Verb Valency Copula Verbal Noun And Verbal Adjective

The number of arguments that a verb takes is called its valency, or valence. According to valency, a verb can be classified as one of:

It's possible to have verbs with valency = 0. A few of these appear in Spanish and other languages and may be termed "impersonal verbs". For example: Llueve = "It rains". Such verbs don't exist in English because in this language every verb must have a subject, even if it is a dummy one like "it".

English verbs are often flexible with regards to valency. A transitive verb can often drop its object and become intransitive; or an intransitive verb can be added an object and become transitive. Compare:

In the first example, the verb give describes the idea of giving, in the abstract; in the second, what was given is specified; in the third, both the gift and the recipient are set forth.

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.

2 Copula

A copula is a word that is used to describe its subject, or to equate or liken the subject with its predicate. 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 analysed outside the transitive/intransitive distinction. The most basic copula in English is to be; there are others (remain, seem, grow, become, etc.).

Some languages (the Semitic family, RussianRussian /'ruski j'zk/) is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the group of Indo-European languages, and is therefore related to Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, as well as the modern Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages, inclu, ChineseThe Chinese language (/, /, or ; pinyin: hany, huay, or zhongwen) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Although most Chinese view the many varieties of spoken Chinese as a single language, regional variations in spoken language are compara, SanskritSanskrit (Skt. Sasktam; in Devangari script) is among the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family and is not only the premier classical language, but also an official language of India. It enjoys much the same position in Indian cul, and others) can omit the simple copula equivalent of "to be", especially in the present tense. In these languages a nounA noun or noun substantive is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. Nouns are parts of speech and can be classified in different ways such as proper nouns (e. Janet") versus common nouns (e. girl"), or collec and adjectiveAn adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. Adjectives are used in a predicative or attributive manner. In some languages, attributive adjectives precede the noun. This is the case in the Germanic lang pair (or two nouns) can constitute a complete sentence. This construction is called zero copula .

3 Verbal noun and verbal adjective

Most languages have a number of verbal nounA verbal noun is a noun formed directly as an inflexion of a verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its constructions. This term is applied especially to gerunds, and sometimes also to infinitives (see Infinitive mood) and supines. Examples of thes that describe the action of the verb. In Indo-European languagesThe Indo-European languages include some 443 ( SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. Contemporary language, there are several kinds of verbal nouns, including gerundIn linguistics, and in particular the context of grammar, a gerund is a kind of verbal noun. In English, it is formed by adding ing to the end of a verb (but not all words formed that way are gerunds; speaking is either a gerund or a present participle des, 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 are wont to do the action given in the verb, e.g. a giving person. The passive participle describes nouns that have been the subject of the action of the verb, e.g. given money. Other languages apply tense and aspect to participles, and possess a larger number of them with more distinct shades of meaning.

4 Agreement

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.

5 See also

Parts of speech

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1 Valency