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 pro-verb is a

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 ...

or partial

phrase In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

that substitutes for a contextually recognizable

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 ...

(via a process known as grammatical

gapping In linguistics, gapping is a type of ellipsis that occurs in the non-initial conjuncts of coordinate structures. Gapping usually elides minimally a finite verb and further any non-finite verbs that are present. This material is "gapped" from the no ...

), obviating the need to repeat an antecedent verb phrase.https://glossary.sil.org/term/pro-verb Pro-verb A pro-verb is a type of anaphora that falls within the general group of word classes called

pro-forms In linguistics, a pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context. They are used either to avoid rep ...

In English

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

does not have dedicated pro-verbs; however, a

bare infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...

can generally be implied rather than expressed. Catenative verbs that take bare infinitives can be said to double as pro-verbs by implying rather than expressing them (including most of 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 a ...

s). Similarly, the auxiliary verbs ''have'' and ''be'' can double as pro-verbs for perfect, progressive, and passive constructions by eliding the participle. When there is no other auxiliary or catenative verb, ''do'' can be used as with ''do-''support unless the antecedent verb is ''to'' ''be''. The following are some examples of these kinds of pro-verb: *''Who can tell? —No one can .'' *''Why can't he do it? —He can ; he just won't .'' *''I like pie, as does he .'' *''Why did you break the jar? —He made me .'' *''Can you go to the park? No, I cannot o to the park Note that, when there are multiple auxiliary verbs, some of these may be elided as well. For example, in reply to "Who's been leaving the milk out of the refrigerator?", any of "You've been doing it", "You have been", or "You have" would have the same meaning. Since a to-infinitive is just the

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 ...

''to'' plus a bare infinitive, and a bare infinitive can be elided, the particle ''to'' doubles as a pro-verb for a to-infinitive: *''Clean your room! —I don't want to .'' *''He refused to clean his room when I told him to .'' Finally, even in dialects where bare infinitives and participles can be elided, there does exist the pro-verb ''do so'': "He asked me to leave, so I did so". This pro-verb, unlike the above-described pro-verbs, can be used in any grammatical context; however, in contexts where another pro-verb could be used, it can be overly formal. For example, in "I want to get an 'A', but to do so, I need to get a perfect score on the next test," there is no other pro-verb that could be used; whereas in "I want to get an 'A', but I can't do so," the ''do so'' could simply be elided, and doing so would make the sentence sound less formal.

References

{{Lexical categories Parts of speech