Lesson 4
Verbs
To begin our study of verbs, we need to look back at the symbol for man, and introduce
the second meaning for those trousers. The small-sized shape that you find in the Blisscharacter for man has a meaning of its own when appearing as a Bliss-word. It means
activity. It is derived from the large-sized Bliss-word for The Action. C.K. Bliss chose
this shape for action because it suggests the shape of a volcano cone, which Mr. Bliss
described as “one of the primeval actions of our earth”. And just like the mini Blissymbol
for the plural indicator, there is a mini Blissymbol for the verb indicator. You can see the
four Bliss-words below:
man
activity
The Action
action indicator
There will be more indicators relating to the verb very soon.
But first, we need to look back to those body parts introduced in Lesson 1 and see how
valuable they can be. Note what happens when the action indicator is placed above the
body parts you have available to you for your display.
eye
mouth
becomes
becomes
to see
to talk
ear
becomes
to hear
As you can see from the above examples, you can turn any noun into a verb by placing
the action indicator over the Bliss-character(s) that represent the noun. The action
indicator is on your display, so in effect, you can turn any of the nouns on your display
into verbs. It is located in square C4 and is coloured green like the other verbs and verb
indicators. When applying the action indicator, it is preferable to point to it first, to signal
to your partner that you are about to change the next Bliss-word to which you will point,
into a verb. This is not a hard and fast rule, however, and some Bliss-users find it easier
to add the action indicator after they have indicated the root word. The important point is
that the partner be informed as to which order the Bliss-user will be using and that they
are consistent. It is very helpful to be able to produce verbs when you do not have them
on your display. It is, however, a great advantage to have the frequently-used verbs on
your display for single pointing and fast access.
The verbs that are available to you for your display are:
to be
to come
to destroy
Note the direction of the
Note the direction of the
Remember being in Lesson
arrow and the space
diagonal
3
between the arrow tip and
Contrast with to write
the vertical line.
For other examples of Bliss-words with the arrow character, see Resource 21.
The verb to be has different forms in English in the present and past tense, depending on
the subject. Since they are all used frequently, they are listed below:
I am
I was
You are
You were
He is
He was
She is
She was
We are
We were
You are
You were
They are
They were
In all the English examples above, the Bliss-word for the verb is shown as below for
present (first column), and for past (second column). The verb will always be translated
the same way in the future tense in English - will be.
present
past
future (will be)
Now more verbs:
to do
to drink
to eat
Remember activity
at the beginning of this Lesson .
to drink and to eat can be explained through “action
with what your mouth gets from the earth
(horizontal line represents earthline)”.
To drink adds the Bliss-character for liquid.
to feel
Remember feeling
In Lesson 1
to get
Contrast with to give
to give
Remember teacher
in lesson 2.
to go
to have
Contrast with to come
to make
Look at possession in Lesson 1
This shape is the modified
in Resource 19
creation symbol that
and see Big and Little meaning examples
appears in woman
Imperfect version of creation
represents “man-made”.
to take
to think
Note the container and
Shape of symbol suggests
The direction of the arrow.
outline of skull. See brain
in Resources 1 and 2.
To want
to write
To have a strong feeling
Note the direction of the diagonal
shown by fire. Note that the fire symbol
is the opposite to that in to destroy.
is the same shape as the liquid symbol
but drawn in a vertical position rather than
in the horizontal position for liquid. .
To communicate
In to write the line depicts the pen or pencil.
This verb is especially interesting to analyze its components.
The first character means to exchange (derived from giving and receiving)
The second character means meaning and is derived from to think + to say + to write.
It means the significance the mind attaches to what is spoken or written – it’s meaning.
Thus to communicate is to exchange meaning.
To need
to help
In to need, note how the person Bliss-word is on an angle, leaning as if requiring support.
In to help, the support is being given, that is the person appears to be helping the leaning
line.
to try
to succeed
In to try, note the forward arrow + difficult + action indicator. To try is to move forward
in spite of difficulty.
In to succeed, the forward arrow has proceeded past two opposing arrows. (It has success
in overcoming opposing forces.)
For your interest, here is the Bliss-word for difficult. You will want to compare it with
frustrated which will be introduced in the next lesson. Note that difficult is an adjective
and has the descriptive indicator over it. You will learn more about the descriptive
indicator (for marking adjectives) in Lesson 5.
difficult
You will soon be adding verbs to your display. Before you do, however, there are more
things to know about verbs. As action words, they allow us to speak about the present,
refer to the past or look ahead to the future. In Blissymbolics this is done with indicators
called the present tense indicator, the past tense indicator and the future tense indicator.
To learn these indicators, it helps to know the time Bliss-words of past, present and
future and to remember the big and little meaning strategy often used by Mr. Bliss.
past
past tense indicator
present
present tense indicator
future
future tense
indicator
To remember the tenses according to the way in which Mr. Bliss represented time, think
of a parabolic mirror. For the past the mirror is focused on what lies behind it. For the
future, the mirror is focused on what lies ahead of it. For the present, think of the time
between the past and the future.
There is more to know about the verbs when you are using them with a tense
indicator.
When you, as a Bliss user precede a verb by pointing to the past tense indicator, the
English form of the verb spoken by your partner can vary. For example with the verb
“do” in the past tense, they can say “did” or “have done” or “had done”. You only need to
point to the past tense indicator and to do. Your partner will give your sentence the
appropriate English wording. For many verbs, the English wording will only involve
adding “ed” to the verb, eg., worked, liked, There are many others that have a special past
tense form, e.g., made, came, was/were, had, went, saw, heard, etc.
When you precede a verb with the future tense indicator, your partner’s English
translation will add the word “will”. Using the example of the verb “do” again: You only
need to point to the future tense indicator and to do. Your partner will give your sentence
the appropriate English wording, “will do”.
You can precede any verb with a tense indicator. This will change the verb to whatever
form the tense indicator denotes. If no tense marker is shown, the verb will be spoken
either as the present tense or in the infinitive form. The context of the sentence will tell
the partner what to say. If the verb follows a noun or pronoun, the verb will be in the
present tense (with no additional marker), “He walks.” If the verb begins the sentence or
follows another verb, it will be spoken in the infinitive (to ..) form, e.g., “To walk is good
for you.” Or, “I like to walk.”
Another thing to remember when using verbs, you can create additional verbs by adding
one of the verb indicators to a noun. You can point to a tense indicator and follow it by a
noun, thus making a verb in whatever tense you have chosen. For example, you could say,
you would like “to mother” someone, by pointing to the action indicator and mother.
You could say, “I mother him every time he returns home for a visit”, by pointing to the
present tense indicator and mother. Or you could say, “I mothered him when he was sick
last week”, by pointing to the past tense indicator and mother.
NOW, IT’S TIME FOR ADDING MORE BLISS-WORDS TO YOUR DISPLAY.
First enter the action indicator and all the tense indicators in the top line of your display,
as shown in the Sample Display.
Now organize the verbs that are available to you in the panel on the left side of the home
page, in the arrangement that makes it easiest for you to locate them. They should all
appear in the 4th and 5th columns unless you make a special arrangement and change the
background colour of adjacent squares to green to accommodate additional verbs.
Now for some sentences!
For practice in USING your display, go to Lesson 4 Quiz.