Basic Structure of the Verbal Group

BASIC STRUCTURES OF THE VERBAL GROUP EXPERIENTIAL STRUCTURE OF THE VERBAL GROUP

In finite clauses the experiential structure of the Verbal Group is Finite + Event. The Finite carries tense, number and, to a limited extent, person. A modal auxiliary provides an alternative to a tensed auxiliary, for instance is going/ going/may go. go. A tensed form and a modal auxiliary do not occur together: *is *is may go. go. In one-word VGs, such as takes, has (she has long hair ), ), the finiteness is realised on the lexical verb. In longer sequences the Finite is realised by an operator and may be followed by one or more auxiliaries: It has been snowing all day . There is a parallelism between the Nominal Group and the Verbal Group as regards their respective experiential structures. Both begin with an element which relates them to the ‘speaker-now’ of the speech situation. The NG does this by means of  the deictic, or ‘pointing’ element, such as ‘this’ in this house, house, the VG by means of  the operator, which carries tense, modality and person (is waiting/ waiting/will wait ), ), or the lexical verb alone (waits (waits). ). The Verbal Group ends with the Event, which corresponds to the Entity in the Nominal Group, and provides the representational content. Both Event and Entity represent the nucleus of the lexical meaning. SIMPLE STRUCTURES OF THE VERBAL GROUP

A simple Verbal Group structure consists of a single element, usually the lexical element, realised by a finite or non-finite form of a lexical verb, for example drive: drive: Finite forms

drive (pres. indic.) They drive on the left in the UK. driv drives es (pr (pres es.. indi indic. c.)) He drives to work every day. drove (past indic.) He drove out of the garage. Non-finite forms

(to) drive (inf.) bare infinitivo driving (pres. part.) driven (past part.)

It’s important to drive with care. They won’t let you drive without a licence. Driving to work this morning, I heard the 9 o’clock news. Driven away by night, the car was then abandoned.

EXTENDED STRUCTURES OF THE VERBAL GROUP

An ‘extended’ Verbal Group structure consists of a lexical verb at the head, preceded by up to four auxiliaries, or five if we include the lexical auxiliaries. The order in which the auxiliaries occur is fixed and depends upon the grammatical meanings they convey.  The features of grammatical meaning which can be expressed in an extended VG comprise the following pairs, marked and unmarked, respectively, in 3rd person singular: marked

tense past, present went finiteness non-finite, finite going anteriority perfect, non-perfect has gone aspect progressive, non-progressive is going modality modal, non-modal will go polarity negative, positive doesn’t go emphasis contrastive, non-contrastive does go

unmarked

goes goes goes goes goes goes goes

 These major features of grammatical meaning represent sets of options between which speakers choose every time they combine elements to form a Verbal Group. The basic or unmarked options are: the present, finite, non-perfect, non-progressive, nonmodal,

positive, non-contrastive. Taking a 3rd person form of go, goes is the unmarked option in each case.  The auxiliaries serve to build up the meanings expressed by the modal, perfect, progressive and passive combinations, operating not in isolation but each telescoping with the next, as is explained below. In the following examples, we let has and is stand for any form of have and be, must for any of the modal auxiliaries and be about  to for the set of lexical auxiliaries.