Randolph Quirk

Sidney Greenbaum
Geoffrey Leech
Jan Svartvik

A University
Grammar of
English

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Longman
CONTENTS
PREFACE............................................................................................. 11
SYMBOLS AND TECHNICAL CONVENTIONS..................... 14
ONE
Varieties of English............................................................................. 15
Standard English 15; National standards o f English 16
TWO
Elements of grammar............................................................................. 18
Sentence elements 20; Parts o f speech 25;
Stative and dynamic 28;
Pro-forms, question, and negation 29
THREE
Verbs and the verb phrase .............................................................. 32
Regular verbs and inflectional rules 33,
Irregular verbs 35; Auxiliaries 36;
Tense and aspect 40; Mood 50
FOUR
Nouns, pronouns, and the basic noun phrase.................................... 58
Noun classes 58; Determiners 60; Reference
and the articles 66;
Number 76; Gender 85; The genitive 89;
Pronouns 95
FIVE
Adjectives and adverbs...............................................................................108
Adjectives, attributive and predicative 109,
Adverbs as modifiers 119;
Comparison and intensification 123;
Correspondence between adjective and
adverb 128, Adjective, adverb, and other
word-classes 129
SIX
Prepositions and prc^positional phrases.............................................. 134
Place relations 137 Time relations 144;
Other relations chiefly as adjunct 146,
as disjunct 151, as complementation
o f verb or adjective 152
SEVEN
The simple sentence....................................................................................154
Clause patterns 154; Elements and
their meanings 158; Concord 163;
Negation 170; Questions 177;
Commands 184
EIGHT
Adjuncts, disjuncts, conjuncts . ^............................................................... 189
Limiter and additive adjuncts 193; Intensifiers 195;
Adjuncts o f manner, means, and instrument 201,
o f place 205, o f time 209; Style and
attitudinal disjuncts 219; Conjuncts 221
12
TWO
ELEMENTS OF GRAMMAR

2.1

Thç purpose o f this chapter is to explore certain outstanding features

o f English structure in such a way as to provide, as it were, a small-
scale map of areas that will be viewed in much greater detail in
later chapters. As with any small-scale map, a great many features will
be ignored and complicated contours will be smoothed out. The reader’s
attention will not be distracted even by forward references to the parts
o f the book in which the focus will allow such complication to become
visible. But to compensate for the disadvantages in this degree of over­
simplification, we have hoped to achieve the advantages o f the geographical
analogue as well. In other words, we have tried to provide enough
broad inform ation to enable the reader to understand — and place in
a wider context — the more detailed discussion that subsequent chapters
involve.

Parts of a sentence
2.2
Subject and predicate

In order to state general rules about the construction of sentences,

it is constantly necessary to refer to smaller units than the sentence
itself. O ur first task must therefore be to explain what these smaller
units are that we need to distinguish, confining our attention for the
present to a few sentences which, though showing considerable variety,
are all of fairly elementary structure.
Traditionally, there is a prim ary distinction between SUBJECT and
PR ED IC A TE:
John carefully searched the room [1]
The girl is now a student at a large university [2]
His brother grew happier gradually [3]
It rained steadily all day [4]
He had given the girl an apple [5]
They make him the chairm an every year [6]
Although such a division obviously results in parts which are (in these
examples) very unequal in size and dissimilar in content, it is of course
by no means arbitrary. The subject o f the sentence has a close gen­
eral relation to ‘what is being discussed’, the ‘theme^ of the sentence,
with the norm al implication that something new (the predicate) is being
said about a ‘subject’ that has already been introduced in an earlier
sentence. This is of course a general characteristic and not a defining
18
feature: it is patently absurd in relation to sentence [4], for example.
Another point is that the subject determines concord. That is, with
those parts o f the verb that perm it a distinction between singular and
plural, the form selected depends on whether the subject is singular
as in [2], the girl iSy or plural as in [6], they make.
Furtherm ore, the subject is the part o f the sentence that changes
its position as we go from statement to question:
Had he given the girl an apple? [5 q]

2.3
Operator, auxiliary, and predication

In contrast with the subject, there are few generalizations that we can
usefully make about the predicate since - as our examples have illustrat­
ed — it tends to be a more complex and heterogeneous unit. We need
to subdivide it into its elements or constituents. One division has
already been suggested; this distinguishes A U X ILIA RY as O PERA TO R
(as in [5q]) from what we may call the PR ED IC A TIO N . The dis­
tinctions may be illustrated as follows:
sentence

subject predicate
I
I auxiliary predication
I as
I operato r I
I
I I
I I
had given the girl an apple [5J
HaTiie given the girl an apple? [5q]
This particular division o f the sentence helps us to understand, for
example, how interrogative and negative sentences are formed, how cer­
tain adjuncts are positioned, and how certain types of emphasis are
achieved.

2.4
Range of operators

T he'verb expression may have several auxiliaries; eg

He should have been questioned by the police
In such cases, it is the first auxiliary that acts as operator:
Should he have been questioned by the police?
No, he shouldn't have been questioned by the police
Yes, he should
19
Where the verb expression has no auxiliary in the positive declarative
sentence, do is introduced when an operator is required:
It rained steadily all day
Did it rain steadily all day?
No, it didn't
The verb be can act as operator whether it is an auxiliary, as in
John is searching the room Is John searching ...?
or not, as in
The girl is now a student Is the girl now ...?
The same is true to some extent (especially in BrE) for have:
He has a degree Has he a degree?

2.5
Sentence elements

A sentence may alternatively be seen as comprising five units called

ELEM ENTS of sentence (or, as we shall see below, clause) structure:
SUBJECT, VERB, C O M PLEM EN T, OBJECT, ADVERBIAL, here abbre­
viated as S, V, C, O, A:
John (S) carefully (A) searched (V) the room (O) [1]
The girl (S) is (V) now (A) a student (C) at a large
university (A) [2]
His brother (S) grew (V) happier (C) gradually (A) [3]
It (S) rained (V) steadily (A) all day (A) [4]
He (S) had given (V) the girl (O) an apple (O) [5]
They (S) make (V)him (O) the chairm an (C) every
year (A) [6]

We shall see in 2.11 that considerable variety is possible in realizing

each element of structure. Indeed S, O, and A can themselves readily
have the internal constituents of sentences:
She (S) saw (V) that [// (S)rained (V) all day (A)] (O) [7]
His brother (S) grew (V) happier (C) when [his friend (S)
arrived (V)] (A) [8]
That [she (S) answered (V) the question (O) correctly (A)]
(S) pleased (V) him (O) enormously (A) . [9]

The italicizing is intended to emphasize the similarity between subordi­

nate (or dependent) clauses and independent sentences. At the same
time this and the bracketing can interestingly suggest lhat when in [8]
and that in [7] and [9] operate as A, O, and Srespectively (though
this is only partly true) while more im portantly being themselves ‘expand­
ed’ by the dependent clauses.
20
2.6
Complements and objects
The relation between the room in illustration [1] and the other elements
in that sentence is very different from the relation between the girl
in [5] and its fellow elements, though both are labelled ‘object’. Even
more obviously, perhaps, the two elements labelled ‘object’ in [5] play
sharply distinct roles in this sentence. We need in fact to distinguish
two types of object and two types o f complement in the sentences
so far illustrated:

object
[mdirect object (Oi)
complement complement (C )
[object complement (Co)

The direct object is illustrated in

John carefully searched the room (Od) [1]
He had given the girl an apple (Qj) [5]
The direct object is by far the more frequent kind of object, and
(with certain outstanding exceptions) it must always be present if there
is an indirect object in the sentence:
He had given the girl (Oj) an apple [5]
As here, the indirect object alm ost always precedes the direct object;
it is characteristically (though by no means always) a noun referring
to a person, and the - semantic relationship is often such that it is
appropriate to use the term ‘recipient’. Loosely, one might say in most
cases that something (the direct object) tends to be done for (or re­
ceived by) the indirect object.
Turning to complements, we may illustrate first the subject complement:
The girl is now a student (Cs) at a large university [2]
His brother grew happier (Cs) gradually [3]
Here the complements have a straightforward relation to the subjects
of their respective sentences such that the subject of [2] is understood
as being a ‘girl student’ and the subject of [3] a ‘happier brother’.
The ‘object complement’ can be explained as having a similar relation
to a direct object (which it follows) as the subject complement has
to a subject:
They make him the chairman (Cq) every year [6]
T hat is to say, the direct object and object complement in this
example, ‘him the chairm an’, correspond to the subject and subject
complement in
He is the chairman (Cs)
21
Categories of verb
2.7
There are different types of verb corresponding closely to the different
types of object and complement. Sentences such as [2] and [3], which
have subject complements, have INTENSIVE verbs and all other sen­
tences have EXTENSIVE verbs. The latter are IN TRANSITIVE if as in
It rained steadily all day [4]
they do not perm it any o f the four object and complement types so
far distinguished. Extensive verbs are otherwise TRANSITIVE. All
transitive verbs take a direct object; some, like give in [5], perm it an
indirect object, and these will be distinguished as DITRANSITIVE.
A few verbs, like make in [6], take an object complement and these
are among the verbs referred to as CO M PLEX TRANSITIVE. The
rest are M ONOTRANSITIVE.

2.8
But distinctions between verbs need to be drawn not only in relation
to object- and complement-types but also in relation to whether they
themselves admit the aspectual contrast of ‘progressive’ and ‘non-pro-
gressive’. Thus it is possible to say
John carefully searched the room [1]
or John was carefully searching the room
It rained steadily all day [4]
or It was raining steadily all day
But it is not possible to use the progressive in
The girl is now a student at a large university [2]
*The girl is now being a student ...
John knew the answer [10]
*John was knowing the answer
When verbs (either habitually or in certain uses) will not admit the
progressive, as in [2] and [10], they are called STATIVE. When they
will adm it it, as in [1] and [4], they are called DYN A M IC. It is
normal for verbs to be dynamic and even the minority that are almost
always stative can usually be given a dynamic use on occasion.

2.9
Categories of adverbial
Next we may take a preliminary look at adverbials, concerning ourselves
only with such distinctions as are necessary to explain some o f the chief
restrictions in constructing the simplest sentences. We may begin by
looking again at a sentence with two adverbials:
The girl is now a student at a large university
22
This might have had fewer elements:
The girl is a student at a large university
The girl is a student
The girl is now a student
The girl is at a large university
but the sentence could not have been formed initially as:
*The girl is now
On this evidence we may say that the adverbials now and at a large
university belong to different classes and it seems natural to label them
‘time’ and ‘place’ respectively.
Consider now the fact that the adverbial carefully in illustration [1]
could be replaced by many others, making acceptable sentences in
each case:

carefully
slowly
John searched the room noisily
sternly
w ithout delay

But if these same adverbials were inserted in sentences which had stative
verbs, the sentences would become unacceptable:
♦carefully
*slowly
The girl is now a student ...
*noisily
John knew the answer ...
*stemly
*without delay

It is clear that we again have a subclass of adverbials. Because the

verbs with which they can occur allow the progressive, the aspect of
on-going activity, it is appropriate to refer to these adverbials as ‘process’.

2 .10

Types of sentence structure

Bringing together the distinctions so far made, we can present some

basic sentence-structure rules diagrammatically. Each line constitutes a
pattern which is illustrated by means of a correspondingly numbered
example having just those obligatory and optional (parenthesized) ele­
ments that are specified in the formula. The order in which the
elements appear is common but by no means fixed. It is a principle
o f sentence organization that what is contextually familiar or ‘given’
comes relatively early, while the part which needs to be stressed or
which seems to convey the greatest information is given the special
prominence of ‘end-focus’.
23
A place [1]
intens
V sta t [2 ]
ext & trans: Oj [3]

intens: Cs [4] (A (A
tim e)
#mono: Od [5] (A place)
Vd y n trans^ di:(O i ) Oj [6] process)
ext
complex: O dQ [71
in tran sitiv e [81

She is in London (now) [1]

She is a student (in London) (now) [2]
John heard the explosion (from his office) (when he was locking
the door) ' [3]
Universities (gradually) became famous (in Europe) (during the
Middle Ages) [4]
They ate the meat (hungrily) (in their hut) (that night) [5]
He offered (her) some chocolates (politely) (outside the hall)
(before the concert) [6]
They elected him chairman (without argument) (in W ashing­
ton) (this morning) [7]
The train had arrived (quietly) (at the station) (before we
noticed it) [8]

2 .1 1

Element realization types

Sentence elements can be realized by linguistic structures of very dif­

ferent form. The verb element is always a verb phrase. This may,
as in all the examples used so far, be ‘finite’ (showing tense, mood,
aspect, and voice) or ‘non-finite’ (not showing tense or mood but
still capable of indicating aspect and voice). Consider the three types
o f non-fmite verb phrase functioning as the V element in the italicized
non-finite clauses'.
M ary wanted [to be (V) a student (Cs) at that university (A)] (Od)
[Carefiilly (A) searching (V) the room (Oj)] (A), John found a ring
[Made (V) the chairman (Cq) every year (A)] (A), he was very busy
W hether finite or non-finite, the verb phrase can consist o f one word,
as in most illustratiye sentences so far, or o f more than one word,
in which case the phrase consists o f a ‘head verb’ preceded by one
or more ‘auxiliary verbs’ as with the verb phrases in the following
(the first three finite, the fourth non-finite):
He had given the girl an apple
He may he growing happier
He had been challenged rudely, and having been challenged he was
angry
24
The subject of a sentence may be a ‘clause’ as in
That she answered the question correctly pleased him
but it is usually a ‘noun phrase’, at its simplest a pronoun such as
They or a proper noun such as John. But a noun phrase may be an
indeterminately long and complex structure having a noun as head,
preceded by other words such as an article, an adjective, or another
noun, and followed by a prepositional phrase or by a relative clause;
it is by no means uncom m on to find all such items present in a
noun phrase:
The new gas stove in the kitchen which I bought last month has
a very efficient oven
Subject complements, direct objects, and object complements may be
realized by the same range o f structures as subjects: He was the chair­
man', She saw the chairman] They made him the chairman. But subject
and object complements have the additional possibility b f being realized
by adjective phrases (having an adjective as head), as in

She made him

[very much happier
Indirect objects, on the other hand, have fewer possibilities than subjects,
and their realizations are chiefly noun phrases, as in
He had given the girl an apple
Unlike direct objects and subjects, they cannot be realized by that-
clauses.
Finally, adverbials can be realized (a) by adverb phrases, having
an adverb as head; (b) by noun phrases; (c) by prepositional phrases —
that is, structures consisting of a noun phrase dominated by a prepo­
sition; and (d) by clauses, finite or non-finite:
(a) John very carefully searched the room
(b) They make him the chairman every year
(c) She studied at a large university
(d) He grew happier when his friend arrived
Seeing the large crowd, John stopped his car.

Parts of speech
2.12
The structures realizing sentence elements are composed of units which
can be referred to as parts o f speech. These can be exemplified for
English as follows:
(a) noun — John, room, answer, play
adjective — happy, steady, new, large, round
adverb — steadily, completely, really, very, then
verb — search, grow, play, be, have, do
25
' (b) article — the, a(n)
demonstrative — that, this
pronoun — he, they, anybody, one, which
preposition — of, at, in, without, in spite of
conjunction — and, that, when, although
interjection — oh, ah, ugh, phew
We should notice that the examples are listed as words intheir
‘dictionary form ’ and not as they often appear in sentences when they
function as constituents of phrases: thus the singular room and not the
plural rooms, the simple happy and not the comparative happier, the
infinitive (or uninflected) grow and not the past grew, the subject form
he and not the object form him.
Note

From even the few examples given, it can be seen that a part-of-speech item may
consist o f more than a single word. This is especially common in the case of complex
prepositions, such as in spite of, out of.

2.13

Some of the examples in 2.12 appear as more than one part of speech
{play as noun and verb, that as demonstrative and conjunction) and
more of them could have been given additional entries in this way
(round can be noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition). Similar­
ly, we should notice a direct correspondence between most adjectives
and adverbs, the latter usually consisting o f the former plus -ly. Less
obviously, there is an im portant correspondence between all words beginning
/3/ {the, that, then, for example) and many o f those beginning wh-
{which, when, for example): basically the form er are relater or indicator
words and the latter interrogative words.

2.14

Closed-system items

The parts of speech in 2.12 are listed in two groups, (a) and (b),
and this introduces a distinction o f very great significance. Set (b)
comprises w hat are called ‘closed-system’ items. T hat is, the sets of
items are closed in the sense that they cannot normally be extended
by the creation of additional members: a m om ent’s reflection is enough
for us to realize how rarely in a language we invent or adopt a new
o r additional pronoun. It requires no great effort to list all the members
in a closed system, and to be reasonably sure that one has in fact
made an exhaustive inventory (especially, o f course, where the membership
is so extremely small as in the case o f the article).
The items are said to constitute a system in being (i) reciprocally
exclusive: the decision to use one item in a given structure excludes
the possibility of using any other (thus one can have the book or
a book but not the book)', and (ii) reciprocally defining: it is
26
less easy to state the meaning o f any individual item than to define
it in relation to the rest of the system. This may be clearer with
a non-linguistic analogy. If we are told that a student came third
in an examination, the ‘meaning’ that we attach to ‘third’ will depend
on knowing how many candidates took the exam ination: ‘third’ in a set
o f four has a very different meaning from ‘third’ in a set of thirty.

2.15
Open-class items

By contrast, set (a) comprises ‘open classes’. Items belong to a class in

that they have the same grammatical properties and structural possibil­
ities as other members of the class(that is, as other nouns or verbs
or adjectives or adverbs respectively), but the class is ‘open’ in the
sense that it is indefinitely extendable. New items are constantly being
created and no one could make an inventory o f all the nouns in
English (for example) and be confident that it was complete. This
inevitably affects the way in which we attem pt to define any item
in an open class: while it would obviously be valuable to relate the
meaning of room to other nouns with which it has semantic affinity
{chamber, hall, house, ...) one could not define it as ‘not house, not
box, not plate, not indignation, ...’, as one might define a closed-
system item like this as ‘not that\
O f course, in any one phrase or sentence the decision to select
a particular word at one place in the structure obviously imposes
great constraints on w hat can be selected at another. But it is essen­
tial to see that in an arrangem ent like the following there is in prin­
ciple a sharp difference between the num ber o f possibilities in columns
i. Hi, and iIv (‘closed’) and the num ber in a and V (‘open’):
i a Hi iv V
(John) may sit by this fountain
will stare at that tree
must read from window
. hurry along blackboard
on girl
path

The distinction between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ parts of speech must

be treated cautiously, however. On the one hand, we must not exag-
gerate the ease with which we create new w ords: we certainly do
not make up new nouns as a necessary p art of speaking in the way
that making up new sentences is necessary. On the other hand, we
must not exaggerate the extent to which parts of speech in set (b)
of 2.12 are ‘closed’: new prepositions (usually o f the form ‘prep +
noun + prep’ like by way of) are by no means impossible.
27
Although they have deceptively specific labels, the parts of speech
tend in fact to be rather heterogeneous. The adverb and the verb
are perhaps especially mixed classes, each having small and fairly
well-defined groups of closed-system items alongside the indefinitely large
open-class items. So far as the verb is concerned, the closed-system
subgroup is known by the well-established term ‘auxiliary’. W ith the
adverb, one may draw the distinction broadly between those in -ly
that correspond to adjectives (complete-ly) and those that do not (liow,
there, forward, very, for example).

2.16

Stative and dynamic

The open classes have some notable general characteristics. We have
just seen that adverbs of the productive class are in a one-to-one
relation with adjectives. There are regular word-form ation processes giving
a comparable one-for-one relation between nouns and adjectives, and
between nouns and verbs. For the rest, it is useful to see nouns, adjec­
tives, and verbs in connection with the opposition of stative and dy­
namic introduced in 2.8. Broadly speaking, nouns and adjectives can
be characterized naturally as ‘stative’; thus, nouns refer to entities that
are regarded as stable, whether these are concrete (physical) like house,
table, paper, or abstract (of the mind) like hope, botany, length. On
the other hand, verbs and adverbs can be equally naturally character­
ized as ‘dynam ic’: most obviously, verbs, which are fitted (by their
capacity to show tense and aspect, for example) to indicate action,
activity, and tem porary or changing conditions. These relations between
the open classes can be summarized thus:

STATIVE noun <-> adjective

I I
DYNAMIC verb adverb

But we saw in 2.8 that there were some verbs such as know
which could not normally be used with the progressive (*he is know­
ing) : that is, which could not be seen as referring to something
that was in progress. Verbs so used we called ‘stative’, and they
should be seen as exceptions within the class o f verbs. There are
exceptions in the other direction among the nouns, not all of which
need be stative. For example, a child may be well-behaved one minute
and a nuisance the next. The situation is similar when we turn to
the remaining open word-class, adjectives. Although they are predom i­
nantly stative {tall, red, old), some adjectives can resemble verbs in
referring on occasion to transitory conditions of behaviour or activity
such as naughty or insolent. And since be must be used to make
predications having any noun or adjective as complement, we must
qualify the statement made in 2.8 that this is a stative verb: it can
28
also be used dynamically, in the progressive, when the complement is
dynamic:

u . , fa nuisance]
|„ .„ g h ty r * “ "

Indeed, it is essential to realize that these primary distinctions are

in the nature o f general characteristics rather than immutable truths.
No small part o f language’s value lies in its flexibility. Thus we
can take a normally dynamic item (say the verb in ‘He wrote the
book’) and ‘nominalize’ it (‘The writing o f the book’), pretending —
as it were — to see the action as a static ‘thing’. So also the verb
tax beside the noun taxation. Again, the name ‘participle’ reflects the
fact that such a form participates in the features both o f the verb
(‘The girl is sitting there’) and o f the adjective (‘The sitting girl’).

2.17
Pro-forms
The names o f the parts of speech are traditional, however, and neither
in themselves nor in relation to each other do these names give a
safe guide to their meaning, which instead is best understood in terms
o f their grammatical properties. ‘Adverb’ is a classic instance. We have
seen some justification in the previous section for ‘participle’, ahd of course
the ‘pronoun’ is an even clearer exception in correctly suggesting that
it can serve as a replacement for a noun:
John searched the big room and the small one [1]

M ore usually, however, pronouns replace noun phrases rather than

nouns:
The man invited the little Swedish girl because he liked her [2]

There are pro-form s also for place, time, and other adverbials under
certain circumstances:
Mary is in London and John is there too [3]
Mary arrived on Tuesday and John arrived then too [4]
John searched the big room very carefully and the sijiall
one less so ' [5]

But so has a more im portant pro-function, namely, to replace — along

with the ‘pro-verb’ do — a predication:
She hoped that he would search the room carefully before
her arrival but he didn’t do so [6]

Here do so replaces all the italicized portion, the head verb search
and the rest o f the predication, as is shown below:
29
sentence

subject predicate
I
I auxiliary predication
I as
o p erato r I
I I
I
. . .h e would search the room carefully ,
...he didn’t do so

Frequently, however, the pro-predication is achieved by the operator

alone:
A: He didn’t give her an apple. B: Yes, he did. [7]
They suspected that he had given her an apple and he had [8]

Finally, it may be briefly observed that the use of the pro-forms

greatly facilitates sentence connection as in [7], the conjoining of sen­
tences to form ‘com pound sentences’ as in [3] or [8], and the subordi­
nation o f one sentence within another to form ‘complex sentences’
as in [2].

Question and negation

2.18
‘Wh’-questions

The pro-forms we have been considering may be regarded as having

the general meaning ‘We know what this item refers to, so I need
not state it in full’. In 2.13 attention was drawn to correspondences
o f the then-when type, and we may now consider the w/?-words of
English as a special set o f pro-form s diametrically opposed to the
others in having the generalmeaning ‘It has not been known what
this item refers to and so it needs to be stated in full’. This infor­
mal statem ent will account for the use o f w/?-forms in questions:
M ary is in London
M ary is there
Where is M ary?

By such means, we can ask for the identification of the subject,

object, complement or an adverbial o f a sentence:
They (i) make him (ii) the chairman (iii) every year (iv)
W ho makes him the chairm an every year? [i]
W hom do they make the chairm an every year? [ii]
W hat do they make him every year? [iii]
When do they make him the chairm an? [iv]
30
2.19
‘Yes-no’ questions
Besides u^/i-questions, which elicit inform ation on particular parts of a
sentence, there are questions which seek a yes or no response in re­
lation to the validity of (normally) an entire predication:
Is the girl now a student?
Did John search the room ?
H ad he given the girl an apple?
Such questions normally open with an operator which is then followed
by the subject and the predication.

2.20
Negation and non-assertion

While a yes-no question normally challenges the validity of a predication

as a whole, negation rejects it. And like yes-no questions, negative
sentences involve the operator, requiring the insertion o f not (or the
affixal contraction -«7) between the operator and the predication:
The girl isn’t a student
John did not search the room
He hadn’t given the girl an apple
We need to see a further similarity between questions and negations.
Let us call a sentence such as
He offered her some chocolates [1]
an assertion. Now, a sentence can be nan-assertive in one of two ways:
by being negative or by being a question. We do not therefore have
two independent systems
positive: negative
declarative: interrogative
but rather an interrelated system in which assertion involves both ‘positive’
and ‘declarative’ while non-assertion has a subsystem either ‘negative’
or ‘interrogative’. The relationship may be diagrammed thus:

{
assertion — positive and declarative
J interrogative
non-assertion [negative

While it is right to show ‘interrogative’ as lying between the upper

extreme ‘positive and declarative’ and the lower extreme ‘negative’, it
is im portant to recognize that ‘interrogative’ has a closer relationship
to ‘negative’ in springing like it from the ‘non-assertion’ node. Evidence
for this is not difficult to find. As compared with the some of the
positive-declarative [1], we find any in the corresponding question and
negation:
Did he offer her any chocolates? [Iq]
He didn’t offer her any chocolates [In]
31
THREE

VERBS AND THE VERB PHRASE

3.1
Types of verb
There are various ways in which it will be necessary to classify verbs
in this chapter. We begin with a classification relating to the function
of items in the verb phrase. This distinguishes lexical verbs from the
closed system o f auxiliary verbs, and subdivides the latter into primary
and modal auxiliaries.
LEXICAL walk, write, play, beautify, etc.

A U X ILIA R Y \ „ ,,
[ M odal can, may, shall, will,
could, might, should, would,
must, ought to, used to, need, dare

Note
As we shall see (3.22), some of the modals listed differ in their inflectional and syntactic
behaviour from others and will be referred to as ‘marginal’. On the other hand, further
items like had better or tend to could be added to the list since they have a similar
semantic relation in the verb phrase to the modals; these other expressions are often
called ‘semi-auxiliaries’.

3.2
Verbal forms and the verb phrase
Many English verbs have five forms: the BASE, the -S FO RM , the PAST,
the ^ING PA R TIC IPLE, and the ^ED PA R TIC IPLE. Regular lexical
verbs have the same -ed inflection for both the past tense and the
-ed participle (called). Irregular lexical verb forms vary from three
(eg: put, puts, putting) to eight (be, am, is, are, was, were, being,
been). The modal auxiliaries are defective in not having infinitive (*to
may), -ing participle (*maying), -ed participle (*mayed), or imperative
(*may\).

The morphology of lexical verbs

3.3
We will consider lexical verbs under two heads: regular (such as call)
and irregular (such as drink). In all o f them, the -s form and -ing
participle are predictable from the base form. They differ in that the
-edi and -ed2 forms in irregular verbs cannot be predicted from the
base.
32
Regular lexical verbs
3.4
Regular lexical verbs have the following forms:
V BASE call like try
V-ing -ING PA R T IC IPL E calling liking trying
У -s -S FO R M calls likes tries
V-ed P A ST/-E D PA R T IC IPL E called liked tried

These are regular in that we can predict the other forms if we know
the base of such a verb. This is a very powerful rule, since the base is
the form listed in dictionaries and the vast majority of English verbs
belong to this regular class. Furtherm ore, all new verbs that are coined
or borrowed from other languages adopt this pattern.

3.5
The ‘-ing’ and ‘-s’ forms
The -ing form is a straightforward addition to the base:
push pushing sleep ^ sleeping
The -s form is also predictable from the base. It has three spoken
realizations: /iz/, /z/, and /s/, and two spellings, -s and -es.
(1) Pronounced /iz/ after bases ending in voiced or voiceless sibilants
and spelled -es unless the base already ends in -e, eg
pass ^ passes budge ^ budges '
buzz buzzes push pushes
catch catches camouflage ^ camouflages
(2) Pronounced /z/ and spelled -s after bases ending in other voiced
sounds, eg
call ^ calls rob ^ robs flow flows
N ote: do ^ does go ^ goes
say says have has

(3) Pronounced /s/ and spelled -s after bases ending in other voiceless
sounds, eg
cut cuts lock ^ locks sap ^ saps

3.6
The past and the ‘-ed’ participle
The past (y-ed{) and the -ed participle (У-ed^ of regular Verbs (spelled
-ed unless the base ends in -e) have three spoken realizations:
2 P. Кверк и др. 33
/id/ after bases ending in /d / and /t/, eg
pad ^ padded pat ^ patted
/d/ after bases ending in voiced sounds other than /d/, eg
mow ^ mowed budge budged
III after bases ending in voiceless sounds other than /t/, eg
pass ^ passed pack packed

Furflier inflectional spelling rules

3.7
Doubling of consonant

Final base consonants are doubled before inflections beginning with a

vowel letter when the preceding vowel is stressed and spelled with a
single letter:
bar barring barred
permit permitting permitted

There is no doubling when the vowel is unstressed or written with

two letters:
enter entering’ entered
dread dreading dreaded

EX CEPTIO N S:

(a) Bases ending in certain consonants are doubled also after single
unstressed vowels: -g -gg-, -c -ck-:
humbug humbugging humbugged
traffic trafficking trafficked

(b) BrE, as distinct from AmE, breaks the rule with respect to
certain other consonants also: -/ -► -w -> -mm-, -p -► -pp-:
signal signalling signalled (BrE) 1
signal signaling signaled (AmE)J
travel travelling travelled (BrE) 1
travel traveling traveled (AmE)J
program(me) programming programmed (BrE) I
program programing programed (AmE)J
worship worshipping worshipped (BrE) |
worship worshiping worshiped (AmE)J

M ost verbs ending in -p, . however, have the regular spellings

in both BrE and AmE, eg: develop, envelop, gallop, gossip,
34
3.8
Treatment of ‘-y’
(a) In bases ending in a consonant -\-y, the following changes occur
before inflections that do not begin with i:
carry carries carry ^ carried but carry carrying
The past o f the following two verbs has a change y -> i also
after a vowel:
lay laid pay paid
Say ^ said has the same change of spelling but, in addition,
a change o f vowel.
(b) In bases ending in -ie, the ie is replaced by y before the -ing
inflection:
die dying lie lying

3.9
Deletion of ‘-e’
Final -e is regularly dropped before the -ing and -ed inflections:
shave shaving shaved
Verbs with bases in -ee, -ye, -oe, and often ~ge are exceptions to
this rule in that they do not drop the -e before Ang\ but they do
drop it before -ed, as do also forms in -ie (tie tied):
-ее: agree agreeing agreed
-ye: dye dyeing dyed
-oe: hoe hoeing hoed
-ge: singe singeing singed

Irregular lexical verbs

3.10
Irregular lexical verbs differ from regular verbs in the following ways:
(a) Irregular verbs either, do not have a /d / or /t/ inflection
(drink drank drunk) o r break the rule in 3.6 for a voiced
inflection (eg: burn burnt /t/, beside the regular burned /d/).
• (b) Irregular verbs typically, but not necessarily, have variation in
their base vowel:
fin d fo u n d found write wrote written
(c) Irregular verbs have a varying num ber o f distinct forms. Since
the -s and -ing forms are predictable for regular and irregular
verbs alike, the only forms that need be listed for irregular
verbs are the base (V), the past (y-ed{), and the past participle
2* 35
(W-edo), M ost irregular verbs have, like regular verbs, only one
common form for the past and the -ed participle, but there is
considerable variation in this respect, as the table shows:
B A SE V -e d ^ V-ei/2

all alike cut cut cut

= W-ed2 meet met met
W = W-ed2 come came come
all different speak spoke spoken

In many cases, there are prefixed verbs having the same inflections,
eg: outdo beside do.

The auxiliaries ^do, have, be’

3.11

Do

The auxiliary do has the following forms:

NON- UNCONTRACTED CON TRACTED
N E G A T IV E N E G A T IV E N E G A T IV E

\do do not don*t

present
\does does not doesn't
past did did not didn't

Do as lexical verb (‘perform ’, etc) and as pro-verb has the full range
of forms, including the present participle doing and the past participle
done:
W hat have you been doing today?
A : You said you would finish it. B: I have done so.

3.12 \

Have

Both as lexical verb and as auxiliary, have has the following forms:

NON- UN CONTRACTED CON TRACTED

N E G A T IV E N E G A T IV E N E G A T IV E

base have, \ e have not, *ve not haven't

-s form has, *s has not, *s not hasn 't
past had, W had not, *d not hadn 't
-ing form having not having
•ed participle had

36
Note
In the stative sense o f possession, have is often (especially in BrE) constructed as an auxiliary.
AmE prefers the ¿lo-construction:
J {haven’t 1
any books
( don V have J
In dynamic sense’s (receive, take, experience, etc), lexica! have in both AmE and BrE
normally has the ¿lo-construction:
Does he have coffee with his breakfast?
D id you have any difficulty getting here?
The ifo-construction is required in such expressions as
Did you have a good time?
There is also the informal have got, where have is constructed as an auxiliary, which
is frequently preferred (especially in BrE) as an alternative to have. It is particularly
common in negative and interrogative sentences. As a further alternative for expressing
negation, we have the negative determiner no:
I haven’t got any books I have no books

3.13

Be
The lexical and auxiliary verb be is unique among English verbs in
having eight different forms:
NON- UNCONTRACTED CON TRACTED
N E G A T IV E N E G A T IV E N E G A T IV E

base be
' 1st person am, w am not, *m not (aren't, ain't)
singular

3rd person
singular is, *s is not, 's not isn't
present
2nd person,
1st and 3rd
are, 're are not, re not aren't
person,
plural

' 1st and 3rd

person was was not wasn 't
singular
past
2nd person,
1st and 3rd were were not
person weren't
plural

-ing form being not being

-ed participle been

37
Note
[a] Aren't I is widely used in BrE, but there is no generally acceptable contracted form
for am not in declarative sentences. Ain't is substandard in BrE and is so considered
by many in AmE; as well as serving as a contracted am not, it is used also for
isn't, aren’t, hasn’t, and haven’t.
\

[b\ The lexical verb be may have the i/o-construction in persuasive imperative sentences
and regularly has it with negative imperatives:
D o be quiet! D on’t be silly!

The modal auxiliaries

3.14
The modal auxiliaries are the following:
NON- UN CONTRACTED CON TRACTED
N E G A T IV E N E G A T IV E N E G A T IV E

/ can cannot, can not can't

could could not couldn 7
may may not mayn 7
might might not mightn't
shall shall not shan 7
should should not shouldn't
will, 7/ will not, 7/ not won 7
would, *d would not, *d not wouldn 7
must must not mustn 7
ought to ought not to oughtn't to
used to used not to usednt to
didn't use to
need need not needn't
dare dare not daren't

Note
[ii] M ayn’t is restricted to BrE, where it is rare.
[6] Shan’t is rare in AmE.
[c] Ought regularly has the io-infinitive, but AmE occasionally has the bare infinitive in
negative sentences and in questions (although should is commoner in both cases):
You oughtn’t smoke so much', Ought you smoke so muchl

3.15
Marginal modal auxiliaries
Used always takes the /o-infinitive and occurs only in the past tense.
It may take the ^^-construction, in which case the spellings d idnt
used .to and didn't use to both occur. The interrogative construction
used he to is especially BrE; did he used to is preferred in both
AmE and BrE.
Dare and need can be constructed either as modal auxiliaries (with
bare infinitive and with no inflected -s form) or as lexical verbs
(with /o-infinitive and with inflected -s form). The modal verb construc-
38
tion is restricted to non-assertive contexts, ie mainly negative and inter­
rogative sentences, whereas the lexical verb construction can always be
used and is in fact the more common. Dare and need as auxiliaries
are probably rarer in AmE than in BrE.
M O D A L A U X IL IA R Y L E X IC A L V E R B
C O N S T R U C T IO N C O N S T R U C T IO N

positive He needs to go now

negative He neednt go now He doesn 7 need to go now
interrogative Need he go now? Does he need to go now?
negative-interrogative N eed n t he go now? Doesn't he need to go
now?

Note
[a] Non-assertive forms are not confined to overtly negative and/or interrogative sentences
but can also be present in adverbials, eg\ He need do it only under these circumstances.
He need do it but once; in determiners, eg: He need have no fear. No soldier dare
disobey; in pronouns, eg\ No one dare predict or even implicitly, eg: All you
need do is, ... (‘You need do no more than
[¿] Blends of the two constructions are widely acceptable inthe case of dare: We do
not dare speak.

Finite and non-flriite verb phrases

3.16
The verb forms operate in finite and non-finite verb phrases, which
are distinguished as follows:
(1) Finite verb, phrases have tense distinction:

(2) Finite verb phrases occur as the verb element o f a clause. T

is person and niunber concord between the subject and the fi­
nite verb. C oncord is particularly overt with be:
I 4- You/we/they 4- are He/she/it 4- is
With most lexical verbs, concord is restricted to a contrast
between 3rd and non-3rd person singular present:
He reads
the paper every morning
They read

With the modal auxiliaries there is, however, no concord:

I/you/he/we/they can play the cello
(3) Finite verb phrases have mood. In contrast, to the ‘unm arked’
IN D ICA TIV E mood, we distinguish the ‘m arked’ moods IM P E R ­
ATIVE, and SUBJUNCTIVE.
39
(4) The non-fmite forms of the verb are the infinitive {to call), the
-ing participle {calling), and the -ed participle {called). Non-finite
verb phrases consist o f one or more such items. Com pare:
FIN ITE VERB PHRASES N O N -FIN IT E VERB PHRASES
He smokes heavily To smoke like that must be dangerous
He is working I found him working
He had been offended before Having been offended before, he was
sensitive

3.17
The modal, perfective, progressive and passive auxiliaries follow a strict
order in the complex verb phrase:
[I] M ODAL, always followed by an infinitive, as in
He would visit
[II] PER FECTIV E, always followed by an -ed form, as in
He had visited
He would have visited
[III] PROGRESSIVE, always followed by an -ing form, as in
He was visiting
He would have been visiting
[IV] PASSIVE, always followed by an -ed form, as in
He was visited
He would have been being visited
The last example is added for completeness but the full range of
auxiliaries is rarely found simultaneously in this way (though less rarely
with the get passive). Rather, it should be noted ¿lat, while the above
order is strictly followed, gaps are perfectly normal. For example:
I 4 - III: He may be visiting
II + IV : He has been visited

Tense, aspect, and mood

3.18
Time is a universal, non-linguistic concept with three divisions: past,
present, and future; by tense we understand the correspondence between
the form o f the verb and our concept o f time. Aspect concerns the
m anner in which the verbal action is experienced or regarded (for
example as completed or in progress), while mood relates the verbal
action to such conditions as certainty, obligation, necessity, possibility.
In fact, however, to a great extent these three categories impinge on
each other: in particular, the expression o f time present and past
cannot be considered separately from aspect, and the expression of the
future is closely bound up with mood.
40
Tense and aspect
3.19
We here consider the present and past tenses in relation to the progrès-
sive and perfective aspects. The range can be seen in the sentence
frame ‘I _______________ with a special pen’, filling the blank with a
phrase having the verb base write:
SIM PLE CO M PLEX
progressive
present write am writing present

was writing past

perfective
have written (present) perfect
past wrote had written past (or plu-) perfect
perfect progressive
have been writing (present) perfect
had been writing past (or plu-) perfect

3.20
Present

We need to distinguish three basic types o f present:

(a) Timeless, expressed with the simple present form:
I (always) write with a special pen (when I sign my name)
As well as expressing habitual action as here, the timeless pres­
ent is used for universal statements such as
The sun sets in the west
Spiders have eight legs
(b) Limited, expressed with the present progressive:
I am writing (on this occasion) with a special pen (since I have
mislaid my ordinary one)
Norm ally he lives in London but at present he is living
in Boston
In indicating that the action is viewed as in process and of lim­
ited duration, the progressive can express incompleteness even
with a verb like stop whose action cannot in reality have duration;
thus the bus is stopping means that it is slowing down but
has not yet stopped. The progressive (usually with an adverb
o f high frequency) can also be used o f habitual action, con­
veying an emotional colouring such as irritation:
H e's always writing with a special pen —just because he likes
to be different
41
(c) Instantaneous, expressed with either the simple (especially in a
series) or the progressive form:
W atch carefully now: first, I write with my ordinary pen;
now, I write with a special pen
As you see, I am dropping the stone into the water
The simple present is, however, usual in radio commentary on
sport (‘M oore passes to C harlton’), and in certain performative
declarations (‘I name this ship SrtaefeW) it is obligatory.
Note

The verbs keep {on), go on have a similar function to the normal progressive auxiliary be:

John I j asking silly questions

(. goes on J

Past
3.21
A n action in the past may be seen
(1) as having taken place at a particular point o f time; or
(2) over a period; if the latter, the period may be seen as
(a) extending up to the present, or
(b) relating only to the past; if the latter, it may be viewed as
(i) having been completed, or as
(ii) not having been completed

P a st' Present F uture

(1) ----------------->4^------------------------------ -----------------------------------------

( 2 a ) m m m m '/ A m --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(2bi)

( 2 b i i ) - m m - - - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Typical examples will be seen to involve the perfective and progressive

aspects as well as the simple past:
(1) I wrote my letter o f 16 June 1972 with a special pen
(2a) I have written with a special pen since 1972
(2bi) I wrote with a special pen from 1969 to 1972
(2bii) I was writing poetry with a special pen
H abitual activity can also be expressed with the simple* past (‘He always
wrote with a special pen’), but since — unlike the simple present —
this is not implied without a suitable adverb, used to or (less commonly)
would may be needed to bring out this sense:
42
He a special pen

Note
Past time can be expressed with present tense forms. The ‘historic present’ is fairly
common in vivid narrative:
At that moment, in comes a policeman
but has no such journalistic overtones with verbs o f communicating:
John tells me that there was a car accident last night
On the other hand, past tense forms need not refer to past time. ‘Did you want
to see me?’ is little more than a slightly politer version of ‘Do you ...?’

3.22
The past and the perfective
In relation to (2a), it is not the time specified in the sentence but
the period relevant to the time specified that m ust extend to the
present. Contrast
John lived, in Paris for ten years
(which entails that the* period of residence has come to an end and
which admits the possibility that John is dead) with
John has lived in Paris for ten years
which entails that John is still alive but permits the residence in
Paris to extend either to the present (the usual interpretation) or
to some unspecified date in the past. Com pare also:
For generations, Nepal has produced brilliant mountaineers

For generations, Sparta | | warriors

The first claims that Nepal is still in a position to produce more

mountaineers, even if a long time may have elapsed since the last
was produced. The second sentence, on the other hand, is uncommitted
as to whether any further warriors can be produced by Sparta.
The choice o f perfective aspect is associated with time-orientation
and consequently also with various time-indicators {lately, since, so far, etc).
It is therefore helpful to consider these two together. Here are some
exam ples:
ADVERBIALS ADVERBIALS
W ITH SIM PLE PAST W ITH PR ESEN T PE R FE C T
(refer to a period now past) (refer to a period beginning in the
past and stretching up to the pres-
ent)
(yesterday (evening) f since last January
I worked < throughout January j have worked J up to now
(.on Tuesday ) lately
( already
43
ADVERBIALS W ITH EIT H E R
SIM PLE PAST O R PR E SE N T PE R F E C T

j iworked fVi
{have worked J I ^^B our
Note

There is some tendency (especially in AmE) to use the past informally in place o f the
perfective, as in / saw it already ( = ‘I have already seen it’).

3.23
Indefinite and definite

Through its ability to involve a span o f time from earliest memory

to the present, the perfective has an indefiniteness which makes it an
appropriate verbal expression for introducing a topic o f discourse. As
the topic is narrowed down, the emerging definiteness is m arked by
the simple past as well as in the noun phrases. F or example:
He says that he has seen a m eteor at some time (between earliest
memory and the present)
as compared with
He says that he saw the m eteor last night that everyone is so
excited about
Com pare also :
Did you know that John has painted a portrait o f M ary?
Did you know that John painted this p ortrait o f M ary?

3.24
Past perfect
W hat was said o f the perfect in 3.21 — applies to the past perfect,
with the complication that the point o f current relevance to which the
past perfect extends is a point in the past:
Past P resent F u tu re
relevant point
________________ V __________________

(I say now \present] that) W hen I met him [relevant point in the past]
John had lived in Paris for ten years
In some contexts, the simple past and the past perfect are interchangeable; eg:

I ate my lunch after my wife | shopping

44
Неге the conjunction after is sufficient specification to indicate that the
arrival from the shopping expedition had taken place before the eating,
so that the extra time indication by means o f the past perfect becomes
redundant.
Note
There is no interchangeability when the past perfect is the past of the perfect:
John tells me that he hasn’t seen Mary since Monday
John told me that he hadn’t seen Mary since Monday
*John told me that he didn’t see Mary since Monday

3.25
The past and the progressive

As with the present, the progressive when used with the past speci­
fies the limited duration o f an action:
I was writing with a special pen for a period last night but my
hand grew tired
In consequence, it is a convenient device to indicate a time span
within which another event (indicated by the simple past) can be seen as
taking place:
While I was writing, the phone rang
The ability to express .incom plete action with the progressive is
illustrated by the contrasting pair:
He read a book that evening (implies that he finished it)
He was reading a book that evening (implies that he did not finish it)
and more strikingly by:
The girl was drowning in the lake (will perm it ‘but someone dived
in and rescued her’)^
The girl drowned in the lake
Habitual activity may be expressed by the progressive provided it is
clear that the habit is'tem porary:
A t that time, we were bathing every day
and not merely sporadic:
*We were sometimes walking to the office
But general habits may be pejoratively referred to:
My brother was always losing his keys

3.26
The perfect progressive
Limited duration (or incompleteness) and current relevance can be jointly
expressed with the perfect progressive. Com pare:
45
He has eaten my chocolates (they are all gone)
He was eating my chocolates (but I stopped him)
He has been eating my chocolates (but there are some left)
Frequently the perfect progressive implies an especially recent activity,
the effects o f which are obvious, and the adverb ju st commonly
accompanies this usage:
It has rained a great deal since you were here
Oh look! It has just been raining ^

3.27

Verbal meaning and the progressive

As pointed out in 2.8, the progressive occurs only with dynamic

verbs (or more accurately, with verbs in dynamic use). These verbs [A]
fall into five classes while the stative verbs [B], which disallow the
progressive, can be seen as belonging to one o f two classes.

[A] D Y N A M IC
(1) Activity verbs: abandon, ask, beg, call, drink, eat, help, learn,
listen, look at, play, rain, read, say, slice, throw, whisper, work,
write, etc.
(2) Process verbs : change, deteriorate, grow, mature, slow down, widen,
etc. Both activity and process verbs are frequently used in
progressive aspect to indicate incomplete events in progress.
(3) Verbs o f bodily sensation (ache, feel, hurt, itch, etc) can have
either simple or progressive aspect with little difference in
meaning.
(4) Transitional event verbs (arrive, die, fall, land, leave, lose, etc)
occur in the progressive but with a change o f meaning compared
with simple aspect. The progressive implies inception, ie only
the approach to the transition.
(5) M om entary verbs (hit, jump, kick, knock, nod, tap, etc) have
little duration, and thus the progressive aspect powerfully
suggests repetition.

[B] STATIVE
(1) Verbs o f inert perception and cognition: abhor, adore, astonish,
believe, desire, detest, dislike, doubt, feel, forgive, guess, hate, hear,
imagine, impress, intend, know, like, love, mean, mind, perceive,
please, prefer, presuppose, realize, recall, recognize, regard, re­
member, satisfy, see, smell, suppose, taste, think, understand,
want, wish, etc. Some o f these verbs may take other than a
recipient subject (7.11), in which case they belong with the A1
class. Com pare:
I think you are right [Bl]
I am thinking o f you all the time [Al]
46
(2) Relational verbs: apply to (everyone), be, belong to, concern,
consist of, contain, cost, depend on, deserve, equal, fit, have,
include, involve, lack, matter, need, owe, own, possess, remain
(a bachelor), require, resemble, seem, sound, suffice, tend, etc.

The future
3.28
There is no obvious future tense in English corresponding to the time/tense
relation for present and past. Instead there are several possibilities for
denoting future time. Futurity, m odality, and aspect are closely related,
and future time is rendered by means o f m odal auxiliaries or semi­
auxiliaries, or by simple present forms or progressive forms.

3.29
‘WUr and ‘shaU’
will or 7/ + infinitive in all persons
i/wz//-i-infinitive (in 1st person only; chiefly BrE)
I willjshall arrive tom orrow
H e’// be here in half an hour
The future and m odal functions o f these auxiliaries can hardly be
separated; but shall and, particularly, will are the closest approxim ation
to a colourless, neutral future. Will for future can be used in all persons
throughout the English-speaking world, whereas shall (for 1st person) is
largely restricted in this usage to southern BrE.
The auxiliary construction is also used to refer to a statement seen
in the past from a point o f orientation in the future:
They will have finished their book by next year
Note
Other modal auxiliaries can have future reference also : ‘He may leave tomorrow* = ‘He will
possibly leave ...*

3.30
^Be going to’ H- infinitive
This construction denotes ‘future fulfihnent o f the present’. Looked a t
more carefully, be going to has two more specific meanings, o f which one,
‘future o f present intention’, is used chiefly with personal subjects:
W hen are you going to get married?
The other meaning is ‘future o f present cause’, which is found with
both personal and non-personal subjects:
She’^ going to have a baby
IVs going to rain
47
Both of these suggest that the event is already ‘on the way’. Be going
to is not generally used in the main clause of conditional sentences,
will!*11 or shall being preferred instead:
If you leave now, you’// never regret it

3.31
Present progressive

The present progressive refers to a future happening anticipated in the

present. Its basic meaning is ‘fixed arrangement, plan, or program m e’ :
H e’i moving to London
Since the progressive is used to denote present as well as.future, a
time adverbial is often used to clarify in which meaning the verb
is being used:
They are washing the dishes <

The present progressive is especially frequent with dynamic transitional

verbs like arrive, come, go, land, start, stop, etc, which refer to a
transition between two states or positions:
The plane is taking o ff at 5.20
The President is coming to the U N this week

3.32
Simple present

The simple present is regularly used in subordinate clauses that are

conditional (introduced by if, unless, etc) or tem poral (introduced by
as soon as, before, when, etc):
W hat will you say if I marry my boss?
I’ll tell you about it when we get home
The use o f the simple present in main clauses may be said to repre­
sent a m arked future aspect o f unusual certainty, in that it attributes
to the future something o f the positiveness one normally associates
with present and past events. It is used for statements about the cal­
endar:
Yesterday was M onday, today is Tuesday, and tom orrow is Wednesday
and to describe immutable events or ‘fixtures’ :
W hen is high tide?
W hat time is the football m atch?
Both the simple present and the progressive are often used with dynamic
transitional verbs: arrive, come, leave, etc, both having the meaning of
‘plan’ or ‘program m e’ :
48
The train jj^'^J^^.^^jtonight from Chicago

3.33

‘Will/shair + progressive
The auxiliary verb construction can be used together with the progres­
sive infinitive to denote a ‘future-as-a-matter-of-course’ : willjshall + be +
+ W-ing. The use of this com bination avoids the interpretation (to
which will, shall, and be going to are liable) o f volition, insistence, etc:
He’// do his best (future or volitional interpretation possible)
He’// be doing his best (future interpretation only)
This complex construction can be used to convey greater tact and
consideration than the simple auxiliary construction does:

When will you . > another performance?

[be putting on^
\com e?
When will you <, . ^
\be coming?

3.34
‘Be to’ + inflnitive
This expresses (a) arrangement, (b) command, or (c) contingent future:
(a) We are to be married soon
There’i to be an investigation
(b) You m e to be back by 10 o’clock
(c) if he is to succeed, he must work harder

3.35
‘Be about to’ + inflnitive
This construction expresses near future, ie imminent fulfilment:
The taxi is here and we are about to leave
Be ... to may enclose other items such as shortly or soon to provide
a means o f future expression; with other items again {bound, liable,
certain, {un)likely), future expression is overlaid with m odal meaning:
He is certain to address the meeting {= It is certain that he will address ...)

3.36
Future time in the past
Some o f the future constructions just discussed can be used in the
past tense to express tifne which is in the future when seen from a
viewpoint in the past.
49
(1) A U X ILIA RY VERB CONSiTRUCTION with would (rare; Uterary
narrative style)
The time was not far off when he would regret this decision
(2) he going to + IN FIN IT IV E (often with the sense of ‘unfulfilled
intention’)
Y ou were going to give me your address
(3) PAST PRO G RESSIV E
I was meeting him in Bordeaux the next day
(4) be to + IN FIN IT IV E (formal = ‘was destined’, ‘was arranged’)
He was later to regret his decision
The meeting was to be held the following week
(5) he about to (‘on the point o f)
He was about to hit me

Mood
3.37
M ood is expressed in Enghsh to a very m inor extent by the sub­
junctive, as in '
So be it then!
to a much greater extent by past tense forms, as in
If you taught me, I would learn quickly
but above all, by means o f the m odal auxiliaries, as in
It is strange that he should have left so early

3.38
The subjunctive
Three categories o f subjunctive may be distinguished:
. (a) The M A N D A TIV E SUBJUNCTIVE in r/it2/-clauses has only one
form, the base (V); this means there is lack of the regular
indicative concord bet>veeri subject and finite verb in the 3rd
person singular present, and the present and past tenses are
indistinguishable. This subjunctive can be used with any verb in
subordinate that-c\?iuses when the m ain clause contains an expression
o f recommendation, resolution, demand, and so on (W e demand,
require, move, insist, suggest, ask, etc that ...). The use of this
subjunctive occurs chiefly in formal style (and especially in AmE)
where in less formal contexts one would rather make use o f other
devices, such as /o-infinitive or should + infinitive:
50
It is necessary that every member inform himself o f these rules
It is necessary that every member should inform himself o f
these rules
It is necessary for every member to inform himself o f these
rules
(b) The FO R M U L A IC SUBJUNCTIVE also consists o f the base (V)
but is only used in clauses in certain set expressions which have
to be learned as wholes (see 7.63):
Come what may, we will go ahead
G od save the Queen!
Suffice it to say that ...
Be that as it may ...
Heaven forbid that ...
(c) The SUBJUNCTIVE were is hypothetical in meaning and is used
in conditional and concessive clauses and in subordinate clauses
after optative verbs like wish. It occurs as the 1st and 3r<i
person singular past o f the verb be, m atching the indicative was,
which is the m ore common in less formal style:

1 were 1
If she < > to do something like that,...
1was I

He spoke to me as if I ¿eaf
[w a y J

I wish } dead
J

Note
Only were is acceptable in ‘As it were’ ( = so to speak); were is usual in ‘If I were you’.

3.39
Modal past

Just as was could replace were in ‘If I were rich’, so in closed or

unreal conditions involving all other verbs than be, it is the past tense that
conveys the impossibility. Other m odal or quasi-modal uses of the past
are illustrated by
I wondered if you’d like a drink
which involves an attitudinal rather than a time distinction from ‘I wonder
if you’d like a drink’, and
We were catching the 8 o’clock train and it is nearly 8 o’clock already
which seems to depend on a covert subordinating clause such as ‘We
agreed that ...’ in which the past tense is purely temporal.
51
The uses of the modal auxUiaries

3.40
CAN/COULD

can

(1) Ability He can speak English but he can’t

= be able to, be capable of, write it very well (‘He is able to
know how to speak/capable of speaking ...’)

(2) Permission Can 1t

= be allowed to, be permitted to M ay j
(Can is less formal than may in (<Am I allowed to smoke in here?’)
this sense)

(3) Theoretical possibility (Contrast Anybody can m ake mistakes

may — factual possibility) The road can be blocked (‘It is pos­
sible to block the road’)

could

(1) Past ability I never could play the banjo

(2) Present or future permission Could I smoke in here?

(3) Present possibility (theoretical or We could go to the concert

factual) The road could be blocked

(4) Contingent possibility or ability If we had m ore money, we could

in unreal conditions buy a car

Note
[fl] Ability can bring in the implication o f willingness (especially in spoken English):
Can ]
^ , V you do me a favour?
CouldJ ^

[¿>] Past permission is sometimes expressed by could:

This used to be the children’s room but they couldn’t make a noise there because
o f the neighbours
More generally, the ^past canicould for permission and possibility is could have + V-ed:
Tonight you can dance if you wish but you could have danced last night equally
[c] With some perception verbs, can V corresponds to the progressive aspect be V-ing
with dynamic verbs:
I can hear footsteps; who’s coming?

52
3.41
MAY/MIGHT

may

(1) Permission You may borrow my car if you like

= be allowed to
(In this sense may is more formal r m ustn’t *) borrow
than can. Instead o f may not .Y ou^ are not allowed to ^my car
or rare mayn't, the stronger (m ay not T
mustn't is often used in the nega­
tive to express prohibition.)

(2) Possibility (usually factual) The road may be blocked (‘It is

possible that the road is blocked’;
less p robably: ‘It is possible to block
the road’)

might

(1) Permission (rare) M ight I smoke in here?

(2) Possibility (theoretical or We m ight go to the concert
factual) W hat you say might be true

Note
[a] M ay and might are among the modal auxiliaries which involve differences o f meaning in
passing from declarative to interrogative or negative.
[b] There is a rare use o f may as a ‘quasi-subjunctive* auxiliary, eg to express wish,
normally in positive sentences:
May he never set foot in this house again!

3.42
SHALL/SHOULD

shall

(1) Willingness on the part of the He shall get his money

speaker in 2nd and 3rd person. You shall do exactly as you wish
Restricted use

(2) Intention on the part of the I shan’t be long

speaker, only in 1st person We shall let you know our decision
We shall overcome

(3) a Insistence. Restricted use You shall do as I say

He shall be punished
b Legal and quasi-legal The vendor shall maintain the
injunction equipment in good repair

53
O f these three meanings it is only the one o f intention that is widely
used today. Shall is, on the whole and especially outside BrE, an
infrequent auxiliary with restricted use com pared with should, will, and would;
will is generally preferred, except in 1st person questions:
Shall/*Will I come at once?
In the first person plural, eg
W hat shall/will we drink?
shall asks for instructions, and will is non-vohtional future (especially in
AmE). Will Ijwe has become increasingly common not only in con­
texts o f non-volitional futurity {Will I see you later?), but also in
sentences expressing helplessness, perplexity, etc:
How will I get there? W hat will I do? Which will I take?
This usage is predominantly AmE (though should is commonly preferred)
but examples may be found in BrE too. A similar meaning is also
conveyed by be going to:
W hat are we going to do?

should

(1) Obligation and logical necessity You should do as he says

( = ought to) They should be home by now

(2) ‘Putative’ use after certain ex­ It is odd that you should say this
pressions, eg: it is a p ity that, to me
I am surprised that (see 11.51, I am sorry that this should have
12.12, 12.17) happened

(3) Contingent use (1st person only fshouldl love to go abroad (if
and especially BrE) in the main ^ [would J we had the chance)
clause ( = would)

(4) In rather formal real conditions If you should change your mind,
please let us know

3.43
W I L l/ w O U L D
will

(1) Willingness. Used in polite re­ H e’ll help you if you ask him
quests Will you have another cup of cof­
fee?
Will you (please, kindly, etc) open the
window?
(2) Intention. Usually contracted ’//; I ’ll write as soon as I can
m ainly 1st person We won’t stay longer than two
hours
54
(3) Insistence. Stressed, hence no V/ He 'will do it, whatever you say
contraction (‘He insists on doing it ...’)
(C f He 'shall do it, whatever you
say = ‘I insist on his doing it ...’)
He 'will keep interrupting me

(4) Prediction (a) Specific prediction:

C f the similar meanings o f other rwill 1 be finished
expressions for logical necessity The game <must > by now
and habitual present. The con­ Ishould J
tracted form II is common. (b) Timeless prediction:
fwill flo a tj
Oil on water
[floats J
(c) H abitual prediction:
H e’ll (always) talk for hours if
you give him the chance

would
(1) Willingness W ould you excuse me?
(2) Insistence I t’s your own fault; you 'would take
the baby with you
(3) Characteristic activity in the past Every m orning he would go for a long
(often aspectual in effect) walk (ie ‘it was customary’)
John 'would make a mess of it
(informal = ‘It was typical’)
(4) Contingent use in the main clause He would smoke too much if I
of a conditional sentence didn’t stop him
(5) Probability That would be his mother

Note
Volition with preference is expressed with would rather Isooner:
A: Would you like tea or would you rather have coffee?
B: I think I’d rather have tea.
The expression with sooner is informal. *

3.44
MUST

(1) Obligation or compulsion in the Y ou must be back by 10 o’clock

present tense {= be obliged to, Yesterday you had to be back by
have (got) to); except in reported 10 o’clock
speech, only had to (not must) is
used in the past. There are two Yesterday you said you j be
negatives:(1) =. ‘not be obliged U,, 1A
back by 10 o ’clock
to’ : needn't, don't have to;

i
(2) = ‘be obliged not to’ : m ustn’t. needn’t ^
don’t have to be back by
are not obliged to j
10 o ’clock
55
(2) (Logical) necessity There must be a mistake
M ust is not used in sentences but: There cannot be a mistake
with negative or interrogative
meanings, can being used instead.
M ust can occur in superficially M ustn’t there be another reason for
interrogative but answer-assum- his behaviour?
ing sentences.

3.45
OUGHT TO

Obligation; logical necessity You ought to start at once

or expectation They ought to be here by now

Note
Ought to and should both denote obligation and logical necessity, but are less categoric­
al than must and have to. Ought to is often felt to be awkward in questions involving
inversion, and should is preferred. Still less categorical than ought is hadj’d better ¡best
(plus bare infinitive):
A: Must you go?
B: Well, I don’t have to, but I think I’d better (go).

3.46
The tense of modals
Only some o f the modals have corresponding present and past forms:
PRESENT PAST

can could
may could (might)
shall should
w illr 11 would!
must (had to)
— used to
ought to —

need —

dare dared

He can speak English now He couldn’t come yesterday

H e’ll do anything for money He wouldn’t Come when I asked him
yesterday
The usual past tense o f may denoting permission is could:

Today, we > stay the whole afternoon

[m ay]
Yesterday, we could only stay for a few minutes
56
The following modals are not used in .the past tense except in re­
ported speech: must, ought to, and need. H ad to serves as the past
of both must and have to:
He I must leave now
has to
*must
He leave in a hurry yesterday
had to

♦must
*ought to
Yesterday the children ♦needn’t go out and play
?daren’t
dared not
did not dare

m ust
ought to
needn’t
He said the children daren’t go out and play
dared not
didn’t dare

3.47

The modals and aspect

The perfective and progressive aspects are normally excluded when the
modal expresses ‘ability’ or ‘permission’, and also when shall or will
express ‘volition’. These aspects are freely used, however, with other modal
meanings; eg
He may have missed the train.
He may have been visiting his mother
‘possibility’
He can’t be swimming all day
. He can’t have been working

{
He m ust have left his imibrella on the bus
‘necessity’ I must be dreaming

Y ou m ust have been sitting in the sun

‘prediction’
I The guests will have arrived by now
I John will still be reading his paper

57