Resultative serial verb constructions in Shaoxing Wu and Mandarin resultative verb compounds: A parametric view

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-378
Author(s):  
Jialei Zhu ◽  
Yimin Sheng
1995 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 131-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guo Wu

Abstract The teaching of Mandarin Chinese can be enhanced by the application of principles underlying the Chinese way of thinking -the Conceptual Sequence Principle (CSP) (Wu 1992:53) and the Principle of Temporal Sequence (PTS) (Tai 1985:61). These are fundamental principles motivating syntactic structures and discourse organisations in Chinese. The two principles capture the most general tendency of Chinese syntactic structures and discourse organisation. CSP accounts for various double (or multiple) nominative constructions typical of the language including Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) and Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) patterns, whereas PTS explains the relative position of verbs in verb compounds and serial verb constructions, and the position of adverbials – typically those of time and location – in relation to the verb in a sentence, as well as the because-therefore discourse pattern (Kirkpatrick 1991:183). An understanding of the two principles will not only enable students to gain insight into the Chinese language and avoid common mistakes caused by the interference of their mother tongue, but also assist them to understand the Chinese way of thinking and achieve interactive competence in the language.


Author(s):  
N. J. Enfield

This chapter undertakes a survey of commands and similar speech acts in Lao, the national language of Laos. The survey draws upon a corpus of naturally occurring speech in narratives and conversations recorded in Laos. An important linguistic resource for expressing commands is a system of sentence-final particles. The particles convey subtle distinctions in meaning of commands, including matters of politeness, urgency, entitlement, and expectation. These distinctions are illustrated with examples. Forms of person reference such as names and pronouns also play a role in the formulation of commands, particularly in so far as they relate to a cultural system in which social hierarchy is strongly valued. Various other linguistic issues related to commands are examined, including negative imperatives, complementation, indirect strategies for expressing commands, and serial verb constructions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-33
Author(s):  
Alexander Andrason ◽  
Bonsam Koo

AbstractThe present paper discusses the issue of Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) in Biblical Aramaic within the dynamic grammaticalization-based model of verbal serialization – a recent modification of a prototype-driven approach to SVCs used in linguistic typology. Having analyzed the entire corpus of Biblical Aramaic, the authors conclude the following: (a) verbal serialization constitutes an integral part of the verbal system of Biblical Aramaic; (b) pre-canonical SVCs are more common that canonical SVCs, and no cases of post-canonicity are attested; (c) Biblical Aramaic is a semi-advanced serializing language. Overall, the research corroborates the tendency of Semitic languages to gradually increase their serializing profile; a tendency that is often – albeit not without exception – correlated with the languages’ relative chronology.


Author(s):  
Claire Moyse-Faurie

This chapter investigates the main grammaticalization processes found in Oceanic languages. In connection with verbs of posture and localization (‘sit’, ‘be at a place’), of motion (‘go up/down’, ‘come’, ‘return’, ‘follow’) and with verbs such as ‘take’, ‘make’, ‘do’ as sources, different paths of development will be described that give rise to various grammatical morphemes, often preserving the original function and meaning of the verb. A few cases of grammaticalization involving nouns, as well as cases of relexification and unusual developments such as ‘degrammation’, will be discussed as well. The perspective of my analysis will be both a typological and a semantic one, underlining the importance of spatial representation, the contribution of serial verb constructions, and the role of metonymy and reanalysis in the grammaticalization processes found in Oceanic languages.


Author(s):  
Marina Chumakina

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.


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