11_Stative

11. The Stative.

The essence of the words asleep, afloat, astir, ablaze, etc. and their position in the system of parts of speech is still under discussion. Morphologically, they are marked with the prefix –a and denote a state.

The stative is a separate class or a sub-class of adjectives.

Arguments in favour of it being a separate part of speech (Ilyish):

1. Statives are opposed to adjectives on the semantic basis (adjectives denote a quality, statives denote a state);

2. The prefix a-

Arguments against it being a separate part of speech (Barkhudarov):

1. The meaning of state is a special variety of the meaning of property;

2. Statives, like adjectives, have degrees of comparison;

3. They can be modified by adverbs;

4. They can be used predicatively, attributively.

Rogovskoy, Haimovich called them addlinks, rejecting the term statives.

The main function of the statives is that of predicative and in this case they are preceded by a link verb, most usually the verb be, but occasionally also fall, keep, feel. Statives are also occasionally found in the function of objective predicatives, particularly after the verb find or have and a noun or pronoun, as in the sentences He found his sister alone. A sta­tive may as well function as an attribute following its noun: A man alive to social interests.