Verbs tense aspect and mood Verbs

Verbs, tense, aspect, and mood

Verbs • Tense - indicates when the situation takes place. • In general there are 3 delimitations of time: „before now” – the past, „now” – the present, „after now” – the future. • Not all languages grammaticalise three way system of past-present-future. • English/Japanese/Persian have two morphological tenses: past and non-past.

Inflection English verbs are not strongly inflected/other languages. Inflected forms: ablaut/change of the vowel/, suffix • • A third person singular simple present – s cooks, speaks A simple past form cooked, spoke A past participle cooked, spoken A present participle cooking, speaking / Gerund cooking, speaking Most verbs inflect in a simple regular way. A few hundred of irregular verbs. The copula verb be – linking verb, different inflected forms, is highly irregular.

Verb • The principial part of the verb is the base form/ dictionary form. Other forms can be derived from it. exist – exists, existed, existing • In irregular verbs simple past and past participle are unpredictable. write, writes, wrote, written, writing

The base form • serves as the bare infinitive (write), forms the to infinitive (to write) • serves as the simple present, except in the 3 rd person singular (I/you/we/they write books. ) • is used as an imperative (Write this word. ) • is used as a subjunctive I suggest that he write a book. ) Generally the base form is not marked by any ending but: Suffixes: -ate formulate, -fy electrify, ise/ize realise Prefixes: overtake, undervalue, unmask, outweigh.

Third-person singular present • the suffix -/e/s pronounced as /s/, /z/, /iz/ • add –s to the verb base form write>writes, go >goes, • Verbs ending in sibilant sounds, catch > catches; watches, • Verbs ending in a consonant plus y, add –es, change y to an i: cry > cries

Past tense = preterite Formed regularly and irregularly. • Regular verbs: add suffix –ed, -d, y>i play > played, like > liked, try > tried • Doubling final consonants Kidnap > kidnapped, travelled, shipped, In some cases both alternatives are acceptable: program> programmed, programed hiccup>hiccupped, hiccuped • Pronunciation: /t/, /d/, /id/ passed, described, exceeded If the base form ends in /t/ or /d/ a new syllable /id/ is added. If the base form ends in an unvoiced cosonant other than t then the ending is pronounced /t/ Otherwise the ending is pronounced /d/. • Used in the simple past, conditional If I knew that, I wouldn’t have to ask. • All regular verbs have identical shapes for the preterite and past participle

Past participle • Regular verbs – past participle is identical to the preterite form. cook > cooked, cooked • Irregular verbs: 1. 2. 3. Different past term and past participle – sing> sang, sung The same forms – make > made, made Past tense is regular, past participle is not - show, showed, shown • The past participle occurs in 2 major constructions, perfect and passive. She has flown from Rzeszów. She may have flown to London. Rzeszów-London route is flown by only one airline. A route flown by only one airline is too expensive.

Present participle • Also used as a gerund • Add suffix –ing to the base form of the verb • Spelling: 1. drop silent e believe > beliving 2. change final ie to y lie > lying 3. double consonant sit > sitting, panic > panicking • Pronunciation -ing

Copular verb – be, linking verb, • has multiple irregular forms: - Present tense forms: am, contracted to I’m, is, contracted to he’s, she’s, it’s; are contracted to we’re, you’re, they’re ; - two past tense forms: was, were - Past participle: been - Present participle: being The base form be is used regularly as infinitive, imperative, present, subjunctive.

Modal verbs • modal verbs: can, may, shall, will, must, ought to - the past tenses: could, might, should, would - generally do not inflect: musts, musted, musting - have only a single form - do not have infinitive, imperative, participle forms. - the negation of can is cannot, can’t will not > won’t, shall not > shan’t - contracted form ’ll & ’d for will & would

Auxiliaries Auxiliary verbs vs lexical verbs, different grammatical behavoiour, (subject-auxiliary inversion, negation) Auxiliaries are a small subclass of verbs used to mark tense, aspect, mood or voice. Auxiliaries are divided into modal and non-modal • Modal: can, may, must, will, shall, ougt to, need, dare • Non-modal: be, have, do - Subject-auxiliary inversion in interrogative clauses; dummy do/does Does she take the money? - negated constructions - Perfect constructions: examples have, has, had can contract to ’ve‚ ’s, ’d - in emphatic, do, (does, did)

Dually-classified verbs • Verbs: do, have, need, dare function as auxiliaries and lexical verbs. I do understand you. I do my best. I have done it. (auxiliary) Do you have enough money? Lexical verb I need you. She needn’t go. She doesn’t need to go. Dare they accept her challenge? Do they dare accept her challenge?

How to express tenses, aspects and moods? • There are no inflected forms for particular tenses, moods and aspects. • There are 2 morphological tenses: past & non-past • Multiword constructions with verb forms. In language teaching they are called tenses.

Aspect simple, progressive, perfect Simple: the basic present and past tenses of the verb Simple present (present simple): write, writes Simple past ( past simple), preterite: wrote Progressive (continuous)- be + present participle Present progressive (present continuous, imperfect): am writing, is writing, are writing Past progressive (past continuous): was writing, were writing Progressive infinitive: (to) be writing Progressive subjunctive: be writing Perfect: auxiliary have/has/had + past participle Present perfect: have written, has written Past perfect: had written The perfect aspect combines with the progressive aspect Present perfect progressive: have/has been writing Past perfect progressive: had been writing Perfect infinitive: (to) have written Perfect progressive infinitive: (to) have been writing Present participle: having written Gerund: having been writing Perfect subjunctive: have written

Future The future tense is formed using the auxiliary will. Traditionally and now in formal English: I/we shall • • The simple future will write The future progressive (continuous) will be writing The future perfect will have written The future perfect progressive will have been writing

Phrasal verbs Combination: Verb + preposition (adverbial particle) Phrasal verbs take on independent meanings. The adverbial particle appears close after the verb or follows the object. Hand over the money. Hand the money over. Hand it over.

Mood/modality • Mood, tense – gramatical forms • Modality, time – categories of meaning, semantics She saw him. non-modal a fact He leaves today. non-modal a fact She must have seen him. She may have seen him. modal a conclusion a possibility He must leave today. modal directive, obligation He may leave today. modal permission Mood is restricted to gramatical systems associated with the verb.

epistemic, deontic, dynamic Modal auxiliaries can be epistemic, deontic, dynamic. Epistemic (knowledge, belief): He must have overslept. She may be ill. The storm should be over soon. Deontic (obligation, permission, judgement) He must apologise. She may take as many as she needs. You should call the police. Many examples are ambiguous: You must be very tactful. (I believe you are, I have evidence. There is an obligation for you to be tactful. ) Dynamic (properties, dispositions) She can speak five languages. I’ve asked him to help you but he won’t. I daren’t tell you anymore. ability Dare has only dynamic use. unwillingness not enough courage

Tasks 1. Write preterite and past participle of the following verb lexemes: burn, buy, draw, drink, fall, hold, ride, run, sing 2. Determine whether the underlined verbs are preterites or past participles. I don’t think they found anything suspicious. Who said it was mine? She wasn’t one of those arrested. I don’t believe we’ve met. Get it repaired. I don’t want anyone hurt. 3. Change the declarative clauses into interrogatives and say whether the underlined verbs are auxiliaries or lexical verbs: They keep telling her that. They were informed of the change. 4. Use the negation test to determine the status of the underlined verbs as auxiliary or lexical verb. It is going to rain. I’m going to solve it. He wants to tell her. He might have told her. They can sardines to preserve them. They can preserve sardines.