[hehe, this entry should have been written yesterday. Just because the guys from the next room kept asking me to play Empire with them ^^ (how lazy I am ^^), I had to postpone this entry. Anyway, they're going abroad next month, these may be the last times I play with them. One will go to Singapore to take a course in pursuit of a DOCTOR degree (admirable, he's only 25); and one will go to Japan to be the director of a bank (incredible)]
Last time, I had discussed a kind of phrases , Noun Phrase, and yesterday, I finished one of the most interesting kinds of phrases, Verb Phrase. Why is it so interesting to learn about verb phrase? What do you think a beginner may encounter when he starts to learn English ? In my point of view, that is tense. And this lesson has a section for tense, along with other important parts of a verb phrase. Let us see what they are...
In the verb phrase, all the elements are verbs. Two main kinds of verbs contributting to the formation of a verb phrase are Lexical Verb and Auxiliary Verb. A verb phrase contains a lexical verb, which is always the last element in a verb phrase, and may have up to four auxiliary verbs, besides the negative word 'not'.
Talking about Lexical verb, we may be accustommed to the word 'lexical' (^^ it appears many times in the course book of Morphology, remember ?) so we already know what it means, right ? A lexical verb carries the primary reference of the verb phrase, relating to an action, progress or event in reality. It may be composed of more than one word; especially 'phrasal' and 'prepositional' verbs.
Now what is the difference between phrasal verbs and prepositional verb ? Are they composed of a verb and a preposition ? As I researched, I found this:
+ Prepositional verb : the prepostion is the only one possible in the context and it always comes immediately after the verb.
Ex: You have to look after yourself !
+ Phrasal verb: the adverb particle may come either before or after an object which is a noun but if the object is a pronoun, it is obligatorily followed by the particle.
Ex: You may look up the word ( or look the word up ) in a dictionary
Look it up in a dictionary !
One more thing, multi-word verbs also include so-called phrasal-prepositional verbs, which include both an adverb particle and a preposition: Keep up with, put up with, etc.
Auxiliary verb has 2 divisions : Primary auxiliaries like 'be, have, do' and Modal auxiliaries like 'can, may, will, must, etc.' . This kind of verbs serve to realize the grammatical categories associated with the verb phrase, especially tense, aspect and mood.
+ Modal auxiliary may present only one time in a verb phrase. It always comes first and is followed by the infinitive form of the verb (Infinitive verbs). The negative word 'not' would right away follow modal auxiliary if it is present.
+ About Primary auxiliary (haizz, this part is longer), be is followed by the present participle to indicate progressive aspect and is followed by the past participle to indicate passive voice; have is followed by the past participle to indicate perfect or perfective aspect.
When combination of auxiliary verbs occurs, the verb right away following a particular auxiliary will take the verb form required by that auxiliary, whether that verb is a lexical verb or an auxiliary verb. The order among auxiliary verbs is:
modal - have (perfective) - be (progressive) - be (passive)
The forms they require are as following:
modal + infinitive
have + past participle
be + present participle
be + past participle
Ex: he will not have been being interviewed
(modal + negative + have (perfective) + be (progressive) + be (passive))
The first auxiliary in a verb phrase is called 'an operator'. It has some special functions:
- The operator is marked for tense, that is, the distinction between 'past' and 'present'. However, if a verb phrase contains no auxiliary, the lexical itself is marked for tense.
- The operator and the subject of a clause exchange their positions in most questions. In this case, 'who' is an exception.
- The negative word 'not' is placed immediately after the operator and before any other auxiliaries. The contracted (shortened) form of it may be joined to the operator (can't, mightn't, won't, isn't ).
- In a tag question, the operator is repeated. (Note: tag questions are tagged on to a statement clause and request confirmation or disconfirmation of that statement)
- The operator is usually able to take contrastive stress. For example, she IS talking; he HAS finished...
In the case where a clause is a question, or is negated, or has a tag questiom, or in which the verb phrase carries contrastive stress but has no auxiliary like modal, be, have, then the auxiliary verb do must be used. This is the sole use, as an auxiliary, of do. We can infer from this point that primary auxiliaries be, have, do may also be used as lexical verbs.
Above is the structure of a verb phrase, now we'll discuss more in some aspects.
All the verb phrases we've discussed so far are finte verb phrase, that is , they contain a finite form of the verb, showing tense distinction between 'past' and 'present', and being associated with a particular subject. This function is performed by the operator or by the lexical verb if there is no auxiliary.
Non-finite particle and Infinitive verb phrase may also contain auxiliary verbs, but they must also be in a non-finite form (infinitive or participle). Modal verbs, however, do not because they have no non-finite form. The type of the non-finite verb phrase is indicated by the form of the first member. Thus, we could see that a present participle non-finite verb phrase may contain a 'have' auxiliary, as in Having visited France before ; or a 'be - passive' auxiliary, as in Being looked down by all the generals . The infinitive verb may also contain a 'be-passive' or a 'be-progressive'; or a 'have' auxiliary. 'have' and 'be-passive' can together be present in an infinitive verb phrase. For example, he regrets to have been tricked by that woman.
One more thing, if a non-finite verb phrase is negated, the negative word 'not' comes first; as in he regrets not to have ...
Next is an interesting point: Tense. Talking about the grammatical category of tense is talking about real-world time. In English, there is a clear distinction between 'past' and 'present' tense. In fact, it is the past tense that is marked and the present tense is only marked in the third person singular. We'll take a look at each tense:
+ Past tense: The past tense forms of the verb phrase nearly always refer to actions and events in past time.
+ Present tense: Simple present tense may be used for:
- Eternal truths
- Habitual actions
- Present actions in a commentary ( a spoken description of an event that is given while it is happening )
- Future actions
In the case of habitual and future actions, the reference to 'habit' and 'future' is by means of the adverbial expressions (every morning, tomorrow...) but the form of the verb phrase used is present tense. It is arguable that in a few uncommon cases, a present tense verb may refer to an action or event in past time : I hear that you've had an accident. The present progressive form of the verb is usually used to refer to actions going on at the present moment in time.
+ Future: Clearly the future tense is not marked in the verb. In English, it is considered that the future tense is formed by means of the auxiliary 'will/shall' followed by the infinitive of the lexical verb. However, this most frequently used way of referring to future is not the only one. In fact, there are several other ways and this causes the opinion that there is no 'future tense' in English. There are merely a number of ways referring to future time:
- shall/will + infinitive
- present progressive
- be going to + infinitive
- simple present
- be to + infinitive
That's for the Tense.
OK, now is the Aspect. the grammatical category of aspect relates to the way in which the action or event referred to by the lexical verb is regarded, particularly in respect of its extension in time. In English, there are 2 pairs of distinctions to be drawn : progressive / non-progressive and perfective / non-perfective
+ The main meaning of Progressive is to view the action or event as continuing over time or being in progress rather than just taking place. However, some verbs are inherently durative in this sense, like 'sleep', but even then, the progressive can be used and emphasizes the progression or duration of the event.
The past progressive often refers to an action or event that is in progress when something else happens.
The Present progressive is usually used to refer to events taking place at the present moment in time, perhaps because such events are viewed as spanning the present and including immediate past and immediate future. Another meaning of the present progressive is to refer to a 'temporary' action or event in contrast to a 'habitual' one represented by the simple present.
+ Perfective: compared to the Simple past, which refers to an action or event taking place at some point in past time, usually explicitly referred to by a time adverbial or at least implied in the context, the Present Perfect refers to an action or event which began in the past and which either lasted up to the present (moment of speaking) or has relevance for the present. One further meaning of the present perfect is to refer to 'indefinite' past time, when a point in time is not or cannot be specified.
The Past Perfect transfers the meaning of the present perfect into the past, where it refers to an action or event beginning at a point in the past and continuing to another more recent point or event in the past which has to be specified.
Ah, now we'll move to a 'new but not new' field, the Mood. In fact, the mood affects all fields of English, as fas as I'm concerned. But in this chapter, we'll talk about it uses affecting verb phrases.
The grammatical category of mood relates to the attitude of the speaker or of the subject to the action referred to by the verb phrase together which the clause of which it is a part. Meanings associated with mood are realized in the verb phrase by the modal verbs in 2 aspects. On the one hand, modal verbs realize meanings such as 'ability', 'permission', 'volition', 'obligation' and 'prohibition'. On the other hand, modal verbs rea;ize meanings such as 'certainty', 'possibility', 'probability' and their opposites.
The other uses of the term 'mood' relates to clauses or sentences, more than to verb phrases, and refers to the distinction between declarative, interrogative and imperative clauses. These relates in a broad sense to the attitude of the speaker, those perhaps more in regard to his intercutor (the addressee) than to the action or event itself. This can be illustrated by the fact that the terms 'declarative', 'interrogative' and 'imperative' are not synonymous with the term 'statement', 'question' and 'command' separately. For example, it is possible to give a command using any of the moods discussed : Open the window ! (imperative); Would you mind opening the window? (Interrogative); I wonder if you would open the window (declarative).
The choice of mood reflects the relationship (or attitude) of the speaker to the addressee, and they could be regarded as constituting a scale of politeness or directness for commands.
Finally, we'll take a look at Voice : the term Voice relates to the distinction in English between active and passive, a distinction referring not just to the verb phrase but to the whole clause involving a rearrangement of the elements in the clause besides a special form of the verb phrase. In active voice, the subject is called 'actor' or 'agent' and in passive voice, the subject is call 'patient' or 'goal' or 'affected participant'. Further detail about Voice will be discussed in later chapters.
Phew, I'm glad I've finished one of the longest chapter in the book ^^. The more I do research in this subject, the more I love it. See you next chapter ^^.
- NHƯ ANH -
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