Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Tatiana Bareková English Verbs Followed by an –ing Form and an Infinitive Bachelor's Diploma Thesis Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Naděžda Kudrnáčová, CSc. 2014 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Tatiana Bareková I would like to thank doc. PhDr. Naděžda Kudrnáčová, CSc. for her patient guidance. I would also like to thank my parents and friends for their encouragement. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 5 2. Overview of the Literature .................................................................................... 7 2.1 Catenative Verbs ................................................................................................ 7 2.2 To-infinitive or -ing Form ................................................................................ 14 2.2.1 No Change of meaning ......................................................................... 16 2.2.2 Little change of meaning ..................................................................... 16 2.2.3 Fundamental change of meaning ....................................................... 17 2.3 Catenative Classes ........................................................................................... 17 2.3.1 Begin, Start ............................................................................................ 19 2.4 Stative and dynamic verbs .............................................................................. 23 2.4.1 Listen ....................................................................................................... 23 2.4.2 Hear ......................................................................................................... 24 2.4.3 Sound ...................................................................................................... 24 3. Corpus Analysis .................................................................................................... 26 3.1 Result, Process .................................................................................................... 28 3.1.1 Begin ....................................................................................................... 28 3.1.2 Start ......................................................................................................... 34 3.2 Context Analysis .................................................................................................. 39 3.2.1 Begin ....................................................................................................... 40 3.2.2 Start ......................................................................................................... 51 3.3 Text Types ......................................................................................................... 60 4. Discussion of the Findings .................................................................................. 63 5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 65 6. Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 67 7. Resume .................................................................................................................. 69 8. Czech Resume/ České resumé ........................................................................... 70 9. Appendix................................................................................................................ 71 1. Introduction This thesis deals with a specific class of verbs in English language – catenative verbs from a semantic point of view. The focus is on catenative verbs that can be followed either by to-infinitive or –ing form. This class of verbs represents a problematic area for students of English, because it is important to know which form is appropriate for different contexts. Two apparently synonymous verbs are chosen for analysis: begin and start. This analysis has three main research questions: What factors affect the choice between begin and start? In what contexts they occur? In what text types are they common? This thesis is divided in two main parts. In the first part, overview of the literature is given. Different definitions and points of view concerning catenative verbs are discussed. Some concepts and theories on the difference between the verbs begin and start are explained. These theories are supported with appropriate examples. In the second part, catenative verbs followed by to-infinitive or –ing form are analyzed. The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the British National Corpus (BNC) are used for the analysis. The aim of the analysis is to prove the concepts and theories concerning the verbs begin and start which are explained in the theoretical part of the thesis. For 5 begin and start catenative complements with similar meaning (listen, hear and sound) are chosen in order to create catenative phrases for the analysis. The context of results from the COCA and the BNC is analysed in order to determine the meaning of these catenative phrases. Examples from both corpora are provided. The focus is on their usage in the English language – what are the differences and similarities between catenative constructions with begin and start, in what kinds of context selected catenative phrases occur. The analysis also shows how frequent the particular catenative constructions are in British or American English or in what type of text they occur. The results of the findings are summarized in the last part of the thesis. 6 2. Overview of the Literature In this part of the thesis different definitions and theories of catenative verbs from different sources are compared The characteristics which make them different from main verbs, modal verbs or auxiliary verbs are explained. Some theoretical background relevant to the topic is provided. This part also introduces different types of classification of catenatives. 2.1 Catenative Verbs Catenative verbs can be defined as lexical verbs which have a “special capacity to combine with non-finite verbal forms according to certain fixed rules” (Rizo, 1990: 382). This means that they can be distinguished from the rest of lexical verbs because of their ability to create catenative constructions. Catenative constructions are “grammatical units consisting of a sequence of two predicates, both being verbal groups and the second a non-finite verbal form” (Rizo, 1990: 382). Catenative verbs function in complex phrases which contain at least two full verbs; the first a catenative, the following clauses involve subordination (Palmer, 1974: 172). It cannot stand on its own: “A catenative verb does not occur on its own. It is followed by at least another verb form. It functions like an element of a chain 7 (lat. catena) uniting at least two separate verb forms to form one homogenous verb phrase” (Mindt, 1999: 343). Rizo presents the following pattern which shows the sequence of sentence elements in a sentence containing a catenative verb: NP1 + CV + (NP2) + VP2 + ... + VPn (=where NP stands for a noun phrase, CV for catenative verb, VP for verb phrase) A noun phrase may or may not occur between the catenative verb and the following verb (Palmer, 1974: 173). Huddleston and Pullum distinguish two types of catenative constructions according to the presence of a noun phrase: simple and complex catenative constructions. “We can distinguish two subtypes of the catenative construction depending on the absence or presence between the matrix and dependent verbs of an intervening NP - an NP that is interpreted semantically as subject of the non- finite clause” (Huddleston and Pullum, 2005: 215). On the one hand in the simple catenative constructions an intervening NP never occurs, on the other hand complex catenative constructions always have an intervening NP located between the two verbs and interpreted as the subject of the dependent clause. “In the simple catenative construction the non-finite clause has no subject and there is no intervening NP that is understood as the subject. But as usual the 8 interpretation requires that we supply an understood or implicit subject. In almost all cases this is syntactically determined by the subject of the matrix clause“ (Huddleston and Pullum, 2005: 216). Very often a catenative verb immediately precedes a main verb. (Mindt, 1999) “The term 'catenative' alludes to the ability of these verbs to be concatenated in sequences of nonfinite constructions” (Quirk, 1985: 146). In the pattern above, VP2 stands for a verb phrase which contains a verb in non-finite form. Eastwood defines a distinguishes a finite and a non-finite verb as follows: “A finite verb phrase is one that can be the main verb of a sentence. A non-finite verb phrase is an infinitive, gerund or participle.” (Eastwood, 1994: 75) A finite verb phrase can come in a main clause or a sub clause. A non-finite verb comes only in a sub clause (Eastwood, 1994: ). Palmer (1974), Rizo (1990) and Mindt (1999) distinguish four types of verb forms with which the catenative verbs are followed: catenative verbs followed by a to-infinitive catenative verbs followed by a –ing form catenative verbs followed by a past participle (-en form) catenative verbs followed