Verb

A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action ("bring", "read"), occurrence ("decompose", "glitter"), or a state of being ("exist", "stand"). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. It may also agree with the person, gender, and/or number of some of its arguments (subject, object, etc.).

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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:

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• Intransitive (valency = 1): the verb only has a subject. For example: "he runs", "it falls".
• Transitive (valency = 2): the verb has a subject and a direct object. For example: "she eats fish", "we hunt rabbits".
• Ditransitive (valency = 3): the verb has a subject, a direct object and an indirect or secondary object. For example: "I gave her a book", "She sent flowers to me".

It's possible to have verbs with valency = 0. A few of these appear in Spanish, Portuguese and other null subject languages and may be termed "impersonal verbs". For example: Llueve = "It rains". A similar type of verb, the weather verb, exists in English, but its non-pro-drop nature requires that a dummy pronoun be used.

Verb: Valency ►



 

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