Verb and verb phrases Flashcards
What is a verb?
A class of WORDS that serve to indicate the occurrence or performance of an action, or the
existence of a state or condition
Verb forms:
-Regular: close, stay, walk, hurry
-Irregular: break, run, put, see, thing
Base form
Verb forms:
-Regular: closes, stays, walks, hurries
-Irregular: breaks, runs, puts, sees, thinks
s-form/ present tense
Verb forms:
-Regular: closed, stayed, walked, hurried
-Irregular: broke, ran, put, saw, thought
Past tense
Verb forms:
-Regular: closed, stayed, walked, hurried
-Irregular: broken, run, puts, seen, thought
Past participle
Verb forms:
-Regular: closing, staying, walking, hurrying
-Irregular: breaking, running, putting, seeing,
thinking
-ing participle
Lexical verbs
individual meaning – reference to an action, state, event, situation, etc.
Auxiliaries
function words with grammatical/modal meaning as part of a construction.
Grammatical: be, do, have
Modal: will, would, shall, can, could, may, might, must, ought
Type of auxiliary: be, do, have + another verb
Grammar auxiliary
Type of auxiliary: will, would, shall, should, can, could, may, might, must, ought
Modal auxiliary
Be as lexical verb
Can be independent
Do as lexical verb
takes do-support
i.e Did he do his duty?
Have as lexical verb
1) does he have a dog
2) Has he a dog (wtf, some old ass english)
Multi-word lexical verbs: Dan plays the guitar. Sheila looked down
Simple verb
Multi-word lexical verbs: Her played down the incident -> He played the incident down.
Phrasal verb: verb and particle can be separated and moved
Multi-word lexical verbs: Sheila only played at being a poet
Prepositional verb (verb + preposition) parts cant be seperated
Multi-word lexical verbs: They played around with the headline for a while
Phrasal-prepositional verb (verb+particle+preposition) cannot be separated
Multi-word lexical verbs: She took a look at the garden plot. We have it a try.
Delexical verb + verb-like noun
Aspect
an indicator of how an action is viewed – from the inside or from the outside – as
unfolding or as completed. Important key words are duration and completion.
The progressive: I am attending a lecture. (Cf. I attend lectures.)
The perfect: I have attended a lecture. (Cf. I attended a lecture.)
Voice
he distinction between active and passive – whether the subject referent performs/causes
an action (active) or is affected by the action (passive).
Active: Marion wrote the essay.
Passive: The essay was written by Marion.
Modality
a perspective on the verbal action which adds an element of
– the speaker’s beliefs about the verbal action (probability, necessity)
– permission, obligation, ability, possibility
Marion must/may have written that essay. (=she probably has)
Marion may/must write an essay. (=she hasn’t, but she is allowed/obliged to do so)
Catenative
auxiliary-like in having little meaning compared to the following lexical verb (e.g. keep
working)
like lexical verb in not being an obligatory part of any grammatical construction (i.e. a
catenatives is not obligatory in the formal marking of tense, aspect or voice.)
Finite forms
Present and past tense
Non-finite forms
infinitive, ing participle, past participle
