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In
linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
, a compound verb or complex predicate is a multi-
word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical 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 conse ...
compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...
that functions as a single
verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
. One component of the compound is a ''
light verb In linguistics, a light verb is a verb that has little semantic content of its own and forms a predicate with some additional expression, which is usually a noun. Common verbs in English that can function as light verbs are ''do'', ''give'', ''have ...
'' or ''vector'', which carries any
inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
s, indicating tense, mood, or
aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
, but provides only fine shades of meaning. The other, "primary", component is a verb or noun which carries most of the
semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comp ...
of the compound, and determines its
arguments An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
. It is usually in either base or n Verb + Verb compounds''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 main plus
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 a ...
s.


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 A stretched verb is a complex predicate composed of a light verb and an eventive noun. An example is the English phrase "take a bite out of", which is semantically similar to the simple verb "bite". The concept has been used in studies of Germa ...
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 the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...
than in
Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant ...
. In addition to
South Asian languages South Asia is home to several hundred languages, spanning the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. It is home to the third most spoken language in the world, Hindi–Urdu; and the sixth mo ...
, V+V compounds occur in
Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 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 Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
like Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Uyghur, 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 spea ...
languages like Limbu and Newari, in
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
and
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
, 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. The most widely spoken dialects are Chimborazo ...
, a variety of
Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...
. 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 fine distinctions as to the beginning, duration, completion, or repetition of an action using
auxiliaries Auxiliaries are support personnel that assist the military or police but are organised differently from regular forces. Auxiliary may be military volunteers undertaking support functions or performing certain duties such as garrison troops, ...
or other
lexical Lexical may refer to: Linguistics * Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language * Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification * Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge * Lex ...
mechanisms. 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 Inchoative aspect (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical aspect, referring to the beginning of a state. It can be found in conservative Indo-European languages such as Latin and Lithuanian, and also in Finnic languages or European derived languages w ...
stems of
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
(, 'I love'; , 'I'm starting to love', 'I'm falling in love'; , 'to flower'; , 'to start flowering'; etc.), and of
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
(, , 'to laugh'; , 'to start laughing'). Though verb + verb compounds are rare in English, one may illustrate the form with the example "went crashing hrough the door. In some interpretations, one may consider "went" as a
light verb In linguistics, a light verb is a verb that has little semantic content of its own and forms a predicate with some additional expression, which is usually a noun. Common verbs in English that can function as light verbs are ''do'', ''give'', ''have ...
, which carries markers like tense. However, the main part of the meaning, as well as the arguments of "went crashing", i.e. answers to questions such as ''who?'' (agent), or ''what was it that "went crashing"?'' (object) are determined by the second, semantically primary verb, "crash". "Go" may also modify the meaning or the
semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comp ...
, by focusing on the direction of the "crashing". "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 ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiab ...
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 verb A stretched verb is a complex predicate composed of a light verb and an eventive noun. An example is the English phrase "take a bite out of", which is semantically similar to the simple verb "bite". The concept has been used in studies of Germa ...
s, which combine a
light verb In linguistics, a light verb is a verb that has little semantic content of its own and forms a predicate with some additional expression, which is usually a noun. Common verbs in English that can function as light verbs are ''do'', ''give'', ''have ...
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 verbs 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 composed of a verb followed by a particle (examples: ''turn down'', ''run into'' or ''sit up''), sometimes combined with a preposition (e ...
is in one in which a verb word and a preposition,
particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule 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 ...
, 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 varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...
than in
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
.


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 the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...
, such as Hindustani and Panjabi, where as many as 20% of the verb forms in running text may be compounds. For example, in
Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
-
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' 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 Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
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, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
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 Jap ...
. In both English ''start reading'' and Japanese 読み始める ''yomihajimeru'' "read-CONJUNCTIVE-start" "start reading," the phasal verbs ''start'' and 始める ''hajimeru'' "start" change according to tense, negation, and the like while the main verbs ''reading'' and 読み ''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 t ...
, in which both English and Japanese modify the main verb: ''start to be read'' and 読まれ始める ''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. Many Japanese serial verbs are formed by connecting two verbs, as in , and in Japanese orthography lexical items are generally written with
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and 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 ...
(here 行く and 聞く), while grammatical items are more likely to be written with
hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...
[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 (yamato kotoba verbs) can be used as 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 , do not occur as the second element in compound verbs. For example, the 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 A nonfinite verb is a derivative form of a verb unlike finite verbs. Accordingly, nonfinite verb forms are inflected for neither number nor person, and they cannot perform action as the root of an independent clause. In English, nonfinite verbs in ...
s, can also compound, functioning as compound modifiers, but that is less common than for verbs. (See Japanese adjectives 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. The most widely spoken dialects are Chimbor ...
substrate, speakers living in the Ecuadorian Altiplano have innovated compound verbs in Spanish. # ''De rabia puso rompiendo la olla.''
'In anger (he/she) smashed the pot.'
(Lit. from anger put breaking the pot) # ''Botaremos matándote.''
'We will kill you.'
(Lit. /u>wewill throw kill-you,n Kichwa: ''huañuchi-shpa shitashun'') In conformity with the SVO language word order of Spanish, the vector precedes the main verb while in SOV language 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: μπαίν-ω
beno Beno is a name of various origins. In the Bible it appears in 1 Chronicles 24:26–27 where the Hebrew word is rendered as "Beno" in some English translations and as "his son" in others. Beno is also a short form of Benedict in various languages. ...
'I go in' + βγαίν-ω vjeno'I come out' = μπαινοβγαίνω eno'vjeno'I go in and out'; ανάβ-ω 'navo'I light up' σβήν-ω zvino'I put out (a light)' = αναβοσβήνω navo'zvino'I flash on and off'. These compound verbs are of the dvandva type. Semantically they equal the phrases μπαίνω και βγαίνω 'I go in and go out', ανάβω και σβήνω '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 Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of t ...
, Israeli Hebrew 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, 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 ''gébņ 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 ''khapņ 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. 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 i ...
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 a ...
(e.g. the English verb "be", as in "I am eating", or "had" in "they had finished"), or, after sound change, even a clitic (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 a ...
* Compound modifier *
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 ''adver ...
*
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'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
* Periphrasis *
Phrasal verb In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit composed of a verb followed by a particle (examples: ''turn down'', ''run into'' or ''sit up''), sometimes combined with a preposition (e ...
*
Stretched verb A stretched verb is a complex predicate composed of a light verb and an eventive noun. An example is the English phrase "take a bite out of", which is semantically similar to the simple verb "bite". The concept has been used in studies of Germa ...
* Serial verb *
Verb phrase In linguistics, a verb phrase (VP) is a syntactic unit composed of a verb and its arguments except the subject of an independent clause or coordinate clause. Thus, in the sentence ''A fat man quickly put the money into the box'', the words ''q ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Compound Verb Verb types