LINGUIST List 7.1554

Sun Nov 3 1996

Sum: Nice properties

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Marina Yaguello, Summary:Nice properties

Thank you to :

Daniel Simeoni, Diana Gierling,Mark Honegger,Keith Goeringer,Raphael
Salkie,Yang Suying, Miho Nishio,Larry Trask,Jonathan Hope, Virginia
Brennan,Georgia Green, Maren Heydel for taking the time to answer my
query about the NICE properties of English auxiliaries. I knew I had
the answer at hand but I just couldn't remember where to look. Both
Palmer's The English verb and his Mood and Modality are sitting on my
shelf ! I'll quote Larry Trask, who apparently has an entry for this
in his dictionary:

>This is a mnemonic label for the four principal properties
>distinguishing English auxiliaries from ordinary verbs:
>
>Negation: `Lisa doesn't smoke.'
>Inversion: `Does Lisa smoke?'
>Code: `Lisa doesn't smoke, but Janet does.'
>Emphasis: `Janet *does* smoke.'
>
>The mnemonic was coined by Rodney Huddleston (1976), `Some
>theoretical issues in the description of the English verb', Lingua
>40: 331-383. It derives from the terminology used in Frank R. Palmer
>(1974), The English Verb, London: Longman (2nd ed. 1987).
>
>Larry Trask
>COGS
>University of Sussex
>Brighton BN1 9QH
>England

Marina Yaguello
Professor of linguistics
U.of Paris 7-Denis Diderot