Grammar Writing: Week 11

Auxiliaries, Identity and the Head-Complement Rule

So far, all our sentences just had a single finite main verb in them. But, of course English also has sentences with one or more auxiliary verbs and a main verb:

1. Lilly is dancing 2. Lilly has danced 3. Lilly will dance 4. Lilly will be dancing 5. Lilly will have danced 6. Lilly will have been dancing

Exercise

While the sentences above are grammatical, the ones below are ungrammatical:

7. *Lilly is dance
8. *Lilly has dancing
9. *Lilly will danced

Fill in the blanks below:

a. The forms of the progressive auxiliary be select a VP-complement whose VFORM value is: _____ .
b. The forms of the progressive auxiliary have select a VP-complement whose VFORM value is: _____ .
c. The forms of the progressive auxiliary will select a VP-complement whose VFORM value is: _____ .

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