and the noun phrase (4b) convey the same information in their words, and yet only the sentence is acceptable as an
independent non-elliptical assertion.
(4) a. Fred perused a book yesterday.
b. Fred's perusal of a book yesterdayMore generally, an utterance cannot stand on its own without a verb.^130 Sometimes this is even at the price of adding
dummy items. Why do we have to say the full sentence (5a) rather than the cryptic (5b)?
(5) a. There was a stor mlast night.
b. a stor mlast nightCarstairs-McCarthy observes that we could easily design a language that lacked the noun–verb distinction, in which
(4a) and (4b) would translate into the same utterance, and in which something closer to (5b) than to (5a) would be
grammatical. But there are no human languages like that.^131
A telling case of this asymmetry is provided by Japanese and Korean. These languages make heavy use of the“light
verb”construction mentioned in section 5.9.4. An example of this construction in English isSally took a walk, where
takeis a“light verb,”contributing little to the meaning, and where the nature of the action is conveyed by the noun
walk. (6) is an example from Korean (thanks to Jong Sup Jun); note that the word translated asstudyreceives an
accusative case marker like other nouns.
(6) Inho-ka hakkyo-eyse yenge-lul kongpu-lul yelsimhi ha-n-ta
Inho-NOM school-at English-ACC study-ACC hard do-Pres-Declarative
‘Inho studies English hard at school.’Itturns outthat a sizableproportionofKoreanverbsare actuallysuchcomplexesofnominal plus lightverb, and there
is no simple verb with the same meaning. (6) issuch a case; examples in Englishmightbetake umbrageandmake a deal.
According to a countby Jee-Sun Na m(Na m1996), about 9000 out of 13,500“verbs”listedin Koreandictionaries are
actually light verb complexes. That is, despite so many actions being expressible only as nouns, Korean and Japanese
still need a verb in the sentence.
258 ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATIONS
(^130) Some might say that what is necessary is Tense rather than a verb; and since Tense normally requires a verb, the verb comes along automatically. If anything this only
exacerbates the puzzle.
(^131) There is onenotable exceptionto thisgeneralization.Many languages, e.g. Russianand Hebrew, haveno present tensefor mof theverbbe, so thatBeth is hungrycomes out
Beth hungry. Thereare various resolutionsto this case. For themoment I willtake theeasy way out and say thatpresent tensebe, theverb withtheleast possiblecontent, is
expressed in these languages by a“defective”lexical ite mthat lacks phonology but still appears in syntax.