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Chapter 2
past tense: I processed vast quantities of data yesterday past participle (typically used in perfect tenses; see below): I have processed only three applications today processing (the present participle [typically used in progressive tenses; see below], also known as the gerund): I was processing the data when the phone rang. IRREGULAR VERBS
The 300 or so English verbs that are irregular (which constitute only about 2 percent of the total number of verbs in the language but include many that are frequently used) have either three, four, or five forms (although one verb, to be, has eight). Many irregular verbs have five forms: three of the forms just presented for process (base, 3.sg. present, present participle) plus nonidentical forms for the past tense and the past participle. An example of a five-form irregular verb is break, whose five forms are compared here with the four forms of the regular verb process. (The irregularities of break are highlighted in bold type.) break / process (base) breaks / processes (3.sg.pres.) broke / processed (past tense) broken / processed (past participle) breaking / processing (present participle) If break were regular, its past tense and past participle forms would both be *breaked. But as an irregular verb its past tense form is characterized by ablauting (any vowel change that alternates) in which /e/ → /o/ (/brek/ → /brok/), and its past participle form is characterized by both ablauting and by the addition of /(e)n/. Ablauting involves many different types of vowel changes. Here are some: /u/ → / /, /i/ (do → does, did) /e/ → /ε/ (say → says, said) /ε/ → /ɔ/ (catch → caught) /i/ → /æ/ (sit → sat) /i/ → /æ/, / / (drink → drank, drunk) /i/ → /e/ (eat → ate) /aj/ → /u/, /o/ (fly → flew, flown) /o/ → /ɔ/ (go → gone) Almost without exception, and even in irregular verbs, the 3.sg.pres. form is eminently predictable as base form + (e)s (morpheme /z/); we thus have processes, breaks, etc. But there are four verbs—be, do, have, say—that constitute exceptions to this rule. Be is particularly exceptional as an eight-form verb—the only one in the language—with three irregular present tense forms (as well as two irregular pasts and an irregular past participle). We will now compare be with our archetypical regular verb process. All the irregular forms of be are highlighted in bold type: be / process (base form) am / process (1.sg.present)
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