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part of the construction will be structurally incomplete, i.e. it will 
be structurally "gaping". Cf.: * We saw in the distance. * Saw a 
house in the distance. 
The optional valency, as different from the obligatory valency, is 
such as is not necessarily realised in grammatically complete con-
structions: this type of valency may or may not be realised depend-
ing on the concrete information to be conveyed by the utterance. 
Most of the adverbial modifiers are optional parts of the sentence, 
so in terms of valency we say that the adverbial valency of the verb 
is mostly optional. For instance, the adverbial part in the above 
sentence may be freely eliminated without causing the remainder 
of the sentence to be structurally incomplete: We saw a house (in 
the distance). 
Link-verbs, although their classical representatives are only half-
notional, should also be included into the general valency charac-
terisation of verbs. This is due to their syntactically essential posi-
tion in the sentence. The predicative valency of the link-verbs 
proper is obligatory. Cf.: 
The reporters seemed pleased with the results of the press confer-
ence. That young scapegrace made a good husband, after all. 
The obligatory adjuncts of the verb, with the exception of the sub-
ject (whose connection with the verb cannot be likened to the other 
valency partners), may be called its "complements"; the optional 
adjuncts of the verb, its "supplements". The distinction between the 
two valency types of adjuncts is highly essential, since not all the 
objects or 

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predicatives are obligatory, while, conversely, not all the adverbial 
modifiers are optional. Thus, we may have both objective comple-
ments and objective supplements; both predicative complements 
and predicative supplements; both adverbial supplements and ad-
verbial complements. 
Namely, the object of addressee, i. e. a person or thing for whom or 
which the action is performed, may sometimes be optional, as in 
the following example: We did it for you. 
The predicative to a notional link-verb is mostly optional, as in the 
example: The night came dark and stormy. 
The adverbials of place, time, and manner (quality) may sometimes 
be obligatory, as in the examples below: 
Mr. Torrence was staying in the Astoria Hotel. The described 
events took place at the beginning of the century. The patient is do-
ing fine. 
Thus, according as they have or have not the power to take com-
plements, the notional verbs should be classed as "complementive" 
or "uncomplementive", with further subcategorisations on the se-
mantico-syntagmatic principles. 
In connection with this upper division, the notions of verbal transi-
tivity and objectivity should be considered. 
Verbal transitivity, as one of the specific qualities of the general 
"completivity", is the ability of the verb to take a direct object, i.e. 
an object which is immediately affected by the denoted process. 
The direct object is joined to the verb "directly", without a preposi-
tion. Verbal objectivity is the ability of the verb to take any object, 
be it direct, or oblique (prepositional), or that of addressee. Transi-
tive verbs are opposed to intransitive verbs; objective verbs are op-
posed to non-objective verbs (the latter are commonly called "sub-
jective" verbs, but the term contradicts the underlying syntactic no-
tion, since all the English finite verbs refer to their textual sub-
jects). 
As is known, the general division of verbs into transitive and in-
transitive is morphologically more relevant for Russian than Eng-
lish, because the verbal passive form is confined in Russian to tran-
sitive verbs only. The general division of verbs into objective and 
non-objective, being of relatively minor significance for the mor-
phology of Russian, is highly relevant for English morphology, 
since in English all the three fundamental types of objects can be 
made into the subjects of the corresponding passive constructions. 
On the other hand, the term "transitive" is freely used 

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in English grammatical treatises in relation to all the objective 
verbs, not only to those of them that take a direct object. This use is 
due to the close association of the notion of transitivity not only 
with the type of verbal object as such, but also with the ability of 
the verb to be used in the passive voice. We do not propose to call 
for the terminological corrective in this domain; rather, we wish to 
draw the attention of the reader to the accepted linguistic usage in 
order to avoid unfortunate misunderstandings based on the differ-
ences in terminology. 
Uncomplementive verbs fall into two unequal subclasses of "per-
sonal" and "impersonal" verbs. 
The personal uncomplementive verbs, i. e. uncomplementive verbs 
normally referring to the real subject of the denoted process (which 
subject may be either an actual human being, or a non-human be-
ing, or else an inanimate substance or an abstract notion), form a 
large set of lexemes of various semantic properties. Here are some 
of them: work, start, pause, hesitate, act, function, materialise, 
laugh, cough, grow, scatter, etc. 
The subclass of impersonal verbs is small and strictly limited. Here 
belong verbs mostly expressing natural phenomena of the self-
processual type, i. e. natural processes going on without a reference 
to a real subject. Cf.: rain, snow, freeze, drizzle, thaw, etc. 
Complementive verbs, as follows from the above, are divided into 
the predicative, objective and adverbial sets. 
The predicative complementive verbs, i.e. link-verbs, have been 
discussed as part of the predicator verbs. The main link-verb sub-
sets are, first, the pure link be; second, the specifying links be-
come, grow, seem, appear, look, taste, etc.; third, the notional 
links. 
The objective complementive verbs are divided into several impor-
tant subclasses, depending on the kinds of complements they com-
bine with. On the upper level of division they fall into monocom-
plementive verbs (taking one object-complement) and bicomple-
mentive verbs (taking two complements). 
The monocomplementive objective verbs fall into five main sub-
classes. The first subclass is the possession objective verb have 
forming different semantic varieties of constructions. This verb is 
normally not passivised. The second subclass includes direct objec-
tive verbs, e. g. take, grasp, forget, enjoy, like. The third subclass is 
formed by the prepositional 

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objective verbs e.g. look at, point to, send for, approve of, think 
about. The fourth subclass includes non-passivised direct objective 
verbs, e.g. cost, weigh, fail, become, suit. The fifth subclass in-
cludes non-passivised prepositional objective verbs, e. g. belong to, 
relate to, merge with, confer with, abound in. 
The bicomplementive objective verbs fall into five main sub-
classes. The first subclass is formed by addressee-direct objective 
verbs, i.e. verbs taking a direct object and an addressee object, e.g. 
a) give, bring, pay, hand, show (the addressee object with these 
verbs may be both non-prepositional and prepositional); b) explain, 
introduce, mention, say, devote (the addressee object with these 
verbs is only prepositional). The second subclass includes double 
direct objective verbs, i.e. verbs taking two direct objects, e.g. 
teach, ask, excuse, forgive, envy, fine. The third subclass includes 
double prepositional objective verbs, i.e. verbs taking two preposi-
tional objects, e.g. argue, consult, cooperate, agree. The fourth 
subclass is formed by addressee prepositional objective verbs, i.e. 
verbs taking a prepositional object and an addressee object, e.g. 
remind of, tell about, apologise for, write of, pay for. The fifth sub-
class includes adverbial objective verbs, i.e. verbs taking an object 
and an adverbial modifier (of place or of time), e.g. put, place, lay, 
bring, send, keep. 
Adverbial complementive verbs include two main subclasses. The 
first is formed by verbs taking an adverbial complement of place or 
of time, e.g. be, live, stay, go, ride, arrive. The second is formed by 
verbs taking an adverbial complement of manner, e.g. act, do, 
keep, behave, get on.