AUX: auxiliary verb
Definition
An auxiliary verb is a verb that accompanies the lexical verb of a verb phrase and expresses grammatical distinctions not carried by the lexical verb, such as person, number, tense, mood, aspect, and voice.
Modal verbs may count as auxiliaries in some languages (English). In
other languages their behavior is not too different from the main
verbs and they are thus tagged VERB. Copulas also stay with
main verbs.
Note that not all languages have grammaticalized auxiliary verbs, and
even where they exist the dividing line between full verbs and
auxiliary verbs can be expected to vary between languages. Exactly
which verbs are counted as AUX should be part of the
language-specific documentation.
Examples
- Tense auxiliaries: has (done), is (doing), will (do)
- Passive auxiliaries: was (done), got (done)
- Modal auxiliaries: should (do), must (do)
References
AUX in other languages: [bg] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [eu] [fa] [fi] [fr] [ga] [he] [hu] [it] [ja] [ko] [sv] [u]