So far in this chapter we have paid a great deal of detailed attention to criteria for identifying a class of words called verbs, and we have done this without referring at all to the kind of denotational meaning that these words have. We will now look at the meanings of verbs. Words like eat denote situations in which people and things are related to each other. Eat refers to a situation involving two participants— an eater and a thing eaten. (It should be noted that the term participant, in this technical sense, refers not only to animate beings, but to inanimate objects as well.) Figure 15 is a diagram representing a situation in which John is the eater 46 Verbs and verb phrases and a pie is the thing eaten. Whereas John and the pie are expressions that refer to two separate things, eat provides the connection between them in a particular situation. Verbs denote the relationship of participants to the situation in
which they are playing a part. Two-place verbs Eat is a verb that relates two participants; we can say that it is a two-place verb. Here are some other two-place verbs together with possible participants in the situation: tell (the witness, a lie) write (my solicitor, a letter) bring (the paperboy, today’s Guardian) know (Bill, French) build (the Pharaohs, the pyramids) It will be noticed that the kinds of situations that these verbs denote are extremely miscellaneous; eating is a very different kind of process from knowing, and both of these are very different from building. What they have in common is their relational sense; Bill and French are related by virtue of the fact that one of them knows the other, and the Pharaohs and the pyramids are related by virtue of the fact that the former built the latter. It will also be observed that this type of verb meaning is entirely independent of such things as finiteness and tense. Thus ‘know (Bill, French)’ is a formula that will apply equally well to all of the following: Bill knows French. Does Bill know French? Bill knew French. Bill may know French. Bill will know French. …for Bill to know French… …with Bill knowing French…
…knowing French, (Bill…)