There are three main subclassifications that are based on the Principle of Meaning, both Lexical and Grammatical (tab. 5.2).
Table 5.2
Scheme of the 1st Semantic Classification of Verbs
| Verbs | |||
| Categorematic | Auxiliary | Modal | |
| Characteristics | 1. Have Lexical Mean ings 2. Can change their forms synthetically or analytically | 1. Do not have Lexical Meaning. 2. Have Grammatical Meaning to express peculiarities of the elapsed time | 1. Have a propriety to express people’s cognitive-emotive attitude to reality. 2. Have pure morphological characteristics: a) are marked with the defective paradigm (hardly change their forms); b) can correlate only with the Infinitive (a verbal) |
| Examples | Last time we quickly completed the project. We have already done the work. | Where are you going? Do not be too nervous! I have just come. | He must be going home now. She might have done the work. You should be more attentive. |
*There is a problem, a certain confusion:
1) auxiliary verbs can also be Categorematic in accordance with the function they serve in a sentence, for example:
I have a dog (Categorematic). I have bought a dog (auxiliary).
She does a lot to help him (Categorematic). She does not know how to help him (auxiliary).
To be or not to be? (Categorematic). We are the champions (auxiliary, linking verb). They are studying now (auxiliary);
2) there are also some linking verbs Lexical Meanings of which have completely disappeared, for example:
He grew thin (Он похудел). She turned pail (Она побледнела). They grew red (Они покраснели). We felt cold (мы замерзли).
There are also some linking verbs that has kept their Lexical Meanings, for example:
He felt a cold touch (Он почувствовал холодное прикосновение).
A characteristic feature of Linking Verb is that it can correlate with an adjective (which is treated as the main word).
Table 5.3
Scheme of the 2nd Semantic Classification of Verbs
| Verbs | |||
| Limited | Unlimited | Dual | |
| Characteristics | Characterized with the intention to express a completed action | Express an action as constant duration, subsequent state is unknown | In accordance with contextual circumstances express either one or another meaning (of a completed action or of constant duration) |
| Examples | To catch, to fall, to find, to die | To sit, to be, to know, to exist | To laugh, to look, to live To move: He moved away quickly (limited). Nothing moved along the road (unlimited). |
The 3rd version of Semantic Classification includes the following types:
1) the verbs of feelings and perception which are not used in Continuous (e.g., to feel, to love, to hear, etc.);
2) the verbs of mental, intellectual, activity (e.g., to think, to cognize, etc.);
3) the verbs of psychic states which are not used in the Passive Voice (e.g., to understand, to know, to comprehend, etc.);
4) the verbs of speech (e.g., to speak, to talk, to say, to tell, to proclaim, to declare, etc.);
5) the verbs of movement and location in the space (e.g., to move, to run, to settle, etc.);
6) other verbs that can not be classified in this version. They are usually classified in the 1st and 2nd versions (e.g., to find, to have, to complete, etc.).