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introduce, justify, listen, lead, meassure, narrate, negotiate, orchestrate, originate, outline, perform, persuade, predict, regulate, record, save, shw, study
target, transform, travel, treat, uncover, use, validate, visualize, widen, write, zap, zoom.
These verbs can be used both in the simple and continous forms.
Examples :
18 Look at her She is acting foolishly. 19 She acts as a teacher in this movie.
20 The company is targeting young customers with this new product. 21 We targeted a new market with that product.
The above sentences means doing some action by using the physic like someone for sentence 18 and 19, and doing some action dynamically for the sentence
20 and 21.
2.5.4 Dynamic and stative
Some verbs can be both action verbs and dynamic verbs depending on their meaning:
1. Be It is usally used as a stative verb-stative.
Be = when it means behave or act, it can be used as an action verb in continuous form – dynamic.
Examples :
22 He is an excellent guitarist.
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23 You are being silly 2. Think
Think = to express an opinion, to believe – stative
Examples :
24 I think it’s a fantastic idea. Think = consider, to reason about or reflect on, ponder, to have or
formulate in the mind – dynamic.
Examples :
25 I am thinking about my friend
3. Have Have = to posses, to own – stative.
Examples :
26 He has a beautiful car Has = when it doesn’t mean own or possess – dynamic.
Examples :
27 He’s having lunch 4. See
See = to perceive with the eye, to understand – stative.
Examples :
28 I see what you mean.
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See = to meet, to be in the company of, to escort, to attend – dynamic.
Examples :
See = to meet, to be in the company of, to escort, to attend – dynamic.
Examples :
29 He’s been seeing the same woman eight years.
2.5.5 Durativity vs. Punctuality
If a VP is durative if it is perceived as lasting for a period of time and is punctual if perceived as instantaneous, as not having any internal temporal
structure.
a. Durativity
Durativity refers to period of time and durative verbs can be identified as follows : 1. The verbs in this class refers to events which have “duration”
For example : play, walk, read, sing, rain, rot. 2. Durative verbs are opposed to “punctual” or “momentary” verbs which
refer to events that do not have duration. For example : hit, catch, arrive, explode.
3. The distinction between durative and punctual verbs is relavant to the study of English verb tenses and, in particular to an understanding of the
meaning of progressive tenses. 4. When a durative verb is put into a progressive tense, the meaning is that an
event is or was going on over a period of time. The progressive tense of a
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punctual cannot be used with this meaning because the events referred to by this type of verb do not accupy a period of time. Punctual verbs can be
put into the progressive, but in this case the use of this tense must be interpreted in a special way- not to mean that an event is “onging” but that
it is being repeated
Examples :
30 Harry is writing to Jill We are referring to just one writing event.
31 Harry is knocking on Jills door. We are referring to several knocking events, saying that Harry knocked
several times in other words. 5. With some other punctual verbs, such as “arrive” or “die” when a
progressive tense is used, the interpretation is that a reference is being made not to arrival or a death but to the approach of one of those punctual
events.
Examples :
32 Jack phoned Jill, and told her that Harry’s plane was arriving. It means that although Harry’s plane had not yet arrived, it would arrive
very soon.
b. Punctuality
Punctuality is one of the factors that explains the incompatibility of some verbs with the progressive, and aspectual verbs like “stop”, “finish”, “start” either
exclude punctual verbs as complements or provide them with a particular e.g.
