Compound verbs of both types (V+V and N+V) are very common in all the languages of India, though V+V compounds are more frequent in the northern
Indo-Aryan languages than in
Dravidian languages. In addition to
South Asian languages, V+V compounds occur in
Turkic languages like
Uzbek,
Kyrgyz and
Uyghur, in
Tibeto-Burman languages like
Limbu and
Newari, in
Korean and
Japanese, in northeast Caucasian languages like
Tsez and
Avar, and in
Quichua, a variety of
Quechua. The Indo-European language Greek also possesses some verb–verb compounds. V+V compounds do not occur in Iranian languages. What are called "compound verbs" by Iranists are N+V compounds.
English The English lexicon contains a few true compound verbs, such as
stirfry,
kickstart and
forcefeed. These are not serial verbs – though, as with many compounds, they may be spelled as two words (or hyphenated). Rather, the first verb expresses how the action expressed by the second verb is carried out. The second verb is the only one which may express tense. English also expresses aspectual distinctions as to the beginning, duration, completion, or repetition of an action using
auxiliaries. Examples here include
was starting,
had lived,
had been seen, etc. These sequences function in place of morphologically complex predicates like the inchoative or
inceptive stems of
Latin (, 'I love'; , 'I'm starting to love', 'I'm falling in love'; , 'to flower'; , 'to start flowering'; etc.), and of
Russian (, , 'to laugh'; , 'to start laughing'). Though verb + verb compounds are rare in
English, one may illustrate the form with the example "to go crashing [through the door]". In some interpretations, one may consider "go" as a
light verb, which carries markers like tense. However, the main part of the meaning, as well as the arguments, i.e. answers to questions such as
who? (agent) or
what was it that "went crashing"? (subject), are determined by the second, semantically primary verb, "crash". "Go" carries plural/tense markers (
they go | he goes crashing), whereas "crashing" appears in this fixed form and does not change with tense, number, gender, etc. Whether
gerundive forms like "went crashing" are compound verbs is controversial in English; many linguists prefer to treat "crashing" as a nominal in its gerundive form. However, the compound verb treatment may have some advantages, particularly when it comes to semantic analysis. For example, in response to
She went crashing, the question "Where did she go?" is less revealing than "Where did she go crashing?". English has many examples of noun + verb compound predicates, called
stretched verbs, which combine a
light verb with an "eventive" noun (an action-describing noun which can also operate as a verb, though it may have become an uncommon one), or with a noun phrase composed of such a noun and one or more prepositions. Common examples include: to ''offer [one's] condolences
, to take a bite out of
, and to get rid of
(while to rid
and to condole'' are infrequent). Sometimes examples labeled
serial verbs turn out to be compound verbs, as in "What did you
go and do that for?" and "Your business might just
get up and leave." Another variety of open-compound verb is common in English, German, and some other languages: The
phrasal verb is in one in which a verb word and a
preposition,
particle, or both act together as a unit which does not convey what the words would indicate when taken literally. Examples include to
think something
over, to
look forward to something, and to
look up something in a dictionary (contrast the literal and non-compound
look up the chimney). A dictionary comparison reveals that compound verbs of some sorts are more frequent in
American English than in
British English.
Hindi-Urdu Compound verbs are very common in
Indo-Aryan languages, such as
Hindustani and
Punjabi, where as many as 20% of the verb forms in running text may be compounds. For example, in
Hindi-
Urdu,
nikal gayā (निकल गया, نِکَل گَیا, lit. "exit went") means 'went out', while
nikal paṛā (निकल पड़ा, نِکَل پَڑا, lit. "exit fell") means 'departed' or 'was blurted out'. In these examples
nikal (निकल, نِکَل, lit. "exit") is the primary verb, and
gayā (गया, گَیا, lit. "went") and
paṛā (पड़ा, پَڑا, lit. "fell") are the vectors or "light verbs". Compound verbs in Hindi-Urdu have the additional property of alternation. That is, under partly specifiable conditions [such as negation] compound verbs like
nikal gayā and
nikal paṛā are replaced with a non-compound counterpart [
niklā, निकला, نِکلا ] with little or no change in meaning. However, the phenomenon of alternation is not found in all languages that have compound verbs. The Noun + Verb complex predicates are a quite different matter. There is no alternation with a simplex counterpart and in approximately half of all Hind-Urdui N+V compound verbs
karnā ( करना, کَرنا, lit. "to do") is the light verb, and in another 20% use
hōnā (होना, ہونا, lit. "to be") is the light verb. A significant number use
khānā (खाना, کهانا, lit. "to eat"). However, the verb
karnā and
khānā never occur as second elements in a Verb + Verb compound.
Persian Persian makes extensive use of N+V compound verbs. The meaning of compound verbs in Persian is sometimes distinct from the connotation of either the verbal or non-verbal component. The most common verbal element used in Persian compound verbs is كردن
kardan ('to do/make'), e.g. فكر كردن
fekr kardan ('to think'). Other common verbal elements include دادن
dādan ('to give'), e.g. انجام دادن
anjām dādan ('to perform'); گرفتن
gereftan ('to take'), e.g. جشن گرفتن
jashn gereftan ('to celebrate'); زدن
zadan ('to hit'), e.g. حرف زدن
harf zadan ('to speak'); and داشتن
dāshtan ('to have'), e.g. دوست داشتن
dust dāshtan ('to like'). The verbal element of Persian compound verbs takes inflection for person, tense, and mood.
Japanese Japanese has many compound verbs, reflecting the
agglutinative nature of modern as well as
Old Japanese. In both
English start reading and Japanese
yomihajimeru "read-CONJUNCTIVE-start" "start reading," the
phrasal verbs start and
hajimeru "start" change according to
tense,
negation, and the like while the main verbs
reading and
yomi "reading" usually remain the same. An exception to this is the
passive voice, in which both English and Japanese modify the main verb:
start to be read and
yomarehajimeru lit. "read-PASSIVE-(CONJUNCTIVE)-start"
start to be read. Of course, "hajimeru" still changes according to tense,
mood, negation, and the like. Some Japanese compounds have undergone
grammaticalisation, as reflected in the
orthography. Many Japanese
serial verbs are formed by connecting two verbs, as in , and in Japanese orthography lexical items are generally written with
kanji (here and ), while grammatical items are more likely to be written with
hiragana [as in the compound verb . Serial verbs are thus generally written with a kanji for each constituent verb, but some of the second verbs in other compounds, having become grammaticalized, are often written using hiragana, such as , from , as in and , from , as in . Only native Japanese verbs (
yamatokotoba verbs) can be used as
light verbs or vectors in this way. Such verbs comprise a small
closed class. Borrowed words, which can be used as verbs by combining them with the
auxiliary verb , do not occur as the second element in compound verbs. For example, the
Sino-Japanese verb itself can be modified, as in , but it does not combine with another verb as its second or modifying element. Japanese
i-adjectives, which function grammatically as
non-finite verbs, can also compound, functioning as
compound modifiers, but that is less common than for verbs. (See
Japanese adjectives for details.)
Kichwa-influenced Spanish Under the influence of a
Kichwa substrate, speakers living in the Ecuadorian
Altiplano have innovated compound verbs in Spanish. In conformity with the
SVO language word order of Spanish, the vector precedes the main verb while in
SOV language Kichwa, the vector follows the main verb.
Greek (modern) The compound verbs of modern Greek are formed as other compounds in the language, creating a compound stem by prefixing the stem of a second verb to another verb with the compounding interfix -o-. Although only the second verb is inflected, the typical Greek compound verb is a coordinative compound formed by two semantically opposed, equal verbs, and in semantic terms neither can be nominated the compound head with the other as a dependent. The action expressed by the verb is semantically equal to using both verbs individually, linked by a conjunction. Examples: [] 'I go in' + [] 'I come out' = [] 'I go in and out'; [] 'I light up' ['] 'I put out (a light)' = [] 'I flash on and off'. These compound verbs are of the
dvandva type. Semantically they equal the phrases 'I go in and go out', 'I light up and put out'.
Israeli Hebrew Unlike
Classical Hebrew,
Israeli Hebrew is abundant with V+N compound verbs. Consider the following pairs in which the first is an Israeli Hebrew compound verb and the last is a Classical Hebrew synthetic form: • שם צעקה
sam tseaká “shouted” (which literally means “put a shout”) vis-à-vis צעק
tsaák “shouted” • נתן מבט
natán mabát “looked” (which literally means “gave a look”) or העיף מבט
heíf mabát “looked” (literally “flew/threw a look”; cf. the English expressions
cast a glance,
threw a look and
tossed a glance) vis-à-vis the Hebrew-descent הביט
hibít “looked at”. According to
Ghil'ad Zuckermann, the Israeli V+N compound verb is employed here for the desire to express swift action, and stems from Yiddish. He compares the Israeli periphrasis to the following Yiddish expressions all meaning “to have a look”: • געבן א קוק
gebn a kuk, which literally means “to give a look” • טאן א קוק
ton a kuk, which literally means “to do a look” • the colloquial expression כאפן א קוק
khapn a kuk, which literally means “to catch a look”. Zuckermann argues that the Israeli V+N compound verbs “are not nonce, ad hoc lexical calques of Yiddish. The Israeli system is productive and the lexical realization often differs from that of Yiddish”. He provides the following Israeli examples: • הרביץ
hirbíts “hit, beat; gave”, yielded • הרביץ מהירות
hirbíts mehirút “drove very fast” (מהירות
mehirút meaning “speed”), and • הרביץ ארוחה
hirbíts arukhá “ate a big meal” (ארוחה
arukhá meaning “meal”), cf. English
hit the buffet “eat a lot at the buffet”;
hit the liquor/bottle “drink alcohol”. The Israeli Hebrew compound verb דפק הופעה
dafák hofaá, which literally means “hit a show”, actually means “dressed smartly”. ==Historical processes and grammaticalization==