Traits of Auxiliary Verbs Across Languages
Typical uses of auxiliary verbs are to help express grammatical tense, aspect, mood and voice. They typically appear together with a main verb; the auxiliary is said to "help" the main verb. The auxiliary verbs of a language form a closed class, i.e. they are relatively small in number. They are often among the most frequently occurring verbs in a language.
Widely acknowledged verbs that can serve as auxiliaries in English and many related languages are the equivalents of be to express passive voice, and have to express perfect aspect or past time reference.
In some treatments, the copula be is classed as an auxiliary even though it does not "help" another verb, e.g.
-
- The bird is in the tree.
Definitions of auxiliary verbs are not always consistent across languages, or even among authors discussing the same language. Modal verbs may or may not be classified as auxiliaries depending on the language. In the case of English, verbs are often identified as auxiliaries based on their grammatical behavior, as described below. In some cases, verbs that have similar functions to auxiliaries, but are not considered full members of that class (perhaps because they carry a certain amount of independent lexical information of their own), are described as semi-auxiliaries. In French, for example, verbs such as devoir "have to", pouvoir "be able to", aller "be going to", vouloir "want", faire "make" and laisser "let", when used together with the infinitive of another verb, can be called semi-auxiliaries.
Read more about this topic: Auxiliary Verb
Famous quotes containing the words traits of, traits, verbs and/or languages:
“And, beholding in many souls the traits of the divine beauty, and separating in each soul that which is divine from the taint which it has contracted in the world, the lover ascends to the highest beauty, to the love and knowledge of the Divinity, by steps on this ladder of created souls.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Practically everyone now bemoans Western man’s sense of alienation, lack of community, and inability to find ways of organizing society for human ends. We have reached the end of the road that is built on the set of traits held out for male identity—advance at any cost, pay any price, drive out all competitors, and kill them if necessary.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)
“He crafted his writing and loved listening to those tiny explosions when the active brutality of verbs in revolution raced into sweet established nouns to send marching across the page a newly commissioned army of words-on-maneuvers, all decorated in loops, frets, and arrowlike flourishes.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)