44
The ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the republic
of Uzbekistan
Gulistan State University
«The System of English Verbs»
Gulistan 2008
1. Theoretical background
In contemporary semantics a broad distinction is drawn between
denotation (referential) approach and language-intrinsic (or
language-immanent) approach. This distinction follows from the
opposition of two aspects of meaning: denotation and sense. As a rule
the analysis of denotation results in the description of specific
properties of extralinguistic objects denoted by a word (e.g. B.
Pottier’s analysis of the field siege (chaise, fauteuil, tabouret,
canape, pouf – chair, armchair, stool, sofa, pouf) is known to result in
the distinction of such concrete and unique denotational components as
S1 – with back, S2 – with legs, S3 – for a single person, S4 – for
sitting, S5 – with arms, S6 – made from hard material).
The procedure proposed in the study is based on the principles of
language-immanent approach in semantics (cf. E.N. Bendix, E. Coseriu, H.
Geckeler, J. Lyons, J. Apresjan, A. Ufimtseva). It is assumed that it is
definition of sense in terms of a limited number of semes that can
provide the description of the semantic system of language.
Sense (being opposed to denotation) is considered as linguistic
(language-immanent) meaning expressing the most essential features of an
object denoted by a word.
Sense components, or SEMES (semantic markers in Katzian semantics;
classemes in B. Pottier’s and A. Greimas’s approach) – such as abstract
– concrete, definite – indefinite, etc. – reveal structural relations
within semantic system. They are few in number and recur throughout the
entire vocabulary. Semes are represented as binary / tertiary
oppositions. For example, the seme definite – indefinite has binary
structure: definite is the positive value (variant) of the seme;
indefinite is the negative value (variant).
At present there is no elaborate integral method of the analysis of
sense structure of lexemes, and traditionally semantic analysis is
carried out only on the paradigmatic level of the lexicon. In this study
an attempt was made to propose the technique of the analysis of sense
structure which involves the description of both syntagmatic relations
(in particular, interrelations of semes and semantic concord of lexemes
in the text) and paradigmatic relations in the lexicon (the structure of
semantic fields).
Though the technique proposed in this study cannot claim to provide an
integrated description of the semantic structure of natural language, it
proved to be effective in the analysis of the semantic fields of
different language systems. The results of the research can be relevant
to structural semantics (description of semantic relations, elaboration
of formal representations (frames, thesauri)), they may be applied in
lexicography, computational linguistics and language teaching.
The problem of the theme is that the system of the English verb is
rightly considered to be the most complex grammatical structure of the
language. The most troublesome problems are, indeed, concentrated in the
area of the finite verb, and include, in particular, questions tense,
aspect and modal auxiliary usage. This seems to be an aim of our work
which has always gained the greatest interest in language learning. We
can say with little fear of exaggeration that learning a language is to
a very large degree learning how to operate the verbal forms of that
language.
In Modern English, as well as in many other languages, verbal forms
imply not only subtle shades of time distinction but serve for other
purposes, too; they are also often marked for person and number, for
mood, voice and aspect.
The general categorial meaning of the verb is process presented
dynamically, i.e. developing in time. This general processual meaning is
embedded in the semantics of all the verbs, including those that denote
states, forms of existence, types of attitude, evaluations, etc., rather
than actions. Edgar’s room led out of the wall without a door. She had
herself a liking for richness and excess. It was all over the morning
papers. That’s what I’m afraid of. I do love you, really I do. And this
holds true not only about the finite verb, but also about the non-finite
verb. The processual semantic character of the verbal lexeme even in the
non-finite form is proved by the fact that in all its forms it is
modified by the adverb and, with the transitive verb, it takes a direct
object. Mr. Brown received the visitor instantly, which was unusual. –
Mr. Brown’s receiving the visitor instantly was unusual. – It was
unusual for Mr. Brown to receive the visitor instantly. But: An instant
reception of the visitor was unusual for Mr. Brown Language Log: How to
defend yourself from bad advice about writing The American Heritage
Book of English Usage, ch. 1, sect. 24 “double passive.” Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
The processual categorial meaning of the notional verb determines its
characteristic combination with a noun expressing both the doer of the
action (its subject) and, in cases of the objective verb, the recipient
of the action (its object); it also determines its combination with an
adverb as the modifier of the action.
From the point of view of their outward structure, verbs are
characterised by specific forms of word-building, as well as by the
formal features expressing the corresponding grammatical categories.
The verb stems may be simple, sound-replacive, stress-replacive,
expanded, composite, and phrasal.
The original simple verb stems are not numerous, such verbs as go, take,
read, etc. But conversion (zero-suffixation) as means of derivation,
especially conversion of the «noun – verb» type, greatly enlarges the
simple stem set of verbs, since it is one of the most productive ways of
forming verb lexemes in modern English, a cloud – to cloud, a house – to
house; a man – to man; a park – to park, etc.
2. The main part
2.1 Categories of verb morphology
What properties of the events described in the following sentences do
the morphemes in bold tell us about?
Jimmy will graduate in June.
Jimmy would graduate if he studied.
Jimmy is sleeping.
In the last section we saw how grammatical morphology can specify one or
another abstract category for the things that nouns refer to. In this
section, we’ll look at how grammatical morphology can do the same for
verbs, focusing on one particular kind of verb morphology, morphemes
that indicate general properties of the participants in the event or
state that the verb designates.
Just as things divide naturally into a small number of categories on the
basis of dimensions such as number, countability, and shape, events and
states also divide naturally into a small number of categories on the
basis of several basic dimensions.
2.1.1 Time
The Grammies realized early on that when an event occurred or a state
was true often mattered. An utterance like Clark eat berries wasn’t much
use if the hearer didn’t know whether Clark had already eaten the
berries, was eating them at that moment, or was going to eat them at
some later time. The Grammies developed two kinds of expressions to help
them talk about the time of an event or state, absolute and relative
expressions. This is a distinction we’ve seen before, in the context of
adjective meaning.
Absolute time expressions label specific points in time, such as January
20, 1203, or points within a repeating unit of time, such as 3:00 pm
(which labels a time within the day) and Tuesday (which labels a day
within the week). The second type of expression may be used for
repeating events or states (I get up at 7:00) or for a single event or
state, in which case the Hearer has to be able to figure out which unit
of time the Speaker has in mind. That is, I got up at 7:00 is only
meaningful if we know which day the Speaker is talking about.
Expressions like yesterday and ago express times relative to the
utterance time.
Relative time expressions label points in time relative some other
reference point. The most obvious reference point is the utterance time,
which is one of the roles in the utterance context and is directly
accessible to the Hearer. Thus referring to time in this way is an
example of a deictic use of language. For an event or state that is
going on at the time of speaking, we have a word like now. For a past or
future event or state, we can mention the length of time that has
elapsed or will elapse between the time it occurred or will occur and
the utterance time (an hour ago, in an hour), or we can simply say that
it happened before the utterance time or will happen after the utterance
time (already, in the future). There are other possible reference points
for relative time reference. We can say things like before that time and
after the wedding.
Just as number ended up grammatical in languages such as English, we
might expect reference to the time of events and states to end up
grammatical too. In fact, many, if not most, modern languages have a
system for this, called tense, built into their grammar. For example, we
distinguish Clark fell asleep, Clark is falling asleep, and Clark is
going to fall asleep. Tense morphology divides events and states into
the general grammatical categories past, present, and future; or a
smaller set such as past and non-past; or a larger set, depending on the
language.
As with other grammatical morphology, tense marking is normally
obligatory in languages that have it, even when it is redundant. Both of
the following English sentences have the past morpheme, even though that
morpheme is redundant in the second example because the phrase last
night makes it clear that the event happened before the utterance time.
I slept ten hours.
I slept ten hours last night.
Duration, repetition, completion
Events may be viewed «from inside», as they are going on, or «from
outside», before they begin or after they finish.
There are other ways of looking at the temporal properties of an event
or state than when it occurred or was true. It could be viewed as
ongoing or completed, for example. Consider the difference between these
two English sentences.
Clark was falling asleep.
Clark had fallen asleep.
Both have an unspecified time in the past as a point of reference. In
sentence 3 the event is seen as ongoing at that time, and in sentence 4
the event is seen as completed at that time.
The Speaker may also point out the repeated nature of an event or state.
Consider the difference between these English sentences.
Clark runs in the marathon.
Clark is running in the marathon.
For both of these sentences, the point of reference is the utterance
time (‘now’). In sentence 5, the running is viewed as repeated around
this reference time; in sentence 6 it is ongoing at the reference time.
The grammatical representation of duration, completion, and repetition
of events and states is known as aspect. As with other grammatical
morphology, aspect morphology is often obligatory. In English, for
example, speakers have to commit themselves to the choice between
ongoing, repeated, or completed for an event with present reference
time. That is, it is impossible in English to talk about Clark running
the marathon, as in sentences 5 and 6, without making such a commitment.
2.1.2 Possibility, hypothesis, desirability
Another set of properties that distinguishes some events and states from
others is related to their truth: whether they are true or likely to be
true, whether we are treating them as true just for the sake of
argument, whether we would like them to be true. The grammatical
represention of meanings like these is called modality. Here are two
English examples where the verb morphology reflects these dimensions.
If Jimmy spoke Spanish, he’d have a better chance with Lupe.
Perry suggested that Clark spend less time on computer games.
In sentence 7, the Speaker knows that Jimmy doesn’t speak Spanish; if he
did or there were at least a possibility that he does, the verb would be
speaks rather than spoke. And in the same sentence, would (‘d) indicates
the conditional nature of the state of «having a better chance»; it
would be true if Jimmy spoke Spanish, but he doesn’t, so it isn’t. In
sentence 8, spend is used rather than spends, indicating the tenative
nature of the «spending less time»; this is only a suggestion, not yet
reality. Language Log: How to defend yourself from bad advice about
writing The American Heritage Book of English Usage, ch. 1, sect. 24
“double passive.” Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. Accessed 13 November
2006
2.1.3 Participants
Events and states are defined in part by their participants. The choice
of a particular verb commits the Speaker not only to a category of state
or event but to a set of semantic roles. But these semantic roles may
often be filled by a variety of things. We can group events and states
into a small set of abstract categories on the basis of some general
properties of these participants. The next subsection focuses on verb
morphology with this function.
2.1.4 Verb agreement
What makes the following sentences ungrammatical? What kind of rule can
you specify for the verb morpheme – s?
Clark always arrive late.
Clark’s colleagues likes him a lot.
In many languages verbs take inflectional morphemes that convey some
information about one or more participants in the event or state that
the sentence is about. One way to think about this is in terms of the
agreement between the verb and those participants on a small number of
abstract properties. On the one extreme are languages like Mandarin
Chinese and Japanese, which have no morphology of this type (though
sometimes the choice of a verb in Japanese is governed by some
properties of the participants). In what follows, I’ll briefly discuss
verb agreement in four languages that have some form of it. Notice that
since agreement morphology conveys abstract properties of participants,
that is, things, this topic overlaps with the topic of the last section.
English is a language with limited verb agreement morphology, the
vestiges of what was a full-blown agreement system in Old English.
Consider these sentences.
Clark plays golf.
Lois and Clark play tennis.
I play croquet.
Clark played 18 holes yesterday.
Clark likes team sports.
In English – s is plural when it appears on nouns but singular when it
appears on verbs.
Notice that the form of the verb play differs in sentence 9 and 10. In
sentence 9 the subject of the sentence, Clark, is 3rd person (that is,
including neither the Speaker nor the Hearer) and singular, and the verb
takes the suffix – s to indicate this. When the same verb is used with a
subject that has any other combination of person and number, as in
sentences 10 and 11, the verb takes no suffix. Notice also that an
agreement suffix is only added to verbs in the simple present tense,
that is, the tense category used in sentences 9, 10, and 11. Sentence 12
is in the simple past tense, and no distinction is made on the basis of
person and number. Finally, notice that it is the participant in the
syntactic role of subject, rather than any particular semantic role,
that the verb agrees with. So in sentence 13, the verb again takes the –
s even though the subject in this case refers to an experience rather
than an agent, as in sentence 9. Bybee, Joan L., Revere Perkins, and
William Pagliuca (1994) The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and
Modality in the Languages of the World. University of Chicago Press
With the verb be, there are three forms rather than two in the simple
present, and rather than suffixes, completely unrelated forms are used:
am (1st person singular), is (3rd person singular), and are (other
person-number combinations). The verb be also has two forms in the
simple past tense, was and were.
Thus English subject-verb agreement is limited both in terms of the
number of different forms and the situations in which it must apply.
However, it behaves just like the other examples of grammatical
morphology we’ve been considering. It is often redundant, but it is
obligatory even when it is. So in standard English dialects, at least,
it is ungrammatical to say Clark like Lois, even though the missing – s
would convey no new information.
So does the – s in play in sentences 9 and 13 mean anything? Yes, it
means that the subject of that verb is 3rd person singular. In addition,
because this suffix only occurs on verbs in the simple present tense, it
also marks that tense category. Under most circumstances, this
information would be obvious from the subject itself and from the
context. But if the Hearer missed the subject for some reason, that – s
could help sort things out. Also there are gray areas where Speakers may
choose to use a verb in the 3rd person singular with a plural subject.
Compare these two sentences.
A hundred students are in this course.
A hundred students is more than this room can hold.
In sentence 15, the subject is viewed as an individual quantity rather
than a collection of individual things, so the verb is singular.
2.2 American Sign Language
The grammars of sign languages may be just as complex as those of spoken
languages.
Finally let’s consider agreement morphology on verbs in a sign language.
We have already seen one example of this in the discussion of mutation
morphology. ASL has a category of verbs that sign linguists call
«directional verbs». These are verbs designating transfer events, or
information transfer events, or other events viewed as having a
direction. These verbs have a basic handshake and a position on the
body, but their direction has to agree with the source and the goal
(often the recipient) of the event. The agreement is with what
corresponds to person in ASL, the position in signing space of the
participants. 1st and 2nd person have the position of the signer and the
sign interpreter, and other participants are «placed» in signing space
by the signer as they come up.
For example, to produce the sign for ‘give’ in ASL when the source/agent
is neither the signer nor the sign interpreter and the recipient is the
signer, the signer uses the basic handshake for ‘give’, moving one hand
from the position of the giver in signing space to the signer’s own
chest. The direction would be the opposite if the roles were reversed.
Another form of agreement in ASL makes use of classifiers. Classifiers
in ASL take the form of particular handshakes that represent general
properties of things. For example, an index finger pointing upward
represents a standing person, a cupped hand represents a container, and
the extended thumb and first two finger represents a vehicle One use of
classifiers is as morphemes agreeing with the subjects of verbs
designating move events and be at states. In this case the agreement is
the opposite of what happens with verbs of giving and telling. It is the
handshake that represents the agreement morpheme and the movement of the
hand(s) that represents the content of the verb. For example, to sign a
sentence meaning ‘the car is here’, the signer would make the sign for
‘car’, then with the ‘vehicle’ classifier handshake sign ‘be here’, that
is, move the hand downward in front of the body.
How is verb agreement in ASL like the verb agreement in the spoken
languages we have considered? At least in many cases agreement in ASL is
obligatory, as it is in spoken languages. It may also be redundant, as
in the ‘vehicle’ example.
Agreement in ASL, in fact morphology in sign languages generally, is
strikingly different from spoken language morphology in one way. It is
invariably iconic; all of these examples we have seen «make sense». With
respect to form alone, sign language grammatical morphology differs in
another way from most spoken language grammatical morphology in that it
occurs simultaneously with the root morpheme. Of course this derives
from the potential in sign languages to maintain a particular handshake
while a movement is executed.
One point of this section has been to show how much languages can vary
in terms of what information gets represented on their verbs. It is on
verbs that we see how different languages can get. Within our set of
languages, we have seen a range of possibilities, but we still are not
close to the extreme of some American Indian and Eskimo languages, like
Inuktitut, where verbs frequently include more than ten morphemes.
However, those words usually include morphemes that go beyond the
functions we’ve discussed in this chapter. Such languages excel at
creating new words from a small number of roots and extensive productive
morphology. How this sort of process works is the topic of the next
chapter.
2.3 The category of voice
In English as in many other languages, the passive voice is the form of
a transitive verb whose grammatical subject serves as the patient,
receiving the action of the verb. The passive voice is typically
contrasted with the active voice, which is the form of a transitive verb
whose subject serves as the agent, performing the action of the verb.
The subject of a verb in the passive voice corresponds to the object of
the same verb in the active voice. English’s passive voice is
periphrastic; that is, it does not have a one-word form. Rather, it is
formed using a form of the auxiliary verb be together with a verb’s past
participle.
Canonical passives
Passive constructions have a range of meanings and uses. The canonical
use to map a clause with a direct object to a corresponding clause where
the direct object has become the subject. For example:
John threw the ball. Bybee, Joan L., Revere Perkins, and William
Pagliuca (1994) The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in
the Languages of the World. University of Chicago Press
Here, threw is a transitive verb with John as its subject and the ball
as its direct object. If we recast the verb in the passive voice (was
thrown), then the ball becomes the subject (it is promoted to the
subject position) and John disappears:
The ball was thrown.
The original subject can typically be re-inserted using the preposition
by:
The ball was thrown by John.
Promotion of other objects
One non-canonical use of English’s passive is to promote an object other
than a direct object. It is usually possible in English to promote
indirect objects as well. For example:
John gave Mary a book. ? Mary was given a book.
In the active form, gave is the verb; John is its subject, Mary its
indirect object, and a book its direct object; in the passive form, the
indirect object has been promoted and the direct object has been left in
place. (In this respect, English resembles dechticaetiative languages.)
It is also possible, in some cases, to promote the object of a
preposition:
They talked about the problem. ? The problem was talked about.
In the passive form here, the preposition is «stranded»; that is, it is
not followed by an object. (See Preposition stranding.) Indeed, in some
sense it doesn’t have an object, since «the problem» is actually the
subject of the sentence.
Promotion of content clauses
It is possible to promote a content clause that serves as a direct
object. In this case, however, it typically does not change its position
in the sentence, and an expletive it takes the normal subject position:
They say that he left. ? It is said that he left.
Stative passives
The passives described so far have all been eventive (or dynamic)
passives. There exist also stative (or static, or resultative) passives;
rather than describing an action, they describe the result of an action.
English does not usually distinguish between the two. For example:
The door was locked.
This sentence has two meanings, roughly the following:
[Someone] locked the door.
The door was in the locked state. (Presumably, someone had locked it.)
The former meaning represents the canonical, eventive passive; the
latter, the stative passive. (The terms eventive and stative/resultative
refer to the tendencies of these forms to describe events and resultant
states, respectively. The terms can be misleading, however, as the
canonical passive of a stative verb is not a stative passive, even
though it describes a state.)
Some verbs do not form stative passives. In some cases, this is because
distinct adjectives exist for this purpose, such as with the verb open:
The door was opened. ? [Someone] opened the door.
The door was open. ? The door was in the open state.
Adjectival passives
Adjectival passives are not true passives; they occur when a participial
adjective (an adjective derived from a participle) is used predicatively
For example:
She was relieved to find her car undamaged. Bybee, Joan L., Revere
Perkins, and William Pagliuca (1994) The Evolution of Grammar: Tense,
Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World. University of
Chicago Press
Here, relieved is an ordinary adjective, though it derives from the past
participle of relieve In some cases, the line between an adjectival
passive and a stative passive may be unclear.
Passives without active counterparts
In a few cases, passive constructions retain all the sense of the
passive voice, but do not have immediate active counterparts. For
example:
He was rumored to be a war veteran. ? *[Someone] rumored him to be a war
veteran.
(The asterisk here denotes an ungrammatical construction.) Similarly:
It was rumored that he was a war veteran. ? *[Someone] rumored that he
was a war veteran.
In both of these examples, the active counterpart was once possible, but
has fallen out of use.
Double passives
It is possible for a verb in the passive voice – especially an
object-raising verb – to take an infinitive complement that is also in
the passive voice:
The project is expected to be completed in the next year.
Commonly, either or both verbs may be moved into the active voice:
[Someone] expects the project to be completed in the next year.
[Someone] is expected to complete the project in the next year.
[Someone] expects [someone] to complete the project in the next year.
In some cases, a similar construction may occur with a verb that is not
object-raising in the active voice:
The project will be attempted to be completed in the next year. ?
*[Someone] will attempt the project to be completed in the next year. ?
[Someone] will attempt to complete the project in the next year.
(The question mark here denotes a questionably-grammatical
construction.) In this example, the object of the infinitive has been
promoted to the subject of the main verb, and both the infinitive and
the main verb have been moved to the passive voice. The American
Heritage Book of English Usage declares this unacceptable but it is
nonetheless attested in a variety of contexts
Other passive constructions
Past participle alone
A past participle alone usually carries passive force; the form of be
can therefore be omitted in certain circumstances, such as newspaper
headlines and reduced relative clauses:
Couple found slain; Murder-suicide suspected.
The problem, unless dealt with, will only get worse.
A person struck by lightning has a high chance of survival.
With get as the auxiliary
While the ordinary passive construction uses the auxiliary be, the same
effect can sometimes be achieved using get in its place: Jamie got hit
with the ball.
This use of get is fairly restricted. First of all, it is fairly
colloquial; be is used in news reports, formal writing, and so on.
Second of all, it typically only forms eventive passives of eventive
verbs. Third of all, it is most often (but not necessarily) used with
semantically negative verbs; for example, the phrase get shot is much
more common than the phrase get praised.
Ergative verbs
An ergative verb is a verb that may be either transitive or
intransitive, and whose subject when it is intransitive plays the same
semantic role as its direct object when it is transitive. For example,
fly is an ergative verb, such that the following sentences are roughly
synonymous:
The airplane flew.
The airplane was flown.
[Someone] flew the airplane.
One major difference is that the intransitive construction does not
permit an agent to be mentioned, and indeed can imply that no agent is
present, that the subject is performing the action on itself. For this
reason, the intransitive construction of an ergative verb is often said
to be in a middle voice, between active and passive, or in a
mediopassive voice, between active and passive but closer to passive.
Reflexive verbs
A reflexive verb is a transitive verb one of whose objects is a
reflexive pronoun (myself, yourself, etc.) referring back to its
subject. In some languages, reflexive verbs are a special class of verbs
with special semantics and syntax, but in English, they typically
represent ordinary uses of transitive verbs. For example, with the verb
see:
He sees her as a writer.
She sees herself as a writer.
Nonetheless, sometimes English reflexive verbs have a passive sense,
expressing an agentless action. Consider the verb solve, as in the
following sentences:
He solved the problem.
The problem solved itself.
One could not say that the problem truly solved anything; rather, what
is meant is that the problem was solved without anyone solving it.
Gerunds and nominalization
Gerunds and nominalized verbs (nouns derived from verbs and referring to
the actions or states expressed by them), unlike finite verbs, do not
require explicit subjects. This allows an object to be expressed while
omitting a subject. For example:
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Generating electricity typically requires a magnet and a solenoid.
Usage and style
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Many English educators and usage guides, such as The Elements of Style,
discourage the use or overuse of the passive voice, seeing it as
unnecessarily verbose (when the agent is included in a by phrase), or as
obscure and vague (when it is not). This perception is exacerbated by
the occasional intentional use of the passive voice to avoid assigning
blame, such as by replacing «I made mistakes» with «Mistakes were made.»
Nonetheless, the passive voice is frequently used for a number of other
reasons:
Certain verbs frequently appear in the passive – for example, be born,
be smitten, and be had are all more common in certain senses than their
active counterparts – though in many cases these might be better
analyzed as adjectival passives (see above) than as true passives.
The passive voice serves to emphasize the patient; if the agent is
comparatively unimportant to the point, or if the agent is obvious from
context, then the passive voice might serve a rhetorical purpose.
Since in English, the subject nearly always comes before the object in a
sentence, using the passive voice (i.e., promoting the patient from
object to subject) moves the patient earlier in the sentence. If the
patient has been mentioned in a previous sentence, this can serve as a
marker of the connection between the two sentences.
Scientific writing has traditionally used the passive voice rather than
mentioning a researcher in every sentence; this may be changing,
however.
In journalistic writing and law, two areas where it can be essential to
state only established facts, use of the passive voice allows uncertain
agents to be omitted; again, however, use of the active voice is on the
rise, with other mechanisms being used to avoid insupportable claims.
2.4 The category of mood
In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood (or
mode), which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and
intent. Many languages express distinctions of mood through morphology,
by changing (inflecting) the form of the verb.
Because modern English does not have all of the moods described below,
and has a very simplified system of verb inflection as well, it is not
straightforward to explain the moods in English. (The English moods are
indicative, subjunctive, and imperative). Note, too, that the exact
sense of each mood differs from language to language.
Grammatical mood per se is not the same thing as grammatical tense or
grammatical aspect, although these concepts are conflated to some degree
in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European
languages, insofar as the same word patterns are used to express more
than one of these concepts at the same time.
Currently identified moods include conditional, imperative, indicative,
injunctive, negative, optative, potential, subjunctive, and more.
Infinitive is a category apart from all these finite forms, and so are
gerunds and participles. Some Uralic Samoyedic languages have over ten
moods; Nenets has as many as sixteen. The original Indo-European
inventory of moods was indicative, subjunctive, optative, and
imperative. Not every Indo-European language has each of these moods,
but the most conservative ones such as Avestan, Ancient Greek, and
Sanskrit have them all.
It should be noted that not all of the moods listed below are clearly
conceptually distinct. Individual terminology varies from language to
language, and the coverage of (e.g.) the «conditional» mood in one
language may largely overlap with that of the «hypothetical» or
«potential» mood in another. Even when two different moods exist in the
same language, their respective usages may blur, or may be defined by
syntactic rather than semantic criteria. For example, the subjunctive
and optative moods in Ancient Greek alternate syntactically in many
subordinate clauses, depending on the tense of the main verb. The usage
of the indicative, subjunctive and jussive moods in Classical Arabic is
almost completely controlled by syntactic context; the only possible
alternation in the same context is between indicative and jussive
following the negative particle l?.
Classification
Realis
Realis moods are a category of grammatical moods which indicate that
something is actually the case, or actually not the case. The most
common realis mood is the indicative mood or the declarative mood.
Declarative
The declarative mood indicates that the statement is true, without any
qualifications being made. It is in many languages equivalent to the
indicative mood, although sometimes distinctions between them are drawn.
It is closely related with the inferential mood (see below).
Generic
The generic mood is used to make generalizations about a particular
class of things, e.g. in «Rabbits are fast», one is speaking about
rabbits in general, rather than about particular fast rabbits. English
has no means of morphologically distinguishing generic mood from
indicative mood, however the distinction can easily be understood in
context by surrounding words. Compare, for example: rabbits are fast,
versus, the rabbits are fast. Use of the definite article the implies
specific, particular rabbits, whereas omitting it implies the generic
mood simply by default. Guillaume, Gustave (1929) Temps et verbe. Paris:
Champion
Ancient Greek had a species of generic mood, the so-called gnomic
utterance, marked by the aorist indicative (normally reserved for
statements about the past). It was used especially to express
philosophical truths about the world.
Indicative (evidential)
The indicative mood is used for factual statements and positive beliefs.
All intentions that a particular language does not categorize as another
mood are classified as indicative. In English, questions are considered
indicative. It is the most commonly used mood and is found in all
languages. Example: «Paul is reading a book» or «John reads books».
Negative
The negative mood expresses a negated action. In many languages, this is
not a distinct mood; negation is expressed by adding a particle:
Before the verb phrase, as in Spanish No esta en casa;
Or after it, as in archaic and dialectal English Thou remembrest not or
Dutch Ik zie hem niet, or in modern English, I think not;
Or both, as in French Je ne sais pas or Afrikaans Hy kan nie Afrikaans
praat nie.
Standard English usually adds the auxiliary verb do, and then adds not
after it: «I did not go there». In these instances, «do» is known as a
dummy auxiliary, because of its zero semantic content.
In Indo-European languages, it is not customary to speak of a negative
mood, since in these languages negation is originally a grammatical
particle that can be applied to a verb in any of these moods.
Nevertheless, in some, like Welsh, verbs have special inflections to be
used in negative clauses.
In other language families, the negative may count as a separate mood.
An example is Japanese, which conjugates verbs in the negative after
adding the suffix – nai (indicating negation), e.g. tabeta («ate») and
tabenakatta («did not eat»).
It could be argued that Modern English has joined the ranks of these
languages, since negation in the indicative mood requires the use of an
auxiliary verb and a distinct syntax in most cases. Contrast, for
instance, «He sings» ? «He doesn’t sing» (where the auxiliary to do has
to be supplied, inflected to does, and the clitic form of not suffixed
to derive the negative from «He sings») with Il chante ? Il ne chante
pas; French adds the (discontinuous) negative particle ne… pas, without
changing the form of the verb.
Irrealis
Irrealis moods are the set of grammatical moods that indicate that a
certain situation or action is not known to have happened as the speaker
is talking.
Cohortative
The cohortative mood (alternatively, hortatory) is used to express plea,
insistence, imploring, self-encouragement, wish, desire, intent,
command, purpose or consequence. It does not exist in English, but
phrases such as «let us» are often used to denote it. In Latin, it is
interchangeable with the jussive.
Conditional
The conditional mood is used to speak of an event whose realization is
dependent on a certain condition, particularly, but not exclusively, in
conditional sentences. In Modern English, it is a periphrastic
construction, with the form would + infinitive, e.g. I would buy. In
other languages, such as Spanish or French, verbs have a specific
conditional inflection. Thus, the conditional version of «John eats if
he is hungry» is:
John would eat if he were hungry, in English;
Jean mangerait s’il avait faim, in French;
Juan comeria si tuviera hambre, in Spanish.
In the Romance languages, the conditional form is used primarily in the
apodosis (main clause) of conditional clauses, and also in a few set
phrases where it expresses courtesy or doubt. The main verb in the
protasis (dependent clause) is either in the subjunctive or in the
indicative mood.
This is not a universal trait; in Finnish, for example, the conditional
mood is used both in the apodosis and the protasis. An example is the
sentence «I would buy a house if I earned a lot of money», where in
Finnish both clauses have the conditional marker – isi– : Ostaisin
talon, jos ansaitsisin paljon rahaa.
In English, too, the would + infinitive construct can be employed in
main clauses, with a subjunctive sense: «If you would only tell me
what’s troubling you, I might be able to help».
Imperative
The imperative mood expresses direct commands, requests, and
prohibitions. In many circumstances, using the imperative mood may sound
blunt or even rude, so it is often used with care. Example: «Paul, do
your homework now». An imperative is used to tell someone to do
something without argument.
Many languages, including English, use the bare verb stem to form the
imperative. Other languages, such as Seri, however, use special
imperative forms.
In English, second-person is implied by the imperative except when
first-person plural is specified, as in «Let’s go» («Let us go»).
Interrogative
The interrogative mood is used for asking questions. Most languages do
not have a special mood for asking questions, but Welsh and Nenets do.
Jussive
The jussive mood is similar to the cohortative mood, in that it
expresses plea, insistence, imploring, self-encouragement, wish, desire,
intent, command, purpose or consequence. In some languages, the two are
distinguished in that cohortative occurs in the first person and the
jussive in the second or third.
Sometimes this is called a «desiderative mood», since it indicates
desires. Occasionally distinctions are made between different optative
moods, e.g. a mood to express hopes as opposed to a mood to express
desires. (Desires are what we want to be the case; hope generally
implies an optimism toward the chances of a desire’s fulfillment. If
someone desires something but is pessimistic about its chances of
occurring, then one desires it but does not hope for it.)
Subjunctive
The subjunctive mood, sometimes called conjunctive mood, has several
uses in dependent clauses. Examples include discussing hypothetical or
unlikely events, expressing opinions or emotions, or making polite
requests (the exact scope is language-specific). A subjunctive mood
exists in English, but native English speakers need not use it. Example:
«I suggested that Paul read some books», Paul is not in fact reading a
book. Contrast this with the sentence «Paul reads books», where the verb
«to read» is in the present tense, indicative mood. Another way,
especially in British English, of expressing this might be «I suggested
that Paul should read some books», derived from «Paul should read some
books.»
Other uses of the subjunctive in English, as in «And if he be not able
to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass…» (KJV Leviticus
5:7) have definitely become archaic. Statements such as «I will ensure
that he leave immediately» often sound archaic or overly formal, and
have been almost completely supplanted by constructions with the
indicative, like «I will ensure that he leaves immediately».
The subjunctive mood figures prominently in the grammar of Persian and
the Romance languages, which require this mood for certain types of
dependent clauses. This point commonly causes difficulty for English
speakers learning these languages.
In certain other languages, the dubitative or the conditional moods may
be employed instead of the subjunctive in referring to doubtful or
unlikely events (see the main article).
2.5 The category of tense
Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event
described by a sentence occurs. In English, this is a property of a verb
form, and expresses only time-related information.
Tense, along with mood, voice and person, are four ways in which verb
forms are frequently characterized, in languages where those categories
apply. There are languages (mostly isolating languages, like Chinese)
where tense is not expressed anywhere in the verb or any auxiliaries,
but only as adverbs of time, when needed for comprehension; in the same
condition, grammatical tense in certain languages can be expressed
optionally (such as Vietnamese), for example, «sinh» meaning «birth» and
«sanh» meaning «birthed»; and there are also languages (such as Russian)
where verbs indicate aspect in addition to or instead of tense.
The exact number of tenses in a language is often a matter of some
debate, since many languages include the state of certainty of the
information, the frequency of the event, whether it is ongoing or
finished, and even whether the information was directly experienced or
gleaned from hearsay, as moods or tenses of a verb. Some grammarians
consider these to be separate tenses, and some do not.
Tenses cannot be easily mapped from one language into another. While all
languages have a «default» tense with a name usually translated as
«present tense» (or «simple present»), the actual meaning of this tense
may vary considerably.
English tenses
Viewed in the strictest linguistic sense, English has only two tenses:
nonpast tense and past tense, which are shown with the verb endings – O
and – ed.
The following chart shows how T/M/A (tense/modal/aspect) is expressed in
English:
Tense Modal Aspect Verb
Perfect Progressive
– O (nonpast)
– ed (past) O (none)
will (future) O (none)
have – en (perfect) O (none)
be – ing (progressive) do
Since will is a modal auxiliary, it cannot co-occur with other modals
like can, may, and must. Only aspects can be used in infinitives. Some
linguists consider will a future marker and give English two more
tenses, future tense and future-in-past tense, which are shown by will
and would respectively. Also, in nonlinguistic language study, aspects
and mode are viewed as tenses.
Tense, aspect, and mood
The distinction between grammatical tense, aspect, and mood is fuzzy and
at times controversial. The English continuous temporal constructions
express an aspect as well as a tense, and some therefore consider that
aspect to be separate from tense in English. In Spanish the traditional
verb tenses are also combinations of aspectual and temporal information.
Going even further, there’s an ongoing dispute among modern English
grammarians (see English grammar) regarding whether tense can only refer
to inflected forms. In Germanic languages there are very few tenses
(often only two) formed strictly by inflection, and one school contends
that all complex or periphrastic time-formations are aspects rather than
tenses.
The abbreviation TAM, T/A/M or TMA is sometimes found when dealing with
verbal morphemes that combine tense, aspect and mood information.
In some languages, tense and other TAM information may be marked on a
noun, rather than a verb. This is called nominal TAM.
Classification of tenses
Tenses can be broadly classified as:
Absolute: indicates time in relationship to the time of the utterance
(i.e. «now»). For example, «I am sitting down», the tense is indicated
in relation to the present moment.
Relative: in relationship to some other time, other than the time of
utterance, e.g. «While strolling through the shops, she saw a nice dress
in the window». Here, the «saw» is relative to the time of the
«strolling». The relationship between the time of «strolling» and the
time of utterance is not clearly specified.
Absolute-relative: indicates time in relationship to some other event,
whose time in turn is relative to the time of utterance. (Thus, in
absolute-relative tense, the time of the verb is indirectly related to
the time of the utterance; in absolute tense, it is directly related; in
relative tense, its relationship to the time of utterance is left
unspecified.) For example, «When I walked through the park, I saw a
bird.» Here, «saw» is present relative to the «walked», and «walked» is
past relative to the time of the utterance, thus «saw» is in
absolute-relative tense.
Moving on from this, tenses can be quite finely distinguished from one
another, although no language will express simply all of these
distinctions. As we will see, some of these tenses in fact involve
elements of modality (e.g. predictive and not-yet tenses), but they are
difficult to classify clearly as either tenses or moods.
Many languages define tense not just in terms of past/future/present,
but also in terms of how far into the past or future they are. Thus they
introduce concepts of closeness or remoteness, or tenses that are
relevant to the measurement of time into days (hodiernal or hesternal
tenses).
Some languages also distinguish not just between past, present, and
future, but also nonpast, nonpresent, nonfuture. Each of these latter
tenses incorporates two of the former, without specifying which.
Some tenses:
Absolute tenses
Future tenses. Some languages have different future tenses to indicate
how far into the future we are talking about. Some of these include:
Close future tense: in the near future, soon
Hodiernal future tense: sometime today
Post-hodiernal future tense: sometime after today
Remote future tense: in the more distant future
Predictive future tense: a future tense which expresses a prediction
rather than an intention, i.e. «I predict he will lose the election,
although I want him to win». As such, it is really more of a mood than a
tense. (Its tenseness rather than modality lies in the fact that you can
predict the future, but not the past.)
Nonfuture tense: refers to either the present or the past, but does not
clearly specify which. Contrasts with future.
Nonpast tense: refers to either the present or the future, but does not
clearly specify which. Contrasts with past.
Not-yet tense: has not happened in present or past (nonfuture), but
often with the implication that it is expected to happen in the future.
(As such, is both a tense and a modality). In English, it is expressed
with «not yet», hence its name.
Past tenses. Some languages have different past tenses to indicate how
far into the past we are talking about.
Hesternal past tense: yesterday or early, but not remote
Hodiernal past tense: sometime earlier today
Immediate past tense: very recent past tense, e.g. in the last minute or
two
Recent past tense: in the last few days/weeks/months (exact definition
varies)
Remote past tense: more than a few days/weeks/months ago (exact
definition varies)
Nonrecent past tense: not recent past tense, contrasting with recent
past tense
Nonremote past tense: not remote past tense, contrasting with remote
past tense
Prehesternal past tense: before hesternal past tense
Prehodiernal past tense: before hodiernal past tense
Preterit: past tense not marked for aspect or modality
Present tense
Still tense: indicates a situation held to be the case, at or
immediately before the utterance
Absolute-relative tenses
future perfect tense: will have completed by some time in the future,
will occur before some time in the future
Future-in-future tense: at some time in the future, will still be in the
future
Future-in-past tense: at some time in the future, will be in the past
Future-perfect-in-past tense: will be completed by some time which is in
the future of some time in the past, eg., Sally went to work; by the
time she should be home, the burglary would have been completed.
Past perfect tense: at some time in the past, was already in the past
Relative tenses
Relative future tense: is in the future of some unspecified time
Relative nonfuture tense: is in the past or present of some unspecified
time
Relative nonpast tense: is in the present or future of some unspecified
time
Relative past tense: is in the past of some unspecified time
Relative present tense: is in the present of some unspecified time
2.6 Palmer’s and mind’s discussion on English modality
Historically in language descriptions, the grammatical terms «modality»
and «mood» have lacked truly definitive categories of meaning. For that
reason, linguistic dictionaries have often treated them as synonyms,
cross referencing their entries and in some cases, describing how
different theories or authors have used the terms.
In this book, Palmer treats «modality» as a valid cross-language
grammatical category that, along with tense and aspect, is notionally
concerned with the event or situation that is reported by an utterance.
However, he says that unlike tense and aspect which are categories
associated with the nature of the event itself, modality is concerned
with the status of the proposition that describes the event.
Palmer then goes on to define two basic distinctions in how languages
deal with the category of modality: modal systems and mood. He believes
that many languages may be characterized by one or the other. He also
claims that typology related to modality cannot be undertaken on purely
formal grounds because of the complexity of cross-linguistic differences
in the grammatical means used to express what he terms «notional»
categories. This claim is substantiated by the great variety of forms
and structures evident in the data from 122 languages that he uses to
illustrate the expression of modality.
Palmer distinguishes two sorts of modality: propositional modality and
event modality. These notional systems express the following categories:
Propositional modality
Epistemic – speakers express their judgment about the factual status of
the proposition
Speculative: expresses uncertainty
Deductive: expresses inferences from observable data
Assumptive: expresses inferences from what is generally known
Evidential: speakers give evidence for the factual status of the
proposition
Reported – evidence gathered from others
Sensory: evidence gathered through sense perception, e.g., seen, heard
Event modality
Deontic: speakers express conditioning factors that are external to the
relevant individual
Permissive: permission is given on the basis of some authority, e.g.
rules, law, or the speaker
Obligative: an obligation is laid on the addressee(s), also on the basis
of some authority
Commissive: a speaker commits himself to do something; the expression
may be a promise or a threat
Dynamic: speakers express conditioning factors that are internal to the
relevant individual
Abilitive: expresses the ability to do something
Volitive: expresses the willingness to do something
These notional categories are discussed and illustrated throughout the
book.
The illustrative data reveal many of the formal means for expressing the
notional categories in a variety of languages. According to Palmer,
three grammatical categories predominate in the expression of the
notional categories: (1) affixation of verbs, (2) modal verbs, and (3)
particles. Many of the languages from which Palmer chose data use more
than one grammatical category to express the notions.
This is probably not unusual. In fact, the two Austronesian languages
with which I am most familiar spread the notions across all three
grammatical categories, and the lexical and morphosyntactic patterns are
completely unlike English patterns, although the similarity of notions
is fairly obvious. I would expect to see a closer correlation of the
grammatical means of expessing modality among related languages.
Palmer discusses the use of modal verbs and their association with
possibility and necessity in chapter 4. He draws together issues
involving epistemic modality, i.e., a speaker’s attitude to the truth
value or factual status of a proposition in contrast to deontic and
dynamic modality that refer to unactualized events. Although notionally
there is a difference, Palmer explains that in English and many other
languages, the same modal verbs are used for both types. He gives three
English sentences as examples:
(1) He may come tomorrow.
(2) The book should be on the shelf.
(3) He must be in his office.
He states that each of the modal verbs in the sentences can express
either epistemic or deontic modality. However, he goes on to say in a
later section that there are some formal differences: deontic must and
may can be negated whereas epistemic must and may cannot be; if may and
must are followed by have in a clause, they always express epistemic
modality, never deontic; another formal difference between may and must
is that deontic may is replaceable by can and would still express
deontic modality, but if replaced by can’t it would then likely express
epistemic modality, i.e., a truth value. This type of illustration and
explanation is used throughout the book.
Palmer discusses the links between mood and modal systems with
particular respect to languages that express mood formally, or in
combination with modal notions. Although Palmer suggests that there is
basically no typological difference between indicative/subjunctive and
realis/irrealis since both are instances of mood, he does state that
there are considerable differences between the functions of what have
been labeled «subjunctive» and «irrealis» For that reason he deals with
them in three separate chapters.
Although Palmer’s notional categories make sense, I found that it was
difficult to process the grammatical patterns in the language data used
to illustrate the categories. Part of my difficulty may be attributed to
the fact that I believe modality needs to be studied in the context of
use, i.e., natural texts, not isolated sentences; and also, I believe,
that a thorough study of all grammatical expressions of modality and
mood must be done within a single language before the results are
compared and contrasted cross-linguistically. Perhaps the authors of the
papers and grammars that Palmer used had done just that, but the
contexts were lost through the excerpting of sentences to illustrate his
notional categories.
In spite of this criticism, I found Palmer’s categories, his compilation
of data from many different languages, and explanations of
terminological usage very helpful in my own work, as well as thought
provoking. I wholeheartedly recommend the book for your reference shelf,
particularly if you are a linguist or translator who needs to do an
in-depth study of modality in a single language or a cross-language
comparison of modality.
In his preface, the author explains that this volume is a complement to
an earlier
volume, titled An Empirical Grammar of the English Verb: Modal Verbs,
published in 1995 by the same publisher. The present volume clearly aims
to provide an inventory of the various verb combinations within the
English verb phrase. This is done on the basis of the study of a large
amount of corpus data. I am not so sure whether the term grammar in the
title is entirely justified, for even though information about
distribution and frequency of occurrence of the various patterns is
provided, the book hardly ever goes beyond providing this kind of
information. The author writes in his introduction that «all instances
of verbs and verb phrases can be explained as cases of rule-governed
grammatical behavior,» but what these rules are is not explained
anywhere. I will come back to this below.
The book definitely has a number of strong points, but it also has quite
a number of serious shortcomings. Let me first discuss the general
contents of the book. It is divided into seven chapters: «Introduction»
«General Categories» «Verb Forms».
«Verb Phrases» «Finite Verb Phrases» «Non-finite Verb Phrases» and «Time
Orientation».
In the introduction, the author explains the inductive approach he has
followed.
Basically, there are three steps: from language to verb patterns and
their contexts, from database creation (i.e., storing the verb patterns
identified) to linguistic analysis of verb patterns, and from the
results of these analyses to a grammar of the English verb. He also
states (6) that the grammar is based on authentic English and that there
has been no borrowing from previous grammars. This is probably also why
there is no reference section. They are useful for a quick first
impression. In the prototypes, the author claims, the users of the book
will find the most frequent patterns they are likely to encounter «in
texts or in contact with speakers of the language» (12). The details,
finally, give information on form (full vs. contracted forms, which the
author persistently calls «elided» forms), meaning, and context. In the
latter, contextual information is given on affirmative and negative
contexts, declarative and interrogative contexts, combination with
subjects, combination with verbs, and other syntactic information.
Some of this information is certainly useful, but a lot of it is
repetitive and could well have been stated generally. For instance, in
the contexts of nearly all the patterns, it is said that affirmative
contexts are far more frequent than negative contexts and that
declarative contexts are far more frequent than interrogative contexts,
the percentages being roughly 90 for affirmative and 10 for negative and
another 90 for declarative and 10 for interrogative, give or take a
point or two. This information could have been formulated once, under a
general heading, after which contexts with a clearly deviant
distributional pattern could have been appropriately highlighted and
commented on, as in the case of be allowed to, which occurs in a
negative context in 23 percent of all cases (400). Incidentally, the
author apparently only considers the occurrence of the word not (or n’t)
to be an indication of a negative context, for on the same page he
quotes the sentence nobody should be allowed to forget it as an example
of an affirmative context (400). This, and the lack of comment, makes
the book really little more than a mere listing of examples of the
various patterns distinguished.
«General Categories,» briefly discusses the concept of time, temporal
orientation, and temporal reference. Temporal orientation can be past,
present, or future, while time reference can be preceding, simultaneous,
following, or neutral.
Thus, the sentences below (listed on page 19) all have past time
orientation but have preceding, simultaneous, following, and neutral
reference, respectively, the reference indicated by the highlighted verb
phrases.
Lee, I noticed, had asked for a Coca-Cola
But what he saw was an ageing Australian woman
She was glad that he would be with her
He won because he’s forty years younger than you
Only time orientation, however, is indicated for the various verb phrase
patterns distinguished «because of the intricacies of time reference»
(19). It makes sense to make an inventory of the time orientation of the
verb phrase patterns because after all this orientation is somehow
expressed by the tense of the verb phrase (although this does not apply
to nonfinite verb phrases). It makes equal sense to make an inventory of
real and nonreal states or events referred to by the verb phrase
patterns because, again, this is indicated by the tense or modality
expressed by the verb phrase. I find it less natural to make an
inventory of restrictive or nonrestrictive meaning expressed
particularly by nonfinite verb phrases (21), for this distinction is not
inherent in the verb phrase itself. Moreover, it can only refer to a
relatively small subset of nonfinite clauses–namely, those with an
attributive function.
The final category that Mindt distinguishes as relevant to the
description of the verb phrases is the nature of the subject with which
they are associated. Mind distinguishes between intentional and
nonintentional subjects (22), but he does not really explain the
difference at all convincingly. He merely provides a few examples of
each, giving the reader the impression that the distinction more or less
coincides with human and nonhuman subjects, for he then says, «Because
of the relation between verb phrase and intentional and non-intentional
subjects, the distinction between intentional and non-intentional has to
be made no matter whether the subject is acting intentionally or not»
(22). Thus, in most patients are taught to do this, we have an
intentional subject, whereas in more techniques are taught, we have a
nonintentional subject. It would seem to me that Mindt has thought of a
category, then found that it is not useful at all in many cases but has
decided to hang onto it in spite of this.
«Verb Forms» is a very straightforward chapter spelling out the details
of verb forms, verb morphology, inflection, spelling rules, and patterns
of irregular verbs. This chapter concludes with a learning list of
irregular verbs, based on the rank list compiled, one assumes, on the
basis of the corpora listed in the appendix.
Fortunately, there is also an alphabetical list of irregular verbs.
«Verb Phrases,» discusses verb phrase types. Mindt uses a three
dimensional graphic representation of verbal elements that can occur in
a verb phrase and the order in which they occur. This model was
introduced in An Empirical Grammar of the English Verb: Modal Verbs
(Mindt 1995). The model enables Mindt to account for a great variety of
verb phrase patterns, in which all kinds of combinations of modals,
auxiliaries, so-called catenative verbs, and main verbs can be combined
in specific ways. The main problem with this chapter (as with the
following two) is the justification of (or rather the failure to
justify) the existence of the category of catenative verbs. The
catenative verbs are said to be a group of «chaining» verbs (which is
exactly what the term catenative means) whose function is apparently to
link elements in a verb phrase together. Catenative verbs do not share
any characteristics with modal verbs and very few with primary
auxiliaries. Examples of catenative verbs are seem or begin. While there
are admittedly very good reasons for wishing to distinguish a category
such as catenative verbs, Mindt fails to present any convincing
arguments for this. Moreover, he includes verbs in this category that
should not be included by any standard, such as want, avoid, mean,
enjoy, or be important. Worst of all, in his illustrations of how
so-called catenative verb phrases are distinguished from «noncatenative»
verb phrases, he seems to ignore elements of well-established modern
descriptive grammars of English.
For instance, in the sentence we want you to come with us (112), the
main clause is said to be we want you and the subclause to come with us,
and you is said to be the object of the main clause and the «semantic
subject» of the subclause. This appears to take us right back to
Zandvoortian times and to ignore the fact that there are very simple
constituency tests that would tell you that in this case, for instance,
it does not make sense to ask who do we want? but it would make sense to
ask what do we want? – thus ruling out you as an object of the main
clause.
In the sentence he wanted to talk to Armstrong (111), wanted to talk is
a catenative verb phrase, with wanted a catenative verb, but in the
sentence quoted above (we want you to come with us), want and to come
are separate verb phrases, with both want and come as main verbs. Mindt
argues (471) that the distinction of the category of catenative verbs
reduces the number of nonfinite verb phrases, implying that this makes
the description of sentences more straightforward. I am not convinced
that that is true. Moreover, an important generalization is missed –
namely, that verbs such as want are simply complemented by infinitive
clauses, with or without a subject of their own.
Another example of a catenative verb occurs in the sentence the
authorities failed to respond speedily (111). Again, no argumentation is
provided. Mindt could have argued that failed cannot be assigned main
verb status (e.g., because failed basically means no more than did not)
and therefore should be looked on as a catenative verb, making up a
single verb phrase with the following main verb respond.
In the book, we can only guess what traditional descriptions and which
previous grammars he means. But what he claims is not quite true, of
course, for Quirk et al. (1972) do distinguish a separate category of
semi-auxiliary verbs, including verbs such as seem and happen (in Quirk
et al. 1985, these verbs are also termed catenative verbs, by the way).
I find the discussion of catenative verbs particularly problematic
because Mindt does not provide any proper syntactic arguments, a state
of affairs that leads him to include an excessive number of verbs in
this category. For instance, the verb want is included (see the example
above) on the strength of the argument that catenative verbs «allow
overlap of two meanings within one verb phrase. This overlap cannot be
achieved by modals alone, because a verb phrase cannot contain more than
one modal verb. Thus, Mindt claims, possibility/high probability can be
expressed by might, as in fever might kill him. Volition/intention can
be achieved by will, as in I will not be a soldier. If we want to
combine these two, Mindt argues, we cannot simply combine might with
will, but instead we can combine might with the catenative want to
express volition/intention, as in they might want to kill us. The flaw
in this argument, I think, is that want does not simply express
volition/intention but desire, which is not the same thing.
Mindt overlooks the rather basic fact that propositional content is
expressed by the lexical verb in a clause and that all subordinate verbs
in the verb phrase do not add any propositional content, but only such
things as modality, aspect, and so on.
This can easily be tested by comparing active and passive counterparts,
which should express the same proposition. For instance, on the basis of
the sentence pair Harry kissed Jane/Jane was kissed by Harry, we can
equate the following pairs:
Harry has kissed Jane = Jane has been kissed by Harry
Harry will kiss Jane = Jane will be kissed by Harry
Harry may have kissed Jane = Jane may have been kissed by Harry
Harry appeared to kiss Jane = Jane appeared to be kissed by Harry but
not the following:
Harry wanted to kiss Jane ? Jane wanted to be kissed by Harry which
shows that want adds propositional content to these sentences and should
therefore be looked on as a lexical, rather than a catenative, verb.
Mindt also distinguishes a group of catenative verbs followed by present
participles, suchas continue, start, keep, and so on (321 ff.). Here
too, a number of verbs are included that clearly do not belong there,
such as consider, enjoy, avoid, mean.
Again, Mindt does not use a rather simple constituency test to make the
distinction.
It would be simple enough to compare he kept going for ten hours to he
enjoyed possessing his knowledge on his own by applying a
pronominalization test, which would show that it is impossible to
paraphrase the former sentence above by he kept it but perfectly
possible to paraphrase the latter by he enjoyed it, thus giving separate
constituency status to the bit that follows enjoy but not to the bit
following keep.
Finally, there is a category of catenative adjective constructions, such
as be able to and be likely to (404) (incidentally, these are called
semi-auxiliaries in Quirk et al. 1985). Regrettably, Mindt erroneously
includes a number of cases of extraposed subject clauses here, such as
it is necessary to go back in time and it could be important to record
facts, where the supposed catenative verbs are be necessary to and be
important to. This kind of error should not have occurred in a book like
this. on nonfinite verb phrases, a three-way distinction is made between
verbal to-infinitives, verbal to-infinitives preceded by be, and
gerundial to infinitives.
This amounts basically to the clause functions of adverbials, subject
complements, and subjects of NP modifiers, respectively. However, in the
first group, we find the example it’s impossible to be accurate about
these things (472 – highlighting Mindt’s). One wonders why be possible
to is listed earlier, as a catenative adjective construction while be
impossible to is apparently something else. Of course, this is again a
case of an extraposed subject clause and should therefore, if anything,
have been listed as a gerundial to-infinitive.
Mindt discusses the patternVERBPHRASE + DIRECT OBJECT + TO-INFINITIVE.
This makes one think of Zandvoort’s (1945) Accusative with Infinitive
constructions. Again, Mindt is not very careful here, for here he lists
verbs suchas want, ask, tell, allow, expect, persuade, cause. These are
precisely the verbs that grammarians and generative linguists alike have
used over the years to demonstrate different types of verb
complementation, based on the differences in syntactic behavior of the
complements of these verbs.
The concept of meaning, like other concepts, is not explained but rather
exemplified.
This leads to distinctions that are fairly arbitrary, such as the
distinction of the two meanings of the catenative constructionHAVE (TO)
(298), which is said to express either necessity or obligation. The
following examples are given, without any further comment:
Necessity: I have to speak to you about Pepita’s education among other
things you’ll have to stand up for yourself Obligation: the man had to
retire at sixty one of us will have to go in the end This leaves one
wondering what the distinction is based on. Is it based on the
possibility of paraphrasing the former two by it is/was necessary that…
and the latter by there is/was an obligation/order…? I do not know, and
frankly, the examples do not even convincingly point in this direction.
In the discussion of the prototypes of the progressive (254 ff.), Mindt
distinguishes four types, expressing incompletion, temporariness,
iteration/habit, and highlighting/prominence, respectively. He then goes
on to describe each of these prototypes in more detail. Curiously,
hardly any of the prototypes are found to be pure types: they nearly
always combine with elements of other prototypes. So what is meant by
the «prototypes» is probably aspects of meaning. Incidentally, in the
discussion of incompletion, it is said that in 30 percent of the cases,
it is combined with temporariness (257) Guillaume, Gustave (1929) Temps
et verbe. Paris: Champion. In the discussion of temporariness (258), it
is said that in 50 percent of the cases, it combines with incompletion.
It is hard to compare these figures to each other since no absolute
figures are provided. Also, Mindt does not indicate whether there is
possibly a difference between the combination temporariness +
incompletion and incompletion + temporariness. However, what is clear
from these examples is that the really typical progressive form combines
the aspects of incompletion and temporariness. But this conclusion is
not in the book.
All in all, there are too many of these infelicities in this book. What
exactly is a verb phrase is not clarified. The book would have been so
much more valuable if the classifications had been shown to have been
made on the basis of syntactic arguments.
It would undoubtedly also have meant that certain erroneous
classifications would have been avoided. As it is, the book can be no
more than an inventory of examples of English verbal patterns, which may
be used as a resource for course book designer.
In syntax, a verb is a word belonging to the part of speech that usually
denotes an action (bring, read), an occurrence (decompose, glitter), or
a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may
vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense,
aspect, mood and voice. It may also agree with the person, gender,
and/or number of some of its arguments (subject, object, etc.).
The number of arguments that a verb takes is called its valency or
valence. Verbs can be classified according to their valency:
Intransitive (valency = 1): the verb only has a subject. For example:
«he runs», «it falls».
Transitive (valency = 2): the verb has a subject and a direct object.
For example: «she eats fish», «we hunt deer».
Ditransitive (valency = 3): the verb has a subject, a direct object and
an indirect or secondary object. For example: «I gave her a book,» «She
sent me flowers.»
It is possible to have verbs with zero valency. Weather verbs are often
impersonal (subjectless) in null-subject languages like Spanish, where
the verb llueve means «It rains The Tlingit language features a four way
classification of verbs based on their valency. The intransitive and
transitive are typical, but the impersonal and objective are somewhat
different from the norm. In the objective the verb takes an object but
no subject, the nonreferent subject in some uses may be marked in the
verb by an incorporated dummy pronoun similar to the English weather
verb (see below). Impersonal verbs take neither subject nor object, as
with other null subject languages, but again the verb may show
incorporated dummy pronouns despite the lack of subject and object
phrases. Tlingit lacks a ditransitive, so the indirect object is
described by a separate, extraposed clause. [citation needed].
English verbs are often flexible with regard to valency. A transitive
verb can often drop its object and become intransitive; or an
intransitive verb can be added an object and become transitive. Compare:
I turned. (intransitive)
I turned the car. (transitive)
In the first example, the verb turn has no grammatical object. (In this
case, there may be an object understood – the subject (I/myself). The
verb is then possibly reflexive, rather than intransitive); in the
second the subject and object are distinct. The verb has a different
valency, but the form remains exactly the same.
Conclusion
In many languages other than English, such valiancy changes aren’t
possible like this; the verb must instead be inflected for voice in
order to change the valency. [citation needed]
A copula is a word that is used to describe its subject, [dubious – see
talk page] or to equate or liken the subject with its predicate.
[dubious – see talk page] In many languages, copulas are a special kind
of verb, sometimes called copulative verbs or linking verbs.
Because copulas do not describe actions being performed, they are
usually analysed outside the transitive/intransitive distinction.
[citation needed] The most basic copula in English is to be; there are
others (remain, seem, grow, become, etc.). [citation needed]
Some languages (the Semitic and Slavic families, Chinese, Sanskrit, and
others) can omit the simple copula equivalent of «to be», especially in
the present tense. In these languages a noun and adjective pair (or two
nouns) can constitute a complete sentence. This construction is called
zero copula.
Most languages have a number of verbal nouns that describe the action of
the verb. In Indo-European languages, there are several kinds of verbal
nouns, including gerunds, infinitives, and supines. English has gerunds,
such as seeing, and infinitives such as to see; they both can function
as nouns; seeing is believing is roughly equivalent in meaning with to
see is to believe. These terms are sometimes applied to verbal nouns of
non-Indo-European languages.
In the Indo-European languages, verbal adjectives are generally called
participles. English has an active participle, also called a present
participle; and a passive participle, also called a past participle. The
active participle of give is giving, and the passive participle is
given. The active participle describes nouns that perform the action
given in the verb, e.g. a giving person. [dubious – see talk page] The
passive participle describes nouns that have been the object of the
action of the verb, e.g. given money Other languages apply tense and
aspect to participles, and possess a larger number of them with more
distinct shades of meaning. [citation needed]
In languages where the verb is inflected, it often agrees with its
primary argument (what we tend to call the subject) in person, number
and/or gender. English only shows distinctive agreement in the third
person singular, present tense form of verbs (which is marked by adding
«– s»); the rest of the persons are not distinguished in the verb.
Spanish inflects verbs for tense/mood/aspect and they agree in person
and number (but not gender) with the subject. Japanese, in turn,
inflects verbs for many more categories, but shows absolutely no
agreement with the subject. Basque, Georgian, and some other languages,
have polypersonal agreement: the verb agrees with the subject, the
direct object and even the secondary object if present.
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