Auxiliary Verbs and NICE Properties

Key Distinctions of Auxiliary Verbs

• Auxiliary verbs differ from lexical verbs in four syntactic characteristics known as NICE constructions.

• The NICE acronym stands for Negation, Inversion, Code, and Emphasis.

• These properties were identified by linguist Rodney Huddleston.

Negation

• Auxiliary verbs form negatives by directly adding "not" (e.g., "has not seen it").

• Lexical verbs cannot directly add "not"; they require "do-support" (e.g., not "saw not it" but "did not see it").

• Expressions like "had better" and "might as well" also function as operators for negation, adding "not" at the end (e.g., "You had better not eat anything").

Inversion

• Auxiliary verbs can invert with the subject to form questions (e.g., "Has he seen it?").

• Lexical verbs require "do-insertion" for questions; they cannot invert (e.g., not "Saw he it?" but "Did he see it?").

Code

• Auxiliary verbs can "stand for" or "code" a previously mentioned verb phrase, allowing for verb phrase deletion (e.g., "He has seen it and I have too.").

• Lexical verbs do not possess this property (e.g., not "I saw it and I saw too.").

• This property is also evident in tag questions and ellipsis.

Emphasis

• Auxiliary verbs can be stressed for prosodic emphasis (e.g., "He DOES agree!").

• Lexical verbs do not allow direct emphasis; they require "do-support" for emphasis (e.g., not "Jim WATCHED television" for emphasis, but "Jim DID watch television").

Exceptions

• Lexical verbs "be" and "have" conform to NICE properties but are not considered auxiliary verbs because they can occur alone in clauses.