grammar - What are these Auxiliary-like verbs?


"Tell", "continue" and "stop" are not listed as auxiliary verbs, but they seem to be similar. Consider the following sentences, where [these are objects of tell]:



He told [his cat] to leave.


We told [them] to find another way.


[They] have been told to stop calling.



I cannot reconcile "told" as simply a transitive verb in these cases.


Consider these phrases where tell is used as a verb taking a single accusative object:



He told [his cat].


We told [them].


[They] have been told.



I don't think [to leave] or [to find another way] or [to stop calling] can be considered noun phrases.


Also, we can chain together these words, often by adding the word "to" (like we do with the word ought which is listed as an auxiliary verb). Though sometimes this isn't necessary. A few examples of increasing complexity:



We continue telling [him] to stop calling.


We continue to tell [him] to stop calling.


We continue pleading [her] to tell [him] to stop calling.


We continue pleading [them] to beg [her] to tell [him] to stop calling.


We continue to plead [them] to continue to beg [her] to stop telling [him] to stop calling.



It seems that these words can take an additional verb phrase as if it were a kind of object:



Continue to _____.


Stop _____.


Plead [object] to _____.


Tell [object] to _____.


Beg [object] to _____.



Can anyone explain to me what these words are grammatically, and what those 'verb phrases' are?



Answer



Verbs such as continue, stop, beg, tell that can combine with other verbs are called catenative verbs. The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (p59) has this entry on catenative verbs:



A verb that can form a chain with one or more subsequent verbs, e.g.



  • want to go

  • hate to tell you

  • begin walking

  • go shopping.


The construction may involve a direct object, e.g.



  • She wanted them to go

  • He made us laugh

  • I watched him paint/painting the door.



The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (p1177) points out the recursive nature of catenative verbs:



The term 'catenative' applies to a large class of constructions where a verb has a non-finite internal complement. The name reflects the fact that the construction can be repeated recursively, yielding a concatenation ('chain') of verbs.


i. I wanted to arrange for Kim to do it.


ii. She intends to try to persuade him to help her redecorate her flat.



Later in the CGEL (p1206-1220) there is a lengthy section that proposes the re-analysis of auxiliaries as catenatives:



... the position taken here is that there are nevertheless compelling grounds for preferring an analysis of the modal, tense, aspectual and voice auxiliaries as catenative verbs taking non-finite complementation.



The CGEL approach is called the "catenative-auxiliary analysis" in contrast to the traditional "dependent-auxiliary analysis.


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