This study examined the semantics and syntax of modal
auxiliaries as structural components of the English Verb
phrase. To determine this purpose, the work is organized
into five chapters: chapter one dealt with a brief
background to the study, statement of the problem,
purpose of the study, significance of the study, scope and
limitation of the study. Chapter two reviewed some related
literature. Chapters three, four and five dealt with research
methodology, syntactic and semantic analysis of modal
auxiliaries, then summary and conclusion. At the end of
the investigation, it was observed that modal auxiliaries are
structural components of the English verb phrase and they
are indispensable in the addition to and elicitation of the
semantic and syntactic well-formedness of English
expressions.
The verb is the heart of any sentence. Without a verb
(expressed or unexpressed), there cannot be a correct
sentence. Thus, the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
defines a sentence as a set of words expressing a statement,
a question or an order, usually containing a subject and a
verb. (1331)
Egbe , elaborating on this says that a sentence is made
up of a group of various words with a subject and a predicate
(the predicate, of course, contains a verb), and is believed to
express a complete thought (38).
In revealing a sentence, this website
(http://www.iscribe. org) explains the compulsory nature of
verb in a sentence and the definition of a sentence is
achieved using the simple sentence, complex sentence and
compound sentence. The simple sentence which is called the
basic English sentence requires a SUBJECT and a VERB.
For example, this sentence
I like English
conveys a complete thought. The subject is I, and the verb is
like. The word, English, conveys an understanding of what
the subject strives for.The sentence according to the website
contains an independent clause and a subordinate clause.
The independent clause can function as a complete sentence.
The subordinate clause also contains a subject and a verb
but cannot function as an independent sentence. For
example; this sentence, We surveyed the damage as the wind
subsided, consists of an independent and a dependent
clause. The independent clause is a complete sentence and
expresses a complete thought. The words as the wind
subsided is a subordinate clause and do not convey a
complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence.
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