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. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. Osborne, T. and T. Groß 2012. 1965. But for reasons nobody seems to be able to explain, light took the opposite route. Note that the determiner a is usually NOT part of the light verb construction. A light verb often forms a light verb construction (LVC), consisting of a light verb, a noun, and sometimes a modifier or modifier phrase; the noun is often a more general, common, or abstract noun. Should you say Squiggly lit citronella candles, or Squiggly lighted citronella candles?
List of English Verbs in all Tenses 1000 English Verbs Forms: Proper use of verbs is very important to speak and write correct English. Lit appears to be more common as an adjective in British English, just like the verb, but in American English, lit and lighted seem to be used with about equal frequency. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Diachronic-Pertinacity-of-Light-Verbs-Butt-Lahiri/127d0f3598625f4bd32d24b0f63f12cd79aacf84, Tan Yee Fan's site for light verb constructions, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Light_verb&oldid=957055362, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Light-verb constructions present the same difficulty associated with idiosyncratic expressions of every sort: the meaning is not compositional in a straightforward way. If an auxiliary verb is present (as in trees b and d), it is included in the main predicate because like the light verb, it contributes functional meaning only. Many light verb constructions are closely similar in meaning to a corresponding full verb, e.g.
is more of a function word); as noted above, however, they are still distinct from traditional auxiliary verbs. In this sense, the light verb is often viewed as part of a cline: However, the light verb → auxiliary path is disputed, since a) light verbs can remain stable for very long periods (cf. Light verbs are interesting to linguists from a variety of perspectives, including those of diachronic linguistics and computational linguistics. Cognitive Linguistics 23, 1, 163-214. 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. Linguistic Inquiry 19, 205-232. We know that it is not part of the light verb construction because it is variable, e.g.
Amy lit a cigarette.
The following examples illustrate that light verbs fail the inversion and negation diagnostics that identify auxiliary verbs: Light verbs differ from full verbs in that light verbs lack the semantic content that full verbs have. Light verbs can be identified by these common characteristics. Copyright © 2020 Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Thus, in order to express more intricate assertions, matrix verbs are combined with coverbal elements such as preverbs to form complex verbal predicates. Adger, D. 2003. the two coindexed words denote the same person.
Hornstein, N., J. Nunes, and K. Grohmann 2005. Verb comes from the Latin verbum, a word. 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. English verb TO LIGHT conjugated in all forms, with full audio, irregular highlighting, negative forms and contractions. 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. Full verbs are the core of a predicate, whereas light verbs form a predicate with another expression (often a noun) with full semantic content. Long ago, people used the irregular verb, saying they lit candles, and for a time, the verb acted like many others and moved toward becoming a regular verb—in other words, people started saying they lighted candles instead of saying they lit candles.
The following light verbs form idioms and collocations. Lighted is what we call a regular verb because you make it past tense by adding -ed to the end. It is so called because it is the most important part in a sentence. Light is one of those rare English words that has two acceptable past-tense forms. 1–49. In computational linguistics, a serious challenge is that of identifying light verb constructions, which require marking light verbs. Light verbs and ɵ-Marking. Long ago, people used the irregular verb, saying they lit candles, and for a time, the verb acted like many others and moved toward becoming a regular verb, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, 12 Common Words That Will Boost Your Scrabble Score.