The English Auxiliary Clusters as a Case of the Grammatical Category Concentricity

Abstract

The English auxiliary clusters are unique among similar clusters in Indo-European languages in their structure, which is characterized by sequentiality. The lack of any possibility of reversing the sequence auxiliaries in such clusters begs the question concerning this strict ordering as the reflection of mutual relations obtaining between grammatical categories rendered by periphrastic formations based on those auxiliaries. As will be indicated in the present article, this strict sequentiality characterizing the position of auxiliaries is the reflection of the relations between the grammatical categories signalled by periphrastic formations participating in auxiliary clusters, which is characterized by concentricity in the sense that one grammatical category is embedded in another category.