SUBCATEGORIES OF AUXILIARIES Lec. 9

OBJECTIVES

Investigate the similarities and differences between main verbs, auxiliaries, and modals

Discover the difference between auxiliary verbs be and have and main verbs be and have

What do the following sentences have in common?

1. Calvin has a peanut

2. Susan has a cold

3. Bill had an accident

What do the following sentences have in common?

1. Calvin has eaten a peanut

2. Frank has eaten too much

3. Bill has been dancing

1. MAIN VERB VS. AUXILIARY VERB USES OF BE, HAVE, AND DO

What do the following sentences have in common?

1. John is a doctor

2. Bill was the one

3. John was eating the corn

4. Calvin was sat on by his brother

What do the following sentences have in common?

1. John did his homework

2. Calvin did a backflip

3. John did not eat

4. Calvin did not do a back flip

EXERCISE I

DISCUSSION

English appears to have multiple verbs be, at least two verbs have and two verbs do:

Subcategory

Meaning Name Form

Main verb Copula (identity/property)

Be / cop Calvin is the cutest cat.

Auxiliary Progressive Be / prog Calvin is eating.

Auxiliary Passive Be / pass Calvin was sat on.

Main verb Possession Have/ poss Calvin has a luxurious coat.

Auxiliary Perfect Have / perf Calvin has eaten

Main verb Accomplishment / performance

Do / main Calvin did his homework

Auxiliary Present to support tense before

negation

Do / aux Calvin did not eat.

NOTATION

In terms of features, we will notate the auxiliary usage of these verbs with the feature [SUBCAT + aux]

We should find evidence that helps us in our distinction between main verb usages and auxiliary uses. We will use the Subject/ Verb Inversion test:

EXERCISE II

Consider the following sentences:

1. Has Pangur eaten his tuna?

2. Is Pangur eating his tuna?

3. Did Pangur eat his dinner?

4. *Ate Pangur his dinner?

• Can main verbs in English undergo Subject/Aux Inversion? Yes No

• Can Auxiliary verbs undergo Subject/ Aux Inversion? Yes No

EXERCISE III

Consider the following sentences:

1. Calvin has not eaten his dinner.

2. Pangur did not play with his mouse.

3. *Calvin ate not his dinner.

4. *Pangur plays not with his mouse.

• Can main verbs come before not? Yes No

• Can auxiliary verbs come before not? Yes No

NOTE

Auxiliaries and modals can both undergo Subject/ Aux Inversion. Main verbs cannot.

So there seems to be some overlap between auxiliaries and modals.

2. MODALS VS. AUXILIARIES

Modal verbs have a slightly different distribution than other auxiliaries like have or be.

EXERCISE IV

Are auxiliaries like be and have verbs? In what ways are they like verbs? In what ways are they not like verbs?

Use the Subject/ Verb Inversion test

Calivn would eat the tuna?

AUXILIARIES BE & HAVE

1. Be and have take inflectional suffixes just like verbs including tense, morphology, and the suffixes turn them into participles and gerunds.

Be, being, been / Have, having, had

2. They can be negated with not

3. They follow modals, the infinitive marker to.

4. They can follow adverbs, like often.

5. They have some verbal properties, making them a special subcategory of verbs.

AUXILIARIES

All speakers of English allow multiple be/have combinations, such as

I have been working hard

I’m being taught English syntax

MODALS

• Unlike auxiliaries, modals do not take verbal inflection endings.

E.g. *shoulding

• They also cannot follow not, nor follow other modals or auxiliaries or the infinitive marker to.

E.g. *to should

• They do however follow subjects and precede objects , and can follow the adverb often.

E.g. I often have to change the fish water myself

DISCUSSION

• Consider the following sentences:

1. I’m not eating the plums.

2. I should not eat plums.

3. I have not been eating plums.

4. * I have not should eat plums

Can modal verbs appear before not?

YES – NO

Can auxiliary verbs appear before not?

YES – NO

Can modal verbs appear after not?

YES – NO

Can auxiliary verbs appear after not?

YES - NO

DISCUSSION

• Modals must be in the first position in the string of verbs in an English sentence, and must precede negation.

• Other auxiliaries can appear in later positions.

• There two ways, so far, in which modals pattern differently form auxiliaries like be and have: (i) we are allowed one modal, but we can have multiple auxiliaries like be/ have; (ii) modals must appear before negation and can never follow it.

•

DISCUSSION

• Auxiliaries and modals are different categories.

• They sometime overlap in Subject/ Auxiliary Inversion & the position of negation.

• How can we account for this contradictory ???

NOTATION [SUBCAT+AUX]

CATEGORY T CATEGORY V

Modals

Auxiliaries Verbs

MODALS & TENSE

Modals are of category T

The T category stands for TENSE

The category V stands for VERB

(i) The tense particle will patterns just like a modal; and (ii) when a modal is present, no tense morphology is present.

NOTATION

Be pass

CATEGORY

V

SUBCAT +aux

SEM

VOICE passive

NOTATION

Have perf

CATEGORY

V

SUBCAT + aux

SEM

ASPECT PERFECTIVE

NOTATION

Will

CATEGORY

T

SUBCAT +aux

TENSE future

NOTATION

Should

CATEGORY

T

SUBCAT + aux

SEM

MOOD obligation

NOTATION

be prog

CATEGORY

V

SUBCAT + aux

SEM

ASPECT progressive

NOTATION

Can

CATEGORY

T

SUBCAT + aux

SEM

MOOD ability