AUX: auxiliary verb
Definition
An auxiliary is a word 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.
In Cantonese, auxiliaries can be divided into modal and modal-like auxiliaries which are mostly preverbal (except for the postverbal usage of 得 / dak1 “can”) and do not have to be adjacent to the verb, and aspect markers, which must come immediately after the verb and certain verb compounds. Note that some modal auxiliaries can also function as main verbs, usually when they have a direct object or full clausal complement.
Examples
- Modal and modal-like auxiliaries - 能夠 / nang4gau3 “be able to”, 會 / wui5 “will”, 可以 / ho5ji3 “can”, 應該 / jing1goi1 “should”, 肯 / hang2 “be willing to”, 敢 / gam2 “dare”, 有 / jau5 (perfective), 冇 / mou5 (negative perfective), 得 / dak1 “can”
- Aspect markers
- 咗 / zo2 (perfective), 住 / zyu6 (durative), 過 / guo3 (experiential), 緊 gan2 (progressive), 吓 ha2 (delimitative), 開 / hoi1 (habitual)
AUX in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [el] [en] [es] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [xcl] [yue] [zh]