2214: Delexical or 'Light' Verbs Jan 6, 2021

There are plenty of verbs that people use that are at best semantically incomplete, such as 'take' in "to take a bath" or "to take a test". These and many others are known as light verbs, delexical verbs, or vector verbs. These verbs essentially exist as they are used to complement an object, which is usually a noun. 'Do' and 'have' can fit into this category, but this usage should not be thought of as auxiliary, as the function of indicating grammatical aspect is different.