John’s provided an excellent answer. So let me add
one or two more technically linguistic details. You don’t need them
to explain “have” to your students, though. John’s
given you plenty for that.
Your question is in part one of orthography and in part one of
grammaticalization. As John pointed out, the orthographic word “have”
has uses as an auxiliary and as a main verb, as well as some uses that fall
into the broadly modal area. They can be distinguished phonologically and
syntactically.
“Have” as a main verb, with the meaning “possess”
and quite a few related meanings, does not contract in American English, although
in British English you can say “I’ve a new Rolls.” As a
main verb, it takes negative and question forms with “do.”
The final consonant, /v, z, d/, can devoice before a voiceless-initial word, as
in
Have two more.
She has two new students today.
He had two new students yesterday.
We don’t normally notice this devoicing, and we don’t
mark it orthographically. The final consonant of the third person is lax,
/z/, even though we spell it <s>. We know it’s lenis because
lenes assimilate to the voicing state of adjacent segments and the
corresponding fortes, like /s/, do not.
“Have” as an auxiliary usually reduces radically to
/v/, /@/ (schwa), /z/, or /d/, depending on the form of the word involved and
the construction it’s used in.
She’s been here.
He’d been here before.
We’ve been here.
They should ‘a’ been here too.
Such major phonological reduction is a common product of the
grammaticalization process, a long-term process by which a word loses its
lexical content and takes on grammatical function, like, in this case, perfect
aspect marking. The grammaticalization of “have” also results
in different syntactic behavior. It will invert in question formation
while its lexical cognate won’t. It also takes the negative marker “not”
after it, which can cliticize to /-nt/. Lexical verbs, as noted above,
don’t do this. Incidentally, the grammaticalization of “have”
to an auxiliary function is not unusual. German does it too, and in
Romance languages Latin “habere” reduces to a clitic or a suffix
marking future.
The “have” of “have to” has followed a
different grammaticalization path. It doesn’t contract, so we can’t
say “I’ve to go” or “I might’ve to go.”
Rather, it will generally lose the /h/ but the remainder of the word will be
stressed and the infinitive marker “to” will cliticize to it.
In this case the same devoicing of /v/ occurs, but we mark it in non-standard
spelling as “hafta.” The same thing happens with “has
to” and “had to,” but we don’t reflect those devoicings
even in non-standard spellings. This third use of “have” is as
a semi-modal, rather like “need,” “dare,” and “ought.”
Of those three, only “ought” has grammaticalized to a similar
degree.
The entry for “have” in Oxford English Dictionary Online,
2nd Ed., is one of the OED’s longer entries and lists about
three dozen distinct meanings and uses. It’s worth a read if you
have access. You’ll be surprised at the huge variety of forms the verb
has taken in its long history.
Herb
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ingerman,
Prudence (INGERMAN)
Sent: 2009-05-12 16:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: another question
Oh I am so enjoying this. Here is another which has kept
my awake at night.
How many children do you have? I have two. (
now to be referred to as A)
Why do you work? I have to. ( B)
In A, the stress is clearly on the word
two. In B, the stress is on the auxiliary verb.
My question is this, why is the V in “have
two” pronounced fully when it is not in the stressed word, and why is the
V in the verb “have to” pronounced as an F when it is clearly
stressed. I realize this is a pronunciation problem but I am sure it is
linked to grammar. I think somehow the omission or understood
verb ( work) is related to the reduced pronunciation but I am not sure how.
Thanks for thinking,
Prudence
From: Assembly for the Teaching
of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of STAHLKE,
HERBERT F
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 2:40 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: a grammar question
These are tricky. If we treat
“mother-in-law” as a phrasal compound, then the –s plural
would go on the head noun as a suffix. If we say
“mother-in-laws” as a plural then either we’re attaching
plural –s to a phrase, making it a clitic, or we’re treating the
compound as a noun stem, in which case –s is a suffix. I lean
towards the latter since these phrasal compounds tend to become stems over
time. The genitive plural “mothers-in-law’s” of recent
polygamous fame, bears out the former analysis, with the plural suffix on
“mother” and the genitive clitic –s on the phrasal
compound. Other examples of phrasal compounds becoming stems would be
“nice” < Latin nescius “foolish, ignorant” and
“atonement” < at+ (one + ment). “onement” goes
back to the 14th c., “atonement” to the early 16th,
and the backformation “atone” to the mid 16th.
Complicating the question of what the –s is is the fact
that we generally can’t pluralize nouns within a compound noun, just the
whole compound, so we can’t say “bookskeeper” but rather
“bookkeepers.” That’s what led me, in a paper
that’s taking its time getting published, to argue that the –s in
sportsman, helmsman, gameskeeper, etc. is a derivational affix, not an
inflectional affix. Derivational affixes can occur within
compounds. Inflectional affixes cannot.
Herb
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John
Dews-Alexander
Sent: 2009-05-12 14:07
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: a grammar question
Herb, I know you've studied
clitics extensively; is there any evidence of the English plural marker (-s)
moving away from affix status and toward clitic status?
I ask this because in actual usage, I hear "mother-in-laws" much more
often than I hear "mothers-in-law" for the plural.
As a teacher I offer the wisdom of bowing to style guides, but as a linguist I
get to have more fun and find out what actually happens in language. In
this case, the linguist in me is more intrigued than the teacher.
John Alexander
On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 12:44 PM, STAHLKE, HERBERT F <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Works only if both husbands have remarried. Otherwise
aren't both mothers-in-law your mother. Could her taste in clothes really
be that bad? And so soon after Mother's Day.
Welcome to the list!
Herb
Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
[log in to unmask]
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