light verb

English

Noun

Examples
Let's do lunch. (light verb) Let's lunch. (full verb) They had a read by candlelight. They read by candlelight. They took a bath together. They bathed together. They took a long vacation They vacationed for a long time.

light verb (plural light verbs)

1. (linguistics) A semantically incomplete verb which qualifies as a predicate only in combination with a predicative complement, usually a noun.

   Synonyms: vector verb, delexical verb, explicator verb, thin verb, empty verb

   Coordinate terms: auxiliary verb, helping verb, full verb, lexical verb, main verb

Translations

thematically incomplete verb

• Catalan: verb lleuger m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 輕動詞 / 轻动词 (zh), 虛化動詞 / 虚化动词 (xūhuàdòngcí)

• Czech: kategoriální sloveso n
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: funktioverbi (fi)
• French: verbe léger (fr) m
• German: Funktionsverb (de) n
• Greek: απολεξικοποιημένο ρήμα (el) n (apolexikopoiiméno ríma)
• Hungarian: könnyűige, funkcióige, igésítő ige
• Italian: verbo leggero m
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: czasownik niepełny semantycznie m
• Russian: функциона́льный глаго́л m (funkcionálʹnyj glagól)
• Spanish: verbo ligero m
• Swedish: funktionsverb n

See also

• Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take
• Category:English light verb constructions

Further reading

• light verb on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “light verb”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.