CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Defininition of Verb Phrase
Douglas (2002:42) says that, verb phrase is a phrase with a verb as its head. Verb
phrase has a lexical verb or primary verb as their head (i.e. their main verb). It is also
called a predicate. The main verb can stand alone or be preceded by one or more
auxiliary verbs. The auxiliaries further define the action, state, or process denoted by
the main verbs. Verb phrases are the essential part of clause, referring to a type of
state or action.
Verb phrase or VP is a syntax structure composed of predicative element of a
sentence and has function in providing information about the subject of the sentence.
All verbs that function as a predicate is verb phrase. The head of phrase is a verb and
constructed from a single verb, however, the verb phrase will consist of various
combinations of the main verb and any auxiliary verb, plus optionally specifier,
complement, and adjunct.
A main verb can stand by itself as the simple predicate of a sentence. For example : Many different people lived in the American colonies. Word `lived` is the
main verb (action). In the sentence “The colonists were hardworking”, `were` has
function as main verb (linking).
According to Douglas (2002:42), verbs can be grouped in to three major
• Lexical verbs (e.g. run, eat, think) have function as main verbs (full verbs)
ex: - Children and dog ran from side to side.
- He barely ate or slept that night
• Primary verbs
*Primary verbs (be, have, and do) have function as both auxiliary and main
verbs
* Primary verbs as main verbs function:
Ex : - He does my washing.
- His dad was an art professor.
- Every atom has a dense nucleus
*Primary verbs as auxiliary function (with main verb underlined)
Ex : - He doesn’t look at the numbers.
- He was wearing a dark ski mask.
- A particular combination of result has occurred
• Modal verbs (can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must) have
function only as auxiliary verbs
Ex : - He should be angry for all that.
- He would probably like it softer.
Verb phrases are the essential part of a clause, referring to a type of state or action.
The main verb determines the other clause elements that can occur in the clause.
Verb phrases are often split into two parts. This happens in questions, where the
subject is placed after the (first) auxiliary verb : What`s he doing? (verb phrase = is
In addition, the parts of a verb phrase can be interrupted by adverbs or other
adverbial. For example :
- You know the English will always have gardens whereever they find
themselves. (verb phrase = will have)
- The current year has definitely started well. (verb phrase = has started)
2.2 Forms of Verb Phrase
Main forms of the verb phrase are : active forms and passive forms.
2.2.1 Active Forms
Active form is form of a verb which shows that the person or thing
denoted by the subject does something (does action). It consists of simple,
perfect, progressive, and perfect progressive.
2.2.1.1 Simple Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : I love her very much.
2. Past : He drunk coffee yesterday.
3. Modal : She can visits this place every sunday.
2.2.1.2Perfect Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : I have received the flower.
2. Past : I had written the letter before he arrived.
3. Modal : The boy could have done the dishes himself but his father
2.2.1.3Progressive Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : The boys are playing a ball.
2. Past : They were listening to the radio all evening.
3. Modal : Every body could be asking some questions.
2.2.1.4 Perfect Progressive Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : I have been sleeping for five hours.
2. Past : He had been writing a novel for two years.
3. Modal : They should have been doing their homework at the time
that i called.
2.2.2 Passive Forms
Form of verb which shows that something is done to the person or
thing denoted by the subject (receives some action). It consists of simple,
perfect and progressive.
2.2.2.1 Simple Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : The ball is kicked by that boy.
2. Past : His letter was received by me a week ago.
3. Modal : His letter should be received by me a week ago.
2.2.2.2Perfect Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : She have been received my flower.
3. Modal : She might have been received my flower.
2.2.2.3Progressive Sentence
Ex : 1. Present : Hockey is being played by Andi .
2. Past : The radio was being listened by him last all evening.
3. Modal : Hockey might be being played by Andi.
2.3 Kinds of Verb Phrase
According to Douglas (2002:149), there are six kinds of verb phrase. They
are tense, aspect, voice, modality, negation and finite clause. The writer only focuses
on tense, aspect and voice.
2.3.1 Tense
Tense means time. Tense is some of forms of a verb that may be used to show
the time of the action or state expressed by the verb. We know that, as their main
functional, verb describes an action or a state of being on the part of the object. But
verb also tells when the action took place or when the state is existed. Verb phrases
that are marked for tense are called tensed verb phrases. Douglas (2004: 156) says
that tense can be used to mark past and present and refer to future time. ‘Tense’ in
English is to do with morphological stuff which go together to make a construction,
while these are associated with time there is no direct correlation between the name
grammatically a present tense but is clearly talking about something which will occur
in the future.
1. Simple Present
Azar (1993:36) states that simple present is : something was true in the past, is
true in the present, and will be true in the future. It is used for general statements of
fact. The simple present is used to express habitual or everyday activity. According
to Douglas (2004:151), there are three major meaning for simple present tense when
it refers to present time:
• It can describe a state that exists at the present time.
Ex : 1. I want a packet of crisps.
2. The pigment occurs in the epidermal cells.
• It can refer to a habitual action
Ex : 1. She`s vegetarian but she eats chicken.
2. He dances and moves about a lot.
• It can describe an action that is happening at the present time.
Ex : 1. Here comes your mother.
2. Oh my goodness. There he goes. Look at him walk.
The rule to form the simple present tense :
For example:
1. She watches the television everyday
2. He goes to school
.
everyday. Subject + V1 s/es + N/ Adv
3. They are students.
Adverbs which show time in these forms are as follows:
- Everyday Usually Always
- Often Sometimes Seldom
- Ever Never Generally, etc
Verbs that usually occur in the present tense :
Bet, doubt, know, matter, mean, mind, reckon, suppose, think, care, differ,
fancy, imply, tend and want.
2. Simple past tense
Simple past tense is most often used to refer to past time or to indicate an
action completed in the past. In fictional narrative and description, the use of simple
past tense is common for describing imagined past states and events.
Betty (1993:2) states that simple past tense is at one particular time in the past, this
happened. It began and ended in the past.
The rule of simple past tense :
- Yesterday, last…. ,
- ….ago Subject +V2 + Adj/Adv
For example:
1. I visited my grandmother yesterday
2. She went with him
.
last night
3. My father was sick
.
two days ago.
Verb that usually occur in the past tense :
Exclaim, eye, glance, grin, nod, pause, remark, reply, shrug, sigh, smile,
whisper, bend, bow, lean, light, park, seat, set off, shake, stare, turn away,
wave, and wrap.
2.3.2 Aspect
Douglas (2004:156) says, aspect adds time meanings to those expressed by
tense. Aspect answer the question” is the event/state described by the verb
completed, or is it continuing” ?
Aspect is to do with whether an action of state is complete or ongoing, recent or less
recent and the length of duration.
There are two aspects in English: perfect and progressive (sometimes known as
continuous).
1. The perfect aspect
The perfect aspect most often describes events or states taking place during a
a. Perfect aspect, present time ( Present Perfect)
Present perfect verbs often refer to past actions with effects that continue up to
present time.
Use the following rule to form the present perfect :
The present perfect is used to indicate :
a. To show an action has been finished in the short time. It usually uses the adverb as
follows:
- Already, just,
- recently, yet, since
For example: We have just read the book.
b. To show an action which has been done but that action is still has a connection
with now.
For example: He has taught English since 2001
c. An action that happened more than once in the past.
For example: George has seen this movie three times.
Verbs that are common in the present perfect :
Has/have been
Ex : Rowlands has been critical of Welsh officials.
Has/have got and has/have had
Ex : - Jones has got the letter.
- I have got a problem actually.
Other verbs that are common in present perfect are some of the most common
verbs overall (ex : gone, done, mad, seen, come, said, taken, become, given,
shown, thought, called).
Ex : - He`s gone home.
- Experiments have shown that nitrogen deficiency tends to
strengthen the lower nodes.
b. Perfect aspect , past time ( Past Perfect)
Past perfect verbs refer to actions in the past that are completed at or before a given
time in the past. The actual time is often specified.
The rule to form past perfect :
Adverbs which show the time used in this time form are:
- Already, before, after,
- until, as soon as.
For example :
1. He had gone with them.
2. She had taken it herself.
Verbs that are common in the past perfect :
Like the simple past tense, past perfect verb phrases are especially common in
fiction. They are used especially for reference to an earlier period in the middle of a
past tense narrative :
He hadn`t even been jealous of her dead husband.
Nancy had gone with them.
He had taken it himself.
The most common verbs with the past perfect are some of the most common verbs
overall. These are mostly verbs that describe physical movements and other activities
(gone, come, left, given, got, ect.), speech acts (said, told), and mental perceptions or
thoughts (see, heard, known).
2. Progressive aspect
Progressive aspect describes an event or state of affairs in the progress or
continuing. It also describes activities or events in a progress at a particular time,
usually for a limited amount of time.
The following list identify the verbs most strongly associated with progressive
• Verbs that most strongly associated with progressive aspect :
Activity/physical verbs : bleed ,chase, shop, starve, dance, drip, head (for),
march, pound, rain, stream, sweat
Communication verbs : chat, joke, kid, moan, scream, talk
Mental / attitude verbs : look forward, study
• Verbs that almost never occur with progressive aspect :
Activity/physical verbs : arrest, dissolve, find, invent, rule, shut, shrug,
smash, throw
Communication verbs : accuse, communicate, disclose,exclaim, reply, thank
Mental / attitude verbs : agree, appreciate, believe, conclude, desire,
know,want, like
Perceptual states/ activities : detect, hear perceive, see
Facilitation/causation verbs : convince, guarantee, initiate, oblige, provoke
a. Progressive aspect, present tense ( Present Continuous)
Present progressive is in the progress at the present time, and probably continue.
The rule is :
Adverbs which show the time used in this time form are: Right now, at this
moment/this time, at present
The functions are:
For examples:
1. They are playing kites now.
2. My father is sleeping right now.
b. To state the event or action in mean time
For example : My father is buying a car but he will sell soon.
c. To state the event or action in the future
For example: My mother and my sister are going to Bali tonight.
b. Progressive aspect, past tense ( Past Continuous)
Past progressive is in progress at particular time in the past. It probably continued. It
is also used to denote an action going on at some time in the past. It also used, with
always, continually etc., for persistent habits in the past. (He was always
The rule :
grumbling )
Adverbs which show the time used in this time form are: When and while
For examples :
1. He was sleeping when
2. That is why I was thinking I might hang onto the Volvo. I arrived.
3. The perfect progressive
Verb phrases can be marked for both aspects (perfect and progressive) at the
same time.
a Present perfect progressive ( Present Perfect Continuous)
For an action that began in the past and is still occurring in the present.
The rule:
Adverbs which show the time used in this time form are: for and since
1. I have been waiting here for 10 years.
2. I have been studying for two hours.
b. Past perfect progressive ( Past Perfect Continuous )
The past perfect continuous is used for an action that began for a certain point in the
past and continued up to that time.
The rule :
1. I had been studying for two hours before my friends came
2. I had been waiting for you for four hours before you came Subject+Have/Has+been+V-ing+O/C
2.3.3 Voice
Based on the use of verbs, transitive verb has two voice they are active voice and
passive voice. Before discussing further about the active and passive voice, it is
better to know definition of voice. Martin and Wren (1986:8) state, “voice is that
form of a verb which is shows whether, what is denoted by the subject does
something of has something done it” . Furthermore, House and Susan (1950:94)
defines, “voice is the modification of a transitive verb which indicates whether
subject is acting or being acted upon”. From the two quotations above, it can
concluded that voice is the form of a verb, which can express the time of an
occurrence of the action. Thomson and Martinet (1975:176) stated that the active and
passive tense is formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as the active
verb and adding the past participle of the active verb.
1. Active Voices
When the subject of the verb represents the actor (agent), the voice is said as
active voice. An active sentence is commonly structured :
For example:
The girls stole the purse
S V O
2. Passive Voices
When the subject receives or denotes the object to which the action is directed,
the voice is said as passive voice. The passive voice is a structure that allows making
a statement without knowing who performed the action of the sentence.
Passive voice is the change of position of the sentence. It means that in the
passive forming, there is transformation process or shortly the passive voice is
transformed from the active voice. There are some steps in forming the passive
voice, the steps are as follows:
1. put object of the active in front of the passive voice
(Object of the active becomes the subject of the passive)
2. object of the passive becomes pronoun(i.e. personal pronoun as object)
3. add “to be” in passive which is suitable with it tense
4. put them main verb of the active after auxiliary (to be) in the verb past participle
form (V3)
5. Put the agent “by” after the verb past participle.
6. For example:
- They sent James to prison for two years (active)
- James was sent to prison (by) them for two years (passive)
From the example above, in the simple rule, the sentence in the active voice can be
transformed to the passive voice and object in active becomes subject in passive
passive of an active tense is formed by putting the verb to be into the same tense as
the active verb and adding the past participle of the active verb. The subject of the
active verb becomes the agent of the passive verb. The agent is very often to be
mentioned, it precedes by “by” and placed at the end of the sentence. So generally
the pattern of passive voice is :
Verbs that are common in the passive voice :
Aligned (with), based (on), born, coupled (with), deemed, effected, entitled
(to), flattened, inclined, obliged, positioned, situated, stained, subjected (to),
approved, associated (with), attributed (to), classified (as), composed (of),
confined (to), designed, diagnosed (as), distributed, estimated, grouped
(with), intended, labeled, linked (to/with), located (at/in), plotted, recruited,
stored,and viewed.
