Строй современного английского языка

124 The Verb: Person and Number

S econd, there is no distinction of numbers in the 1st or 2nd person. Thus, the form live in these persons may refer both to one and to more than one subject. ^l

So what we actually find in the Modern English verb is this:

3rd person singular — lives All the rest — live

If we analyse this state of things in the Modern English verb in exact terms we shall reach the following conclusion. The opposition lives I live, or, in general terms, stem + s / stem + Ø, expresses the relation: 3rd person singular / any person of both numbers except 3rd person singular.

It is quite clear that the first item of the opposition is marked both in meaning (3rd person sing.) and in form (-s), whereas the second item is unmarked both in meaning (everything except the 3rd person sing.) and in form (zero-inflection). We ought to add that the category of mood is implied in this opposition, the form lives belonging to the indicative mood only, whereas live may also be any person of both numbers in the subjunctive mood (as far as we recognise its existence at all). Another consequence of this analysis is, that the -s-inflection in verbs conveys 4 meanings: 1) 3rd person, 2) singular number, 3) present tense, 4) indicative mood. The present tense is of course characterised by other signs as well: by the absence of the -d (or -t) morpheme denoting the past tense in regular verbs, and by alternation of the root vowel (e. g. [ı] in drinks as against [ae] in drank) in irregular verbs. But in verbs of the type put the -s is the only distinctive sign of the present.

The ending -s having four meanings to express simultaneously is of course a synthetic feature, standing rather by itself in the general structure of Modern English.

Some verbs do not fit into the system of person and number described above and they must be mentioned separately both in a practical study of the language and in theoretical analysis. We will limit ourselves to the verb can (the verbs may, shall, and some others sharing some of its features) and the verb be, which stands quite apart and, of course, is very widely used.

The verb can, as is well known, takes no -s-inflection parallel to such forms as lives, writes, takes, etc. Hence it follows that this verb has no category of person or number at all.

¹ We do not consider here the forms livest, livedst, etc., which do not make part of the grammatical system of literary and colloquial English. See p. 125.

The verb be has a system of its own both in the present indicative and in the past. Its system in the present indicative is as follows:

1st person singular 3rd person singular	— am — is
2nd person (without distinction of number) Plural (without distinction of person)	— are
In the past tense the system is:
1st and 3rd person singular	— was
2nd person (without distinction of number) Plural (without distinction of person)	— were

In analysing the system of person and number we have so far bypassed the forms of the type livest, takest, livedst, tookest. These forms are associated with the personal pronoun thou and are only used in religions and occasionally in poetical texts and among Quakers. As they stand outside the received grammatical system we need not go into details concerning them. Suffice it to say that with these forms the category of number appears within the category of the 2nd person and the whole system of person and number (including the past tense) must be presented in a different shape.

OTHER MORPHOLOGICAL CATEGORIES Negative Forms

The English language has in its verbal system a peculiarity distinguishing it both from Russian, German, French, and other Indo-European languages. To express the notion that an action did not take place, the English verb does not always simply add a negative particle to the verb form, as in the example has come — has not come. In many cases a special auxiliary verb, namely the verb do, is used if the negative idea is to be expressed. ^l Since the negative has (at least partly) its own auxiliary verb, it must be acknowledged as a special morphological category of the English verb.

This fact has of course been observed a long time since, and attempts have been made to tackle it. Academician A. Shakhmatov,

¹ Something broadly similar is found in some Finno-Ugrian languages, e.g. Finnish and Estonian.

126 The Verb: Person and Number

comparing the Russian negation and the English, pointed out that there is a special auxiliary for the negative in English, and put forward the idea that in English there is a special negative mood. ^l This idea, however, cannot be accepted by modern linguistics, as the negative forms may be found in every mood: compare, for instance, does not take, do not take (!) (imperative). Since the negative is compatible with different moods, it cannot itself be a mood. In other words, if the opposition takes — take (!) is an opposition of mood, the opposition lakes — does not take cannot also be an opposition of mood. The opposition takes — does not take must be based on some other category, whose concrete manifestations are the affirmative and the negative. It is hard to find a name for this general category. Perhaps we might term it "quality". ² Of its two components (affirmative and negative) the former is unmarked and the latter is marked: its marks are the group "do + not" in some forms and the particle not alone in others.

As the auxiliary do appears in some negative forms only, it might be argued that the category of quality is found only in these forms. However, it seems preferable to state this category for the English verb as a whole, and to differentiate the means of expressing it into "do + not" and not (alone).

We need not give here a full list of forms in which the one or the other of these means is used to express negativity. The use of the pattern "do + not" is restricted to the forms which have no other auxiliary of any kind. That is, the auxiliary do is incompatible with any other auxiliary verb.

Interrogative Forms

An important question arises concerning the interrogative forms of the English verb. It is well known that the auxiliary do is used here in the same way as in the negative forms and that interrogative-negative forms exist, in which the auxiliary do is used on the same principle.

Since the verb do is an auxiliary to form the interrogative, we must conclude that the opposition between declarative and interrogative forms (e. g. takes — does .. . take?) is also based on some grammatical category, which is no less difficult to define and to give a name to. We might perhaps think that the interrogative should be included as a third item in the opposition "affirmative — negative", thus forming a triple grouping "affirmative — interrogative — negative". But this is rendered impossible by the fact that in-

¹ See А. А. Шахматов, Синтаксис русского языка, 1941, стр. 482.

² The term "quality" is used in logic to distinguish between affirmative and negative propositions.

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