Unit 20 Auxiliary and Modal Verbs: Forms and Functions

ABSTRACT

The Organic Law of Education 2/2006 amended by LOMLOE 3/2020 requires us to achieve Stage Objectives i) in CSE and f) in Baccalaureate, both referring to the learning of a foreign language which develop the multilingual key competence, a referent for all stages of the educational system. Decrees 82 and 83 of 2022 provide the curricular elements specific to English in our region for CSE and Baccalaureate respectively, a specification of those outlined in Royal Decree 217/2022 and Royal Decree 243/2022. In Appendix II of said Decrees, we will find within Block A of the Basic Knowledge for all stages, "Basic communicative functions according to context and topic; ( ... ) asking for and giving instructions and orders; ( .. ) expressing opinion, possibility, ability, obligation and prohibition." And in Baccalaureate "making predictions for the short, medium and long term." This highlights the relevance of the findings of the present unit, which aims to provide an insight into time reference in English.linceenglishsecondary@gmail.com

INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. PRIMARY AUXILIARY VERBS 3

CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMARY AUXILIARY VERBS

3

BE

4

HAVE

5

DO

6

1. MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS 6

MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS

6

LEXICAL AUXILIARIES AND SEMI-MODALS OR QUASI-MODALS

7

MODALITY

7

1. CONCLUSION. 9
2. BIBLIOGRAPHY 9

EXTRA RESOURCES

11

SUMMARY

11linceenglishsecondary@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION

An auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main (or full/lexical) verb following it. The elements of Verbal Group or Verbal Phrase are realised by the following classes of verbs: the immense open category of lexical verbs such as wait, come, go, bring; the three primary verbs: be, have, and do which may function as lexical verbs or auxiliary verbs; the modal auxiliaries shall, should, will, would, can, could, may, might, must; and a range of other verbs of intermediate function, lexical auxiliaries or semi-modals such as ought to, need, dare, and used to and a category which may be referred to as modal idioms, semi-auxiliaries or lexical auxiliaries such as be able to, have to, had better (although there are many others which we shall encounter in this study) This unit is primarily aimed at examining auxiliary and modal verbs in terms of form and function. As a result, we shall look at the categories of primary verbs, modal auxiliary verbs and those verbs of intermediate function. We shall divide the study then into two large sections, first looking at primary verbs before moving on to the various categories of modal verbs. In the process, we shall look at the syntactic functions and the semantic uses of primary verbs and modal verbs.

PRIMARY AUXILIARY VERBS

The primary auxiliary verbs are a closed set consisting of be, have or do. They have a "double life" (Swan, 2016); they can function as both auxiliary and lexical elements of verbal phrase, as can be seen in the following examples. Elections are approaching / Elections are imminent We didn't do anything about it / We did nothing He has had nothing to eat / He had nothing to eat That said, now we shall go on to look at the characteristics which distinguish the primary auxiliary verbs from the main lexical verbs.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMARY AUXILIARY VERBS

Any of the primary verbs can stand in the initial position as the operator in the verbal phrase. This auxiliary operator has four major distinct properties which are not shared by lexical verbs, referred to with the useful mnemonic NICE, originally identified as such by linguist Rodney Huddleston in the article "Some Theoretical Issues in the Description of the English Verb" (Lingua, 1976)1 It should nevertheless be noted that the verb be is exceptional, in the sense that it has these properties whether it is an auxiliary verb or a lexical verb. Firstly, the 'N' stands for negation, the auxiliary may be negated with the particle not and contracted. Indeed, the negative form of auxiliary do (don't or didn't) is needed for all main verbs as a 'dummy-operator' for the present and past simple, as we shall see later. I don't (do not) eat meat I haven't (have not) played tennis He isn't (is not) doing anything / She isn't (is not) lazy Secondly, we consider inversion (the I element); the auxiliary may be inverted with the subject. This is most frequently seen in interrogatives. Once again, the dummy operator do/does/did is needed for main verbs. Whilst do and does are needed for the present simple, did is needed for the past simple. 1 www.thoughtco.comlinceenglishsecondary@gmail.com Are you listening? Have you signed? Do you go there often? Does he go there often? Did he go there often? They may also be inverted after so, neither or nor in short answers and similar structures or after negative adverbs or restrictive expressions with hardly, seldom, rarely, little or never and in conditional clauses. Finally, inversion sometimes happens after as, than and so in a literary style. I don't like opera. Neither do I Under no circumstances will he agree to that proposal Not until much later did she learn who her real father was Hardly had I arrived when trouble started) Had I realised what you intended, I wouldn't have come. So ridiculous did she look that everybody burst out laughing City dwellers have a higher death rate than do country people. Thirdly, auxiliaries alone exhibit code(C), also referred to as substitution, or ellipsis, or pro-form, the ability to allow a following verb clause to be deleted. The auxiliary verb usually has a strong pronunciation, and contractions are not usually used, except in negatives. Will she take the job? I think she should, and she probably will, but Mike thinks she can't. I want to go if you do He said he'd write but he hasn't Did you go? Yes I did. (short answers) Finally, regarding the four main characteristics, the 'E' element stands for the fact that the affirmative auxiliary may be used for emphasis or contrast, by tonic stress: I do want to go. You do look nice! I don't do much exercise now, but I did play a lot of football when I was younger. In addition, there are other minor features which also distinguish the operator from a lexical verb (Downing, 2014) · Regarding the position of frequency adverbs, they follow the operator but precede lexical verbs: I have always wanted to be a teacher/ I always wanted to be a teacher. · With auxiliary verbs, quantifiers all or both may be postponed: They have all gone; They all went . The auxiliary verb may serve as the verbal element in a tag-question or echo question: You know, don't you? I came in late last night! Did you? Now that we have seen the syntactical behaviour of modal verbs, we shall go on to look individually at the three verbs which may behave as lexical verbs or auxiliary verbs.

BE

As stated earlier, the verb be is exceptional in that it also has the characteristics of auxiliary verbs when functioning as a main lexical verb. The verb be is used as an auxiliary in two constructions; in the passive voice and to express the progressive aspect. We shall now go on to look at these constructions, starting with the progressive aspect. Forms of be can be used along with the -ing form of the main verb to express an event in progress at a given time. This is the progressive (also called the continuous) aspect. It is freely combined with tenses and with perfective aspect. The continuous form is most often used with unbounded dynamic verbs to refer to an action or event that is temporary and occurring at the moment of speaking. The event is unfolding before our eyes. (Downing, 2014) He sings (habit/routine) / he is singing (in process) She runs a business (permanent) / She is running a sports club (temporary) As the progressive is dynamic in character, it lends a dynamic interpretation to whatever verbal action it is applied to (Downing, 2014), although the interpretation may differ slightly according to the lexical aspect of the verb. For this reason, not all verbs admit the progressive, and those that do admit it are affected in different ways. For example, with stative verbs, the progressive aspect may mean the state viewed is a temporary one, or it may provide verbs of opinion with a dynamic character. He is silly! Stop being silly! I love this book. I am loving this book. With punctual or momentary verbs, it may provide iterative or repetitive meaning, or change the meaning to a durative one, such as in: that boy kicks the man is kicking him (iterative) the cable snaps the cable is snapping (durative before an expected end-point) Now that we have seen the progressive, we shall look at the use of 'be' as auxiliary to form the passive. The auxiliary verb be is used in any tense and aspect with a past participle to form the passive voice. Although there are many reasons why we may wish to use the passive, most commonly, the passive structure is often chosen when we want to talk about an action, but are not interested in saying, or don't know who or what did the action. This may be seen in the following examples. English is spoken here. I wasn't invited, but I went anyway. Excuse the mess, the house is being painted. I felt as if I was being watched. In the last two examples it can be seen that the passive is combined with the progressive aspect described in the previous section. In this case the finite operator expresses the progressive aspect of the passive auxiliary verb be. Indeed, the passive may also be combined with the perfective aspect (or indeed both progressive and perfective aspects though infrequently). We shall come back to the combination of auxiliary verbs later in this study. It should also be noted that, because many past participles are also stative adjectives, in certain circumstances the passive voice can sometimes be ambiguous. Thus, there may be doubt as to whether be is the lexical verb or an auxiliary verb. At 8:25 the window was closed

HAVE