AplikaceAplikace
Nastavení

This is an old revision of the document!


Lesson 8: Multiword searches

In the Early Modern English period, there were two different ways of marking the perfect tenses. In the present day, the auxiliary have is used for example in the present perfect, as in It has come to my attention. However, as late as the eighteenth century, the perfect tenses could be marked with the auxiliary to be. These two markings were more or less in complementary distribution, i.e. they were used with different types of verbs. According to the OED , to be was the preferred way of forming the perfect verbs of motion, while to have was used in most other cases. Shakespeare normally uses the auxiliary to be with creep, enter, flee, go, meet, retire, ride, and run.