Dear list members (especially those of you interested in linguistics), I have been working on verb operators in English in the light of Peirce's three categories and it seems firstness, secondness, and thirdness appear at different levels of the analysis so that the broader approach (that includes all types of sentences) shows the following:
1rstness: V-zero (can't find the ASCII code for zero) TO V V-ing 2ndness: V-s V-ed 3rdness: MODAL + V-zero HAVE + V-en BE + V-ing BE + V-en DO + V-zero A more restricted approach (that doesn't take into account V1-V2 structures) leaves out the operators of firstness above and seems to redistribute the other operators as follows: 1rstness : V-s V-ed 3rdness: MODAL + V-zero HAVE + V-en BE + V-ing BE + V-en 2ndness: DO + V-zero And then a third, more detailed approach of the 4 operators of thirdness above would lead to the following conclusion: 3rdness: MODAL + V-zero 1rstness: HAVE + V-en 2ndness: BE + V-ing BE + V-en I was rather happy with that still-in-progress background when teaching my first year students of E.S.L. until I made a video (to which you'll find a link below) in which I heard myself say that operator of secondness DO + V-zero is not compatible with the operators of thirdness (MODAL + V-zero, HAVE + V-en, BE + V-ing, and BE + V-en). Secondness incompatible with thirdness? That doesn't make any sense, does it? I have just realized that and I now find it hard to see how to make the link between the verb operators in English and Peirce's categories and I thought I would look for help on Peirce-L. Would you happen to have some ideas on the matter? Any insight would be greatly appreciated! I guess I'll have to rethink my system (hopefully in the light of your comments) but for now I have put online a video presentation of the English verb equation I have been working on over the past two decades, and I thought it might possibly be of interest to you and/or your students if your field involves both semiotics and linguistic grammar. This equation has been designed for first year students to use throughout their undergraduate studies and can be adapted for high school education or beginners of E.S.L., the aim being to get one's ideas clear on how to give a form to a verb. This easy-to-grasp six-step process includes a very short series of operators resorting to firstness, secondness, and thirdness, that gives rise to all possible verb forms and to a plethora of verb phrases. You can find it on the web by simply typing the key words "verb equation" on YouTube or by clicking the link below: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUxlfbleBM | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUxlfbleBM ] I would really appreciate it if you and/or your students would be so kind as to give me some feedback on that work. Please also feel free to share with anyone who might be interested. Thank you for your answers & collaboration. Best regards & wishes. Cécile Cosculluela UPPA (University of Pau)
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