Meeting 6Meeting 6

Lecture 6a: Verb Types and Verb Forms

Lecture 6a: Verb Types and Verb Forms

Verb Types & Verb Forms

Verb Types & Verb Forms

• Lexical verbs• classified according to their complements• forms in which they appear

• tensed forms• untensed forms

• Auxiliary verbs• classified according to their functions &

complements• forms in which they appear

• tensed• untensed

• Order of verbs in a sequence of verbs

• Lexical verbs• classified according to their complements• forms in which they appear

• tensed forms• untensed forms

• Auxiliary verbs• classified according to their functions &

complements• forms in which they appear

• tensed• untensed

• Order of verbs in a sequence of verbs

Types of lexical verbsTypes of lexical verbs

defined in terms of their complementsdefined in terms of their complements

NP AUX VP

VHEAD:

S

INTRANSITIVE

'die'

VP

V

no complement phrase

COMPLEX INTRANSITIVE

'become'

VP

V NP/AdjP

PCS

TRANSITIVE

'chase'

VP

V NPI

DO

DITRANSITIVE

'give'

VP

V NPI NPJ

IO DO

COMPLEX TRANSITIVE

'consider'

VP

V NPI NP/AdjP

DO PCO

INTRANSITIVE WITH PPC

'rely'

VP

V PP

PPC

TRANSITIVE WITH PPC

'put'

VP

V NPI PP

DO PPC

INTRANSITIVE TRANSITIVE

no DO complement DO complement

+/- PCS +/- PCS

+/- PPC +/- PPC

+/- IO

+/- PCO

VERB FORMS

Tense-marking Not Tense-marking

past past participle

present gerund participle plain

third person singular plain

AGREEMENT:

Special relationship between Subject NP & Tense

S

SUBJECT: NP TENSE:AUX PREDICATE:VP

I/you/we/they PRESENT walk

he/she/it PRESENT walks

PAST walked TENSED VERB FORMS

S

NP AUX VP

PRESENT

I/you/we/they do walk

he/she/it does walk

PAST

did walk

PLAIN UNTENSEDAUX do

S

NP AUX VP

PRESENT

you/we/they are walking

he/she/it is walking

I am walking

PAST

I/he/she/it was walking

you/we/they were walking

GERUND PARTICIPLE

PROGRESSIVE be

NP AUX VP

PRESENT

you/we/they are sighted

he/she/it is sighted

I am sighted

PAST

you/we/they were sighted

I/he/she/it was sighted

PAST PARTICIPLEPASSIVE be

S

S

NP AUX VP

PRESENT

I/you/we/they do walk

he/she/it does walk

PAST

did walk

PLAIN UNTENSEDAUX do

S

NP AUX VP

PRESENT

can/will walk

PAST

could/would walk

PLAIN UNTENSEDMODAL AUX

S

NP AUX VP

PRESENT

you/we/they are walking

he/she/it is walking

I am walking

PAST

I/he/she/it was walking

you/we/they were walkingGERUND PARTICIPLEPROGRESSIVE be

S

NP AUX VP

PRESENT

I/you/we/they have walked

he/she/it has walked

PAST

had walked

PAST PARTICIPLEPERFECT have

NP AUX VP

PRESENT

you/we/they are sighted

he/she/it is sighted

I am sighted

PAST

you/we/they were sighted

I/he/she/it was sightedPAST PARTICIPLEPASSIVE be

S

Ordering of auxiliary and lexical verbs

• auxiliary verbs are in AUX

• lexical verbs are in VP

• AUX precedes VP in English, hence auxiliary verbs precede lexical verb

• only one lexical verb may head the VP

• AUX may contain more than one auxiliary verb (except if auxiliary is do)

• Strict ordering of auxiliary verb types

John ate

John must eat. (*John eat must)

John has eaten (*John eaten has)

John must have eaten (*John have must eaten)

John must have been eating

John must have been being eaten

modal > perfect > progressive > passive > LEXICAL

What determines a verb's form?

• First verb must mark TENSE distinction

• Modal (and AUX do) must mark TENSE

• TENSE is only marked once

• MODAL must be followed by PLAIN (untensed)

• PERFECT must be followed by PAST PARTICIPLE

• PROGRESSIVE must be followed by GERUND PARTICIPLE

• PASSIVE must be followed by PAST PARTICIPLE

In the next lecture......

• syntactic processes involving verbs

• what auxiliary verbs can do that lexical verbs cannot