According to some
linguistics
Linguistics is the 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. Linguis ...
theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a
dynamic verb
A dynamic or fientive verb is a verb that shows continued or progressive action on the part of the subject. This is the opposite of a stative verb.
Overview
Actions denoted by dynamic verbs have duration. They occur over a span of time. This ti ...
, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are static, or unchanging throughout their entire duration, whereas dynamic verbs describe processes that entail change over time.
Many languages distinguish between these two types in terms of how they can be used grammatically.
Contrast to dynamic
Some languages use the same verbs for dynamic and stative situations, and others use different (but often related) verbs with some kind of qualifiers to distinguish between them. Some verbs may act as either stative or dynamic. A phrase like "he plays the piano" may be either stative or dynamic, according to the context. When, in a given context, the verb "play" relates to a state (an interest or a profession), he could be an amateur who enjoys music or a professional pianist. The dynamic interpretation emerges from a specific context in the case "play" describes an action, "what does he do on Friday evening? He plays the piano".
The distinction between stative and dynamic verbs can be correlated with:
* the distinction between intransitive and transitive
* the possibility of using the progressive aspect with the verb
* morphological markers
Progressive aspect
In English and certain other languages, stative and dynamic verbs differ in whether or not they typically occur in a
progressive form. Dynamic verbs such as "go" can be used in the progressive (''I am going to school'') whereas stative verbs such as "know" cannot (*''I am knowing the answer''). A verb that has both dynamic and stative uses cannot normally be used in the progressive when a stative meaning is intended: e.g. one cannot normally say, idiomatically, "Every morning, I am going to school". In other languages, statives can be used in the progressive as well: in Korean, for example, the sentence 미나가 인호를 사랑하고 있다 (''Mina is loving Inho'') is perfectly valid.
Morphological markers
In some languages, stative and dynamic verbs will use entirely different morphological markers on the verbs themselves. For example, in the Mantauran dialect of
Rukai, an indigenous language of Taiwan, the two types of verbs take different prefixes in their finite forms, with dynamic verbs taking ''o-'' and stative verbs taking ''ma-''. Thus, the dynamic verb "jump" is ''o-coroko'' in the active voice, while the stative verb "love" is ''ma-ðalamə''. This sort of marking is characteristic of other
Formosan languages as well.
Difference from inchoative
In English, a verb that expresses a state can also express the entrance into a state. This is called
inchoative aspect
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 ...
. The
simple past is sometimes inchoative. For example, the present-tense verb in the sentence "He understands his friend" is stative, while the past-tense verb in the sentence "Suddenly he understood what she said" is inchoative, because it means "He understood henceforth". On the other hand, the past-tense verb in "At one time, he understood her" is stative.
The only way the difference between stative and inchoative can be expressed in English is through the use of modifiers, as in the above examples ("suddenly" and "at one time").
Likewise, in
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
, a verb that expresses a state (e.g., ''ebasíleuon'' "I was king") may use the
aorist
Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the I ...
to express entrance into the state (e.g., ''ebasíleusa'' "I became king"). But the aorist can also simply express the state as a whole, with no focus on the beginning of the state (''eíkosi étē ebasíleusa'' "I ruled for twenty years").
Formal definitions
In some theories of formal
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
Philosophy (f ...
, including
David Dowty
David Roach Dowty (born 1945) is a linguist known primarily for his work in semantic and syntactic theory, and especially in Montague grammar and Categorial grammar. Dowty is a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Ohio State University, and ...
's, stative verbs have a
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
al form that is the
lambda
Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave rise ...
expression
: