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Unit 5
Finite Verbs or Verb Phrases
What is a verb phrase?
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A verb phrase is a phrase whose nucleus
is a verb which can be a finite V/VP or a
non-finite V.
Examples:
A. He studies hard. (‘studies hard’ is a verb
phrase whose nucleus is the finite verb
‘studies’.)
B. He has been studying hard. (‘has been
studying hard’ is a verb phrase whose nucleus
is the finite verb phrase ‘has been studying’.)
C. They found him studying hard. (‘studying hard’
is a verb phrase whose nucleus is the nonfinite verb ‘studying’.)
Notice that the nucleus can be a finite V/VP (as
in A.,B.) or a non-finite V (as in C.).
Finite & Non-finite
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Finite: The form of a finite V/VP must
agree with the number/person of the
subject.
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He studies hard.
They study hard.
He is studying hard.
They are studying hard.
Non-finite: The form of a non-finite V
never changes to agree with the
person/number of the subject.
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They found him studying hard.
They found them studying hard.
Verbs / Verb phrases
Finite
Non-finite
• present participle
• past participle
• infinitive with ‘to’
• infinitive without ‘to’
Four forms of a non-finite V
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present participle
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past participle
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Frightened by a strange noise, the boy
ran away.
infinitive with ‘to’
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Feeling a little foolish, Jane hung up.
To be honest, I really don’t know.
infinitive without ‘to’
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She let him borrow her car.
What are the obligatory
elements in a finite V/VP?
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They are tense, which can be
either present or past, and
voice, which can be either active
or passive.
What are the optional
elements in a finite V/VP?
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They are modal (such as ‘may’,
‘might’, ‘can’, ‘could’) and
aspect, which can be perfective
or progressive.
Why are the verbs ‘open’ in ‘Open
the window, please’ and ‘let’ in
‘Let’s go to the movie’ not
considered non-finite verbs?
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They have the imperative
morpheme, which is a zero
morpheme, added to them. This
kind of morpheme indicates the
present tense. The subject of
‘open’ is ‘you’, whereas the
subject of ‘let’ is ‘we’.
Structural level &
Morphological level
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“has been studying”
On the structural level, this phrase
is considered a finite VP because
it contains three words.
 On the morphological level, it has
six morphemes (have + present
tense morpheme, be + past
participle morpheme, study +
present participle morpheme).
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