# Can a stative verb be transitive?



## Sharjeel72

Hi,

I was always told that verbs are either stative or fientive. Fientive verbs can be either transitive or intransitive. Stative verbs are always intransitive.

But look at this:

וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם יוֹסֵף בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי זֹאת עֲשׂוּ וִחְיוּ אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים אֲנִי יָרֵא.

How come יָרֵא is transitive here?


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## Drink

There are transitive stative verbs, such as ידע, ירא, אהב, etc.


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## Abaye

Grammar books for Biblical Hebrew usually say something like: *most* stative verbs are intransitive.


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## Ali Smith

Hebrew verbs are divided into stative and fientive, and the latter into transitive and intransitive. However, stative verbs can sometimes take a direct object too, which would make them transitive. ירא would appear prima facie to be stative for it denotes a state rather than an action and has a verbal adjective rather than an active participle. However, it can take a direct object! So, which category does it fall under?

Excellent question!

First answer: none of our grammatical categories is air-tight, all contours are fuzzy, and the historical situation is not always clear.

Note that Lambdin, in the lesson on SC verbs + pronominal suffixes provides a list of verbs that show צירי in the stem syllable in forms consisting of SC + pronominal suffix (p. 268—he gives four verbal roots).

The situation is probably owing to historical factors (ŠʾL is a qatila form in Ugaritic), to true mixed categories (‘to love’ is both a state and a projection of that state on the loved object; ditto for other verbs of emotion and for ‘to be an heir’), and possibly to semantic shift over time (i.e., one verb or another may have acquired increased transitivity with time).

Another indicator to look for is the participle: several of these verbs of emotion show a qatila SC but a qātil participle. Then there’s my favorite: ‘to die’ shows a stative SC (historical /mīta/) but a fientive PC {historical /yamūt-/).

So no, I would not reformulate the principal semantic/functional classes, but one must be aware of forms that cross the major lines.


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## JAN SHAR

Drink, if אהב and ידע are stative verbs why is their participles qātil? Why not like the participle of ירא?


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## Drink

That's a good question. But the verbs are are clearly stative based on their usage.


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## Abaye

What's the rule to say that אהב and ידע are stative, beyond a semantic debate that may last forever? They look rather dynamic to me, at least in many usages.


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## Drink

Almost any stative verb can have active/dynamic usages. So such usages cannot rule out a stative base meaning.

Let's start with ידע:
- Semantically, knowing something is a state and not an action or change.
- Morphosyntactically, the suffix conjugation is used frequently as a present tense state (e.g. Gen 4:9, Gen 12:11, Gen 20:6, Gen 21:26, Gen 22:12, and many more).

Now אהב:
- Semantically, loving seems to be more of a state than an action, though this is perhaps a bit iffier than it is for ידע.
- Morphologically, the prefix conjugation takes a form typical of stative verbs יֶאֱהַב, rather than יֹאהַב (except for a few usages, all of which happen to be first-person singular).
- Morphosyntactically, the suffix conjugation is commonly used as a present tense (e.g. Gen 22:2, Gen 27:4,9,14, Ex 21:5, etc.).

In both cases, I'd say the use of the suffix conjugation as a present tense is the most important piece of evidence.


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## Abaye

This is exactly the kind of discussion that never ends. If אהב is semantically stative, you can say the same about any other root that expresses emotions, such as רצה. Indeed אהב is often used as stative, but also as dynamic. Comparing to stative roots like שמנ, seems that אהב is genuinely both stative and dynamic.


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## Drink

As I said, the most important piece of evidence is not the semantic part, but the use of the suffix conjugation as a present tense.

You say that אהב seems to be both stative and dynamic, but how is that different from any other stative verb? Almost any stative verb can and does have dynamic usages.

But anyway, if you agree that אהב is "often used as stative", then I guess we essentially agree on the facts. And I'll point out that even in the clearly stative usages, it can be transitive.


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## Ali Smith

A stative verb can turn into a fientive verb (also known as a dynamic verb) with the passage of time. Thus, קרב 'to be near' evolved into קרב 'to draw near'. The former, stative meaning has almost disappeared in classical Hebrew.


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## zaw

Actually, ידע is a verb of cognition, not a stative verb. However, it can definitely SEEM like a stative verb because its past tense can mean either "knew" (past) or "knows" (present). So, it does seem like a stative verb.


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## Drink

How is a "verb of cognition" different from a stative verb? Just because we have another term for something doesn't make it a different thing.


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