To be and to be and…
Rob James
The life and times of the English existence verb.
The word-forms that we gather under the infinitive form to be are intimidating to any learner of English, and often surprising even to native speakers. A slim book called The Story of Be: A Verb’s-Eye View of the English Language (2017) by lexicographer David Crystal details the story and calls the roll of some of the many uses of this verb—summarized below to whet your appetite.
Three families roll into the picture from Indo-European antecedents. First, there is the stem for am, is, and (in Old English) sie and sind. Second, there is the stem for be, being, and been. Third, there is the stem for was and were. Unusually, the verb can be used three different ways—as a full verb all by its lonesome (God is); as an auxiliary verb (He was walking); and as a “copula” equating the subject with the rest of the sentence (She is my mother).
See how many of Crystal’s meanings wind up in your own vocabulary. Some of the distinctions are subtle indeed and quite attenuated.
Existential This parrot has ceased to be, sometimes with an existential subject there or it, as in There’s lots of time
Obituarial For fans of the Firefly television series like me, Earth-that-was
Temporal It’s been hours
Identifying I am David Crystal
Obligational She is to report for duty tonight
Visitational Has the doctor been here?
Circumstantial How are you? She is at ease.
Romantic Have you been with anybody since the breakup?
Numerical Two and four are six
Progressive He is walking
Perfective They are all grown up
Nominal I want to be king
Signifying Well, that is to say,
Repetitive He’s a real provider, he is, he is
Eventive The butler said, “Your Grace, Sir Pitt has been and proposed to marry Miss Becky Sharp.”
Lavatorial I’ve been right before we got in the car for this long trip
Factual the strange word albeit, or Being as you are so young
Declarative “Oh, you’ll be the leader, is it?”
Quotative “I was, like, you’re not my friend if you do that, and he was, like, oh yeah?”
Befalling Woe is me!
Membership I am a Freemason
Chronological I am fifty-eight years old
Vernacular Is you is or is you ain’t my baby?
Ludic (use in a pun or game) Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear…
Missing ARRIVED IN VENICE STOP STREETS FULL OF WATER STOP ADVISE (classic Robert Benchley telegram home to New York); BEATLE JOHN LENNON SLAIN (headline Dec. 9, 1980)
Summarizing It’s a million bucks, is all
More enjoyable details in Crystal’s book and in his other works!
Coming up, my own compiled study of that rare and endangered species, the subjunctive mood in Modern English. (Yes, there is one, or perhaps many, some in hiding or in extremis.)