Illustrative Context

He is standing over there.

Target Sense

• The most generic verb for stand in the basic sense of a person being upright on their feet, in contrast to both sit and lie.
• The stative meaning, i.e. ‘(be) stand(ing)’, rather than change of state stand up, get up. So the target term in Spanish, for example, is estar parado, not pararse, levantarse; in French être debout, not se lever.
• The target sense is the literal one applying to people standing, as opposed to sitting or lying. Avoid additional lexemes that are figurative extensions or vaguer locative senses, e.g. of a building ‘standing’ or being in a place, of words being written in a book, etc..
• The target sense is the neutral, literal one of body posture, on the feet. In many languages the most generic term may extend to (or etymologically have originated in) one or more other senses, e.g. French être debout can also have the narrower sense of being ‘up and about’, Spanish estar parado of being stopped. Beyond the basic term, however, do not enter any additional lexemes that necessarily add narrower, more specific senses of any kind:
  • Avoid terms that specifically and exclusively mean being awake and ‘up and about’, on one’s feet, as opposed to still in bed/sleeping/resting.
  • Avoid terms that specify being stopped (on one’s feet), in direct contrast to walking.
  • Avoid intensifying terms that emphasise standing especially straight and upright, stiffly, or motionlessly. The target lexeme in French is thus être debout, not se tenir droit.
  • Avoid terms that stress ‘still’ standing, as representing resistance, ongoing validity, etc..
• Some languages, notably in the Romance family, have historically grammaticalised an original stand verb, such that it is no longer the basic main content verb for standing on the feet. In Italian, for example, the original lexeme stare is now an auxiliary verb to mark progressive aspect (e.g. stare facendo as to be doing rather than just do), or simply ‘to be’ in the sense of health (Come stai? as How are you?). Spanish and Portuguese have seen similar developments, and the original stand lexeme is now an additional verb for ‘to be’, specifically ‘be in a place’, or ‘be in an only temporary state’. These verbs alone (stare/estar) are therefore no longer the default content verbs in these languages for the IE-CoR meaning here, which instead needs a fuller expression to carry that specific meaning: the target in Italian is stare in piedi, in Spanish estar parado.
• See also the definition of the contrasting IE-CoR meaning sit.