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joined to the verb "directly", without a preposition. Verbal objectivity is the ability of the verb to take any
object, be it direct, or oblique (prepositional), or that of addressee. Transitive verbs are opposed to intransitive
verbs; objective verbs are opposed to non-objective verbs (the latter are commonly called "subjective" verbs,
but the term contradicts the underlying syntactic notion, since all the English finite verbs refer to their textual
subjects).
As is known, the general division of verbs into transitive and intransitive is morphologically more relevant
for Russian than English, because the verbal passive form is confined in Russian to transitive verbs only. The
general division of verbs into objective and non-objective, being of relatively minor significance for the
morphology 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 in English grammatical treatises in relation to all the
objective verbs, not only to those 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 differences in terminology.
Uncomplementive verbs fall into two unequal subclasses of "personal" 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 being, 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, materialize, 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 subsets are, first, the pure link be; second, the specifying links become, grow, seem,
appear, look, taste, etc.; third, the notional links.
The objective complementive verbs are divided into several important subclasses, depending on the kinds
of complements they combine with. At the upper level of division they fall into mono-complementive verbs
(taking one object-complement) and bicomple-mecntive verbs (taking two complements).
The monocomplementive objective verbs fall into five main subclasses. The first subclass is the possession
objective verb have forming different semantic varieties of constructions. This verb is normally not passivized.
The second subclass includes direct objective verbs, e.g. take, grasp, forget, enjoy, like. The third subclass is
formed by the prepositional objective verbs, e.g. look at, point to, send for, approve of, think about. The fourth
subclass includes non-passivized direct objective verbs, e.g. cost, weigh, fail, become, suit. The fifth subclass
includes non-passivized prepositional objective verbs, e.g. belong to, relate to, merge with, confer with,
abound in.
The bicomplementive objective verbs fall into five main subclasses. 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 prepositional 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, apologize for, write of, pay for. The fifth subclass 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.
§ 12. Observing the syntagmatic subclasses of verbs, we see that the same verb lexeme, or lexico-phonemic
unit (phonetical word), can enter more than one of the outlined classification sets. Teis phenomenon of the
"subclass migration" of verbs is not confined to cognate lexemic subsets of the larger subclasses, but, as is