UNIT 1 –

THE VERB PHRASE

 TENSE vs. TIME
It is important to make a clear distinction between time and tense.
While the notion of time – present, past and future – is universal
and independent of any particular language, tense is a linguistic
device or category, varying from language to language. Time is a
universal, non-linguistic concept with three dimensions: past,
present and future (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1986:40).

In the sentence

“Fred usually plays football in the afternoon.”

the verb plays is in the Simple Present Tense; however, this does
not imply that the action of playing takes place only in the present.
This means that Fred has played for some years in the past and
he will probably go on playing in the future.
Tense may also indicate:

(a) Aspect
(b) Mood
(c) Voice
(a) Aspect
adds information about the speaker's
perspective on time, that is to say, the
completeness or incompleteness of an action.
In English, there are three aspects: simple (or
unmarked), progressive and perfect.
 The simple or unmarked aspect refers to the
whole of an activity or an event, and not just
part of it.
I worked from 8 to 12.
I usually go to the office by car.
It will rain tomorrow.
 The progressive aspect describes an
event (or series of events) at some point
between its beginning and its end. It is
used with activity (dynamic) verbs and it is
the activity which is important, rather than
the end result.

They’re working at the moment.

I was reading when you phoned.
I have been working very hard these days.
 The perfect aspect is formed with the
auxiliary have and the –ed form of a lexical
verb. It gives information about the
duration of events and the relationship of
events to one another in time.
I have worked very hard today.
They had finished their homework.
She will have lived here for six months by the end of October.
(b) Mood
emotional attitude of the speaker towards
the action. It refers to the factual or non-
factual status of events. Non-factual here
means events which do not happen or
are only desired. The moods of English
are indicative (or declarative), imperative
and subjunctive.
 The indicative or declarative mood is a factual
mood. It is by far the most frequent mood and
involves all the choices available concerning
person, tense, number, aspect, modality and
voice. It is the usual mood in declarative,
interrogative, and exclamative sentences.
Sally usually watches TV at night.
She hasn't left home yet.
Did many people attend the meeting yesterday?
 The imperative mood is a non-factual mood and is used
to issue directives. Warm invitations can also be
expressed by means of the imperative. The imperative
involves the base form of the verb. Imperatives are a
very direct way of telling people to do something. We
can make an imperative sound politer by using do or
please before it.
Get up and start working.
Keep straight on and take the left turning at the traffic lights.
Stop talking, please.
Do sit down.
Come here and give it to me.
Sign here, please.
Stand, everyone.
Don't cry, Anna.
Don't you do that again, please!
 The subjunctive mood is a non-factual mood and is not
so frequent in English. It refers to wishes, desires, etc. It is
used after a very limited number of verbs (e.g. suggest,
insist, recommend, demand), occasionally after conditional
subordinators, expressions of necessity and a limited
number of set phrases. It occurs only in very formal styles.

1. The “mandative subjunctive” or “present” subjunctive involves

the base form of the verb with no inflections, and thus shows no
apparent agreement with its subject. It is used in a that clause after
an expression of such notions as demands, recommendation,
proposal, intention contained in subordinate clauses. Notice that
even when the verb is in the past tense, the present subjunctive is
used.

They insisted that she consult a psychiatrist.

I suggest that you be careful.
His lawyer recommends that he stay silent.
I demanded that he apologize.
 The subjunctive mood is usually used after adjectives
such as advisable, essential, important (typically in the
structure “It is important, essential ... that ...”).
It is essential that an adult accompany any child under ten.
It is important that he do all the homework in time.

2. The subjunctive were or past subjunctive: English

has a single word which grammarians call a “past”
subjunctive. This is the word “were”, used with singular
subjects in conditional sentences and also with the
subordinating conjunctions as if and as though and a few
verbs such as suppose and imagine.
If I were you, I'd tell her the truth.
I wish she were more independent.
If only I were taller.
He acted as if he were my boss.
3. The formulaic subjunctive: It consists of the base form
and is only used in clauses in certain set expressions
which have to be learned as wholes. These expressions
are usually used in exclamations to express a wish or
hope, very often involving supernatural powers:

Come what may, we will go ahead.

God save the Queen!
Suffice it to say that ...
Be that as it may ...
Heaven forbid that ...
God bless you!
Heaven help us!
Damn you!
God forgive you!
Heaven be praised!
(c) Voice:
 Verb phrases also indicate voice. Verbs have two
voices: active and passive. The active is the voice
that is used most commonly. Voice gives information
about the roles of different participants in an event
(e.g. who the agent was, who the participant was); in
other words, it can show whether a person or thing is
performing or receiving an action. The active and the
passive have different verb phrases in that the
passive has an additional auxiliary: a form of the
auxiliary be + an –ed participle.
The gardener is watering the plants. (Active voice)
The plants are being watered by the gardener. (Passive voice)
 Lexical and auxiliary verbs
What is a verb?
The verb in a sentence is the word that
typically expresses the action taken by the
subject of the sentence, or the state of
affairs that concerns the subject. As a
general rule, we can say that a sentence
needs a verb. The verb is what makes a
group of words into a sentence.
Lexical verbs are the biggest class and include most
verbs. They denote action, state or event. They are an
open class, and new verbs are frequently created. They
carry the base meaning of verb forms and may occur
with or without auxiliaries. Lexical verbs are classified
into action verbs (drink; cry, walk; remember; love;
etc.), and linking verbs (be; become; feel; stay, remain,
etc.)

Auxiliary verbs add information to the lexical verbs and

help the main verb to make up verb phrases. Auxiliary
verbs help other verbs to form the interrogative,
negative, emphatic forms, question tags. There are two
types of auxiliary verbs: primary auxiliaries (be, have,
do) and secondary or modal auxiliaries (can, could,
must, etc.)
 Primary auxiliary verbs are be, have and do and
constitute a closed class. They indicate clause type (e.g.
interrogative, negative), aspect (progressive or
perfective), and passive voice. On the other hand, be, do
and have can also be used as lexical verbs.
 Secondary or modal auxiliary verbs are a closed class
consisting of a core modal verb (can, could, shall, will,
would, must, might, may), semi-modal verbs (dare, need,
ought to, used to) and modal expressions (be able to,
have (got) to). Modal verbs add information to the lexical
verb, mainly concerning degrees of certainty and
necessity.
It might have been being used at the time.
They should have been punished.
She could have been working late.
 Notice that the verbs be, have and do can
be lexical verbs as well as auxiliary verbs:
 Finite and non-finite forms
 Verb phrases are either finite or non-finite. The verb that
makes a group of words into a sentence is called a finite
verb. It may be an action verb, a linking verb or an auxiliary
verb. Finite verbs can show tense, mood, aspect and
voice. They occur as the verb element of a clause where
there is person and number agreement between the
subject and the finite verb. In a finite verb phrase the first or
only verb is finite, and the other verbs (if any) are non-finite.

 Non-finite verbs do not show tense or mood, but they are

capable of indicating aspect and voice. In a non-finite verb
phrase all the verbs are non-finite. The non-finite forms are
the infinitive, the “-ing” forms (present participle and
gerund) and the past participle or –ed participle.
 Stative and dynamic verbs
There are numerous verbs whose inherent meaning is not
easily compatible with the use of the progressive. This is so
because they describe states or situations that we do not
expect to change. Such verbs are called stative verbs.
These verbs describe states (i.e., conditions that exist, they
have no beginning and no end); they do not describe
actions. It has been said that stative verbs do not normally
take the progressive because of a fundamental semantic
conflict between a grammatical aspect that denotes a
limited duration and a lexical aspect that expresses a stable
state. However, such an unqualified generalization
discounts the frequently made observation that the
progressive can occur with stative verbs to achieve certain
effects. The progressive turns states into events.