French auxiliaries

[Charles Watkins]

Annabelle,
 
Even amongst grammarians of English, there is disagreement about terminology: strictly speaking,  BE and HAVE are auxiliaries - they conjugate for person and tense - and CAN, WILL (of which 'could' and 'would' are merely past tense forms) are modals - they don't conjugate for person. 
 
If you are French, which from your name and research interest - if not form your address - I guess you might be, try any French grammar of either language. Particularly  Grammaire Explicative de l'Anglais (Paul Larreya), Le Français Déchiffré and Grammaire Linguistique de l'Anglais (Henri Adamzewski). The latter two are good on thought-provoking theorisation, but Larreya is less counter-intuitive as well as being strong on taxonomy and the best possible common sense. For an interesting eighteenth century English view demonstrating that 20th century French theoreticians have invented nothing new, see Tristram Shandy ( I forget which chapter, but if you're interested I'll look it up).
 
In my own research on deixis in the two languages, I have come to the conclusion the only solution is to define the terms yourself.
 
Charles Watkins
Khâgne & Hypokhâgne, Lycée Molière, Paris
    -----Message d'origine-----
    De : Annabelle David <annabelledavid at hotmail.com>
    À : info-childes at mail.talkbank.org <info-childes at mail.talkbank.org>
    Date : vendredi 1 février 2002 12:04
    Objet : French auxiliaries
    
    
    Dear all,

    I am trying to classify verbs in French but I cam across a problem. What do i count as auxiliaries?? In English, it is fairly easy can, could, would.... but in French the only real ones are etre and avoir in compound tense forms. But I have seen pouvoir, vouloir and others considered as such as well. And what about faire and aller??

    I am working with bilingual French/English children.

    Where can I find help for this topic?? There seem to be a lot of very different opinions out there.

    Annabelle
    
    
    


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    Annabelle David 

    Department of Speech 

    University of Newcastle 

     King George VI Building 
    Queen Victoria Road 
    Newcastle upon Tyne 
    NE1 7RU 
    U.K. 

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