Lecture 4b: Verb Processes

Relationship between sentence types AFFIRMATIVE NEGATIVE Declarative John hugged a tree. John didn't hug a tree. Polar Interrogative (yes/no question) Did John hug a tree? Didn't John hug a tree? Content interrogative What did John hug? What didn't John hug? Passive A tree was hugged by John. A tree wasn't hugged by John.

The relationship between one sentence type and another can be represented as a series of processes: add something change the form of something change the position of something It can also be represented in terms of contrasting features or properties. We will present a 'derivational' model.

Many of these processes involve verbs. These processes distinguish Auxiliary Verbs from Lexical Verbs. AUXILIARY VERB RAISING AUXILIARY do INSERTION/SUPPORT

Auxiliary raising S NP AUX VP PRESENT V NP Fred can play the violin can Fred ___ play the violin

Tensed Auxiliary raising NP AUX VP PRESENT V NP Fred can be playing the violin can Fred ___ be playing the violin *Can be Fred playing the violin?

S NP AUX VP PAST V John sang * Sang John? No auxiliary verb Lexical verb cannot raise

S NP AUX VP PAST V X John sang John did sing Do-support

Auxiliary did raises S NP AUX VP PAST V John did sing did John ____ sing

What position does tense-marking auxiliary raise into?

CP C = complementiser S C NP AUX VP John did sing PAST V did John ____ sing

Auxiliary raising and 'wh-words' in content interrogatives What can Fred play? Who can play the violin? Where does Fred play the violin? Why did John sing? How could John have been arrested? Which man was arrested?

Additional Processes: wh- insertion wh- movement And... auxiliary verb raising do-support

CP S NP C NP AUX VP PRESENT V NP John has seen someone John has seen who has John ___ seen who who has John ____ seen ___

CP S NP C NP AUX VP PAST V NP Mary saw someone Mary saw who Mary did see who did Mary ___ see who who did Mary ___ see ___

Negating a simple sentence requires addition of not following the tensed auxiliary Glen must finish the work. Glen must not finish the work. Roberta may have fed the bear. Roberta may not have fed the bear.

If there is no auxiliary verb? Then Do-support John finished the work. *John not finished the work. *John finished not the work. John did not finish the work.

Negative Sentences S NP AUX VP PAST V NP John finished the work *John not finished the work *John finished not the work

Negative Sentences S NP AUX VP PAST V NP John finished the work John did finish the work John did not finish the work

Negative Sentences S NP AUX VP PAST V NP John did not finish the work Contracted didn't Didn't John __________ finish the work?

Tag questions: substitute pronoun for subject NP change polarity if S is affirmative then tag is negative if no auxiliary then do-support if S is negative then tag is affirmative auxiliary raising if contracted AUX+NOT then both raise omit predicate

Creating 'tags'. John must go. He must go. He must not go. He mustn't go. Must he not go? Mustn't he go? Must he not___? Mustn't he ___? Pronoun substitution Change polarity Auxiliary raising Omit Predicate John must go, must he not? / mustn't he? You won't go. You will go. Will you go? Will you? You won't go, will you?

Active voice to Passive voice John ate the cake. The cake was eaten (by John) S NP AUX VP PAST V NP John ate the cake. NP AUX VP PAST V PP S The cake was eaten by John.

ACTIVE no passive be AUX lexical verb need not be in past participle form DO in VP (transitive) Subject NP and DO NP have distinct referents PASSIVE passive be AUX lexical verb must be in past participle form no DO in VP (intransitive) Subject NP has same referent as DO NP of active PP headed by 'by' has NP complement with same referent as Subject NP of active

Summary Many sentence types derived from affirmative declarative by application of a range of processes: substitution of one form for another addition of a word ( did, not) or phrase (wh-) movement (tensed auxiliary; wh-movement) Auxiliary verbs and Lexical verbs participate in different processes Tense-marking on lexical verbs is restricted to a single environment: affirmative declarative S with no auxiliary verb All other simple sentences require an auxiliary verb.