ASSESSING THE VERB AS A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT IN ENGLISH

ASSESSING THE VERB AS A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT IN ENGLISH

ABSTRACT

This study assesses the verb as a fundamental element of English. Among the linguistic elements, the verb stands out not only as a ubiquitous, dynamic element, but as the most important of the syntactic elements. This superlative description of the verb is evident on its indispensability in projecting meanings in any expression. Other elements, no doubt, contribute to complete expression, but none can stand alone and make complete utterance structurally and semantically. The verb as the heart and life of expressions expresses action/deed of the nominal, state of the nominal, events about the nominal, behaviours no other elements in their morphological changes can supersede. It is the fundamental nature of this unique element that this paper addresses in order to, recommend further research on the other elements to ascertain possibly, their essential contributions to sentence formation which might result in one or all these elements substituting the verb in its indispensability. In arriving at the unparalled functions of the verb, materials from the libraries and internet were examined. These sources provided the data which furnished the work with the fact needed in ascertaining the verb as an indispensable element for sentence completion, well-formedness, semantic projection and category changing. This changing or functional shifting aids the noun and the adjective in taking care of situations incapable of being represented by these elements.