Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Verbs
- Verb inflection
- To convey a meaning
distinction
- "verbs are variable lexemes"
- By a grammatical rule
- Verb paradigm
- A set of inflectional
forms of a verb
- Primary forms
- -Preterite │worked
- Inflectionally marked past tense
- It's an inflectional form rather than
by means of an auxiliary
- TIP: remember that the verbs don't
always express their explicit time
- -3rd singular present│works
- inflection of the 'plain' present for present time
- Depends
on the
agreement
NP & VP
- -Plain present │ work
- Indicates present time│And it's the root for derivation
- inflectional distinction of tense:
sole verb in a clause
- Secondary forms
- -Plain form │work
- Used for: Imperative, Subjunctive, and Infinitival
- To- infinitival
- Bare infinitival
(after auxiliaries)
- -Gerund participle │working
- Gerund > vb similar: noun
Participle > adjective
- -Past participle │worked
- (Second past inflection + participle) For perfect
and passive structures (can be also adjective)
- No tense inflection: can't occur
as the head of an VP
- Inflectional form
- The derivational form of a
verb: gives meaning and function
- Some verbs have different shapes
for each inflectional form: fly - flew
(preterite) / flown (past participle)
- Shape
- spelling (written) or
pronunciation (spoken)
- Some other verbs have the same shape: past
participle - worked & preterite - worked
- Auxiliaries
- They are a small class of verbs used to
mark tense, aspect, mood, or voice.
- They behave
differently
- e.g.
- Subject-auxiliary inversion
- Interrogative
- Clauses have to be built differently, so they need
an arbitrary addition of the "Dummy Do"
- Negation
- A "Dummy Do" is needed as well in
order to make a grammatical structure
- They cannot be used
consequently (one
after another)
- All the auxiliaries
have negative
inflectional forms
- Modal auxiliaries
- They only have primary form (lack of secondary)
- No distinct 3rd singular agreement
- Bare infinitival complement is necessary
- Dual-behaviour
- Can work as lexicals or auxiliaries:
- Do│Have│Need│Dare
- Finiteness
- Marks a
formation
distinction
between main
and subordinate
clauses
- Finite clauses
- can be main or subordinate
- Non-finite clauses
- are only subordinate
- Relation verb inflection - clause finiteness
- primary form = finite clause
- gerund participle & past
participle = non-finite
- plain form: imperative, subjunctive = finite
infinitival = non-finite
- "Perfectiveness"
- four systems are associated with the verb:
- Primary tense│Second tense│Aspect│Mood
- Perfective interpretation
- A situation as a whole, a short
moment, a complete action
- Situation:
- Cover term for the kinds of things
described in a clause.
- These are kinds of semantic interpretations,
unlike "Perfect", a type of past tense.
- Imperfective interpretation
- Reference to the context, its
internal temporary structure, a
repetitive or on-going activity
- Primary tense
- "A tense system is a system associated with the verb
and telling the location in time of the situation
- The present tense
(uses)
- Present time
- The time of the utterance
is very short
- Future time: Futurate
- Use of the present tense for
situations referred in the future
- Future time:
Subordinate clauses.
- Subordinate clauses
- Meaning-dependent clauses
- For situations of subordination,
condition, consequence, etc.
- Past time: Historic present
- (informal style) Narrating situations
in the past with the present tense
- The preterite
(uses)
- Past time
- Perfective situations located
as a whole in past time
- Modal remoteness
- Modal preterite is about modality,
not time. For situations establishing
'possibility' degrees
- Backshift
- Its main use is for 'reporting'.
Indirect reported speech
- The perfect
- It's a past tense marked by an auxiliary
rather than by inflection
- Compound tenses
- Present + perfect
- have / has
- Locates the situation or part of it in past time
- Time adjuncts
- Under some conditions, the
present perfect allows
adding time adjuncts
referring to present
- Current relevance
- Indicates present
relevance or result of
past events
- Preterite + perfect
- had
- Indicates remote past events or remote modal
- Past time
- Modal remoteness
- Backshift
- Plain form
- have
- Perfect in clauses without primary tense
- The auxiliary 'have' appears in secondary form.
There is no primary (inflectional) tense
- The continuative perfect
- Indicates an action started in the past that
lasts up to somewhen in the past (Starts in
the past and ends in the past)
- Aspect
- Progressive aspect
- Imperfectivity
- Clauses with
progressive form
usually have
imperfective
interpretations
- Non-progressive
vs Progressive
- Progressive
is about
situations in
progress,
however,
there are
some that
are naturally
progressive
(e.g. watch)
- Progressive
futurate
- They are
progressive
sentences
with future
meaning
- Speaker's perspective
of the situation
- Progressive
- Auxiliary 'be'
- Mood
- Grammatical category
related to modality
- The uses of the 'modals' create
families of meaning
- Epistemic
- knowledge
- Deontic
- obligation
- Dynamic
interpretations
- Modals with
certain properties
or dispositions
- All modals have
preterite forms
- They can flex the time of the
clause for adapting it to them
- The modal remoteness
occurs freely in main clauses
- Irrealis
- 'Were' mood form: imaginary
situations, used in 2nd conditional
- Futurity
- English does not have a future tense
- will
- The modal auxiliary is needed:
The relation is modality, not time.
- willingness - predictions - inferences - act.location