STATIVE VERB
STATIVE VERB. A category of VERB that contrasts with dynamic verb in the aspect system of a language, and relates to state and not action: in English, such verbs as belong, love. Syntactically, these verbs are used in simple rather than progressive tenses and generally not in the imperative (not *Belong!, but occasionally Love me!). Semantically, stative verbs refer to states of affairs (belong, know, own) in contrast to dynamic verbs that refer to actions (buy, learn, jump). In practice, the boundary between stative and dynamic verbs is sometimes fuzzy, and it is generally more useful to talk of stative and dynamic meaning and usage. In most varieties of English, some verbs are normally stative (therefore not *I am owning this car, *Know how to give first aid!), but others are partly stative and partly dynamic (not *She is liking to help people, but How are you liking your new job?; not *I am forgetting their address, but Forget it!). Some verbs belong to both categories have in She has red hair and She is having dinner. In IndE, the stative/dynamic distinction described above is considered standard, but it is widely ignored, so that expressions like I am owning this car and She is liking to help people are commonplace.
More From encyclopedia.com
Belong , be·long / biˈlông/ • v. [intr.] 1. (of a thing) be rightly placed in a specified position: learning to place the blame where it belongs. ∎ be rightly… conodonts , conodonts Small, phosphatic, fossil teeth, common in rocks from the Cambrian to Triassic (and formerly placed in the category Conodontophora) that be… Variety , variety •banditti, bitty, chitty, city, committee, ditty, gritty, intercity, kitty, nitty-gritty, Pitti, pity, pretty, shitty, slitty, smriti, spitty… sooty mold , sooty mould A dark, soot-like, fungal growth which appears on plants infested with sap-sucking insects such as aphids or scale insects; these insects… dome-like , bike •alike, bike, dyke, haik, hike, kike, like, mic, mike, mislike, pike, psych, psyche, shrike, spike, strike, trike, tyke, Van Dyck, vandyke •push… Concord (philosophy) , CONCORD, also agreement. In GRAMMAR, the relationship between units in such matters as number, person, and gender: ‘They did the work themselves’ (nu…
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
STATIVE VERB