Delexical verbs

[irmamar]

Apart from give, have, take, and make, are there other delexical verbs?

Thanks.

[Perikles]

Apart from give, have, take, and make, are there other delexical verbs?I don't understand. :thinking:

[irmamar]

My book says that give, have, take, and make are delexical verbs because instead of saying (for instance):

Ring me

usually you use another structure:

Give me a ring

When these verbs are used in this way they have very little meaning (the meaning is in the noun that follows them).

Take a shower, make a suggestion, have a drink.

I don't know if there are another delexical verbs.

[Perikles]

This article (http://cambridge.org/elt/touchstone/images/pdf/What%20constitutes%20a%20basic%20vocabulary.pdf) (page 8) cites get as being delexical as well. :)

[pjt33]

They're called "thin verbs" in this book:
http://books.google.es/books?id=0CsmtlkubVcC&lpg=PA190&ots=PX3vXZblfF&dq=%22thin%20verbs%22&pg=PA173#v=onepage&q=%22thin%20verbs%22&f=false

Note that that page just lists the most common ones. There are more in later pages.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

En español también hay verbos con esa función. ¿Tienen nombre específico, igual que en inglés? :thinking:

[pjt33]

En español también hay verbos con esa función. ¿Tienen nombre específico, igual que en inglés? :thinking:
No es que haya un nombre específico en inglés, es que los lingüistas que los han estudiado necesitaban algún nombre corto para escribir sus conclusiones. Algunos los llaman "light verbs", "vector verbs", "explicator verbs", "thin verbs", o "semantically weak verbs". Sería porque no es un concepto bien conocido que Perikles no tenía ni idea de de qué hablaba Irma.

[Perikles]

Sería porque no es un concepto bien conocido que Perikles no tenía ni idea de de qué hablaba Irma.I had never heard the expression. To make things worse, I also admit to misreading the first post, and somehow thought Irma had asked about dyslexical verbs. I need a better computer screen and/or get my eyes tested.

[irmamar]

Thanks for the links. They are very useful.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@pjt: I see. Thanks. I was wondering, because such a word should have a similar one in Spanish, but I wasn't able to find it. :D

@Perikles: I also read the same at first. ;)