Chapter 149

ON THE AUXILIARY VERBS.

§ 491. The auxiliary verbs, in English, play a most important part in the syntax of the language. They may be classified upon a variety of principles. The following, however, are all that need here be applied.

A. _Classification of auxiliaries according to their inflection or non-inflectional powers._--Inflectional auxiliaries are those that may either replace or be replaced by an inflection. Thus--_I am struck_ = the Latin _ferior_, and the Greek [Greek: tuptomai]. These auxiliaries are in the same relation to verbs that prepositions are to nouns. The inflectional auxiliaries are,--

1. _Have_; equivalent to an inflection in the way of tense--_I have bitten_ = _mo-mordi_.

2. _Shall_; ditto. _I shall call_ = _voc-abo_.

3. _Will_; ditto. _I will call_ = _voc-abo_.

4. _May_; equivalent to an inflection in the way of mood. _I am come that I may see_ = _venio ut vid-eam_.

5. _Be_; equivalent to an inflection in the way of voice. _To be beaten_ = _verberari_, [Greek: tuptesthai].

6. _Am_, _art_, _is_, _are_; ditto. Also equivalent to an inflection in the way of tense. _I am moving_ = _move-o_.

7. _Was_, _were_; ditto, ditto. _I was beaten_ = [Greek: e-tuphthên]. _I was moving_ = _move-bam_.

_Do_, _can_, _must_, and _let_, are non-inflectional auxiliaries.

B. _Classification of auxiliaries according to their non-auxiliary significations._--The power of the word _have_ in the combination of _I have a horse_ is clear enough. It means possession. The power of the same word in the combination _I have been_ is not so clear; nevertheless it is a power which has grown out of the idea of possession. This shows that the power of a verb as an auxiliary may be a modification of its original power; i.e., of the power it has in non-auxiliary constructions. Sometimes the difference is very little: the word _let_, in _let us go_, has its natural sense of permission unimpaired. Sometimes it is lost altogether. _Can_ and _may_ exist only as auxiliaries.

1. Auxiliary derived from the idea of possession--_have_.

2. Auxiliaries derived from the idea of existence--_be_, _is_, _was_.

3. Auxiliary derived from the idea of future destination, dependent upon circumstances external to the agent--_shall_. There are etymological reasons for believing that _shall_ is no present tense, but a perfect.

4. Auxiliary derived from the idea of future destination, dependent upon the volition of the agent--_will_. _Shall_ is simply predictive; _will_ is predictive and promissive as well.

5. Auxiliary derived from the idea of power, dependent upon circumstances external to the agent--_may_.

6. Auxiliary derived from the idea of power, dependent upon circumstances internal to the agent--_can_. _May_ is simply permissive; _can_ is potential. In respect to the idea of power residing in the agent being the cause which determines a contingent action, _can_ is in the same relation to _may_ as _will_ is to _shall_.

"_May_ et _can_, cum eorum præteritis imperfectis, _might_ et _could_, potentiam innuunt: cum hoc tamen discrimine: _may_ et _might_ vel de jure vel saltem de rei possibilitate, dicuntur, at _can_ et _could_ de viribus agentis."--WALLIS, p. 107.

7. Auxiliary derived from the idea of sufferance--_let_.

8. Auxiliary derived from the idea of necessity--_must_.

"_Must_ necessitatem innuit. Debeo, oportet, necesse est urere, _I must burn_. Aliquando sed rarius in præterito dicitur _must_ (quasi ex _must'd_ seu _must't_ contractum). Sic, si de præterito dicatur, _he must_ (seu _must't_) _be burnt_, oportebat uri seu necesse habuit ut ureretur."--WALLIS, 107.

9. Auxiliary derived from the idea of action--_do_.

C. _Classification of auxiliary verbs in respect to their mode of construction._--Auxiliary verbs combine with others in three ways.

1. _With participles._--a) With the present, or active, participle--_I am speaking_: b) With the past, or passive, participle--_I am beaten_, _I have beaten_.

2. _With infinitives._--a) With the objective infinitive--_I can speak_: b) With the gerundial infinitive--_I have to speak_.

3. _With both infinitives and participles._--_I shall have done_, _I mean to have done_.

D. _Auxiliary verbs may be classified according to their effect._--Thus--_have_ makes the combination in which it appears equivalent to a tense; _be_ to a passive form; _may_ to a sign of mood, &c.

This sketch of the different lights under which auxiliary verbs may be viewed, has been written for the sake of illustrating, rather than exhausting, the subject.

§ 492. The combination of the auxiliary, _have_, with the past participle requires notice. It is, here, advisable to make the following classifications.

1. The combination with the participle of a _transitive verb._--_I have ridden the horse_; _thou hast broken the sword_; _he has smitten the enemy_.

2. The combination with the participle of an _intransitive_ verb,--_I have waited_; _thou hast hungered_; _he has slept_.

3. The combination with the participle of the verb substantive, _I have been_; _thou hast been_; _he has been_.

It is by examples of the first of these three divisions that the true construction is to be shown.

For an object of any sort to be in the possession of a person, it must previously have existed. If I possess a horse, that horse must have had a previous existence.

Hence, in all expressions like _I have ridden a horse_, there are two ideas, a past idea in the participle, and a present idea in the word denoting possession.

For an object of any sort, affected in a particular manner, to be in the possession of a person, it must previously have been affected in the manner required. If I possess a horse that has been ridden, the riding must have taken place before I mention the fact of the ridden horse being in my possession; inasmuch as I speak of it as a thing already done,--the participle, _ridden_, being in the past tense.

_I have ridden a horse_ = _I have a horse ridden_ = _I have a horse as a ridden horse_, or (changing the gender and dealing with the word _horse_ as a thing) _I have a horse as a ridden thing_.

In this case the syntax is of the usual sort. (1) _Have_ = _own_ = _habeo_ = _teneo_; (2) _horse_ is the accusative case _equum_; (3) _ridden_ is a past participle agreeing either with _horse_, or _with a word in apposition with it understood_.

Mark the words in italics. The word _ridden_ does not agree with _horse_, since it is of the neuter gender. Neither if we said _I have ridden the horses_, would it agree with _horses_; since it is of the singular number.

The true construction is arrived at by supplying the word _thing_. _I have a horse as a ridden thing_ = _habeo equum equitatum_ (neuter). Here the construction is the same as _triste lupus stabulis_.

_I have horses as a ridden thing_ = _habeo equos equitatum_ (singular, neuter). Here the construction is--

"Triste ... maturis frugibus imbres, Arboribus venti, nobis Amaryllidos iræ."

or in Greek--

[Greek: Deinon gunaixin hai di' ôdinôn gonai].

The classical writers supply instances of this use of _have_. _Compertum habeo_, milites, verba viris virtutem non addere = _I have discovered_ = _I am in possession of the discovery_. Quæ cum ita sint, satis de Cæsare hoc _dictum habeo_.

The combination of _have_ with an intransitive verb is irreducible to the idea of possession: indeed, it is illogical. In _I have waited_, we cannot make the idea expressed by the word _waited_ the object of the verb _have_ or _possess_. The expression has become a part of language by means of the extension of a false analogy. It is an instance of an illegitimate imitation.

The combination of _have_ with _been_ is more illogical still, and is a stronger instance of the influence of an illegitimate imitation. In German and Italian, where even _intransitive_ verbs are combined with the equivalents to the English _have_ (_haben_, and _avere_), the verb substantive is not so combined; on the contrary, the combinations are

Italian; _io sono stato_ = _I am been_. German; _ich bin gewesen_ = _ditto_.

which is logical.

§ 493. _I am to speak_.--Three facts explain this idiom.

1. The idea of _direction towards an object_ conveyed by the dative case, and by combinations equivalent to it.

2. The extent to which the ideas of necessity, obligation, or intention are connected with the idea of _something that has to be done_, or _something towards which some action has a tendency_.

3. The fact that expressions like the one in question historically represent an original dative case, or its equivalent; since _to speak_ grows out of the Anglo-Saxon form _to sprecanne_, which, although called a gerund, is really a dative case of the infinitive mood.

When Johnson thought that, in the phrase _he is to blame_, the word _blame_ was a noun, if he meant a noun in the way that _culpa_ is a noun, his view was wrong. But if he meant a noun in the way that _culpare_, _ad culpandum_, are nouns, it was right.

§ 494. _I am to blame_.--This idiom is one degree more complex than the previous one; since _I am to blame_ = _I am to be blamed_. As early, however, as the Anglo-Saxon period the gerunds were liable to be used in a passive sense: _he is to lufigenne_ = not _he is to love_, but _he is to be loved_.

The principle of this confusion may be discovered by considering that _an object to be blamed_, is _an object for some one to blame_, _an object to be loved_ is _an object for some one to love_.

§ 495. _I am beaten_.--This is a present combination, and it is present on the strength of the verb _am_, not on the strength of the participle _beaten_, which is præterite.

The following table exhibits the _expedients_ on the part of the different languages of the Gothic stock, since the loss of the proper passive form of the Moeso-Gothic.

_Language_ LATIN _datur_, LATIN _datus est_.

_Moeso-Gothic_ gibada, ist, vas, varth gibans. _Old High German_ ist, wirdit kepan, was, warth kepan. _Notker_ wirt keben, ist keben. _Middle High German_ wirt geben, ist geben. _New High German_ wird gegeben, ist gegeben worden. _Old Saxon_ is, wirtheth gebhan, was, warth gebhan. _Middle Dutch_ es blïft ghegheven, waert, blêf ghegeven. _New Dutch_ wordt gegeven, es gegeven worden. _Old Frisian_ werth ejeven, is ejeven. _Anglo-Saxon_ weorded gifen, is gifen. _English_ is given, has been given. _Old Norse_ er gefinn, hefr verit gefinn. _Swedish_ gifves, har varit gifven. _Danish_ bliver, vorder given, har varet given. "Deutsche Grammatik, iv. 19."

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