Questions tagged [verbs]
Part of speech whose members indicate an action or a state of being.
217
questions
2
votes
1answer
176 views
How to determine if a word is a verb besides looking in a list of verbs?
I'm building a PoS tagger and I was wondering if there is a way to determine if a word is a verb other than looking in a list of verbs.
What i'm doing is marking all words as nouns, then if it ends ...
5
votes
2answers
530 views
Why are irregular verbs usually common words?
Whilst searching for the origin of irregular verbs, I came across this forum, which points out, among other things, that irregular verbs are more often than not common words. Is there a reason for ...
5
votes
6answers
2k views
Why does English have progressive aspect but German does not?
In english there are two ways to express a present action:
I go
I am going
However, In German there is really only one way to express a present action:
Ich gehe
If English is a ...
1
vote
1answer
102 views
ephelcystic nu of contract verbal forms in Ancient Greek
Since some verbal forms may have an ephelcystic nu (imperfect.3S : ἐπαίδευε/ἐπαίδευεν), I would like to know if [un/]contract forms too may have this ending, as if we had ἐτίμαεν instead of ἐτίμαε and ...
7
votes
4answers
543 views
Unaugmented contract imperfect in Ancient Greek?
Since unaugmented forms are ancient verbal forms (found by example in Homer), older than the augmented ones, and since vowels contraction is still a "work in progress" at homeric times and will be ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
What thematic roles are played by the subject of an intransitive verb?
I am not familiar with the concept of thematic roles, just what is on wikipedia. Here is what I have come up with.
agent: The man runs
patient: The man was tripped.
experiencer: The man falls.
My ...
3
votes
1answer
374 views
Online Modern Greek dictionary that puts imperfective and (“dependent”) perfective verb stems together?
Does anyone know of a good online Modern Greek dictionary that puts imperfective and perfective (also called "dependent") verb stems together?
For instance, the present perfective of βλέπω /'vlepo/ "...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
Is there any difference between imperfect and imperfective aspect?
For those who came in late, "perfect" and "perfective" aspects are not the same. Perfect aspect pertains to actions that have been completed at the time referenced by the tense. So English past ...
5
votes
1answer
170 views
Different kinds of do's
At first I thought that there was only such a thing as lexical do and periphrastic, but recently I stumbled upon something else (unfortunately I do not recall what it was called). Whatever be the case,...
2
votes
1answer
145 views
A better understanding of Verb Second
Verb second is the phenomenon in which the finite verb is preceded by exactly one constituent. Not all languages have verb second, though, as can be seen here. The only thing I do not understand is ...
3
votes
1answer
130 views
What do you call the phrase/clause after a quotation in a novel?
Often in novels or reported speech, we have the quotation marked by opening and closing quotation mark. And before or after the quotation we have a phrase that states, <somebody> said or said &...
1
vote
1answer
213 views
Pseudosemantic question [closed]
Forgive me if this isn't right place to ask this kind od question, which I'm aware is not, but at the same time I can't pick any more adequate from the list of SE sites.
Premise is this: Verb [x] in ...
4
votes
1answer
933 views
Rules of forming past participle tense and perfect tense of a verb in Latin? [closed]
What are the rules of forming past participle tense and perfect tense of a verb in Latin?
For example, about the word "parsimony (n.)", from etymonline
early 15c., from Latin parsimonia "...
4
votes
1answer
284 views
Is there a term for a finite verb which cannot be followed by an infinitive verb, in English?
For example, the verb "enjoy" cannot be followed by an infinitive.
I enjoy to eat – ungrammatical
I enjoy eating – grammatical
Perhaps this question relates to the area of transitivity.
This ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Are all copulas lexical verbs?
Normally, copulas hold a subject complement (or a predicate in any case). Example.
The sky became clear.
I am ill.
But what is in the definition of a lexical verb that makes copulas lexical verbs?
...
4
votes
1answer
308 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
270 views
Are there languages that mark different types of volition or causality morphologically?
A simple event description such as "The boy jumped" does not necessarily imply anything about the speaker's understanding of the cause of the event or of the volition of the agent. I can say "The boy ...
2
votes
0answers
145 views
Are the two Lao (and Isan) words for “to be”, “ເປັນ” (pen) and “ແມ່ນ” (maen), etymologically related?
I've just learned that Lao has two words for "to be", that are mostly interchangeable:
ເປັນ (pen)
ແມ່ນ (maen)
They both begin with a labial, have an "e-like" vowel, and end "n".
I think it's pretty ...
6
votes
1answer
273 views
Origin of *-k- “extension” in (aorist of) some IE verbs?
In Greek, the PIE verbal roots *dheh1 'put' or 'do', *Hieh1 'throw', and *deh3 'give' show up with an unexpected -k- in some aorist forms: ἔθηκα, ἧκα, ἔδωκα. In Latin, the reflexes of the first two ...
2
votes
1answer
120 views
Why do certain verbs not accept the ergative schema whereas they accept the mediopassive (middle) one?
Ex : They scared me / I scare easily / but not * I scared last night.
My first question was not ask properly so I tried again.
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Do applicative verbs ever govern the cases of their objects?
From what I've read (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_case) applicative voice occurs when an oblique noun phrase becomes an argument of the verb when the verb takes some applicative morpheme....
2
votes
1answer
525 views
Is the term “ambitransitive” controversial?
In some grammar books, I see the term "ambitransitive" used to describe verbs that have two arguments in some contexts and one argument in others.
From what I've read on Wikipedia, there are ...
3
votes
1answer
249 views
Aktionsart - “brought”
I'm trying to analyse the verb brought (or bring) in terms of lexical aspect, or aktionsart. More accurately, it's an analysis of the Hungarian verb "hozta" (bring-3sg.pst.def).
Would it be telic (...
2
votes
0answers
82 views
Can some verbs be unergative in some contexts and unaccusative in others?
It seems to me that there are a number of English verbs that can stand for acts that can be done voluntarily or involuntarily. Sometimes we can't help but laugh, but anyone with even mild acting ...
1
vote
1answer
225 views
Can Georgian verb stems start with a vowel?
I'm interested in the kinds of ambiguities which can be encountered when attempting to analyse the agglutinative verbs of Georgian into their component "slots".
Georgian verbs may have an optional "...
3
votes
2answers
971 views
finite/non-finite verb = conjugated/non-conjugated verb
Are those terms totally interchangeable in all contexts (finite = conjugated) (non-finite = conjugated) or are there slight meaning differences?
3
votes
1answer
229 views
Are there any atelic ditransitive verbs (or verb phrases)?
I am wondering if there are any verbs/phrases that qualify both as ditransitive, and as atelic. The following shows the relevant tests. The satisfying verb/phrase should have the same * patterns as ...
1
vote
2answers
98 views
Constraints on Kartvelian preverbs
In Georgian and its related languages there is a concept of the "preverb", which is much like the separable and inseparable verb prefixes in German or in English phrasal verbs with a preposition or ...
1
vote
2answers
271 views
Which features of Georgian verbs can cause an initial “ა” (a) to become an “ე” (e)?
Kartvelian languages such Georgian have a very complex agglutinative verb structure.
Georgian is very well studied but there's not a lot of self-study books or online sites that go really in depth. I ...
10
votes
5answers
7k views
Why do stem-changing verbs have a vowel change in Spanish?
It may just be that I'm demonstrating my gross ignorance, but I can't seem to find a 'why' for stem-changing verbs in Spanish. I understand that there is some sort of perceived weakness in the vowel ...
7
votes
4answers
2k views
Is there a difference between a preterite and an aorist?
I am reading about aorist and preterite verb forms. It seems that they are both forms which express perfective aspect and past tense. Is the difference between them simply in differing terminology or ...
3
votes
2answers
223 views
Are we witnessing the death of stative “think”?
For those who came in late: From what I understand, English stative verbs don't take the progressive. We can use progressive in utterances with dynamic verbs. Witness "I'm eating," "She's ...
2
votes
2answers
558 views
Is there a computer program/script that can match a verb with its various conjugations?
For example, matching "protest" with "protested", "protesting", "protests", and also matching less regular conjugations, like "run", "ran", "running" and "grab", "grabbed", "grabbed".
If there were ...
2
votes
1answer
248 views
Is there a term for a non-finite verb that does that work of gerunds and participles?
To ask the question more exactly, is there a term for a form of the verb that is a) not marked for tense, and b) can syntactically pattern like a noun-phrase or like a noun-modifier depending on the ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
What are intransitive verbs with dative complement called?
First off, I was about asking this question on German Language & Usage since this is a feature specific to the German language. Possibly, this feature exists in other languages as well but as far ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
Affix that makes nouns into verbs and verbs into nouns?
I have a friend studying a language from the pacific islands, and she found an affix that when added to a noun makes a verb and when added to a verb makes a noun. What would you call such a thing, and ...
3
votes
3answers
631 views
Forming an imperative mood by using other grammatical moods or aspects across the languages
I'm looking for some comparative analysis that would indicate how imperative meaning can be built in various languages by using grammatical moods other than imperative.
The reason is that in many ...
3
votes
0answers
326 views
What's confusing about this sentence? [closed]
Consider the following sentence:
Clean up the design database to initialize costing.
I find the sentence to be confusing but I'm a native English speaker. I asked my wife about it and she ...
11
votes
3answers
477 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
980 views
History of the verb positioning in German
In German, the word order is SVO (or V2, to be precise) in main clauses, while in subordinate clauses have the finite verb in final position; there is some discussion of the word order in "German is ...
3
votes
1answer
277 views
Dimensions of a verb
A single verb usually describes an action or state --the common dimension of verb among languages.
But in addition to that it may convey more information e.g. tense, person, gender of subject, ...
8
votes
1answer
547 views
How do SOV languages develop agreement affixes on verb?
According to WALS, most languages using SOV as basic order of subject, object and verb have some kind of personal agreement markers. As far as I know, these affixes rise by grammaticalization of ...
9
votes
2answers
485 views
What is the historical basis for the use of this type of phrasal verb in English but less so in Spanish?
For example, English uses phrases like to look for and to look at, which (I believe) are considered phrasal verbs. Spanish, however, would under normal circumstances use some derivation of buscar and ...
4
votes
2answers
651 views
What is the maximum number of forms a (modern) Japanese verb can take?
Recently I've begun to wonder how many possible forms can be made from a single Japanese verb.
I asked a similar question first on the Japanese Language & Usage site, where I received some ...
5
votes
2answers
477 views
Are there languages without valency changing rules?
Most languages have valency changing rules. In English and many other languages, we have passive constructions, which change transitive verbs into intransitive ones: "The man ate the hot dog," ...
10
votes
2answers
487 views
Is there a strong case for the existence of languages that lack a clear morpho-syntactic distinction between nouns and verbs?
Is there a strong case for the existence of languages that lack a clear morpho-syntactic distinction between nouns and verbs? If so, what would be an example of a phrase structure for a uniclausal ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views
Difference Phrasal Verb, Prepositional Verb and Prepositional Phrasal Verb
I am not sure how one can see the difference between these three. I can give an example of the three - respectively come in, went into and got along without - but I don't know why these are what they ...
4
votes
2answers
286 views
What's the best term for the group of concepts pertaining to verbs which includes tense, mood, and aspect?
There are many named concepts which relate to verbs across many languages.
The three most well known would be tense, aspect, and mood. But person, number, and voice are others, and there must be many ...
9
votes
2answers
562 views
Do languages besides the Kartvelian family have a property of verbs called “version”?
I'm currently studying the Georgian language and it has quite a few interesting properties not common in more well known languages.
One property of the verb is called "version", "version markers" or "...
9
votes
1answer
228 views
Is there an automatic way of identifying transitive verbs in Computational Linguistics?
Is there any straightforward way of identifying transitive verbs (or sentences containing transitive constructions) in an BrE English text?
I've looked into semantic shallow parsers, such as Semafor, ...
