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Persian Learner Posted 9 years ago
Linguistics Studies

AUXILIARY VERB

Hi,

I was wondering why the lecturer has labeled 'is' as 'auxiliary' in the following YouTube video. Could it be justified in any way, or is it simply a mistake?

Thanks.

  

Top answer

Persian Learner I was wondering why the lecturer has labeled 'is' as 'auxiliary' in the following YouTube video. Could it be justified in any way, or is it simply a mistake? As far as I know, the newer approaches to English grammar call be an auxiliary in all cases — not just when it's followed by a participle.

— CalifJim

  • Persian Learner I was wondering why the lecturer has labeled 'is' as 'auxiliary' in the following YouTube video.
  • Could it be justified in any way, or is it simply a mistake?
  • As far as I know, the newer approaches to English grammar call be an auxiliary in all cases — not just when it's followed by a participle.
  • I suppose the role of be is kept more consistent that way.
  • This is not part of what is called "traditional grammar", as you already know.
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3 Answers
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Persian LearnerI was wondering why the lecturer has labeled 'is' as 'auxiliary' in the following YouTube video. Could it be justified in any way, or is it simply a mistake?

As far as I know, the newer approaches to English grammar call be an auxiliary in all cases — not just when it's followed by a participle. I suppose the role of be is kept

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Persian LearnerI was wondering why the lecturer has labeled 'is' as 'auxiliary' in the following YouTube video. Could it be justified in any way, or is it simply a mistake?

No, it's not a mistake. For very good reasons, "be" is virtually always an auxiliary verb even when it is the only verb in the clause.

The "virtually" qualification relates to the

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In Chomsky's theory of Transformation Grammar, there is an operation of subject-auxiliary inversion. The rule for making interrogative sentences from declarative sentences is to invert the subject and auxiliary. In this application, the AUX is has:

John has eaten his lunch. -> transformation rule -> Has John eaten his lunch?

To extend the rule to senten

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