Abdala Assumane

Cardoso Francisco Pequenino

Eliseu José Albino
Gelito Ramadane

Group 2
THE VERB GROUP

Universidade Rovuma
Nampula
2024
 Abdala Assumane

Cardoso Francisco Pequenino

Eliseu José Albino

Gelito Ramadane

Group 2

THE VERB GROUP

Essay presented to the faculty of arts and social

sciences, department of language, communication
and arts, English course in partial for fulfilment of
the subject of Syntax 2. Under orientation of
Erasmo Francisco Tocota, MA

Universidade Rovuma

Nampula

2024
Contents page
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................4

Progressive Aspect (PROG).................................................................................................................5

Passive Voice (PASS)..........................................................................................................................6

Negative and auxiliary DO...................................................................................................................8

The rule for forming the negative sentences.....................................................................................8

Fronting the auxiliary in question......................................................................................................10

Have and Be as head but performing as AUX...................................................................................11

Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................12

References..........................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
 5

Progressive Aspect (PROG)

The term “progressive aspect” is one of several names for verbal constructions consisting of a form
of to be followed by a V–ing form. Jespersen calls this particular form of the verb “the expanded
form”, focusing on the formal criteria of the verb phrase, whereas some prefer “the continuous
form” (Woods and McLeod 1990).

All the English tenses have two forms. These are simple and progressive. The progressive forms
are also known as continuous. The progressive forms always consist of the auxiliary verb ´to
be´, which is conjugated in proper tense, and present participle. The progressive tenses are
more specific than its equivalents in simple forms. That is the reason why the progressive tenses
can be used without wider context.

Normally, we represent progressive as ‘PROG’ and decorate it with the tense feature:

PROG PROG
[pres] [past]

is was

In the English language there are also two aspects to be distinguished, progressive and
perfective.

 The main difference between progressive and perfective aspects is that they refer to a
specific action and determine if this action is already complete or not, see the example
below.

Sentenc 1: Monsieur Blanc is studying the menu.

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In these, the tensed verbs are forms of the progressive auxiliary be. As we can see the progressive
be demands that the following verb has the (non-finite)-ING form. Call this the progressive
participle.

Sentence 2: This turn of events is worrying. (There is no PROG auxiliary in this sentence).

The sentence 2, includes progressive be followed by a lexical verb (worry) in the progressive
participle form. Not so! The verb worry is transitive – it requires a direct object. But there is no
direct Object in the sentence 2. So, worrying here is not the Verb. It’s the adjective. And it can be
modified by very. This means that there is no the progressive auxiliary. Progressive be is always
followed by further verb, but here be is followed by an adjective (more strictly, an AP)
complementing be.

Progressive ˝PROG˝ may occurs with MOD, with PERF and with both MOD and PERF:

 Sentence 1: Bill may be teasing you. (MOD + PROG)

 Sentence 2: Bill has been teasing you. (PERF + PROG)
 Sentence 3: Bill might have been teasing you. (MOD + PERF + PROG)

MOD before PERF before PROG before Lexical V.

Passive Voice (PASS)

Sentences that include the passive auxiliary verb be are said to be in the passive voice. For example:
Example: The pool was filled. (PASS)

The obvious point to make is that be is also the progressive auxiliary. How to distinguish between
progressive be and passive be? The answer lies in the form of the following verb. Following
progressive be, a verb adopts the progressive participle form (V-ing – e.g. stealing). Following
passive be, a verb adopts the passive participle form (e.g. stolen).
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Normally, we represent passive as ‘PASS’ and decorate it with the tense feature:

PASS PASS
[pres] [past]

is was

Just as with perfect have and progressive be, PASS will only have the tense feature if it is the first
verb in the sequence. PASS can co-occur with any combination of other auxiliaries.

First, notice that an active sentence and a passive sentence each state the same idea, but they use a
different word order. A passive sentence is almost the reverse of an active sentence because the
object of the verb (the receiver of the action) moves to the front position, and the subject (the doer
of the action) moves to the end (usually as a “by phrase”). Below is the pattern:

1. Active: The boss fired Max.

2. Passive: Max was fired (by the boss).

The verb fire is transitive and in the active sentence 1, we have Max in indirect object position. But
in the corresponding passive sentence 2, Max has migrated to subject position. So, here’s the big
idea: the object in an active sentence becomes the subject of the corresponding passive sentence.

Sentence 1 and 2 describe the same state of issues, but differently. It is the subject that canonically
identifies what the sentence is about. So the active is understood as being more about the boss than
about Max and the passive, by contrast, is more about the unfortunate Max.

Well, if we still want to mention who did the firing, we can do so by means of a prepositional
phrase – a PP with by as its head. But, since the passive sentence is more about Max, we don’t have
to mention who did it. As indicated by brackets in sentence 2, the by-phrase is optional. It functions
as adverbial. It modifies – and is the sister of a VP. Which VP? Since it is sentence-final, it modifies
the lexical VP. Evidence for this comes from the co-ordination of lexical VPs in The fish were
[caught by Emily] and [cooked by Raymond].

Since the direct object in the active becomes the subject in the passive, the direct object position
required by a transitive verb won’t be filled in the passive. Now, ‘[trans]’ means ‘taking a direct
object’. We can (we must!). Even though Max appears as subject in the passive (sentence 2), we
still understand Max as undergoing the firing, a gap is created in the object position left by the
movement of the object to subject position. We represent this gap with a conspicuous blob: ●.
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The phrase marker for sentence 2: Max was fired by the boss. Must be:

Negative and auxiliary DO

The negative

The English negative particle "Not" is used to indicate the opposite or negation of something stated
in a sentence. It's employed to express the idea that an action or condition is denied or not
happening. However, the term "not" serves as a negating force within the English language,
functioning as an agent of denial or opposition to the content conveyed in a given sentence.
(Frank, 1981)

The rule for forming the negative sentences

The negative particle "Not" is placed immediately after the tensed auxiliary so "Not" is
strategically positioned within a sentence, customarily occurring post the auxiliary verb or main
verb, thereby orchestrating a transformation from affirmative to negative constructs. In fact, the
negative particle can actually contract onto the auxiliary verbs.

For example:

Byron would not dance. (Contracted form: wouldn’t)

Representing the phrase marker of the sentence ˝Byron would not dance˝ we simply attach not to
that auxiliary.
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Example:

The auxiliary DO

In negative sentences with not, auxiliary do is required to carry the tense in the absence of any other
auxiliary. For example:

Byron did not dance. (didn’t)

Since auxiliary do is now carrying the (past) tense, dance must appear in its(non-finite, untensed)
stem form. Auxiliary do is quite empty of meaning here. Its sole function here is to carry tense and
negation instead of the lexical verb. So we shall represent did as immediately dominated by tense,
and simply attach not to it.

Example:

by the way, that auxiliary" do" can also be used for emphasis in positive sentences. However, that is
to say that in affirmative sentences, "do" is added before the main verb to emphasize the action or to
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make it more emphatic. For example: "I do love chocolate." Here, "do" is used to emphasize the
strong feeling of love for chocolate.

Fronting the auxiliary in question

Fronting the auxiliary in a question refers to the practice of moving the auxiliary verb (typically
"is," "are," "was," "were," "have," "has," "do," or "did") from its usual position within the sentence
to the beginning of the sentence . This is often done to form a question or to emphasize a particular
aspect of the question. However, fronting the auxiliary is a common way to form yes-no questions
and is a fundamental aspect of English syntax. Moreover, fronting the auxiliary in question is a
linguistic phenomenon that occurs when the auxiliary verb in a sentence is moved to the beginning
of the sentence for the purpose of forming a question. This is a common syntactical structure in
English and many other languages, (Grech, 1988 p 374).

The rule for forming the question is this:

The tensed auxiliary verb moves in front of the subject. Example:

1. Byron was dancing.

In this phrase marker, are two new nodes (in bold). First, there is an S′ node. This is called ‘S-bar’.
Then there is a ‘C’ node. ‘C’ is for ‘Complementiser’. The Complementiser position is: sister of S
and daughter of S-bar (S′ ). So, the structural position that a fronted auxiliary moves to is the
Complementiser position.
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Have and Be as head but performing as AUX

HAVE and BE can function both as auxiliary verbs and as lexical verbs. When functioning as
auxiliaries, they behave like auxiliaries: fronting to C in questions and accepting the negative
particle, for instance:

a. They haven’t gone. b. They aren’t going.

Do, which is normally required in the absence of an auxiliary, is ungrammatical with the auxiliary
use of have and be. For instance:

a. They don’t have gone. (Ungrammatical). b. They don’t be going. (Ungrammatical).

HAVE can behave like an auxiliary or like a lexical verb even when it is functioning as a lexical
verb. The entire following sentences are grammatical:

Functioning as a lexical verb, behaving like a lexical verb:

a. Do we have any money? b. We don’t have any money.

Functioning as a lexical verb, behaving like an auxiliary:

a. Have we any money? b. We haven’t any money.

BE is more regular in its irregularity: it always behaves like an auxiliary, whether functioning as
auxiliary or lexical. The entire following sentences are grammatical:

Functioning as a lexical verb, behaving like an auxiliary:

a. Was Kubla extravagant? b. Kubla wasn’t extravagant.

A phrase marker for the sentence: ˝Was Kubla extravagant?˝ is:

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Conclusion
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References

ROBERTS, B.N. (2011, p 118-132), Sentences Analysing an introduction to english syntax, 3rd ed.
Library of Congress.

FRANK, V. (1981, p 271-293), The Semantics of the Progressive. Los Angeles: Academic Press.

GRECH, L A. (1988, p 374), Longman English Grammar. London: Longman.

WOODS, E.G. & MCLEOD J.M. (1990), Using English Grammar. Meaning and Form. New York
and London: Prentice Hall.