THE SYNTACTIC PROPERTIES OF AUXILIARY VERBS

The sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate. The predicate contains two
constituents: the auxiliary and the lexical verb. The modal verbs, be, and have occupy a
position inside the AUX constituent. Consider the position of the modals and the
auxiliaries in the following examples:
John

must
Modal

do his duty.

John

may
Modal

be
working in the garden.
be-ing

John

may
Modal

have
been working in the garden.
have-en be-ing

The book may

Modal

have
been written by his sister.
have-en be-en

It is obvious that co-occurring modals and auxiliaries appear in a certain order, which has
been formalized in the following syntactic representation of the predicate phrase:
PredPhrase AUX VP
AUX
Tense (Modal) (have en) (be ing) (be en)
THE AUXILIARIES: HAVE and BE
Have occurs with the past participle of lexical verbs to indicate perfect
(perfective) aspect (-ing form), be occurs with the present participle to mark the
progressive aspect on the lexical verb, and with the past participle (-ed form) to mark the
passive voice.
The auxiliary verbs have and be take part in the syntactic processes of
interrogation and negation.
1. The auxiliary is moved in pre-subject position in yes-no questions, whquestions and tag questions, except when the question is addressed to the subject of the
affirmative sentence:
Has he seen Mary?
Whom has he seen?
Who has seen Mary?
He has seen Mary, hasnt he?

yes-no question
wh-question
wh-question addressed to the subject
tag-question

Are you writing a letter?

What are you writing?
Who is writing a letter?
You are writing a letter, arent you?
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2. In negative sentences the negative marker not is inserted after the auxiliary:
You have not seen Mary.
You are not writing a letter.
When the negation occurs in its contracted form nt, it is attached to the auxiliary with
which it forms a single phonological unit:
You havent seen Mary.
You arent writing a letter.
It is also possible to combine the pronominal subject with the contracted form of the
auxiliary, while the negator remains in its full form:
Youre not ready.
THE AUXILIARY DO
Do is an auxiliary verb which helps or supports certain syntactic processes on the
lexical verb when there is no already available auxiliary i.e. in the present and past
simple tenses. DO-support is required in: interrogation, negation, ellipsis, emphasis,
entreaties:
1. The auxiliary DO precedes the subject in yes/ no questions, in wh-questions, tag
questions:
You like my new hat.

Do you like my new hat?

What do you like?
You like my hat, dont you?

2. The negative word not cannot attach to the lexical verb, it is supported by DO in
contracted forms:
I dont like your new hat.
Negative imperatives require do-support:
a. Dont worry!
b. Dont move!
In negative imperatives with an overt subject, auxiliary do with contracted negation
must precede the subject:
a. Dont you worry!
b. Dont anybody move!
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It is important to note that do-support is required in questions (except for subject

wh- questions) and negative declaratives for lexical verbs, but prohibited for be
and auxiliary verbs.
3. When repetition must be avoided, the auxiliary verb DO substitutes a whole sentence
in the following structures:
a. In short answers to yes-no questions, do stands for the whole predicate.
Do you like my new hat? Yes, I like your new hat.
Do you like my new hat? Yes, I do.
b. The auxiliary DO substitutes repeated material in coordinate structures with
and so, and neither
[I arrived late] and [my friend arrived late, too].
[I arrived late] and [so did my friend].
[He didnt like coffee] and [his wife didnt like coffee, either]
[He didnt like coffee] and [neither did his wife.]
c. DO is inserted to avoid repetition in comparative clauses introduced by than:
Mary works harder [than her sister works.]
Mary works harder [than her sister does].
4. The auxiliary DO is used as a means of emphasizing in the following constructions:
a. DO emphasizes a positive statement, often introduced by the coordinating
conjunction but, in contrast with a negative one:
My teacher thinks I didnt study for my test, but I studied. (neutral statement)
My teacher thinks I didnt study for my test, but I did study. (emphatic statement)
b. The emphatic auxiliary DO co-occurs with a negative expressions such as the
adverb never:
The letter we were expecting never arrived.
The letter we were expecting never did arrive.

(neutral statement)
(emphatic statement)

c. DO appears in the main clause when it stands in contrast with a concessive

clause:
Although I have little time for entertainment, I go to the theatre once in a
while.
(neutral)
Although I have little time for entertainment, I do go to the theatre once in
a while.
(emphatic)
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He has money, but its all tied up in property.

(neutral)
He does have money, but its all tied up in property. (emphatic)
d. DO co-occurs with emphatic adverbs: definitely, positively, certainly in answers
to yes or no questions:
Do you remember how beautiful she was?
Oh, I remember.
(neutral)
I certainly do remember.
(emphatic)
e. An affirmative imperative does not allow do-support unless it is emphatic.
Emphatic imperatives occur especially British English to express an entreaty:
Come to the party tonight !
Do come to the party tonight.

(neutral)
(emphatic)

In emphatic affirmative imperatives with auxiliary do and an overt subject, do

precedes the subject, as shown below:
a. Do somebody open the window!
b. Do at least some of you show up!
In older usage, DO often appeared in positive statements, in variation with the simple
present form:
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all. (Shakespeare)
THE SYNTACTIC PROPERTIES OF MODAL VERBS
Modals add to the verb a special semantic component such as ability, obligation,
possibility.
Syntactically they have certain properties that make them similar to auxiliary verbs.
The most striking characteristics of the English modals are the so-called NICE properties
(Huddleston 1976), where NICE is an acronym of negation, inversion, code, emphatic
affirmation.
1. Negation can attach to the modal, without DO-support:
I cannot swim.
I cant swim.
2. Subject Modal inversion is possible in yes-no questions, wh-questions, tag questions:
Must they leave?
When must they leave?
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They must leave, mustnt they?

3. Modal verbs appear coordinated clauses with and so (also known as coda or
coordinate so-clauses):
She can come and so can Bill.
*She can come and so does Bill.
4. Emphatic affirmation is possible, again without DO-support:
You will have the money by tomorrow.
You shall have the money by tomorrow.

(neutral statement)
(emphatic statement)

Such properties clearly show that modal verbs behave like the class of auxiliaries
verbs. Unlike lexical verbs, modals verbs do not need DO-support, in other words they
are incompatible with the auxiliary DO.
One important difference between the auxiliary DO and the modals is linked to
their semantic content: DO is a mere support (i.e. a constituent with the help of which
other syntactic processes are achieved: interrogation, negation, etc.), being devoid of any
content whatsoever, whereas the modals do have semantic content which carries weight
at the level of interpretation.
The modals also evince other syntactic properties which qualify them as a distinct class
of verbs:
5. They are incompatible with non-finite forms, i.e. they cannot appear as a present or
past participle, or as an infinitive:
*They are canning to speak English now.
*To can or not to can, that is the question.
*They have canned speak English for a long time.
6. They are incompatible with agreement, i.e they do not bear the (e)s or ed ending
marking agreement with the subject in person and number:
*He cans speak English.
7. They always select a short infinitive as their complement:
*They can to speak English.
8. They have no passive form:
*English is canned by millions of people.

9. They do not occur in imperative sentences:

*Can speak English, please!
10. They cannot co-occur, with the exception of certain dialects, that allow the use of two
modal verbs in the same sentence:
You might would say that.
(Southern USA dialect, Denison 1993)
I dont feel as if I should ought to leave. (Southern USA dialect, Denison 1993)
11. Some modals have two tense forms (present and past: can could, shall- should, willwould):
He can swim.
He could swim when he was younger.
He says he will come in time.
He said he would come in time.
Some have a past tense form which can only be used in reported speech:
She may leave immediately.
The boss said [she might leave immediately.]
Others have only one form which can be used in past contexts (in reported speech) as
well but under certain conditions:
They must leave immediately.
The boss said [they must leave immediately.]
12. The modal is always the first verb in a finite verbal group, i.e. it cannot be selected by
any other auxiliary.
They may have been punished for what they have done.
We might have gone about half a mile.
All these properties clearly point out the fact that modals have a non-lexical
status, although they have a semantic contour like any other lexical category, modals
semantically cover such notions as possibility, probability, necessity, volition, obligation
and permission.
Auxiliary verbs
+

Grammatical
function
Semantic
content (values)

Modal verbs
+

Lexical verbs
-