BTAN11006BA/BTAN1104OMA

The structure of English: The noun phrase and the verb phrase

09/10/2018

Lecture 5

Helping verbs of the clause

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Syntactic operations

Non-negative declarative main clauses tend torepresent the unmarked syntactic structurecross-linguistically.

(1) I built a house.

(2) They live in London.

(3) He put the book on the table.

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Syntactic operations

Operations that modify core sentence meaning tend to receive special coding:

(4) They do not live in London. negation

(5) Do they live in London? question

(6) They do live in London. emphasis

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Syntactic operations

main clauses and subordinate clauses may differ

(7) Do you know whether they live in London?

(8) *Do you know whether do they live in London?

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Syntactic operations

In English, these operations require the presence of an operator in main clauses.

Auxiliaries by definition act as operators.

(9) John does/can/would not live there.

(10) Does/Can/Would John live there?

(11) *John lives not there. (=9)

(12) *Lives John there? (=10)

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The NICE properties

The NICE properties

Negation

Inversion

Code (Ellipsis)

Emphasis

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NICE: Negation

Clause-level vs constituent negation

(13) John did not see Peter.-/→ John saw something.

(14) John saw not Peter (but Jane).→ John saw something.

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NICE: Negation

(19) I did not want not to talk to you.

(20) I cannot not talk to you.

(21) I like not talking to you.

(22) Not talking to you, I haven't heard the news.

(23) They demanded that I not talk to you.

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NICE: Inversion

(24) Do you know this book?

(25) What do you know then?

(26) What a mess she has made of her life!

(27) What a mess has she made of her life!

(28) *Never I go there.

(29) Never do I go there.

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NICE: Inversion

(30) Ha asked me if I would like to join them.

(31) *He asked me if would I like to join them.

(32) %He asked me would I like to join them.

(33) If I had known about this, I would not have gone there.

(34) *If had I known about this, I would not have gone there.

(35) Had I known about this, I would not have gone there.

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NICE: Code

(36) I won't go there but Peter will.(37) Peter has read the book and Kate has too.(38) I only talk to you if I must.

(39) *I won't go there but Peter goes.(40) *Peter reads the book and Kate reads too.

(41) *I read it and Peter read too.(42) I read it and Peter did too.

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NICE: Emphasis

(43) - You don't like it.- I DO like it. / No, I LIKE it.

(44) You don't think I have read it, but I HAVE read it.

(45) *You don't think I have read it, but I have read it.

(46) I AM responsible for this.

(47) He did not understand you, but he DID understand her.

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Auxiliaries as operators

o Two classes of auxiliaries:

aspectual auxiliaries: be, do, havemodal auxiliaries: must, can, may, etc.

o NB: only the first auxiliary acts as an operator

(48) He may not have seen you.(49) *He may have not seen you.(50) Why should I have known about this?(51) *Why have I should known about this?

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Non-auxiliaries as operators

Be

(52) He is going there.

(53) He is not going there.

(54) Where is he going?

(55) He is there.

(56) He is not there.

(57) Where is he?

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Non-auxiliaries as operators

Have (British English)

(58) I have had a dog for two years.

(59) I have not had a dog.

(60) What have you had?

(61) I have a dog.

(62) I have not a dog.

(63) What have you?

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Non-auxiliaries as operators

Archaic examples (Quirk et al.)

(64) Whether they succeeded I know not.

(65) I care not who knows it.

(66) If I mistake not, you were at Yale?

(67) How goes it?

(68) How come you missed the train?

(69) What say you Peter?

(70) Where stands the Administration?

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4 classes of verbs

full verbs make, want, hope, etc. no operator properties

aspectual auxiliaries

be, do, have operators (NICE)

modal auxiliaries

may, might, can, could,

must, should

(shall, will)

operators (NICE)

+ modal auxiliary

properties

marginal modals

dare, need, ought to, used to, have to

mixture of

full verb &

modal auxiliary properties

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Modal auxiliaries

Modal auxiliaries have all the operator properties (NICE):

(1) John should not stay here.

(2) Should John stay here?

(3) John should stay here, and Kate should too.

(4) John doesn't like the idea, but he SHOULD stay here.

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Modal auxiliaries

No non-finite forms:

(5) *I want to can speak English.(6) I want to be speaking English.(7) I want to hope for something else.

(8) *Not musting to go there, I stayed at home.(9) Not having gone there, I stayed at home.(10) Not wanting to go there, I stayed at home.

(11) *I must can speak English.

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Modal auxiliaries

Bare infinitival complements:

(12) I must (*to) go home.(13) She may (*to) stay here.

(14) I want *(to) stay here.(15) I hope *(to) see you soon.

(16) I let him (*to) stay here.(17) I helped her (to) clean the dishes.

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Modal auxiliaries

No agreement morphology:

(18) *He musts stay here.(19) *She cans speak English.

(20) He wants to stay here.(21) She never lets him speak English.

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Modal auxiliaries

No past tense or no usual past tense:

(22) *I musted to go home early yesterday.(23) *I must go home early yesterday.

(24) I can go home early today.(25) *I can go home early yesterday.

(26) I could go home early today.(27) I could go home early yesterday.

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Marginal modals

Some modals are formally full verbs:

(28) I don't have to listen to this.(29) Do you have to stay here?

(30) I may have to go there tomorrow.(31) Not having to get up early, I stayed in bed.(32) They have *(to) stay here.(33) He has to stay here.(34) He had to stay here.

(35) He has to start at seven.(36) He has a start at seven.

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Marginal modals

Some marginal modals show a blend of auxiliary and full verb properties, cf.:

(37) They do not dare ask for more.

(38) Do they dare ask for more?

(39) He dared not obstruct them.

(40) He dares not tolerate this in class.

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Marginal modals

Others are consistently bicategorial, not allowing blending:

(41) He needn't go home.

(42) He doesn't need to go home.

(43) *He needn't to go home.

(44) *Does he need go home?

(45) *He needs go home.

(46) *He needed go home.

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Marginal modals

(47) John does not need to stay here.

(48) John need not stay here.

(49) John does not see any books on the table.

(50) Does John need to stay here?

(51) Need John stay here?

(52) Does John see any books on the table?

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Modal readings

oThe notion modality covers the following areas:

opossibility (→ may, might, can, could, be able to, etc.)

onecessity (→ must, should, need, have to, etc.)

o(volition/intention)

o(ability)

oetc.

oModals show interpretive variation conditioned bythe types of modal backgrounds that they arecompatible with.

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Modal readings

Epistemic modality

Sth is possible/necessary in view of what one knowsabout the world.

(53) For all I know, John may be the youngest person in the office.

(54) I’m sure that I left the book on this table.Someone must have taken it.

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Modal readings

Deontic modality

Sth is possible/necessary in view of certain contextually given codices/regulations/authorities (the modality of permissions and obligations).

(55) It is not forbidden to smoke here.So you may/can smoke.

(56) My boss does not allow us to be late.So I must/have to be on time.

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Modal readings

Dynamic modality

A family of modal readings where sth ispossible/necessary because of the circumstances,one’s dispositions and/orcharacteristic features, etc.

(57) We still have time, so we can just take a walk.(58) I could have something to eat now.(59) John can be very angry sometimes.