1.3.4.1 Verbs

While tense typically places an event in time, aspect refers to the process of the event itself: whether it has stopped or is still going on, for example. Perfect aspect often denotes that an event has finished while progressive denotes that it is still continuing:

1.3.5.1 Inflections

This distribution pattern would argue that modals occupy a different position to aspectuals. This position, note, is always in front of all other verbal elements.

Chapter5 Verb Phrases

In this chapter we are going to take a detailed look at the structure of the phrase that is in some ways the core of the clause. In this phrase the basic argument structure of the clause is formed which is made up of the verb, acting as the predicate, its arguments and adjoined modifiers. Thus, it is within the VP that Θ-role assignment takes place. We will also see that it is within the VP that other aspects of semantic interpretation are represented, such as event structure and aspect. Other aspects of clausal interpretation, such as tense, modality and force are introduced in structures built on top of the VP and we will deal with these in the following chapters.

Chapter5 Verb Phrases

The notions of event structure and aspect are new and we will spend a little time introducing them in the next section.

5.1 Event Structure and Aspect

5.2.2 Light verbs

What light verbs actually contribute to the meaning of an expression is a complex and subtle issue. For example, it seems from (26) that they do have something to do with argument structure as the main difference here is to do with the number of arguments. The other examples in (25) demonstrate that the contribution of the light verb can affect aspect (do a dance verses dance) and duration (take a look verses look) of an event.

5.2.4.4 Multiple light verbs

The verbal complex at the end of this single clause consists of a thematic verb (write) and two light verbs (take and give) where the inner one (take) adds some aspectual meaning of perfection and the outer one (give) seems to add a modal meaning of permission. Even in English we can have a series of light verbs stacked one on top of another:

5.3 Aspectual Auxiliary Verbs

We now move a little away from the thematic verb phrase to look at the aspectual auxiliaries of English, have and be. As introduced in section 2 of this chapter, aspect is a semantic phenomenon concerning the events described by verbs in terms of their internal timing. We also pointed out that this is a rather complex issue which we will not be investigating in this book. Instead, we will concentrate on the syntactic aspects of the auxiliaries and associated elements trying to determine their structural positions and syntactic nature.

5.3.1 The auxiliary as a dummy

A related issue concerns the meaning that aspectual elements bring to the sentence. Of the two elements, which is the meaningful one? There are at least three possibilities. Perhaps the most intuitive one is that the aspectual meaning is contributed by the auxiliary and the morpheme has no semantic input. However, it is possible that the meaning contribution is made by the morpheme and the auxiliary is meaningless, or that both elements have a contribution to make. One relevant observation is that the use of meaningless auxiliaries is not unheard of in English. The classic example is the auxiliary do which seems to have a variety of uses, mainly to do with providing an element to fulfil a purpose that the main verb is not suited for. For example:

5.3.1 The auxiliary as a dummy

Given the similarity between the passive construction and those constructions involving aspectual elements, it seems likely that they should receive a similar analysis. From this perspective, it is the aspectual morpheme that carries the semantic content and the associated auxiliary is merely a dummy inserted to bear another morpheme that the verb is prevented from bearing by the aspectual morpheme itself.

5.3.2 The nature of the aspectual morpheme

The analysis of the aspectual structure of English might therefore be as follows:

5.3.2 The nature of the aspectual morpheme

With these assumptions then we can successfully account for the distribution of the aspectual elements in the English clause. We will provide more detail of the upper part of the clause structure including the tense and clausal subject position in the next chapter.

6.2.1 Inserting auxiliaries into I

In both of these examples, the verb moves from the V position to support the aspectual morphemes. As a consequence of English stems being unable to support more than one overt morpheme, the verb cannot move further. As the inflection is a bound morpheme it needs supporting and in this case the auxiliaries are inserted directly into the inflectional slot. Note that which auxiliary is used depends on the aspectual element heading the vP complement of the inflectional element. A perfective aspectual morpheme determines the supporting auxiliary to be have while the progressive morpheme determines the supporting auxiliary to be be. With a slightly more complex example, we see that this is a very general process:

6.2.2 Do-insertion

Because of its behaviour, the Finnish negative element is often called the negative auxiliary or even a negative verb. Moreover, in other languages the negative element surfaces as a bound morpheme on the verb, a situation very similar to the analysis we have given the aspectual markers in English. This is exemplified by the following Choctaw and Japanese sentences:

8.3 The Gerund

Here we see a verb refuse in its ing form. This form is used in a number of contexts which should be separated. Obviously it is the form used to express continuous aspect, as in he is running. It may also be used to form an adjective from a verb, as in his smiling face. Whether or not these are connected or totally distinct morphemes is an issue we will not attempt to fathom and we will concentrate only on the use of this morpheme in the gerund. In the gerund, the ing could be taken to be a ‘nominalising’ morpheme, turning a verb into a noun. Indeed, there are cases where this is exactly what it is:

8.3 The Gerund

One last point will be made. The assumption that the nominalising ing can be added to a verbal structure at various points accounts for the fact that gerunds can contain aspectual material as well as verbs. We have argued that aspectual morphemes are light verbs, heading vPs. As the ing head can take a vP complement, it is predicted that aspectual morphemes can be included in gerunds. To some extent this seems to be true: