Auxiliaries: Difference between revisions
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# Pat should walk home and Mary might, too. | # Pat should walk home and Mary might, too. | ||
# *Pat walked home and Mary walked, too. | # *Pat walked home and Mary walked, too. | ||
=== Special cases === | |||
* Modal auxiliaries: they only have tensed forms and take no -s in the third person singular present tense | |||
* The infinitive marker ''to'' shows many properties of auxiliaries, and is considered an auxiliary in many theories of grammar. | |||
The | |||
<div align="center"> | <div align="center"> | ||
[[Determiners| ← Determiners]] [[Words| ↑ Words]] [[Conjunctions|Conjunctions →]] | [[Determiners| ← Determiners]] [[Words| ↑ Words]] [[Conjunctions|Conjunctions →]] | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
</font> | </font> | ||
Latest revision as of 12:23, 21 April 2017
- Examples: may, can, will, shall, might, could
- English auxiliaries differ from verbs in that they show the following properties, the NICE properties:
Negation:
A finite auxiliary precedes the negation particle not to negate a sentence.
- Pat will not walk home.
- *Pat walked not home.
Inversion:
A finite auxiliary stands at the beginning of a sentence in yes/no-questions.
- Will Pat walk home?
- *Walked Pat home?
Contraction:
There is an idiosyncratic contraction form of the auxiliary and the negation particle. won't, can't
Ellipsis:
An auxiliary can occur in VP ellipsis, i.e. at the end of a sentence when a VP is missing.
- Pat should walk home and Mary might, too.
- *Pat walked home and Mary walked, too.
Special cases
- Modal auxiliaries: they only have tensed forms and take no -s in the third person singular present tense
- The infinitive marker to shows many properties of auxiliaries, and is considered an auxiliary in many theories of grammar.