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Verb

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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 grammatical tense tense, grammatical aspect aspect, grammatical mood mood and grammatical voice voice. It may also agree with the grammatical person person, grammatical gender gender, and/or grammatical number number of some of its arguments (subject, object, etc.).

Valency
The number of arguments that a verb takes is called its '''valency''', or valency (linguistics) valence. According to valency, a verb can be classified as one of: * '''Intransitive verb Intransitive''' (valency = 1): the verb only has a subject. For example: "he runs", "it falls". * transitive verb '''Transitive''' (valency = 2): the verb has a subject and a direct object. For example: "she eats fish", "we hunt rabbits". * '''Ditransitive verb 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 me flowers." It is possible to have verbs with valency = 0. A few of these appear in Spanish language Spanish, Portuguese language Portuguese and other null subject languages and may be termed "impersonal verbs". For example: ''Llueve'' = "It rains". The Tlingit language features a four way classification of verbs based on their valency. The intransitive and transitive are typical, but the impersonal and objective are somewhat different from the norm. In the objective the verb takes an object but no subject, the nonreferent subject in some uses may be marked in the verb by an incorporated dummy pronoun similar to the English weather verb (see below). 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, extraposed clause. A similar type of impersonal verb, the weather verb, exists in English language English, but its non-pro-drop language pro-drop nature requires that a dummy pronoun be used. 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 be added an object and become transitive. Compare: * ''I gave.'' (intransitive) * ''I gave flowers.'' (transitive) * ''I gave John flowers.'' (ditransitive) 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.

Copula
{{main|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 language Semitic family, Russian language Russian, Chinese language Chinese, Sanskrit language Sanskrit, and others) can omit 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
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 voice active participle, also called a present participle; and a passive voice 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 object 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.

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 language Japanese, in turn, inflects verbs for many more categories, but shows absolutely no agreement with the subject. Basque language Basque, Georgian language Georgian, and some other languages, have ''polypersonal agreement'': the verb agrees with the subject, the direct object and even the secondary object if present.

See also
* Linguistics, grammar, syntax, phrase structure rules * grammatical tense Tense, grammatical aspect aspect, grammatical mood mood, grammatical voice voice * Verb framing * Verbification * English verbs * Latin verbs * Irregular verb * Reflexive verb * Auxiliary verb * Stative verb * Light verb * Raising verb * Control verb * Le Train de Nulle Part: A 233-page book without a single verb.

External links

- Universal Conjugator Category:Parts of speech Category:Verb types af:Werkwoord ar:Ù?Ø¹Ù„ bg:Ð“Ð»Ð°Ð³Ð¾Ð» be:Ð”Ð·ÐµÑ?Ñ?Ð»Ð¾Ñž br:Verb ca:Verb cv:Ð“Ð»Ð°Ð³Ð¾Ð» cs:Sloveso da:Udsagnsord de:Verb es:Verbo eo:Verbo fo:SagnorÃ° fr:Verbe gl:Verbo hr:Glagol it:Verbo la:Verbum lv:DarbÄ«bas vÄ?rds nl:Werkwoord ja:å‹•è©ž no:Verb nn:Verb pl:Czasownik pt:Verbo ro:Verb ru:Ð“Ð»Ð°Ð³Ð¾Ð» simple:Verb fi:Verbi sv:Verb uk:Ð”Ñ–Ñ”Ñ?Ð»Ð¾Ð²Ð¾

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