Definition:
A verb used primarily to indicate an action, process, or sensation as opposed to a state. Contrast with stative verb.
There are three major types of dynamic verbs: 1) accomplishment verbs (expressing action that has a logical endpoint), 2) achievement verbs (expressing action that occurs instantaneously), and 3) activity verbs (expressing action that can go on for an indefinite period of time).
See also:
Examples and Observations:
- "America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair."
(Arnold Toynbee) - "[I]n summer everything fills. The day itself widens and stretches almost around the clock; these are very high latitudes, higher than Labrador's. You want to run all night. Summer people move into the houses that had stood empty, unseen, and unnoticed all winter. The gulls scream all day and smash cockles; by August they are bringing the kids."
(Annie Dillard, "Mirages," 1982) - "We don't grow older, we grow riper."
(Pablo Picasso) - "Brandt ran back to the deepest corner of the outfield grass, the ball descended beyond his reach and struck in the crotch where the bullpen met the wall, bounced chunkily, and vanished."
(John Updike, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," 1960) - "The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going."
(George Carlin) - "My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people."
(Orson Welles) - "Verbs act. Verbs move. Verbs do. Verbs strike, soothe, grin, cry, exasperate, decline, fly, hurt, and heal. Verbs make writing go, and they matter more to our language than any other part of speech."
(Donald Hall and Sven Birkerts, Writing Well, 9th ed. Longman, 1997) - "If a clause can be used to answer the question What happened?, it contains a non-stative (dynamic) verb. If a clause cannot be so used, it contains a stative verb. . . .
"It is now accepted practice to divide dynamic verbs into three classes. . . . Activity, accomplishment and achievement verbs all denote events. Activities denote events with no built-in boundary and stretching out over time. Achievements denote events conceived of as occupying no time at all. Accomplishments denote events with an activity phase and a closure phase; they can be spread out over time, but there is a built-in boundary."
(Jim Miller, An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2002)
Also Known As: non-stative verb, action verb
