Next: Syntax of Dative-Stative
Up: Defective verb forms
Previous: Defective verb forms
Many defective verbs are syntactically
different from verbs with complete paradigms; often, their subjects are in
the dative case, because they cannot agree in PNG with 1st and 2nd
person subjects or third person animate subjects. However, they have some
forms that regular verbs do not have, such as habitual vs. non-habitual
forms. In form they resemble some of the modals, such as åÜ mudi `be able'. We will call them `dative-stative' verbs because they are
semantically STATIVE---they refer to states (liking, wanting, sufficing,
being painful, hungry, etc.) rather than actions---and syntactically they
require that their subjects be marked with the dative case.
The most common defective verbs are äÀÕ `understand', ØÂá£
veenum `need, want', ×»ÀÕ teri `know', ×´×¹ kede
`be available, have', and ½ÕÜ pidi `like'.
Vasu Renganathan
Sat Nov 2 21:16:08 EST 1996