English Auxiliaries Research Articles

Hedging Expressions Expressed by Epistemic Modal Auxiliaries in English.

Hedging Expressions Expressed by Epistemic Modal Auxiliaries in English.

Recent change in non-present perfect constructions in British and American English

A number of recent studies of grammatical categories in English have identified regional and diachronic variation in the use of the present perfect, suggesting that it has been losing ground to the simple past tense from the eighteenth century onwards ( Elsness, 1997 , 2009 ; Hundt and Smith, 2009 ; and Yao and Collins, 2012 ). Only a limited amount of research has been conducted on non-present perfects. More recently, Bowie and Aarts’ (2012) study using the Diachronic Corpus of Present-Day Spoken English has found that certain non-present perfects underwent a considerable decline in spoken British English (BrE) during the second half of the twentieth century. However, comparison with American English (AmE) and across various genres has not been made. This study focusses on the changes in the distribution of four types of non-present perfects (past, modal, to-infinitival and ing-participial) in standard written BrE and AmE during the thirty-year period from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. Using a tagged and post-edited version of the Brown family of corpora, it shows that contemporary BrE has a stronger preference for non-present perfects than AmE. Comparison of four written genres of the same period reveals that, for BrE, only the change in the overall frequency of past perfects was statistically significant. AmE showed, comparatively, a more dramatic decrease, particularly in the frequencies of past and modal perfects. It is suggested that the decline of past perfects is attributable to a growing disfavour for past-time reference in various genres, which is related to long-term historical shifts associated with the underlying communicative functions of the genres. The decline of modal perfects, on the other hand, is more likely to be occurring under the influence of the general decline of modal auxiliaries in English.

Anthony R. Warner English Auxiliaries Structure and History

Anthony R. Warner English Auxiliaries Structure and History

Morphology-based explanation of modal auxiliary syntax in present-day English

This paper addresses restrictions on the formation of verb phrases containing modal auxiliaries in present-day English. It will be argued and demonstrated below that well-known data about the English modals can be interpreted and understood as a matter of inflectional morphology. In particular, the possibility that non-indicative mood is an inherent feature of the English modals is a concept that remains to be investigated. It appears that an analysis focusing on non-indicative mood may indeed open up new explanatory perspectives on modal auxiliary syntax in present-day English. The proposal to be presented below is that we should investigate the morphology of non-indicative mood as an interesting concept for the explanation of the morphosyntactic restrictions. It may account for not only the English-internal facts, but also for certain cross-linguistic syntactic differences between English and other Germanic languages in the area of modal auxiliary syntax.

Quantitative data as a clue to auxiliary contraction processes

This paper is a quantitative corpus study of the variable contraction of English auxiliaries (e.g. John has ~ John’s been there all day). I examine auxiliaries after non-pronoun subjects, and find the following. First, auxiliaries often surface in an “intermediate” form, one which loses its initial consonant, but retains a reduced vowel (e.g. [?z] for has). After proposing an analysis of these forms, I examine the effect of subject weight on contraction, finding that contraction occurs less often after longer subjects. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings for where contraction must be situated in the grammar.

A Syntactic Consideration of Japanese and English Subjective Auxiliaries

A Syntactic Consideration of Japanese and English Subjective Auxiliaries

Perfects, Resultatives, and Auxiliaries in Earlier English

In this article, we investigate the peculiar distribution of the auxiliaries have and be in Earlier English and its consequences for theories of the perfect and auxiliary selection. We argue on the basis of a large-scale corpus study that the periphrastic construction with be was restricted to a stative resultative interpretation, whereas that with have developed a wider range of uses, crucially including the experiential perfect in addition to resultatives. Support comes from comparing the Earlier English patterns with related ones in Norwegian and German for which native-speaker judgments are available. On the basis of this insight, we propose distinct formal analyses for the two constructions and show how they account for the attested patterns and changes in Middle and Early Modern English. Of particular theoretical relevance is the premise that what has been called the “perfect” is not a homogeneous, monolithic category, and that certain kinds of variation can only be understood by teasing apart the pieces involved. Earlier English and German auxiliaries have distinct distributions because their “perfects” have disinct syntactic and semantic makeups.

Functional relations in the English auxiliary system

This article addresses the question of the syntactic functional relations between English auxiliaries and the verbal elements that follow them. There are two basic types of analysis: either the auxiliary is the head and the VP is the complement, or the ‘‘main verb’’ is the head and the auxiliary is a feature-bearing modifier. It is argued here that there is no single correct analysis for all English auxiliaries: some (do, have, will/shall, would) are feature-bearers while others are argument-taking predicates.

Grammaticalization: The development of some English modal auxiliaries

En este articulo se hace una resena de un perspectiva diacronica a un tema llamado Gramaticalizacion, con particular enfasis en el desarrollo de algunos de los verbos auxiliares modales en Ingles. En la primera parte se contextualiza el tema en el campo de los estudios de la Linguistica Cognitiva y, en la segunda, se aborda la distincion entre categorias lexicas y categorias gramaticales en una breve descripcion. En la tercera parte se entrega informacion acerca de la historia del proceso de gramaticalizacion. La seccion final plantea algunos de los mecanismos que son parte del proceso de gramaticalizacion, junto con un analisis de algunos verbos auxiliares modales en ingles que resultan ser de suma importancia en el estudio y la comprension del ingles como lengua extranjera.

On modal grounding, reference points, and subjectification

In this paper it is argued that Langacker’s definition of grounding predications is problematic for languages other than English. The idea that in English tense and modal auxiliaries are mutually exclusive grounding elements leads Langacker (1990, 2003) to consider both deontic and epistemic modal auxiliaries as grounding predications, whereas he excludes German modals from being so on the basis of their tense inflection. In this paper I contend that, unlike the deontic modal verbs, and despite their tense marking, Spanish epistemic modals deber ‘must’, poder ‘may’ and tener que ‘have to’ are certainly appropriate for modal grounding due to their reference point function and to the subjectification they undergo. I show that deontic modality is more affected by temporal grounding than epistemic modality. Moreover, the impossibility of inserting an inchoative verb such as ir a ‘to be going to’ corroborates the theoretical underpinning that Spanish epistemic modals effect an epistemic grounding similar to that of the grounding predications in English.

Copulas and auxiliaries in English, Dutch and German

L'A. s'interesse aux differences et similarites d'emploi des copules et des auxiliaires en anglais, neerlandais et allemand, dans le cadre de la theorie de la commutation. Il analyse plus particulierement d'un point de vue methodologique les descriptions, typologies et fonctions relatives a ces types de mots, dans cette perspective translinguistique. Le point de vue offert dans cet article est structuraliste, l'A. tentant ici de differencier les categories de 'copule', 'auxiliaire', et 'verbe principal'. La notion de classe de commutation (ou permutation) est introduite, designant une classe de mots ou chaque item est interchangeable.

Towards a Unified Representation of English and Norwegian Auxiliaries<sup>1</sup>

Superficially, the auxiliary systems of Norwegian and English seem to be rather different, but in this paper I will attempt to show that these cross-linguistic differences are not due to the auxiliaries per se, but rather due to intervening factors which affect the systems for representing the auxiliaries. In other words, Norwegian and English auxiliaries appear to be highly similar once these other factors have been accounted for.

A declarative account of strong and weak auxiliaries in English

This paper presents a declarative analysis of the phonology of English auxiliaries. The strong and weak forms of auxiliary verbs in English have generally been treated as either related derivationally (Zwicky 1970, Wood 1979, Selkirk 1984) or as lexically suppletive items (Kaisse 1985; this view is also implicit in traditional treatments of English phonetics, e.g. Jones 1960). The derivational treatment involves destructive processes, which Declarative Phonology eschews (Bird 1995, Coleman 1995). The treatment as separate lexical entries fails to address the commonalities observable in related forms such as [hav hbv bv v] for have. This paper provides a declarative analysis of the relations between the multiple forms of English auxiliaries without derivation, and without suppletion. The analysis is based on a corpus as well as data from informants, and is formalised using a computationally tractable formalism. Many of the examples cited in the paper are taken from marsec (Roach et al. 1993), a machine-readable English corpus of material taken from BBC radio broadcasts during the 1980s. The dominant variety of English in marsec is ‘standard’, although in reality this merely means that there is a variety of accents represented which tend towards RP. The database provides natural material rather than idealised or specifically elicited material. As Rischel (1992: 381) notes: ‘Phonology has been based on very exaggerated idealisations about the power of rule machinery as the format in which to take care of variation’. However, some of the structures needed in the analysis presented in this paper do not occur in marsec, so the natural material is complemented by material based on native informants.

DO auxiliary — A meaningful support and operator

Abstract Attempts to describe ‘what auxiliaries are and why they behave the way they do’ on the basis of syntactic criteria have not been successful. This study, which approaches the problem from the point of view of meaning, postulating that any word is used for the meaning it expresses, focuses on the nature of DO, the auxiliary usually considered a ‘dummy’ word. It proposes for DO a residual lexical meaning, the representation of a stretch of duration, as well as the grammatical meaning of any verb in the indicative. On the basis of this meaning combined with that of the infinitive, an explanation of usage in interrogative, negative and positive sentences is proposed. This analysis provides a starting point for exploring the system of auxiliaries in English and the nature of compound verbs.

Review of Warner (1993): English Auxiliaries: Structure and History

Review of Warner (1993): English Auxiliaries: Structure and History

Review of Warner (1993): English Auxiliaries: Structure and History

Review of Warner (1993): English Auxiliaries: Structure and History

The Future Pluperfect: Double Tenses in American English Auxiliaries

L'article examine la variation dialectale des structures syntaxiques a travers les jugements de grammaticalite operes par des etudiants en classe universitaire de linguistique, sur des constructions faisant intervenir les auxiliaires en anglais americain

Need and dare: The black sheep of the modal family

The first aim of this article is to explore as exhaustively as possible the full range of modal usage found with the verbs needs and dare in English, something which has never been done before. The second aim is to explain why these two verbs can exhibit modal-like behaviour. The reason is to be found in the fact that in certain uses they express a type of meaning which is analogous to that of the core modals, sharing with the latter the impression of ‘non-assertiveness’. This provides a valuable insight into the essence of the meaning of the modal auxiliaries in English and demonstrates convincingly that the morpho-syntactic behaviour not only of need and dare but also of the modals themselves is conditioned by meaning and not by syntactic rule.

Recessive and emergent uses of modal auxiliaries in english1

(1994). Recessive and emergent uses of modal auxiliaries in english. English Studies: Vol. 75, No. 2, pp. 166-182.

The English modal auxiliaries: from lexical semantics to utterance interpretation

Like so many others before it, this exposition is of the meaning of the English modal auxiliaries, which are found in utterances conveying modal meanings such as ability, possibility and permission. However, unlike the majority of its predecessors, the present rendering admits to being about more than semantics. With the five central modal auxiliaries, can, may, must, will and shall, the modals for short, as a point of departure, a framework will be formulated to shed light on some central aspects of the immense cotext and context sensitivity involved in the meaning of utterances of sentences containing a modal auxiliary.