Lengua Inglesa II 2009-2010 Topic 3: Grammatical Units Subtopic 3: The Verb Phrase

1. Lengua Inglesa II2009-2010Topic 3: Grammatical UnitsSubtopic 3: The Verb Phrase Tom Morton IV-bis 205 tom.morton@uam.es

2. REVISION Fit, fun, funky, single parent seeks gorgeous, good –humoured, intelligent, London-based man interested in a loving and lasting relationship.

3. REVISION

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5. REVISION the firm’s success our team’s defeat (by our rivals) America’s film industry today’s news a stone’s throw the BBC’s director the director’s orders nobody’s responsibility my bus cow’s milk

6. REVISION • the firm’s success (subjective) • our team’s defeat (by our rivals) (objective) • America’s film industry (locative) • today’s news (temporal) • a stone’s throw (extent) • the BBC’s director (objective) • the director’s orders (subjective) • nobody’s responsibility (subjective) • my bus (subjective) • cow’s milk (source)

7. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 1. The Verb Phrase • The verb phrase (VP) contains the sequence of verbs between Subjects and Objects/Complements etc. • I ate yesterday • I have been eating all day • At 5pm, I will have been working for 5 hours. • VPs can be discontinuous: • Can you see him?

8. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 2. Elements of the Verb Phrase • At its simplest, the VP consists of a single verb, called the main verb: • I love Mary • She is here. • Before the main verb, The verb phrase can consist of up to 4 elements: • MOD: a modal verb: I must run • PERF: some form of ‘have’ (followed by an –en verb):I have driven far today • PROG: some form of ‘be’ (followed by an –ing verb):I was driving home. • PASS: some form of ‘be’ (followed by an –en verb):I was driven home.

9. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 2. Elements of the Verb Phrase All combinations of these elements are possible

10. A bicycle whizzed past me as I was crossing the road. It startled me. • It also startled the elderly woman just ahead of me. • She was clutching a bag or bundle or something, and almost fell. • ‘Can’t you be more careful?’ I shouted after the cyclist. • He just turned his head a little, but said nothing. • He was pedalling fast and was soon lost in the traffic. • He could have injured us both. • The elderly woman’s bundle had fallen open into the middle of the road. • A strange collection of objects was rolling everywhere. • ‘Are you all right?’ I asked, as we scrambled to pick up the things before the lights changed.

11. List… • All the Verbal Groups of one element (v); • All the Verbal Groups of two elements (o v); • Any Verbal Groups of three elements (o x v);

12. Two-element VGs was crossing (prog) was clutching (prog) can’t … be (mod) was pedalling (prog) was lost (pass) had fallen (perf) was rolling (prog) Three-element VG could have injured (mod, perf) One element VGs whizzed startled fell shouted turned said are asked scrambled pick changed

13. One day, as you are washing your hands, you happen to glance into the mirror over the basin and a sudden doubt will flash across your mind: “Is that really me?” “What am I doing here?” “Who am I?” Each one of us is so completely cut off from everyone else. How do you know you are reading a book? The whole thing may be an illusion. How do you know that red is red? The colour could appear blue in everyone else’s eyes. A similar doubt, differently expressed, is inherent in the well-known question: “A tree that has fallen in the forest, far from the nearest man - when it fell, did it make any noise?”

14. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 3. The Finite element: Agreement and Tense • The first occurring verb in a finite clause, is called the Finite verb. • The Finite verb has to agree in number with the Subject: I am eating! We are eating! • The Finite verb also expresses the TENSE of the clause (except when it is a modal): Present: I am eating. Past: I was eating!

15. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 4. Auxiliary Conditioning • Each Auxiliary verb conditions the verb that follows it (the following verb must have a particular inflection): MOD: modal+infin.: I willbe there. PERF: have + -en: I have eaten PROG: be + -ing: I was being eaten. PASS: be + -en: I was eaten.

16. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 5. Modal Auxiliaries • Express future, habitual action, ability, obligation etc. • Range from strong (must) to weak (can) • The verb that follows must be in the infinitive form: I will run (to run) More on Modals in topic 5.

17. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 6. Perfect Aspect: have + -en • Expressed via an auxiliary ‘have’ with the following verb inflected with the past participle (-en) I had spilt my coffee • Can combine with modal, progressive and passive: I may have spilt my coffee. I have been eating irregularly lately. I have been bitten by a shark! • Present-perfect: • Meaning 1: The consequence of the action still affect the time of speaking e.g. I have spilt my coffee (the coffee is still spilt) • Meaning 2: the period of the event is still open e.g., We have sold 20,000 units this year

18. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 7. Progressive Aspect: be+ -ing • Expressed via an auxiliary ‘be’ with the following verb inflected with the present participle (-ing) I am studying English at the Autonoma • Can combine with modal, perfect and passive: I may be studying English next year. I have been studying English for 2 years now. I am being bitten by a shark! • Present-progressive: • Meaning 1: the action described by the main verb is still ongoing (I am eating) • Meaning 2: alternative to future tense, when used with a temporal adjunct (I am seeing Mary tomorrow) • Past-progressive: the action described by the main verb was ongoing at some past point of time. (I was eating when …)

19. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 8. Passive Voice: be+ -en • Expressed via an auxiliary ‘be’ with the following verb inflected with the past participle (-en) I was accepted into the course! • Can combine with modal, perfect and progressive: I may be accepted into the course next year. I have been accepted into the course. I am being examined tomorrow. • Can be confused with attributive use of the lexical be verb: I am burnt (be+adjective or be+verb) Test for attributive: can you insert “more” or “very” in front of it: I was very burnt (ok, thus attributive) Test for passive; can you add an agent: I am burnt by the sun (a bit strange) In general, if present tense, attributive.

20. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 9. ¨The “do” auxiliary • We can place a “do” before the main verb for emphasis: I do like ice-cream! • Fills the same slot as a modal, so cannot be combined with a modal auxiliary: I will do go. • “Do” can appear as the main verb also, with a different meaning:I will do it.

21. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 9. ¨The “do” auxiliary Insertion of a “Do” is forced in some cases: • When the finite has to be moved in front of the Subject, and there are no other auxiliaries  Like you ice-cream?  Do you like ice-cream. Exception: when the main verb is ‘be’:  Is he well? • When the sentence is negated with ‘not’: and there are no other auxiliaries: • I like not ice-cream.  I do not like ice-cream. Exception: lexical be  I am not here today.

22. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 10. Negation • We can negate a clause by inserting “not” after the Finite verb: I will not be eating here today. I am not the person you want! • When there are no auxiliary verbs, a “do” insert required: I did not eat today.

23. 3.3 The Verb Phrase 11. Complex verb phrases • We sometimes also get verb phrases such as: I have to eat It started to fall It started raining It stopped raining (but not: it stopped to rain) • These VPs allow other auxiliaries: I will have to be driven there! He has started to run

24. 3.3 The Verb Phrase Example: Narrative In Narrative, sequence of clauses in simple pastindicatessequence in time. Use of Pastperfectfor a “flashback” tosomeeventsrelevanttothestory line. Thenreturntothestory, and sequence of simple present Once upon a time, during the winter of 1956, in a town on Boston’s North Shore, there lived a family of six: a mother and father and their four children. It was Christmas vacation, and with school out, the two older boys dressed for the cold weather, threw their ice skates over their shoulders, and headed off to the park next to a neighborhood elementary school. The town’s Park Department and Fire Department had teamed up to flood the park to a depth of 3-4 inches. With the weather predicted to be clear and below freezing day and night for several days, an ice rink had come to life as water from a hydrant was directed onto the park’s frozen turf. At the park’s edge, the brothers dropped their bikes behind a green wood-slat bench, put on their hockey skates, and inched out onto the ice.

25. 3.3 The Verb Phrase Example: Front Page News (FPN) • In FPN, themaingoal of thewriteristodetail a sequence of events, so the use of tense is similar tothat of Narrative: sequence of clauses in simple past. • Present tense in the 2nd/3rd paragraphs: “are” , “shows”, “has”. These are stative (no changeovertheperiod of theprocess) ratherthandynamic (theprocessinvolveschange). Whenanalysing tense, weneedto look at theseseparately. Note default present tense: Dyn: I am eatingStative: I love Mary. Obama Cites Good Signs on Economy WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama said the nation's economy seems to be moving in the right direction, helped by a $787 billion stimulus package he signed into law early this year. The Commerce Department announced this week that the U.S. economy grew 3.5% in the third quarter, after a year of contraction. In his weekly radio address, the president called the results "a good sign," and evidence that steps taken by his administration are "blunting the worst of this recession and helping to bring about its conclusion." A new report on the economic stimulus act, also issued this week, shows it created and saved more than one million jobs, the president added. However, he cautioned that despite signs of a turnaround, the U.S. has a long way to go before it returns to prosperity and likely will see further job losses ahead.

26. 3.3 The Verb Phrase Example: Front Page News (FPN) "As I've said many times, it took years to dig our way into the crisis we've faced. It will take more than a few months to dig our way out. But make no mistake: that's exactly what we will do," the president said. Note: when analysing the tenses of a text in relation to the text type, ignore the quoted material, as it is from a different text type (e.g., while the previous text is a news article, the next paragraph was: The quoted text will have text qualities appropriate for presidential addresses, and not for news (different Field, tenor, Mode and Text Type). So do not include the tenses of quoted material in your analysis. However , the “said” at the end would be analysed as a tense of the news article.

27. 3.3 The Verb Phrase Example: Editorial • While FPN mainly reports a sequence of events, the purpose of an Editorial or Opinion text is to firstly introduce the event being examined, and then analyse it in some way: showing wider consequences of the event for the future • Present perfect is more common, as the desire to show the consequence of the past events being analysed have consequence for the present. • Use of present continuous present in the first paragraph, showing that the results of the action are currently and continuously affecting the present. A Dubious Import Gordon Brown this week promised a crackdown on "sharp practices" by credit card issuers. As the U.S. Congress before him, the British Prime Minister is selling this as a consumer-protection measure. But the PM might want to look across the pond at how a similar law, passed in Washington last spring, is actually hurting consumers and restricting access to credit. There, Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd has been hearing from constituents upset because banks have been raising the interest rates on their credit cards. This week Mr. Dodd decided to do something about it. He proposed a bill imposing an immediate freeze on those rates.