Development of verb-verb complexes in Indo-Aryan

This chapter discusses the historical development and properties of verb-verb compounds in Indo-Aryan, with reference to verb-verb compounds in Dravidian. The history of modern Indo-Aryan verb-verb compounds is explored, including an examination of the precursors of such constructions in early Indo-Aryan, as well as the apparent earliest examples in late Middle and early modern Indo-Aryan. A number of morphosyntactic and lexical differences between verb-verb structures in different modern Indo-Aryan languages are examined, focusing particularly on differences between Hindi and Nepali. The larger picture of South Asian verb-verb compounds is examined through comparison of lexical inventories of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, with some evidence pointing to independent developments within South Asia, with some later partial convergence.

Syntactic verb-verb compounds in Japanese

This chapter discusses the syntactic behavior and some notable properties of syntactic V-V compounds in Japanese (Type 3 in the classification of Chapter 2), providing some fresh empirical data. In this chapter, syntactic V-V compounds are seen to be divided into raising and control types. Syntactic V-V compound verbs take distinct embedded structures, depending on whether V2 is classified as a raising or a control verb. V-V compounds allow some, but not all, V2s to undergo long-distance passivization. It is suggested that the difference in applicability of long-distance passivization between raising and control V-V compounds is determined according to whether V2 has an accusative-case feature to license an object, and also that control V-V compounds are not passivizable if they denote an uncontrollable event (even if V2 has an accusative-case feature). Furthermore, syntactic V-V compounds taking sugiru ‘exceed’ as V2 are shown to display a number of unique properties that are not shared with other syntactic compound verbs.

Verb verb complex predicates in Old and Middle Japanese

This chapter describes the main features of Verb Verb complex predicates in Old and Middle Japanese (8th to 16th centuries) and discusses changes that took place between Old Japanese and Modern Japanese. Old Japanese had complex verbal predicate constructions which resemble the Modern Japanese Types 1–3, and in addition a V1 aktionsart verb construction, which is not found in later stages and which is hypothesized to have played a crucial role in the development of complex predicates in Japanese. The wordhood of complex verbal predicates is addressed. Verb Verb complex predicates did not constitute tight morphological units in Old and Early Middle Japanese, but developed into morphological words in Late Middle and Modern Japanese. It is proposed that the loss of subordinating function of the infinitive played an important part in this change. It is also observed that the Modern Japanese Type 4 (Vte V) is a Late Middle Japanese innovation which is not a prototypical complex predicate verb construction but rather an auxiliary verb construction.

The Hindi-Urdu compound verb and its covert semantics

The first section of this chapter shows how use of quantitative online data can shed light on the semantic and syntactic properties of the Hindi-Urdu compound verb when compared to the compound verb in other Indo-Aryan languages like Marathi and Nepali. The second and third parts of the chapter demonstrate a contrast in the use of compound versus?noncompound verbs in referring to imagined versus real natural events and interpret that contrast as reflecting the conscious reception of information by the prepared mind as opposed to the sudden reception of new information by the unprepared mind (Bashir 1993). This contrast is robust in languages like Hindi-Urdu where the alternation of compound versus noncompound forms of the verb has taken on paradigmatic value and has developed the power to reflect abstract mental states.

The semantic differentiation of verb-te verb complexes and verb-verb compounds in Japanese

Japanese has two different formal types of complex predicates involving two verbs: V-te V complex predicates and V-V compound verbs. This chapter discusses the nature of the former in comparison to the latter. The examination reveals that the two kinds of multiverbal complexes similarly have two subtypes, one monoclausal and the other biclausal, but that they are different morphologically, syntactically, and semantically. The most interesting finding is that the two crucially differ in whether deictic and honorific verbs, which encode perspectival and interactional meanings, can participate in the complexes. Morphologically tighter V-V compounds require a same-subject relation between the two verbs and exclude perspectival or interactional meanings (except V1 in syntactic compounds). Loosely concatenated V-te V complexes allow different subjects, typically have perfective/resultative V1, and have V2 as a preferred slot for perspectival/interactional meanings. These observations suggest that Japanese does not have these two options meaninglessly; the different multiverbal complexes serve different purposes.

Verb-verb complexes in Avar

This chapter discusses syntactic V-V complexes involving a semantically main verb in the nonfinite form (first verb) and a syntactically main verb (second verb) in Avar. Avar employs no morphological V-V complexes. Avar syntactic V-V complexes include periphrastic tense forms, V-V complexes whose tense is indicated by a first verb, and V-V complexes whose tense is denoted by a second verb. The third type of V-V complexes uses twenty-eight second verbs. Most of them are also used as lexical verbs. Twenty-three of these second verbs do not change the number of arguments of first verbs. They are mostly used to express aspectual or modal meaning. Some of them are only employed with a restricted number of first verbs. Some second verbs permit bi-absolutive constructions. There are two types of bi-absolutive constructions. Avar second verbs tend to immediately follow first verbs, but other word orders are possible.

Verb-verb complexes in Irabu Ryukyuan

This chapter explores the V-V complexes in the Irabu dialect of Miyako Ryukyuan, spoken in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Two major classes of V-V complexes are identified: phrasal V-V complexes (Auxiliary Verb Constructions and Serial Verb Constructions) and one-word V-V complexes (lexical and syntactic compounds). After a detailed description of these structures, they are compared with the V-V complexes in Japanese. Finally, it is argued that the descriptive data of Irabu has implications for diachronic studies, especially the ongoing debate in Japanese historical linguistics with regard to whether one-word V-V complexes existed in Old Japanese.

Verb–verb complexes in Turkic languages

The chapter contains an overview of V–V complexes in Turkic languages and three case studies of the interaction of V–V complexes with lexical verbs based on field data of Karachay-Balkar, Anatri Chuvash, and Tubalar Altai. The chapter shows that the meaning of a modifier is not uniform but interacts with the meaning of the lexical verbs. Modifiers have different interpretations and/or lexical restrictions that in most cases may be predicted from the semantic features of the lexical verb. If a modifier changes the actional structure of the lexical verb, its specific meaning may be predicted from the actional class of the verb. If a modifier changes the argument structure of the lexical verbs or has a modal meaning, the most relevant features are the volitivity and agentivity of the lexical verb.

Korean verb-verb sequences

This chapter examines Korean V-V sequences where V1 ends with the infinitive suffix -e/a. These complexes correspond in part to Japanese V-V compounds and in part to Japanese Type 4 complex verbs. Like the former, Korean V1-e/a V2 sequences divide up into thematic and nonthematic subtypes, but it is shown that neither are compounds with single-word status, in contrast to a pattern of bare root V-V compounds attested but no longer productive in Modern Korean. It is argued that the thematic V1-e/a V2 pattern, widely analyzed as a serial-verb construction, is subject to a condition similar to Kageyama’s (1993) Transitivity Harmony Principle. However the condition is even stronger in Korean: not only must the two verbs agree with respect to presence or absence of an external argument, they must also match in lexical aspect or aktionsart.

Between lexical verbs and auxiliaries

This chapter classifies Japanese V-V complexes into four major types on the basis of morphosyntactic criteria and shows that the formal taxonomy has semantic underpinnings. Type 1: lexical thematic compound verbs (lexical verb + lexical verb), Type 2: lexical aspectual compound verbs (lexical verb + delexicalized aktionsart verb), Type 3: syntactic compound verbs (verb phrase + delexicalized phasal verb), Type 4: V-te V complex predicates (verb phrase + delexicalized aspectual/attitudinal/benefactive verb). The delexicalized V2s in Types 2, 3, and 4 modify the event structures of the first verbs with an array of aktionsart, phasal, pragmatic, and subjective meanings that are largely comparable to those of Indian vector verbs. These delexicalized verbs, coupled with the auxiliary verbs of a fifth type designating politeness or contempt, are conceived of as “semilexical” categories representing intermediate stages of development on a verb-to-auxiliary grammaticalization cline.