Functional verbs

1.2 The usage of functional verbs for young learners in english grammar
The lexico-grammatical and grammatical classifications of the verb play a large role in the study and teaching of a foreign language, in the description of the grammatical structure of the language. They represent the grammatically relevant (meaningful) classification of the verb. In our opinion, grammar-relevant classifications should be included in textbooks and manuals on the grammar of a foreign language. After analyzing the literature, the fact was revealed that the classification of verbs is given differently in different sources. There are even such books on grammar where classification of verbs is not considered at all. Based on our research, we concluded that the following grammatically relevant verb types exist in English and Uzbek. They are types of verbs based on dependence and independence of meaning. According to their meaning and the role played in the sentence, verbs in both languages are divided into significant and structural. The lexical meaning of the significant verbs is complete and they are expressed independently. Significant verbs are usually a member of a sentence, and they are given in dictionaries of the Uzbek and English languages without a marker. Structural forms of verbs are an open system. A nomination of an event cannot be imagined without significant verbs, because they indicate specific actions, processes, states of substances in the objective world and are an important part of the nomination. Structural forms of verbs cannot express meaning on their own, cannot fulfill the role of a sentence member. They serve significant verbs, are usually used to express grammatical meanings, help the main verb express modality, type, tense, voice, negation, taxis and other grammatical meanings. An important grammatical feature of structural verbs is precisely this. In English, structural verbs are divided into link verbs, auxiliary and modal verbs, and in Uzbek into link verbs, auxiliary and helping verbs (ko’makchi) verbs. Link verbs together with a noun, adjective or numeral form a compound nominal predicate. They connect the predicate (the nominal part of the predicate), expressed by a noun, adjective or numeral with the subject. In English, they are divided into true link-verb (to be) and special and link-verbs (look, seem, appear, feel, taste, become, get, grow, remain, keep, turn). [3] Some structural verbs of the Uzbek language (edi, emish, ekan, bo’lmoq) depending on context may be related (Men kasal edim. I was ill.) and auxiliary verbs (U ham borgan edi. — He went there too.) Auxiliary verbs in English — to do, to have, to be, shall, will, should, would. They serve to form grammatical forms: Do you speak English? He has come. In the Uzbek language when verb edi, emish, ekan, and bo'lmoq serve as an auxiliary verb, they form verb forms: U ketayotgan edi. (He was leaving) Link verbs exists in the Uzbek language are an obstacle in Turkic and in Uzbek linguistics as A. Gulyamov [4] and A. Khozhiev studied their significance, use and other qualities. [5] It should be noted that in English the functions of Uzbek link verbs perform adverbs called some linguists as postpositive (up, out, in, down, on, off and others): to cut up, to cut out, to cut in, to cut down, to cut on, to cut off. Modal verbs also exist in English: can, must, may, should, ought to, shall, will. They differ in their form, grammatical signs, meanings, uses and a number of other features and serve to express such modal meanings as opportunity, probability, necessity, desirability of performing an action, as well as expressing emotions, surprise and pity. Apart from can (could) and may (might), modal verbs have no grammatical category. Of which neither one does not have the form of infinitive, participle and gerund, auxiliary verbs do not participate in the formation of the negative form, only the particle not is added. Therefore, they are considered Defective Verbs. Modal verbs in combination with the infinitive of the semantic verb serve in the sentence as a compound verb predicate. As can be seen from the features of significant and structural forms of verbs, such division of verbs is carried out on the basis of lexical and grammatical signs.
There are even such books on grammar where classification of verbs is not considered at all. Based on our research, we concluded that the following grammatically relevant verb types exist in English and Uzbek. They are types of verbs based on dependence and independence of meaning. According to their meaning and the role played in the sentence, verbs in both languages are divided into significant and structural. The lexical meaning of the significant verbs is complete and they are expressed independently. Significant verbs are usually a member of a sentence, and they are given in dictionaries of the Uzbek and English languages without a marker. grammar-relevant classifications should be included in textbooks and manuals on the grammar of a foreign language. After analyzing the literature, the fact was revealed that the classification of verbs is given differently in different sources. There are even such books on grammar where classification of verbs is not considered at all. Based on our research, we concluded that the following grammatically relevant verb types exist in English and Uzbek. They are types of verbs based on dependence and independence of meaning. According to their meaning and the role played in the sentence, verbs in both languages are divided into significant and structural. The lexical meaning of the significant verbs is complete and they are expressed independently. Significant verbs are usually a member of a sentence, and they are given in dictionaries of the Uzbek and English languages without a marker. Structural forms of verbs a. In English grammar, a function word is a word that expresses a grammatical or structural relationship with other words in a sentence.In contrast to a content word, a function word has little or no meaningful content. Nonetheless, as Ammon Shea points out, "the fact that a word does not have a readily identifiable meaning does not mean that it serves no purpose. Function words are also known as:
structure words
grammatical words
grammatical functors
grammatical morphemes
function morphemes
form words
empty words
According to James Pennebaker, "function words account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of your vocabulary but make up almost 60 percent of the words you use."Function words include determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, modals, qualifiers, and question words. Content words are words with specific meanings, such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs (those without helping verbs.) In the sentence, "The sly brown fox jumped gracefully over the lazy dog and cat," the content words are:
fox, dog, and cat (nouns)
sly, brown, and lazy (adjectives)
gracefully (adverb)
jumped (main verb)
Function words are words that exist to explain or create grammatical or structural relationships into which the content words may fit. Words like "of," "the," "to," they have little meaning on their own. They are much fewer in number and generally do not change as English adds and omits content words. Functional and semi functional verbs are further subdivided into a number of groups:
Auxiliary are used to build analytical grammatical forms of notional verbs. For example, have done, will write etc.
Link verbs connect the nominative part of the predicate the predicative – with the subject. For example, He is a student, He grew pale . The semi functional link verbs should be distinguished from homonymous notional verbs. For example, The flower grew quickly.
Modal verbs denote various attitudes of the subject towards the action or process. For example, ability (can), obligation (must), permission (may), advisability (should) etc.
The subdivision of verbs into notional and functional (semi functional) is grammatically relevant since the verbs of the two subclasses perform different syntactic functions: notional verbs function as predicates, functional and semi functional verbs as parts of predicate.
Notional verbs are subdivided into several groups:
On the basis of subject – process relations notional verb are subdivided into actional and statal verbs. Actional verbs denote the actions performed by the subject as an active doer. For example, to look, to build. Statal verbs denote various states of the subject or present the subject as the recipient of some activity. For example, to love, to see, to enjoy. The difference between actional and statal verbs is grammatically relevant because actional verbs take the form of the continuous aspect freely and statal verbs are normally used in indefinite (simple) form in the same contexts. For example, What are you looking at or What do you see. Verbs are also classified according to function. Action verbs show action or possession. Action verbs are either transitive or intransitive. Linking verbs show the condition of the subject. Auxiliary verbs, also called helping verbs, are used with other verbs to change the tense, voice, or condition of the verb.
Conditional verbs are verbs conjugated with could, would, or should to show a possible condition. They may be in any tense. In traditional grammatical descriptions, the grammatical function borne by her in the English example in (41) has sometimes been called the 'indirect object,' and the book has been called the 'direct object':
(41) He gave her a book.
The phrase the book is also traditionally assumed to be the direct object in examples like (42):
(42) He gave a book to her.
The classification of the book as a direct object in both (41) and (42) may have a semantic rather than a syntactic basis: there may be a tendency to assume that the book must bear the same grammatical function in each instance because its semantic role does not change. ... [T]he LFG [lexical-functional grammar] view differs: in example (41), the phrase her bears the OBJ [object] function, while in example (42), the phrase a book is the OBJ."Within the transformational tradition, evidence for the LFG classification for English came from certain formulations of the rule of passivization, which applies uniformly to 'transform' an object into a subject." (Mary Dalrymple, "Lexical Functional Grammar." Emerald Group, 2001.) The Grammatical Functions of Subjects
"The most complex grammatical function is that of subject. Consider the example in (1).
(1) The tigers hunt prey at night.
Tigers precedes the verb. It agrees with the verb in number, as becomes clear when it is made singular: The tiger hunts its prey at night. In the active construction, it is never marked by any preposition. The corresponding full passive clause ... is Prey is hunted by the tigers at night; in the passive clause, the subject of (1), the tigers, turns up inside the prepositional phrase by the tigers.
"The above criteria—agreement in number with the verb, never being preceded by a preposition, occurring in the by phrase in the passive—are grammatical, and the noun they pick out in a given clause is the grammatical subject of that clause." (Jim Miller, "An Introduction to English Syntax." Edinburgh University Press, 2002.) Verbs are also classified according to function. Action verbs show action or possession. Action verbs are either transitive or intransitive. Linking verbs show the condition of the subject. Auxiliary verbs, also called helping verbs, are used with other verbs to change the tense, voice, or condition of the verb.
Conditional verbs are verbs conjugated with could, would, or should to show a possible condition. They may be in any tense. The description of word classes, phrases, and clauses in terms of their structure is part of the study of form. We now turn to the study of grammar from the perspective of function: this notion refers to what words, phrases and clauses do as units of language.
Grammatical functions are the roles that different constituents (strings of words acting as units) play in clauses. Examples are Subject and Object (also called Direct Object).
NOTE: We use initial capitals for functional terms like Subject and Object, to make it easier to distinguish them from formal terms like noun, noun phrase, verb, etc.
Understanding how clauses are formed and how constituents work together is important in developing both close reading and effective writing skills.
Compare the following examples. How do they differ in meaning?
The police attacked the demonstrators.
The demonstrators attacked the police.
In the first example, the police are the ones doing the attacking, whereas in the second the police are the ones being attacked.
Grammatically what's happening here is that the same noun phrase, the police, occurs with a different grammatical function in each example:
The police attacked the demonstrators. [Subject]
The demonstrators attacked the police. [Object]
In the first example, the noun phrase the police is positioned before the verb and functions as Subject. In the second, it is positioned after the verb and functions as Object.
The form is the same (the police is a noun phrase in both cases), but the function is different.
The examples we looked at describe an action of attacking, involving two participants: the agent carrying out the attack and the patient (or 'undergoer') affected by the attack.
But what about this example? Is there an action with an agent and patient?
The students know the answer.
This example involves ‘knowing’ – which is not an action but a state of affairs. The students are not agents ‘acting on’ the answer.

But this clause has the same kind of grammatical pattern as the ‘attacking’ examples. It has a Subject (the students) before the verb and an Object (the answer) after it.

This means we can’t define grammatical functions purely in terms of meanings such as agent and patient.