Concerning English Verbs

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE VERB SYSTEM is expected in any general description of English structure; yet no descriptive linguist has published a reasonably comprehensive analysis to replace the paradigms of Latin sets which appear in traditional grammars. The major books which present linguistically based descriptions have passed over the verb system rather lightly.' Bernard Bloch's 1947 analysis of verb inflections did not consider verb phrases, nor was it intended for teaching.2 Ralph Long's recent treatment rejects much of descriptive linguistics and is more in the tradition of Curme and Jespersen.3 A description of a language on which teaching materials are to be based should satisfy a somewhat different set of criteria than one which is made for some other purpose. For one thing, it will be clearer if the expanded, or literary, forms of the items are given. That is, 'he had' and 'he would' should be spelled out so that the student will not misinterpret 'he'd.' At the same time, the classification of items must take into account the distinctions which are made in speech, for the written form may be structurally ambiguous. For example, the written sentence 'He is going to visit his wife' is ambiguous. It can mean either 'He is going in order to visit his wife' or something like 'He proposes to visit his wife.' In speech, however, there is no ambiguity if the proper suprasegmental constituents are provided. Hence, 'is going to' must be regarded as two phonemically discrete items which are spelled alike, just as wind spells either a noun or a verb. The description should emphasize the basic, productive patterns rather than attempt to form a central statement that will account for every element. The consistent and regular patterns should form the core of the description, and the items which are left over should be given as variations or as addenda. Take, for instance, 'Had he come sooner, he would have seen the animals.' The first clause can be described as a variation from 'if he had come sooner' or as a

English grammar · Grammar · Linguistics · Modal verb · Verb · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Psychology · History · Philosophy