The subject-matter of syntax

Gender of nouns may be defined by 3 ways:

1)system of personal pronouns (he, she, it);

2) special suffixes -er(-or) , -ess (waitress);

3) lexical units which express the idea of gender (niece – nephew; bull – cow)

Common gender. Some nouns which can may both a female or a male person they belong to so call common gender (doctor, president). Animate nouns: he , she. Inanimate nouns - it.

The category of case of the English noun is constituted by the binary privative opposition of the Common and Possessive cases. The formal marker of the Possessive case is the morpheme ‘s.

11. General characteristic of the verb

Verb is a part of speech that denotes an action, It has the following grammatical categories: aspect – voice - tense - mood

These categories may be expressed by means of affixes, innaflexions (change of the route vowel) and by form words.

1. According to the functional verbs perform in the sentence; they can form finite(особові) and non-finite forms.

The finite form can be used as the predicate of the sentence.

The non-finite can’t be used as the predicate of the sentence, they are called “verbals” (Participle I, II, Infinitive, Gerund).

2. The basic forms of the verb are:

the infinitive - the past indefinite - the participle II

speak – spoke – spoken.

According to the syntactical function verbs are divided into:

notional verbs – always have a lexical meaning of their own and have an independent syntactical function in the sentence (may be used as a simple predicate).

auxiliary verbs – have only grammatical function used in analytical form.link verbs – which have lost their lexical meaning to some extend and are used in compound nominal predicate.

3. A verb can be

- transitive which can take:

a) a direct object

They express an action which passes on to a thing or object directly.

b) direct and indirect object.

c) prepositional object

- intransitive verbs can’t take a direct object.

4. Semantically all verbs can be divided into:- terminative/- non-terminative

a) Terminative verbs amply a limit beyond which an action can’t continue. (to break).

b) Non-terminative denote an action which don’t amply any limit. (to love, to live, to posses).

c) Verbs of double lexical character/aspect. These verbs in certain context have a terminative meaning, and in other – a derivative.

5. According to their morphological structure verbs are divided into: simple (read, live, hide, speak); derived, i, e. having affixes (magnify, fertilize, captivate, undo, decompose); compound, i. e. consisting of two stems (daydream, browbeat); composite, consisting of a verb and a postposition of adverbial origin (sit down, go away, give up). The modern term for these verbs is phrasal verbs.

12. Principles of the classification of verbs in English

Verbs can be classified in several ways. First, some verbs require an object to complete their meaning.

‘These verbs that require an object are called transitive verbs. Verbs that do not require an object are called intransitive verbs. Note that most verbs can be both transitive and intransitive.

‘The ship sank.’ (Intransitive) / ‘The explosion sank the ship.’ (Transitive)

Some verbs can take a direct object and an indirect object. These verbs are sometimes called ditransitive verbs. Of course, this is not a term you will hear every day.

‘Loud music gives me a headache.’ – In the example given above, the verb gives has two objects – me and headache.

Verbs can also be classified as finite or non-finite.

A finite verb can be the main verb of the sentence. Its form is determined by the number and person of the subject.

I work at a bank. / He works at a bank. /I have worked with children before.

Non-finite verbs cannot be main verbs. There are mainly three types of non-finite verbs: infinitives, gerunds and participles.

Linking Verbs A linking verb connects a subject with its complement. These verbs are often called copular verbs or copulas.

Most linking verbs are forms of the verb be. /She is my sister. We are happy.

A few other verbs related to the five senses are also considered as linking verbs. Examples are: look, feel, sound, taste, smell. Some stative verbs are also considered as copular verbs. Examples are: appear, seem, become, grow, turn, prove and remain.

13. Grammatical categories of the verb.

The verb has the following grammatical categories: tense, aspect, voice and mood.

The category of tense is very clearly expressed in the forms of the English verb. This category denotes the relation of the action either to the moment of speaking or to some definite moment in the past or future.

The category of aspect shows the way in which the action develops, whether it is in progress or completed, etc. There are four groups of tenses: Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous. The Indefinite form has no aspect characteristics whatever, the Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous forms denote both time and aspect rela- tions. Each of these forms includes four tenses: Present, Past, Future and Future in the Past, i. e. future from the point of view of the past. Thus there are 16 tenses in English.

Voice is the category of the verb which indicates relation of the predicate to the subject and the object. There are two voices in English: the active voice, the passive voice. The active voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject is the doer of the action expressed by the predicate. The passive voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject is acted upon.

Mood is a grammatical category which indicates the attitude of the speaker towards the action expressed by the verb from the point of view of its reality. We distinguish the indicative mood, the imperative mood, and the subjunctive mood.