Reference: Francis, Nelson (n.d). The Structure of American English Other grammarians may have other insights in the structure of the English language. Further readings is suggested.

4. PERSON
• All English verbs except the modal
auxiliaries (can, may, shall, will, must,
dare, need) have two persons which
can be called common and third
singular.
Third-singular person
• Base form + {-s} inflection

5. PERSON
Common Person
• All other verbs except certain forms of
be.
• The distribution of these two forms is
governed by the type of correlation
with the subject.

6. PERSON
• Concord is the complementary
distribution of linguistic forms having
the same syntactic function in
systematic correlation with other
formally distinct forms with which they
are syntactically linked.

7. PERSON
• The third-singular person is used
whenever a simple verb is the head-
verb in a predicate whose subject is
one of the following:

8. PERSON
1. A noun for which he, she, or it may
be substituted.
• Examples: The man walks; the sun
sets; snow falls.
2. One of the pronouns he, she, or it.
• Examples: he feels; she speaks; it
comes (but note exception in watch it
come)

9. PERSON
3. The function-nouns this or that.
• Examples: this looks good; that goes
here.
4. A structure of modification of which
one of the above is head.
• Examples: the tall man in the car
drives; that in the dish tastes good.

10. PERSON
5. Any other part of speech beside a
noun, or a structure of modification or
complementation which such part of
speech as head or verbal element.
• Examples: here seems like a good
place; eating candy causes tooth
decay.

11. PERSON
6. One of certain special structures of
predication: the included clause and
the infinitive clause.
• Examples: what I want costs money;
how I got here remains a mystery.

12. PERSON
7. A structure of coordination in which
the coordinator is or, nor, either…or,
neither...nor, or not (only)…but (also)
and in which the last coordinate
element belongs to 1–6 above; also
one of the certain other special
structures of coordination.
• Examples: either his mistakes or his
bad luck keeps him poor.

13. PERSON
• All kinds of subjects correlate with the
common form of the verb.
• Nouns for which they can be
substituted
Examples: dogs bark; children play.

14. PERSON
• Pronouns I, you, we, they, me, him,
her, us, them
Examples:
walk
Me
Him
Her
Us
Them
I
You
We
They
walk(watch)

15. PERSON
• Structures of coordination with
coordinators and, both…and, and the
like; a few special included clauses.
Examples:
• (both) the knife and the fork shine
brightly
• Either his bad luck or his mistakes
keep him poor
• Whatever jobs are available suit me

16. PERSON
• One verb, be, whether as full verb or
as auxiliary, has an additional form,
the first-singular am, which
correlates with the subject I.
• Common person form are which is
different from the base, be.

18. TENSE
• All English verbs except a few
auxiliaries (ought, must) have two
tenses, which are distinguished by
inflections:
1. Common tense usually called
present tense or non-past.
Form: base + third-singular {-s}
inflection

19. TENSE
2. Past (or preterit) tense.
Form: base + inflectional suffix {-ed1}
inflection
• Each verb has a single past-tense
form which correlates with all
subjects, except for the verb be.

20. TENSE
• Two past-tense forms of the verb be:
1. was
–correlates with singular subjects
(nouns in base form, the substitutes I, he,
she, it, other parts of speech and special
structures)
2. were
–correlates with plural subjects
including pronoun you regardless of the
referent

22. PHASE
• All English verbs except a few
auxiliaries have two phases, the
simple and perfect.
• Perfect Phase
Form: have + past-participle form of the
verb
Examples: he has spoken, we may
have been, I should have worked, he
has gone.

23. PHASE
• Intransitive Verbs have resultative
phase
Form: be + past-participle form of the
verb
Examples: he is gone, they are finished
with the work, I am done with you.
• Verbs not formally marked as in
perfect or resultative phase are in the
simple phase.

25. ASPECT
• English verbs have three aspects:
1. Simple aspect–unmarked
2. Durative aspect–expresses duration
Form: be + present-participle
(base + {-ing1}) form of the verb
3. Inchoative aspect–expresses beginning of
the action
Form: get + present-participle form of the verb

26. DURATIVE
• he is talking
• he was
swimming
• we ought to be
working
INCHOATIVE
• We got talking
• Let’s get going
• We ought to get
working
ASPECT

28. MODE
• Classified on the basis of form into
two groups:
1. Modal auxiliaries (can, may, shall, will,
must, dare, need, do) + base form of the
verb.
• All of these modal auxiliaries except must
and need have past-tense forms.
• does third-singular form of do

29. MODE
2. Other auxiliaries (have, be, be going,
be about, used, ought, get, have got) +
the infinitive (to + base) form of the
verb.
• These mode forms can be clumsily
designated as “the shall-mode”, “the
ought to-mode,” and so on.

30. Modal Auxiliaries
• He can go
• We might see
• They should have
spoken
• You will come
• Everybody must die
• Nobody dared to do it
• You need not to worry
• He does study
Other Auxiliaries
• They have to go
• We are to see
• He was going to speak
• People were about to
leave
• She used to sing
• That man ought to have
quit
• I never got to see Paris
• He has got to study
MODE

31. MODE
• A verb-phrase my belong to two
modes at the same time.
• Only one may be from the modal-
auxiliary group, and its auxiliary
comes first in the phrase.

32. • he would have to work
• he could be about to work
• he may be going to tell us
• he used to have to work
But not
• he has to can work
• he is going to must work
• he will can do it
MODE
Examples:

34. VOICE
• English verbs have two voices:
1. normal or active voice
2. Passive voice
Form: auxiliary be + past-participle form
of the verb
• Another passive is formed by (as
auxiliary) get + past-participle

35. VOICE
ACTIVE
he kills
they built a house
we have done the work
be–PASSIVE
he is killed
the house was built
the work has been done
get–PASSIVE
he gets killed
the house got built
the work has got done
Examples:

36. VOICE
• Analyze these sentences based on
the pause made either after or before
built:
a.) the house was built by experts
be–passive voice
b.) the house was built of wood
be verb with a past participle as
subject complement

37. VOICE
the house was built by expertsP
the house was C built of woodP
by

39. STATUS
English verbs have four statuses:
1. the affirmative
2. the interrogative
3. the negative
4. the negative–interrogative

40. STATUS
• Interrogative is marked by a change
in word order involving the inversion of
the subject and the auxiliary or by the
first auxiliary if more than one is
present.
• Use the auxiliary do/does/did to form
the interrogative of verbs which have
no auxiliary in the affirmative status.

41. STATUS
Examples:
Inverted Forms
is he working
has he worked
should he have worked
is he going to work
do-Forms
does he work
did he work
did get killed
does he have to work
did he use to work

42. • Note that this inversion produces a structure in which
one immediate constituent is split into two parts.
does workPhe
• The auxiliaries get, used (to), and have (to)
also use the forms of do.
Split verb-phrase

43. STATUS
• Affirmative is marked by an
affirmation.
Examples:
he is working
he works

44. STATUS
• Negative Status is marked by the
insertion of the special function word
not, which has various allomorphs
such as /nat, nt, Әn, n/ immediately
after the first auxiliary.
• Use the forms of do if no auxiliary is
present although do is not used with
be and not always with have.

45. STATUS
• The forms of do are used when the auxiliary is
used (to), have (to), or a simple form of get.
Examples
he is not (/ìz nât, îzӘnt, z + nât, îzӘn/) working
he has not worked
he should not have worked
he is not going to work
he does not work
he is not here
has not
have does nothe any money
he did not use to work

46. STATUS
• The negative–interrogative status is a
combination of the two former.
• Auxiliary do follows the same pattern in the
interrogative forms.
• This structure brings the subject and the
function word not together.
• The form with the subject before not is
somewhat more formal.

47. not–FIRST FORM
• isn’t he working
• hasn’t he worked
• shouldn’t he have worked
• doesn’t he work
• hasn’t he any money
• doesn’t he have any
money
• is he not working
• has he not worked
• should he not have
worked
• does he not work
• has he not any money
• does he not have any
money
STATUS
SUBJECT-FIRST FORM

48. • A tabular analysis of four typical verb-
phrases:
(a) he is to be told
(b) they should not have been working
(c) ought we get going
(d) mightn’t have been getting run over
Structures of Predication

49. (a) (b) (c) (d)
Person
third-
singular
common common common
Tense common past common past
Phase simple perfect simple perfect
Aspect simple durative inchoative durative
Mode be to shall ought to may
Voice be-passive active active get-passive
Status affirmative negative interrogative
negative-
interrogative