Identifying lexical and an auxiliary verbs

Question

HelloI've been working through some grammar exercises and I've got a little stuck. The idea of the excessive was to identify whether the verbs "be", "do" and "have" are auxiliary or lexical in the sentences.In the sentence; " I had a bad headache yesterday", I correctly identified "had" as lexical.In the sentence; "How long have you been learning English", I correctly identified "have" as an auxiliary.The problem is in the sentence; " I did it without thinking" - I thought "did" was auxiliary as it is the helping verb to the main verb thinking. I am told this is wrong, please can someone explain, is the word "thinking" a noun in this sentence? it can't be, ???answers greatly appreciated

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

johnbytheseaThe idea of the ~~excessive~~ exercise was to identify whether the verbs "be", "do" and "have" are auxiliary or lexical in the sentences.

Was the work required by the exercise excessive?

johnbytheseaThe problem is in the sentence; " I did it without thinking" - I thought "did" was auxiliary as it is the helping verb to the main verb thinking. I am told this is wrong, please can someone explain, is the word "thinking" a noun in this sentence? it can't be, ???

I did it is the main part of the clause. It only has one verb (did), so that verb has to be lexical. Consider that "did (it)" is like "performed (it)" or "accomplished (it)", so that's about as non-auxiliary as you can get.

"thinking" is a gerund. It's the verb "think" in its -ing form, as is required by the preceding preposition "without". If you put a verb after a preposition, you have to use it in the -ing form. This signals that it's being used somewhat like a noun (because nouns follow prepositions).

Finally, a preposition can never occur between an auxiliary verb and a lexical verb, so the presence of "without" should tell you that "thinking" can't be the main verb. Besides, the forms of do (do, does, did) cannot be auxiliaries for an -ing form; they can only take the role of auxiliary for a verb in its plain form. (He did not think it was a good idea, but not He did not thinking it was a good idea).

CJ

AlpheccaStars · Answer

johnbythesea " I did it without thinking"

Another way to parse it is to see if "thinking" can be replaced without significant change in the meaning of the action:

I did it [without thinking.]
I did it [without a thought.]
I did it thoughtfully.

Also, all lexical verb forms with the auxiliary "do" are infinitive (base) forms:

Did you think?
I did not think.
Do you think?
I do think.

X Did you thinking? (Wrong)

Johnbythesea · Answer

Thank you,very helpful.<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' alt='Emotion: wink'/>

Identifying lexical and an auxiliary verbs

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