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Published 2014. Linguistics. The most commonly recognized defective verbs in English are auxiliary verbs — the class of preteritepresent verbs — can/could, may/might, shall/should, must, ought to, and will/would (would being a later historical development).
- David Crystal's Take
- Beware and Begone
- The Defective Copula Is
- George Campbell on The Defective Verb 'Ought'
- Discussions of Defective Verbs in 19Th-Century School Grammars
- A List of Defective Verbs
- Various Discussions on Defective Verbs
"In grammar, [defective is] a traditional description of words which do not display all the rules of the class to which they belong. The English modal verbs, for example, are defective in that they do not permit the usual range of verb forms, such as an infinitive or participle forms (*to may, *shalling, etc.). Because of its pejorative connotation...
"Some verbs are termed defective; they are such as want some of the parts ordinarily ascribed to verbs. Beware is a defective verb being used only in the imperative or to give a caution. . . . Begone may be accounted another defective verb like beware. Begone is a compound, made up of be and gone, that is get away; and beware is composed of be and ...
"A defective verb is one which has not all the usual verbal forms. Is, the copula, is irregular. It is also defective as it has no imperative or autonomous forms, no verbal noun or verbal adjective." (Irish-English/English-Irish Easy Reference Dictionary. Roberts Rinehart, 1998)
"[I]n order to express the past with the defective verb ought, we must use the perfect of the infinitive, and say for example, 'he ought to have done it'; this in that verb being the only possible way of distinguishing the past from the present." (George Campbell, The Philosophy of Rhetoric, Volume 1, 1776)
"What do you mean by a Defective Verb? "A Defective Verb is a Verb that is imperfect; that is, that cannot be conjugated through all the Moods and Tenses; such as the Verb Ought, which has just been repeated. "Which are the Defective Verbs? "The Auxiliary Verbs are in general defective, because they have not any Participles; neither do they admit a...
Defective verbs are those that can be used only in some particular modes and tenses. They are few in number and are as follows: 1. am 2. been 3. can 4. could 5. may 6. might 7. shall 8. should 9. was 10. will 11. would
"Love is not a defective verb; you can use it in any mood and tense. You can say, I love, I loved, I have loved, I had loved, I shall or will love, I shall have loved, I may, can or must love: but can is a defective verb. You can say I can, but you cannot say I have can, I had can, I shall can or will can, I may can, or must can." (J.H. Hull, Lectu...
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Defective verb. In linguistics, a defective verb is a verb that either lacks a conjugated form or entails incomplete conjugation, and thus cannot be conjugated for certain grammatical tenses, aspects, persons, genders, or moods that the majority of verbs or a "normal" or regular verb in a particular language can be conjugated for [citation ...
The main points are: 1. Modal verbs like can, may, must, etc. do not have their own meaning but express modality. They are defective because they lack inflected forms and cannot be used as the main predicate. 2. Their meaning is conveyed through equivalents like "to be able to", "to have to", "to be permitted to".
THE DEFECTIVE VERBS (can, must, may) Exercice : Read the text and write down an example of a defective verb I. GENERAL RULES WITH THE DEFECTIVE VERBS ( can, must, may)
Irregular And Defective Μι- Verbs. Verb Conjugation Overview. Middle and Passive Forms with Peculiar Meaning. 381. A few verbs are quite common and more or less irregular in the present system, but in other systems are less common or never found. Some have a future system which is nearly or quite regular (§§ 382 – 389, below)
Defective verbs cannot be conjugated in certain tenses, aspects, or moods. English Common defectives . The most commonly recognized defective verbs in English are auxiliary verbs — the class of preterite-present verbs — can/could, may/might, shall/should, must, ought to, and will/would (would being a later historical development). Though ...
