The adjective. Types of adj. Degrees of comparison

Eg. John goes to college. vs. John went to college.
The students live in dormitories. vs. The students lived in dormitories.
Goes is singular + third person; the remaining forms are not marked for number. The same holds good for the verb be used in the present tense:
I am at home.
John is at college now.
The forms am, is are first and third person singular; the remaining forms are not marked for number. Consider now examples in which be is used in the past tense:
I was at home.
John was at college.
The form was, unlike is, is not blended with person: it marks only singular; the form were is not blended with person either. However, it can be used in both singular and plural:
You were at home.
They were at home.
Some verbs - modals - do not distinguish number at all. Still others are only used in the plural because the meaning of 'oneness' is hardly compatible with their lexical meaning:
The boys crowded round him.
The boy crowded round him.
The analysis of the examples demonstrates the weakness of the English verb as concerns the expression of person and number and its heavy reliance on the subject: it is the subject that is generally responsible for the expression of person and number in English.


42. The semi-complex sentence.
The semi-complex sentence is semi-composite sentence built up on principle of subordination. It is derived from minimum two base sentences, one matrix and one insert. sentences based on semi-predicative linear expansion fall into those of attributive complication, adverbial complication, and nominal-phrase complication. Each subtype is related to definite complex sentence as its explicit structural pro-totype. Semi-complex sentences of subject-sharing are built up by means of two base sentences overlapping round common subject.
From syntagmatic point of view, predicate of these sentences forms structure of "double predicate”. In position of predicative of construction different categorial classes of words are used with their respective specific meanings and implications.
At same time construction gives informative prominence not to its dominant, but to complicator, and corresponds to pleni-complex sentence featuring complicator event in principal clause placed in post-position. In subject-sharing semi-composites with reflexivised dominant verbs of intense action idea of change is rendered.
He spoke himself hoarse. > As he spoke he became hoarse. Apart from described types of subject-sharing sentences there is variety of them featuring dominant verb in passive.
These sentences have active counterparts as their paradigmatic deri-vation bases which we analyse below as semi-complex sentences of ob-ject sharing.