Stative and dynamic verbs and clauses

On the lexicon, we established a connection between specific lexical items and particular constructions. A similar connection exists between specific lexical verbs and aspect, and we begin by looking at the relevant classes of verbs. Analysts distinguish between lexical aspect, the different lexical classes of verbs, and grammatical aspect, the information encoded in the grammars of languages. It is unfortunate that ‘aspect’ has become ambiguous, but the usage is probably here to stay. An alternative would be to employ the German term ‘Aktionsart’ (action type) for the lexical classes, as is the practice in work on Slavic languages, and to confine ‘aspect’ to grammar.

The major distinction splitting verbs into two major lexical classes is between stative and non-stative (or dynamic) verbs. Stative verbs are not difficult to recognize. Consider the examples in (1).

If a clause can be used to answer the question What happened?, it contains a non-stative (dynamic) verb. If a clause cannot be so used, it contains a stative verb. The second clause in (1a) contains went, which is dynamic and relates to an action. Knew in (1b) and were in (1c) both relate to states and are not dynamic but stative. Stative verbs exclude adverbs such as quickly; *They quickly knew his parents is not acceptable and *They were quickly very cold is only acceptable if the interpretation is ‘they quickly became cold’.

Stative verbs occur either not at all in the Progressive (to be discussed below) or only occasionally. Example (2) is unacceptable, and (3a, b), actual examples uttered by native speakers of English, are very rare.

Stative verbs do not occur in the WH cleft construction. This consists of, for example, What she did was followed by a clause. Example (4) is acceptable while (5a, b) are not.

From the above, it is clear that whether a particular lexical verb takes the Progressive or not is a weakish criterion for stative verbs, but that occurrence in the WH cleft construction and occurrence in clauses answering the question What happened? are reliable criteria.