Stative

Stative, in linguistics, denotes predicates that describe states, qualities, or relations rather than actions or events. Statives express conditions that are existing, enduring, or inherent to the subject, such as possession, thought, perception, emotion, or spatial relation. They are commonly contrasted with dynamic (or non-stative) predicates, which describe activities, processes, or changes of state.

Common stative verbs cover categories like possession (have, own), mental states (know, believe, doubt), perception (see, feel, hear), sensory experience (smell, taste), existence (exist, seem), and relations or properties (belong, resemble, consist, contain, weigh). Many verbs can be stative in one sense and dynamic in another, depending on meaning and context (for example, think vs. think about it, have a meal, or are having trouble).

In English, stative verbs typically do not take the progressive aspect: say “I know,” not “I am knowing.” Exceptions arise when the verb adopts a dynamic sense, as in “I am having lunch” (viewed as an activity) or “I am thinking about it.” Some verbs are polyvalent, with a primarily stative interpretation in one context and a dynamic interpretation in another (think, have, feel).

Cross-linguistically, stativity interacts with aspect and mood in different ways. Some languages encode stative meaning through dedicated aspectual systems or verb classes, while others rely on lexical meaning and context. The stative–dynamic distinction is a fundamental concept in lexical semantics, syntax, and language typology, helping to characterize how languages encode states versus events.