THE ENGLISH AUXILIARY SYSTEM

  1. BASICS
  1. SYNTAX
  1. MORPHOLOGY
  1. PHONOLOGY & MORPHOPHONOLOGY
  1. SEMANTIC & PRAGMATICS

LIST OF AUXILIARIES

DUAL CATEGORISATION

MODALS

OTHER

Can / Could

May / Might

Will

Shall / Should

Must

Ought

Need

Dare

[%use]

Do

Have

Be

Need

Dare

Have

Do

[%use]

AUXILIARIES VS. MAIN VERBS (Distributional Properties)

TYPES OF AUXILIARIES

Negation

Adverbs & Quantifiers

Inversion (Subj-Aux)

Code

Dual Categorisation

Aux: Negation immediately follows auxiliary

MV: Negation can't immediately follow main verb

Do support + MV non-finite form

Exception = when a constituent is negated c.f. whole sentence

Aux: Generally precede adverbs and quantifiers, but can occur after

MV: Must occur after frequency adverbs and quantifiers

Adverbs: modal (probably, certainly) and frequency (often, always, never)

Quantifiers: All

Other stylistically marked contexts

E.g. direct questions, interrogative questions

Aux: Do-support is impossible

MV: Do-support if there is no Aux

Clauses with initial negative constituent negating whole clause

Clauses modified by 'only'

Clauses with initial constituent modified by 'so'.'such'

Conditional clauses without 'if'

Exclamatives (Inversion = optional in this case)

Conclusion: in questions + other constructions...

Auxiliaries invert with subject

Main verbs always stay on right of subject

Can do this for Auxiliaries but not MVs

E.g. He has seen it and I have too

Do

Have

Dare - more commonly MV

Need - more commonly MV

%Use - much more commonly MV

Modal (+ 'Do') vs. Have / Be

Ordering Restrictions

Modals + Do = always first position

Order = Modal - Have (perfect) - Be (progressive) - Be (passive)

SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS

Combinatory Restrictions

Can be more than one occurrence of have / be in a sentence

Modals are mutually exclusive (as so is 'do')

Core vs. Non-Core

Core = Auxiliary + Main Verb

Non-Core = when Auxiliary is used alone

Is

Have

Would

Simple Declarative Clauses

Interrogative Clauses

Modals & 'Do': Always in I, always finite

Be / Have: begin in V and can be raised to I if finite. Select VP as complement

MV: Always in V. Inflection lowered from I-V

Questions with Auxiliary

Questions without Auxiliary

Do-support - do inserted under I

I - C movement

Modals: I - C

Be / Have: V - I, I - C

HAVE - 4 forms (core use)

Finite & Non-Finite possible

Present tense

Bare form - 'Have'

Form ending in -s (3rd person singular, names, numbers): 'Has'

Other inflected forms

Gerund - 'Having'

Past tense - 'Had'

Past Participle - 'Had' (Not possible in core use)

DO - 3 forms

3rd Person Singular - 'Does'

Base form for other persons / numbers in present - 'Do'

Past Tense - 'Did'

Be - 8 Forms

Present Tense x 3: 'Am' 'Are' 'Is'

Past Tense x 2: 'Was' 'Were'

Gerund: 'Being'

Past Participle: 'Been'

MODALS - 1 or 2 forms

Present Tense

Past Tense

No...

3rd Person Singular Agreement

Non-finite forms

Past Participle

Complement Selection...

Modals & Do select bare non-finite form

'Be' selects past participle or gerund

'Have' selects past participle

Emphatic Polarity

ALLOMORPHY: found in 3 main contexts...

Possible with Aux.

When you deny a negative proposition by stressing an Aux.

MV can't - need do-support

Weak Forms

Reduced Forms

Forms that co-occur with reduction of 'not'

Aux = generally unstressed in connected speech

Schwa replaces vowel or vowel deleted

Can't weaken when in clause-final position or emphasis

Reduced allomorphs merge with adjacent word

Examples...

High restriction: are, am, have, will

Medium restriction: had, would

Low restriction: is, has

Reduction possible after subject pronoun

Can come after DPs

Last sound of DP must be a vowel

I'm, You're, I'll. I've, etc.

He'd, Mary'd, Mary & Sue'd, etc.

Possible after any DP, even wh- words and in C position

Has allomorphic variation --> phonologically conditioned allomorphy

The car's, neither Gloria nor Godfrey's, who's, etc.

Restriction for ALL = no reduction if syntactic gap or stress

Restrictions

Can't attach to 'may' or 'am'

No double contractions

Attaching reduced form of 'not' can create an allomorph of the Auxiliary