The term anomalous finites refers to the group
of 24 finites given below:
Is, am,
are, was, were Has,
have, had Do, does,
did Will,
would; shall, should; can, could; may, might; must, ought, need, dare, used
As you
can probably see, these are all auxiliary verbs. Some of them are also used as
principal verbs. As auxiliaries their function is to help principal verbs to
form their tenses and moods. As anomalous finites, they have other functions.
Anomalous finites are irregular. They do not
form the past tense by the addition of -ed,
-d or -t, but by a change in the
root vowel. Some anomalous finites (must, ought) have no past tense forms at
all. But these irregular finite verbs are different from other finite verbs in
many respects and hence they are called anomalous
finites.
The most
obvious difference between anomalous finites and other finites is that they can
be used with the contraction n’t
which is the shortened form of not.
It isn’t
true. (= It is not true.) We aren’t
going anywhere. (= We are not going anywhere.) You
shouldn’t do that. I don’t
know what to do.
Of the
24 anomalous finites, the forms be,
have, do, need and dare are
sometimes used as principal verbs and sometimes as auxiliaries. The remaining
are always used as auxiliaries.
The use of anomalous finites
To form negative sentences
I know him. I don’t know him. (NOT I know not him.) She wrote to me. She didn’t write to me. (NOT She wrote not
to me.)
Here the
anomalous finites do and did help to change positive statements
into negative statements. The mere addition of not to the positive sentence is not enough in modern English.
