Complex Predicates and Event Structure: An Integrated Analysis of Serial Verb Constructions in the Mabia Languages of West-Africa (original) (raw)

Three-place predicates in West African serializing languages

Studies in African Linguistics

The widespread assumption that serializing languages use serial verb constructions (SVCs) to code three-participant situations and therefore lack three-place predicates and three-place mono-verbal constructions is shown not to be valid for West African serializing languages. Using Ewe (Gbe), Likpe (Na-Togo) and Akan (Tano) as exemplars, I demonstrate that these languages have trivalent predicates and various constructions in which a single verb hosts three arguments in a clause. The languages deploy three-place predicate, adpositional, SVC, and adnominal strategies to code three-participant situations. I argue that there are semantic differences between the various constructions. The hyper-transitivity of these languages might account for the presence of three-place predicate constructions.

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.

SERIAL VERB CONSTRUCTION IN BAWEANESE: A TYPOLOGYCAL LINGUISTIC STUDY

Celtic, 2023

The aims of this study is to identify and describe the characteristics of serial verb construction (SVC) in Baweanese, and to analyze the semantic types of SVC in Bawean. The method used in this study is descriptive qualitative. Data collection used was by interviewing, listening and taking notes with native speakers of the Baweanese, and also the library method to find references to previous studies to compare in this research. The result can be shown in the pattern of forming SVC of Baweanese are (1) transitive V1 + transitive V2, (2) intransitive V1 + transitive V2, (3) transitive V1 + intransitive V2, and (4) intransitive V1 + intransitive V2,. Then, the types of verb serialization (VS) that can be identified include: (1) manner type, (2) locative type, (3) directional type, (4) purpose type, (5) movement type, (6) instrumental type, (7) causal type. The implication of this study obtained is that BBW has similarities with Madurese in the pattern of formation of SVC, but in terms of written language and dialect it is not similar.

Serial Verb Nominalisations in Dagaare

1994

Abstract: This paper examines nominalization and serial verb construction (SVC) in Dagaare, a West African language. It discusses nominalization theory and its relation to Germanic languages such as English, German, and Dutch, using insights gained from the study of these languages to help illuminate nominalization in Dagaare and other similar West African languages. Serial verb nominalization (SVN) in Dagaare is then examined. SVN in Dagaare gives rise to a pattern in which the shared object precedes all verbal ...

SERIAL VERB CONSTRUCTIONS SAMUEL OLUWASEUN PAUL

This work present and analysis of the basic clause in Yorùbá language and Naija pidgin. It assert the claim by Esizimotor and Francis (2005) that serial verb construction is a phenomenon in Nigerian pidgin. This paper further studied the serial verb in Nigerian pidgin to determine the structural patterns and functional types and argued that SVC‟s in NP exhibit Directional, Benefactive, instrumental, Resultative and locative functional types. This paper claims that serial verb construction in Yorùbá language is a surface phenomenon which is achievable through the economy of derivations of Chomsky (1995).

Serial Verb Construction in Balinese (Syntactic and Semantic Analysis)

e-Journal of Linguistics, 2012

Serial verb construction (SVC) is a construction where more than one verbs occur in a clause without any overt markers of subordinator or coordinator. SVC is a common fenomenon in isolative languages which lack morphological markers for sintactic processes. However, in the use of Balinese, which is rich in morphological markers, SVC are common fenomena. This research attempts to analyse the typological characteristics of SVC in Balinese, to describe the types of SVC in Balinese viewed from the structure of events which forms the SVC, to analyse the constituent merging strategies in clauses containing SVC. This research applies decriptive-qualitative approach, by combining analitic and introspective methods. The data source of this research was 50 short story texts taken from Sastra slot in “Bali Orti”, weekly newspaper of Bali Post, completed with spoken texts, obtained by applying direct observation technique. The data was descriptively and analitically analysed by using the de...

Serial Verb Constructions in Degema, Nigeria

African Study Monographs, 2003

Serial verb constructions in Degema have not been studied, regarding characteristics such as type of serial verbs, range of semantic notions that can be expressed by these verbs and position of tense-aspect-polarity markers in relation to these verbs. It is noted in this paper that serial verb constructions in Degema belong to the type called “concordial” serial verbs. Tense-aspect markers occur after the verb or after an object pronoun that begins with a consonant. In some cases, tense-aspect marking on the initial verb is repeated after non-initial verbs. Also noted is the fact that there need not be agreement in tense between verbs in series, contrary to what has often been claimed in the literature on serial verbs.