Questions tagged [verbs]
Part of speech whose members indicate an action or a state of being.
217
questions
0
votes
1answer
103 views
Conjugation of the word प्रकटयमास [closed]
I have been reading Sudharma and I have encountered a new type of words such as प्रकटयमास, प्रकटयमासुः and समादिदिशुः. I know what the roots mean. What I don't know is what type of conjugation is ...
1
vote
0answers
99 views
Different types of verbs [closed]
There are different types of verbs in languages. I am interested in formal name of these types. I want to distinguish between verbs that don't have antonyms and synonyms simultaneously, like 'see', '...
1
vote
1answer
64 views
Is v-spec Specific for agent? If so, How to Solve This Problem?
In my syntax classes, I learnt that v-spec is specific for agent role. The thing is, I came across a structure in the resource below:
Radford, A. (2004). Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure ...
4
votes
1answer
458 views
verbal or adjectival suffix -ed in the word “excited”
is the suffix -ed verbal or adjectival in the sentence:
I was excited about my new job.
Would the answer be different if the sentence was:
I was excited by my new job.
Maybe by indicates that ...
2
votes
2answers
194 views
History of Preverbs in Indo-European
As you may know, quite some of the IE languages know preverbs, who may modify the meaning of a verbal root. I would like to know more about the interrelation of the various preverbs found in these ...
9
votes
2answers
701 views
Is there something deeper behind the “verb classes swapping” of the subjunctive endings in Romance languages?
I first asked this question in https://spanish.stackexchange.com/q/15929/11155
However the Spanish community has not found any answer yet and the phenomenon is observable in many Romance languages. I ...
1
vote
1answer
211 views
Did all regular/irregular verbs arise from the same two sources?
I'd like to confirm something that I read long ago in a since-forgotten source. I'm not sure if it was an accepted theory, fact or just a marginalized idea. But, essentially, the story goes:
There ...
2
votes
1answer
194 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 -...
12
votes
3answers
2k views
The origin of the term 'verb'
References tell me that the term 'verb' originally means 'word'. This is easily understood by usages such as 'verbal abuse', 'verbal agreement', 'he's very verbal', etc.
That said, of all the various ...
3
votes
1answer
871 views
V-to-I lowering and split IP hypothesis
English is I-lowering language, but on split IP hypothesis([AgrP [TP [VP]]]), verbs move to the head of TP: V-raising.
/John often kissed Mary./
On unsplit IP(IP[VP]), [+tense] which the head of IP ...
2
votes
2answers
625 views
Can a control verb simultaneously be a raising verb?
For example, take believes, which is a raising to object verb.
However, employing various selection tests, you can observe that believes selects an experiencer subject:
#the cat believes to be out ...
3
votes
2answers
341 views
What explains the differences between doublet verbs that differ by a prefix?
The differences in meanings of doublet verbs such as 3-6 below:
Are there any resources that investigate the big picture behind them?
I abhor to memorise, and prefer to understand, such differences. ...
2
votes
2answers
380 views
Origins of gender distinction in verbs in Slavic
This is a thing that I have been thinking about for a while. I know that PIE did not have gender distinction in verb forms, and its presence in modern Slavic languages must be an innovation.
If I am ...
4
votes
1answer
152 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" ...
0
votes
1answer
149 views
If two verbs are in a row, is the first always an Auxiliary? [closed]
Consider the sentence:
He has gone.
This is one of the example auxiliary verb sentences from:
"Radford, A. English syntax: An introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2004"
has is an auxiliary ...
2
votes
1answer
67 views
Why does väcka/wecken seem to be built as a causative although vakna/wachen is a weak verb?
The causative verbs in germanic languages are built upon the preterite of a strong verb. However there's one verb that seems to fall out of that scheme:
Swedish: vakna - väcka; German: (auf)wachen - (...
1
vote
1answer
534 views
What's a good test to distinguish past participles from predicate adjectives?
Most past participles can act as predicate adjectives:
"The island was inhabited."
but there are some words that may look like both parts of speech, but can only be used in one way or the other:
"...
3
votes
1answer
122 views
Participle + indicative of the same verb (gustans gustavi, videns vidi etc.)
A couple of excerpts from the Bible (Septuagint, Nova Vulgata, Elizabeth, KJV):
Acts 7:34
ἰδὼν εἰ̃δον τὴν κάκωσιν του̃ λαου̃ μου του̃ ἐν Αἰγύπτω̨ καὶ του̃ στεναγμου̃ αὐτω̃ν ἤκουσα καὶ ...
2
votes
1answer
554 views
Where can I get a good Maltese grammar book?
I am looking for a good Maltese grammar book which lists all verb forms, tenses, and declensions. Where can I find one (perhaps anywhere on the Island given that Amazon does not seem to carry such ...
1
vote
3answers
89 views
Second Person Inanimates in Swahili
I know what when making verbs about people I can use an object placeholder in order to indicate the difference between the first, second and third persons.
So if I'm talking to my daughters I might ...
2
votes
1answer
235 views
Why do some languages partition 'to know' into 2 or more verbs?
I was reading the etymology of the Modern English verb 'know', when its reference to other languages motivated this question:
[...] Once widespread in Germanic, this form is now retained only in ...
-1
votes
3answers
222 views
How does the prefix 'ad-' function in 'attribute'?
attribute (v.) [<--]
late 14c., "assign, bestow," from Latin attributus, past participle of attribuere "assign to, add, bestow;" figuratively "to attribute, ascribe, impute,"
from ad- "to" +...
0
votes
1answer
100 views
Is there any verb net project in Japanese?
I'm looking for a verb network or verb dictionary project in Japanese which shows verbs with its own dependencies (like [iku DP DP] [kaeru DP] etc.). Is there any?
4
votes
1answer
221 views
What prevents verbs from taking more than a two or three complements/arguments?
So I'm writing a term paper for my introductory syntax class on Larson's and Jackendoff's theories of the structure of double object verbs. Jackendoff argues for a more linear, tertiary branching ...
3
votes
1answer
296 views
the distinction between inchoatives and unaccusatives
I'm having difficulty understanding what are inchoative verbs and how they are different from unaccusative verbs. Is it generally the case that inchoatives are subsumed under unaccusatives?
Verbs of ...
2
votes
1answer
143 views
Semantic roles in the sentence with ´have´
I would like to ask for help with the clarification of some semantic roles.
I am not sure what semantic role may be assigned to SUBJECT in the sentences with ´to have´
I need to assign role in the ...
0
votes
2answers
167 views
How is the dative case for help being used here?
Swiss-German has dative and accusative case-marking for its objects.
In the sentence "I gave him the book," "him" must be marked as dative and "the book" must be marked as accusative. It's clear that ...
6
votes
5answers
3k views
Does any linguist honestly believe that nouns and verbs are not universals?
Does any serious scholar really believe that some languages have no distinction between verbs and nouns?
Wikipedia pages suggest this. I studied physics, so linguistics is not my field at all.
...
1
vote
2answers
493 views
Are there verbs in Swahili which can be both active and passive?
In English some verbs can be both active and passive, depending on the context - for example:
The mother is cooking.
The chicken is cooking.
In the case of my mother, I am using the active sense - e....
0
votes
1answer
87 views
Common change of conjugation of the verbs in spoken languages?
Is the natural tendency of the verbs in spoken language towards more or fewer conjugations?
For example, in my language, we use conjugations related to time, person, etc.
In English we have ...
8
votes
7answers
398 views
Do other languages distinguish the verbs “to drink” when talking about alcohol?
It's interesting that English uses the verb "to drink" intransitively exclusively when talking about alcohol, as in:
I drink a lot.
But transitively when talking about anything else, as in:
I ...
3
votes
1answer
268 views
Raising aspectual verb “stop”
On this webpage http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/grammar/nonfiniteclauses.html prof.Geoffrey Pullum's explains basic syntactic tests used in distinguishing raised from ordinary subjects/verbs. The ...
7
votes
1answer
359 views
Why do PIE verbs have suffixes -m-, -s-, -t-, while personal pronouns have m-, t-, s-?
Usually it is assumed that in PIE the verb forms for the singular first, second, and third person are respectively -m-, -s-, -t- (cfr. Latin).
The personal pronouns, instead, have the second and ...
1
vote
1answer
262 views
Are imperative verbs starting a command subordinating conjunctions?
I have come across a syntax tree with a subordinate clause phrase (as opposed to just a sentence) whose left daughter is a verb in the imperative, e.g. Wash your laundry tonight.
I have read this ...
3
votes
4answers
870 views
Intransitive verbs that take Indirect objects
Can there be intransitive verbs which take an indirect object?
In the sentence "It pleases me" is "me" an indirect or direct object?
What languages frequently have indirect objects in a sentence ...
1
vote
1answer
104 views
Word commonly tagged as noun but use as verb
Given a sentence "Someone has to walk the shore and map the island, see what else there is". The "map" word is a verb, but it's commonly used as noun, i.e., in most of dictionaries, the first word ...
7
votes
1answer
469 views
Why are the plural and singular first person forms of the verb “go” so different in the Romance languages?
In many Romance languages, the first person plural and singular forms are completely different:
French (aller): je vais, nous allons
Italian (andare): io vado, noi andiamo
Catalan (anar): jo vaig, ...
5
votes
1answer
353 views
Origin of Russian class 6 and class 10 verbs
In Russian, class 10 contains only a handful of verbs ending in either -олоть or -ороть.
On the other hand, looking at the list in Wiktionary, class 6 contains only one verbs in -рать (орать) and ...
5
votes
2answers
363 views
Are there any languages with a plufuture for tense sequencing?
(I admit a Romance bias in asking this question, perhaps expressing what I'm looking for is quite common in other families)
After answering a question recently on the Spanish SE on tense sequencing, ...
4
votes
1answer
314 views
Why is “speak” a class 4 strong verb?
I've been trying to understand the how strong verbs in Germanic languages work, and reading the Wikipedia article I understand that class 4 strong verbs originated from, in PIE, vowel + a sonorant (m, ...
2
votes
3answers
585 views
Given a verb get a noun that corresponds to subject or object
I have verbs and I would like to find their corresponding noun for either subject or object.
e.g.
run:subject -> runner
kill:subject -> killer
kill:object -> dead
I also would have groups of them
e....
4
votes
3answers
158 views
Verb conjugation convergence
Portuguese has a strange coincidence in the preterit perfect tense of the verbs ir (to go) and ser (to be): they are conjugated exactly equally.
Portuguese — English to go | English to be
Eu fui — ...
12
votes
14answers
3k views
Languages with multiple forms of the verb “to be”
Many languages have multiple forms of the verb "to be". For example, Spanish has ser and estar, while Nepali has हो and छ. Some other examples are given in this nice blog post. My question is: what ...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
English verbs - how many types/classifications?
I've been looking at English to help my teen out, readying for college. Didn't realise how little I knew. In this specific case, I'm stuck with the large number of types of verb - finite/infinite, ...
6
votes
0answers
103 views
What currency does the term “flip sense verb” have in linguistics?
In a recent comment on the question Ergative Verbs and some discussion about them, jlawler introduced a term I had not previously encountered:
The rose smells good is completely different; this ...
5
votes
3answers
4k 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 #...
6
votes
2answers
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
525 views
Why can verbal roots in PIE only contain the vowel e?
Verbal roots of PIE are generally reconstructed as (C5) (C3) C1 e C2 (C4) (C6); with certain phonetical restrictions, especially on the outmost consonants.
I wonder why only "e" should be allowed as ...
1
vote
3answers
460 views
non-concatenative morphology in written arabic?
How could you explain or analyze these written Arabic from the non-concatenative morphology point of view? These verbs are derived from nouns.
bakkala (to buckle)
bukla (buckle)
tilifu:n (...
2
votes
1answer
614 views
Looking for three-place predicates to study anaphora
I'm trying to check whether an anaphor is obviative (in Kiparsky's (2002) sense). Since my pronoun seems subject free, I need predicates with higher arity (ternary or four-place). An additional ...
