Verbs Flashcards
Give 5 distributional qualities of verbs with examples
Follow certain adverbs - often/frequently cries Negated by not - I did not speak Follow infinitive markers (to) - to go Follow modal (am/are) - am eating Follow auxiliaries (will) - will buy
Give some morphological qualities of verbs, with examples.
Suffixes can be -ed or -ing
Sometimes, prefixes can be re-
Explain the three types of verbs. Give examples
Intransitive - one participant “Gatha laughed”
Transitive - two participants “Gatha broke the cup”
Ditransitive - three participants “Andy gave Gatha the flower”
Give some properties of participants
They are not always people
Two parts paired by “and” count as on participant
What is an ambitransitive verb? Give examples
A verb that can vary in transitivity
In-> Trans= Gatha ate (the food)
Trans->Di=Andy bought (Gatha) a drink
Give the 5 grammatical categories of verbs
Agreement, Changing Valence, Tense, Aspect and Mood
Explain tense
the point of an event in time (past present future)
How many tenses does English have, morphologically?
Two - past (-ed) and non past (-ing/-s)
Future is indicated with the auxiliary “will”
Give two ways languages can distinguish tenses
past and non past (English)
future and non future
How does past tense vary between languages?
Some, such as Chinook, have different suffixes to express how long ago in the past the event occured
-recently, just now, a long time go
Spanish = preterite and imperfect
Explain aspect
Aspect marks whether an event is ongoing or completed
How is aspect shown in English?
Morphologically: Progressive = -ing, Perfective = -ed
Combined with auxiliaries
How do other languages indicate aspect?
Others, like Spanish, solely distinguish with morphology
habl-o = present, habl-aba = past
Explain mood
Mark the degree of certainty
What are the two different moods?
Indicative: used when discussing actual events
Subjunctive: used to discuss hypotheticals (In some languages)
Explain changing valence
Some languages can increase/decrease the valence of a verb
What is valence
The number of participants in a verb
Give examples of languages that can change valence
Kinyurwanda uses an applicative morpheme to increase valency by adding a new object
Chichewa uses a passive morpheme to decrease valency
Explain agreement
Verb endings can agree with their arguments, marking various properties of the NP
How does English mark agreement?
Third person singular suffix -s
Give an example of how another language marks agreement
Gunin marks 1/5 possible genders
