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Uses of the subjunctive. We distinguish two main uses of the present subjunctive:
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the Mandative Subjunctive is used in a that-clause after an expression of such notions as demand, recommendation, proposal, intention (e.g. We insist, prefer, request; It is necessary, desirable, imperative ; the decision, requirement, resolution ).
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The Formulaic (or optative) Subjunctive is used in certain set expressions:
God save the Queen Heaven forbid that…
Long live the King Be that as it may…
Come what may Suffice it to say that…
The past subjunctive is hypothetical in meaning. It is used in conditional and concessive clauses and in subordinate clauses after wish and suppose:
If I were a rich man, I would…
I wish the journey were over.
Just suppose everyone were to act like you.
Subjunctive were is often replaced in informal style by indicative was.
Voice. Active and Passive. The distinction between active and passive applies only to sentences where the verb is transitive. The difference between the active voice and the passive voice involves both the verb phrase and the clause as a whole. In the verb phrase, the passive adds a form of the auxiliary be followed by the –ed participle of the main verb. For example:
Kisses is kissed
Has kissed has been kissed
May be kissing may be being kissed
At the clause level, changing from active to passive has the following results:
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the active subject, if retained, becomes the passive agent.
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the active object becomes the passive subject.
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the preposition by is inserted before the agent.
Aspect. Aspect is a grammatical category that reflects the way in which the action of a verb is viewed with respect on time. We recognize two aspects in English, the perfect and the progressive, which may combine in a complex verb phrase, and are marked for present or past tense:
Present perfect - has examined
Past perfect - had examined
Present progressive - is examining
Past progressive - was examining
Present perfect progressive - has been examining
Past perfect progressive - had been examining
Conclusions to Part II
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Verbs are the very large lexical word class in English. Verb is a part of speech which denotes an action.
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The verb has the following grammatical categories: person, number, tense, aspect, voice and mood. These categories can be expressed by means of affixes, inner flexion and by form words.
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As a word class verbs can be divided into three main categories, according to their function within the verb phrase: the open class of Full Verbs (or lexical verbs), and the very small closed classes of Primary Verbs, and Modal Auxiliary Verbs.
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The verb has finite and nonfinite forms (called verbals). There are three verbals in English: the participle, the gerund and the infinitive.
5. The subclasses of lexical verb that can be identified tend to depend on the context in which they occur. Whilst the traditional grammars distinguished between transitive and intransitive verbs.
6. Verbs are the nucleus around which sentences are typically built.
7. Whether an item takes a specifier or not is an important characterizing feature for the functional categories. Those lexical categories that take a specifier are verbs; those that do not are nouns and adjectives.
8. Verb phrase is the part of the predicate constituent that does not contain optional adverbials.
9. The simplest verb phrase will be a main lexical verb on its own. The other constituents of the verb phrase will be modal auxiliary, perfect auxiliary, progressive auxiliary, and passive verb.
10. The Verb Phrases exist of two types: finite VP and nonfinite VP. They have the grammatical categories of the verb itself.
Part III. Discourse Analysis of Verb Phrases in John Galsworthy’s
FORSYTE SAGA. Part I. THE MAN OF PROPERTY (pp.1-10)
In his novel “FORSYTE SAGA” John Galsworthy preferably uses perfective and lexical verb phrases.
The following table shows the prevailing quantity of lexical verb phrases, that mainly denote human feelings, emotions, thoughts, decisions. And the other major group of verb phrases the author uses is the perfective verb phrases. Galsworthy uses them in order to show, how his personages’ intentions are put into life, what means do they use, and what kind of results they bring out. Rarely he uses modal verbs, passive voice, and progressive verbs.
Summary of verb phrase structures
Type of VP | Example | Sum | % |
Modal | She ought to be very happy. | 11 | 16 |
| Perfective | A very sweet look had come into the old lady's face, she kissed the girl's check with trembling fervour. It was her world, this family, and she knew no other, had never perhaps known any other. Still, he had forfeited his right to be there, had cheated her of the complete fulfilment of her family pride, deprived her of the rightful pleasure of seeing and kissing him. | 20 | 22 |
Progressive | Old Jolyon's coachman, was driving June and Bosinney to the theatre, and remarked to the butler….. At the window his father, James, was still scrutinizing the marks on the piece of china.. | 6 | 12 |
Passive | Soames Forsyte, flat-shouldered, clean-shaven, flat-cheeked, flat-waisted, yet with something round and secret about his whole appearance, looked downwards and aslant at Aunt Ann. Her hands, gloved in French grey, were crossed one over the other, her grave, charming face held to one side, and the eyes of all men near were fastened on it. | 9 | 15 |
| Lexical | Aunt Ann turned her old eyes from one to the other. When Winifred married Dartie, I made him bring every penny into settlement--lucky thing, too--they'd ha' had nothing by this time!" | 33 | 35 |
The verb phrase can have just a verb, or a verb followed by a noun phrase, or a verb followed by an adjective phrase, or a verb followed by an adverb phrase, or a verb followed by a preposition phrase, or a verb followed by preposition phrase+ verb phrase, or a verb followed by two or more different phrases.
| Verb phrase followed by other phrases | Example | Sum | % |
| VP having just a verb | “What are you givin?” If Irene had no money she would not be so foolish as to do anything wrong; for they said--they said--she had been asking for a separate room; but, of course, Soames had not.... Timothy, indeed, was seldom seen. | 17 | 9 |
| VP followed by a NP | He was an architect, not in itself a sufficient reason for wearing such a hat. Never had there been so full an assembly, for, mysteriously united in spite of all their differences, they had taken arms against a common peril. There was warmth, but little colour, in her cheeks. | 37 | 20 |
| VP followed by an AdjP | If he were sleek, well-brushed, prosperous-looking, it was more necessary to give him nice things. Her large, dark eyes were soft. | 21 | 11 |
| VP followed by AN AdvP | In the end each gave exactly what was right and proper. His forehead sloped back towards the crown of his head, and bulged out in bumps over the eyes, like foreheads seen in the Lion-house at the Zoo. And every now and then a Forsyte would come up, sidle round, and take a look at him. | 27 | 14 |
| VP followed by PP | Had she not said to Mrs. Soames--who was always so beautifully dressed—that feathers were vulgar? Like cattle when a dog comes into the field, they stood head to head and shoulder to shoulder, prepared to run upon and trample the invader to death. How impossible and wrong would it have been for any family, with the regard for appearances which should ever characterize, the great upper middle-class, to feel otherwise than uneasy! A tall woman, with a beautiful figure, which some member of the family had once compared to heathen goddess, stood looking at these two with a shadowy smile. | 34 | 17 |
| VP followed by a PP+VP | He had never committed the imprudence of marrying, or encumbering himself in any way with children. | 11 | 6 |
| VP followed by two or more phrases. | The eldest by some years of all the Forsytes, she held a peculiar position amongst them. The author of the uneasiness stood talking to June by the further door. He stretched out his hand to meet that of a dapper, clean-shaven man, with hardly a hair on his head, a long, broken nose, full lips, and cold grey eyes under rectangular brows. | 42 | 23 |
Conclusions to Part III
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We have made a discourse analysis of the verb phrases in Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. As we may conclude the author frequently uses verb phrases.
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According to the data from the tables we come to a conclusion that Galsworthy mainly describes people’s acts, deeds and the results of these acts. This is why the author preferably uses the verb phrases of movement.
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Galsworthy also uses simple lexical verbs to show feeling, emotions, thoughts of his heroes.
Conclusions
1. Syntax is the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence.
2. The main object of syntax is sentence construction.
3. One of the most obvious yet important ways in which languages differ is the order of the main elements in a sentence.
4. The basic word order in English clauses is subject–verb–object, articles precede the noun they modify, and auxiliary verbs precede the main verb. These are English-specific syntactic rules.
5. The connection between the words in a sentence is realized through the changes in their forms and these changes in the form of the words to indicate their function in the sentence are called ‘inflections’, and the study of the formation of words and how they may change their form is called morphology.
6. Syntax investigates simple sentences, as well as their combinations called complex sentences.
7. A central part of the description of what speakers do is characterizing the grammatical (or well-formed) sentences of a language and distinguishing them from ungrammatical or (ill-formed) sentences.
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