Курсовая работа: Verb phrases

The other important feature of the perfective is its effect on the subsequent verb, whether that is another auxiliary or a main (lexical) verb. Those verbs which follow the perfective auxiliary have to take the -en form, which is another of the non-finite forms of the verb.

She has taken the dog. They had sold their house.

The -en form of many verbs is either irregular (for example sold ) or similar in form to the past tense -ed form (asked). Nevertheless, whenever the perfective auxiliary is followed by a verb for which a distinctive -en form is possible, this is the form that is used (for instance taken).

The next auxiliary position in the English verb phrase is the progressive auxiliary verb, be. Like the perfective it has the same range of forms as a very common lexical verb, but they should be considered as different verbs. The lexical meaning of be is hard to capture, but it can be summed up as to do with existence and equivalence:

Why is it necessary at all? Mother doesn't want to marry again.[59, p.27] That's only to show you how impossible your father is![59, p.29]

The auxiliary verb, be, however, conveys the idea that the process being described by the utterance is in some sense continuous – either in the past or in the present:

Warmson is smiling faintly--in his opinion Val is a young limb.[59, p.30]James' voice was sounding from the other end.[59, p.42]

In the first of these examples the verb phrase, was making, tells the hearer that the process is ongoing since the auxiliary is in the present tense. In the second example the process is in the past because the auxiliary is in the past, but there is a focus on the duration of the process that is lacking in a past tense or perfective version:

James' voice has sounded from the other end.[59, p.67]

These three versions all place the action in the past, and none of them evokes the length of time during which the prayer was being said, unlike the progressive version.

The final auxiliary to discuss is the passive auxiliary, which also takes the form of the verb be. Again this needs to be distinguished from the lexical verb be, and from the progressive auxiliary, which is formally identical to it. In fact the only way that we can tell the difference is by what follows it. In the case of the passive auxiliary, the subsequent verb has to be in the -en form rather than the -ing form, which follows the progressive.

Madame Lamotte was wearing black with touches of lilac colour (progressive).[59, p.11]And suddenly he was certain as he was caught on the idea that there was no sentiment in either of them. (passive).[59, p.56]

The significant contribution of the passive voice to meaning is that it changes the relationship between the subject and the predicator. In all active (nonpassive) verb phrases, in some sense the subject is the doer of the process (even if the verb is a fairly inactive one, such as notice or fall). With passive verb phrases the subject is the goal of the process, and suffers the consequence of the process described, rather than being the initiator. This can be seen in the examples above, where Jessica is doing the throwing in the first sentence but is affected by it in the second. The passive auxiliary, like the perfective and the continuous, carries person/ number agreement and tense if it is the first auxiliary in the verb phrase:

Soames could not tell whether he was surprised of that knowledge or no.[59, p.56]The fine r