Let’s Know Verb 3

    Let’s Know Verb

           Nidhu Bhusan Das

   (Continuation)

 

          Now, what does the verb do in a sentence i.e., what is the sentential role/function of the entity known as verb? Well, let’s go consider the morphology of a word since verb is also a word. We know a word is a string/group of letters that gives a sense or bears/conveys a meaning. Letters represent sounds.Sounds, in every language are of two kinds-vowel and consonant. The sounds we produce with our mouth open or without obstructing the air stream in the process of our respiration are vowels. We cannot generate a word without a vowel sound represented by the vowel letters a,e,i,o,u in English. But we do have at least two words of one letter each in English. They are the personal pronoun I (first person singular) and a (indefinite article) for one.’Pt’ is not a word but put is. It means to create a sound image we need vowel sound along with consonant(s).

        Similarly, we cannot have a sentence in English without a verb, and we can have a sentence only with a verb as in an imperative sentence (e.g. Go) where the subject you remains silent. We cannot convey meaning saying ‘He football’ we have to say ‘He plays/likes football’. A group/string of words to become a sentence or clause must have a finite verb which agrees in number and person with its subject. A sentence says something about the subject and verb is the saying word. Verb predicates (says) something in a sentence.

       We can, therefore, say that verb is the ‘heart’ of an English sentence. As a human being or any other animal/living organism ceases to exist as soon as its heart stops functioning so a sentence ceases to be a sentence if and when its verb is plucked out. For example,’ We play cricket’ is a sentence but ‘We [the verb play plucked out] cricket’is not a sentence because the verb ‘play’is omitted. As in the solar system the Sun is the source of energy, and at the centre so in the sentence verb is the centre and life-force. Other words cluster around the verb or the verb chooses other word(s) to be its companion(s) to convey meanings.(to be continued)