What are little verbs made of?

Deriving the English verbal system from underlying elements

Jim Baker

Trinity Hall McMenemy Seminar

4th February 2015

Outline

• In this talk I will:

o Present some ideas from modern linguistic

theory.

o Explain how these can be used to help explain

the workings of English verbs.

Branching structures

• Traditional grammar: subjects and predicates

• Lucy works

SUBJECT: Lucy

PREDICATE: works

• Lucy writes books

SUBJECT: Lucy

PREDICATE: writes books

writes booksLucyworksLucy

Branching structures

Branching structures

• (Transitive) predicates:

verb + object

• Lucy writes books

writes

Lucy

books

Branching structures

• Noun phrases can be similarly decomposed

writes

booksgood

this woman

Branching structures

at a descriptive level it is a trivial observation that each speaker of a human language knows that words in sentences are organized into classes of hierarchically-defined phrases

• And so on …

Movement

• What did Lucy write?

• cf. Lucy wrote the book

• did Lucy write ? what

did

what

Lucy

write

Movement

did

what

Lucy

write

Movement

what

Movement

• you are going out

• you going out?

• Lucy wrote the book

• was written

are

the book

Movement & inflection

• Lucy did not write the article PAST

• Lucy does write books PRESENT

• I want Lucy to write an article INFINITIVE

– a dedicated position for tense marking

Movement and inflection

doesdidto

Lucy

write

Movement & inflection

• What about:

o Lucy writes books

o Lucy wrote books ?

• Inflections originate in the Tense position

Movement and inflection

-s

Lucy

write

Silent elements

• I think that Lucy writes good books

• cf. I think Lucy writes good books

Silent elements

• I think that Lucy writes good books

• cf. I think Lucy writes good books

= I think Ø Lucy writes good books

Silent elements

• Compare:

the book the books

a book books

Silent elements

• Compare:

the book the books

a book ØINDEF.PL books

• Cf. French des livres

Silent elements

• Some elements appear to have meaning but no

(overt) form

Distinctions verbs make

• Tense: e.g. Lucy writes vs. Lucy wrote

• Aspect: e.g. ” ” vs. Lucy is writing

• Mood: e.g. ” ” vs. Lucy can/might/

should write

• Voice: e.g. ” ” vs. the book is written

Cartography

• Cinque (1999) suggested that each grammatical

distinction made in the world’s languages can be

connected to its own position in the tree

• Order of these elements is same in every

language

Cartography

• Various evidence including order of grammatical

verb endings which is (fairly) constant across

languages

• Generally: VERB-[voice]-[aspect]-[tense]-[mood]

• Menya (Papua New Guinea):

ä-w-g-n-ätäq-ŋ-qäqu-i VOI ASP TENSE MOOD

“while we were looking”

Cartography

• Korean:

cap-hi-si-ess-ess-keyss-sup-ti-kka VOICE TENSE MOOD

“did you feel that he had been caught?”

• Aleut (Alaska and Russia):

chisi-lga-qala-za-qa- x̂$ VOICE ASPECT TENSE

“it was distributed”

etc.

English verbs

• Simple present: Lucy writes

o Past: Lucy wrote

o Perfect: Lucy has written

o Progressive: Lucy is writing

o Passive: the book is written

English verbs

• Past perfect (pluperfect): Lucy had written

• Past progressive: Lucy was writing

• Perfect progressive: Lucy has been writing

etc.

English verbs

writes is written

wrote was written

has written has been written

had written had been written

is writing is being written

was writing was being written

has been writing has been being written

had been writing had been being written

English clause structure

(partial)

±PERFECT

±PAST

[verb]

±PROGRESSIVE

±PASSIVE

The simple tenses

• Lucy writes

–PERFECT

–PAST

WRITE–PASSIVEWRITE–

PASSIVE

–PROGRESSIVE

WRITE–

PROGRESSIVE–PASSIVE–PERFECT

WRITE–PASSIVE

–PROGRESSIV

E

writesWRITE–

PROGRESSIVE–PASSIVE–PERFECT

–PAST

The simple tenses

• Lucy wrote

–PERFECT

+PAST

WRITE

–PROGRESSIV

E –PASSIVE

wrote

The passive

• The book is written

–PERFECT

–PAST

WRITE+PASSIVE

is

WRITE+PASSIV

E

–PROGRESSIVE

–PROGRESSIVE

–PERFECT

–PROGRESSIVE

–PERFECT–PAST

written

The progressive

• Lucy is writing

–PAST

WRITE–PASSIVE

is

WRITE–

PASSIVE

+PROGRESSIVE

–PERFECT

–PERFECT–PAST

WRITE–PASSIVE

+PROGRESSIVE

writing

The perfect

• Lucy has written

+PERFECT

–PAST

WRITE–PASSIVE

has

WRITE–

PASSIVE

–PROGRESSIVE

WRITE–

PROGRESSIVE–PASSIVE

+PERFECT

WRITE–PASSIVE

–PROGRESSIV

E

written

Compound tenses

• Auxiliaries can show tense too

Compound tenses

• The book was written

–PERFECT

+PAST

WRITE+PASSIVE

was

WRITE+PASSIV

E

–PROGRESSIVE

–PROGRESSIVE

–PERFECT

–PROGRESSIVE

–PERFECT+PAST

written

Compound tenses

• Similar for:

o Lucy was writing

o Lucy had written

• [+PAST] marked on the auxiliary

Compound tenses

• Auxiliaries themselves can be made up of 2 or 3

forms

Compound tenses

• The book has been written

+PERFECT

–PAST

WRITE+PASSIVE

has

WRITE+PASSIV

E

–PROGRESSIVE

–PROGRESSIVE

+PERFECT

written

been

Compound tenses

• The book has been being written

+PERFECT

–PAST

WRITE+PASSIVE

has

WRITE+PASSIV

E

+PROGRESSIVE

written

been

being

Compound tenses

• Similar for:

o had been written

o has been writing

o had been writing

o is being written

o has been being written

o had been being written

Some general rules

1) [+PASSIVE], [+PROGRESSIVE], [+PERFECT] can’t

move

2) First auxiliary in [+PERFECT] sentences > HAVE

Other auxiliary forms > BE

3) a. [+PASSIVE], [+PERFECT] > past participle

(written; been)

b. [+PROGRESSIVE] > present participle

(writing; being)

Some general rules

• This system allows all and only the constructions

listed earlier to occur

• No forms like *had writing, *is been writes,

*written had having being etc. etc.

Conclusion

• The ideas of modern linguistic theory presented

earlier provide a framework which helps us

understand why the English verbal system works

as it does

Reference

• Cinque, G. (1999). Adverbs and functional heads:

a cross-linguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

The end