Syntagmatic functioning of verbs

Unit 4

Exercise3. Translate into English.

1. Нам объяснили, как работает аппарат. 2. Его так хорошо описали, что мы сразу поняли, что это он. 3. Письмо было продиктовано мне по телефону. 4. Об этом законе физики лишь упомянули, он не был объяс­нен студентам. 5. Тебе когда-нибудь объясняли зна­чение этих слов? 6. Сообщение повторялось каждые полчаса. 7. Им указали на их недостойное поведение. 8. Заказчикам предложили новые условия контрак­та. 9. На днях вам было указано на эту проблему. 10. Вся информация будет записана для нас автоот­ветчиком.

Theme: Verbals: The infinitive

Rules:

The verb exists through a variety of grammatical forms that perform different syntactic functions.

According to their syntactic position verbal forms are divided into two main groups: finite (личные) and non-finite or verbals (неличные).

Finite verbal forms always function as predicate. They show a particular mood and tense and are linked to subject and agree with it in person and number. I am a teacher. He is at school. She reads much.

The non-finite verbal forms or verbals — the present participle or Participle I, the Past Participle or Particip­le II, the gerund and the infinitive can never be predicate in a sentence and thus have no grammatical subject. But they may perform predicative function, that is be part of a predicate in association with finite verbal forms. For example: He is watching TV. The house is built. The book has been read. My aim is to master English.

The verbals combine some characteristics of a verb with those of some other part of speech. Thus the gerund and infinitive have besides verbal characteristics some noun features and therefore may function as subject and object: Reading English books in the original requires an extensive vocabulary. (subject) I remember hearing it before. (object) To read English books in the original is a difficult task for a beginner. (subject) I learned to read at the age of four. (object)

The Participle has the characteristics of both verb and adjective and sometimes of verb and adverb. This results in the syntactic functions of attribute and adverbial modifier: Barking dogs never bite. The broken cup was on the table, (attribute) She always does her homework watching TV. (adverbial modifier)

Irrespective their syntactic function verbs in either finite or non-finite form are characterized by their most significant grammatical feature, namely syntagmatics, that is their association with other parts of sentence. Syntag-matically verbs may be transitive, ditransitive, and intran­sitive.

Transitive verbs take a direct object: I saw the boy in the park. Seeing the boy in the park his mother waved to him. She opened the door. Having opened the door, we noticed a letter on the table. I raised my hat to greet her. I greeted her by raising my hat.

Intransitive verbs fall into 2 groups: 1) those which are used absolutely, that is require no object: My friends are coming to have dinner with us. I didn 't sleep very well last night. My children cannot swim. The sun rises in the East. 2) those that require a prepositional object: We waited for the bus for an hour. We agreed on a price for the car. She dealt with the difficult situation effectively.

Such verbs as give, bring, hand, send, buy can take both direct and indirect objects and are called ditransitive. For example: She gave the girl a glass of water. Bring Peter the book. I handed her a box of chocolates. We sent my friends a letter. Let me buy you a drink. (The girl, Peter, her, friends, me — are indirect objects; a glass of water, the box, a letter, a drink — are direct objects.)

The above sentences may as well be restructured into: She gave a glass of water to the girl. Bring the book to Peter. I handed a box of chocolates to her. We sent a letter to my friends. Let me buy a drink to you. Here the girl, Peter, her, friends and you are prepositional objects.

Verbs may be transitive in one of their uses and in­transitive in another. Compare: The cup fell and broke. — I broke the cup. The letter reads as follows... — We read the letter. She always writes with a pen. — She wrote to me a letter asking to come.

Besides, in a sentence verbs are often associated with adverbs or adverbial phrases used to modify or limit them. For example: He sings very well. She spoke in a low voice. Leaving the room hurriedly, he ran out. Excuse me for coming late.

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