.:: Verbs, tense, aspect, and mood
I Verb inflection 29
2 Finite and non-finite clauses 36
3 Auxiliary verbs 37
4 Perfective and imperfective interpretations 42
5 Primary tense 44
6 The perfect 48
7 Progressive aspect 51
8 Mood 531 Verb inflection
Verbs are variable lexemes. That is, they have a number of different
inflectional forms that are required or permitted in various grammatical contexts.
For example, the lexemefty has a formflown that is required in a context like [la],
where it follows the verb have, and a form flew that is· permitted in a context like
[lb], where it is the only verb in a canonical clause:[1] a. Kim has flown home. b. Kim flew home.
Notice that we said that flown is REQUIRED in contexts like [la], but that flew is
PERMITTED in contexts like [b]. This is because in [b] we could have flies instead of
flew. And there is of course a difference in meaning between Kim flew home and
Kimflies home: the former locates the situation in past time, while the latter locates
it in present or future time.
We see from this that there are two kinds of inflection: in some cases an inflec
tional contrast serves to convey a meaning distinction, while in others (like the flown
of [la]) the occurrence of a particular inflectional form is simply determined by a
grammatical rule.
1.1 The verb paradigm
The set of inflectional forms of a variable lexeme (together with their
grammatical labels) is called its paradigm. In some languages the verb paradigms
are extremely complex, but in English they are fairly simple. The great majority of
verbs in English have paradigms consisting of six inflectional forms. As illustration,29