The Verbal Group

Abstract

After the nominal group the most important group in a sentence is the verbal group. Like the nominal group it consists of three elements known as the auxiliary, the verb and the extension, for these three occur in that order in the group although the verb is its only essential part. Thus if there is a nominal group subject like The man, it can be followed by a verbal group such as should drink up, in which should is the auxiliary, drink the verb, and up the extension. Unlike the nominal group, the verbal group cannot be indefinitely expanded. In Elizabethan English it is most usual to find that each part of the verbal group consists of only one word each, though longer examples may be found. Certainly the extensive auxiliaries found in Modern English such as might have been being (roasted) are not found in Elizabethan English, where an auxiliary of more than two parts is rare. In Modern English these auxiliaries help to provide variety of tenses among other things. In Elizabethan English this variety was either not found or had to be expressed through other mechanisms, such as the subjunctive or the adverbial group. Consequently each verb form in Shakespeare’s English has potentially a wider range of meaning than its Modern English counterpart, though for the most part the verbs do not carry as much information as they do today. This makes them simpler and stronger.