Verbs are a special part of speech. Although verbs are usually associated with the expression of an action, their functions in the language are much more multifaceted. Writers often use verbs to revitalize the events depicted. For example, the main sensation of the novel “Heat of the Day” by the Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen is the experience of chaos during the war. One passage deserves special attention. What role do predicate verbs play here? How do they help revitalize the image?
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Excerpt from The Heat of the Day: Overhead, an enemy plane had been dragging, drumming slowly round in the pool of night, drawing up bursts of gunfire - nosing, pausing, turning, fascinated by the point for its intent. "
Instruction manual
1
At the same time saving language and conveying the internal state of the characters, Bowen writes: "Overhead, an enemy plane had been dragging
The saving consists in the fact that the past past long verbal tense is used, which conveys both the present and the past - an action performed to the present moment. The heroes seemed to have just heard an enemy plane, and yet it was spinning over their heads for a long time. The fact that they did not suspect him before adds horror to their awareness. And, of course, the verb drag itself (to drag) hints at the debilitating, exhausting state accompanying military operations.
2
"… drumming slowly round in the pool of night,.."
Comparison of motor noise with drumming and at the same time with fish making a noise similar to the sound of a drum evokes a sense of danger, tirelessness, but at the same time lethargic. On a metaphorical level, the verb turns an airplane into a fish swimming in a night pond. So through the verb there is personification, however, not without the participation of circumstances that help to associate the night with a pond, and the plane with fish. Without this night pond, the plane would have remained a drumming engine.
3
"… drawing up bursts of gunfire,.."
The alliteration of the verbs dragging, drumming, drawing combines the first three turns in the sentence. Added to this is the special effect of onomatopoeia transmitted by repeating the letter combination dr. In English, there is the word drip-drop, meaning the sound of dripping water. Given the imagery of the depicted, we can imagine that the sky is a pond with fish, water drips from there. It is clear that this is not an objective reality, but an internal state conveyed by images. The noise of the plane then appears, then disappears, acts on the nerves, like dripping water.
It still happens in the past accomplished a long time, forcing the reader to soar somewhere in the air, while creating a powerful and heavy background. The plane attracts cannon cannons, and there is a connection between heaven and earth, but not yet with the human.
4
"… nosing, pausing, turning,.."
And again, the incompleteness of action is transmitted by the same verb tense, and the plane continues its movement. And now the verbs are in the sentence one after another, whereas before that each verb opened a whole series of dependent words. This closeness of verbs-predicators fills the atmosphere of expectation of something dangerous and terrible.
5
"… fascinated by the point for its intent."
Finally, the enumeration of verbs and words dependent on them comes to an end, but the action does not end there. Fascinated is no longer a verb-predicate, but a participle, here inside the turnover. Shocked by his own pursuit, the fish-plane, which was curious, stopped and turned around, acts on the reader, like music in a thriller at the moment when something irreparable happens.
Verbs create this tension in this text, while adding a special dimension to imagery.
