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Semi-notional and functional verbs

 

Semi-notional and functional English verbs serve in a sentence as predication markers, i.e. they reflect the nature of the connection between the nominative content of the sentence and reality. The verbs of this lexical/grammatical subclass are subdivided into auxiliaries, modals, semi-notional verbid introducer verbs, and links.

2.2.1. Auxiliaries are the grammatical elements of the category forms of verbs. The list of English auxiliaries comprises the following verbs: be, have, do, shall, will, should, would, may, might.

 

2.2.2. Modals are the predication markers of the speaker's rational evaluation of the action expressed by the notional verb in the infinitive, such as ability, obligation, permission, advisability, relational probability, etc. English modals are: can/could, may/might, must, ought, shall/should, will/would, need, dare, used (to). Besides, the verbs have and be reveal modal meanings in certain contexts of their use. English modal verbs have a deficient system of grammatical forms, and that is why they are supplemented by such word combinations as to be able, to be obliged, to be permitted, to be likely, to be probable, etc., which are capable of expressing modal meanings as well.

 

2.2.3. Semi-notional verbid introducer verbs, as it follows from the term itself, are used with the verbids – mostly with infinitives and gerunds. They are not totally devoid of meaning and thus can be of the following semantics:

- discriminatory relational (e.g. seem, happen, turn out);

- subject-action relational (e.g. try, fail, manage);

- phasal (e.g. begin, continue, stop).

Semi-notional verbid introducer verbs should be distinguished from their grammatical homonyms in the subclass of notional verbs.

 

2.2.4. Link-verbs (copulas) introduce the nominal part of the predicate which can be expressed with a noun, an adjective, a nominal phrase or an adjectival phrase.

Like modals and semi-notional verbid introducer verbs, copulas are not totally devoid of meaning: their semantics is that of connection. English copulas are subdivided into pure links (to be) and specifying links, which can be perceptual (e.g. seem, appear, look, feel, taste), factual (e.g. become, turn, get, grow, remain, keep) or notional, which perform the copulative function preserving their lexical meaning (e.g. He lay awake; The sun rose red).

 


Date: 2015-04-20; view: 10407


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