In
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, a compound verb or complex predicate is a multi-
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...
compound that functions as a single
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
. One component of the compound is a ''
light verb'' or ''vector'', which carries any
inflection
In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
s, indicating
tense,
mood, or
aspect, but provides only fine shades of meaning. The other, "primary", component is a verb or noun which carries most of the
semantics
Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
of the compound, and determines its
arguments
An argument is a series of sentences, statements, or propositions some of which are called premises and one is the conclusion. The purpose of an argument is to give reasons for one's conclusion via justification, explanation, and/or persua ...
. It is usually in either
base or
n Verb + Verb compounds
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
''conjunctive
participial'' form.
A compound verb is also called a "complex
predicate" because the semantics, as formally modeled by a predicate, is determined by the primary verb, though both verbs appear in the surface form. Whether Noun+Verb (N+V) compounds are considered to be "compound verbs" is a matter of naming convention. Generally, the term ''complex predicate'' usually includes N+V compounds, whereas the term ''compound verb'' is usually reserved for V+V compounds. However, several authors
specially Iranistsrefer to N+V compounds as compound verbs.
Compound verbs are to be
distinguished from serial verbs which typically signify a sequence of actions, and in which the verbs are relatively equal in semantic and grammatical weight. They are also to be distinguished from sequences of
auxiliary
Auxiliary may refer to:
In language
* Auxiliary language (disambiguation)
* Auxiliary verb
In military and law enforcement
* Auxiliary police
* Auxiliaries, civilians or quasi-military personnel who provide support of some kind to a military se ...
plus main verbs.
Structure
Thus, there are two classes of complex predicates:
# V+V compounds: One type of compound verb, where the second verb (rarely the first...) is a "light verb" (LV) is preceded by (rarely followed by ...) a primary or "heavy verb". With a few exceptions all V+V compound verbs alternate with their simple counterparts. That is, removing the light verb / vector does not affect grammaticality at all nor the meaning very much: निकल गया – نِکَل گَیا "nikal gayā" versus निकला – نِکلا ''nikalā'' , both meaning '(I/you/he) went out.' In a few languages both components of the compound verb can be finite forms:
Kurukh ''kecc-ar ker-ar'' lit. "died-3pl went-3pl" '(They) died.'
# N+V compounds: A compound with Noun+verb, converting the noun into a verbal structure; the arguments and the semantics are determined by the N and the tense markers / inflections are carried by the V, especially with LVs such as "do," "take," "give," etc. Examples in English include
stretched verb examples like ''take a walk'' or ''commit suicide''. Some of the verbs participating in N+V compounds also participate as LVs in V+V compounds.
owever, the common verb "do" rarely participates as LV in V+V compounds. Unlike V+V compounds, N+V compounds appear in almost all languages of the world.
Languages with compound verbs
Compound verbs of both types (V+V and N+V) are very common in all the languages of India, though V+V compounds are more frequent in the northern
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...
than in
Dravidian languages
The Dravidian languages are a language family, family of languages spoken by 250 million people, primarily in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia.
The most commonly spoken Dravidian l ...
. In addition to
South Asian languages
South Asia is home to several hundred languages, spanning the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It is home to the fourth most spoken language in the world, Hindi–Urdu; the sevent ...
, V+V compounds occur in
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...
like
Uzbek,
Kyrgyz and
Uyghur
Uyghur may refer to:
* Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China)
** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs
*** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...
, in
Tibeto-Burman
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...
languages like
Limbu and
Newari, in
Korean and
Japanese, in northeast Caucasian languages like
Tsez and
Avar, and in
Quichua
Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ('' Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers.
Classification
Kichwa belongs to the Nor ...
, a variety of
Quechua. The Indo-European language Greek also possesses some verb–verb compounds. V+V compounds do not occur in Iranian languages. What are called "compound verbs" by Iranists are N+V compounds.
English
The English lexicon contains a few true compound verbs, such as ''stirfry'', ''kickstart'' and ''forcefeed''. These are not serial verbs – though, as with many compounds, they may be spelled as two words (or hyphenated). Rather, the first verb expresses how the action expressed by the second verb is carried out. The second verb is the only one which may express tense.
English also expresses aspectual distinctions as to the beginning, duration, completion, or repetition of an action using
auxiliaries
Auxiliaries are combat support, support personnel that assist the military or police but are organised differently from regular army, regular forces. Auxiliary may be military volunteers undertaking support functions or performing certain duties ...
. Examples here include ''was starting'', ''had lived'', ''had been seen'', etc. These sequences function in place of morphologically complex predicates like the inchoative or
inceptive stems of
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
(, 'I love'; , 'I'm starting to love', 'I'm falling in love'; , 'to flower'; , 'to start flowering'; etc.), and of
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
(, , 'to laugh'; , 'to start laughing').
Though verb + verb compounds are rare in
English, one may illustrate the form with the example "to go crashing
hrough the door. In some interpretations, one may consider "go" as a
light verb, which carries markers like tense. However, the main part of the meaning, as well as the arguments, i.e. answers to questions such as ''who?'' (agent) or ''what was it that "went crashing"?'' (subject), are determined by the second, semantically primary verb, "crash". "Go" carries plural/tense markers (''they go , he goes crashing''), whereas "crashing" appears in this fixed form and does not change with tense, number, gender, etc. Whether
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
ive forms like "went crashing" are compound verbs is controversial in English; many linguists prefer to treat "crashing" as a nominal in its gerundive form. However, the compound verb treatment may have some advantages, particularly when it comes to semantic analysis. For example, in response to ''She went crashing'', the question "Where did she go?" is less revealing than "Where did she go crashing?".
English has many examples of noun + verb compound predicates, called
stretched verbs, which combine a
light verb with an "eventive" noun (an action-describing noun which can also operate as a verb, though it may have become an uncommon one), or with a noun phrase composed of such a noun and one or more prepositions. Common examples include: to ''offer
ne'scondolences'', to ''take a bite out of'', and to ''get rid of'' (while ''to rid'' and ''to condole'' are infrequent).
Sometimes examples labeled
serial verb
The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause. It is a common feature of many African, Asian and Ne ...
s turn out to be compound verbs, as in "What did you ''go and do'' that for?" and "Your business might just ''get up and leave''."
Another variety of open-compound verb is common in English, German, and some other languages: The
phrasal verb
In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit consisting of a verb followed by a particle (e.g., ''turn down'', ''run into,'' or ''sit up''), sometimes collocated with a preposition (e. ...
is in one in which a verb word and a
preposition
Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
,
particle
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass.
They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
, or both act together as a unit which does not convey what the words would indicate when taken literally. Examples include to ''think'' something ''over'', to ''look forward to'' something, and to ''look up'' something in a dictionary (contrast the literal and non-compound ''look up the chimney'').
A dictionary comparison reveals that compound verbs of some sorts are more frequent in
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
than in
British English
British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...
.
Hindi-Urdu
Compound verbs are very common in
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...
, such as
Hindustani and
Panjabi, where as many as 20% of the verb forms in running text may be compounds.
For example, in
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
-
Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
, ''nikal gayā (निकल गया, نِکَل گَیا'', lit. "exit went") means 'went out', while ''nikal paṛā'' (निकल पड़ा, نِکَل پَڑا, lit. "exit fell") means 'departed' or 'was blurted out'. In these examples ''nikal'' (निकल, نِکَل, lit. "exit") is the primary verb, and ''gayā'' (गया, گَیا, lit. "went") and ''paṛā'' (पड़ा, پَڑا, lit. "fell") are the vectors or "light verbs". Compound verbs in Hindi-Urdu have the additional property of alternation. That is, under partly specifiable conditions
uch as negationcompound verbs like ''nikal gayā'' and ''nikal paṛā'' are replaced with a non-compound counterpart
'niklā, निकला, نِکلا'' with little or no change in meaning. However, the phenomenon of alternation is not found in all languages that have compound verbs.
The Noun + Verb complex predicates are a quite different matter. There is no alternation with a simplex counterpart and in approximately half of all Hind-Urdui N+V compound verbs ''karnā'' ( करना, کَرنا, lit. "to do") is the light verb, and in another 20% use ''hōnā'' (होना, ہونا, lit. "to be") is the light verb. A significant number use ''khānā'' (खाना, کهانا, lit. "to eat"). However, the verb ''karnā'' and ''khān''ā never occur as second elements in a Verb + Verb compound.
Persian
Persian makes extensive use of N+V compound verbs. The meaning of compound verbs in Persian is sometimes distinct from the connotation of either the verbal or non-verbal component. The most common verbal element used in Persian compound verbs is كردن ''kardan'' ('to do/make'), e.g. فكر كردن ''fekr kardan'' ('to think'). Other common verbal elements include دادن ''dādan'' ('to give'), e.g. انجام دادن ''anjām dādan'' ('to perform'); گرفتن ''gereftan'' ('to take'), e.g. جشن گرفتن ''jashn gereftan'' ('to celebrate'); زدن ''zadan'' ('to hit'), e.g. حرف زدن ''harf zadan'' ('to speak'); and داشتن ''dāshtan'' ('to have'), e.g. دوست داشتن ''dust dāshtan'' ('to like').
The verbal element of Persian compound verbs takes inflection for person, tense, and mood.
Japanese
Japanese has many compound verbs, reflecting the
agglutinative
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes (word parts), each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglu ...
nature of modern as well as
Old Japanese
is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language, recorded in documents from the Nara period (8th century). It became Early Middle Japanese in the succeeding Heian period, but the precise delimitation of the stages is controversial.
Old Ja ...
.
In both
English ''start reading'' and Japanese ''yomihajimeru'' "read-
CONJUNCTIVE-start" "start reading," the
phrasal verbs ''start'' and ''hajimeru'' "start" change according to
tense,
negation
In logic, negation, also called the logical not or logical complement, is an operation (mathematics), operation that takes a Proposition (mathematics), proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P, P^\prime or \over ...
, and the like while the main verbs ''reading'' and ''yomi'' "reading" usually remain the same. An exception to this is the
passive voice
A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing ...
, in which both English and Japanese modify the main verb: ''start to be read'' and ''yomarehajimeru'' lit. "read-
PASSIVE-(CONJUNCTIVE)-start" ''start to be read''. Of course, "hajimeru" still changes according to tense,
mood, negation, and the like.
Some Japanese compounds have undergone
grammaticalisation, as reflected in the
orthography
An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis.
Most national ...
. Many Japanese
serial verbs are formed by connecting two verbs, as in , and in Japanese orthography lexical items are generally written with
kanji
are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
(here and ), while grammatical items are more likely to be written with
hiragana
is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''.
It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...
[as in the compound verb . Serial verbs are thus generally written with a kanji for each constituent verb, but some of the second verbs in other compounds, having become grammaticalized, are often written using hiragana, such as , from , as in and , from , as in .
Only native Japanese verbs (''yamatokotoba'' verbs) can be used as Light verb, light verbs or vectors in this way. Such verbs comprise a small closed class. Borrowed words, which can be used as verbs by combining them with the
auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
, do not occur as the second element in compound verbs. For example, the
Sino-Japanese vocabulary, Sino-Japanese verb itself can be modified, as in , but it does not combine with another verb as its second or modifying element.
Japanese
''i''-adjectives, which function grammatically as
non-finite verb
Non-finite verbs, are verb forms that do not show tense, person, or number. They include:
# Infinitives (e.g., to go, to see) - They often function as nouns or the base form of a verb
# Gerunds (e.g., going, seeing) - These act as nouns but are ...
s, can also compound, functioning as
compound modifier
A compound modifier (also called a compound adjective, phrasal adjective, or adjectival phrase) is a compound of two or more attributive words: that is, two or more words that collectively modify a noun. Compound modifiers are grammatically equiva ...
s, but that is less common than for verbs. (See
Japanese adjectives
This article deals with Japanese equivalents of English adjectives.
Types of adjective
In Japanese, nouns and verbs can modify nouns, with nouns taking the 〜の particles when functioning attributively (in the genitive case), and verbs in the ...
for details.)
Kichwa-influenced Spanish
Under the influence of a
Kichwa
Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ('' Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers.
Classification
Kichwa belongs to the Nor ...
substrate, speakers living in the Ecuadorian
Altiplano
The Altiplano (Spanish language, Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechuan languages, Quechua and Aymara language, Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla people, Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extens ...
have innovated compound verbs in Spanish.
In conformity with the
SVO language word order of Spanish, the vector precedes the main verb while in
SOV language SOV may refer to:
* SOV, a former ticker symbol for Sovereign Bank
* SOV, a legal cryptocurrency created by the Sovereign Currency Act of 2018 of the Republic of the Marshall Islands
* SOV, the National Rail station code for Southend Victoria rai ...
Kichwa, the vector follows the main verb.
Greek (modern)
The compound verbs of modern Greek are formed as other compounds in the language, creating a compound stem by prefixing the stem of a second verb to another verb with the compounding interfix -o-. Although only the second verb is inflected, the typical Greek compound verb is a coordinative compound formed by two semantically opposed, equal verbs, and in semantic terms neither can be nominated the compound head with the other as a dependent. The action expressed by the verb is semantically equal to using both verbs individually, linked by a conjunction.
Examples: [] 'I go in' + [] 'I come out' = [] 'I go in and out'; [] 'I light up' ['] 'I put out (a light)' = [] 'I flash on and off'. These compound verbs are of the dvandva type. Semantically they equal the phrases 'I go in and go out', 'I light up and put out'.
Israeli Hebrew
Unlike
Classical Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew ( or ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanitic branch of the Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...
,
Israeli Hebrew
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli (b ...
is abundant with V+N compound verbs. Consider the following pairs in which the first is an Israeli Hebrew compound verb and the last is a Classical Hebrew synthetic form:
# שם צעקה ''sam tseaká'' “shouted” (which literally means “put a shout”) vis-à-vis צעק ''tsaák'' “shouted”
# נתן מבט ''natán mabát'' “looked” (which literally means “gave a look”) or העיף מבט ''heíf mabát'' “looked” (literally “flew/threw a look”; cf. the English expressions ''cast a glance'', ''threw a look'' and ''tossed a glance'') vis-à-vis the Hebrew-descent הביט ''hibít'' “looked at”.
According to
Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Ghil'ad Zuckermann (, ; ) is an Israeli-born language revivalist and linguist who works in contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity.
Zuckermann was awarded the Rubinlicht Prize (2023) "for his researc ...
, the Israeli V+N compound verb is employed here for the desire to express swift action, and stems from Yiddish. He compares the Israeli periphrasis to the following Yiddish expressions all meaning “to have a look”:
# געבן א קוק ''gebn a kuk'', which literally means “to give a look”
# טאן א קוק ''ton a kuk'', which literally means “to do a look”
# the colloquial expression כאפן א קוק ''khapn a kuk'', which literally means “to catch a look”.
Zuckermann argues that the Israeli V+N compound verbs “are not nonce, ad hoc lexical calques of Yiddish. The Israeli system is productive and the lexical realization often differs from that of Yiddish”. He provides the following Israeli examples:
# הרביץ ''hirbíts'' “hit, beat; gave”, yielded
## הרביץ מהירות ''hirbíts mehirút'' “drove very fast” (מהירות ''mehirút'' meaning “speed”), and
## הרביץ ארוחה ''hirbíts arukhá'' “ate a big meal” (ארוחה ''arukhá'' meaning “meal”), cf. English ''hit the buffet'' “eat a lot at the buffet”; ''hit the liquor/bottle'' “drink alcohol”.
The Israeli Hebrew compound verb דפק הופעה ''dafák hofaá'', which literally means “hit a show”, actually means “dressed smartly”.
[See p. 51 in Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009)]
"Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns"
''Journal of Language Contact'', Varia 2, pp. 40-67.
Historical processes and grammaticalization
As languages change, the vector or light verb may retain its original meaning or it may undergo different degrees of ''bleaching'', part of the process of
grammaticalization
Grammaticalization (also known as grammatization or grammaticization) is
a linguistic process in which words change from representing objects or actions to serving grammatical functions. Grammaticalization can involve content words, such as noun ...
.
Thus, in the Hindi-Urdu compound ''nikal paṛā'' (exit fell), ''paṛ-'' has almost none of its "fall" meaning, though some of the finality of "fall" also is transferred as a
perfective
The perfective aspect (abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole, i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imp ...
aspect (through the ending ''-ā'').
On the other hand, the Japanese retains a good deal of its independent word meaning even in the compound. Contrast this with the grammaticalization of , as in 愛してしまった ai shite shimatta ("I mistakenly fell in love"). A deeper degree of grammaticalization may lead to phonological changes, too - usually some kind of shortening: 愛しちゃった ai shi chatta ("Damned if I didn't fall in love!") where 〜てしま -te shima- has been replaced by ちゃ 〜chya.
In the long run, it has been suggested that LVs that are particularly frequent, may become grammaticalized, so that they may now occur systematically with other verbal constituents, so that they become
an
auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
(e.g. the English verb "be", as in "I am eating", or "had" in "they had finished"), or, after sound change, even a
clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic ( , backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...
(a shortened verb, as in "I'm"). In particular, some verb inflections (e.g.
Latin future tense inflections) are thought to have arisen in this manner. Sanford Steever has shown the same phenomenon has a role in the emergence of the ditransitive paradigm in Dravidian.
See also
*
Auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
*
Compound modifier
A compound modifier (also called a compound adjective, phrasal adjective, or adjectival phrase) is a compound of two or more attributive words: that is, two or more words that collectively modify a noun. Compound modifiers are grammatically equiva ...
*
Converb
In theoretical linguistics, a converb ( abbreviated ) is a nonfinite verb form that serves to express adverbial subordination: notions like 'when', 'because', 'after' and 'while'. Other terms that have been used to refer to converbs include ''adv ...
*
Modal verb
A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', ''necessity'', ''possibility'' or ''advice''. Modal v ...
*
Periphrasis
In linguistics and literature, periphrasis () is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer. The comparison may be within a language or between languages. For example, "more happy" is periph ...
*
Phrasal verb
In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit consisting of a verb followed by a particle (e.g., ''turn down'', ''run into,'' or ''sit up''), sometimes collocated with a preposition (e. ...
*
Stretched verb
*
Serial verb
The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause. It is a common feature of many African, Asian and Ne ...
*
Verb phrase
In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntax, syntactic unit composed of a verb and its argument (linguistics), arguments except the subject (grammar), subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Thus, in the sentence ''A fat man quic ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Compound Verb
Verb types