Using two verbs together to add information about actions
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Adding information about the causes of actions and events | page 1 of 5 |
Introduction
The following example illustrates an important type of double-verb
structure 
, ie two aspects of a
single action associated with different people 
:
The police ... forced them to sign.
In this example there are two distinct aspects ("forcing" and
"signing"), and each aspect is associated with two different people, the subject
the police and the direct object them . In this example the two verbs force
and sign are separated by the direct object pronoun, them. In this type
of structure, the first verb provides important information about the main action - in
this case, it tells us something about what caused the action of "signing" .
The information conveyed by the first verb is typically associated with the idea of "causation", a concept which can be further broken down into three distinct sub-groups, as follows:
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"positive causation", where the first verb provides information
about causing the main action or event:
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"prevention" of the main action, (which can be thought of as
"negative causation"), where the first verb provides information about
preventing the main action or event:
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"facilitation", where the first verb provides information about
making possible, allowing or in some way helping the main action or event:
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| These three headings provide a useful means of categorising
double-verb structures relating to actions. You may either read through this file page by page or jump to a specific page by clicking on one of the choices below. |
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Introduction
Using double-verb structures to talk about "positive causation"
