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He looked stupid and good-natured and happy. (link verb)
He blushed violently and looked away. (verbs of complete
predication)
There are some verbs which, though fully preserving their concrete
meaning, perform the function of link verbs; they are used with a predicative
and form a compound nominal predicate. Here belong: to lie, to sit, to die, to
marry, to return, to leave, to come, to stand, to fall, to go, etc. For example:
The poor woman sat amazed.
I stood transfixed with awe and joy.
Here the important thing is not that the speaker stood but that he stood
transfixed with awe and joy.
According to their meaning link verbs can be divided into two large
groups: (1) link verbs of being and remaining; (2) link verbs of becoming.
The first group comprises such verbs as: to be, to remain, to keep, to
continue, to look, to smell, to stand, to sit, to lie, to shine, to seem, to appear,
etc.
The second group comprises such verbs as: to become, to get, to grow, to
come, to go, to leave, to run, to turn, to make, etc.
The predicative is the significant part of the compound nominal
predicate. It can be expressed in different ways:
1. By a noun in the common case, occasionally by a noun in the
possessive case. For example:
She is a pretty child. The book is my sister’s.
In Azerbaijani the predicative is expressed either by a noun in the
nominative case or by a noun in the intrumental case. For example:
O, müəllimdir. O, müəllim idi.
2. By an adjective. For example:
He’s awfully dear and unselfish.
Very often the predicative expressed by an adjective in English does not
correspond to an adjective in Azerbaijani. It often corresponds to an adverb,
serving as an adverbial modifier. In this connection particular attention
should be paid to the following verbs as they are very often used in everyday
English: to look, to feel, to sound, to smell, to taste. For example:
The dinner smells delicious. She looks bad. This orange tastes bitter.
As is seen from the examples given above all these predicative adjectives
(with the exception of the one that follows the verb to taste) are rendered by
adverbs in Azerbaijani.
3. By a pronoun – personal, possessive, negative, interrogative, reflexive,
indefinite, defining. For example: It was he. The guns were his.You are
nobody. What is he?
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As a rule the pronoun in the function of a predicative is in the nominative
case, but in modern English there is a marked tendency to use personal
pronouns in the objective case, especially the personal pronoun I. For
example: It’s me. Someone said, “That’s him”.
4. By a word of the category of state. For example: I’m afraid I can’t
keep the man.
5. By a numeral, cardinal or ordinal. For example: I’m only 50.
6. By a prepositional phrase. For example: The things were outside her
experience.
7. By an infinitive, infinitive phrase or an infinitive construction. For
example: The best thing is for you to move in with me.
8. By a gerund, gerundial phrase, or gerundial construction. For example:
My favourite sport is swimming.
9. By Participle II or very seldom Participle I the latter is generally
adjectivized. For example: He was surprised at the sound of his own voice.
10. By an adverb. For example: It was enough the way she said it.
Besides the predicative referring to the subject, another type of
predicative referring to the object can be found in English. It is generally
called the Objective Predicative. It expresses the state or quality of the
person or thign denoted by the object and is generally expressed by a noun,
art adjective, a word denoting state, or a prepositional phrase. For example:
They painted the door white.
The Objective Predicative does not form part of the predicate, in this
case the predicate is simple.
The compound verbal predicate can be divided into two types according
to the meaning of the finite verb:
(1) the compound verbal modal predicate;
(2) the compound verbal aspect predicate.
The compound verbal modal predicate shows whether the action
expressed by a non-finite form of the verb is considered as possible,
impossible, obligatory, necessary, desirable, etc. These shades of meaning
are expressed by the first component of the predicate. The compound verbal
modal predicate may consist of the following components:
1. A modal verb and an infinitive.Here belong the combinations of such
verbs as can, may, must, should, would, ought, dare, need with an infinitive.
For example: You can prove everything and nothing. 2. Modal expressions:
“to be” + infinitive, “to have” + infinitive. For example:
I have to work for my living.
3. A verb with a modal meaning and an infinitive or a gerund. Here
belong such verbs as: to hope, to expect, to intend, to attempt, to try, to long,
to wish, to want, to desire, etc. For example:
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He tried to open the door.
4. Modal expressions and infinitive.
They are synonymous with modal verbs or verbs with a modal meaning.
Here belong the combinations of such expressions as to be, to be obliged, to
be bound, to be anxious, to be willing, to be capable, to be going with an
infinitive. For example: I am going to buy this book.
5. Verbs and expressions used in the predicate of sentences containing
the Subjective Infinitive Construction.
These words and expressions show the attitude of the speaker towards
the person or thing expressed by the subject. For example: I happen to know
his car was seen here yesterday afternoon.
The compound verbal aspect predicate expresses the beginning
repetition, duration or cessation of the action expressed by the non-finite
form of the verb. It consists of such verbs as to begin, to start, to commence,
to fall, to set about, to go on, to keep on, to proceed, to continue, to stop, to
give up, to finish, to cease, to come and an infinitive or a gerund. For
example: His bones ceased to ache. She had stopped asking.I used to go to
the library.
Verbs are a necessary component of all
sentences
. Verbs have two
important functions: Some verbs put stalled subjects into motion while other verbs
help to clarify the subjects in meaningful ways. Look at the examples below:1) My
grumpy old English teacher
smiled
at the plate of cold meat loaf.
My grumpy old
English teacher
= stalled subject;
smiled
= verb. 2) The daredevil cockroach
splashed
into Sara's soup.
The daredevil cockroach
= stalled subject;
splashed
=
verb. 3) Theo's overworked computer
exploded
in a spray of sparks.
Theo's
overworked computer
= stalled subject;
exploded
= verb. 4) The curious
toddler
popped
a grasshopper into her mouth.
The curious toddler
= stalled
subject;
popped
= verb. 5) Francisco's comic book collection
is
worth $20,000.00.
Francisco's comic book collection
= stalled subject;
is
= verb.
The important thing to remember is that every subject in a sentence must
have a verb. Otherwise, you will have written a fragment, a major writing
error.Many words in English have more than one function. Sometimes a
word is a noun, sometimes a verb, sometimes a modifier. As a result, one
must often analyze the job a word is doing in the sentence.
Ədəbiyyat
1) Palmer, F. R., Mood and Modality, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001.
2) Klaiman, M. H., Grammatical Voice (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics),
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991.
3) Huddleston, Rodney (1984). Introduction to the Grammar of
English. Cambridge University Press..
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