What do you call the difference between when a verb expresses an actual state vs a potential state? [closed]

Question

Sometimes, the exact same verb can express two different but closely related meanings:

• The subject [S] is actually performing an action [V]
• The subject [S] is capable of performing an action [V]

To illustrate this with a concrete example, contrast:

Birds that eat grains such as rice are categorized as... [taxonomic classification here]

with

Birds that eat grains such as rice don't actually explode afterwards.

In the first selection, the word "eat" is describing a characteristic of a certain category of birds: they have the ability to eat grains, regardless of whether or not they ever actually get the opportunity. So, a newly hatched fledgeling of whatever species might be a grain-eating bird without ever having actually eaten grains (or anything else).

In the second sentence, it's clear that "eat" refers to something the birds actually do, since there is a reference to the result of said action.

Is there a term for this distinction? It's not "aspect," but maybe something similar?

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Another example of the 'potential' usage:

1. Flying fish have large fins that act like wings to enable them to glide. There is a flying fish swimming in the water underneath our boat.

contrasted with the 'active' usage:

2. Today there is forecasted to be a severe storm: watch out for flying debris and fish!

Within either context, the intended meaning is clear as being one or the other, but the usage differs for the same construction [i.e., 'flying fish'] between the two examples. The term I'm asking about (if it exists) describes what sets the usage in 1. apart from that in 2.

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To satisfy the criteria for using the single-word-requests tag:

• Sample sentence: "Just like the difference between 'sits' and 'is sitting' is one of aspect, the difference between 'V' in [some sentence] and [some other sentence] is one of [the word I'm looking for]."
• Thesaurus/dictionary searches: Search terms like "potential vs actual action" and "action vs ability grammatical term" didn't turn up anything relevant. It's difficult to research a phenomenon when you don't know its name!
• The "best" word: I'm looking for a grammatical term which has at least some official recognition.
• What words I've considered, and why they don't work: "aspect" - doesn't fit; "causative vs. inchoative" - not the distinction I'm thinking of (this would be pairs like 'sit' vs. 'set' instead, which is not the same relationship)
• Yes, it might also be a compound word or phrase - the 'single' part doesn't really matter.

Answer 1

I understand the distinction you are making, but I am not aware of any single word to express the idea that is in common use. If someone else on here knows of such a word, I'll gladly yield. (Maybe it's just not coming to mind.)

If you want to express this idea, you have to use a phrase, like "potential versus actual" -- and then you'd likely have to explain what you meant.

I live in the Philippines and in one of the local languages here, Cebuano, there are actually different verb tenses for these two ideas. For example, "makakaon" means "is able to eat" but "nagkaon" means "is eating". But we do not have different tenses for this in English.