"She is named..." How many verbs ?

[ph2004]

"She is named after her father." How many verbs are there in this sentence, only one : "is" or is "named' also a verb ?

 

[Kondorosi]

"She is named after her father." How many verbs are there in this sentence, only one : "is" or is "named' also a verb ?

It is very important to note that VERB is used in two senses:

• The verb is one of the elements in clause structure, like the subject and the object.
• A verb is a member of a word class, like noun and adjective.

The two senses are related in this way: A VERB PHRASE consists of one or more verbs; the verb phrase operates as the verb in the clause.
As a word class, verbs can be categorized according to their function within the verb phrase (VP):

1. full verbs or lexical verbs
2. primary verbs (either main verb or auxiliary)
3. auxiliary verbs

Now let us take a look at your sentence:

She is named after her father.

is named after is the verb (phrase) in this sentence, which is realized by two lexical verbs:

1. is (primary verb; passive auxiliary in present tense and singular first person)
2. named after (full verb plus prep; prepositional verb in past participle form)

Does this help?

 

[indonesia]

Is the above sentence in the passive voice then?

If so, how could we make it active?

 

[Kondorosi]

Someone gave her her father's name.

 

[sarat_106]

"She is named after her father." How many verbs are there in this sentence, only one : "is" or is "named' also a verb ?

Here you have two verbs (An auxiliary verb 'is' and a main verb in the past participle form 'named'), because the sentence is in passive form. A sentence in passive form always needs an auxiliary verb be (is, are, were etc) and past participle form of the main verb. Look at a typical example of active and passive sentence
Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.(active voice/form)
Hamlet was written by Shakespeare. (Passive voice/form)
In active sentences, the thing doing the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing receiving the action is the object. Most sentences are active.

In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing doing the action is optionally included at the end of the end of the sentence. We use the passive form if the thing receiving the action is more important. We also use the passive form if we do not know who is doing the action or if we do not want to mention who is doing the action.
In your sentence, who(someone) has named her is not known, so passive form is used;
She is named after her father by some one. (Passive form)
Some one named her after her father. (active form in the simple past tense)

 

[Kondorosi]

Someone named her after her father. (active form in the simple past tense)

:up:

 

[euncu]

Her father's name was given her.