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22.The Verb
The verb is a part of speech, which expresses a process or action. The verb is characterized by a developed system of morphological categories. They are: tense, aspect, voice, mood, correlation, posteriority, person, number. Verbs are connected 1) with a preceding or following noun (children play, play chess); 2) with adverbs which is the most characteristic of the verb (play well); 3) occasionally with adjectives (married young). In a sentence a verb is always a simple verbal predicate. Morphologically a verb may be in a finite form or non-finite (Indefinite, Gerund, Participle). Syntactically verbs may be objective and subjective. Semantically verbs may be terminative and non-terminative, the former expressing an action limited in time, the latter expressing an action having no limits in time.
Category of voice
The category of voice is represented in M. E. by the system of opposemes: loves – is loved, to love – to be loved, etc, and it shows whether the object is the doer of the action or its object (e.g. He opened the door. The door was opened (by him)).The active voice is unmarked, the passive is marked in form and meaning. Some forms of the active voice find no parallel in the passive Future Continuous, Present Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous, Future Perfect Continuous. In addition to two voices three other voices have been suggested: the reflexive – he addressed himself the reciprocal – they greeted each other the middle voice – the door opened.
So Professor Ilyish finds 5 voices in M. E. This viewpoint was criticized by professor Smirnitsky who believed that there are only two grammatical voices – active and passive, which are clearly opposed structurally and semantically. All the other differences are lexical. An extreme point of view is expressed nowadays by V. Plotkin, who is of opinion that the English finite verb has no morphological category of voice at all, and the construction be + Ven is the nominal predicate expressing state and consequently it is a syntactical category.
Some of the western linguists find it possible to classify English voice into 3: active: I opened the door passive: The door is opened by me stative: the doo is opened
O. Jespersen distinguished 2 passive forms: actional passive and stational passive. E.g. The house is painted white every year. The house is painted white.
The problem of the combination be + Ven
Generally the combination be + Ven is considered to be passive when it denotes action (The house is painted white every year) or the compound nominal predicate when it denotes state: the house is painted white; he felt tired, etc. This combination may denote even an action of curious meaning (almost active). The man was drowned.
Practically the combination be + Ven is surely the passive voice when it is accompanied by an adverbial, a by-phrase or continuous form; and participle II is of a durative (non-terminative) verb (The door is closed at midnight (adverbial). The man was drowned by a criminal. Dinner is being served (continuous). He is loved (durative verb)).
The Passive Voice and the lexical meaning of the Verb.
There is a close connection between the category of voice and the lexical meaning of the verb in M. E. Verbs of weak dynamic force (belong, fail, lack, own, possess, resemble) are not used in the passive construction because they do not express action and consequently the object to them is not acted upon: the child resembles his mother. All the English subjective verbs (verbs that combine only with the subject) are not used in passive construction either, e.g. she usually sits here; because the voice member is always combined with object words. Objective verbs connected with the object directly are called transitive and all others are intransitive verbs. Sometimes the English active voice acquires passive meanings: the book sells well. The play reads better than acts. The figures would not add.
The category of aspect
The category of aspect shows the manner in which the action is presented. The members of the aspect opposition are the Indefinite and the Continuous forms. The Indefinite form presents an action as a mere fact. That’s why it is used to denote habitual, recurrent actions, well-known facts succession of events, etc. The Continuous form presents an action as a developing process. It is used to denote an action going on at a given moment or period of time.
Category of Correlation
Many scholars are of the opinion that the English perfect – non-perfect forms represent a special grammatical category – the category of correlation which is expressed in the system of two-member opposemes: writes – has written; wrote – had written; writing – having written; to be written – to have been written, etc. showing whether the action is viewed as prior to (perfect forms) or irrespective of other actions or situations (non-perfect forms)
The category of mood
The category of mood expresses the character of connection between the process denoted by the verb and the actual reality, either presenting the process as a fact that really happened, happens or will happen or treating it as an imaginary phenomenon.
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