Delahunty and Garvey
Enormous lists of principal parts of verbs may be useful for reference pur-
poses or for non-native speakers, but they are not a generally useful peda-
gogical tool. For native speakers, rote memorization of such lists is a mind-
numbing pursuit of trivia. Knowledge of the basic patterns discussed above,
along with normal native-speaker intuition will allow any native English
speaking student to produce the principal parts of all common English verbs.
For instance, the Ved form can be determined by placing the verb in a simple
sentence beginning with the word yesterday (e.g., Yesterday I drank a gallon of
grapefruit juice). The Ven form can be obtained by placing the verb in a simple
sentence following the auxiliary have or has, for example, I have run two miles.
Exercise
- Identify which of the words below are verbs, using as many of the in-
flectional criteria above as possible. Do not be surprised if, with a little
ingenuity, you can turn almost any word into a verb. Such potential in-
novations attest to the power of zero derivation and to the limitations
of semantic definitions: eraser, elbow, sense, fork, several, even, easy,
always, up - Because of historical changes in English, formerly inflectional mor-
phemes have come to be derivational morphemes that are pronounced
the same as their inflectional counterparts. This change affects two
forms. First, {-ing} has come to occur on nouns formed from verbs, as
in the grumblings of the sailors. Note that the {-ing} word may be plu-
ralized and/or preceded by the. Second, both {-ing} and {-en} have be-
come adjective endings in some words, as in more interesting remarks
and very frozen pipes. If a word can be modified by very, quite, and
rather, it is an adjective or an adverb, not a verb. Remember also the
kinds of words that precede nouns. Consider the sentences below and
argue that the italicized expression is or is not a verb.
a. Frederick’s constant working out in the gym
b. The inner workings of a computer
c. A shrunken head
d. Juan’s penetrating observations
analytic test 5. A word may be a verb if it actually ends in a verbal deriva-
tional affix.