4. Verbal Categories (Morphological forms. Transitivity. Reflexivity.)
Morphology of the verb
Verbal inflection manifested in verb morphology is present both in English and Polish.
The verbal categories we’re going to investigate are:
for English:
person
number
tense
aspect1
aspect2
mood
st
nd
rd
1 ,2 ,3
singular, plural
present, past
perfect, imperfect
progressive, nonprogressive
indicative, subjunctive, conditional
for Polish:
person
number
gender
non-virile
tense
aspect
mood
1st, 2nd, 3rd
singular, plural
masculine, feminine, neuter, virile,
present, past, future
perfective, imperfective
indicative, conditional
The forms of the English verb phrase:
1) the base form eat
2) S-form eats
3) Past form ate
4) Present Participle eating
5) Past Participle eaten
When combined with auxiliaries and modals they give us 12 (simple and complex) verbal groups (passive
omitted):
1) Infinitive (base form) (to write)
2) present tense form (I write, he writes)
3) past form (he wrote)
4) present participle (writing)
5) past participle (written)
6) modal + base (I can write)
7) have + past participle (I have written, I had written)
8) be + present participle (I am writing, I was writing)
9) have + past participle of be + present participle (I have been writing, I had been writing)
10) modal + have + past participle (I could have written)
11) modal + be + present participle (I can be writing)
12) modal + have + past participle of be + present participle (I could have been writing)
The forms of the Polish verb phrase:
The situation with Polish verbs is a little bit more complex because each Polish verb has two bases: the
present tense base and the past tense base.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
present tense base (myj-)
past tense base (my-)
infinitive (myć)
past form (myłem)
present (active) participle (myjący)
passive participle (myty)
past participle (umyty)
anticipatory participle (umywszy)
When combined with auxiliaries and modals they give us 14 (simple and complex) verbal groups (passive
omitted as a separate form):
1) present tense forms (piszę ,piszesz...)
2) past tense forms (pisałem, pisałeś...)
3) imperative forms (pisz, piszcie)
4) infinitive (pisać)
5) present (active) participle (piszący)
6) passive participle (pisany)
7) past participle (napisany)
8) anticipatory participle (napisawszy)
9) future form (napiszę)
10) conditional forms (pisałbym, pisałbyś...)
11) auxiliary być + infinitive (będę pisać, będziesz pisać...)
12) modal + infinitive (mogę pisać)
13) auxiliary + past participle + infinitive (będę chciał pisać)
14) modal + past participle of być + infinitive (mogłem był pisać)
Transitivity and Reflexivity
1. Intransitive verbs
Profile one (real-life) event participant; there is no object in a clause/sentence.
2. Transitive verbs
Profile two (real-life) participants syntactically realised as the sentence subject and object.
2a. Ditransitive verbs
Profile three (real-life) participants syntactically realised as the sentence subject and objects.
3. Reflexive verbs
Profile one (real-life) participant split into two semantic roles: Agent and Experiencer/Affected. The Agent
role is syntactically realised as subject and the role of Experiencer/Affected is realised as object. Because
the subject and object are co-referential (i.e. they refer to the same real-life participant), the object is realised
as a reflexive pronoun.
Technically, the number of participants is between one and two.
Reflexive verbs in English:
a) verbs which can occur in reflexive constructions, but also in other constructions without a reflexive
pronoun following them;
b) “true” reflexive verbs which are always followed by a reflexive pronoun (there are not many of them
in English:
He absents himself from classes.
Mary availed herself of that opportunity.
They pride themselves on their success.
Reflexive verbs in Polish:
a) verbs which always occur with the reflexive pronoun się (their English counterparts are usually
intransitive verbs)
-
verbs referring to weather phenomena e.g. błyskać się, chmurzyć się
verbs describing the psychological states e.g. wahać się ,spodziewać się, bać się, upierać się,
etc.
verbs denoting actions e.g. kłócić się, spieszyć się, przyglądać się, etc.
b) verbs which can occur with the reflexive pronoun się and without it (e.g. cieszyć się, niepokoić się,
gniewać się, denerwować się, irytować się, etc.)
- some verbs denoting psychological states; the presence or absence of się depends on the
semantic role of the subject:
i. if the subject has the role of EXPERIENCER, then się is obligatory
Janka zachwyca się tym krajobrazem.
ii. if the subject has the role of CAUSE, then się is absent
Ten krajobraz zachwyca Jankę.
Participles

PARTICIPLES IN ENGLISH
Present (active) participle
running water, dripping taps, floating wreckage; a map marking political boundaries; Smiling she entered
the room. She entered the room smiling. I saw him passing. I found him standing at the door. Not
knowing the language...
NOTE:
Drinking water - participle
Drinking water is vital – noun (gerund)
Past participle
stolen money, a written report, fallen trees. She enters, accompanied by her mother.
Perfective participle
a) active: Heaving read the instructions, he snatches up the fire extinguisher.
b) Passive: Having been bitten twice, the postman refused to deliver our letters unless we chained our dog
up.
 PARTICIPLES IN POLISH
Adjectival Participles
active participle: student piszący test, jadący autobus
passive participle: list pisany po angielsku, urodzony w niedzielę, podarty płaszcz, rozbite szkło,
zgromadzone dzieci
Adverbial participles
coexistential prticiple: Wychodzą nie żegnając się z nikim. Idąc, myślał o teście.
Anticipatory participle: Napisawszy test opuścił salę. Zjadłszy obiad poczuł się lepiej.