SPLIT Split auxiliaries

Xiao N100 MFTE SPLIT child of SPLIT_ALL

Definition

Adverb or other material inserted between auxiliary and main verb (e.g., “has never seen”, “will probably go”, “is always talking”).

Parent

SPLIT_ALL

Detection Rules

Auxiliary + adverb + main verb.

semgrex{pos:/VB.*/}=verb >aux {}=aux . {pos:RB}=adv

Requires: pos, dep

mfte

MFTE surface pattern: (MD|DOAUX|have|be) + RB (not n’t/not) + V. Uses pos not cat for adverb since refinement happens in parallel.

md3 
cql[pos="MD"] [pos="RB" & word!="n't|not"] [pos="VB.*"]
do3 
cql[cat="DOAUX"] [pos="RB" & word!="n't|not"] [pos="VB.*"]
have3 
cql[word="have|has|ve|had|having" & pos="VB.*"] [pos="RB" & word!="n't|not"] [pos="VB.*"]
be3 
cql[word="be|am|is|are|was|were|been|being|m|re" & pos="VB.*"] [pos="RB" & word!="n't|not"] [pos="VB.*"]
md4 
cql[pos="MD"] [pos="RB"] [pos="RB"] [pos="VB.*"]
do4 
cql[cat="DOAUX"] [pos="RB"] [pos="RB"] [pos="VB.*"]
have4 
cql[word="have|has|ve|had|having" & pos="VB.*"] [pos="RB"] [pos="RB"] [pos="VB.*"]
be4 
cql[word="be|am|is|are|was|were|been|being|m|re" & pos="VB.*"] [pos="RB"] [pos="RB"] [pos="VB.*"]
combine: md3 | do3 | have3 | be3 | md4 | do4 | have4 | be4

Requires: pos, cat, word

pybiber

pybiber anchors on auxiliary token (dep_rel contains “aux”), then checks forward for ADV + VERB (or ADV + ADV + VERB). Uses UPOS tags (ADV, VERB) not fine-grained Penn tags.

p1 
cql[dep="aux.*"] [upos="ADV"] [upos="VERB"]
p2 
cql[dep="aux.*"] [upos="ADV"] [upos="ADV"] [upos="VERB"]
combine: p1 | p2

Requires: pos, upos, dep

Normalization

Per finite_verbs

Examples

I would actually drive.

Source: le_foll_2024

You can just so tell.

Source: le_foll_2024

I can’t ever imagine arguing with Jill.

Source: le_foll_2024

Sources

  • biber_1988 — Biber, Douglas (1988) : Variation across Speech and Writing
  • mfte — Le Foll, Elen & Shakir, Muhammad (2023/2025) : Multi-Feature Tagger of English (MFTE) — Python version
  • pybiber — Brown, David West & Reinhart, Alex (2026) : pybiber — Python package for linguistic feature extraction and Multi-Dimensional Analysis
  • xiao_2009 — Xiao, Richard (2009) : Multidimensional analysis and the study of world Englishes

Notes

D4 loading .44 (persuasion). MFTE merges with split infinitives (SPINF).

View YAML source