V. VERB QUALITIES - UW-Parkside: Help for Personal Homepages
V. VERB QUALITIES - UW-Parkside: Help for Personal Homepages V. VERB QUALITIES - UW-Parkside: Help for Personal Homepages
124 Although the two forms of aspect might seem opposed to each other, the perfect progressive is not that unusual a combination, perhaps because modern English rather prefers to use the progressive for the current time, rather than the simple present. The auxiliary perfect marker “have” always comes first, so that the form of “be” used will always be “been” (10) It has been raining hard. [PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE] (11) It had been raining hard. [PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE] (12) It will have been raining hard. [FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE?] In diagraming such combinations, one simply multiplies cases in which an auxiliary verb takes the remaining parts of the verb phrase as a verb phrase predicate: There is a reason for trying to remember obscure tense-aspect combinations like past progressive passive and the like. One owes the reader the simple courtesy of keeping one's tenses consistent with each other. If one starts in the simple present, then one uses it with the present perfect, the present progressive, the present passive, and so on. If one starts in the simple past tense, one sticks to the past perfect, the past progressive, the past perfect, and so on. This is called the sequence of tenses, and it does not come easily to all writers. The perfect aspect is a particular problem, because perfects refer to completed actions, so that even the present perfect can seem like it should go with past tenses. Another source of problems in sequence of tenses is starting out in the narrative present, which we often use for telling anecdotes or for discussing things we have read, and then drifting into the more natural past tense. Such problems don't normally happen right away, so the illustrations below may seem a bit exaggerated: (13) ?? A man walks into a bar with a life-sized hot dog and says, "A beer for me and one for my friend here." The bartender looked at the hot dog and said, "We don't serve food here." (14) ?? Raising Kumquats for Fun and Profit by E. J. Diddle is a good book which gives many valuable hints for the novice kumquat-raiser. It claimed that kumquats are a golden fruit.
Passive Voice When have is the primary auxiliary, it is always followed by a past participle and always signals the perfect aspect. Be, unfortunately, is less well-behaved. When followed by a present participle it signals progressive aspect, but when followed by a past participle, it signals passive voice. It is all too easy for students to confuse passive constructions with either the progressive or the perfect. The grammatical concept of voice refers to the relationship between the subject and a verb. The default voice in English is the active voice. For cases in which a nominal which would normally be a complement of the verb is used as the subject, English uses the passive voice. The nominal which would normally serve as a subject is optionally found in a prepositional phrase headed with by. Some languages inflect verbs for voice, the relationship between the verb and the nominal expressions around it. A language which takes this seriously can have up to five kinds of voice, which should make you feel better about the difficulties posed by the English passive. English does not inflect for voice, using the auxiliary system instead, and it recognizes only two voices, active voice and passive voice. Almost all English sentences are in the active voice, and in analysis we can assume a sentence is in active voice unless specified otherwise. In theory, the active voice is for cases in which the subject is an active agent performing the verb. In practice, however, English uses the active voice for sentences in which the agent is neither present nor implied. In sentence (1) below, the subject is the agent, but if we take away the agent, the instrumental can serve as the subject, as in sentence (2): (1) George opened the door with a key. (2) The key opened the door. With a verb like open, we can take away the instrument and have what would otherwise be the direct object serve as the subject: (3) The door opened. Some verbs regularly take non-agents as subjects. In sentence (4), for example, Henry is clearly a victim rather than the agent of his own suffering: (4) Henry suffered terribly at the hands of the police. Some languages have a special middle voice for such cases, but English uses only the active. In English, passive voice is used for cases in which an agent is present or implied but a nominal which would normally be an object of the verb serves instead as its subject. If the agent is present, it is placed in a prepositional phrase headed by the preposition by: (5) The door was opened by George. (6) The door was opened with a key by George. The prepositional phrase with by gives us another signal that we have a passive construction. Passive sentences in which the agent is simply implied can be a little harder to recognize: (7) The door was opened. (8) The door was opened with a key. In learning to recognize the passive, it is best to rely on its structure, be + past participle, 125
- Page 1 and 2: V. VERB QUALITIES -Subjunctive Mood
- Page 3 and 4: Exercise 5.02: Subjunctive or Not?-
- Page 5 and 6: In addition to its obvious uses in
- Page 7 and 8: (3) Ought you to do so? One might t
- Page 9 and 10: (2) The captain was drinking heavil
- Page 11 and 12: You might notice that the auxiliary
- Page 13: 123 We can sometimes become confuse
- Page 17 and 18: What looks like the object of a pre
- Page 19 and 20: EXERCISE 5.09: Passive and Active--
- Page 21 and 22: 11) Karen is knocked up. 12) Last n
124<br />
Although the two <strong>for</strong>ms of aspect might seem opposed to each other, the perfect<br />
progressive is not that unusual a combination, perhaps because modern English rather<br />
prefers to use the progressive <strong>for</strong> the current time, rather than the simple present. The<br />
auxiliary perfect marker “have” always comes first, so that the <strong>for</strong>m of “be” used will always be<br />
“been”<br />
(10) It has been raining hard. [PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE]<br />
(11) It had been raining hard. [PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE]<br />
(12) It will have been raining hard. [FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE?]<br />
In diagraming such combinations, one simply multiplies cases in which an auxiliary verb takes<br />
the remaining parts of the verb phrase as a verb phrase predicate:<br />
There is a reason <strong>for</strong> trying to remember obscure tense-aspect combinations like past<br />
progressive passive and the like. One owes the reader the simple courtesy of keeping one's<br />
tenses consistent with each other. If one starts in the simple present, then one uses it with the<br />
present perfect, the present progressive, the present passive, and so on. If one starts in the<br />
simple past tense, one sticks to the past perfect, the past progressive, the past perfect, and<br />
so on. This is called the sequence of tenses, and it does not come easily to all writers. The<br />
perfect aspect is a particular problem, because perfects refer to completed actions, so that<br />
even the present perfect can seem like it should go with past tenses.<br />
Another source of problems in sequence of tenses is starting out in the narrative present,<br />
which we often use <strong>for</strong> telling anecdotes or <strong>for</strong> discussing things we have read, and then<br />
drifting into the more natural past tense. Such problems don't normally happen right away, so<br />
the illustrations below may seem a bit exaggerated:<br />
(13) ?? A man walks into a bar with a life-sized hot dog and says, "A beer <strong>for</strong><br />
me and one <strong>for</strong> my friend here." The bartender looked at the hot dog and said,<br />
"We don't serve food here."<br />
(14) ?? Raising Kumquats <strong>for</strong> Fun and Profit by E. J. Diddle is a good book<br />
which gives many valuable hints <strong>for</strong> the novice kumquat-raiser. It claimed that<br />
kumquats are a golden fruit.
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