verb and verb phrases

Definition of phrase Phrases are built on the basis of word classes like lexical nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. certain kinds of words frequently appear together in units called phrases. A phrase is classified in one of two ways.

Headed phrases The first is the formal or internal classification which is made according to the head of the phrase because it is heads and their properties that are taken into consideration. The head is the obligatory element of the phrase, there is also the pre-head and the post-head position. 5 kinds of phrase according to lexical category the headword belongs to: the noun phrase (NP), the verb phrase (VP), the adjective phrase (AdjP), the adverb phrase (AdvP) the prepositional phrase (PP).

Definition of the verb phrase It is one of the main elements of the clause and most essential part of the predicate. By VP we mean the form, ie how it is structured/ constructed. Another thing is its function – how the VP functions in the sentence.

Structure A typical feature of the VP is that it consists only of verbs, one lexical or main verb and up to four auxiliaries. (aux 1) (aux 2) (aux 3) (aux 4) Main (lexical)verb

VP The most central members are the morphologically simplest words denoting actions, processes, events, states (know, like). The verb be is the only verb that has person-number contrasts in the past and present tense. This is the only phrase built by words that belong to the same syntactic category. It consists of a lexical verb (V) as head preceded by one or more auxiliaries (eg is taking/has been taken).

LEXICAL VERBS: VERB PARADIGM It distinguishes inflections. 5 different forms which Huddleston classifies as tensed and non-tensed forms. Tensed forms are 3rd p sg, general present tense: takes, take and past tense forms: took, walked, shut. Non-tensed forms are the base, the present participle and past participle: take, taking, taken. The base and the general present tense formally do not differ, we come to five forms all in all: take, takes, took, taken, taking. All these forms of the verb to take present the verb’s paradigm. They all carry apart from the lexical meaning a specific grammatical meaning. Certain contexts require a specific form like: He has ________ (finished/written) his assignment, finish and write have to be used in their past participle form. Other contexts permit different forms. He ______ (rode/rides) to school, and the distinction in meaning expressed by the opposition here is one of time reference. The form takes for instance consists of a free morpheme: take-, and a bound morpheme: - s.

HOMONYMY Some verb forms are homonymous in spelling and pronunciation but differ in meaning and this poses a big problem for Bulgarian learners (eg the past tense of regular verbs has the same form as the past participle, etc.). We have to distinguish them not on the basis of their form but of their function. Inflectional forms are morphosyntactic in character. The rules of syntax specify under what conditions given forms are to be used.

IDENTIFICATION In terms of identification, verbs can be distinguished by word-formative suffixes, such as for instance - ate: articulate, - en: widen, -ify: certify, - ise (-ize): modernize. Some verb lexemes are formed by another productive means of word-formation like conversion. Again we are faced with same shape vs different grammatical meaning dilemma but this time it relates to the syntactic category of the lexeme and its respective paradigm, eg. love, picture (love, v., love, n.; picture, v., picture, n.).

CLASSIFICATION We distinguish two types of VP in terms of form in English: synthetic and analytical forms of the VP. Some call them simple and complex VPs. Another classification has to do with the two basic forms of the verb: finite and non-finite VPs. Finite verb phrases differ from non-finite ones in terms of the fact that non-finites do not have/do not express tense, person and number as finite forms do (the best example is the verb be). They also form the negative in a different way, by simply adding the adverb not in front of the VP.

THE SIMPLE FORM It consists just of the head. It is also called synthetic because one form carries the lexical meaning together with the grammatical meanings of tense, mood, voice, aspect, correlation. Just as the NP can be expressed by one word – the headnoun (or the lexical head, the dictionary entry), so too with the VP. It may consist of just one (lexical, main) verb: WANT in eg We want an icecream.

want the lexicalverb want also carries the other grammatical categories of the verb like: tense (present simple tense), aspect (non-progressive), voice (active), mood (indicative), negation (not-marked). For that reason such a form is called synthetic, because it is a lexical verb identical with the base form, but it is loaded with all that grammatical information together with subject-verb concord, because the form also shows that it is finite and agrees in person and number with the subject. Compare the following example: The little girl wants an icecream.

WANT-s the form WANT-s is also synthetic, but it has a grammatical marker for the agreement between the subject and the verb. The subject consists of Det. + Adj. + N, but agreement happens only between the head in the subject (GIRL) and the verb. It is the head in the subject that dictates the form of the VP. In Bulgarian, by contrast, the verb conjugation changes with the person and number. This is a very great difference which reflects on the structure of the clause. Exactly because in Bulgarian the marking for person and number shows features of the subject, when it is a pronoun it is not necessary to be explicit and is often unexpressed. The subject in English, even when expressed by a pronoun is obligatory in finite clauses. Even when there is nothing for it to stand for, as in the case of expressing natural phenomenon, the subject is expressed by the grammatical word it. This is called the empty or expletive or dummy subject and its function is only grammatical, it fills the slot of the subject and functions as subject in the formation of clauses – declarative, interrogative, negative, negative-interrogative etc.: It’s raining. Is it raining? Isn’t it raining? It isn’t raining.

THE COMPLEX FORM It includes the auxiliaries be (for the progressive/ continuous tenses and the passive), have (for the perfect tenses) and do (for questions and emphasis) which form one unity with the lexical verb. That’s how the analytical verb tense forms in English are formed. We shouldn’t forget the modal verbs. The name complex already shows that there is more than one verb form but only the first auxiliary called the operator for a very good reason is finite.

OPERATOR The operator takes the clause negation and it inverts with the subject (Op-S-Vrest of predicator – the subject-verb inversion (SVI ).

Auxiliary verbs In English, the auxiliary verbs, an important subclass of the verbs– be, have, do, can, will, etc. also called helping verbs, are words that are used in the VP because they help the lexical or main verbs to perform their function of predication in expressing different grammatical categories: finiteness, tense, mood, etc. The modal verbs have only tensed forms much to the surprise of NNSs used to have a rich conjugation of the verb. Auxiliaries are used before the adverb not and have negative as well as positive forms in the tensed part of the paradigm: have has a negative present tense form haven’t, has – hasn’t, and had – hadn’t – negative past tense form. The first auxiliary in a series is called operator. Non-operator take, by contrast, does not have a negative form: *taken’t is ungrammatical and didn’t take is not a single verb, but two verbs. Thus, it is not a form of take. They consist of a small number of verbs grouped in different sets.

the operator The first auxiliary, called the operator, has a special status and is distinguished by certain syntactic features. The operator is of the utmost importance in English as it carries the four ‘NICE’ functions of Negation, Inversion, Code (substitution) and Emphasis.

PRIMARY AUXILIARIES The verbs be, have, do are among the 20 most frequent words in English according to the BNC (British National Corpus) and can function both as primary auxiliaries and as lexical elements of the VP with their verb forms (with the exception of the forms doing and done, which function only as lexical elements). The syntactic function determines the type of meaning expressed, whether grammatical or lexical. See TABLE.

MODAL AUXILIARIES In the structure of the VP modal verbs are used to express modality. In this way, people refer not to facts but to the possibility or impossibility of something happening, its necessity, or certainty, whether an action is permitted and so on. The modal verbs appear in two forms: present and past

can could may might shall should will would ought to - used to had better

CHARACTERISTICS OF MODALS Modal verbs are to be found only in the finite VP. They are marked for either present or past tense, but their meaning may not express present or past time. They exhibit properties different from the other verb types such as: the verb following the modal verb is in the base form. Another very important feature that is typical for English and is not typical for Bulgarian is that in a VP there cannot occur more than one modal verb: *shall must is impossible. In that case we use the substitute of must – have to, they do not change in person and number in agreement to the subject. modal verbs can occur in the same position as lexical verbs (Are you really? Could you indeed? I understand. I can.). As the primary auxiliaries, they can function as operator and exhibit the same properties such as: invert with the subject, substitute the VP in repetition, etc.

Cn’d Some modal verbs like dare, need can be used as lexical verbs as well. Compare: ADA 367 I always feel happier or calmer with a pen in my hand, for writing is the one activity which gives me an unquestionable dignity and, if I may dare to claim it, an unconquerable pride. C8D 3226 I dare say you can.

LEXICAL AUXILIARIES (see Spasov 1992:24) Order of auxiliaries. There can be in the VP up to four auxiliaries. If more than one auxiliary is used in a verb phrase then they have to follow a certain order: modal verb or primary verb as operators> have for perfect aspect> be for passive> be for progressive> headword

FINITE AND NON-FINITE FORMS The basic distinction in the verb between finite and non-finite forms is reflected in the types of clause in that finite clauses can be either main or subordinate while non-finite clauses (or nexus constructions) are always subordinate (see for details Huddleston and Pullum 2002: 35). A distinction IS MADE between the verb be, that distinguishes the present tense forms (am, is, are, was, were) and the base form (be). In that sense the verb be can be used as a test to find out about the form, for instance, cF They take her to school every day and They are kind to her, both of which express present tense.

FINITE AND NON-FINITE CONSTRUCTIONS With the imperative and the subjunctive BUILD finite constructions eg. Open the door. Be good, Long live the queen or It’s best that you be there on time. the to-infinitive and the bare infinitive are non-finite forms and build non-finite constructions: eg. I want you to finish this, I want you to be there on time, eg. He saw her cross the street, He must be there on time (cp. He ought to be there on time)

THE BASE FORM THE BASE FORM is related to different constructions. That difference is important because it is purely syntactic as they build different kinds of clause: the form is finite only in the imperative and the subjunctive it is non-finitE in the constructions with the to-infinitive and the bare infinitive.