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In linguistics, a light verb is a verb that has little semantic content of its own and it therefore forms a predicate with some additional expression, which is usually a noun.〔Concerning light verbs in general, see Jespersen (1965, Volume VI:117), Grimshaw and Mester (1988), and especially Butt (2003:paper atttached).〕 Common verbs in English that can function as light verbs are ''do'', ''give'', ''have'', ''make'', ''take'', etc. Other names for ''light verb'' include ''delexical verb''〔The Collins Cobuild English Grammar, for instance, uses the term ''delexical verb'' instead of ''light verb''.〕 ''vector verb'', ''explicator verb'', ''thin verb'', ''empty verb'' or ''semantically weak verb'' (a ''semantically weak'' verb is not to be confused with a weak verb of the Germanic weak inflection, however). While light verbs are similar to auxiliary verbs regarding their meaning contribution to the clauses in which they appear, light verbs fail the diagnostics that identify auxiliary verbs and are therefore distinct from auxiliaries. Light verb constructions〔A ''light verb construction'' is a multiword expression that combines a light verb with another word or phrase, such as a noun phrase or preposition. See S. Stevenson et al. (2004).〕 challenge theories of compositionality because the words that form such constructions do not together qualify as constituents, although the word combinations do qualify as catenae. ==Examples== Most light verb constructions in English include a noun and are sometimes called stretched verbs. Some light verb constructions also include a preposition, e.g. ::They did the review of my paper first. ::Sam did the cleaning yesterday. ::Who got such intense criticism? ::Susan is getting much support from her family. ::I am going to have a nice nap. ::She had a smoke. ::We had a slow, boring conversation. ::Are you giving a presentation at the conference? ::They gave the kids a hard time. ::Who will give you a hug? ::Who made such a severe mistake? ::I made the first request. ::Sam has taken a shower. ::Why is Larry taking a nap? ::We should take a break soon. ::Have you taken advantage of that opportunity. ::I haven't taken that into consideration. The light verbs are underlined, and the words in bold together constitute the light verb constructions. Each of these constructions is the (primary part of the) main predicate of the sentence. Note that the determiner ''a'' is usually NOT part of the light verb construction. We know that it is not part of the light verb construction because it is variable, e.g. ''I took a long/the first/two/the best nap''. The light verb contributes little content to its sentence; the main meaning resides with the noun in bold. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Light verb」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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