From a semantic standpoint, verbs serve several purposes, such as to equate X with Y, to indicate state or condition and to indicate the
performance of action.
36
For example:
Table 2.5 The example of verbs purposes in the semantic
1. To equate X with Y
Nasya is a nurse 2.
To indicate state or condition Talitha seems sick today
3. To indicate the performance of action
Salsa read a book.
2. Kinds of Verb
The term main verb refers to the word that expresses action or helps to make a statement complete. Even though the main verb consists
of one word, it may have helping verbs in front of it.
37
Without verb, a statement or sentence cannot be a complete statement or complete
sentence. Verbs are variable lexemes. They have a number of different
inflectional forms that are required or permitted in various grammatical contexts.
38
The most distinctive grammatical property of verbs is their inflection.
39
Inflectional is variation in the form of a lexeme determined by syntactic properties like singular and plural number in nouns, preterite and
present tense in verbs.
40
Actually, the preterite form is similar to the past form of verb, such as watch
– watched – watched.
36
Richard V. Teschner and Eston Evans, Analyzing the Grammar of English A Brief Undergradate Textbook, Second Edition, Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2000, p.
11
37
Barbara Hansen and Rebecca McDaniel, Simplifed Sentence Skills, Chicago: NTC Publishing Group, 1998, p. 4
38
Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, op. cit., p. 29
39
Ibid., p. 17
40
Ibid., p. 301
Eugene J. Hall said that there are only two tenses in English which are marked by inflection. These are the simple present and simple past
tenses.
41
Most modern grammarians also consider that there are only two tenses in English which have inflected endings; the simple present and the
simple past. In this study, the writer will focus on the verbs inflection in the simple past tense. The simple past tense indicates past actions that
occur at a definite time in the past, whether the time is stated or not.
According to their changes of form inflection verbs are divided into regular and irregular verbs.
42
a. Regular Verb
Most English verbs are regular in the form of the past and the past participle. According to
Silvia Robertson
, regular verbs are verbs which conform to a certain pattern.
S
he also
said that the regular verbs have certain patterns to change such the word walk that changes into walk-walked-walked, but
to be cannot change regularly as the word walk.
43
The simple past and past participle of regular verbs is –ed, such as
clean –cleaned, live–lived, paint–painted, etc. For example:
Simple past: I cleaned my room yesterday.
Past participle: Present perfect : havehas + past participle
For example: Candy has lived in Miami for ten years.
Passive : be + past participle For example:
These rooms are cleaned every day.
44
41
Eugene J. Hall. Grammar for Use. New York: Voluntad Publishers, Inc, 1992, p. 153
42
James C. Fernald, op.cit p. 82
43
Hodder Stoughton, op. cit p. 4
44
Raymond Murphy with William R. Smalzer, Basic Grammar in Use second edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 50
