defective verbs | Clipmarks


	defective verbs

mona

7-23-2008 8:36 AM

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tags:

english, language, linguistics, grammar, conjugation

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7-27-2008 6:52 AM

Lifestar

Very interesting piece of knowledge you brought us here Mona. Merci beaucoup

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/022e70e4-74c2-46dd-8871-b8618f578a79/7319D3F4-E0C5-4BE1-83CD-4F47EB484EFF/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Defective_verb&oldid=226349832" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Defective_verb&oldid=226349832" style="font-size: 11px;">en.wikipedia.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Defective_verb&oldid=226349832">In <A title="Linguistics" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics">linguistics</A>, a <B>defective verb</B> is a <A title="Verb" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb">verb</A> with an incomplete <A title="Grammatical conjugation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_conjugation">conjugation</A>.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Defective_verb&oldid=226349832">The most commonly recognized defective verbs in English are the class of <A title="Preterite-present verb" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preterite-present_verb">preterite-present verbs</A> — <I>can</I>, <I>may</I>, <I>shall</I>, <I>might</I>, <I>must</I>, and <I>will</I> (which was not historically a preterite-present but has joined the class in modern English).</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Defective_verb&oldid=226349832">For example, <I>can</I> lacks an infinitive, future tense, participle, and gerund. The missing parts of speech, however, can be expressed by using the appropriate forms of <I>to be</I> plus <I>able to</I>. So, while <I>I could do it</I> and <I>I was able to do it</I> are equivalent, one cannot say *<I>I will can</I>, *<I>I have canned</I>, or *<I>canning do it</I>, but would still be able to say <I>I will be able to</I>, <I>I have been able to</I>, and <I>being able to do it</I>.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Defective_verb&oldid=226349832"><SPAN class="mw-headline">Examples from other languages</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Defective_verb&oldid=226349832"><li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">French: <I>frire</I> ("to fry", lacks non-compound past forms), <I>éclore</I> ("to hatch", theorically lacks an imperfect, although speakers easily fill it in)</LI></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/7319D3F4-E0C5-4BE1-83CD-4F47EB484EFF/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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