Defective verb
From Free net encyclopedia
A defective verb is a verb with an incomplete conjugation. Defective verbs cannot be conjugated in certain tenses or moods.
Contents |
Examples
- in English: can; ought (there is no infinitive "to can," for example)
- in French: pouvoir; gésir (there is no imperative "peux" or "puisse," for example)
- in Spanish: abolir (this is disputed, but some contend that there is no "él abole," for example)
Defective verbs in English
In the English language there are few defective verbs. One case is the class of modal auxiliary verbs: "can," "may," "will," "must", and so on. These verbs lack several forms. Most notably, despite all having present indicatives, in Standard English they do not have infinitives (*to can, *to shall), participles (*am canning, *am shalling, *have musted), imperatives, or present subjunctives. Additionally, the third-person singular present lacks the -s common to other verbs ("he can", not "*he cans"; "he ought", not "*he oughts"). (The archaic pronoun "thou" takes an inflected verb: "thou canst", "thou wilt".) In place of the missing forms, speakers substitute a non-defective phrase with the same meaning. *to must => "to have to", *to can => "to be able to", *to should => "to be supposed to". In the present tense "I must wash the window" and "I have to wash the window" are interchangeable, but in the future tense "I will have to wash the window" is the only choice.
Another example is the verb be when used with the preposition to to mean 'visit', as in We have been to Paris several times (= 'We have visited Paris several times'). Be is used this way only in the perfect tense, i.e. as a participle with have. Thus English disallows such forms as *We are to Paris right now (= 'We are visiting Paris right now'), *We must be to Paris next week (= 'We must go to Paris next week'), etc.
Impersonal verbs in English
Impersonal verbs such as "rain" and "snow" share some characteristics with the defective verbs in that conjugations such as "I rain" or "they snow" are not often found; however, the crucial distinction is that impersonal verbs are "missing" certain forms for semantic reasons - in other words, the forms themselves exist and the verb is capable of being fully conjugated with all its forms (and is therefore not defective) but some forms are unlikely to be found because they appear meaningless. Nevertheless, it is possible to imagine metaphorical or even literal sentences where the "meaningless" forms can be found, e.g.
- I rained on his parade.
- I tried to help by clearing their drive but instead I snowed them in.
Contrast the impersonal verb "rain" (where all the forms exist but look semantically odd) with the defective verb "shall" (where only "I shall" is possible):
| to rain | *to shall | |
| I rain | I shall | |
| I am raining | *I am shalling | |
| I have rained | *I have shalled/should |
Defective verbs in Latin
Latin has defective verbs which possess forms only in the perfect tense system; such verbs have no present tense forms whatsoever. However, these verbs are present in meaning. For example, the first-person form odi and infinitive odisse appear to be the perfect tense of a verb such as *odo, but in fact have the present-tense meaning "I hate". Similarly, the verb memini, meminisse is conjugated in the perfect:
memini meministi meminit meminimus meministis meninerunt
Instead of "I remembered", "you remembered", etc., these forms signify "I remember", "you remember", etc. Latin defective verbs also possess regularly formed pluperfect forms (with a simple past tense meaning) and future perfect forms (with a simple future tense meaning). Compare deponent verbs, which are passive in form and active in meaning.