1367260110.5528Understanding Syntax

Words belong to different classes 43suffix on the main verb, eat, but also by the addition of an auxiliary, a form of be. InKim has eaten her dinner we have perfect aspect, referring to a completed action.Again, this is marked partly by changes in the verb form itself (eaten) and partly byadding another auxiliary, this time a form of have.In other languages, aspectual distinctions are often captured entirely via the verbalmorphology, without the use of auxiliaries. One such language with very rich systemsof both tense and aspect is the Bantu language ChiBemba. These examples illustratethat it has an opposition between a progressive aspect (an event in progress) and ahabitual aspect (a repeated event):(24) a. ba-léé-bomba (ChiBemba)‘They are working.’ (progressive)b. ba-là-bomba‘They repeatedly work.’ (habitual)And other languages have separate functional words that denote aspect, rather thanmarking it on the verb. Welsh and the other Celtic languages are good examples:the aspect markers are shown in bold in (25), and indicate an ongoing action(progressive) and a completed action (perfect):(25) a. Mae Steffan yn canu. (Welsh)is Steffan progressive sing.infin‘Steffan is singing.’b. Mae Steffan wedi canu.is Steffan perfect sing.infin‘Steffan has sung.’2.2.2.2 MoodMood is a grammatical category which marks properties such as possibility,probability and certainty. Languages tend to distinguish between actual events, as in(26a), and hypothetical events, as in (26b):(26) a. Kim goes to Greece tomorrow.b. Kim would go to Greece tomorrow if she were wealthy enough.The mood used for actual events, as in (26a), is termed indicative. The mood inKim went to Greece yesterday is also indicative: mood is an entirely separate propertyfrom tense. The hypothetical event in Kim would go to Greece tomorrow is expressedin English by a separate auxiliary element, would, rather than by a change in the formof the main verb go itself. Such auxiliaries (would, could, should, might and so on) aretermed modal (i.e. ‘mood’) auxiliaries.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Some languages have specific verbal morphology which is used for hypotheticalevents, termed the subjunctive mood. English has the remnants of such a system,