Auxiliaries 1

• there are three kinds of auxiliaries

• modal auxiliaries refer to alternative realities (can, must,
need)
• some auxiliaries are used to express the grammatical
categories tense, progressive, and voice (have, be, will,
shall)
• the so-called ‘dummy do’

(32) I can’t dance.

(33) You ought to be ashamed!
(34) The houses should have been being built.
(35) Do not despair.

• auxiliaries are similar to verbs in that they inflect for tense, e.g.,
can/could
• ‘tense’ is less visible in other pairs, e.g., may /might
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Auxiliaries 2
• auxiliaries differ from other, lexical verbs in the so-called ‘NITE’
contexts
• only auxiliaries can be negated

(36) You can’t do that!

(37) *I know not the cause.

• only auxiliaries can be inverted in questions

(38) Could you help me?/*Help you me?

(39) Who could I help?/*Who help I?

• only auxiliaries occur in tag questions

(40) You have destroyed it, haven’t you?

(41) *You destroyed it, destroyed you?

• only auxiliaries can be used in emphatic contexts

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Auxiliaries 3

• if no auxiliary is available, the (meaningless) auxiliary do is used:

‘do-support’

(43) I don’t know the cause.

(44) Do you help me?
(45) You destroyed it, didn’t you?
(46) He DOES play the piano.

• do and have occur as lexical verbs and as auxiliaries

(47) What did he do about it?

(48) I have had a car like this, too.

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Auxiliaries 4
• no number marking in the present tense though: he calls/he can
• no NP complement for auxiliaries

(49) He needs/wants a computer.

(50) *He must a computer.

• no infinitival VP complement with to

(51) I want to be your teddy bear.

(52) *I must to be at home by 11.

• according to these criteria, need occurs as lexical verb and

auxiliary

(53) I need a computer.

(54) He needs to leave early./He needs leave early.

• it can never be a blend of both readings

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The OE verb system 1

• perfect constructions in OE were interpreted literally

(56) oþ þæt hie hine ofslægenne

until that 3rd.N.PL 3rd.M.A.SG slain.ST.M.A.SG
hæfdon
have.PAST.PL
‘until they had slain him’ (lit. until they had him as a slain
one)
(57) oDrum þe hiora dæl
other.D.PL REL 3rd.G.PL part.A.SG
getynedne hæbben
enclosed.ST.M.A.SG have.S.PL
‘to others who might have enclosed their part’ (have their
part in an enclosed state)

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The OE verb system 2

• i.e., they are a possessive construction

• this is illustrated by the agreement on the participle
• note the accusative case of the participle, which shows its status
as part of the complement of habban
• further evidence for this analysis: the construction is used for
transitive verbs exclusively first
• the possessor cannot be identical to the possessed entity
• the object of the verb emerges as the expression modified
by the participle

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The OE verb system 3

• but due the general decline of inflection in OE, examples with

uninflected participles can also be found

(58) gif he ær hæfþ attor gedruncen

if he before has poison drunk
‘if he has drunk poison before’

• such cases, which show no agreement between noun and

participle, outnumber those that do
• this obscures the origin of the construction

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The OE verb system 4

• at some point, reinterpretation or reanalysis takes place

• there are competing analyses for a specific set of data
• a new possible analysis of this data wins over the formerly
correct one
• the new analysis is extended to cases not covered by the old
analysis
• the competing analyses of the possessive perfect-like
construction
• OLD: have NPAcc Part(Acc ) : here the lexical verb have
assigns accusative case to participle and noun
• NEW: have NPAcc Part: here the participle (as a form of a
verb) assigns case, have is an auxiliary

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The OE verb system 5

• evidence for beginning reanalysis in OE:

• interchangability with past tense

(59) þin geleafa hæfð ðe

your faith.N.SG have.3rd.SG.PRES 2nd.A.SG
gehæled
heal.PART
‘your faith has healed you’
(60) þin geleafa ðe gehælde ‘your faith healed you’

• both examples occur in Ælfric’s Homilies close to each

other

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The OE verb system 6

• in some cases a possessive analysis makes no sense anymore

(61) heo hæfdon utamærende þa

3rd.N.PL have.PL.PST expelled.A.PL the
bigengan þisses ealondes
inhabitants.A.PL this.G.SG island.G.SG
‘they had expelled the inhabitants of this island’

• syntactic reordering like in ((61)) makes the auxiliary have and

the participle adjacent
• case assignment requires adjacency of head and
complement (‘government’)
• first the relevant head is habban, then it is the participle
• thus, adjacency of habban and the complement is no longer
required

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The OE verb system 7

• the construction is extended to

• transitive verbs without object expressed (from 1000 on)
• intransitive verbs (from 1100 on)

(62) Da hwile De God gesegen hæbbe

then while the God seen have.SUBJ.SG.PRES
Dæt . . .
that . . .
‘while God may have seen that . . . ’

• these cases could no longer be analysed in terms of a

possessive verb have

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The OE verb system 8

• there also was a perfect-like construction with beon ‘be’

• it was typically used with verbs of motion

(63) Wæs Hæsten þa þær cumen mid his herge . . .

was H. then there come with his army
‘then H. had come there with his army . . . ’

• optional inflection of the participle shows the copulative origin of

the construction

(64) Craccuse wæron monege cyningas to

Gracchus.DAT were many king.NOM.PL to
fultume cumene
help.DAT come.PL
‘Many kings had come to Gracchus in support’

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The OE verb system 9

• German, Dutch and Romance languages have similar pairs of

perfect auxiliaries
• perfectivity was sometimes expressed by adverbials
• fullice ‘to the end’ for present perfect
• ær ‘before’ for past perfect
• the progressive emerged as a literal construction, too

(65) hie þa ymb þa gatu feohtende

3rd.N.PL then around the.A.PL gate.A.PL fighting
wæron
be.PL.PAST
‘they were fighting around the gates’

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The OE verb system 10

• its overall frequency in OE is rather low

• it is often used where it cannot be used in ModE and vice versa

(66) swa se secg hwata

thus the.M.N.SG man.N.SG brave.W.M.N.SG
secggende wæs laDra spella
saying was hateful.G.PL story.G.PL
‘thus the brave man was a teller of grievous tales’

• habituality in ModE would be indicated by the simple form

(67) I smoke vs. I am smoking

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The OE verb system 11

• is the OE progressive the forerunner of the ModE progressive?

• the gerund and the present participle merged w.r.t. form in
ME
• then there emerged a construction on V-ing in ME

(68) heo . . . weren at wenynge of vre louerdes aryste

‘They were awaiting our Lord’s resurrection’

• this might have been the origin of the progressive in ModE

• the gerund was reanalysed as present participle
• then English ‘invented’ the progressive twice

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The OE verb system 12

• progressive-like constructions with a locative preposition and a

nominal form of the verb (gerund, infinitive) occur in many
languages

(69) en chantant ‘in/while singing’ (French)

(70) Er ist eine Pizza am Essen. (German, Rheinische
Verlaufsform)
(71) Börek ye-mek-te-y-im.
pie eat-infinitive-locative-ø-be.1SgPres
‘I am eating pie’ (Turkish)

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The OE verb system 13

• the group of auxiliaries became distinguished sharply by

(E)ModE times
• no infinitive (i.e., no to)
• only simple past and present forms
• no do-support for negation, questions etc.
• in OE/ME, this distinction is not yet (fully) in place
• verbs that are now auxiliaries still had full paradigms, e.g.,
cunnan ‘to be able to’, past participle cuþ (German gekonnt)
• they were still used as transitive verbs

(72) I can no Latin, quod she (Piers Plowman)

• there is no do-support for lexical verbs yet

(73) I know thee not

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The OE verb system 14
• OE had a fully-fledged system of indicative vs. subjunctive (and
imperative)
• the indicative presents a proposition as true
• but it also occurs in if -clauses in conditional sentences

(74) Gif þes bealdwyrda biscop acweald ne bið, syððan

if the bold bishop killed not is then
ne bið ure ege ondrædendlic
not is our fear terrible
‘if the bold bishop is not killed, the fear we bring will
not be terrible’

• subjunctives express doubt about the truth of the

proposition, e.g., in wishes

(75) God us gerihtlæce

God us correct.SUBJ
‘May God correct us’
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The OE verb system 15

• OE had a number of verbs that could function as auxiliaries, e.g.,

the pre-modals
• this can be seen in uses in which they have no subject of their
own

(76) þonne mæg hine scamigan þære brædinge

then may him shame this.S.GEN spreading.GEN
his hlisan
his fame.GEN
‘then he may be ashamed of the extent of his fame’

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The OE verb system 16

• (pre-)modals increasingly replace the subjunctive to express

potentiality

(77) nænig manna is Dætte areccan mæg oDDe rim

no man is REL relate can.S.SG or number
wite
know.S.SG
‘there is no man who could relate or know the number’

• then auxiliaries lose the infinite inflection and the ability to take
NP complements
• finally, do-support becomes obligatory for lexical verbs
• tensed forms develop different shades of potentiality: may/might,
can/could

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