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Inlinguistics, acompound verb orcomplex predicate is a multi-wordcompound that functions as a singleverb. One component of the compound is alight verb orvector, which carries anyinflections, indicatingtense,mood, oraspect, but provides only fine shades of meaning. The other, "primary", component is a verb or noun which carries most of thesemantics of the compound, and determines itsarguments. It is usually in eitherbase or [in Verb + Verb compounds]conjunctiveparticipial form.

A compound verb is also called a "complexpredicate" because the semantics, as formally modeled by a predicate, is determined by the primary verb, though both verbs appear in the surface form. Whether Noun+Verb (N+V) compounds are considered to be "compound verbs" is a matter of naming convention. Generally, the termcomplex predicate usually includes N+V compounds, whereas the termcompound verb is usually reserved for V+V compounds. However, several authors [especially Iranists] refer to N+V compounds as compound verbs.^[1]

Compound verbs are to bedistinguished from serial verbs which typically signify a sequence of actions, and in which the verbs are relatively equal in semantic and grammatical weight. They are also to be distinguished from sequences ofauxiliary plus main verbs.

Thus, there are two classes of complex predicates:

1. V+V compounds: One type of compound verb, where the second verb (rarely the first...) is a "light verb" (LV) is preceded by (rarely followed by ...) a primary or "heavy verb". With a few exceptions all V+V compound verbs alternate with their simple counterparts. That is, removing the light verb / vector does not affect grammaticality at all nor the meaning very much: निकल गया – نِکَل گَیا "nikal gayā" {exit + WENT} versus निकला – نِکلاnikalā {exited}, both meaning '(I/you/he) went out.' In a few languages both components of the compound verb can be finite forms:Kurukhkecc-ar ker-ar lit. "died-3pl went-3pl" '(They) died.'
2. N+V compounds: A compound with Noun+verb, converting the noun into a verbal structure; the arguments and the semantics are determined by the N and the tense markers / inflections are carried by the V, especially with LVs such as "do," "take," "give," etc. Examples in English includestretched verb examples liketake a walk orcommit suicide. Some of the verbs participating in N+V compounds also participate as LVs in V+V compounds. [However, the common verb "do" rarely participates as LV in V+V compounds.] Unlike V+V compounds, N+V compounds appear in almost all languages of the world.

Compound verbs of both types (V+V and N+V) are very common in all the languages of India, though V+V compounds are more frequent in the northernIndo-Aryan languages than inDravidian languages. In addition toSouth Asian languages, V+V compounds occur inTurkic languages likeUzbek,Kyrgyz andUyghur, inTibeto-Burman languages likeLimbu andNewari, inKorean andJapanese, in northeast Caucasian languages likeTsez andAvar, and inQuichua, a variety ofQuechua. The Indo-European language Greek also possesses some verb–verb compounds. V+V compounds do not occur in Iranian languages. What are called "compound verbs" by Iranists are N+V compounds.

The English lexicon contains a few true compound verbs, such asstirfry,kickstart andforcefeed. These are not serial verbs – though, as with many compounds, they may be spelled as two words (or hyphenated). Rather, the first verb expresses how the action expressed by the second verb is carried out. The second verb is the only one which may express tense.^[2]

English also expresses aspectual distinctions as to the beginning, duration, completion, or repetition of an action usingauxiliaries. Examples here includewas starting,had lived,had been seen, etc.^[3] These sequences function in place of morphologically complex predicates like the inchoative orinceptive stems ofLatin (amo, 'I love';amasco, 'I'm starting to love', 'I'm falling in love';florere, 'to flower';florescere, 'to start flowering'; etc.), and ofRussian (smeyat'sya,смеяться, 'to laugh';zasmeyat'syaзасмеяться, 'to start laughing').

Though verb + verb compounds are rare inEnglish, one may illustrate the form with the example "to go crashing [through the door]". In some interpretations, one may consider "go" as alight verb, which carries markers like tense. However, the main part of the meaning, as well as the arguments, i.e. answers to questions such aswho? (agent) orwhat was it that "went crashing"? (subject), are determined by the second, semantically primary verb, "crash". "Go" carries plural/tense markers (they go | he goes crashing), whereas "crashing" appears in this fixed form and does not change with tense, number, gender, etc. Whethergerundive forms like "went crashing" are compound verbs is controversial in English; many linguists prefer to treat "crashing" as a nominal in its gerundive form. However, the compound verb treatment may have some advantages, particularly when it comes to semantic analysis. For example, in response toShe went crashing, the question "Where did she go?" is less revealing than "Where did she go crashing?".

English has many examples of noun + verb compound predicates, calledstretched verbs, which combine alight verb with an "eventive" noun (an action-describing noun which can also operate as a verb, though it may have become an uncommon one), or with a noun phrase composed of such a noun and one or more prepositions. Common examples include: tooffer [one's] condolences, totake a bite out of, and toget rid of (whileto rid andto condole are infrequent).

Sometimes examples labeledserial verbs turn out to be compound verbs, as in "What did yougo and do that for?" and "Your business might justget up and leave."

Another variety of open-compound verb is common in English, German, and some other languages: Thephrasal verb is in one in which a verb word and apreposition,particle, or both act together as a unit which does not convey what the words would indicate when taken literally. Examples include tothink somethingover, tolook forward to something, and tolook up something in a dictionary (contrast the literal and non-compoundlook up the chimney).

A dictionary comparison reveals that compound verbs of some sorts are more frequent inAmerican English than inBritish English.^[4]

Compound verbs are very common inIndo-Aryan languages, such asHindustani andPanjabi, where as many as 20% of the verb forms in running text may be compounds.

For example, inHindi-Urdu,nikal gayā (निकल गया, نِکَل گَیا, lit. "exit went") means 'went out', whilenikal paṛā (निकल पड़ा, نِکَل پَڑا, lit. "exit fell") means 'departed' or 'was blurted out'. In these examplesnikal (निकल, نِکَل, lit. "exit") is the primary verb, andgayā (गया, گَیا, lit. "went") andpaṛā (पड़ा, پَڑا, lit. "fell") are the vectors or "light verbs". Compound verbs in Hindi-Urdu have the additional property of alternation. That is, under partly specifiable conditions [such as negation] compound verbs likenikal gayā andnikal paṛā are replaced with a non-compound counterpart [niklā, निकला, نِکلا ] with little or no change in meaning. However, the phenomenon of alternation is not found in all languages that have compound verbs.

The Noun + Verb complex predicates are a quite different matter. There is no alternation with a simplex counterpart and in approximately half of all Hind-Urdui N+V compound verbskarnā ( करना, کَرنا, lit. "to do") is the light verb, and in another 20% usehōnā (होना, ہونا, lit. "to be") is the light verb. A significant number usekhānā (खाना, کهانا, lit. "to eat"). However, the verbkarnā andkhānā never occur as second elements in a Verb + Verb compound.

Persian makes extensive use of N+V compound verbs. The meaning of compound verbs in Persian is sometimes distinct from the connotation of either the verbal or non-verbal component. The most common verbal element used in Persian compound verbs is كردنkardan ('to do/make'), e.g. فكر كردنfekr kardan ('to think'). Other common verbal elements include دادنdādan ('to give'), e.g. انجام دادنanjām dādan ('to perform'); گرفتنgereftan ('to take'), e.g. جشن گرفتنjashn gereftan ('to celebrate'); زدنzadan ('to hit'), e.g. حرف زدنharf zadan ('to speak'); and داشتنdāshtan ('to have'), e.g. دوست داشتنdust dāshtan ('to like').

The verbal element of Persian compound verbs takes inflection for person, tense, and mood.

Japanese has many compound verbs, reflecting theagglutinative nature of modern as well asOld Japanese.

In bothEnglishstart reading and Japanese読み始めるyomihajimeru "read-CONJUNCTIVE-start" "start reading," thephrasal verbsstart and始めるhajimeru "start" change according totense,negation, and the like while the main verbsreading and読みyomi "reading" usually remain the same. An exception to this is thepassive voice, in which both English and Japanese modify the main verb:start to be read and読まれ始めるyomarehajimeru lit. "read-PASSIVE-(CONJUNCTIVE)-start"start to be read. Of course, "hajimeru" still changes according to tense,mood, negation, and the like.

Some Japanese compounds have undergonegrammaticalisation, as reflected in theorthography. Many Japaneseserial verbs are formed by connecting two verbs, as in "go and ask" (行って聞く,ittekiku), and in Japanese orthography lexical items are generally written withkanji (here行く and聞く), while grammatical items are more likely to be written withhiragana [as in the compound verb "faded away" (消えていった,kiete itta). Serial verbs are thus generally written with a kanji for each constituent verb, but some of the second verbs in other compounds, having become grammaticalized, are often written using hiragana, such as "try out, see" (〜みる,-miru), from "see" (見る,miru), as in "try eating (it) and see" (食べてみる,tabetemiru) and "do something regrettable" (〜しまう,-shimau), from "put away" (仕舞う,shimau), as in "I mistakenly fell in love" (愛してしまった,aishiteshimatta).

Only native Japanese verbs (yamatokotoba verbs) can be used aslight verbs or vectors in this way. Such verbs comprise a smallclosed class. Borrowed words, which can be used as verbs by combining them with theauxiliary verb-suru (〜する, to do), do not occur as the second element in compound verbs. For example, theSino-Japanese verb "to love" (愛する,ai suru) itself can be modified, as in "to try loving" (愛してみる,ai shitemiru), but it does not combine with another verb as its second or modifying element.

Japanesei-adjectives, which function grammatically asnon-finite verbs, can also compound, functioning ascompound modifiers, but that is less common than for verbs. (SeeJapanese adjectives for details.)

Under the influence of aKichwa substrate, speakers living in the EcuadorianAltiplano have innovated compound verbs in Spanish.

In conformity with theSVO language word order of Spanish, the vector precedes the main verb while inSOV language Kichwa, the vector follows the main verb.

The compound verbs of modern Greek are formed as other compounds in the language, creating a compound stem by prefixing the stem of a second verb to another verb with the compounding interfix -o-. Although only the second verb is inflected, the typical Greek compound verb is a coordinative compound formed by two semantically opposed, equal verbs, and in semantic terms neither can be nominated the compound head with the other as a dependent. The action expressed by the verb is semantically equal to using both verbs individually, linked by a conjunction.Examples:μπαίν-ω ['beno] 'I go in' +βγαίν-ω ['vjeno] 'I come out' =μπαινοβγαίνω [beno'vjeno] 'I go in and out';ανάβ-ω [a'navo] 'I light up'σβήν-ω ['zvino] 'I put out (a light)' =αναβοσβήνω [anavo'zvino] 'I flash on and off'. These compound verbs are of thedvandva type. Semantically they equal the phrasesμπαίνω και βγαίνω 'I go in and go out',ανάβω και σβήνω 'I light up and put out'.

UnlikeClassical Hebrew,Israeli Hebrew is abundant with V+N compound verbs. Consider the following pairs in which the first is an Israeli Hebrew compound verb and the last is a Classical Hebrew synthetic form:^[5]

1. שם צעקהsam tseaká “shouted” (which literally means “put a shout”) vis-à-vis צעקtsaák “shouted”
2. נתן מבטnatán mabát “looked” (which literally means “gave a look”) or העיף מבטheíf mabát “looked” (literally “flew/threw a look”; cf. the English expressionscast a glance,threw a look andtossed a glance) vis-à-vis the Hebrew-descent הביטhibít “looked at”.

According toGhil'ad Zuckermann, the Israeli V+N compound verb is employed here for the desire to express swift action, and stems from Yiddish. He compares the Israeli periphrasis to the following Yiddish expressions all meaning “to have a look”:

1. געבן א קוקgebn a kuk, which literally means “to give a look”
2. טאן א קוקton a kuk, which literally means “to do a look”
3. the colloquial expression כאפן א קוקkhapn a kuk, which literally means “to catch a look”.

Zuckermann argues that the Israeli V+N compound verbs “are not nonce, ad hoc lexical calques of Yiddish. The Israeli system is productive and the lexical realization often differs from that of Yiddish”. He provides the following Israeli examples:

1. הרביץhirbíts “hit, beat; gave”, yielded
   1. הרביץ מהירותhirbíts mehirút “drove very fast” (מהירותmehirút meaning “speed”), and
   2. הרביץ ארוחהhirbíts arukhá “ate a big meal” (ארוחהarukhá meaning “meal”), cf. Englishhit the buffet “eat a lot at the buffet”;hit the liquor/bottle “drink alcohol”.

The Israeli Hebrew compound verb דפק הופעהdafák hofaá, which literally means “hit a show”, actually means “dressed smartly”.^[6]

As languages change, the vector or light verb may retain its original meaning or it may undergo different degrees ofbleaching, part of the process ofgrammaticalization.

Thus, in the Hindi-Urdu compoundnikal paṛā (exit fell),paṛ- has almost none of its "fall" meaning, though some of the finality of "fall" also is transferred as aperfective aspect (through the ending-ā).

On the other hand, the Japanese "begin" はじめる (hajimeru) retains a good deal of its independent word meaning even in the compound. Contrast this with the grammaticalization of "put away"しまう (shimau), as in 愛してしまった ai shite shimatta ("I mistakenly fell in love"). A deeper degree of grammaticalization may lead to phonological changes, too - usually some kind of shortening: 愛しちゃった ai shi chatta ("Damned if I didn't fall in love!") where 〜てしま -te shima- has been replaced by ちゃ 〜chya.

In the long run, it has been suggested that LVs that are particularly frequent, may become grammaticalized, so that they may now occur systematically with other verbal constituents, so that they becomeanauxiliary verb (e.g. the English verb "be", as in "I am eating", or "had" in "they had finished"), or, after sound change, even aclitic (a shortened verb, as in "I'm"). In particular, some verb inflections (e.g.Latin future tense inflections) are thought to have arisen in this manner. Sanford Steever has shown the same phenomenon has a role in the emergence of the ditransitive paradigm in Dravidian.

• Auxiliary verb
• Compound modifier
• Converb
• Modal verb
• Periphrasis
• Phrasal verb
• Stretched verb
• Serial verb
• Verb phrase

• Verb types

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