# controllable vs non-controllable verbs



## amirsherman

Shalom everyone,

In English we have verbs like "to see" and "to hear", which are uncontrollable because they happen without our wanting them to.

John walked into the room and saw his sister.
Frank heard the birds chirping.

But we have controllable verbs too, like "to look at" and "to listen to".

John walked into the room and looked at his sister.
Frank listened to the birds chirping.

In Hebrew do we ever have this difference? I don't think so because we have לשמוע and לראות for both controllable and uncontrollable verbs.

Thank you in advance


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## Drink

There are exclusively controllable alternatives, such as להאזין and להביט or להסתכל or לצפות, but both לשמוע and לראות can be either controllable or not.


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## Abaye

Is it a grammatical / lingual matter? There are controllable and uncontrollable events in our world, הכל צפוי והרשות נתונה. Of course the language represents it, but can we say that it's specifically a language feature?


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## Drink

In English it is. "Seeing" is what happens when light enters yours eyes, whether you like it or not. "Looking" is when you explicitly direct your attention at something to see it.


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## Abaye

But this seems (looks?) like a semantic issue, not grammatic (I'm no expert about English though).


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## Drink

Yes, I think this was a semantic question.


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## Abaye

I truly don't understand. Was the question whether some verbs denote intentional (controllable) action while other denote unintentional (uncontrollable)? But isn't it obvious? Doesn't every language has it, as it's simply representation of reality?


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## Drink

He's asking about whether Hebrew has it. You can say לשמוע when you mean "hear" or "listen", so Hebrew seemingly doesn't make the same distinction. It's a vocabulary question rather than a grammar question.


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## Ali Smith

Abaye said:


> I truly don't understand. Was the question whether some verbs denote intentional (controllable) action while other denote unintentional (uncontrollable)? But isn't it obvious? Doesn't every language has it, as it's simply representation of reality?


I might add that it is possible for a participant in a situation to have direct control of an event without the participant realizing that the event is taking place. In other words, a participant can be in control of an event without intending that it occur. For example, it is possible to offend someone without intending it.

However, the reverse is not true, for it is not possible to intend to do something without having unmediated control over it.


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## Drink

I think you're taking this a bit beyond the bounds of this discussion. If you unintentionally offend someone, that's an unintended _consequence_ of an action that you nevertheless intended to do (i.e. say something/do something). A better example is sleepwalking. You're asleep, so you're not intending to walk. Nevertheless, from a purely linguistic semantic point of view, it's still seen as an intentional action, even if it's not your conscious intention. It's you doing something, as opposed to something happening on its own.


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## Abaye

This issue sounds to me too vague. For example whether "to see" is controllable or not: I can close my eyes and stop seeing. On the other hand a physicist may say that seeing is a result of light emitted from light source to an object and then reflected toward my eyes. Sort of general purpose (and maybe nonproductive) philosophical discussion rather than relevant to a specific language.


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## Drink

How do you describe the difference in meaning between the English verbs "hear" and "listen (to)" and between "see" and "look (at)"? Does this same distinction exist in Hebrew?


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## Abaye

I don't say there's no Hebrew equivalent, we can say the same about Hebrew ראה vs. הסתכל, התבונן, הביט. Yet in my opinion this difference depends on arguable factors, and one can invent other such distinctions like fast verbs vs. slow verbs or whatever.

I promised in another thread to stop discussing such issues. After this note I will.
Maybe I'm too narrow minded to apply these terms (controllable, telic, etc.) on Hebrew specifically, beyond what I consider as relevant to any language, having no specific means in Hebrew.


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## Drink

I think it's worth looking past the terminology at what the OP really wants to know. In some cases, it boils down to mere terminological classification beyond which there is no question left. These are the cases that I find pointless to discuss. But in other cases, you find that the OP has a rather simple question, and the terminology is just a means of expressing it. I believe this thread is an example of the latter. That's why in my previous comment I expressed the question without using any terminology. I believe the OP just wants to learn about what distinctions there are between the hearing- and vision-related verbs in Hebrew.


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