(By Hedvig Skirgård): "This feature tracks languages with few members in the word class which is most commonly known as ‘verbs’. If the word class ‘verbs’ contains approximately 100 roots or less, the language qualifies for this feature. ❡
A large part of the grammar may be devoted to constructions where a verb from the closed class combines with open-class items to form predicates in most sentences. If a grammar never remarks on the size of the verbal inventory this almost always means that the language does not have a small number of verbs in the sense of the present question. If a language has a small number of verbs in this sense, typically a description will say that there is a closed class of verbs with few members. ❡
In such languages, it is typically the case that what is described by one verb in other languages is instead expressed by so called ‘light verb constructions’ (see GB123). For example, do meeting could express the meaning ‘to meet’. It is also possible for a language to have few verbs but no light-verb constructions."
"Word class" most often refers to "lexeme class", and a verb lexeme is not the same as a verb root. Languages may have a closed class (even a small class) of verb roots, but an open (and large) class of verb lexemes.