CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Defininition of Verb Phrase
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE2.1 Defininition of Verb Phrase
Douglas (2002:42) says that, verb phrase is a phrase with a verb as its head. Verb phrase has a lexical verb or primary verb as their head (i.e. their main verb). It is also called a predicate. The main verb can stand alone or be preceded by one or more auxiliary verbs. The auxiliaries further define the action, state, or process denoted by the main verbs. Verb phrases are the essential part of clause, referring to a type of state or action.
Verb phrase or VP is a syntax structure composed of predicative element of a sentence and has function in providing information about the subject of the sentence.
All verbs that function as a predicate is verb phrase. The head of phrase is a verb and constructed from a single verb, however, the verb phrase will consist of various combinations of the main verb and any auxiliary verb, plus optionally specifier, complement, and adjunct.
A main verb can stand by itself as the simple predicate of a sentence. For example : Many different people lived in the American colonies. Word `lived` is the main verb (action). In the sentence “The colonists were hardworking”, `were` has function as main verb (linking).
According to Douglas (2002:42), verbs can be grouped in to three major classes according to their ability to function as main verbs or auxiliary verbs.
- Lexical verbs (e.g. run, eat, think) have function as main verbs (full verbs) ex: - Children and dog ran from side to side.
He barely ate or slept that night
- Primary verbs
- Primary verbs (be, have, and do) have function as both auxiliary and main verbs
- Primary verbs as main verbs function: Ex : - He does my washing.
His dad was an art professor.
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- Primary verbs as auxiliary function (with main verb underlined) Ex : - He doesn’t look at the numbers.
He was wearing a dark ski mask.
- A particular combination of result has occurred
- Modal verbs (can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must) have function only as auxiliary verbs Ex : - He should be angry for all that.
- Verb phrases are the essential part of a clause, referring to a type of state or action. The main verb determines the other clause elements that can occur in the clause. Verb phrases are often split into two parts. This happens in questions, where the subject is placed after the (first) auxiliary verb : What`s he doing? (verb phrase = is doing).
He would probably like it softer. In addition, the parts of a verb phrase can be interrupted by adverbs or other adverbial. For example : You know the English will always have gardens whereever they find
- themselves. (verb phrase = will have)
- started)
The current year has definitely started well. (verb phrase = has
2.2 Forms of Verb Phrase Main forms of the verb phrase are : active forms and passive forms.
2.2.1 Active Forms
Active form is form of a verb which shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject does something (does action). It consists of simple, perfect, progressive, and perfect progressive.
2.2.1.1 Simple Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : I love her very much.
2. Past : He drunk coffee yesterday.
3. Modal : She can visits this place every sunday.
2.2.1.2 Perfect Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : I have received the flower.
2. Past : I had written the letter before he arrived.
3. Modal : The boy could have done the dishes himself but his father decided to help.
2.2.1.3 Progressive Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : The boys are playing a ball.
2. Past : They were listening to the radio all evening.
3. Modal : Every body could be asking some questions.
2.2.1.4 Perfect Progressive Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : I have been sleeping for five hours.
2. Past : He had been writing a novel for two years.
3. Modal : They should have been doing their homework at the time that i called.
2.2.2 Passive Forms
2.2.2.1 Simple Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : The ball is kicked by that boy.
2. Past : His letter was received by me a week ago.
3. Modal : His letter should be received by me a week ago.
2.2.2.2 Perfect Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : She have been received my flower.
2. Past : The letter had been written by her before she arrived.
Form of verb which shows that something is done to the person or thing denoted by the subject (receives some action). It consists of simple, perfect and progressive.
3. Modal : She might have been received my flower.
2.2.2.3 Progressive Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : Hockey is being played by Andi .
2. Past : The radio was being listened by him last all evening.
3. Modal : Hockey might be being played by Andi.
2.3 Kinds of Verb Phrase
According to Douglas (2002:149), there are six kinds of verb phrase. They are tense, aspect, voice, modality, negation and finite clause. The writer only focuses on tense, aspect and voice.
2.3.1 Tense
Tense means time. Tense is some of forms of a verb that may be used to show the time of the action or state expressed by the verb. We know that, as their main functional, verb describes an action or a state of being on the part of the object. But verb also tells when the action took place or when the state is existed. Verb phrases that are marked for tense are called tensed verb phrases. Douglas (2004: 156) says that tense can be used to mark past and present and refer to future time. ‘Tense’ in English is to do with morphological stuff which go together to make a construction, while these are associated with time there is no direct correlation between the name of tense and time period, for example; ‘He is playing darts on Friday’ is grammatically a present tense but is clearly talking about something which will occur in the future.
1. Simple Present
Azar (1993:36) states that simple present is : something was true in the past, is true in the present, and will be true in the future. It is used for general statements of fact. The simple present is used to express habitual or everyday activity. According to Douglas (2004:151), there are three major meaning for simple present tense when it refers to present time: • It can describe a state that exists at the present time.
Ex : 1. I want a packet of crisps.
2. The pigment occurs in the epidermal cells.
- It can refer to a habitual action Ex : 1. She`s vegetarian but she eats chicken.
2. He dances and moves about a lot.
- It can describe an action that is happening at the present time.
Ex : 1. Here comes your mother.
2. Oh my goodness. There he goes. Look at him walk. The rule to form the simple present tense :
Subject + V1 s/es + N/ Adv Subject + (am, is, are) + N/ Adj/Adv
For example: 1. She watches the television everyday .
2. He goes to school everyday.
3. They are students. Adverbs which show time in these forms are as follows:
Everyday Usually Always
- Often Sometimes Seldom -
- Verbs that usually occur in the present tense :
Ever Never Generally, etc
Bet, doubt, know, matter, mean, mind, reckon, suppose, think, care, differ, fancy, imply, tend and want.
2. Simple past tense
Simple past tense is most often used to refer to past time or to indicate an action completed in the past. In fictional narrative and description, the use of simple past tense is common for describing imagined past states and events. Betty (1993:2) states that simple past tense is at one particular time in the past, this happened. It began and ended in the past.
The rule of simple past tense : Subject +V2 + Adj/Adv
Subject + (was/were) + N/Adj/Adv Yesterday, last…. ,
- ….ago
I visited my grandmother yesterday 2. last night . She went with him 3. two days ago . My father was sick
Verb that usually occur in the past tense :
Exclaim, eye, glance, grin, nod, pause, remark, reply, shrug, sigh, smile, whisper, bend, bow, lean, light, park, seat, set off, shake, stare, turn away,
and wrap.
wave,
2.3.2 Aspect
Douglas (2004:156) says, aspect adds time meanings to those expressed by tense. Aspect answer the question” is the event/state described by the verb completed, or is it continuing” ? Aspect is to do with whether an action of state is complete or ongoing, recent or less recent and the length of duration.
There are two aspects in English: perfect and progressive (sometimes known as continuous ).
1. The perfect aspect
The perfect aspect most often describes events or states taking place during a preceding period of time.
a. Perfect aspect, present time ( Present Perfect)
Present perfect verbs often refer to past actions with effects that continue up to present time.
Use the following rule to form the present perfect : Subject + have/has+ Verb III/been + O/C
The present perfect is used to indicate :
a. To show an action has been finished in the short time. It usually uses the adverb as follows:
- Already, just,
- recently, yet, since For example: We have just read the book.
b. To show an action which has been done but that action is still has a connection with now.
For example: He has taught English since 2001 c. An action that happened more than once in the past.
For example: George has seen this movie three times.
Verbs that are common in the present perfect : Has/have been
Ex : Rowlands has been critical of Welsh officials. Has/have got and has/have had
Ex : - Jones has got the letter.
- I have got a problem actually. Other verbs that are common in present perfect are some of the most common
verbs overall (ex : gone, done, mad, seen, come, said, taken, become, given, shown, thought, called ). Ex : - He`s gone home.
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b. Perfect aspect , past time ( Past Perfect)
Past perfect verbs refer to actions in the past that are completed at or before a given time in the past. The actual time is often specified.
The rule to form past perfect : Subject + had + Verb III /been +O/C
Adverbs which show the time used in this time form are:
- Already, before, after, - until, as soon as.
He had gone with them.
2. She had taken it herself.
Verbs that are common in the past perfect : Like the simple past tense, past perfect verb phrases are especially common in fiction. They are used especially for reference to an earlier period in the middle of a past tense narrative : He hadn`t even been jealous of her dead husband.
Nancy had gone with them. He had taken it himself. The most common verbs with the past perfect are some of the most common verbs overall. These are mostly verbs that describe physical movements and other activities (gone, come, left, given, got, ect.), speech acts (said, told), and mental perceptions or thoughts (see, heard, known).
2. Progressive aspect
Progressive aspect describes an event or state of affairs in the progress or continuing. It also describes activities or events in a progress at a particular time, usually for a limited amount of time.
The following list identify the verbs most strongly associated with progressive aspect and the verbs that almost never occur with progressive aspect.
- Verbs that most strongly associated with progressive aspect :
Activity/physical verbs : bleed ,chase, shop, starve, dance, drip, head (for),
march, pound, rain, stream, sweat
Communication verbs : chat, joke, kid, moan, scream, talk Mental / attitude verbs : look forward, study
- Verbs that almost never occur with progressive aspect :
Activity/physical verbs : arrest, dissolve, find, invent, rule, shut, shrug,
smash, throw
Communication verbs : accuse, communicate, disclose,exclaim, reply, thank Mental / attitude verbs : agree, appreciate, believe, conclude, desire,
know,want, like
Perceptual states/ activities : detect, hear perceive, see Facilitation/causation verbs : convince, guarantee, initiate, oblige, provoke
a. Progressive aspect, present tense ( Present Continuous) Present progressive is in the progress at the present time, and probably continue.
The rule is : Subject + (am, is, are) + V-ing+ O/C
Adverbs which show the time used in this time form are: Right now, at this moment/this time, at present The functions are:
a. To state the event or action in progress
For examples: 1. They are playing kites now.
2. My father is sleeping right now.
b. To state the event or action in mean time For example : My father is buying a car but he will sell soon.
c. To state the event or action in the future For example: My mother and my sister are going to Bali tonight.
b. Progressive aspect, past tense ( Past Continuous)
Past progressive is in progress at particular time in the past. It probably continued. It is also used to denote an action going on at some time in the past. It also used, with
always , continually etc., for persistent habits in the past. (He was always grumbling )
The rule : Subject+was/were+Verb-ing+O/C
Adverbs which show the time used in this time form are: When and while For examples : 1. He was sleeping when I arrived.
2. That is why I was thinking I might hang onto the Volvo.
3. The perfect progressive
Verb phrases can be marked for both aspects (perfect and progressive) at the same time.
a Present perfect progressive ( Present Perfect Continuous) For an action that began in the past and is still occurring in the present.
The rule: Subject+Have/Has+been+V-ing+O/C
Adverbs which show the time used in this time form are: for and since 1. I have been waiting here for 10 years.
2. I have been studying for two hours.
b. Past perfect progressive ( Past Perfect Continuous )
The past perfect continuous is used for an action that began for a certain point in the past and continued up to that time.
The rule : Subject+had+been+ V-ing+O/C
1. I had been studying for two hours before my friends came
2. I had been waiting for you for four hours before you came
2.3.3 Voice
Based on the use of verbs, transitive verb has two voice they are active voice and passive voice. Before discussing further about the active and passive voice, it is better to know definition of voice. Martin and Wren (1986:8) state, “voice is that form of a verb which is shows whether, what is denoted by the subject does something of has something done it” . Furthermore, House and Susan (1950:94) defines, “voice is the modification of a transitive verb which indicates whether subject is acting or being acted upon”. From the two quotations above, it can concluded that voice is the form of a verb, which can express the time of an occurrence of the action. Thomson and Martinet (1975:176) stated that the active and passive tense is formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb.
1. Active Voices
When the subject of the verb represents the actor (agent), the voice is said as active voice. An active sentence is commonly structured : Subject + Verb + Object
For example: The girls stole the purse S V O They solved the problem S V O
2. Passive Voices
When the subject receives or denotes the object to which the action is directed, the voice is said as passive voice. The passive voice is a structure that allows making a statement without knowing who performed the action of the sentence.
Passive voice is the change of position of the sentence. It means that in the passive forming, there is transformation process or shortly the passive voice is transformed from the active voice. There are some steps in forming the passive voice, the steps are as follows: 1. put object of the active in front of the passive voice (Object of the active becomes the subject of the passive) 2. object of the passive becomes pronoun(i.e. personal pronoun as object) 3. add “to be” in passive which is suitable with it tense 4. put them main verb of the active after auxiliary (to be) in the verb past participle form (V3)
5. Put the agent “by” after the verb past participle.
6. For example:
- They sent James to prison for two years (active)
- James was sent to prison (by) them for two years (passive) From the example above, in the simple rule, the sentence in the active voice can be transformed to the passive voice and object in active becomes subject in passive voice. The object of passive becomes personal pronoun as object that is them. The
Aligned (with), based (on), born, coupled (with), deemed, effected, entitled (to), flattened, inclined, obliged, positioned, situated, stained, subjected (to), approved, associated (with), attributed (to), classified (as), composed (of), confined (to), designed, diagnosed (as), distributed, estimated, grouped (with), intended, labeled, linked (to/with), located (at/in), plotted, recruited, stored, and viewed.
O + to be + V3 + by + S (Pronoun)