Martha, Jed, et al. -
 
While the verb-expansion rule that many modern linguists use - with
Tense coming first, discontinuous markers like (have + -en) etc. - is
certainly from Chomsky, I think it's important to note that the idea
that there's an element separable  from the verb itself that renders the
verb finite (when present) is a much, much older notion. I'd have to
track down the reference, but I've encountered at least one
nineteenth-century grammar that gave it its own label, and the notion
that finite verbs "bear" something that nonfinite ones don't is present
in many of the classical grammars. However, they motivated its presence
or absence from a semantic/rhetorical standpoint rather than a
structural one: it was the element that (for statements) converted a
proposition to an assertion. Both "George's opening the present" and
"George opened the present" convey propositions, but only the second one
is an assertion. Halliday's innovation in this area lies partly in
redefining it in terms of the characteristics of interpersonal
communication rather than abstract logic.
 
One side-effect of Chomsky's formulation is that using the term "Tense"
naturally causes people to view modals as problematic. If another label
had been used, such as Halliday's "Finite" or even an abstract label
like "Z", I don't think we'd balk as much at the idea of both modals and
tense-markers as markers of finiteness. I tell students that full
clauses have three basic elements, Subject, Finite, and Predicate, and
that reduced clauses have a Predicate but lack one or both of the other
two elements. They don't seem *too* confused by this; at least, not any
more confused than they acted before I used this system.
 
Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University
 
 
 
________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martha Kolln
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 12:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Question about modal verbs
 
Hi Jed,
 
The verb-expansion rule that I teach, thanks to Chomsky, looks like
this, where MV stands for "main verb" and the parentheses mean
"optional"; the only two requirements are Tense and Verb:
 
        MV = T + (M) + (have + -en) + (be + -ing) + V
 
This rule describes your comment that the first element in the verb
string carries the tense (i.e., is the "finite" verb). 
 
An alternate version of this formula has a different opening slot:  a
choice of T or M.  That choice is not optional.  In other words, a verb
string has either tense or modal, not both.  The tense then, present or
past, would apply to either the have or the be or the verb, depending on
what comes next. For this version, the list of modals includes can,
could, will, would, etc. without a present or past designation.
 
So if there's a "rule" somewhere that says a sentence always has a
finite verb and that  a finite verb always carries tense, then this
alternate version of the verb-expansion rule is simply not accurate.  In
practice, however, it works.  Both versions work. 
 
My way of getting around the problem (if, indeed, it is a problem) is to
avoid using the term "finite verb."  I simply refer to the verb phrase
slot in the sentence patterns as the "predicating verb"--as opposed to
nonfinite verbs, those used as adverbials, adjectivals, and nominals.
 
Martha
 
 
 
	Hi all,
	   I have another question that has come out of some recent
class discussions. Perhaps someone can help me out.
	   My question is this: are modal verbs finite (carrying
grammatical tense) even though they are not inflected or marked in any
way to show that tense? Do syntacticians (sp?) consider the tense to be
there (perhaps marked with some kind of abstract zero morpheme) even
though we can't see it? I've always read (and it makes sense with most
examples) that the first verb in a verb string is the finite one, and
since modals appear first in the verb string (or in my Southern grammar,
appear first, second, or even third in a string of modals) then they
must be finite!?
	   Thanks for any help you can offer on this -- I've checked
several references only to get very ambiguous answers.
	Jed
	 
	
*****************************************************************
	John (Jed) E. Dews
	Instructor, Undergraduate Linguistics
	MA-TESOL/Applied Linguistics Program
	Educator, Secondary English Language Arts
	English Department, 208 Rowand-Johnson Hall (Office)
	University of Alabama
	 
	                
	
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