Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Grammatical terminology for the difference between 'hear' and 'listen'


Is there any grammatical terminology to describe the difference between 'hear' and 'listen'?


E.g.



Hear is a ____ verb and listen is its ____ counterpart.


Or,


Hear-listen is a pair of ____ words.



Answer



I think the term you're looking for is volition.



Listen is a volitional verb and hear is its non-volitional counterpart.



When you listen to something, you're paying attention to it on purpose.





Here's how the term is defined in David Crystal's A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th ed.:



volition (n.) A term used in the semantic analysis of grammatical categories, referring to a kind of relationship between an agent and a verb. A volitional verb or construction is one where the action takes place as a consequence of the agent's choice, e.g. Mary left. A non-volitional verb or construction is one where the agent has no determining influence on the action, e.g. Mary slipped. Many verbs allow both interpretations (e.g. X hit Y – accidentally or on purpose?). The notion has also had a contrastive role in the analysis of the meanings of certain auxiliary verbs in English: for example, the volitional sense of will in I will go (in the sense of 'it is my decision to go') is distinguished from other senses, such as characteristic action (They'll sit there for hours).



(p.516)


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