Download Tense, modality, and aspect define the status of the main verb

Class 6
Chapter 3
Tense, modality and aspect
are separate concepts
• The components of the MAIN VERB MV.
• The three categories tense, aspect and mood
indicate the status of the verb.
• Grammar books usually lump the three
concepts into one category that they call
‘tense’.
• We look at these categories as separate but
closely related grammatical concepts that
overlap with real-world time but aren’t always
the same thing.
How do we indicate tense?
What are the constituents that make up
modality and aspect?
Tense, modality, and aspect define
the status of the main verb
 Why is it more productive to think of tense, modality and
aspect as three separate categories indicating the status
of the verb?
 Tense, modality and aspect occur as distinct forms.
 They are marked in three different ways.
 Examples
 Play
 Played
tense
 Might play
modality
 Has played
aspect
Continued…
• Underlying these changes from tense to
mood to aspect is a system that works in a
regular manner for all but a small set of
verbs in the language.
• The verb, along with the forms that show its
tense, mood and aspect is called the MAIN
VERB.
• The forms that show tense, modality and
aspect constitute the auxiliary elements of
the main verb.
Tense determines the physical form
of a verb
 English verbs exhibit two tense forms-which are
called PAST and PRESENT- Form 1 and Form 2.
 The English language can still show future time and
other real-time concepts.
 The past tense form clearly relates to past time
than the present tense form relates to present time.
 Examples
 My neighbor walked her dog
 My neighbor walks her dog
Look at these examples
 Superman defeats Lex Luther again and again
 In early comic books, superman defeats villain after villain.
 My plane leaves in three hours
S
VP: pred
NP: Subj
PosPro
my
MV: Past
NP: Dobj
N
VT
PosPron
neighbor
walked
her
N
dog
MV: pres
s
VP: Pred
NP: Subj
MV: pres
N
VT
Superman
defeats
NP: Dobj
N
L.L
Adv: Adv-frequ
again and again
A sentence is a noun phrase
plus a finite verb phrase
• Tense is the only one of the three main verb
concepts that must occur in the verb phrase
predicate of the sentence..
• Without tense a verb can not be a predicate.
• A sentence is noun phrase subject plus a
verb phrase that contains tense.
• A verb that exhibits tense is called FINITE.
• A verb that is not in a tense form is called an
INFINITE, NONFINITE OR BASE FORM.
Mood denotes the purpose of a
sentence
• When a sentence makes a statement, it
is in the indicative mood.
• When it asks a question, it is in the
interrogative mood.
• When it gives a command, it is in the
imperative mood.
• When it indicates possibility, it is in the
conditional mood.
Modal auxiliaries indicate
conditional mood
 The most common modal auxiliaries are:
 Base/present form
past form
 Can
could
 Shall
should
 Will
would
 May
might
must
Phrases like ought to, need
sometimes called SEMIMODALS.
to
are
Continued…..
• When they occur in a sentence, modal auxiliaries always
occur at the beginning of the main verb constituents and
they carry tense.
S
VP: Pred
MV: Past Cond
NP: Subj
Aux
NP: Dobj
N
M
VT Adj
N
photography
might
promote visual awareness
Conditional mood indicates
possibility
 Conditional mood indicates possibility ad the related
notions of certainty, obligation, desire, necessity,
promise, permission and even threat.
 Conditional concepts are concerned with events in
the future.
 modals are sometimes said to express futurity
 Examples,
 I will visit my grandpa
 I will visit my grandpa tomorrow
 The verb following a modal auxiliary is always in its
nonfinite form.
English speakers indicate future time
with adverbs and the conditional mood
 Examples,
They will talk to him on Friday
 Speakers of English can indicate future
time easily enough. Generally we
indicate future time by making the main
verb conditional and by adding an
adverb of time to the sentence.
Aspect indicates that the action of
the verb is completed or continuing
• AXILIAY HAVE PLUS A PAST
PARTICIPLE MAKES PERFECT
ASPECT.
• Both past and present perfect indicate
that the action of the verb is completed.
• Examples,
• have left
• had left.
Continued…
• Perfect aspect is shown by the auxiliary
HAVE
followed
by
a
PAST
PARTICIPLE
• Have/has predicted present participle.
• Had predicted
past participle.
• The ‘past’ and ‘present’ designations
refer to the tense form of the auxiliary
HAVE.
A past participle is the form of
a verb that can follow HAVE
• The past participle of a regular verb is the same as
the past tense form of the verb.
• Past participle forms of irregular verbs vary with the
verb. Some add –n or –en to the basic form:
• Drive
driven
• Write
written
Some change a vowel:
Drink
drunk
Others do not change pronunciation from their base
form:
Become
become
Auxiliary BE plus a present
participle makes progressive aspect
• Progressive aspect is composed of a
form of BE used as a n auxiliary,
followed by a PRESENT PARTICIPLE,
as in,
• Amy was doing her homework.
• The web is connecting families.
Conditional,
perfective,
and
progressive can occur together
• For example,
• He did ( past tense)
• He can do ( present conditional)
• He might have done ( past perfect
conditional)
• He has been doing ( present perfect
progressive)
• He should have been doing ( past perfect
progressive conditional)
• Only the first word in the main verb is a
tense form.
• Verbs have five forms, called principal
parts
Here is an example of a verb and its
principal parts:
Base/infinitive write
Present tense write(s)
Past tense
wrote
Present participle writing
Past participle written
A main verb may contain tense,
modality, perfective aspect, and
progressive aspect
• Here is a schematic of the possible
combination of tense, modality and aspect
within the main verb.
Tense + (Modal)+ (Perfect) + (Progressive)+
Verb
A main verb may
expanded in eight ways
be
• The following schematics indicate that a
main verb may be expanded in eight ways:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Tense + Verb
Tense + Modal + Verb
Tense + Perfect + Verb
Tense + progressive + Verb
Tense + Modal + Perfect +Verb
Tense + Modal + Progressive +Verb
Tense + Perfect +Progressive + Verb
Tense + Modal + Perfect +Progressive +Verb
• Most English verbs are regular verbs
• The main verb marks TENSE, MOOD,
and ASPECT
Agreement
• Traditional grammatical analysis has also given
us a number of other categories, including
‘number’, ‘person’, ‘voice’ and ‘gender’. These
categories can be discussed in isolation, but their
role in describing language structure becomes
clearer when we consider them in terms of
agreement.
• For example, we say that the verb loves ‘agrees
with’ the noun Cathy in the sentence Cathy loves
her dog.
Continued…
• This agreement is partially based on the category
of number, that is, whether the noun is singular or
plural. It is also based on the category of person,
which covers the distinctions of first person,
second person and third person (involving any
others). The different forms of English pronouns
can be described in terms of person and
number.
Continued…..
• The sentence is also in the active voice. An
alternative would be the passive voice.
• Our final category is gender.
• In English, we have to describe this
relationship in terms of natural gender,
mainly derived from a biological distinction
between male and female.
Traditional analysis
• In traditional grammar books, tables
such as the following were often
presented
for
English
verbs,
constructed by analogy with similar
tables of forms in Latin grammars. The
forms for the Latin verb amare (‘to
love’) are listed on the right.
Analysis
•
•
•
•
•
•
First person singular (I) love
amo
Second person singular (you) love amas
Third person singular (she) loves
amat
First person plural (we) love
amamus
Second person plural (you) love amatis
Third person plural (they) love
amant
• Do you consider
the categories
person and number
useful in describing
English verb
forms?
• What about
Arabic?