25 November 2021

每年感恩节，华盛顿特区都会举行奇怪的庆典仪式，在总统站在白宫外发表简短讲话后正式赦免火鸡。

你可能要问火鸡，感恩节，语法有什么联系?

今天的报道就是探讨火鸡教你什么语法。

尤其显示感恩节教你怎么用状态动词，也显示一下状态动词与进行动词的区别。

什么是状态动词?

状态动词是描述状态，表示相对静止的动词.换言之，就是该类动词表示或描述一种状态或情形不是作某事，而是一种存在。

通常具有静态意义的动词包括:

情感动词:如love dislike

感观动词:如smell or taste;

表示存在动词:如seem or look.

在一般现在时，动词静态形式是用他的简单形式。如下面两个例子:

"I love turkey," or "Americans like turkey"

这种动词不用在进行状态，所以你不可能听到美国本土人讲: "I am loving turkey," or "Americans are liking turkey."

不要害怕，我们能用感恩节的例子讲清这些。

假如你在美国的超市买10英镑或4.5公斤的火鸡。

这火鸡不像仪式中被赦免的火鸡一样幸运免于上桌。

你能听到如下对话:

Customer: How much does that turkey weigh?

Butcher: It weighs 10 pounds.

Customer: How much does it cost?

Butcher: It costs 20 dollars.

上述对话中，屠夫说的weigh 和cost是状态动词。

现在假如你在美国人家中吃火鸡，你能听到如下对话:

"I love turkey!"

"I dislike turkey."

"The turkey smells wonderful!"

"The food tastes great!"

"The turkey seems undercooked."

"The turkey looks awful."

你可以看到上述所有句子都含状态动词，而且是一般现在时。

为什么不用进行时?

语法专家Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber告诉我们:

通常在英语口语中，主语能控制行为或状态时才用进行时。

另外就是主语描述行为或状态在很长时段发生。

year around the Thanksgiving holiday, a strange ceremony happens in Washington, DC. The president stands outside the White House, gives a brief speech and then officially pardons a turkey.

A pardon is a declaration that someone will not be punished.

You might be asking yourself, "What is the connection between turkeys, Thanksgiving and grammar?"

In today's report, we explore what turkeys can teach you about English verbs.

In particular, we will show you how Thanksgiving can teach you to use stative verbs. We will also show you the difference between stative and progressive verbs.

What is a stative verb?

The term stative verb refers to a verb that has a stative meaning. In other words, these verbs show or describe conditions or situations that do not do anything but exist.

Verbs that commonly have a stative meaning include:

-verbs that show emotional states, such as love and dislike;

-verbs that describe sense perceptions, such as smell or taste;

-verbs that show existence, such as seem or look.

In the present tense, a verb with a stative meaning is generally used in its simple form. "I love turkey," or "Americans like turkey" are two examples.

Verbs that have stative meanings are generally not used in the progressive tense. So, you will probably not hear a native speaker say, "I am loving turkey," or "Americans are liking turkey."

Thanksgiving and stative verbs

Do not fear: we can use our Thanksgiving example to make the point clearer.

imagine you are at an American store. You hear a conversation between a customer and a store employee. The customer wants to buy a turkey that weighs 10 pounds, or 4.5 kilograms.

Unlike the turkey from the pardoning ceremony, this turkey will have a sad fate: the dinner table.

The conversation you hear might go like this:

Customer: How much does that turkey weigh?

Butcher: It weighs 10 pounds.

Customer: How much does it cost?

Butcher: It costs 20 dollars.

In the dialogue, you can hear two examples of stative verbs: weigh and cost.

The butcher said, "The turkey weighs 10 pounds," and "The turkey costs 20 dollars." In both cases, the verbs have a stative meaning: The butcher is describing a condition or situation that simply exists – the weight and cost of the turkey.

Now imagine you are eating Thanksgiving dinner with an American family. You might hear any one of the following sentences:

"I love turkey!"

"I dislike turkey."

"The turkey smells wonderful!"

"The food tastes great!"

"The turkey seems undercooked."

"The turkey looks awful."

All these sentences include stative verbs. You might notice that the verbs are also in the simple present form.

Why not use a progressive verb?

Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber are two English grammar experts. They say that, in general, English speakers use the progressive tense only when the subject of the verb actively controls the state or action.

In addition, English speakers generally use the progressive only when the verb describes an action or state that happens over an extended period of time.