MORFOSINTAXIS TEMA 2, Apuntes de Idioma Inglés

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Morphosyntax

UNIT 2: VERB PHRASE.

ELEMENTS OF THE

SIMPLE CLAUSE.

Verbs: General definition

It is a word-class having the following

properties:

(i) They usually denote actions, processes or

events. Provide some examples, please.

(ii) They generally carry inflections of tense

(present vs. past), aspect (progressive vs.

perfective) and mood (indicative vs.

subjunctive).

Verbs: The Inflectional categories

 Tense

(1) Kim lived in Paris.

(2) Kim lives in Paris.

Past vs. Present. There is NO future tense in English.

There is not always a direct correlation between tense

and time. (present tense can be used to denote future

and past time)

(3) They travel tomorrow to London.

(4) I was really furious and there he comes and says …

Verbs: The Inflectional categories

Person and number

- For most verbs, there are two present tense

forms: 3rd person singular and general.

- The categories of person and number are

primarily nominal rather than verbal: they

apply in the first instance to NPs and then

derivatively to verbs.

Verbs: The inflectional categories

- The syncretism of the English verb

(5 a) They rejected it.

(5 b) They have rejected it.

(5 c) The rejected application.

(6 a) We open at 4.

(6 b) They open at 4.

Verb: Aspect



Definition: way of looking at the action expressed by

the verb.

 There are two verbal aspects in English: progressive

(be ) and perfect or perfective ( have ).

(7) It is raining now. Progressive

(8) It rains a lot in Santiago. Non-progressive

Verbal aspect: Perfect or Perfective (11) He has completed the job. Present perfect  It refers to situations beginning in the past and lasting through to the present. (12) Kim has lived in Madrid (13) Kim lived in Madrid.

General Verb Types 

Lexical Verbs

 Auxiliary Verbs

• Primary: DO, HAVE, BE

-Modal: Main and marginal



Semi-auxiliary verbs

Be about to + infinitive, be to + infinitive

(13) We are to be married soon.

(14) The taxi is here and we are about to leave soon.

Marginal modal auxiliaries

• (^) Used always takes the to -infinitive and occurs only in the past tense. It may take the do -construction, in which case the spellings didn’t used to and didn’t use to both occur. The interrog. construction used he to? is especially BE; did he used to? is preferred in both AE & BE.
• (^) Dare and need can be constructed either as modal auxiliaries (with bare infinitive and with no inflected – s form) or as lexical verbs (with to-infinitive and with inflected – s form). The modal verb construction is restricted to negative and interrogative sentences, whereas the lexical verb construction can always be used and is in fact the more common.

Modal verbs

• (^) All these verbs meet the so called NICE properties. N: Negative. They form the negative with not. (15) They could not make it. I: Inversion. Modals form questions by inverting the order verb subject. (16) Could they make it? C: Code. Modals may occur "stranded" where a main verb has been omitted: (17) Jane could not make but Mary could. E: Emphasis. Modals can be used for emphasis. (18) I can do it if I want to.

Modality types  (^) Deontic uses (‘deontic’ derives from the Greek for “binding”) (22) You can/may have another apple. (permission) (23) He must be in bed before 8 o’ clock. (obligation) (24) You shall have your money back. (I put myself

under an obligation to see that you have your money

back)

Mood



It applies to the verbal system and it is expressed in

English to a very minor extent by the subjunctive as

in

(25) So be it then!

By past tense forms, as in

(26) If you taught me, I would learn more quickly.

But above all by means of modal verbs:

(27) It is strange that he should have left so early.

The Subjunctive

(ii) Formulaic subjunctive. It also consists of the base form but is only used in clauses in certain set expressions which have to be learned as wholes: (29) God save the Queen! (30) Heaven forbid that … (iii) The Subjunctive were is hypothetical in meaning and is used in conditional and concessive clauses and in subordinate clauses after optative verbs like wish. (31) If she were to do something like that. (32) He spoke to me as if I were stupid. (33) I wish I were dead. http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/subjunctive.html

Clause elements

Subject and Predicate This is the first division we make in the analysis of the clause. (1) The lesson was quite interesting. (2) Mark did not tell the truth. (3) It was raining quite hard. (4) She didn’t answer the phone. (5) The person who said that it was an easy question to answer was completely wrong. (6) Here he comes. (7) At 8 o’clock nobody was there.