Functional characterization of behavioural verbs in English

Abstract

The goal of the present paper is to examine semantic and syntactic characteristics of behavioural verbs in English, in other words verbs denoting physiological processes (such as breathing and sweating) and uncontrolled actions of human beings (e.g. blinking, weeping, laughing). Both the terminology and methods of analysis employed here have been proposed by Halliday in „An introdaction to functional grammar", hence the word „functional" in the title of the paper. The focus of the inquiry will be put on describing subcategorization properties of behavioural verbs and identifying semantic functions of noun phrases occurring as subjects or objects of the verbs. Due consideration will be given to the issue of incorporated objects, i.e. participants which are not expressed syntactically but are implied by the semantic interpretation of verbs. The semantico-syntactic characterization of behavioural verbs offered here will serve as an introduction to the analysis of concrete senses of their nominalizations carried out in my forthcoming paper „Action nouns derived from behavioural verbs in English". The present article consists of five sections, including the introductory one. Section 2 will introduce the terms „participant", ,,circumstantial element" and give an outline of the system of semantic roles devised in Halliday (1985). Halliday's classification of processes will be presented in Section 3. Behavioural processes will then be contrasted with other process types and a group of over sixty verbs representing the core of the behavioural type will be isolated. In Section 4 the occurrence of those verbs in transitive and intransitive constructions will be examined. Participants, either implicit or expressed syntactically, which are associated with processes denoted by those verbs will be described. A few remarks on the aspectual category of the verbs in question will be added. A summary of conclusions arrived at during our investigation will be given in Section 5.