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ENGLISH 101. ACADEMIC WRITING |
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Module 1 Module 2 3:
Euthyphro 11:
Research Project 19:
Outlines Module 5 25:
About the Exam
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Before we leave parts of speech and the tendency of some words to jump categories into other parts of speech, we have to look at the way that verbs do this. Understanding this behavior in verbs is a key to understanding everything else in grammar. Let's discuss this in 22-2 and 22-3. As we've already seen, the term ''parts of speech'' is a quaint expression for the kinds or categories of words that a language can have. But "parts" of the verb are really parts: verbs have parts in the sense of real pieces. Sure, sometimes the verb is just one word, as in ''I fell.'' But how about, "I had fallen before," or "I was falling fast," or "I've fallen too many times." All of these verbs are more than one word, and in each instance the verb is made up of parts, pieces. We call these pieces the principal parts of the verb. As noted earlier, verbs express action or states of being. Their principal parts express the time when the action takes place (past time, present time, or future time). In English, as in most of the world's languages, the verb carries time (or tense) either by adding a helping verb (I go, I will go), or by adding a suffix (she helped us), or by changing the word itself (today I speak, but yesterday I spoke). Verbs which add an -ed to form the past tense are called regular verbs; those that change the word itself are irregular verbs (Hacker section 11a).
So, what we have thus far are three simple tenses: past, present and future
and three perfect tenses: past perfect, present perfect and future perfect
Verbs also can show action in progress: English verbs have progressive forms that show the action in progress in the present, in progress in the past, and in progress in the future. Reasonably enough, these tenses are called the past progressive, the present progressive, and the future progressive:
Finally, verbs can combine the perfect and the progressive. These most subtle of tenses are called the past perfect progressive, the present perfect progressive, and the future perfect progressive:
All of these changes, all of these tenses, are signaled by the four principal parts of the verb:
Knowing the principal parts of the verb is crucial in order to grasp phrase structure and other more complicated aspects of grammar. For further review of verb parts, look at Dr. E's Grammar Sequence for College Writers. |
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gutchess@englishare.net Academic writing home page Gary & Elizabeth Gutchess © 2003 |
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Right:
early writing in oven-baked clay from Sumeria, c. 3200 BCE. Much of
this writing apparently was used to keep track of inventories. All
of the books were cooked! The earliest known writing in Greek was
only half-baked (sun-dried), but it was used for the same practical
purpose. Written laws didn't appear in the Greek world until the
time of Draco (the Draconian laws) in about 600 BCE. Again, the
Mesopotamians were far ahead with Hammurabi's law code dating from
about 1750 BCE.