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Glossary 11.12 Glossary
Active voice.
The grammatical voice where the actor (doer) occupies the subject position.
Actor.
The entity performing an action. A semantic role, not a grammatical position.
Do-support.
The insertion of auxiliary
do to form negatives or questions when no other auxiliary is present (
She does not like coffee ).
Get-passive.
An alternative passive construction formed with
get instead of
be (
She got promoted ). More informal, often implies sudden or consequential events.
Modal auxiliary.
An auxiliary verb expressing possibility, necessity, permission, ability, or prediction. The nine modals are
can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must .
NICE properties.
The four behaviors shared by all auxiliary verbs: Negation (add
not ), Inversion (swap with subject), Code (stand alone in short answers), Emphasis (receive stress).
Passive voice.
The grammatical voice where the patient (receiver) occupies the subject position. Formed with
be + past participle.
Patient.
The entity affected by an action. A semantic role, not a grammatical position.
Semi-modal.
A multi-word expression functioning like a modal but with regular verb properties (
have to ,
be able to ,
be going to ).
Voice.
A grammatical category describing which participant (actor or patient) occupies the subject position in a clause.
