ABSTRACT
According to our model, the AVC is a syntactic object in its own right and may be analyzed without reference to the lexical identity of the individual auxiliaries that appear in it. Its syntactic properties may be classified as internal and external: internal syntax treats its morphosyntactic composition; external syntax, its grammatical behavior in larger syntactic structures. The indicative AVC is syntactically distinct from complex clauses, lexical compound verbs and modal AVCs. In complex clauses, subordinate or coordinate, each verb has a separate denotational function and governs its own satellites. Tamil syntactic operations will thus be invoked to distinguish between complex clauses, subordinate and coordinate, and compound verbs. Further syntactic differences separate lexical and auxiliary compound verbs. Still further tests divide the set of AVCs into modal and indicative AVCs.
