Issues in grammatical
terminology: the verb
Nigel Vincent
The University of Manchester
Topics
• form vs meaning
• tense
• aspect
• mood and modality
• subjunctivitis
• finiteness
Form vs meaning
• what do labels like PAST and PRESENT classify?
• labels for verbal paradigms
• Danish er vs English am, is, are
• compositionality
• conditional = FUTURE + PAST
• the slippage from form to meaning
• the historic present
• I was wondering if I could have a cup of coffee
Tense
• traditional terminology distinguishes PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
BUT
• too simplistic to deal with any language
• need to distinguish at least relative and absolute tense
• some languages may be missing one tense – does English
have a future tense?
• some languages may (appear to) lack tense altogether – e.g.
Chinese and cf Matthewson (2006) on Lilloets Salish
• tense may contribute to modality: PAST vs REMOTE
Aspect
• doesn’t even figure in the Draft Curriculum
• no clear agreement on terminology
• progressive, continuous, iterative
• often expressed periphrastically
• hence raises the question of compositionality
Mood and modality
The main modal verbs are will, would, can, could, may,
might, shall, should, must and ought. A modal verb only
has finite forms and has no suffix -s in the present tense
even when its subject is singular. They are important for
expressing degrees of certainty, or ability and obligation.
(Draft Curriculum)
Weak modality = Strong modality + counterfactual
Counterfactual = Future + Past
(von Fintel & Iatridou 2008)
French il doit ‘he must’ vs il devrait ‘he ought’
devrai t
<
debere + habe-bat
Subjunctives
• ‘The subjunctive form of a verb is occasionally used in very
formal contexts to indicate unreality, uncertainty, wish,
emotion, judgement, or necessity. Its inflection is
complicated, because it does not always differ from
nonsubjunctive forms.’ (Draft Curriculum)
• ‘What an unbelievable piece of outright burbling nonsense.’
(Geoff Pullum, Language Log, 27/6/12)
• This is subjunctivitis in its classic form: people gabbling away
about 'unreality' and 'uncertainty' and...'necessity'. We
might ask: what kind of category can it be if it expresses both
'uncertainty' and 'necessity'???? (Michael Rosen blog,
13/6/12)
But …
• contra Pullum: in many languages the subjunctive does
occur after verbs expressing emotion, doubt, fear, hope,
expectation, etc.
• contra Rosen: modals cover the whole range of necessity
and possibility so it’s hardly surprising if there is a single
verb form appropriate to such modalised contexts
And yet …
Even languages with a fully functioning subjunctive show
differences in distribution:
Italian
credo che venga (SUBJ) stasera ‘I think he is coming this evening’
voglio che venga (SUBJ) stasera ‘I want him to come this evening’
French
je crois qu’il vient (IND) ce soir
je veux qu’il vienne (SUBJ) ce soir
And the distribution of subjunctive can change over time.
Finite vs non-finite
• infinitives
Eng (to) eat vs Fr manger vs Dan spise
• ‘bare’ form of the verb
• participles
Latin Present
amans
‘loving’
Past
amatus
‘having been
loved’
Future
amaturus ‘about to love’
• gerund(ive)s