Representing thinking, perceiving, liking and desiring
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Using verb patterns to represent thoughts and beliefs | page 15 of 15 |
A note on the order of participants
With verbs related to thinking, the most common order of participants
is illustrated in the following
example:
A family ran it, but I have forgotten their name now. (Bank of English)
thinker thought
With some thinking verbs, it is possible to represent the same idea using a related verb, but with the order of participants reversed:
A family ran it, but their name escapes me now.
thought thinker
Because there are many such pairs of verbs associated with likes and dislikes, eg I like it = it pleases me, a useful term for this phenomenon is the "please pattern". Note though, that only a very few thinking verbs take the "please pattern". Here are some pairs, with examples:
I forget = it escapes me
Well, I was going to say something, but now I've forgotten what it was …
Well, I was going to say something which has now completely escaped me …(Bank of English)
I believe = it convinces me
I believed that I could never hear anything so sublime as Serkin's performances.
Serkin's performances of Schubert's B flat major sonata, "Wanderer Fantasy", and the last Beethoven sonatas convinced me I could never hear anything so sublime again. (Microconcord Corpus A)
I realise = it strikes me
It was then that I realised that I wasn't in fact myself - my real self, but somebody else.
It was then that the thought struck me that I wasn't in fact myself - my real self, but somebody else. (Bank of English)
Introduction
A note on the order of participants
