What is a verb? (Linguistics)

Definition
	A verb is a member of the syntactic class of words that
	typically signal events and actions constitute, singly or in a phrase, a minimal predicate in a clause govern the number and types of other constituents which may occur in the clause, and in inflectional languages, may be inflected for tense aspect voice modality, or agreement with other constituents in person number, or grammatical gender.

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of verbs:
	What is an auxiliary verb? What is a conjunctive verb? What is a copula? What is a defective verb? What is a finite verb? What is an impersonal verb? What is an irregular verb? What is a lexical verb? What is a nonfinite verb? What is a phrasal verb? What is a reflexive verb?

Generic
	A verb is a kind of
	What is a word?

Sources
	Crystal 1980 374
	Hartmann and Stork 1972 248
	Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 96
	Mish 1991 1309
	Givón 1984 52

Context for this page:

Concept module: verb
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): V
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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