MEDIAL AND FINAL SYSTEMS

MEDIAL AND FINAL SYSTEMS

So far we have been concerned with those systems which are realised in the element which occurs in initial position in the verbal group. The selection of mood, tense, subject concord, modality and polar emphasis are all functions which are determined by the initial element. We shall now go on to consider the functions of those other elements in the verbal group which occur in medial and final positions.

We have seen that medial and final elements of the verbal group are non-finite. This means that they do not express primary tense or subject concord, which are shown only in the initial element, and take one of the four non-finite forms:-

(1) the non-inflected base form - e.g. take
(2) the base form with "to"     - e.g. to take
(3) the participle "ing" form   - e.g. taking
(4) the participle "n" form     - e.g. taken

The principle functions of medial/final elements are the expression of SECONDARY TENSE, MODALITY and VOICE. The main features of these systems may be distinguished as follows:-

(1) The SECONDARY TENSES consist of the perfect and continuous forms.

e.g.

She's lost her purse.

He's having a bath.

(2) MODALITY is expressed by "semi-auxiliaries" such as ABLE TO, LIKELY TO, LIABLE TO, GOING TO etc which occur in medial position in the verbal group following the verb BE.

e.g.

He is able to come.

He is going to come.

It's likely to rain.

It's liable to break down.

(3) VOICE selects between active and passive.

e.g.

He's lost the book.

The book has been lost.

These systems operate simultaneously, and we shall look at the ways in which they interact in the following sections of this chapter. But we can illustrate this here with an example of how they interrelate.

Secondary tense selects between perfect and continuous forms:-

| ->PERFECT (e.g. The cat has eaten the fish)

SECONDARY TENSE -> |

| ->CONTINUOUS (e.g. The cat is eating the fish)

These forms may then combine with a semi-auxiliary in the following way:-

e.g.

The cat is liable to have eaten the fish.

The cat is sure to be eating the fish.

The system of voice also operates as follows. The foregoing examples had selected active voice, and may then be passivised as follows:-

e.g.

The fish is liable to have been eaten.

The fish is sure to be being eaten.

* Just as there is a semantic overlap between primary tense and modality in signifying time reference, especially for the future, so there is a similar overlap between secondary tense and semi-auxiliary modality. In particular, expressions like GOING TO and ABOUT TO signify futurity as well as volition.

Some grammarians in fact regard GOING TO as a true future tense. However, structurally this functions in the same manner as the other modal semi-auxiliaries, and has in common with these the ability to combine with the continuous and perfect tense forms. Therefore for the same reasons that we treated WILL within the overall framework of modality, so we shall treat GOING TO and other similar expressions as falling within the general system of modality that operates at the medial position in the verbal group.