Subject, Verb Object (and so forth) sentence analysis. In particular: What's the Verb here?
I need help! Could you please look at this sentence:
When I obtained a credit card, I began spending money recklessly.
I'm doing basic sentence patterns, and I don't know how to analyse this part: began spending money. Is began spending the verb in the sentence or just began without spending? Why?
Aspectual predicates like start, begin, continue, remain, finish, end, and stop can take either gerund or infinitive complement clauses, and they can take either A-Equi or A-Raising.
Here's the Syntax Lab report on start
Start
1-place with A-Raising, infinitive or gerund – aspectual predicate: epistemic inceptive.or
2-place with A-Equi, infinitive or gerund – aspectual predicate: volitional inceptive.
And that's the likely story for I began spending money recklessly, too.
How to tell the Equi ("Control") cases from the Raising cases is still a topic of scholarly dispute.
The two possible analyses go like this (in both, the matrix verb is began):
Raising: The real subject of began is actually not I, but my spending money recklessly.
That gerund clause is the subject complement of began.
E.g,
When I obtained a credit card, my spending money recklessly began.
The gerund subject my changes to I and becomes the subject of began via A-Raising, which moves the subject of a complement clause up to become the subject of the matrix clause,
and moves the remaining VP to the end of the sentence, like
There began to be smoke in the halls.
There is a dummy that has to come from the complement clause;
it has no meaning as the subject of began, which shows it's been moved up.Equi: Volitional actions can have beginnings, and volitional predicates tend to take Equi.
This means there are two separate references to the subject (I) in I began to spend money;
my in the gerund clause, just as with Raising, but also I in the matrix clause.
The upstairs I is the subject of began, and the gerund clause is its object complement.
I.e, 'I am responsible for the beginning of my spending money.'
This is a specific sense of the sentences, and may not be what is intended.
It is common for people to confuse participles with verbs in a sentence. Verbs are the words that express the action. "Spending" is not expressing the action. "Began" is expressing the action. This can be further confusing when you think of a sentence such as "I like spending money." Well, which is it? Do you like extra money (as in allowance) or do you like the action of money leaving your pocket? What about "I like having spending money."? Fortunately, your case is similar to the "money leaving your pocket" meaning. Spending is acting as an object.
Let's substitute another word in your sentence to help you see that "spending" is not a verb but a kind of "thing" that we can talk about. (In proper grammar terms, "spending" is a gerund or a an ing form of a verb that can be used as a subject or object in a sentence.)
Consider this sentence: "When I obtained a credit card, I began work on my home." In this case, you can see that "work" is not a verb. It's not a verb for two reasons: it's not preceded by an auxiliary, and in English the progressive tense is formed with an auxiliary as deadrat pointed out in his comment, and a verb cannot follow another verb: *I like love you. *He begins works on the home." By verb, I am not talking about auxiliaries. For example, the future perfect progressive ("I will have been reading") has four verbs together.
So, because it's not a verb it must be "something else." That something else is an object. These "something elses" can be things such as "work" "Bob" "chewing gum" "to watch" "running," "smoking" or "spending."
Once you recognize "ing" forms as objects you will start seeing them everywhere and will see them in many places where they cannot be verbs. For example "He told me that running was good." "He enjoys things such as spending money." or "Government spending is a subject most people love to debate." Also, notice in the opening sentence of this paragraph "seeing" is a gerund. It is not part of "will start." In the same way, "them" is not a verb and is not part of "will see."
Hopefully, this helps clear this up for you.
To go back to the example sentence earlier, "I like having spending money." can you see that the verb is "like"? It is expressing the action and links you with "having spending money." Having is a gerund and spending is a participle telling what kind of money it is.
Here is the sentence in question:
When I obtained a credit card, I began spending money recklessly.
I began spending money recklessly--this is the independent clause of a complex sentence. I is the subject; began is the action verb; spending money recklessly is the gerund phrase with the gerund itself being spending. This gerund phrase functions as the direct object of the verb began. In other words, "I began whom or what?" "I began SPENDING MONEY RECKLESSLY."
There are two verbs in the sentence. The verb began is in a form of "past tense" indicating the action of "begin" occurred in the unknown past, and the other one is in a form of "gerund" indicating the object of the transitive verb "began" is the gerund itself and at the same time it takes "money" as its "own object".
There are clear distinctions between "began" and "spending":
- The most notable one is "began" as a main verb can change its form to all tenses assisted by auxiliary verbs (be, have, will and so on). That's why it is called an "finite verb". However, "spending (gerund)" can't change its form as freely as "began". It has only 2 forms, one with "-ing form" and the other with "having + past participle" form. For example:
I regret having said so.
Its past tense form only indicates the action of "say" occurred before "regret". Gerund can't express any other tenses in the sentence. That's why it is called "infinite/nonfinite verb"
- "began" can't be subject/object/completment without changing its form to "to-infinitive" or "gerund". However, "spending" can be any of them. That's why you can use "spending" as an object of "began". You can also use "to spend" as an object of "began".
However, there are some similarities. For example, "began" as a transitive verb can take an object in various forms such as "nouns", "to-infinitives", and "gerunds" which all have a "nominal" characteristics. "Gerund" depending upon the verb before "-ing" also can take an object in various forms as in:
I began enjoying skiing.
There are 3 verbs in this sentence, "began", "enjoying", and "skiing". Here the gerund "enjoying" is taking another gerund "skiing" as its object.
Let's take a look at another example:
I began to regret starting to smoke a cigarette.
Then, how many verbs are there in the above sentence? There are 4 verbs, "began", "regret in a to-infinitive form", "starting in a gerund form", and "to smoke in a to-infinitive form". All the above 4 verbs have different functions in just one short sentence.
Began: A main verb of an independent clause in the past tense.
To regret: An object of the verb "began" taking "starting" as an object.
Starting: An object of the verb "regret" taking "to smoke" as an object.
To smoke: An object of the verb "starting" and taking "a cigarette" as an object.
It is wrong to say spending is just an "object" of "began" as "a noun" because "a noun" cannot take any object without help of "prepositions".
Some grammarians coined a word "verbid" to differentiate "other verb forms" from "main verb" as defined below:
a nonfinite verb form; a verbal; an infinitive, participle, or gerund.
[Dictionary.Reference.Com]
Conclusion: There are 2 verbs in different forms. Answering the question of "what is the verb here?" largely depend on "what verb" you are looking for.
- If you are looking for one "main verb", it is "began".
- If you are looking for finite/infinite verbs in whatever forms including "verbid (or gerund)", they are "began" and "spending".
It might be wrong to ask, "What is the verb here?" It would be more appropriate to ask, "What is a main verb here?" or "What is a finite verb here?".