A Study on Science Students’ Understanding of Three Lemmas: State Verb, Action Verb and Noun in the State Run Colleges in Pakistan

Abstract

English main verbs are classified as stative and dynamic. At first, this paper deals with the analysis of stative verbs, highlights their true nature and function and illustrates the concept of spontaneity within the state verbs. Secondly, it expounds how the term ‘lemma’ helps in sorting out the same words representing different parts of speech. Finally, it reports on the level of the science students’ competency in the use of state verbs, action verbs and nouns. For this purpose, 300 science students of intermediate level were selected as participants for the present study. A language proficiency test was conducted to collect data. The results revealed that majority of the students had scanty understanding of nouns and state verbs but their recognition of action verbs had been of average level. Some suggestions for improved pedagogy in teaching English grammar have been suggested on the basis of these findings.