ABSTRACT
This research is focused on verb and adverbial phrases, their uses and problems in contextual grammar. Data was gotten from answers of students who were the respondents to the questionnaire used. The verb is the basic word in a sentence. It is the key word that gives meaning to a concept. This definition takes care of doing words like jump, laugh, and dance -etc. The grammatical implication of these words is that the actions are being carried out. When a verb comes in a form of two or more words, it becomes a verb phrase. The definition of an adverb in terms of form may be misleading at times. This is so because some people hold the opinion that words ending in “Ly” is enough to identify an adverb. The role of adverbs is very central in the English language. Adverbials, comprise, adjuncts, conjuncts and disjuncts. Not many students can identify adverbs without the “ly” suffix, just as very few students are familiar with the clause of adverbs. From the research, it shows also that not many students can make use of adverbial phrases correctly. The unpredictable nature of the adverb poses problem to students. The research advises that teachers look at some basic words that are unavoidable in the teaching of verbs. Teachers should explain, the finite, transitive and intransitive verbs. Adverbials include particles and phrases, therefore the term is more complex than the adverb as well’ as its unpredictable nature. This should not persuade a teacher to overlook the concepts of adverbial phrase.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The verb is the basic word in a sentence. It is the key word that gives meaning to a concept. The word verb comes from the Latin and “Verbum” meaning “the word”. Traditional grammar defines verb as an action word or words that refer(s) to an action or state. This definition takes care of doing words like jump, laugh dance, eat etc. The grammatical implication of these words is that the actions are being carried out. In this definition, there is no reflection of any word. Example of this type of words include: “perceive, know, sense, think”.
The Oxford Advanced Dictionary defines a verb as a word or phrase indicating what somebody or something does. What state, somebody or something is in, what is becoming of somebody or something.
According to Oji Nzobunachi (1988:26) the verb is a word that fits into an inflectional verbal paradigm like nouns. Verbs belong to the open system members. This class get added to the verb class mainly by the process of adoption and modification of words from other classes. Examples are:
Noun
Verb
Beauty
Beautiful
Identity
Identify
Glory
Glorify
Specific
Specify
Clarify
Clarity
Verbs changes with time. This inflectional changes of the verb leads to the conception of a tense. It might be from present to past.
The function uses of the verb are:
Making statement – Uche is coming.
Asking questions – Did you go to school yesterday?
Giving command – Stand up!
The verb may be in a single word as exemplified above or in a group of two or more words.
In English language, there are called verb phrase. A verb phrase usually contains the auxiliary and main verb. According to Christopherson Paul (1980:55) verb phrases can be seen as a sequential performing the function of a verb or can be substituted by a single verb. He also opines that verbal phrases or groups are made up of auxiliary, examples are;
a) They are eating rice
b) He has done the work
c) He will come tomorrow
d) Uche is driving a car
In the above examples, ‘are’, ‘will’, ‘has’, ‘is’, are all acting in the auxiliary forms.
Adverb is one of the eight major parts of speech as identified by Boadi L.A. (198:64). However, it is very hard to define. This is due to the fact that it varies greatly both in forms and in terms of the position they may occupy in a sentence.