All Questions
26 questions
5
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1
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Why doesn't Arabic have present tense "to be"?
I just observed Arabic doesn't have present tense "to be" (i.e. am, is, are).
For example, look at this sentence:
اَنا مُعَلِّم (I am a teacher) where اَنا means I and مُعَلِّم means teacher....
- 455
1
vote
0
answers
118
views
Tensed infinitives across languages
As the Latin language shows, infinitives can be marked for tense (amare - present, amavisse - perfect).
English also shows that: to love, to have loved.
Can anyone suggest any literature regarding the ...
- 451
1
vote
0
answers
70
views
Criteria for transitivity
I am reading R. Dixon's work on ergativity. He employs three basic syntactic relations:
S for a single argument of a verb
A for one argument of a verb
O for the other argument of a verb
In an ...
- 451
2
votes
1
answer
149
views
Is there a reason why certain verbs use certain cases?
For examples, in German there are certain verbs that always use the dative cases and others that always use the accusative case. Is there a logical or semantical reason for this?
Does the use of a ...
- 121
0
votes
0
answers
66
views
Which aspect is actually communicated by Supine verb form in Estonian
there is one bit of Estonian grammar that bugs me in particular for years already. Why to have 2 separate infinitive forms (so called, -ma and -da infinitives, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
- 173
2
votes
0
answers
125
views
What type of verbs take a clause as the direct object?
We have detailed transitivity classification for the valence and the number of objects a verb can take.
Some transitive verbs can take a complete sentence (a clause) as the direct object. For example,
...
- 121
1
vote
0
answers
44
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What is the subcategorizarion of the verb "thought"?
I'm writing a grammar and I see that VP->thought SBAR.
The sentence "the president thought that a sandwich sighed ."
In the stanford parser.
But what is this type of verbs?
Transitive/...
- 31
2
votes
0
answers
65
views
Verb subcategoriztion - intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, Verb with a complement clause
I'm trying to avoid building grammatically incorrect sentences in some small toy grammar I'm building.
I find subcategorization of verbs bit confusing.
Can there be more then one classification per ...
- 31
1
vote
0
answers
277
views
OVS in English dialogue
English is an SVO language. When writing dialogue, especially in literature, writing a sentence with the speech first is considered grammatically correct. Take for example this extract from Ursula K ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
300
views
Why does the pronoun and verb order vary in Polish language?
My go nie lubimy - we do not like him
On nie kocha mnie - he does not love me
Why in the first example go is followed by nie lubimy, but in the second sentence we have the opposite: nie kocha followed ...
- 163
5
votes
2
answers
174
views
Is there a universal (general) definition of gerund, infinitive and participle?
Is there a universal (general) definition of gerund, infinitive and participle applicable to all languages despite the differences between them?
- 203
-1
votes
1
answer
72
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Question about a specific grammatical feature
In one Conlang I am developing there is a feature where owned items are treated as the subject of a verb, and the owner as the Object.
So, for example:
Car sohi Amelia
Would mean Amelia's Car, with ...
- 197
2
votes
0
answers
143
views
Does anyone know the history of the infinitive?
I teach grammar, and I think it is no mystery to anyone that infinitives are strange. I think it might help me to know the history of this verb-cum-noun-adjectiv
- 29
2
votes
2
answers
578
views
When an existential verb is used existentially as the predicate to a subject, is it true in all languages that it cannot take another predicate?
When an existential is used existentially verb as the predicate to a subject, is it true in all languages that it cannot take another predicate?
In other words, when the existential to-be verb means '...
user27672
0
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to understand semelfactive aspect of a verb? How is it varied/similar to iterative aspect?
How semelfactive aspect of a verb that represents a single occasion of an event like knock,hit etc..is perfective and moment defined.
whereas,iterative aspect is event that is repeated on single ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
894
views
If you can use nouns as verbs for different languages
Along the same lines of If you can use Chinese nouns as verbs, or vice versa, I am wondering if you can treat nouns as verbs or verbs as nouns in languages such as these:
Inuktitut
Hebrew
Japanese
...
- 4,438
4
votes
1
answer
225
views
Romance-like pronominal verbs elsewhere
Romance languages are known to have lots of so-called pronominal verbs, which are always conjugated with a reflexive pronoun even though the action is not actually reflexive: for example, Spanish irse,...
- 1,245
1
vote
1
answer
293
views
Lithuanian possessive perfect
Can someone explain what exactly the 'possessive perfect' is? The book I read gave the following example:
Turiu atsinešęs maisto.
have:PRS.1SG bring:PTCP.PST.ACT.NOM.SG....
- 75
2
votes
1
answer
608
views
How to detect verb in a sentence where the verb is invisible in the sentence?
In case of some Indo-European languages it seems there is no visible verb in the sentence. This is specially visible in languages like Bangla, Hindi etc.
For example the sentence
Who is there?
is ...
- 123
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Does English have [ inchoative aspect ]?
Does English have the [ inchoative aspect ] ?
The first passage quoted below says NO, but the second says YES. . . . So I guess it depends on the definition.
Is English generally/usually said to (...
- 144
2
votes
1
answer
274
views
How should I organize my grammar?
So I'm doing a grammar for my conlang (constructed language). My conlang is a very verb-heavy/polysynthetic language. E.g. subordinate clauses are marked on the verb. To create a conditional clause -...
- 81
3
votes
1
answer
193
views
What is to verbs as pronouns are to nouns?
"Mr. Hemmingway, do you write books?" "I do."
"Did Mr. Hemmingway write this book?" "He did."
Just as the pronoun "he" or "I" stands in place of the noun "Mr. Hemmingway", so the verb "do" or "did" ...
- 663
4
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Ergative Verbs and some discussion about them
I know what ergative verb is -
Consider the following sentences -
I opened the door.
The door was opened (by me).
The door opened.
The verb open is a transitive verb in sentence #1, and sentence #...
- 335
6
votes
2
answers
3k
views
need to understand infinitive
What is the easiest way to understand what an infinitive is?
How do I know which verb in which sentence is an infinitive?
For example, let us take this website:
Infinitive
This is the example I am ...
- 213
4
votes
1
answer
419
views
Conditional participles
Does any language besides Esperanto have conditional participles?
Esperanto has these only "unofficially"; they're not considered correct Esperanto usage by authorities, but common sense will tell ...
- 663
11
votes
3
answers
565
views
Do any languages have verbal inflection with a plural object?
The verb in a language like English can inflect for person, for example:
I see the cat > he sees the cat
and the verb can inflect for tense:
I see the cat > I saw the cat
But do any languages ...
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