GROUP 01

NGUYỄN THỊ TRÀ

PHẠM HỒNG LINH NI

NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH TRANG

HOÀNG THỊ LỆ
 PART 01.

EXPRESSING OUR
EXPERIENCE OF EVENTS
37.1 Syntactic elements of structure of the
verbal group

• The Verbal Group (VG) is the grammatical unit by means of

which we most typically express our perception of events
• A simple VG consists of one lexical verb (e.g. give) or
primary verb (a form of be, have, do) which indicates tense
(past or present). More complex VG consists of a main verb
preceded by one or more grammatical elements – the
auxiliary verbs (has been, has taken)
• The lexical and grammatical elements are all integral parts
of an analytical form. The first auxiliary has a special status
and is usually called the Finite operator,
• The constituent elements of the English verbal
group can therefore be represented and
exemplified as in the diagram.
VG

(o) (x) (x) v

V locked I locked my phone.
Ov are locking We are locking our phone
Oxv Have been locking I have been locking my phone
Oxxv Will have been locking She will have been locking the phone
 73.2. Realisations of the elements:
lexical verbs and auxiliaries
• The elements of the VG are realised by the following classes and forms of
verbs:
• lexical verbs: wait, come, rain, bring, etc.
• primary verbs: be: am, is, are, was, were, being, been; have: has, had,
having; do: does, did
• modal auxiliaries: shall, should, will, would, can, could, may, might, must,
ought to
• semi-modals: need, dare, used to (modals in certain uses)
• lexical auxiliaries:
• (1) be able to, be about to, be apt to, be bound to, be due to, be going to,
be liable
• to, be likely to, be certain to, be sure to, be to, be unlikely to, be
supposed to
• (2) have to, have got to
• (3) had better, would rather, would sooner
• The primary verbs carry grammatical meaning (tense,
aspect, person, number), the modal auxiliaries express
modal meanings (obligation, possibility, probability,
necessity) rather than lexical or grammatical meaning.
On the other hand, the lexical element of the verbal
group expresses both lexical meaning and grammatical
meaning.
• The primary verbs be, have, do can function both as
auxiliary and as lexical elements of the VG (with the
exception of doing and done, which function only as
lexical elements). The syntactic function determines the
type of meaning expressed, whether grammatical or
lexical.
• Infunctioning
addition to its function
as auxiliary verb asfunctioning
a main verb, be(main)
as lexical therefore
verb
has three
Elections auxiliary functions:Elections
are approaching. as anareaspect
imminent auxiliary in
We didn’t
the do anything about
progressive: is it.
taking; asWe
a did everything.
passive auxiliary: is taken;
He has had nothing to eat. He had nothing to eat.
and as the basis of the lexical auxiliaries that take be.
 37.3. Types of lexical auxiliary
• Lexical auxiliary is the term used for a set of verbs of
modal or aspectual meaning which form chain-like
structures with the main verb of the VG. The majority
are followed by a V-to-infinitive form, but a few take the
infinitive without to. They can be divided into three
types according to whether their first word is (1) be; (2)
have; (3) a modal idiom.
• As with other to-infinitive uses, the lexical auxiliaries
tend to point to a future event, though not invariably
so. They express subjective estimations of different
kinds, as indicated in the brackets. Some of these
auxiliaries have undergone semantic change, so they
are not what they seem at first sight.
 37.3.1 Be + Lexical item + to-
infinitive
Be + lexical item + V-to-inf Meanings
be going to BrE AmE gonna (prediction based on evidence)
We’re going to need more staff here.
They’re gonna have to be here.

be due to He’s due to arrive at any moment. (expectation of scheduled event)

be about to The plane is about to take off (imminence of event)
be to As a young girl, she little knew she was to marry the (planned event or destiny)
heir to the throne.

be bound to There’s bound to be some cheese in the fridge.

(confident anticipation)
be certain to She is certain to resign.
be sure to He’s sure to be waiting outside.
be likely to They’re likely to win by several goals. (probability)

be apt to He’s apt to ask awkward questions. (tendency or usualness)

be supposed to We’re not supposed to smoke in here. (duty, general belief)
be able to I am not able to guarantee the results. (ability, possibility)
 37.3. 2 Have or Have got + to-
infinitive

Have and have got + V-to-inf meanings

have to I have to finish these letters. (obligation)
There has to be a solution. (necessity)
have got to I’ve got to go now. Oh, do you obligation)
have to?
There’s got to be a solution. (necessity)

• Like must, these combinations have meanings of both

obligation and necessity
• With these modal meanings, have got to is more
common in spoken BrE , while have to is the preferred
form in AmE (Do you have to go?) Both gonna (‘going
to’) and gotta (‘got to’) are informal uses.
• The Subject-Finite operator inversion characteristic of be,
have and other auxiliaries in interrogative and negative
clauses, together with the requirement of a do operator
by lexical verbs. As a reminder here, we exemplify have to
and have got to in interrogative clauses, showing that
while have to can function either as a primary auxiliary or
as a lexical verb, have got to functions only as an auxiliary:
Have to Auxiliary Lexical verb
Interrogative Have you to go? Do you have to go?
Don’t you

have to go?
Negative declarative You don’t have to
go
 37.4 ‘RAISED’ SUBJECTS

EG: They are likely to win

=>>the NG at Subject does not appear to
be the logical Subject of the Complement
likely to win. In fact, the likelihood refers
not to the subject they, but to the situation
of winning.
• (a) That they will win is likely.
• (b) It is likely that they will win.
• (c) They are likely to win.
Syntactically, then, the nominal group (they) is
the logical subject of a clause embedded at
subject in (a) which is then extraposed, as in (b).
Finally the subject of the subordinate clause is
raised to become subject of the main clause, as
in (c)
 This is known as subject-to-subject raising
• To find them is hard.
• It is hard to find them.
• They are hard to find.
 this is Object-to-subject raising. It occurs when
a NG Object of a clause embedded at subject
(them in (a) is extraposed as in (b) and then is
raised to subject of the main clause, as in (c)
Note: Raised subjects have the advantage of
referring to persons or things by names, nouns or
pronouns in a clause that is shorter and simpler
than the corresponding that-clause or extraposed
structures. They also provide a different Theme
and Topic
 37.5 SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF
THE OPERATOR ELEMENT

• Any of the primary verbs or the modal

auxiliaries can stand in initial position and so
function as operator in a VG.
The operator element has four major distinctive
properties which are not shared by lexical verbs.
They carry the ‘operations’ in what have been
called the NICE constructions

N • Negation
I • Inversion
C • Code
e • emphasis
operation operator aux. lexical vb

1 Negation I don’t eat meat *I eatn’t . .

2 Inversion with S in Will you sign? *Sign you?

interrogatives

3 ‘Code’, that is, substitute I’ll go, if Mary will I want to go if you do (if
for the Predicator and you *want)
predicate in a clause

4 Emphasis (by tonic stress) Yes, I will go I do want to go

 Four more features also distinguish the operator
froma lexical verb:
operation
5 †Position of frequency of
adverb
6 Postposition of
quantifiers all and both
7 Verbal element in a tag
question
8 Independence of subject
operator aux
I can always go
They have all/ both gone
You will come, won’t you?
- Ed will teach the Juniors -
- The juniors will be taught
by Ed
lexical vb
I always want to go *I want
always to go
*They went all/both
They all/both went
. . . *comen’t you?
- Ed expects to teach the
Juniors
- The juniors expect to be
taught by Ed
NOTE: With verbs which have the active–
passive contrast, operators usually show no
change of meaning, whereas with some finite
lexical verbs (e.g. expect) there is a change of
meaning.
- While in AmE adverbs of frequency (always,
often, seldom, never) also follow the above
position, they tend to appear preferably
before the auxiliary or auxiliaries:
• You always, often, seldom, never can do it.
• I never would have done it.
• I would never have done it.
 PART 02.

BASIC STRUCTURES OF
THE VERBAL GROUP
 38.2 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
• Finite forms
 eat ( pres.indic.): We usually eat noodle in the morning.
 Eats ( pres. indic.): She eats candy.
 Ate (past indic.): I ate some cakes last night.
• Non-finite forms
 (to) eat (inf.) : I want to eat candy
 bare infinitive: I eat bread everyday
 eatting (pres. part.): He like eating meal
 eaten (past part.): He just has eaten some sweet cake
 38.1 EXPERIENTIAL STRUCTURE OF
THE VERBAL GROUP
• The experiential structure of the VG consists of Finite
+ Event + auxiliaries.
• 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/may go.
• The finiteness is realised on the lexical verb.
• The Finite is realised by an operator and may be
followed by one or more auxiliaries: It has been
snowing all day
 38.3 EXTENDED STRUCTURES
• The features of grammatical meaning which can be
expressed in an extended VG comprise the following
pairs, of which tense, finiteness, polarity and
contrastiveness are obligatory:
o Tense past, present
o Finiteness non-finite, finite
o Anteriority perfect, non-perfect
o Aspect progressive, non-progressive
o Modality modal, non-modal
o Polarity negative, positive
o Emphasis contrastive, non-contrastive
• These major features of grammatical meaning
represent sets of options between which speakers
choose every time they combine elements to form a
Verbal Group.
• An ‘extended’ Verbal Group structure consists of a
lexical verb at the head, preceded by up to four
auxiliaries – five if we include the lexical auxiliaries.
• The auxiliaries occur is fixed and depends upon the
grammatical meanings they convey.
• 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 shortly.
 38.4 STRUCTURES WITH ONE
GRAMMARTICAL AUXILIARY: O V
• In the finite VG with only one auxiliary, this
auxiliary is necessarily the operator and,
according to its type, selects a corresponding
form of the lexical verb.

• The o v structure can express the following

features of grammatical meaning, in addition to
the obligatory choices of tense, finiteness,
polarity and contrastiveness.
 features realisations
example
A 1 modal modal aux.+ V-inf
must eat
B 2 perfect have + V-en has
eaten
C 3 progressive be + V-ing is
eating
D 4 passive be + V-en is
eaten
And with a lexical auxiliary:
5 be + about to + V-inf is about to eat
• The four basic combinations also combine
with each other to make up more complex
Verbal Groups, all of which function as one
VG at Finite + Predicator in clause structure.
• The features modal, perfect, progressive,
passive occur in ordered combinations.
 38.5 STRUCTURES WITH TWO
GRAMMALTICAL AUXILIARIES: O X V
• 6 modal + perfect must have eaten
• 7 modal + progressive must be eating
• 8 modal + passive must be eaten
• 9 perfect + progressive has been eating
• 10 perfect + passive has been eaten
• In combination with a lexical auxiliary:
• 11 modal + lexical-aux must be about to
eat
• 12 perfect + lexical-aux has been about to
eat
• 13 lexical-aux + progressive is about to be
eating
• 14 lexical-aux + passive is about to be
eaten
 6. STRUCTURES WITH THREE
GRAMMATICAL AUXILIARIES: O X X V

15 modal + perfect + progressive must have been taking

16 modal + perfect + passive must have been taken
17 modal + progressive + passive must be being taken
18 perfect + progressive + passive has been being taken

- Verbal group of three grammatical auxiliaries are more common in

speech than in writing.
- With a lexical auxiliary added there are now four auxiliaries:

19 modal + perfect + lexical-aux must have been about to take

20 modal + lex-aux + progressive must be about to be taking
21 modal + lex-aux + passive must be about to be taken
22 perfect + lex-aux + progressive has been about to be taking
23 perfect + lex-aux + passive has been about to be taken
24 progressive + lex-aux + passive is about to be being taken

- No examples of five auxiliaries have been found in a large corpus.

However, it allows for their use if the context requires them.
 7. TELESCOPED ORDER OF TELEMENTS
OF THE VERBAL GROUP
- It is important to note that each sematic-synatic feature of a complex
VG is expressed, not by one element only, but by each element
telescoping into the following one:

modality: must + V_inf

perfect: have + V_en
Progressive: been + V_ing
Passive: being + V_en
Main verb: taken
= Verbal Group: must have been being taken
 8. EXTENDED NON-FINITE STRUCTURES

-The perfect, progressive and passive meanings can,

however, be expressed in the non-finite VG.
Infinitive structures Participle structures
25 to have taken having taken
26 To have been taking having been taking
27 To have been taken having been taken
28 To be taking (being taking)
29 To be taken being taken
- Lexical auxiliaries can of course also be
incorporated into non-finite structures.

Ex: Having been about to be operated on more

than once, he was sent home without having had
the operation.
 9. RELATIVE FREEQUENCY OF COMPLEX
VERBAL GROUPS

- Extended VG structures have developed and become

acceptable over time, and this process has not yet been
completed.

- Has a certain reluctance to use the longer forms such as

might have been taken.

- Such meanings are related to an objective, subjectively and

spontaneously, to evaluations, speculations and predictions
made by the speaker.
 10. DISCONTINUOUS VERBAL GROUPS

- The sequence of elements in VGs is often

interrupted by other clause elements, such as
subject, adjunct and intensifiers.

- In interrogative structures, interrupted by subject is

produced in certain types of thematisation.

- Discontinuity of the VG is also produced by

negative or semi-negative items.
THANKYOU FOR

WATCHING.