Predicate

Seven Classifications of Verb

1. Person2. Tense3. Phase4. Aspect5. Mode6. Voice7. Status

Person

PERSON

• All English verbs except the modal auxiliaries (can, may, shall, will, must, dare, need) have two persons which can be called common and third singular.

Third-singular person• Base form + {-s} inflection

PERSON

Common Person• All other verbs except certain forms of

be.

• The distribution of these two forms is governed by the type of correlation with the subject.

PERSON

• Concord is the complementary distribution of linguistic forms having the same syntactic function in systematic correlation with other formally distinct forms with which they are syntactically linked.

PERSON

• The third-singular person is used whenever a simple verb is the head-verb in a predicate whose subject is one of the following:

PERSON

1. A noun for which he, she, or it may be substituted. • Examples: The man walks; the sun

sets; snow falls.

2. One of the pronouns he, she, or it.• Examples: he feels; she speaks; it

comes (but note exception in watch it come)

PERSON

3. The function-nouns this or that. • Examples: this looks good; that goes

here.

4. A structure of modification of which one of the above is head.• Examples: the tall man in the car

drives; that in the dish tastes good.

PERSON

5. Any other part of speech beside a noun, or a structure of modification or complementation which such part of speech as head or verbal element.

• Examples: here seems like a good place; eating candy causes tooth decay.

PERSON

6. One of certain special structures of predication: the included clause and the infinitive clause.

• Examples: what I want costs money; how I got here remains a mystery.

PERSON

7. A structure of coordination in which the coordinator is or, nor, either…or, neither...nor, or not (only)…but (also) and in which the last coordinate element belongs to 1–6 above; also one of the certain other special structures of coordination.

• Examples: either his mistakes or his bad luck keeps him poor.

PERSON

• All kinds of subjects correlate with the common form of the verb.

• Nouns for which they can be substituted

Examples: dogs bark; children play.

PERSON

• Pronouns I, you, we, they, me, him, her, us, them

Examples:

walk

MeHimHerUsThem

IYouWeThey

walk(watch)

PERSON

• Structures of coordination with coordinators and, both…and, and the like; a few special included clauses.

Examples:• (both) the knife and the fork shine

brightly• Either his bad luck or his mistakes

keep him poor• Whatever jobs are available suit me

PERSON

• One verb, be, whether as full verb or as auxiliary, has an additional form, the first-singular am, which correlates with the subject I.

• Common person form are which is different from the base, be.

Tense

TENSE

• All English verbs except a few auxiliaries (ought, must) have two tenses, which are distinguished by inflections:

1. Common tense usually called present tense or non-past.

Form: base + third-singular {-s} inflection

TENSE

2. Past (or preterit) tense. Form: base + inflectional suffix {-ed1} inflection

• Each verb has a single past-tense form which correlates with all subjects, except for the verb be.

TENSE

• Two past-tense forms of the verb be:1. was

–correlates with singular subjects (nouns in base form, the substitutes I, he, she, it, other parts of speech and special structures)

2. were –correlates with plural subjects including

pronoun you regardless of the referent

Phase

PHASE

• All English verbs except a few auxiliaries have two phases, the simple and perfect.

• Perfect PhaseForm: have + past-participle form of the verbExamples: he has spoken, we may have been, I should have worked, he has gone.

PHASE

• Intransitive Verbs have resultative phase

Form: be + past-participle form of the verbExamples: he is gone, they are finished with the work, I am done with you.

• Verbs not formally marked as in perfect or resultative phase are in the simple phase.

Aspect

ASPECT• English verbs have three aspects:

1. Simple aspect–unmarked

2. Durative aspect–expresses durationForm: be + present-participle (base + {-ing1}) form of the verb

3. Inchoative aspect–expresses beginning of the actionForm: get + present-participle form of the verb

DURATIVE• he is talking

• he was swimming

• we ought to be working

INCHOATIVE• We got talking

• Let’s get going

• We ought to get working

ASPECT

Mode

MODE

• Classified on the basis of form into two groups:

1. Modal auxiliaries (can, may, shall, will, must, dare, need, do) + base form of the verb.

• All of these modal auxiliaries except must and need have past-tense forms.

• does third-singular form of do

MODE

2. Other auxiliaries (have, be, be going, be about, used, ought, get, have got) + the infinitive (to + base) form of the verb.

• These mode forms can be clumsily designated as “the shall-mode”, “the ought to-mode,” and so on.

Modal Auxiliaries• He can go• We might see• They should have

spoken• You will come• Everybody must die• Nobody dared to do it• You need not to worry• He does study

Other Auxiliaries• They have to go• We are to see• He was going to speak• People were about to

leave• She used to sing• That man ought to

have quit• I never got to see Paris• He has got to study

MODE

MODE• A verb-phrase my belong to two

modes at the same time.

• Only one may be from the modal-auxiliary group, and its auxiliary comes first in the phrase.

• he would have to work• he could be about to work• he may be going to tell us• he used to have to work

But not

• he has to can work• he is going to must work• he will can do it

MODEExamples:

Voice

VOICE

• English verbs have two voices:

1. normal or active voice2. Passive voiceForm: auxiliary be + past-participle form of the verb• Another passive is formed by (as

auxiliary) get + past-participle

VOICE

ACTIVE

he killsthey built a housewe have done the work

be–PASSIVE

he is killedthe house was builtthe work has been done

get–PASSIVE

he gets killedthe house got builtthe work has got done

Examples:

VOICE

• Analyze these sentences based on the pause made either after or before built:

a.) the house was built by expertsbe–passive voice

b.) the house was built of wood be verb with a past participle as subject complement

VOICE

the house was built by expertsP

the house was C built of woodP

by

Status

STATUSEnglish verbs have four statuses:

1. the affirmative2. the interrogative3. the negative4. the negative–interrogative

STATUS• Interrogative is marked by a change

in word order involving the inversion of the subject and the auxiliary or by the first auxiliary if more than one is present.

• Use the auxiliary do/does/did to form the interrogative of verbs which have no auxiliary in the affirmative status.

STATUSExamples:

Inverted Formsis he workinghas he workedshould he have workedis he going to work

do-Formsdoes he workdid he workdid get killeddoes he have to workdid he use to work

• Note that this inversion produces a structure in which one immediate constituent is split into two parts.

does workPhe

• The auxiliaries get, used (to), and have (to) also use the forms of do.

Split verb-phrase

STATUS

• Affirmative is marked by an affirmation.

Examples:he is workinghe works

STATUS• Negative Status is marked by the

insertion of the special function word not, which has various allomorphs such as /nat, nt, Әn, n/ immediately after the first auxiliary.

• Use the forms of do if no auxiliary is present although do is not used with be and not always with have.

STATUS• The forms of do are used when the auxiliary is

used (to), have (to), or a simple form of get.

Examples

he is not (/ìz nât, îzӘnt, z + nât, îzӘn/) workinghe has not workedhe should not have workedhe is not going to workhe does not workhe is not here

has nothave does nothe any money

he did not use to work

STATUS• The negative–interrogative status is a

combination of the two former.

• Auxiliary do follows the same pattern in the interrogative forms.

• This structure brings the subject and the function word not together.

• The form with the subject before not is somewhat more formal.

not–FIRST FORM

• isn’t he working• hasn’t he worked• shouldn’t he have worked• doesn’t he work• hasn’t he any money• doesn’t he have any

money

• is he not working• has he not worked• should he not have

worked• does he not work• has he not any money• does he not have any

money

STATUSSUBJECT-FIRST FORM

• A tabular analysis of four typical verb-phrases:

(a) he is to be told(b) they should not have been working(c) ought we get going(d) mightn’t have been getting run over

Structures of Predication

  (a) (b) (c) (d)

Person third-singular common common common

Tense common past common past

Phase simple perfect simple perfect

Aspect simple durative inchoative durative

Mode be to shall ought to may

Voice be-passive active active get-passive

Status affirmative negative interrogative negative-interrogative

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