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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