A light verb is a verb deprived of its basic meaning. Many languages employ them in extensive constructions of verb+noun, instead of forming new verbs.
In English, the verb “make” can be a light verb, as in “make the bed”. It doesn’t mean that you are going to literally “build a bed”. But in many languages these constructions are the norm for new verbs that enter the language and are extremely common.
In many languages, like Basque, Persian, Hindi, or Japanese, instead of “to clean” one can have “do cleaning”, or instead of “to speak”, “to make talk”, or instead of “to hug”, “to give hug”.
A light verb is in the midway between a full lexical verb and an auxialiry verb. In English a few verbs can function as light verbs (do, make, give, take, have) but these constructions are not the norm.
If you know more languages that use these constructions frequently (I’m not sure about Turkic languages), please inform me.
Roxanne knew her new boyfriend was the submissive type when she started dating him, so she very quickly got him into wearing some of her panties. Now it was time to intensify the feminisation process, as she stepped more fully into her natural dominant role.
Rachel had worn this lingerie deliberately, knowing he would probably fail to obey her command. She would have to step up her training programme, before testing him again like this.
A galerna is expected for this afternoon, please come soon!
Oh, btw!
Some trivia about galerna- which is a sudden storm brought by a change to W/NW wind: it’s a loanword from French galerne, which is also a loanword from Breton gwalarn, a word for NW wind.
You’re right! More specifically, ar gwalarn is the north-west cardinal direction, and the wind was named after it
Now, with a bit of shame, I have to admit I had never heard of the French wind galerne before, but a quick research shows that’s because its use is localised mostly on western and south-western France (gasconha, vendée, poitou). Gwalarn is still widely used in Brittany and that’s the word my Breton family used, as well as the one I heard when I was living in Brittany
That quick research also showed the typical disdain of French intellectual elites, especially the Académie Française, towards France’s minority languages. Basically, they dispute the etymology of french galerne between a vulgar latin origin and the breton origin
I’m not sure if you or your followers are really interested in my rant and explanations, but I’ll still write them under a read more for those who are, because it’s a good exemple of which lengths France can go to erase its minority languages, which include Basque
This reminded us of word mochoin Spanish that means blunted, cut off, and that according to the Spanish Academy is “of unknown origin, maybe onomatopoeic”.
And then we have Basque verb moztuwhich means to cut, and Basque adjective motz/moch/ that means - get ready for this - blunted, cut off.
Ooookay, Spanish Academy, guess we’ll never solve the mochomystery!
Anyway, thanks A LOT for your response, it was super informative. Trugarez!
Althoughzuis translated as you, it’s actually a more respectful pronoun. And grammar-wise, works as a plural pronoun.
Actually, the normal order of Basque pronouns is:
ni (hi) hura/bera gu zu zuek haiek
See where zuis? Understanding grammar and verb conjugation is much easier if you put zuin that place. Let’s see why:
As you can see, conjugation is actually logical and changes when plural pronouns start, and zuek- that tends to be the one with the weirdest conjugated forms for new learners - is very clearly reduced to the conjugation for zu+ TE.
So if you’re learning Basque, take our advice on this and put zujust below gu: it’s its natural place and will make you things much easier.
It’s been a looong time without some Basque music, isn’t it? Here’s one song we love, “Itsasargia” [The lighthouse], by Gaizka Peñafiel.
Lyrics in Basque are shown in the vid, translation to English is below:
Looking at the rear view mirror of the past I forgot that the present must be enjoyed. I lived in nostalgia, among memories in a station that hasn’t a definite destination.
Chorus: But you appeared and I saw the light, the meaning of life I opened my eyes when I realized what the way was.
Until I met you I was walking aimlessly you suddenly put my life upside down. Who would have told me that by unknowingly crossing paths you’d be my north from that moment on.
Chorus
We walk that path to write the future, this is our choice in the sea of dreams one must look for the lighthouse. (x2)
