Classifications of the Verb

The Verb. The verb represents an action, a state of being or a condition of existence: “The girl caught the ball”; “Birds fly”; “Stuff happens”, etc.

Classifications of the Verb.

Verbs of Complete Predication. Verbs of complete predication make a complete statement about a subject. These are of two types – verbs an action or motion, and verbs that assert the existence of the subject.

Verbs of Action, Motion, States of Being represent an action as a complete statement about the subject; modifiers may be used, but these are not essential to construing the verb as a complete statement about the subject. Examples: “Geese fly”; “Men walk”; “Girls dance”; “Boys sit”; “Fish swim”, etc. Notice that many of these verbs can appear to become transitive by the addition of a cognate object – i.e., an object noun related to the domain of the activity: “She is writing a novel”; “They are dancing the Mazurka”, etc.

Substantive Verbs state the existence of a fact or condition of being – i.e., they affirm (or deny) that it subsists – i.e., exists – or not. Examples: “I exist”; “Stuff happens”; “Chocolate is”; “Justice and freedom obtain throughout the land”. Note that in English the use of the substantive verb often occurs in conjunction with the expletive “there”, as in “There is room here for one more”; “There are no people here”.

Verbs of Incomplete Predication. Verbs of incomplete predication require a complement to fill out the sense of the statement. The complement may be either an object noun or an attribute predicated of the subject or simply a complementary infinitive. There are two types of verbs of incomplete predication: transitive verbs and intransitive verbs.

Transitive Verbs require an object noun to complete the sense of the statement. Because the action of the verb is viewed as going – or transiting – from the subject to an object (as in “The boy hits ➸ the ball”) these verbs are called transitive. Only transitive verbs may be passive: “The ball is hit by the boy”. Note that the verb “to teach” may be construed as a verb of complete predication with a cognate object (as in “I teach Latin”) or as a transitive verb governing two objects, one an external (direct object) and the other a cognate object (as in “I teach students Latin”). Two sub-classes of transitive verb require special consideration: factitive verbs and causative verbs.

Factitive Verbs are verbs that make or render one thing into something else. Such verbs take two objects, one a direct object and the other a predicate object – someone makes something something else, e.g. “Let’s paint the barn red” or “Studying grammar makes me ill”. Factitive verbs include verbs of making, rendering, calling, naming, nominating, etc. Example: “They call me Ishmael”. Notice that these verbs may also be passive: “He was elected president”. Note that a verb of motion can be used with a cognate object to form a factitive, as in “to fly an airplane” = “to make an airplane fly”, “to walk the dog” = “to make the dog walk”.

Causative Verbs. Verbs such as “have”, “make”, “get”, “help”, “let”, “allow”,“force”, “cause”, etc. can be used with the complementary infinitive to show that the subject has caused someone to do something, as in: “I had him take out the garbage”; “I made him take it out”; “I got him to take it out”; “I let him take it out”, etc.

Intransitive Verbs are verbs of incomplete predication that do not take a direct object. (Properly speaking, verbs of complete predication are also intransitive to the extent that they do not take direct objects; however, the term intransitive strictly denotes the opposite of transitive, which in turn denotes the condition of incomplete predication.) Under this category are copular (linking) verbs and modal verbs.

Copular (Linking) Verbs serve as markers of predication in statements that attribute something to the subject. As such, they state an equivalency or make an equation between the subject and a predicate noun, adjective or substantive; there can be no external object in such equations. Examples: “The table is (=) red”; “The roses smell (=) heavenly”; “This bread tastes (=) salty”; “Why do you feel (=) bad?”

Modal Verbs state the manner (or mode) in which a statement is to be taken. In English, modal verbs fulfill many of the semantic functions of subjunctives in other languages; in traditional “school house” grammar these are called “auxiliary” or “helping” verbs. They take complementary infinitives: “may” / “might”, “will” / “would”, “shall” / “should”, “must”, “can” / “could”. (Strictly speaking, “can” is not a modal but a substantive verb.) Note that the past and future tenses of “must” are supplied by the periphrastic expression “had to” / “will have to”.