scholarly journals Valency and Transitivity in a Contact Variety: The Evidence from Cameroon Pidgin English

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Green ◽  
Gabriel Ozón
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb Construction ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Substrate Influence

We explore valency and transitivity patterns in Cameroon Pidgin English (cpe) from a language contact perspective, with particular focus on (a) lexical and (b) constructional phenomena. With respect to (a), many verbs of English origin surface in cpe with additional senses and valency properties to those they display in the lexifier, illustrating the drive towards polysemy in a language with a relatively small lexicon. We also describe category change, whereby English non-verbal expressions (typically adjectives) emerge as verbs in cpe. In terms of (b), verbs undergo valency changes as a consequence of participation in productive serial verb constructions. These constructions are built around a small set of high-frequency verbs, some of which also occur in the light verb construction, which represents another strategy for the creation of complex predicates. We review the evidence for constructional substrate influence. The data under discussion are drawn from two small corpora of spoken cpe.

Periphrasis in Archi1

Periphrasis ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Chumakina
Keyword(s):  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Descriptive Purpose ◽  
Published Research

The Nakh-Daghestanian language Archi has several types of verbal constructions: periphrases, complex predicates, and phenomena very similar to serial verb constructions. This chapter investigates these constructions, using the approach of canonical typology; this allows different constructions to be ranked in terms of their proximity to the canonical centre. The analysis suggested is relevant for the general typology of multiword constructions, since it identifies tests for distinguishing them: for complex predicates the test will be their syntactic behaviour, for constructions close to serialization it is the fact that they are only available for a subset of verbs, while periphrasis is exhaustive. The chapter also has a descriptive purpose: published research on Archi does not describe all the available meanings for the periphrastic constructions nor their syntactic behaviour, and so an attempt is made to fill these gaps.

Substratal Influence in Saramaccan Serial Verb Constructions

1992 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
John McWhorter
Keyword(s):  
Universal Grammar ◽  
West African ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
African Languages ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
The World ◽  
Serial Verbs ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Substrate Influence

Bickerton's bioprogram hypothesis uses serial verbs as a primary demonstration that Saramaccan represents the closest approximation to Universal Grammar extant, judging from the fact that speakers of mutually unintelligible West African languages formulated it with little contact with European languages. Closer examination of Saramaccan and its substrate languages suggests, however, that the creole is a prime demonstration of substrate influence. The uniformity of serials across the substrate languages can be shown to have provided the opportunity for compromise between the small differences in the constructions in forming the language, according to perceptual saliency relative to the languages involved. A survey of serializing language families shows that serials in Saramaccan are most similar to those in its substrate, while a survey of créoles around the world shows that serials appear in créoles with similar substrates and almost never in those with nonserializing substrates. Furthermore, the explanation of serials as compensation for missing categories in Saramaccan is belied by an evaluation of this argument as applied to prepositions, which shows that the Saramaccan system mirrors that of its substrate with limited accommodations to its superstrate.

The rise and fall of serial verbs

Serial Verbs ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 196-236
Author(s):  
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Minor Components ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Language History ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verbs ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Creole Languages

We have identified three scenarios for the emergence of serial verb constructions: clause fusion scenario, whereby serial verbs emerge out of sequences of clauses; the verbal modification scenario, and the concurrent grammaticalization scenario. The development of serial verbs may correlate with the expansion of analytic structures and the loss of inflectional morphology. Serial verbs in some language families are of fair antiquity. In many instances their emergence can be accounted for by language contact. Serial verbs in Creole languages often reflect the substratum influence of the languages which contributed to their formation. In the course of language history, serial verbs can lose their status as such. Minor components in asymmetrical serial verb constructions become grammatical markers—auxiliaries, or bound morphemes. Symmetrical serial verbs become lexicalized units no longer separable. Serial verbs tend to be acquired by children at an early age.

Complex predicates and bipartite stems in Skou

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Donohue
Keyword(s):  
New Guinea ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
The One

I examine a range of complex predicates, searching for ones that might be called ‘bipartite stems’ in Skou, a language of New Guinea. First I draw a tentative distinction between serial verb constructions and N+V predicates on the one hand, and ‘true’ bipartite stems on the other, while pointing out some complications involved in making this division. Following this I examine the range of stems that can possibly be called ‘bipartite stems’, and those that certainly can be, concluding that the label is not a useful one in describing Skou, which shows more complexities than a simple ‘±bipartite’ dichotomy can capture. A survey of ‘bipartite’ phenomena in related and geographically close languages follows, with the conclusion that prosodic factors at least as much as morphological ones, and the possibility of an infixal analysis, rob the label ‘bipartite’ of much of its useful content when applied outside the domain for which it was originally devised.

scholarly journals Serial Verb Construction in Etulo

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1221
Author(s):  
Chikelu Ihunanya Ezenwafor
Keyword(s):  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Complex Predicate ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Serial Verb Construction ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Grammatical Functions

In languages, different criteria are often adopted in the classification of the verb category many of which are language specific or universal. Etulo makes a distinction between simple and complex predicates. This work discusses serial verb construction (SVC) as a type of complex predicate using the typological criteria proposed in Aikhenvald (2006). Etulo SVCs have diverse semantic and grammatical functions. They express benefactive, instrumental, comparative meaning, as well as prepositional and adverbial notions indicating direction using motion verbs. Different types of serial verb constructions (SVCs) are established: the symmetric vs asymmetric type, contiguous vs non-contiguous, and the optional vs obligatory type. The SVC is further distinguished from a similar multi-verb construction known as the consecutive construction.

TRANSFER IN SLA AND CREOLES

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rena Helms-Park
Keyword(s):  
Language Transfer ◽  
Elementary Level ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Transfer Processes ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Vietnamese Speakers ◽  
Substrate Influence

This paper presents a study that attributes verb serialization in the interlanguage of Vietnamese-speaking ESL learners to language transfer and, furthermore, puts forward the view that such transfer bears a resemblance to substrate influence in creoles with serial verb constructions (SVCs). In a task that elicited English causatives through pictures representing the causation of events, a subset of the Vietnamese-speaking participants in this study produced a number of serial-type constructions that reflected lexicosemantic aspects of causative SVCs in Vietnamese. Speakers of Hindi-Urdu, a nonserializing language used for comparative purposes, did not produce any equivalents. Additionally, serial-type constructions with second verbs (V2s) representing a result (e.g., cook butter melt) predominated at lower levels of lexical proficiency, whereas serials with make and a result (e.g., make broken) were more evenly distributed across proficiency levels. One inference based on the results is that certain serials are eliminated early in the acquisition process through positive evidence obtained via English input, whereas others continue to appear beyond the elementary level because of misleadingly similar constructions in the input. A comparison of the proficiency-based transfer of “cook butter melt” serials in this study and the inferred transfer of SVCs in creolization suggests that, whereas transfer processes in the two contexts are congruent in certain ways (often resulting from the exigencies of communication, limited access to the TL, and linguistic convergence), the processes diverge because of differences in target norms and input conditions. The latter two factors provide one explanation for why SVC-related transfer effects were limited to a subgroup of Vietnamese-speaking participants in this study.

Predicate derivations in Thulung

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aimée Lahaussois
Keyword(s):  
New Delhi ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
East Indian ◽  
North East ◽  
Specific Description ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Asian Languages

Abstract In this article, I describe a subset of complex predicates in Thulung (Kiranti, Nepal) which I call “predicate derivations” (after Post, Mark. 2010. Predicate derivations in the Tani languages: root, suffix, both or neither? In Mark Post & Stephen Morey (eds.), North East Indian linguistics, 175–197. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India). I argue that these constructions in Thulung are built on grammaticalized elements that can be synchronically considered to be derivational. I focus on their morphology, placing it within the context of simplex verbs, and highlighting certain features – multiple exponence, allomorphy of the derivational suffixes similar to that of simplex verbs – which suggest strongly a development from serial verb constructions. I discuss their functions, which cover valence changes, as well as the marking of associated motion and aspect/Aktionsart. Complex predicates are seen as a feature of South Asian languages, but the types found in Tibeto-Burman languages appear to be quite different, morphologically, from what is found in Indo-Aryan or Dravidian languages. This article therefore represents a language-specific description as a contribution to cross-linguistic research on the topic.

Complex predicates and space in Dâw (Naduhup language, AM)

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-55
Author(s):  
Karolin Obert
Keyword(s):  
Frequent Patterns ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Complex Motion ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Information Packaging ◽  
Productive Process ◽  
Serial Verb

AbstractComplex predication is understood to be a highly productive process in Northwestern Amazonian languages in which complex predicates may be realized as compounds, verb-auxiliary constructions or serial verb constructions depending on language-internal criteria. These constructions play an important role in the organization of discourse and information packaging and can also carry out grammatical functions such as increasing or decreasing valency. In Dâw, a language from the Naduhup family, complex predicates are used to express spatial notions such as directionality and manner in complex motion events or to provide detailed of how complex predicates in Dâw function as semantic and syntactic resources used to express space in discourse in comparison to their expression in simple predicates. I provide a typology of the most frequent patterns and their respective ordering principles found in our corpus in order to understand how fine-grained spatial notions are expressed in Dâw.

scholarly journals Serial verb constructions and covert coordinations in Edo – an analysis in Type Logical Grammar

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralf Naumann ◽  
Thomas Gamerschlag
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Structural Rules ◽  
Logical Grammar ◽  
Semantic Component ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Event Based ◽  
Base Logic

Based on both syntactic and semantic criteria, Stewart (2001) and, following him, Baker and Stewart (1999), distinguish two types of serial verb constructions (SVC) and one type of covert coordination (CC) in Edo. In this article, we present an analysis of these constructions, using Type Logical Grammar (TLG) with an event-based semantic component. We choose as base logic the non-associative Lambek calculus augmented with two unary multiplicative connectives (NL(◊, □)). SVCs and CCs are interpreted as complex event structures. The complex predicates underlying these structures are derived from simple verbs by means of a constructor. SVCs and CCs differ in terms of which part of the complex event structure is denoted. For SVCs, this is the sum of all events in the structure whereas for a CC this is only the first event in the sequence. The two verbs in an SVC and a CC are treated asymmetrically by assuming that the first verb has an extended subcategorization frame. The additional argument is of type vp (possibly modally decorated). Constraints on word order and the realization of arguments are accounted for using structural rules like permutation and contraction. The application of these rules is enforced by making use of the unary connectives.

scholarly journals Multiple Interpretations and Constraints of Causative Serial Verb Constructions in Korean

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juwon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verbs ◽  
Basic Properties ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb Construction ◽  
Serial Verb

<p>In this paper I discuss the light verb ha ‘do’ in Korean, which I show forms a range of uses in various constructions (see the basic properties of light verbs in Butt and Geuder (2001), Butt (2004) and Korean light verbs in Choi and Wechsler (2001), Lee (2011), inter alia). In particular, I aim to elucidate what is involved in the multiple interpretations of the causative serial verb construction</p>

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