03.000 Chapter 3: Making a message
Chapter 3: Making a message
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Indicating how many participants are involved: transitivity
3.9 Talking about events which involve only the subject: intransitive verbs
3.15 Involving someone or something other than the subject: transitive verbs
3.27 PRODUCTIVE FEATURE
3.33 Verbs with little meaning: delexical verbs
3.47 Verbs which can be used in both intransitive and transitive clauses
3.56 Verbs which can take an object or a prepositional phrase
3.60 Changing your focus by changing the subject: ergative verbs
3.69 Verbs which involve people doing the same thing to each other: reciprocal verbs
3.74 Verbs which can have two objects: ditransitive verbs
3.84 Extending or changing the meaning of a verb: phrasal verbs
3.118 Verbs which consist of two parts: compound verbs
3.127 Describing and identifying things: complementation
3.133 Describing things: adjectives as complements of link verbs
3.139 Saying that one thing is another thing: noun groups as complements of link verbs
3.149 Commenting: 'to'-infinitive clauses after complements
3.156 Describing as well as talking about an action: other verbs with complements
3.162 Describing the object of a verb: object complements
3.173 Describing something in other ways: adjuncts instead of complements
3.179 Indicating what role something has or how it is perceived: the preposition 'as'
3.183 Talking about closely linked actions: using two verbs together in phase
3.190 Talking about two actions done by the same person: phase verbs together
3.203 Talking about two actions done by different people: phase verbs separated by an object
3.1 Making a message
When you make a statement, you use a clause. A clause which is used to make a statement contains a noun group, which refers to the person or thing that you are talking about, and a verb group, which indicates what sort of action, process, or state you are talking about.
The noun group, which usually comes in front of the verb group, is called the subject of the verb or the clause. For example, in the clause 'Ellen laughed', 'Ellen' is the subject. The formation of noun groups has been explained in Chapters 1 and 2.
A verb group used in a statement is finite. The elements of a finite verb group and their form depend on what tense you want to use and whether one person or thing is performing the action, or more than one. Quite often in statements the verb group is a single word, and it is quite common to talk about the 'verb' of a clause.
When you say something, you can be talking about an action that involves one or more participants. Indicating participants in a clause is called transitivity. See paragraphs 3.2 to 3.126. You can also be describing someone or something, or saying that they are a particular thing. Describing and identifying things is called complementation. See paragraphs 3.127 to 3.182. A third kind of statement involves talking about two actions that are closely linked. This is called phase. See paragraphs 3.183 to 3.213.
Although this chapter mainly describes finite clauses, the information that it gives about transitivity and complementation also applies to non-finite clauses, that is, clauses whose verb is an infinitive or a participle. Non-finite verb groups can be followed by objects, adjuncts, and complements, just as finite verb groups can.
This chapter deals mainly with the use of verbs in active clauses, where the subject is the performer of an action rather than the person or thing affected by an action. The use of verbs in passive clauses, where the subject is the person or thing affected, is explained in paragraphs 10.8 to 10.24.