is active or not. A better word to associate when you see transitive is transfer. A transitive verb needs to transfer its action to something or someone—an object. In essence, transitive means “to affect something else.” Transitive verbs are not just verbs that can take an object; they demand objects. Without an object to affect, the sentence that a transitive verb inhabits will not seem complete. An intransitive verb is the opposite of a transitive verb: it does not require an object to act upon.

Verbal categories. The category of aspect.

Each of the two aspects must be given some name which should of course be as adequate as possible to the basic meaning of the aspect. It seems easier to find a name for the type is writ-ing than for the type writes. The term continuous aspect has now been in use for some time already and indeed it seems very appro-priate to the phenomenon which it is used to describe. As to the type writes, a term is rather more difficult to find, as the us-es of this form are much more varied and its intrinsic meaning, accordingly, less definite. This state of things may be best of all described by the term common aspect, which is indefinite enough to allow room for the various uses. It also has the merit of being parallel with the term common case, which has been discussed above and which seems the best to de-note the phenomenon if a case system in English nouns is recognised at all. Thus we will use the terms continuous aspect and common aspect to denote the two aspects of the Modern English verb.