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:
“A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In the years of the Roman Republic, before the Christian era, Roman education was meant to produce those character traits that would make the ideal family man. Children were taught primarily to be good to their families. To revere gods, one’s parents, and the laws of the state were the primary lessons for Roman boys. Cicero described the goal of their child rearing as “self- control, combined with dutiful affection to parents, and kindliness to kindred.””
—C. John Sommerville (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)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)