On Nominalizing the Serial Verb in Mabia Languages (original) (raw)
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Serial verb constructions in Barayin: Typology, description and Lexical-Functional Grammar
PhD dissertation, University of Oxford, 2018
Barayin is an East Chadic language spoken by around 5000 people in the Guera region of the Republic of Chad. This dissertation examines a particular type of syntactic construction in the language, serial verb constructions, from the perspectives of typological (or comparative) syntax, descriptive grammar, and the formal syntactic theory of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG). Typologically, serial verb constructions are problematic because they represent a heterogeneous set of multiverb constructions that have features that do not fit into traditional syntactic categories like subordination, conjunction and adjunction. Part A of this dissertation describes these problematic features in detail, providing a succinct overview of the literature which can serve as a resource for field linguists describing similar constructions. Part B of the dissertation gives a detailed description of the morphology, syntax and semantics of serial verb constructions in Barayin. These chapters contribute to our knowledge of the world’s languages by documenting a complex syntactic phenomenon in an area of the world where most of the languages are significantly understudied. The most common type of SVC in Barayin involves a deictic motion verb. The motion is normally (but not always) understood to take place prior to the activity or state predicated by the main verb. The formal analysis of Barayin SVCs in Lexical-Functional Grammar in Part C uses recent developments in the theory to show how argument sharing in SVCs can be represented in a connected s-structure that conforms to the standard mechanisms of LFG. The approach is compared to two previous analyses of complex motion predicates in other languages which appeal to a non-standard formal mechanism to model complex predicates.
2007
This paper describes verb root serialization as a highly productive component of the verbal semantics and morphology of Kotiria (Wanano) and Waikhana (Piratapuyo), * two closely related languages in the Eastern Tukanoan (ET) family spoken in the Vaupes river basin. It begins with a brief overview of the previous analyses of serial verb constructions (SVCs) in ET languages and their defining syntactic and phonological features. It then describes the semantics of the most common serialization patterns occurring in these two languages and proposes a general typology that includes 'causeeffect' serializations ( §2); serializations that function to express adverbial ( §3), aspectual ( §4), and modal ( §5) information in SVCs with activity verbs as heads; and serializations coding intensification and change of state in SVCs with stative verbs as heads ( §6). §7 demonstrates how SVCs contrast with other types of multiple-verb constructions, such as verb sequences and constructions involving subordination.
The serial verb construction: Comparative concept and cross-linguistic generalizations
Since the 1970s, serial verb constructions (SVCs) have been discussed widely in African, Oceanic and many other languages in different parts of the world. This paper gives an overview of the most important generalizations about serial verb constructions that have been proposed and that do seem to hold if a sufficiently restrictive definition of the concept is adopted. The main problem of the earlier comparative literature is that the notion of a SVC has not been delimited clearly, and/or has been formulated in much too wide terms. This can be seen as a result of the confusion between comparative concepts and natural kinds: Serial verb constructions have (most often implicitly) been regarded as natural kinds (universal categories), so that phenomena in additional languages were regarded as SVCs even when they had somewhat different properties. This procedure inevitably leads to a fuzzy and very broad understanding of the concept, with a prototype structure that does not allow falsifiable claims. Here I propose a narrow definition of SVC and formulate ten universals that are apparently true of all serial verb constructions in this narrow sense.
Auxiliaries in serialising languages: on COME and GO verbs in Sranan and Ewe
Lingua, 2004
While there is a concensus that auxiliary verbs differ in one way or the other from main verbs, linguists do not always agree on what determines the difference. This is especially so in serialising languages where two or more independent verbs can occur in a clause. It is not always clear whether the ability of a verbal form to express a temporal, aspectual or modal notion in such languages is enough for them to be analysed as auxiliary verbs or whether the nature of the form is equally important. This paper argues that a reduction in material integrity of a verbal form is a very important criterion for distinguishing verbs in serialising languages. #
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.