PDE: verbs

							Present Day English
 How we use and label verbs
 Principal Parts of PDE Verbs

• Verbs in all Germanic languages have
  few inflections ( except “to be”)
  – all English verbs have 4 principal parts
     •   simple present indicative “ walk”
     •   simple past indicative “walked”
     •   present participle “walking”
     •   past participle “(have) walked”
  – sample irregular: “lie, lay, lying, (have)
    lain”
PDE Verbs have Person and Number
 • Three persons
   – first: I, we
   – second: [thou], you
   – third: he, she, it, they
 • Two numbers
   – singular: I, [thou], you, he, she, it
   – plural: we, you, they
     PDE Verbs have Mood
• Indicative
  – statements -- Jane walks the dog.
• Imperative
  – commands -- Walk the dog please, Jane!
• Subjunctive
  – wishes, prayers, curses -- I wish Jane
    would walk the dog -- God bless the dog
    -- Damn that dog!
• Interogative
  – questions -- Does Jane walk the dog?
      PDE Verbs have Voice
• In active voice, the subject performs the
  action of the active verb on the direct
  object.
  – John doctored the sick cat.
• In passive voice, the subject receives the
  action of the active verb, but the
  performer of that action need not be
  named.
  – Dinner was cooked by my grandmother.
  – That ink bottle was broken all over the couch.
PDE Verbs haveTense/Aspect: present
  • Simple present: walk, walks
  • Emphatic present: do walk
     – this is used often in interrogative sentences
  • Present progressive: am/are/is walking
     – progressive tenses may also indicate ongoing action
  • Present perfect: have/has walked
     – this indicates “just completed this minute” action, or
       action completed just before a present action.
  • Present perfect progressive: have/has been
    walking
  • In OE, all these were fulfilled by one single simple
    present tense.
PDE Verbs haveTense/Aspect: past
•   Simple past: walked
•   Emphatic past: did walk
•   Past progressive: was/were walking
•   Past perfect: had walked
    – this indicates an action completed before
      another action completed in the past: She had
      done the dishes before she went off to the
      film.
• Past perfect progressive: had been walking
• OE has one simple past tense!
 PDE Verbs have Aspect: future
• Simple future: will walk
• Future progressive: will be walking
  – ongoing future action
• Future perfect: will have walked
  – a future action that will be completed before
    another future action: I will have graded 1000
    essays before the end of the term.
• Future perfect progressive: will have been
  walking
• OE had no future tense at all. Future was
  indicated with an adverb of time: “I drive
  the sheep tomorrow” literally.
Be & Linking verbs vs. Action verbs
• Be and Linking verbs link the subject
  to a noun or an adjective in the
  preposition.
  – He is my doctor / Amy seems pleased
• Action verbs describe an action
  taken by the subject
  – Peter wrote the essay.
  (In)Transitive verbs in PDE
• A transitive verb is able to take a direct
  object (a receiver of the action of the
  verb)
  – Patricia ate the hamburger.
• An intransitive verb is never able to take
  an object.
  – The baby slept fitfully.
• Some verbs have both transitive and
  intransitive meanings.
  – The baby seldom cried.
  – The baby cried “Mama.”