MENTAL Mental verbs
Definition
Verbs of cognition and perception: see, know, think, want, feel, believe, understand, remember, etc.
Detection Rules
mfte
cql[word={words} & pos="VB.*"]
Word list (354 items)
accept
accepted
accepting
accepts
agree
agreed
agreeing
agrees
appreciate
appreciated
appreciates
appreciating
approve
approved
approves
approving
assess
assessed
assesses
assessing
assume
assumed
assumes
assuming
bear
bearing
bears
believe
believed
believes
believing
blame
blamed
blames
blaming
bore
borne
bother
bothered
bothering
bothers
calculate
calculated
calculates
calculating
care
cared
cares
caring
celebrate
celebrated
celebrates
celebrating
choose
chooses
choosing
chose
chosen
compare
compared
compares
comparing
conclude
concluded
concludes
concluding
confirm
confirmed
confirming
confirms
consider
considered
considering
considers
count
counted
counting
counts
dare
dared
dares
daring
decide
decided
decides
deciding
detect
detected
detecting
detects
determine
determined
determines
determining
discover
discovered
discovering
discovers
dismiss
dismissed
dismisses
dismissing
distinguish
distinguished
distinguishes
distinguishing
doubt
doubted
doubting
doubts
enjoy
enjoyed
enjoying
enjoys
examine
examined
examines
examining
expect
expected
expecting
expects
experience
experienced
experiences
experiencing
face
faced
faces
facing
fear
feared
fearing
fears
feel
feeling
feels
felt
forgave
forget
forgets
forgetting
forgive
forgiven
forgives
forgiving
forgot
forgotten
guess
guessed
guesses
guessing
hate
hated
hates
hating
hear
heard
hearing
hears
hope
hoped
hopes
hoping
identified
identifies
identify
identifying
ignore
ignored
ignores
ignoring
imagine
imagined
imagines
imagining
impress
impressed
impresses
impressing
intend
intended
intending
intends
interpret
interpreted
interpreting
interprets
judge
judged
judges
judging
justified
justifies
justify
justifying
knew
know
knowing
known
knows
learn
learned
learning
learns
learnt
like
liked
likes
liking
listen
listened
listening
listens
love
loved
loves
loving
mind
minding
minds
miss
missed
misses
missing
need
needed
needing
needs
notice
noticed
notices
noticing
observe
observed
observes
observing
perceive
perceived
perceives
perceiving
plan
planned
planning
plans
predict
predicted
predicting
predicts
prefer
preferred
preferring
prefers
pretend
pretended
pretending
pretends
prove
proved
proven
proves
proving
read
reading
reads
realize
realized
realizes
realizing
recall
recalled
recalling
recalls
reckon
reckoned
reckoning
reckons
recognise
recognised
recognises
recognising
recognize
recognized
recognizes
recognizing
regard
regarded
regarding
regards
remember
remembered
remembering
remembers
remind
reminded
reminding
reminds
satisfied
satisfies
satisfy
satisfying
saw
see
seeing
seen
sees
solve
solved
solves
solving
studied
studies
study
studying
suffer
suffered
suffering
suffers
suppose
supposed
supposes
supposing
suspect
suspected
suspecting
suspects
think
thinking
thinks
thought
trust
trusted
trusting
trusts
understand
understands
understood
wan
want
wanted
wanting
wants
wish
wished
wishes
wishing
wonder
wondered
wondering
wonders
worried
worries
worry
worrying
pybiber
cql[word={words} & pos="VB.*"]
Word list (281 items)
accept
accepted
accepting
accepts
anticipate
anticipated
anticipates
anticipating
ascertain
ascertained
ascertaining
ascertains
assume
assumed
assumes
assuming
believe
believed
believes
believing
calculate
calculated
calculates
calculating
check
checked
checking
checks
conclude
concluded
concludes
concluding
conjecture
conjectured
conjectures
conjecturing
consider
considered
considering
considers
decide
decided
decides
deciding
deduce
deduced
deduces
deducing
deem
deemed
deeming
deems
demonstrate
demonstrated
demonstrates
demonstrating
determine
determined
determines
determining
discern
discerned
discerning
discerns
discover
discovered
discovering
discovers
doubt
doubted
doubting
doubts
dream
dreamed
dreaming
dreams
dreamt
ensure
ensured
ensures
ensuring
establish
established
establishes
establishing
estimate
estimated
estimates
estimating
expect
expected
expecting
expects
fancied
fancies
fancy
fancying
fear
feared
fearing
fears
feel
feeling
feels
felt
find
finding
finds
foresaw
foresee
foreseeing
foresees
forget
forgets
forgetting
forgot
forgotten
found
gather
gathered
gathering
gathers
guess
guessed
guesses
guessing
hear
heard
hearing
hears
held
hold
holding
holds
hope
hoped
hopes
hoping
imagine
imagined
imagines
imagining
implied
implies
imply
implying
indicate
indicated
indicates
indicating
infer
inferred
inferring
infers
insure
insured
insures
insuring
judge
judged
judges
judging
knew
know
knowing
known
knows
learn
learned
learning
learns
learnt
mean
meaning
means
meant
note
noted
notes
notice
noticed
notices
noticing
noting
observe
observed
observes
observing
perceive
perceived
perceives
perceiving
presume
presumed
presumes
presuming
presuppose
presupposed
presupposes
presupposing
pretend
pretended
pretending
prove
proved
proves
proving
realise
realised
realises
realising
realize
realized
realizes
realizing
reason
reasoned
reasoning
reasons
recall
recalled
recalling
recalls
reckon
reckoned
reckoning
reckons
recognise
recognised
recognises
recognising
recognize
recognized
recognizes
recognizing
reflect
reflected
reflecting
reflects
remember
remembered
remembering
remembers
reveal
revealed
revealing
reveals
saw
see
seeing
seen
sees
sense
sensed
senses
sensing
show
showed
showing
shown
shows
signified
signifies
signify
signifying
suppose
supposed
supposes
supposing
suspect
suspected
suspecting
suspects
think
thinking
thinks
thought
understand
understanding
understands
understood
Normalization
Per finite_verbs
Examples
She believed every word he said.
Frodo felt a sudden chill and knew that danger was near.
He could see the tower in the distance.
They discovered the secret passage behind the bookshelf.
Source: pybiber
We want to see you tomorrow.
Source: le_foll_2024
Did you never hear back?
Source: le_foll_2024
I don’t recognize any.
Source: le_foll_2024
Non-examples
She felt the rough surface of the stone wall.
felt = tactile action, not mental verb — detector matches but wrong sense
Sources
-
biber_1988
— Biber, Douglas
(1988)
: Variation across Speech and Writing
-
mfte
— Le Foll, Elen & Shakir, Muhammad
(2023/2025)
: Multi-Feature Tagger of English (MFTE) — Python version
-
pybiber
— Brown, David West & Reinhart, Alex
(2026)
: pybiber — Python package for linguistic feature extraction and Multi-Dimensional Analysis
-
xiao_2009
— Xiao, Richard
(2009)
: Multidimensional analysis and the study of world Englishes
-
grieve_2023
— Grieve, Jack
(2023)
: Register variation explains stylometric authorship analysis
-
bohmann_2019
— Bohmann, Axel
(2019)
: Variation in English Worldwide: Varieties and Genres in a Quantitative Perspective
Notes
Biber’s “private verbs” (assume, believe, feel, think) = highest loading on D1 (.96). MFTE’s MENTAL is the closest equivalent. Xiao (2009) splits this into two categories: B44 “Cognitive verbs” (mental processes: think, know, believe, understand) and B48 “Private verbs” (internal states: feel, want, wish, hope), both detected via the USAS semantic tagger. Here they are combined under a single MENTAL feature following MFTE and Biber’s original grouping. A future refinement could split these into separate atomic features with MENTAL as their composite parent.
View YAML source