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.

The many facets of serial verbs

Serial Verbs ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 143-163
Author(s):  
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Keyword(s):  
Surface Structure ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Serial Verbs ◽  
Serial Verb Construction ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
The Many

A single language can have more than one kind of serial verb construction. Serial verbs may differ along the parameters of wordhood and contiguity. Different types of serial verbs may differ in their meanings and the degree of their grammaticalization or lexicalization. The closer the components are in surface structure, the more likely they are to grammaticalize or to lexicalize, and the more restrictions they will display. We expect single-word serial verbs to be more cohesive in their semantics than multi-word serial verbs, in accordance with the principle of iconic motivation. Semantic groups of verbs which are likely to occur in serial verb constructions form a hierarchy, with verbs of direction and motion being most likely, and stative verbs the least likely to occur. If a language has serial verb constructions, we expect directional serial verbs to develop before any other type. All the languages with symmetrical serial verbs also have asymmetrical ones.

Motion verb constructions, frames, and profiling

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Michael Herweg
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Frame Structure ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
The Core ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Motion Verb

AbstractThis paper offers a frame-semantic account of some of the manifold phenomena that can be observed in motion expressions in typologically diverse languages. The core of the proposed approach is a basic locomotion frame complemented with a mechanism of profiling that operates on this frame. The locomotion frame provides a rich structure which features the pivotal elements beneficial for the semantic representation of different types of motion descriptions. The profiling mechanism allows one to select, deselect and augment elements of this frame structure, as well as to specify significant relations between distinct parts of the frame. With these means, the profiling mechanism facilitates fine-grained differentiations among motion verbs that considerably exceed the classic dichotomy of path and manner-of-motion verbs. The proposed theory is applied to different kinds of path and manner-of-motion verbs, including those typically found in path-dominant and manner-dominant languages, as well as in languages which exhibit a pronounced diversity of motion verbs lined up in serial verb constructions. The suggested frame-semantic analyses thus reveal intricate differentiations in a multifaceted linguistic domain.

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.

Recognizing a serial verb

Serial Verbs ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 20-54
Author(s):  
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
Event Type ◽  
Cultural Stereotypes ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Event Argument ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verbs ◽  
Serial Verb Construction ◽  
Serial Verb

A serial verb construction is a sequence of verbs which act together as a single predicate. Serial verbs are always monoclausal and are pronounced as a single verb would be. The components of a serial verb construction share tense, aspect, modality, reality status, evidentiality, mood, and also polarity values. A serial verb construction typically refers to what can be conceptualized as one event, and one recognizable event type, in terms of cultural stereotypes available to the speakers. Serial verbs tend to share at least one argument. An overwhelming majority of serial verbs have a single overall argument structure, with the subjects, objects and obliques belonging to the whole construction. In switch-function serial verb constructions, the O (or the recipient) of the first component is the same as the S (rarely, the A) of the second one. Event-argument and resultative serial verb constructions share no arguments.

Serial verb constructions in Kamtok (Cameroon Pidgin English)

English Today ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Ayafor
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Serial Verb Construction ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Grammatical Structures

Kamtok, an English-based expanded pidgin/creole in Cameroon, has many of the grammatical structures of its lexifier language. However, there are certain grammatical structures in this contact language which are not so obvious in its lexifier, though they may exist sparingly in spoken forms of the production of some native speakers. One of these is the serial verb construction (SVC). SVCs are ‘a series of two (or more) verbs [that] have the same subject and are not joined by a conjunction … or a complementiser … as they would be in European languages (Holm, 1988: 183).

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.

Historical development of ba and jiang in the Tang Dynasty

1990 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
One-Soon Her
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Instrumental Function ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Common Misconception ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb Construction ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
The Common

ABSTRACTBased on evidence in Zen dialogues, Bianwen and Chuanqi texts in the Tang Dynasty (a.d. 618–907), and other sources from earlier and later periods, this article, after dismissing the common misconception that during Tang ba () was frequently used in the disposal and serial-verb constructions, proposes that the grammaticalization of the jiang () serial-verb construction was encouraged by yi (), but jiang's disposal characteristic was modeled after its passive counterpart bei, and that it is via the process of lexical replacement that ba replaced jiang's prepositional functions in instrumental and disposal constructions. Ba later lost its instrumental function to na (). We thus resolve the debate between Huang (1986) and Bennett (1981). Moreover, from the recurring pattern of change in the historical development of yi, jiang, ba, and na, we observe two counteracting principles at work: functional refinement, which forces a one-to-one correspondence between a form and its function, and analogous development, which does just the opposite to create a one-to-many relationship.

An intragenetic typology of Kwa serial verb constructions

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Shluinsky
Keyword(s):  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Semantic Maps ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Syntactic Relation ◽  
Crosslinguistic Variation

AbstractThis article presents the results of an intragenetic crosslinguistic study of serial verb constructions (SVCs) in Kwa. Based on a sample of 28 Kwa languages, the article examines the crucial morphosyntactic features of Kwa SVCs and the range of meanings of the two most common grammaticalized types of Kwa SVCs, ‘take’ and ‘give’ SVCs. The morphosyntactic features of SVCs considered include unity of subject, unity of TAM, unity of negation, and absence of an overt marker of a syntactic relation. The three types of ‘take’ SVCs – lative ‘take’ SVCs, instrumental ‘take’ SVCs, and objectal ‘take’ SVCs – are treated separately. Uses of different types of ‘take’ SVCs and of ‘give’ SVCs turn out to be subject to implicational cross-Kwa restrictions that are formulated via hierarchies or semantic maps. Significant crosslinguistic variation is discovered, and it is argued that sometimes the similarities between Kwa languages can be most naturally explained by independent development.

scholarly journals A case for revisiting definitions of serial verb constructions: Evidence from Akan serial verb nominalization

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-99
Author(s):  
Obadele Kambon ◽  
E. Kweku Osam ◽  
Nana Aba Appiah Amfo
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Semantic Integration ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verbs ◽  
Serial Verb Construction ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Direct Objects ◽  
Do So

In this study, we undertook an experiment in which native speakers of Akan were given serial verbs both with and without oblique non-verbal elements (such as relator nouns, direct objects, postpositions, etc.) and asked them to construct Serial Verb Construction Nominals (SVCNs) from them. We found that, by and large, when not given said non-verbal elements, speakers were not able to construct nominal forms. In another task, we gave speakers nominal forms and asked them to deconstruct them to the constituent serial verbs from which they were derived. Time and again, speakers gave, not only the serial verbs, but also the non-verbal elements even though they were not asked to do so. Gestalt meanings were also given by speakers when asked the meanings of individual elements. Thus, the semantic integration and lexicalization that takes place in full lexicalized-integrated serial verb constructions extends not only to serial verbs but also to these non-verbal elements which, to native speakers, seem to form just as important a part of the SVC as the verbal elements. Thus, we argue that definitions of SVCs, henceforth, should not prejudice the serial verbs to the detriment of other equally important parts of the construction.

scholarly journals Serial Verb Constructions in Sikkanese

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 790
Author(s):  
Ni Luh Ketut Mas Indrawati ◽  
Ni Made Suryati ◽  
Ida Ayu Made Puspani
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Features ◽  
Common Phenomenon ◽  
Morphological Markers ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Serial Verb Construction ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Dependent Type

Serial verb construction (hereafter abbreviated as SVC) is a construction consisting of more than one verbs without any overt markers of coordinator or subordinator. SVC is a common phenomenon in isolating languages which lack morphological markers for syntactic processes. Sikka language (Sikkanese belongs to isolating language with SVO type and it does not have diathesis. This research attempts to analyse the typological characteristics of Sikkanese SVCs which cover: prosodic/phonological, morpho-syntactic, and semantic features of SVCs in Sikkanese. The theory adopted in this research is typological theory which is applied by Van Stedent and Ger Reesink (2008) in analysing SVCs in East-Nusantara languages. The prosodic characteristic shows that Sikkanese SVCs fell under one intonation contour, similar to the intonation of a single clause and without being separated by a pause; morphosyntactically SVCs in Sikkanese could be categorised into independent and some belong to co-dependent type without any morphological markers; and symantically they could be analysed  into: (1) motion; (2) direction, (3) manner; (4) instrument; (5) purpose; (6) progressive; (7)  modality.

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