Re: verb agreement in one stage of English

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

> Its web site is http://www.academie-francaise.fr . The Académie
> Française is charged with regulating the usage of French.
>

Did you suggest that moder-day French shows verb-object agreement?
I think so because yout said 'the past participle in avoir perfects
agree with a direct preceding object to this day'

What is avoir perfect? Could you please give an example sentence and
tell me how the verb agrees with the direct object? Thank you very
much

> I think the verb should be treated as a whole. We then see both
> subject-marking on the auxiliary and (optional) object-marking on
> the participle. There has been a general tendency to eliminate
> object-marking in this construction, at least in Germanic (where I
> think it is now extinct) and Romance (reported to be extinct in
> every-day spoken French). I don't have a Modern Greek grammar to
> check on what has happened in that language.
>
> Richard.

Why should the main verb and the auxiliary be treated as one verb?
When I draw a phrase structure tree, the auxiliary occupies the INFL
position and the verb occupies a different position.

Or is the decision that the auxiliary and the main verb should be
considered a whole based on the fact that many languages use only one
form(main verb plus marking) to express the perfect aspect?

Ray