Limits of the Compound Verbal Predicate

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 391.

Now we come to the second question, about the limits of the compound verbal predicate. It arises from the fact that a rather considerable number of verbs can be followed by an infinitive, some of them with, others without the particle to. Among such verbs are: shall, will, should, would, can, may, must (without to); ought.

The relation between these phrases and parts of the sentence is of course not the same in all cases. We can at once eliminate the phrases "shall, should, will, would + infinitive", which constitute tense or mood forms of the verb. Thus, the phrase shall write is a form of the verb write (as it does not differ from the forms write, writes, wrote in its lexical meaning) and, consequently, it is a simple verbal predicate. The phrases with the verbs can, may, must, ought (in the latter case with to) constitute a compound verbal predicate.

The sentences containing idioms of the pattern "verb + noun", e.g. make a mistake, make one's appearance, have a look, have a smoke, take a glance, etc. Here two different approaches are possible, and the approach chosen will predetermine all conclusions to be arrived at in considering concrete examples.

One approach would be to say that if a phrase is a phraseological unit, that is, if its meaning is not equal to the sum of the meanings of its components, it cannot be divided into two parts of the sentence, and has to be taken as one part, namely, the predicate.

The other approach would be to say that such phraseological phenomena belong to the sphere of lexicology alone and are irrelevant for grammar, that is, for sentence analysis.

One of the arguments in favour of the view that phraseological units should be treated as one part of the sentence, is this. If the phrase "verb + noun" is not a phraseological unit, a separate question can be put to the noun, that is, a question to which the noun supplies an answer. For instance, if we take the sentence He makes toys the question would be, What does he make? and the answer would be supplied by the word toys, which, accordingly, is a separate part of the sentence, namely, an object. If, on the other hand, we take the sentence, He makes mistakes, it would not be possible to ask the question, What does he make? and to give mistakes as an answer to it. Consequently, according to this view, we cannot say that mistakes is a separate part of the sentence, and we must conclude that the phrase makes mistakes as a whole is the predicate.