Saturday, December 3, 2011

Psychotic verb

Psychotic verb is a verb used differently in the independent clause than in a dependent clause. This verb is incorrect, since the verb in a dependent clause must be the same as that of the independent clause it is close to.

One example I found is: "The Ford Tauruses have sold for higher prices than the Escorts are."

This is an error, because the verbs in the two clauses are different. The corrected sentence would read, "The Ford Tauruses have sold for higher prices than the Escorts have."

Here is another example of a problem sentence.

"Driving without a seatbelt is a car looking for an accident to happen."

This is incorrect. In this sentence the present participle gerund "driving" is being held as equivalent with "a car." Here is a corrected sentence.

"Driving without a seatbelt is looking for an accident to happen."

This is also a metaphor. The same sentence, with a simile, would read:

"Driving without a seatbelt is like looking for an accident to happen."
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15 comments:

  1. Darwin D. DesilosDecember 3, 2011 at 5:57 PM

    "Psychotic verb", I wonder why they have been called like this. Anyway, the post is new to me, and it is very informative.

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  2. Angenica F. MartirezDecember 3, 2011 at 6:28 PM

    Don't you have any references?

    -Angenica Martirez

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  3. Jaymico ReyesDecember 4, 2011 at 6:19 AM

    Psychotic verbs is a new and fresh topic for me. I never heard of it and I would be glad if you could share the class a link or an article that could expound on the meaning of this topic.

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  4. charlotte parungaoDecember 4, 2011 at 6:51 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. charlotte parungaoDecember 4, 2011 at 6:58 AM

    Just like Darwin and Jaymico, psychotic verbs are also new to me so thanks for the post. :)

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  6. Limor Kristine TengDecember 4, 2011 at 7:00 AM

    I agree with Jaymico. I think this was the first time I heard this kind of verb. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. kyle pascualDecember 4, 2011 at 7:18 PM

    Thank you for sharing this information.

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  8. juancarlowageDecember 4, 2011 at 10:29 PM

    It is like a subject-verb agreement and a tense consistency.

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  9. Nikka TolentinoDecember 5, 2011 at 12:58 AM

    Like others, I am looking forward to references you can give so that there will be elaboration regarding this topic. It makes me wonder why it was called psychotic verbs because I found it quite strange. Anyway, thank you for this post.

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  10. Jessica Dyan Y. BonusDecember 5, 2011 at 3:31 AM

    It's my first time to encounter this kind of verb. Thanks for sharing.

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  11. MikkorexicDecember 5, 2011 at 4:20 AM

    Just like Jessica, it is my first time to encounter this type of verb. Interesting!

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  12. GlennDecember 5, 2011 at 4:42 AM

    A very interesting post. Thank you for sharing it to us. :)

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  13. Jason Angelo TrabucoDecember 5, 2011 at 6:39 AM

    Just like most of you, it's my first time to encounter psychotic verb.

    I spotted this sentence: "This is an error, because the verbs in the two clauses are different."

    It must be written as: "This is an error because the verbs in the two clauses are different."

    We cannot put a comma after subordinating conjunction.

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  14. AnonymousDecember 5, 2011 at 6:53 AM

    Thank you for this post. This makes me want to be more conscious with the sentences I use. :)

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  15. AtanDecember 5, 2011 at 8:49 AM

    I think you should have put "A" in the beginning of your paragraph. It reminded me of an item in one of our quizzes.
    Anyway, nice post, it was a wake-up call for me.

    ReplyDelete

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