Impersonal
verbs take neither subject nor object, as with other null
subject languages, but again the verb may show incorporated
dummy pronouns despite the lack of subject and object
phrases. Tlingit lacks a ditransitive, so the indirect
object is described by a separate, extra posed clause.
English verbs are often flexible with regard to valency. A
transitive verb can often drop its object and become
intransitive; or an intransitive verb can take an object and
become transitive. Compare:
I turned. (intransitive)
I turned the car. (transitive)
In the first example, the verb turn has no grammatical
object. (In this case, there may be an object understood -
the subject (I/myself). The verb is then possibly reflexive,
rather than intransitive); in the second the subject and
object are distinct. The verb has a different valency, but
the form remains exactly the same.
In many languages other than English, such valency changes
aren't possible like this; the verb must instead be
inflected for voice in order to change the valency.
CopulaMain
article: Copula
A copula is a word that is
used to describe its subject, [dubious – discuss] or to
equate or liken the subject with its predicate. [dubious –
discuss] In many languages, copulas are a special kind of
verb, sometimes called copulative verbs or linking verbs.
Because copulas do not describe actions being performed,
they are usually analyzed outside the
transitive/intransitive distinction. [citation needed] The
most basic copula in English is to be; there are others
(remain, seem, grow, become, etc.).[citation needed]
Some languages (the Semitic and Slavic families, Chinese,
Sanskrit, and others) can omit or do not have the simple
copula equivalent of "to be", especially in the present
tense. In these languages a noun and adjective pair (or two
nouns) can constitute a complete sentence. This construction
is called zero copula.
Verbal noun and verbal adjective
Main article: Non-finite
verb
Most languages have a
number of verbal nouns that describe the action of the verb.
In Indo-European languages, there are several kinds of
verbal nouns, including gerunds, infinitives, and supines.
English has gerunds, such as seeing, and infinitives such as
to see; they both can function as nouns; seeing is believing
is roughly equivalent in meaning with to see is to believe.
These terms are sometimes applied to verbal nouns of
non-Indo-European languages.
In the Indo-European languages, verbal adjectives are
generally called participles. English has an active
participle, also called a present participle; and a passive
participle, also called a past participle. The active
participle of give is giving, and the passive participle is
given. The active participle describes nouns that perform
the action given in the verb, e.g. a giving person. [dubious
– discuss] The passive participle describes nouns that have
been the object of the action of the verb, e.g. given money.
[dubious – discuss] Other languages apply tense and aspect
to participles, and possess a larger number of them with
more distinct shades of meaning.
Agreement
Main article: Verb
conjugation
In languages where the verb
is inflected, it often agrees with its primary argument
(what we tend to call the subject) in person, number and/or
gender. English only shows distinctive agreement in the
third person singular, present tense form of verbs (which is
marked by adding "-s"); the rest of the persons are not
distinguished in the verb.
Spanish inflects verbs for tense/mood/aspect and they agree
in person and number (but not gender) with the subject.
Japanese, in turn, inflects verbs for many more categories,
but shows absolutely no agreement with the subject. Basque,
Georgian, and some other languages, have polypersonal
agreement: the verb agrees with the subject, the direct
object and even the secondary object if present. |
