What are little verbs made of? 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 booksLucy worksLucy Branching structures

(Transitive) predicates: verb + object Lucy writes books writes Lucy books

Branching structures Noun phrases can be similarly decomposed writes books good thiswoman

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 writeMovement

did what Lucy writeMovement 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 does did to 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 thatLucy writes good books cf.I think Lucy writes good books

Silent elements I think thatLucy writes good books cf.I think Lucy writes good books = I think Ø Lucy writes good books

Silent elements Compare: the bookthe books a bookbooks

Silent elements Compare: the bookthe books a bookØ INDEF. 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 writesis written wrotewas written has writtenhas been written had writtenhad been written is writingis 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 – PASSIVE WRITE – PASSIVE – PROGRESSIVE WRITE – PROGRESSIVE – PASSIVE – PERFECT WRITE – PASSIVE – PROGRESSIVE writes WRITE – PROGRESSIVE – PASSIVE – PERFECT – PAST

The simple tenses Lucy wrote – PERFECT + PAST WRITE – PROGRESSIVE – PASSIVE wrote

The passive The book is written – PERFECT – PAST WRITE + PASSIVE is WRITE + PASSIVE – PROGRESSIVE – PERFECT – PROGRESSIVE – PERFECT – PAST written

The progressive Lucy is writing – PAST WRITE – PASSIVE is WRITE – PASSIVE + PROGRESSIVE – 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 – PROGRESSIVE written

Compound tenses Auxiliaries can show tense too

Compound tenses The book was written – PERFECT + PAST WRITE + PASSIVE was WRITE + PASSIVE – 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 + PASSIVE – PROGRESSIVE + PERFECT written been

Compound tenses The book has been being written + PERFECT – PAST WRITE + PASSIVE has WRITE + PASSIVE + 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