Questions tagged [verbs]
Part of speech whose members indicate an action or a state of being.
228
questions
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1answer
92 views
Languages with definite and indefinite conjugation
Apart from Hungarian, are there any other languages with definite and indefinite conjugation (verbal inflections)?
For example (in Hugarian):
Definite conjugation: I see the tree. – Látom a fát.
...
4
votes
2answers
107 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?
1
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1answer
88 views
Why do verbs use 1st singular present active indicative instead of infinitive as the “canonical” or “representative” form in Latin?
I see many dictionaries use the 1st person singular present active indicative form as the "canonical" or dictionary entry for verbs in Latin. For example, a typical dictionary would show ...
2
votes
1answer
127 views
What do “finite” and “non-finite” mean in linguistics?
What do "finite" and "non-finite" mean in linguistics? I know that they occur in other languages and in some cases not only in verbs.
2
votes
0answers
49 views
what is the difference between reference time and event time
what is the difference between reference time and event time , also i am native Arabic speaker , i tried to translate by google translate two examples the reference time before and after event time ...
1
vote
1answer
75 views
Simple cases of gapping (verb ellipsis in coordinate structures)
What are some simple cases of V or Verb Phrase gaps?
For instance:
I love the location and the apartment.
Is this considered a gap (missing 'love' in the second conjunct)?
If not, why not?
What about ...
1
vote
0answers
72 views
The aspect of imperative mood in English
What is the aspect of imperative mood in English?
e.g., Go home!
I know the mood of the verb is imperative here, but I am not sure about the aspect.
-1
votes
1answer
66 views
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 ...
1
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0answers
48 views
What is the history behind the use of the infinitive form with an imperative function in Germany, Dutch, and other languages
In German, Dutch, and other languages, the imperative is distinct from the infinitive:
Dutch would be doe mee! (singular), doet mee! (plural or formal, dated).
German would be mach mit (singular) or ...
0
votes
2answers
80 views
What is meant by “s/he flies” in Plains Cree dictionary?
The Plains Cree Dictionary has things like this:
ᐋᐦᑕᐦᐅᐤ âhtahow VAI-1
s/he flies to another place
The VAI (animate intransitive verb) page doesn't have a description.
In English we have verbs "...
1
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1answer
78 views
What is the term for the role of “believe”, “think”, and “feel” in a sentence?
I remember vaguely that there is an encompassing terms for these words when used in a sentence. Something that represent it is not a normal factual claim, but something that is subjective to the ...
0
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0answers
29 views
Are there such things as verbs that are experiential AND ditransitive?
Does any natural language have verbs that are both ditransitive and experiential?
I'm working on a conlang in which ditransitive experiential verbs exist. For example, we could have verbs that mean &...
0
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4answers
111 views
What sort of “root” patterns do languages have that don't have infinitive verbs?
I am trying to gather the "base" form of verbs across languages. The form that is used to generate all the other various verb forms. But it seems some languages don't have infinitive forms ...
2
votes
3answers
226 views
How did verb conjugation by person, number and gender appear? Why do we still use it?
I'm Russian native,learning German and English. I'm interested in teaching myself some linguistics.
Russian verb inflects for person, number in present and future tense; for gender in past tense.
...
4
votes
1answer
137 views
What is the reason for having irregular verbs?
Having irregular verbs makes the language more complex. Users have to memorize more rules.
Is there a historical reason, or some other reason, that English had all these irregular verbs?
0
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0answers
48 views
Where do nominal sentences (null/lacking verb sentences) come from and what does their existence imply?
Nominal sentence is a grammatical feature of some languages that a grammatical correct sentence can have no explicit verb. The implicit verb at least in Arabic is simple present form of 'to be', e.g. ...
2
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0answers
94 views
Are there languages that mark mood but not tense or aspect?
Are there languages where verbs inflect for mood but don't inflect for tense and aspect?
For instance, if a language had one set of indicative forms and another set of subjunctive forms, but didn't ...
1
vote
1answer
49 views
Is there a database out there for mapping verb tense to its base form?
Obviously, almost all the online dictionaries could map some verb forms like "spoke, spoken, speaking, speaks" to its base form "speak".
I've searched this on github but didn't ...
2
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1answer
68 views
Are Turkish aorist (wide-tense) verbs originally finite or nonfinite?
There are countless examples in Turkish of third person aorist forms in -A/Ir or -mAz (negative form) which are employed as nouns:
gelir (income), gider (spending), yazar (writter)
or adjective
su ...
1
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0answers
42 views
Across languages, what, if any, syntactic or semantic differences distinguish compound verbs from serial verb constructions?
Across languages, what semantic or syntactic differences distinguish serial verb constructions from compound verbs? Let's disregard phonological differences for the purposes of this question.
Let's ...
14
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0answers
316 views
Are there any studies on some English passive verb constructions currently being replaced by new intransitive senses?
In the past couple of years I've noticed a new trend in younger generations of native English speakers, at least in American English and Australian English. But I can't find it discussed anywhere on ...
0
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1answer
119 views
What's the precisest term for verbs that belong to the same stem without any affixes?
RA Duff. Intention, Agency and Criminal Liability (1990). p 33.
Notice too the various cognates of 'intention' which are used in ordinary
language. We talk of intending to ...
0
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1answer
152 views
Both subject and object of an act defined by same verb?
I have in my hand a rather ancient text in Arabic. There's a frequent construction which I couldn't grasp the full meaning. It is [ transitive verb + preposition ], in which the preposition is fixed ...
2
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0answers
39 views
Is there a principled reason behind differing compound verb stress in English?
Is there a principled difference between compound verbs in English with stress on the first root and those with stress on the second root?
First root stress compound verbs:
Dropkick
Spoonfeed
...
0
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0answers
34 views
Is “in favour of John” a resultative here?
In the sentence, "The judge settled the dispute in favour of John", is "in favour of John" a resultative? I am being asked to explain what this string shows about the verb "settle".
Thanks!
2
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0answers
77 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
5
votes
1answer
238 views
Why don't modern Romance languages have the verb “to stand”?
I noticed that modern Romance languages don't have a specific word for the verb "to stand", or - you could say - don't consider the notion of standing to be a verb.
For example, in Spanish - you can ...
-2
votes
1answer
176 views
Pattern of use of modal verbs across languages
So I am toying with language and understand how to treat basic verbs and nouns and adjectives. But I am stuck on modal verbs like "I should have gone home". I would like to know basically a cheat ...
1
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2answers
248 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 '...
0
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2answers
286 views
Is there a linguistic term for replacing past tense verb with present tense?
In my dialect of English (North West England), we sometimes use the present tense of a verb when standard English employs the past tense, such as in the sentence below:
"I waits for the bus ...
4
votes
2answers
300 views
What is the proper term for a verb that can be used transitively with the patient as object or intransitively with the patient as subject
For example:
I am cooking the chicken
The chicken is cooking in the oven
Cp:
I am building a sandcastle
x The sandcastle is building on the beach
10
votes
1answer
393 views
Origin of -s verbs in Norwegian and Swedish
(Disclaimer: I am not a linguist.)
I am learning Norwegian now, and they have some verb form when you attach -s to the end. It is often called passive voice (used in Present tense and in infinitive ...
0
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0answers
64 views
Is “be set to” a subject-to-subject raising predicate?
Consider the sentence "Conservative Party (is) Set to Win (a) Majority".
Is it right that "set" in this case is a subject-to-subject raising? I don't think "set" has an agent theta role. However, all ...
2
votes
0answers
59 views
What was the role of “compound” verbs in Middle English?
I was just reading a book where it is said that when perfect started to acquire modern meanings, "compound" verbs appeared. Here are some examples (I`m assuming with "compound" verbs on the right):
...
0
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2answers
166 views
How regular were Latin verbs compared to Spanish?
Compared to English, Spanish is very consistent within its rules about verbs. The endings for the three kinds of verbs—grouped as -ar, -er, and -ir verbs—are pretty consistently regular, and few words ...
3
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2answers
209 views
Why can Japanese Godan verbs only have nine possible consonant sounds before the final -u?
The dictionary form of Japanese verbs always ends in a -u syllable. Ichidan (one row or single-step in German) verbs will always end in -る (-ru, e.g. 食べる, taberu, to eat) while godan (five rows or ...
1
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1answer
137 views
What can these verbs be called as a group?
I'm going to teach my students about different patterns of usage of these verbs: marry (e.g. get married, marry sb, marry to), die (e.g. die of , die from, die for), match (e.g. match (something), ...
7
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2answers
208 views
Is it normal for only one verb class to be productive in Indo-European languages?
In another question on this site, there is some discussion on the view that the so-called "strong verb" class in English is no longer "productive" - that is, newly formed or coined words (neologisms) ...
0
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2answers
186 views
why can't we have two main verbs in a sentence in syntax
Would you please exlain to me why can't we have two main verbs in a sentence in syntax?
Thank you so much
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2answers
133 views
Where can you find a list of all nouns and verbs “forms” in each language? [closed]
The only languages for which I have found a book (not even a webpage) is for Hebrew and Arabic. Are there books or webpages that contain all the noun declensions and verb "conjugations" (or noun and ...
2
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0answers
38 views
How do languages express multiple simultaneous applicatives?
Some languages use an applicative voice construction exclusively for certain meanings.
Applicatives may also be the only way of expressing such roles, as in
the Bantu Chaga languages, where ...
3
votes
4answers
793 views
Is “imperatives have invisible subjects” a universal?
In English, it's widely held that imperative verbs have "invisible" subjects, on the syntactic level. For example, we see look at yourself in the mirror, rather than *look at you in the mirror, which ...
3
votes
1answer
114 views
Why a verb “to be” has a lot forms [duplicate]
I really can't understand why this verb changes to "am", "is", etc. The common answer is "just became as historical legacy", but how actually it happend?
4
votes
1answer
573 views
What kind of verbs take three arguments?
"The man paints the wall red".
The verb to paint can take three arguments, the object, the subject and the colour of the paint. What kind of verb is this?
"The man colours the paper blue".
I think ...
2
votes
1answer
45 views
Indexing outside of NP
I am familiar with indexing and co-indexing NP's but I've come across indexing that looks like this:
"Gregory(i) seems to enjoy (ti) Marvel Films." Does the (ti) indicate some kind of movement? ...
0
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1answer
789 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 ...
8
votes
2answers
138 views
Name for a verb form meaning “feign or pretend to do sth”
Is there an accepted name for a derivational process applied to a verb which conveys the meaning "feign or pretend to do sth".
As a corollary, is anyone aware of any languages (especially ...
1
vote
1answer
193 views
Does each verb have a corresponding noun with the same meaning
I believe that each main verb has (at least) one corresponding noun with the same meaning that is formed from gerund and derivation. For examples, discovery is from discover; reading is from read; ...
1
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1answer
410 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
...
10
votes
2answers
1k views
Do most languages have the same basic verb tenses?
I am a student learning languages who is interested in linguistics! In trying to keep myself organized with my own study sheets, I wanted to know, do all languages have the same basic verb tenses? I'm ...
