Light verb

{{Short description|Grammatical component}} 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.<ref>Concerning light verbs in general, see Jespersen (1965, Volume VI:117), Grimshaw and Mester (1988), and especially Butt (2003:paper attached).</ref> Common verbs in English that can function as light verbs are ''do'', ''give'', ''have'', ''make'', ''get'', and ''take''. Other names for ''light verb'' include ''delexical verb'',<ref>The ''Collins Cobuild English Grammar'', for instance, uses the term ''delexical verb'' instead of ''light verb''.</ref> ''vector verb'', ''explicator verb'', ''thin verb'', ''empty verb'' and ''semantically weak verb''. While light verbs are similar to auxiliary verbs regarding their contribution of meaning to the clauses in which they appear, light verbs fail the diagnostics that identify auxiliary verbs and are therefore distinct from auxiliaries.

The intuition between the term "light verb" is that the predicate is not at its full semantic potential. For instance, one does not literally "take" a bath in the same way as one can "take" a cup of sugar. At the same time, light verbs are not completely empty semantically, because there is a clear difference in meaning between "take a bath" and "give a bath", and one cannot "do a bath".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Butt |first1=Miriam |editor1-last=Amberber |editor1-first=Mengistu |editor2-last=Baker |editor2-first=Brett |editor3-last=Harvey |editor3-first=Mark |title=Complex Predicates: Cross-linguistic Perspectives on Event Structure |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=48–78 |chapter=The light verb jungle: Still hacking away}}</ref>

Light verbs can be accounted for in different ways in theoretical frameworks, for example as semantically empty predicate licensers<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grimshaw |first1=Jane |last2=Mester |first2=Armin |title=Light verbs and Θ-marking |journal=Linguistic Inquiry |date=1988 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=205–232}}</ref> or a kind of auxiliary.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hacker |first1=Paul |title=Zur Funktion einiger Hilfsverben im modernen Hindi |date=1958 |publisher=Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur |location=Mainz}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Butt |first1=Miriam |editor1-last=Amberber |editor1-first=Mengistu |editor2-last=Baker |editor2-first=Brett |editor3-last=Harvey |editor3-first=Mark |title=Complex Predicates: Cross-linguistic Perspectives on Event Structure |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=48–78 |chapter=The light verb jungle: Still hacking away}}</ref> In dependency grammar approaches they can be analyzed using the concept of the catena.

==Examples==

=== English === Most light verb constructions in English include a noun and are sometimes called stretched verbs. Some light verb constructions also include a preposition, e.g.

::They '''did''' the '''review''' of my paper first. ::Sam '''did''' the '''cleaning''' yesterday.

::Who '''got''' such intense '''criticism'''? ::Susan is '''getting''' much '''support''' from her family.

::I am going to '''have''' a nice '''nap'''. ::She '''had''' a '''smoke'''. ::We '''had''' a slow, boring '''conversation'''.

::Are you '''giving''' a '''presentation''' at the conference? ::They '''gave''' the kids '''a hard time'''. ::Who will '''give''' you a '''hug'''?

::Who '''made''' such a severe '''mistake'''? ::I '''made''' the first '''request'''.

::Sam has '''taken''' a '''shower'''. ::Why is Larry '''taking''' a '''nap'''? ::We should '''take''' a '''break''' soon. ::Have you '''taken advantage of''' that opportunity? ::I haven't '''taken''' that '''into consideration'''.

The light verbs are underlined, and the words in bold together constitute the light verb constructions. Each of these constructions is the (primary part of the) main predicate of the sentence. Note that the determiner ''a'' is usually NOT part of the light verb construction. We know that it is not part of the light verb construction because it is variable, e.g. ''I took a long/the first/two/the best nap''. The light verb contributes little content to its sentence; the main meaning resides with the noun in bold.

=== Hindi-Urdu === Light verb constructions in Hindi–Urdu (Hindustani) are highly productive.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Vaidya|first1=Ashwini|last2=Agarwal|first2=Sumeet|last3=Palmer|first3=Martha|date=2016|title=Linguistic features for Hindi light verb construction identification|url=https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/C16-1125.pdf|journal=Proceedings of COLING 2016, the 26th International Conference on Computational Linguisticsː Technical Papers}}</ref> Light verbs in Hindi–Urdu can combine with another verb, an adjective, adverb or even a borrowed English verb or noun.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Vaidya|first1=Ashwini|last2=Rambow|first2=Owen|last3=Palmer|first3=Martha|date=Feb 2019|title=Syntactic composition and selectional preferences in Hindi light verb constructions|url=https://web.iitd.ac.in/~avaidya/files/draft11.pdf|journal=Linguistic Issues in Language Technology|volume=16 |issue =1}}</ref> The light verb loses its own independent meaning and instead "lends a certain shade of meaning"<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Snell|Weightman|1989|p=154}}</ref> to the main or stem verb, which "comprises the lexical core of the compound".<ref name="Shapiro2003p269">{{Harvcoltxt|Shapiro|2003|p=269}}</ref> While any verb can act as a main verb, there is a limited set of productive light verbs.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Shapiro|2003|pp=269–270}}</ref> Some commonly used light verbs are shown in the table belowː {| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="2" |''Light Verb'' ! rowspan="2" |''Explanation'' ! colspan="3" |''Example'' |- !''verb'' !''verb root + light verb'' !''Translation'' |- |जाना (jānā) — to go |gives a sense of perfective aspect (completed action), finality, or change of state<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Snell|Weightman|1989|pp=155}}</ref> |आना (ānā) — to come |आ जाना (ā jānā) |to come ''(shows finished action)'' |- |लेना (lēnā) — to take |suggests that the action is completed and the benefit of the action flows towards the doer.<ref name="Snell&Weightman1989p1562">{{Harvcoltxt|Snell|Weightman|1989|pp=156}}</ref> | rowspan="8" |करना (karnā) — to do |कर लेना (kar lenā) |to do ''(for one's own benefit)'' |- |देना (denā) — to give |suggests that the action was completed and the benefit of the action flows away from the doer.<ref name="Snell&Weightman1989p1562"/> |कर देना (kar denā) |to do ''(not for one's own benefit)'' |- |आना (ānā) — to come |gives a sense of perfective aspect (completed action) but also the doer returns after doing the action |कर आना (kar ānā) |to do ''(and return)'' |- |डालना (ḍalnā) — to pour, insert |indicates an action is done vigorously, decisively, violently, or recklessly.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Snell|Weightman|1989|p=220}}</ref> |कर डालना (kar ḍālnā) |to do ''(vigorously; at once)'' |- |बैठना (baiṭhnā) — to sit |implies an action done foolishly or stubbornly<ref name="Snell&Weightman1989p221">{{Harvcoltxt|Snell|Weightman|1989|p=221}}</ref> |कर बैठना (kar baiṭhnā) |to do ''(by mistake, without thinking twice)'' |- |सकना (saknā) — to be able to |indicates the capability of performing an action. |कर सकना (kar saknā) |to do ''(to have the ability to do)'' |- |रखना (rakhnā) — to keep |implies a firmness of action, or one with possibly long-lasting results or implications;<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Snell|Weightman|1989|p=222}}</ref> |कर रखना (kar rakhnā) |to have done |- |चुकना (cuknā) — to have completed |shows sense of completeness of an action in the past that was already finished by the doer in the past. |कर चुकना (kar cuknā) |to have already done |- |उठना (uṭhnā) — to get up |functions like an intensifier; suggests inception of action or feeling.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Schmidt|2003|pp=337–338}}</ref> |बोलना (bolnā) — to speak |बोल उठना (bol uṭhnā) |to speak ''(to burst into speaking)'' |- |पड़ना (par̥nā) — to fall flat |connotes involuntary, sudden, or unavoidable occurrence<ref name="Schmidt2003p337">{{Harvcoltxt|Schmidt|2003|pp=337}}</ref> |गिरना (girnā) — to fall |गिर पड़ना (gir par̥nā) |to fall ''(by mistake)'' |- !''Light Verb'' !''Explanation'' !''noun/adjective/adverb'' !''noun/adjective/adverb + light verb'' !''translation'' |- | rowspan="4" |होना (honā) — to be, to exist | rowspan="4" |''converts nouns, adjectives, and adverbs into intransitive verbs'' |साफ़ (sāf) — clean |साफ़ होना (sāf honā) |to be clean; to clean oneself |- |apply |apply होना (apply honā) |to apply; to be applied |- |beautiful |beautiful होना (beautiful honā) |to be beautiful |- |जल्दी से (jaldī se) — quickly |जल्दी से होना (jaldī se honā) |to happen quickly |- | rowspan="4" |करना (karnā) — to do, to make | rowspan="4" |''converts nouns, adjectives, and adverbs into transitive verbs'' |साफ़ (sāf) — clean |साफ़ करना (sāf karnā) |to clean |- |apply |apply करना (apply karnā) |to apply |- |beautiful |beautiful करना (beautiful karnā) |to make beautiful; to beautify |- |जल्दी से (jaldī se) — quickly |जल्दी से करना (jaldī se karnā) |to do quickly |}

==Alternative constructions with full verbs== Many light verb constructions are closely similar in meaning to a corresponding full verb, e.g.

::a. Sam '''did''' a '''revision''' of his paper. – Light verb construction ::b. Sam '''revised''' his paper. -Full verb

::a. Larry wants to '''have''' a '''smoke'''. – Light verb construction ::b. Larry wants to '''smoke'''. – Full verb

::a. Jim '''made''' an important '''claim''' that.... – Light verb construction ::b. Jim '''claimed''' that... – Full verb ::a. Mary is '''taking''' a '''nap'''. – Light verb construction ::b. Mary is '''napping'''. – Full verb

Such alternative formulations lead to the insight that light verb constructions are predicates just like the corresponding full verb alternatives. There can be, however, nuanced differences in meaning across these alternative formulations. The light verb constructions produce possibilities for modification that are less available with the corresponding full verb alternatives.

==Contrasted with auxiliary verbs and full verbs== Many verbs that serve as light verbs can also serve as auxiliary verbs and/or full verbs depending on the context in which they appear. Light verbs are similar to auxiliary verbs insofar as they contribute mainly functional content (as opposed to semantic content) to the clauses in which they appear. Light verbs, however, are not auxiliary verbs or full verbs. Light verbs differ from auxiliary verbs in English by not passing the syntactic tests that identify auxiliary verbs. The following examples illustrate that light verbs fail the inversion and negation diagnostics that identify auxiliary verbs:

::a. He '''did''' call Susan yesterday. ::b. '''Did''' he call Susan yesterday? – The auxiliary ''did'' inverts with the subject. ::c. He '''did''' not call Susan yesterday. – The auxiliary ''did'' can take ''not'' as a postdependent.

::a. He '''did''' the review of my paper yesterday. ::b. *'''Did''' he the review of my paper yesterday? – The light verb ''did'' cannot invert with the subject. ::c. *He '''did''' not the review of my paper yesterday. – The light verb ''did'' cannot take ''not'' as a postdependent.

::a. He '''has''' opened the window. ::b. '''Has''' he opened the window? – The auxiliary ''has'' inverts with the subject. ::c. He '''has''' not opened the window. – The auxiliary ''has'' takes ''not'' as a postdependent.

::a. She '''had''' a smoke. ::b. *'''Had''' she a smoke? – The light verb ''had'' cannot invert with the subject. ::c. *She '''had''' not a smoke. – The light verb ''had'' cannot take ''not'' as a postdependent.

Light verbs differ from full verbs in that light verbs lack the semantic content that full verbs have. Full verbs are the core of a predicate, but light verbs form a predicate with another expression (often a noun) with full semantic content. That distinction is more difficult to illustrate, but it can be seen in the following examples involving reflexive pronouns:

::a. Jim1 '''took''' a picture of himself1. – The light verb ''took'' requires the reflexive pronoun to appear. ::b. *Jim1 '''took''' a picture of him1. – The light verb ''took'' prohibits the simple pronoun from appearing.

::a. Jim1 '''took''' a picture of himself1 to school. – The full verb ''took'' allows the reflexive pronoun to appear. ::b. Jim1 '''took''' a picture of him1 to school. – The full verb ''took'' allows the simple pronoun to appear.

::a. Sally1 '''gave''' a description of herself1. – The light verb ''gave'' requires the reflexive pronoun to appear. ::b. *Sally1 '''gave''' a description of her1. – The light verb ''gave'' prohibits the simple pronoun from appearing.

::a. Sally1 '''gave''' me a description of herself1. – The full verb ''gave'' allows the reflexive pronoun to appear ::b. Sally1 '''gave''' me a description of her1. – The full verb ''gave'' allows the simple pronoun to appear.

The indices indicate coreference: the two coindexed words denote the same person. The reflexive pronoun must appear with the light verb, but the full verb allows the simple pronoun to appear as well. Th distinction has to do with the extent of the predicate. The main predicate reaches down into the noun phrase when the light verb appears, but it excludes the noun phrase when the full verb is present.

==In other languages== Examples in other languages include the Yiddish {{Transliteration|yi|geb}} in {{Transliteration|yi|geb a helf}} (literally give a help, "help"); the French {{lang|fr|faire}} in {{lang|fr|faire semblant}} (lit. make seeming, "pretend"); the Hindi {{Transliteration|hi|nikal paRA}} (lit. leave fall, "start to leave"); and the ''bǎ'' construction in Chinese.<ref>See Hornstein et al. (2005:99f.).</ref> Light verbs are extremely common in modern Indo-Iranian languages, Japanese, Basque and other languages in which verb compounding is a primary mechanism for marking aspectual distinctions. Light verbs are also equivalent to inherent complement verbs<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Inherent complement verbs in Igbo|last = Nwachukwu|first = P. A.|date = 1985|journal = Journal of the Linguistics Association of Nigeria 3, 61-74}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Inherent complement verbs revisited: Towards an understanding of argument structure constructions in Ewe|last = Essegbey|first = James|publisher = MPI Dissertation series 10|year = 1999}}</ref> in many Kwa languages such as {{lang|gaa|jo}} in {{lang|gaa|jo foi}} {{gloss|run}} (Ga), {{lang|ak|tu}} in {{lang|ak|tu fo}} {{gloss|advise}} (Akan).

=== Australian languages === A significant proportion of Australian Aboriginal languages have verbal systems involving light verbs. Many Australian inflecting-verb classes are closed classes and very few in membership. Thus, to express more intricate assertions, matrix verbs are combined with coverbal elements such as preverbs to form complex verbal predicates. In such instances, the matrix verb typically still bears all of the tense–aspect–mood inflection but contributes little to the sentence semantically (i.e. is more of a function word); as noted above, however, they are still distinct from traditional auxiliary verbs.

==== Bardi ==== One such Australian language with prevalent uses of light verbs is Bardi, a Nyulnyulan language spoken in the north of Australia. Although its inflecting-verb class is comparatively large with respect to some other Australian languages (about 230 members), a number of them appear often as light verbs. Comprising the most frequent of these light verbs are the verb roots {{lang|bcj|-ju-}} {{gloss|do, say}} and {{lang|bcj|-ma-}} {{gloss|put}}. Here is an example of the latter in use:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bowern, Claire |title=A grammar of Bardi|date=2013|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-3-11-027818-7|location=Berlin|oclc=848086054}}{{page needed|date=October 2021}}</ref>

{{Interlinear|lang=bcj|indent=3 |Arra liyan nga-la-ma |NEG heart 1-IRR-put |"I don’t want to."}}

In a case such as the above, {{lang|bcj|liyan}} {{gloss|heart}} is the preverb containing most of the semantic content. The same is true with {{lang|bcj|goo}} {{gloss|hit}} in the following example:

{{Interlinear|lang=bcj|indent=3 |garr nga-na-m-boo-gal |rub 1-TR-PST-hit-REC |'I rubbed him (to stop his pain)'}}

==== Jingulu ==== Typically, in languages with coverb+light-verb predicates, these words must be directly adjacent; however, in extremely rare cases in languages such as Jingulu, there can be intervening elements between the semantically-rich preverb and the inflected matrix verb. See the following example in which the subject {{lang|jig|ngaya}} appears between the preverb {{lang|jig|ambaya}} {{gloss|speak}} and the inflected main verb {{lang|jig|nu}} {{gloss|do}}.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pensalfini|first=Rob|hdl=2027/mdp.39015057595582|title=A grammar of Jingulu :an Aboriginal language of the Northern Territory /|series=Pacific linguistics; 536|date=2003|publisher=Canberra|isbn=9780858835580}}</ref>

{{Interlinear|lang=jig|indent=3 |Ambaya ngaya nga-nu Warranganku-mbili |speak 1SG.NOM 1SG-do.PST Beetaloo-LOC |'I spoke about Beetaloo'}}

This rare but significant phenomenon provides evidence that even in more heavily-agglutinating languages like Jingulu in which the main verb may not be morphologically independent from the preverb, they are in fact light verbs, not inflectional affixes.

==Diachronic considerations== Light verbs are interesting to linguists from a variety of perspectives, including those of diachronic linguistics and computational linguistics. From the diachronic perspective, the light verb is said to have evolved from the "heavy" verb through semantic bleaching, a process in which the verb loses some or all of its original semantics. In that sense, the light verb is often viewed as part of a cline:

:verb (heavy) → light verb → auxiliary verb → clitic → affix → conjugation

However, the light verb → auxiliary path is disputed since light verbs can remain stable for very long periods (cf. Butt and Lahiri (2013),<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Butt |first1=Miriam |last2=Lahiri |first2=Aditi |title=Diachronic pertinacity of light verbs |journal=Lingua |date=October 2013 |volume=135 |pages=7–29 |doi=10.1016/J.LINGUA.2012.11.006 |s2cid=56074379 |url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-266903 }}</ref> and both light verbs and auxiliaries can exist in the same languages and be descended from the same full lexical verb but with different meanings.

In computational linguistics, a serious challenge is that of identifying light verb constructions, which require marking light verbs.

==See also== * Phrasal verb * Serial verb – compound of multiple "heavy" verbs * Stretched verb

==Notes== {{Reflist|2}}

==References== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * Adger, D. 2003. ''Core syntax: A minimalist approach.'' Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. * Butt, M. 2003. The Light Verb Jungle. In ''Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics'', ed. G. Aygen, C. Bowern, and C. Quinn. 1–49. Volume 9, Papers from the GSAS/Dudley House workshop on light verbs. * ''Collins Cobuild English Grammar'' 1995. London: HarperCollins Publishers. * Grimshaw, J. and A. Mester. 1988. Light verbs and ɵ-Marking. ''Linguistic Inquiry'' 19, 205–232. * Hornstein, N., J. Nunes, and K. Grohmann 2005. ''Understanding Minimalism''. New York: Cambridge University Press. * Jespersen, O. 1965. ''A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles'', Part VI, Morphology. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. * Osborne, T. and T. Groß 2012. Constructions are catenae: Construction Grammar meets Dependency Grammar. ''Cognitive Linguistics'' 23, 1, 163–214. * {{cite book |last =Schmidt|first=Hans|editor=John Lynch|year= 2003|chapter= Temathesis in Rotuman|title=Issues in Austronesian Historical Phonology|publisher= Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies|pages = 175–207|chapter-url=http://www.rotuma.net/os/Temathesis%20in%20Rotuman.pdf|isbn=978-0-85883-503-0}} * {{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Michael C.|year=2003|chapter=Hindi|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUHfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT311 |editor1-last=Cardona|editor1-first=George|editor2-last=Jain|editor2-first=Dhanesh|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-77294-5|pages=250–285}} * {{cite book|last1=Snell|first1=Rupert|last2=Weightman|first2=Simon|year=1989|title=Teach Yourself Hindi|publisher=McGraw-Hill|edition=2003|isbn=978-0-07-142012-9|title-link=Teach Yourself}} * Steven, S., A. Fazly, and R.North. 2004. Statistical measures of the semi-productivity of light verb constructions. In ''2nd ACL workshop on multiword expressions: Integrating processing'', pp. 1–8. {{div col end}}

==External links== {{wikt}} * [http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/butt/main/papers/cp-volume.pdf Miriam Butt's ''The light verb jungle''] * [http://wing.comp.nus.edu.sg/~tanyeefa/downloads/lvc/ Tan Yee Fan's site for light verb constructions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151011155637/http://wing.comp.nus.edu.sg/~tanyeefa/downloads/lvc/ |date=2015-10-11 }} * [http://www.qwantz.com/ryannorth-lvcs.pdf Ryan North's ''Computational Measures of the Acceptability of Light Verb Constructions''] * [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120124175203/http://aclweb.org/anthology-new/W/W11/W11-0817.pdf Vincze, Veronika ''Detecting noun compounds and light verb constructions: a contrastive study'']

Category:Verb types