Examples of Sentences Lacking A Finite Verb
While nominal sentences are rare in English, they are far more common in certain other languages:
- Russian: Вот человек, потерявший надежду. "Here is a man who has lost hope", literally "Here a man who has lost hope"
- Arabic: هذا الكاتبُ مشهورٌ (hāḏā 'l-kātibu mašhūrun) "This writer is famous", literally "This writer famous"
- Hebrew: המלך ערום (ha-melex 'erom) "The king naked"
Nominal sentences were also common in the old Indo-European languages:
- Ancient Greek: ἐμοὶ δ'ἄχος (emoì d'áchos) "and to me pain"
- Latin: ūna salūs victīs "one salvation for the conquered"
- Old Persian: manā pitā Vištāspa "my father Vištāspa"
- Tocharian A: tsraṣiñ waste wrasaśśi "the strong the protection of the creatures"
Nominal sentences are common in American newspaper headlines:
- "First Animal Cloned"
And in English play-by-play sports announcing:
- "The batter 0 for 6 against Matthews this year."
Read more about this topic: Nominal Sentence
Famous quotes containing the words examples of, examples, sentences, lacking, finite and/or verb:
“Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota; for my knowledge I cannot answer.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Truth is simply a compliment paid to sentences seen to be paying their way.”
—Richard Rorty (b. 1931)
“Chippenhook was the home of Judge Theophilus Harrington, known for his trenchant reply to an irate slave-owner in a runaway slave case. Judge Harrington declared that the owner’s claim to the slave was defective. The owner indignantly demanded to know what was lacking in his legally sound claim. The Judge exploded, ‘A bill of sale, sir, from God Almighty!’”
—For the State of Vermont, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“The word is the Verb, and the Verb is God.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)