Chapter 1: verbs
A VERB is a form-class word that typically designates actions, sensations, and states.
A prototypical verb will have eight characteristics:
- Has a verb-making (derivational) morpheme
- Can occur with a present-tense morpheme [-s]
- Can occur with a past-tense morpheme [-ed]
- Can occur with a present-participle morpheme [-ing]
- Can occur with a past-participle morpheme [-en] or [-ed]
- Can be made into a command
- Can be made negative
- Fits the frame sentence: They must <BLANK> (it).
These eight characteristics serve as the primary tests for identifying verbs.
In general, a prototypical verb will have 6-8 of these characteristics. The more verb characteristics a word has, the more prototypical it is. The fewer verb characteristics a word has, the more it becomes a peripheral case.
A word like criticize has all eight characteristics:
- Has a verb-making (derivational) morpheme: criticize
- Can occur with a present-tense morpheme: criticizes
- Can occur with a past-tense morpheme: criticized
- Can occur with a present-participle morpheme: criticizing
- Can occur with a past-participle morpheme: had criticized
- Can be made into a command: Criticize this work!
- Can be made negative: They did not criticize this work.
- Fits the frame sentence: They must criticize (it).
Verbs are extremely versatile, and we will define verbs in many different ways throughout the textbook. In future chapters, we will describe verbs in terms of:
- The Main Verb Phrase (MVP) Formula, including verb particles
- Main Verb Forms
- Non-Finite Verb Phrases
- Main Verb Types
When analyzing for verbs, we identify the FORM of the analyzed word as verb. You can use the following flowchart to guide your analysis:
