Definition:
A verb--such as keep, promise, want, seem, and many others--that can link with other verbs to form a chain or series.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "a chain"Examples and Observations:
- "Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes--and who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts
impossible?"
(Barry Goldwater) - "Only North Americans seem to believe that they always should, may, and actually can choose somebody with whom to share their blessings. Ultimately this attitude leads to bombing people into the acceptance of gifts."
(Ivan Illich) - "All our discontents about what we want appeared to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have."
(Daniel Defoe) - "A catenative verb is a verb that controls a non-finite complement. 'Catenative' means 'chaining' and reflects the way that the verb can link recursively with other catenatives to form a chain, as in:
We decided to try to rent a house near the sea.
Here there is a chain of three verbs: decide, try and rent, with to try to rent a house near the sea functioning as the catenative complement of decide, and to rent a house near the sea functioning as the catenative complement of try."
(Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course, Routledge, 2006) - "The term 'catenative' is derived from the Latin word for 'chain,' for the construction is repeatable in a way that enables us to form chains of verbs in which all except the last have a non-finite complement:
She seems to want to stop trying to avoid meeting him.
Each of the italicized verbs here has a non-finite clause as complement."
(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, Cambridge University Press, 2006)
