SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF THE OPERATOR ELEMENT
Any of the primary verbs or the modal auxiliaries can stand in initial position and so function as operator in a VG.
The operator element has four major distinctive properties which are not shared by lexical verbs. They carry the ‘operations’ in what have been called the NICE constructions: Negation, Inversion, Code and Emphasis. Compare:
Four more features also distinguish the operator from a lexical verb:
With verbs which have the active–passive contrast, operators usually show no change of meaning, whereas with some finite lexical verbs (e.g. expect) there is a change of meaning.
† While in AmE adverbs of frequency (always, often, seldom, never) also follow the above position, they tend to appear preferably before the auxiliary or auxiliaries:
AmE You always, often, seldom, never can do it.
AmE I never would have done it.
BrE, AmE I would never have done it.
