Verbs Flashcards
What are verbs?
‘doing words’ because they often involve somebody doing something - an action, or a process or copular verb that links the doer to the action.
What types of verbs are there and what are their properties?
2 main types: lexical/main verbs (open class) and auxiliary verbs (closed class). Because verbs are typically classed as an open class we can have many verbs coming in as new verbs. A fully formed sentence, has to have a main/ lexical verb, and that could be an action verb. So it might be one that refers to an action E.g. I jump on the tables (action= jump). E.g. (She ate a biscuit What is the action there? it’s the verb to eat in the past tense). Phrasal verbs
When are verbs produced what is there most common word order?
Verbs are produced very often in second position, so you will often have the person or thing that does the verb coming first, which is what we call the subject. Most common word order in English subject verb object (SVO).
What are copular verbs give examples?
‘seem’- or ‘BE’ =copular verbs link the subject of a sentence - so the thing/person that is doing this verb - they link it to some information about that thing or person e.g. Bruiser=(be/seem) tired-the dog is that thing.
What are aux verbs? What is their function?
Auxiliary verbs/helper verbs help to change the tense or to help say things about like ability e.g. I can play the piano. Auxiliary verbs usually go with the lexical verb e.g. “I can jump” I have eaten Aux verb ‘have’, helps to show what tense this is in, and when we’re talking about. So they add important information to the verb phrase, such as the time of occurrence. Sometimes there are many auxiliaries in a verb phrase/verb group, (usually only one lexical verb in the verb group, in the verb phrase.) *If not sure which one is actually giving the most kind of lexical meaning, the lexical verb will be the last one of the verbs .If there’s only 1 verb it must be lexical.
Pick out the verbs: I would have been doing my work
4 verbs: 3 auxiliary verbs and one lexical verb in the group- the last one.
What are the properties of Aux verbs?
They are part of the closed class category and there are a subset of them which we call the main auxiliaries: BE, DO and HAVE. E.g “He is wearing a sweater.”= auxiliary form of the verb BE + main verb. E.g “She doesn’t speak Spanish” = auxiliary form of the verb DO + main verb. “We have been to Russia”=auxiliary form of the verb HAVE + main verb- of BE been. ‘have’ is helping us to form the tense.
What are modal aux and what’s their function?
They help to tell things about ability ( I can or could do something -, I may or I might do it), or how likely it is, or whether you are obliged to do it ( I shall do or I should do it. I will do it, or I would do it, and I must do it.)
List the modal aux:
Can- Could- May-permission Might- Shall- Should- Will- Would- Exceptions: BE, DO and HAVE can be aux/lexical
In what ways is the BE being used? He is wearing a sweater.
The BE from being used is present continuous and it is being used to help create tense, the is isn’t giving the main meaning, so the BE form is being used as an aux.
In what ways is the BE being used? He’s a dog.
The BE form is present continuous. IS giving meaning of something/somebody being something so it’s lexical.
In what way is the DO being used? She does speak Spanish.
The DO form is being used in present singular form and is helping the speak verb so is aux.
In what way is the DO being used? They don’t care. They do art. She does crosswords.
/DO=lexical/ DOES=lexical
In what way is the HAVE being used? We have been to Russia.”
HAVE=aux used as a helper to form the tense.
In what way is the HAVE being used? We have 2 boys and 3 girls. She has a cold.
HAVE =lexical, it’s on its own, and used to show a sense of possession.
What are phrasal verbs?
one verb is actually made up of more than one word, use what we can a call a particle that adds a a slight difference to the word which is important.
E.g Give in, Give up
What do verbs help us to do?
verbs help to form the tense - signal the past /present and future time. Use lexical or aux to show the tense. Signal whether it was an ongoing action or a regular intermittent action.
What verb form is “I went”
This is the verb “to go” (irregular like BE form)
What verb form is “She jumped on the bed”
regular add the ‘-ed’/ past simple
What tense is:”I write a letter”, “she writes a letter” or “she runs”.
Present tense – we have to add the ‘s’ on there to show that it’s somebody else doing it. And future.
What tense is:”“I will get the bus” or “he will play football”.
we add in this auxiliary verb ‘will’ to make the future.
What type of verb is always finite?
Modal verbs
How is tense marked
verb morphology -present/past
I have
I had
How are aspect modality and voice marked?
They are coded by the auxilairy verb system
