Download and the verb

verb and verb phrases
Definition of phrase
• Phrases are built on the basis of word classes
like lexical nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives,
adverbs and prepositions.
• certain kinds of words frequently appear
together in units called phrases. A phrase is
classified in one of two ways.
Headed phrases
The first is the formal or internal classification which is made
according to the head of the phrase because it is heads and their
properties that are taken into consideration.
The head is the obligatory element of the phrase, there is also
the pre-head and the post-head position.
5 kinds of phrase according to lexical category the headword
belongs to:
the noun phrase (NP),
the verb phrase (VP),
the adjective phrase (AdjP),
the adverb phrase (AdvP)
the prepositional phrase (PP).
Definition of the verb phrase
It is one of the main elements of the clause and
most essential part of the predicate. By VP we
mean the form, ie how it is structured/
constructed.
Another thing is its function – how the VP
functions in the sentence.
Structure
A typical feature of the VP is that it consists only
of verbs, one lexical or main verb and up to four
auxiliaries.
(aux 1) (aux 2) (aux 3) (aux 4)
Main (lexical)verb
VP
• The most central members are the
morphologically simplest words denoting actions,
processes, events, states (know, like).
• The verb be is the only verb that has personnumber contrasts in the past and present tense.
• This is the only phrase built by words that belong
to the same syntactic category. It consists of a
lexical verb (V) as head preceded by one or more
auxiliaries (eg is taking/has been taken).
LEXICAL VERBS: VERB PARADIGM
It distinguishes inflections. 5 different forms which Huddleston
classifies as tensed and non-tensed forms.
Tensed forms are 3rd p sg, general present tense: takes, take and
past tense forms: took, walked, shut.
Non-tensed forms are the base, the present participle and past
participle: take, taking, taken.
The base and the general present tense formally do not differ,
we come to five forms all in all: take, takes, took, taken, taking.
All these forms of the verb to take present the verb’s paradigm.
They all carry apart from the lexical meaning a specific
grammatical meaning.
Certain contexts require a specific form like: He has ________
(finished/written) his assignment, finish and write have to be
used in their past participle form.
Other contexts permit different forms. He ______ (rode/rides) to
school, and the distinction in meaning expressed by the
opposition here is one of time reference. The form takes for
instance consists of a free morpheme: take-, and a bound
HOMONYMY
• Some verb forms are homonymous in spelling
and pronunciation but differ in meaning and
this poses a big problem for Bulgarian learners
(eg the past tense of regular verbs has the
same form as the past participle, etc.). We
have to distinguish them not on the basis of
their form but of their function. Inflectional
forms are morphosyntactic in character. The
rules of syntax specify under what conditions
given forms are to be used.
IDENTIFICATION
In terms of identification, verbs can be
distinguished by word-formative suffixes, such as
for instance - ate: articulate, - en: widen, -ify:
certify, - ise (-ize): modernize.
Some verb lexemes are formed by another
productive means of word-formation like
conversion. Again we are faced with same shape vs
different grammatical meaning dilemma but this
time it relates to the syntactic category of the
lexeme and its respective paradigm, eg. love,
picture (love, v., love, n.; picture, v., picture, n.).
CLASSIFICATION
1) We distinguish two types of VP in terms of form
in English: synthetic and analytical forms of the
VP. Some call them simple and complex VPs.
2) Another classification has to do with the two
basic forms of the verb: finite and non-finite
VPs. Finite verb phrases differ from non-finite
ones in terms of the fact that non-finites do not
have/do not express tense, person and number
as finite forms do (the best example is the verb
be). They also form the negative in a different
way, by simply adding the adverb not in front of
the VP.
THE SIMPLE FORM
It consists just of the head. It is also called
synthetic because one form carries the lexical
meaning together with the grammatical
meanings of tense, mood, voice, aspect,
correlation. Just as the NP can be expressed by
one word – the headnoun (or the lexical head,
the dictionary entry), so too with the VP. It may
consist of just one (lexical, main) verb: WANT in
eg We want an icecream.
want
the lexicalverb want also carries the other
grammatical categories of the verb like: tense
(present simple tense), aspect (non-progressive),
voice (active), mood (indicative), negation (notmarked). For that reason such a form is called
synthetic, because it is a lexical verb identical with
the base form, but it is loaded with all that
grammatical information together with subject-verb
concord, because the form also shows that it is
finite and agrees in person and number with the
subject. Compare the following example: The little
girl wants an icecream.
WANT-s
the form WANT-s is also synthetic, but it has a grammatical marker for the
agreement between the subject and the verb. The subject consists of Det. +
Adj. + N, but agreement happens only between the head in the subject (GIRL)
and the verb. It is the head in the subject that dictates the form of the VP. In
Bulgarian, by contrast, the verb conjugation changes with the person and
number. This is a very great difference which reflects on the structure of the
clause. Exactly because in Bulgarian the marking for person and number
shows features of the subject, when it is a pronoun it is not necessary to be
explicit and is often unexpressed.
The subject in English, even when expressed by a pronoun is obligatory in
finite clauses. Even when there is nothing for it to stand for, as in the case of
expressing natural phenomenon, the subject is expressed by the grammatical
word it. This is called the empty or expletive or dummy subject and its
function is only grammatical, it fills the slot of the subject and functions as
subject in the formation of clauses – declarative, interrogative, negative,
negative-interrogative etc.:
It’s raining. Is it raining? Isn’t it raining? It isn’t raining.
THE COMPLEX FORM
It includes the auxiliaries be (for the progressive/
continuous tenses and the passive), have (for the
perfect tenses) and do (for questions and emphasis)
which form one unity with the lexical verb.
That’s how the analytical verb tense forms in
English are formed. We shouldn’t forget the modal
verbs. The name complex already shows that there
is more than one verb form but only the first
auxiliary called the operator for a very good reason
is finite.
OPERATOR
• The operator takes the clause negation and it
inverts with the subject (Op-S-Vrest of
predicator – the subject-verb inversion (SVI ).
Auxiliary verbs
In English, the auxiliary verbs, an important subclass of the verbs– be,
have, do, can, will, etc. also called helping verbs, are words that are
used in the VP because they help the lexical or main verbs to perform
their function of predication in expressing different grammatical
categories: finiteness, tense, mood, etc.
• The modal verbs have only tensed forms much to the surprise of
NNSs used to have a rich conjugation of the verb.
Auxiliaries are used before the adverb not and have negative as well as
positive forms in the tensed part of the paradigm: have has a negative
present tense form haven’t, has – hasn’t, and had – hadn’t – negative
past tense form. The first auxiliary in a series is called operator.
• Non-operator take, by contrast, does not have a negative form:
*taken’t is ungrammatical and didn’t take is not a single verb, but
two verbs. Thus, it is not a form of take. They consist of a small
number of verbs grouped in different sets.
the operator
• The first auxiliary, called the operator, has a
special status and is distinguished by certain
syntactic features. The operator is of the
utmost importance in English as it carries the
four ‘NICE’ functions of Negation, Inversion,
Code (substitution) and Emphasis.
PRIMARY AUXILIARIES
The verbs be, have, do are among the 20 most
frequent words in English according to the BNC
(British National Corpus) and can function both
as primary auxiliaries and as lexical elements of
the VP with their verb forms (with the exception
of the forms doing and done, which function
only as lexical elements). The syntactic function
determines the type of meaning expressed,
whether grammatical or lexical. See TABLE.
MODAL AUXILIARIES
In the structure of the VP modal verbs are used
to express modality. In this way, people refer not
to facts but to the possibility or impossibility of
something happening, its necessity, or
certainty, whether an action is permitted and so
on. The modal verbs appear in two forms:
present and past
•
•
•
•
•
can
may
shall
will
ought to
could
might
should
would
used to
had better
CHARACTERISTICS OF MODALS
Modal verbs are to be found only in the finite VP. They are marked for either
present or past tense, but their meaning may not express present or past
time. They exhibit properties different from the other verb types such as: the
verb following the modal verb is in the base form.
• Another very important feature that is typical for English and is not typical
for Bulgarian is that in a VP there cannot occur more than one modal verb:
*shall must is impossible. In that case we use the substitute of must –
have to,
• they do not change in person and number in agreement to the subject.
modal verbs can occur in the same position as lexical verbs (Are you really?
Could you indeed? I understand. I can.).
As the primary auxiliaries, they can function as operator and exhibit the same
properties such as: invert with the subject, substitute the VP in repetition,
etc.
Cn’d
• Some modal verbs like dare, need can be used
as lexical verbs as well. Compare:
• ADA 367 I always feel happier or calmer with
a pen in my hand, for writing is the one
activity which gives me an unquestionable
dignity and, if I may dare to claim it, an
unconquerable pride.
• C8D 3226 I dare say you can.
LEXICAL AUXILIARIES
(see Spasov 1992:24)
• Order of auxiliaries.
There can be in the VP up to four auxiliaries. If
more than one auxiliary is used in a verb phrase
then they have to follow a certain order:
• modal verb or primary verb as operators>
• have for perfect aspect>
• be for passive>
• be for progressive> headword
FINITE AND NON-FINITE FORMS
The basic distinction in the verb between finite and nonfinite forms is reflected in the types of clause in that finite
clauses can be either main or subordinate while nonfinite clauses (or nexus constructions) are always
subordinate (see for details Huddleston and Pullum 2002:
35).
A distinction IS MADE between the verb be, that
distinguishes the present tense forms (am, is, are, was,
were) and the base form (be). In that sense the verb be
can be used as a test to find out about the form, for
instance, cF They take her to school every day and They
are kind to her, both of which express present tense.
FINITE AND NON-FINITE
CONSTRUCTIONS
• With the imperative and the subjunctive BUILD
finite constructions
• eg. Open the door. Be good, Long live the queen
or It’s best that you be there on time.
• the to-infinitive and the bare infinitive are nonfinite forms and build non-finite constructions:
• eg. I want you to finish this, I want you to be there
on time,
• eg. He saw her cross the street, He must be there
on time (cp. He ought to be there on time)
THE BASE FORM
THE BASE FORM is related to different
constructions. That difference is important
because it is purely syntactic as they build
different kinds of clause:
- the form is finite only in the imperative and
the subjunctive
- it is non-finitE in the constructions with the toinfinitive and the bare infinitive.