Theoretical and Descriptive Study of the Auxiliary Verb Systems in Natural Languages

本研究探讨了现代英语的以下特征之间可能存在的相互关系，并将它们与其他日耳曼语言（如德语和荷兰语）中的特征进行了对比。(1)英语缺乏非人格化的被动语态（不像德语/荷兰语），(2)英语缺乏助动词选择（不像德语/荷兰语），(3)英语现在时的动词通常没有不完全的解释（不像德语/荷兰语），(4)英语有BE+ ing的委婉结构（不像德语/荷兰语），（5)英语的被动语态包含助动词BE（不像德语/荷兰语中的BE）），(6)英语，像荷兰语，不像德语，在很大程度上缺乏格的区分。(7)英语允许与格被动语态（不像德语/荷兰语）；(8)英语中所谓的自由与格受到严格限制（像荷兰语，不像德语）；(9)现在完成时结构通常不允许出现像YESTERDAY这样的副词（不像德语/荷兰语）；（10）英语的使役结构基于动词HAVE（不像德语/荷兰语）。在确定了这些特征之间的一些关键的相互关系之后，本研究对日语和其他亚洲语言进行了研究，看看在类型学/谱系学上不同的语言中是否也存在类似的概括。例如，我们的研究表明，属性(2)和(9)确实倾向于在不同类型的语言中相互关联。

The present research looked into the possible interrelations among the following properties of Modern English, contrasting them with those found in other Germanic languages such as German and Dutch. (1) English lacks impersonal passives (unlike German/Dutch), (2) English lacks auxiliary selection (unlike German/Dutch), (3) verbs in the present tense generally lack imperfective interpretation in English (unlike German/Dutch), (4) English has the periphrastic BE+Ving construction (unlike German/Dutch), (5) passives in English involve the auxiliary verb BE (not BECOME as in German/Dutch), (6) English, like Dutch and unlike German, largely lacks case distinctions, (7) English allows dative passives (unlike German/Dutch), (8) the so-called free datives are severely restricted in English (like Dutch and unlike German), (9) the present perfect construction generally disallows the occurrence of adverbs like YESTERDAY (unlike German/Dutch), (10) English has the causative construction based on the verb HAVE (unlike German/Dutch). After identifying some crucial interrelations holding among these properties, the present research examined Japanese and other Asian languages to see if similar generalizations hold in typologically/genealogically different languages. Our research shows that properties (2) and (9), for instance, do tend to correlate across languages of different types.