Non-finite verb
Encyclopedia
In linguistics
, a non-finite verb (or a verbal) is a verb
form that is not limited by a subject
and, more generally, is not fully inflected
by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense
, aspect
, mood
, number
, gender
, and person
. As a result, a non-finite verb cannot serve as a predicate
and can be used in an independent clause
only when combined with an auxiliary verb
(e.g., "He can write" but not "He to write"). Rather, it can be said to be the head
of a non-finite clause
. As such, a non-finite verb is the direct opposite of a finite verb
.
By some accounts, a non-finite verb acts simultaneously as a verb and as another part of speech (e.g., gerunds combined with articles
or the possessive case
); it can take adverb
s and certain kinds of verb argument
s, producing a verbal phrase (i.e., non-finite clause), and this phrase then plays a different role — usually noun
, adjective
, or adverb — in a greater clause. This is the reason for using the term verbal; non-finite verbs have traditionally been classified as verbal nouns, verbal adjectives, or verbal adverbs.
Each of these kinds of verbals is also used in various common constructs; for example, the past participle is used in forming the perfect (to have done).
Other kinds of verbals, such as supine
s and gerundive
s, exist in other languages.
, do not have any non-finite verbs. Where most European or Asian languages use non-finite verbs, they use either ordinary verb forms
or special constructions such as nominalization
s.
that describes a noun
as being a participant in the action of the verb. English has two kinds of participles: a present participle, also called an imperfect participle, which ends in -ing and which ordinarily describes the agent
of an action, and a past participle, also called a perfect participle, which typically ends in -ed (but can also end in -en, -t, or none of these), and which ordinarily describes the patient
of an action.
The following sentences contain participles:
In English, the present participle is used in forming the continuous aspect
(to be doing); the past participle is used in forming the passive voice
(to be done) and the perfect (to have done).
A participial phrase is a phrase
consisting of a participle and any adverbial
s and/or arguments; the participle is the head
of such a phrase:
A relative clause in the active or passive voice can be reduced to a phrase known as a reduced adjective clause
by utilizing a present or past participle. The reduced adjective clause can be formed even if the present participle is not used as a predicate in the clause.
The use of commas can indicate a restrictive or nonrestrictive sense.
A gerund phrase is a phrase consisting of a gerund and any adverbials and/or arguments; the gerund is the head of such a phrase:
to, as in to eat or to run. The resulting phrase can then function as a subject or object, or as a modifier.
An infinitive phrase consists of an infinitive and any related words.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, a non-finite verb (or a verbal) is a verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
form that is not limited by a subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
and, more generally, is not fully inflected
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
, aspect
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
, mood
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
, number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, and person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
. As a result, a non-finite verb cannot serve as a predicate
Predicate (grammar)
There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
and can be used in an independent clause
Independent clause
An independent clause is a clause that can stand by itself, also known as a simple sentence. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate; it makes sense by itself....
only when combined with an auxiliary verb
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
(e.g., "He can write" but not "He to write"). Rather, it can be said to be the head
Head (linguistics)
In linguistics, the head is the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member, or analogously the stem that determines the semantic category of a compound of which it is a component. The other elements modify the head....
of a non-finite clause
Non-finite clause
In linguistics, a non-finite clause is a dependent clause whose verb is non-finite; for example, many languages can form non-finite clauses from infinitives...
. As such, a non-finite verb is the direct opposite of a finite verb
Finite verb
A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand on their own as complete sentences....
.
By some accounts, a non-finite verb acts simultaneously as a verb and as another part of speech (e.g., gerunds combined with articles
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
or the possessive case
Possessive case
The possessive case of a language is a grammatical case used to indicate a relationship of possession. It is not the same as the genitive case, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages.See Possession for a survey of the different...
); it can take adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
s and certain kinds of verb argument
Verb argument
In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object....
s, producing a verbal phrase (i.e., non-finite clause), and this phrase then plays a different role — usually noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
, adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
, or adverb — in a greater clause. This is the reason for using the term verbal; non-finite verbs have traditionally been classified as verbal nouns, verbal adjectives, or verbal adverbs.
English
English has three kinds of verbals:- participleParticipleIn linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
s, which include past and present participles and function as adjectives (e.g. burnt log, a betting man); - gerundGerundIn linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
s, which function as nouns and can be used with or without an article (the Running of the Bulls, "studying" is an academically beneficial practice) - infinitiveInfinitiveIn grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
s, which have noun-like (the question is to be or not to be), adjective-like (work to do), and adverb-like functions (she came over to talk). If in order can precede the infinitive ("she came over in order to talk"), then it must be acting as an adverb. Infinitives are often preceded by 'to'; but not necessarily.
Each of these kinds of verbals is also used in various common constructs; for example, the past participle is used in forming the perfect (to have done).
Other kinds of verbals, such as supine
Supine
In grammar a supine is a form of verbal noun used in some languages.-In Latin:In Latin there are two supines, I and II . They are originally the accusative and dative or ablative forms of a verbal noun in the fourth declension, respectively. The first supine ends in -um. It has two uses. The first...
s and gerundive
Gerundive
In linguistics, a gerundive is a particular verb form. The term is applied very differently to different languages; depending on the language, gerundives may be verbal adjectives, verbal adverbs, or finite verbs...
s, exist in other languages.
Other languages
Some languages, especially Native American languagesIndigenous languages of the Americas
Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families as well as many language...
, do not have any non-finite verbs. Where most European or Asian languages use non-finite verbs, they use either ordinary verb forms
Balancing and deranking
In linguistics, balancing and deranking are terms used to describe the form of verbs used in various types of subordinate clauses and also sometimes in co-ordinate constructions....
or special constructions such as nominalization
Nominalization
In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation is the use of a verb, an adjective, or an adverb as the head of a noun phrase, with or without morphological transformation...
s.
Participles
A participle is a verbal adjectiveAdjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
that describes a noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
as being a participant in the action of the verb. English has two kinds of participles: a present participle, also called an imperfect participle, which ends in -ing and which ordinarily describes the agent
Agent (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical agent is the cause or initiator of an event. Agent is the name of the thematic role...
of an action, and a past participle, also called a perfect participle, which typically ends in -ed (but can also end in -en, -t, or none of these), and which ordinarily describes the patient
Patient (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical patient, also called the target or undergoer, is the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out. A patient as differentiated from a theme must undergo a change in state. A theme is denoted by a stative verb, where a patient is denoted by a dynamic...
of an action.
The following sentences contain participles:
- The talking children angered the teacher. (Here talking modifies children.)
- Annoyed, Rita ate dinner by herself in the bedroom. (Here annoyed modifies Rita.)
In English, the present participle is used in forming the continuous aspect
Continuous and progressive aspects
The continuous and progressive aspects are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. It is a verb category with two principal meaning components: duration and incompletion...
(to be doing); the past participle is used in forming the passive voice
English passive voice
The passive voice is a grammatical construction in which the subject of a sentence or clause denotes the recipient of the action rather than the performer...
(to be done) and the perfect (to have done).
A participial phrase is a phrase
Phrase
In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....
consisting of a participle and any adverbial
Adverbial
In grammar an adverbial is a word or a group of words that modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb. The word adverbial is also used as an adjective, meaning 'having the same function as an adverb'...
s and/or arguments; the participle is the head
Head (linguistics)
In linguistics, the head is the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member, or analogously the stem that determines the semantic category of a compound of which it is a component. The other elements modify the head....
of such a phrase:
- Gazing at the picture, she recalled the house where she was born. (Here gazing at the picture modifies she.)
A relative clause in the active or passive voice can be reduced to a phrase known as a reduced adjective clause
Reduced relative clause
A reduced relative clause is a relative clause that is not marked by an overt complementizer . Reduced relative clauses often give rise to ambiguity or garden path effects, and have been a common topic of psycholinguistic study, especially in the field of sentence processing.-Description:Relative...
by utilizing a present or past participle. The reduced adjective clause can be formed even if the present participle is not used as a predicate in the clause.
- The students who were fidgeting in their seats were anxious about the test.
- The students who fidgeted in their seats were anxious about the test.
- The students fidgeting in their seats were anxious about the test.
The use of commas can indicate a restrictive or nonrestrictive sense.
- The students fidgeting in their seats were anxious about the test. (Only those students who were fidgeting were anxious. It is implied that other students were not fidgeting and, thus, not anxious.)
- The students, fidgeting in their seats, were anxious about the test. (All the students in the group being considered were both fidgeting and anxious.)
Gerunds
A gerund is a verbal noun that refers to the action of the verb. In English, a gerund has the same form as a present participle (see above), ending in -ing:- Fencing is good exercise. (Here fencing is the subjectSubject (grammar)The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
of is.) - Leroy betrayed his team by charging. (Here charging is the objectObject (grammar)An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
of by.)
A gerund phrase is a phrase consisting of a gerund and any adverbials and/or arguments; the gerund is the head of such a phrase:
- My evening routine involves jogging slowly around the block. (Here jogging slowly around the block is the direct object of involves.)
Infinitives
In English, the infinitive verb form is often introduced by the particleGrammatical particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
to, as in to eat or to run. The resulting phrase can then function as a subject or object, or as a modifier.
- To succeed takes courage, foresight, and luck. (Here to succeed is the subject of takes.)
- I don't have time to waste.
- Carol was asked to speak. (Here to speak is the object of asked, comparable to Carol was asked a question.)
- Do not stop to chat.
An infinitive phrase consists of an infinitive and any related words.
- Paul wanted to learn silk screening. (The infinitive phrase to learn silk screening is the object of wanted.)
Related topics
- Grammatical conjugationGrammatical conjugationIn linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
- Lexical categoryLexical categoryIn grammar, a part of speech is a linguistic category of words , which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of the lexical item in question. Common linguistic categories include noun and verb, among others...
- Verb phraseVerb phraseIn linguistics, a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and the dependents of that verb. One can distinguish between two types of VPs, finite VPs and non-finite VPs . While phrase structure grammars acknowledge both, dependency grammars reject the existence of a...
- Verbal nounVerbal nounIn linguistics, the verbal noun turns a verb into a noun and corresponds to the infinitive in English language usage. In English the infinitive form of the verb is formed when preceded by to, e.g...
- Balancing and derankingBalancing and derankingIn linguistics, balancing and deranking are terms used to describe the form of verbs used in various types of subordinate clauses and also sometimes in co-ordinate constructions....
External links
- Owl Online Writing Lab: Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives