<div dir="ltr"><div>Dear Sune and others,</div><div><br></div><div>In Ross & Lovestrand (2018) and Ross (2021, ch.4) SVCs with posture verbs are surveyed, and they were found in around 40% of languages with SVCs. "Posture SVCs" (especially with SIT and STAND, also LIE, and rarely others) were defined to include both literal posture constructions ("sit and read") and also grammaticalized, especially aspectual functions (e.g. "sit read" as progressive or similar). Development of a progressive or similar function was very common in the sample, while other functions of posture verbs were rarer. In general, although I did not specifically look for this in the survey, my impression is that habitual is not a typical function of posture verbs in SVCs, and also overall I do not think that habitual is a particularly common function of SVCs in general. On the other hand, descriptive work on SVCs is generally biased toward "famous" types like SIT as progressive, so it's possible this is underreported. Regardless, given the examples so far this appears to be especially frequent in ([Mainland?] Southeast) Asian languages, so it seems possible to me that it might be a regional feature rather than a typical pathway for SVCs in general. Already in these few messages we have examples from elsewhere, so I don't mean it would be a unique development, but just that it's not the kind of extremely common development that would be hard to attribute as a regional feature like some other types of SVCs, such as SIT progressives or TAKE instrumentals. I imagine that sometimes progressive could further grammaticalize as habitual, but that doesn't seem to be typical (although this may also be under-reported).<br></div><div><br></div><div>There is also a murky question for SVCs regarding at which point we would consider them to be auxiliaries. One overly strict criterion would be to require a lack of homophony to a lexical verb, which would count English HAVE perfectives as some kind of lexical construction (not SVC due to form, but that's beside the point: Anderson 2006 is a relevant survey of auxiliaries, finding that 'Auxiliary Verb Constructions' can be of essentially any form, including all of those commonly associated with "SVCs"). In this case, my instinct would be to say that this is a relatively grammaticalized function, although again that's just my impression from general familiarity with SVCs, not too much with this specific type. We could similarly consider SIT progressives to be auxiliary constructions, except that there seems to be a continuum from literal to grammaticalized usage (see Lødrup 2019 for a detailed analysis of a similar construction where it isn't clear how bleached it really is). With KNOW (for example), I don't see a possible continuum via SVCs: in fact, this seems to be some kind of complementation (paraphrased as "know how to V", or maybe "be familiar with Ving", later grammaticalizing as habitual). This complement-taking function of KNOW is explicitly excluded by Haspelmath (2016: 305). Whether or not we accept that particular argument, this seems to violate the single-event criterion (however that should be interpreted), because <i>knowing how to do something</i> and <i>doing that action</i> are not co-extensive, so they don't form a macro-event. I can know how to do something without actually doing it: "I know how to speak Spanish" does not entail that I am currently speaking Spanish. Interestingly, habitual aspect similarly actually does not entail that the predicate holds at the current moment: "I speak Spanish" does not entail "I am speaking Spanish". Overall, this seems removed from prototypical SVCs and suggests complementation as a more likely source. I realize that some authors prefer to use "SVC" for anything that looks like SVCs, especially in languages with many SVCs, but that is a somewhat loose classification focusing only on form (vs. function: see Ross 2021 about this specific issue for defining SVCs).<br></div><div><br></div><div>Anderson, Gregory D. S. 2006. Auxiliary verb constructions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280315.001.0001">https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280315.001.0001</a></div><div>Lødrup, Helge. 2019. Pseudocoordination with posture verbs in Mainland Scandinavian: A grammaticalized progressive construction? Nordic Journal of Linguistics 42(1). 87–110. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586519000027">https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586519000027</a></div><div>Ross, Daniel & Joseph Lovestrand. 2018. What Do Serial Verbs Mean? A Worldwide Survey. Presented at Syntax of the World’s Languages (SWL) 8, INALCO, Paris, September 3, 2018. <a href="https://swl8.sciencesconf.org/data/pages/Ross_Lovestrand_SWL8.pdf">https://swl8.sciencesconf.org/data/pages/Ross_Lovestrand_SWL8.pdf</a></div><div>Ross, Daniel. 2021. Pseudocoordination, Serial Verb Constructions and Multi-Verb Predicates: The relationship between form and structure. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. dissertation. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5546425">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5546425</a></div><div><br></div><div>I hope those notes may be helpful!<br></div><div>Daniel<br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 7:33 PM Laura Arnold <<a href="mailto:Laura.Arnold@ed.ac.uk">Laura.Arnold@ed.ac.uk</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg6044796011582652621">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
Dear Eva, dear Sune,</div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
Ambel (Austronesian > South Halmahera-West New Guinea) is another example—in this case, the SVCs contain the element <i>hey</i> 'good'. These are functionally very similar to the Papuan Malay
<i>taw</i> constructions, and speakers often use the <i>taw </i>constructions to translate the Ambel <i>hey</i> constructions. There are further details in section 13.1.3.2 (especially p550) of the Ambel grammar: <a href="https://laura-arnold.org/documents/Arnold_2018_AGrammarOfAmbel.pdf" id="m_6044796011582652621LPlnk286044" target="_blank">https://laura-arnold.org/documents/Arnold_2018_AGrammarOfAmbel.pdf</a></div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
Several other nearby languages have similar constructions using 'good', which may also be analysable as SVCs. Let me know if you'd like further information. </div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
All the best,</div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
Laura</div>
<div style="font-family:Calibri,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br>
</div>
<div id="m_6044796011582652621appendonsend"></div>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%">
<div id="m_6044796011582652621divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)" face="Calibri, sans-serif"><b>From:</b> Lingtyp <<a href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>> on behalf of Sune Gregersen <<a href="mailto:s.gregersen@isfas.uni-kiel.de" target="_blank">s.gregersen@isfas.uni-kiel.de</a>><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, April 17, 2023 09:20<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a> <<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Lingtyp] Query: Habitual serial verb constructions</font>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="border:2px dotted rgb(255,136,77);background-color:rgb(255,242,230)">
<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:sans-serif;font-weight:bold;padding:0.2em;color:black">This email was sent to you by someone outside the University.</span>
<div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:sans-serif;font-style:normal;padding:0.2em">
You should only click on links or attachments if you are certain that the email is genuine and the content is safe.</div>
</div>
<div>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">Dear colleagues,<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">In connection with an investigation of habitual markers, we are looking for information on languages which use serial verb constructions (SVCs) to express habitual meaning, i.e. for customarily or typically recurring
situations. An example of this is seen in (1), from Papuan Malay [ISO 639-3: pmy], where the verb
<i>taw</i> can be combined with another verb to express a habitual situation. Outside of this construction, the verb
<i>taw</i> means 'know', as in (2):<br>
<br>
(1) Papuan Malay (Kluge 2023: 8)<br>
<i>dong <b>taw</b> maing foli</i><br>
3PL know play volleyball<br>
'they habitually play volleyball'<br>
<br>
(2) Papuan Malay (Kluge 2023: 7)<br>
<i>mama de blum <b>taw</b> tempat itu</i><br>
mother 3SG not.yet know place DISTAL.DEM<br>
'mother doesn’t yet know that place'<br>
<br>
We adhere to the definition of SVC offered by Haspelmath (2016: 296): "a monoclausal construction consisting of multiple independent verbs with no element linking them and with no predicate–argument relation between the verbs".<br>
<br>
That the verbs must be "independent" means that they must be able to occur on their own in a non-elliptical utterance (see Haspelmath [2016: 302–304] for details). This does not exclude the possibility that the verbs in a SVC are pronounced as a single phonological
word. Hence the definition also covers some constructions which may be termed differently in grammars, e.g. "verb incorporation", "verbal compounds", or "secondary verbs". An example of such a SVC is seen in (3) from Northern Paiute [pao]. The combination
of 'kill' with<i> </i><i>čakwi</i>, literally 'carry', gives the habitual meaning 'would kill'. However, 'carry' may also be used as an independent verb, as shown in (4):<br>
<br>
(3) Northern Paiute (Thornes 2003: 266)<br>
<i>nɨnmi kammɨ koi-<b>čakwi </b></i><br>
1.EXCL jackrabbit kill.PL-carry<br>
'We would kill jackrabbits.'<br>
<br>
(4) Northern Paiute (Snapp et al. 1982: 68)<br>
<i>baa-huu-na i gunna pa-to-<b>ǰakwi</b>-kɨ-kwɨnai-hu</i><br>
water-flow-SUBORD my wood water-shoulder-carry-APPLIC-away-PUNCTUAL<br>
'The flood carried away my wood.'<br>
<br>
Apart from Papuan Malay and Northern Paiute, we have examples from the following languages so far: Anamuxra [imi], Dumo [vam], Kwomtari [kwo], Lao [lao], Sezo [sze], Tariana [tae], and Yace [ekr]. We would be most grateful for any information on other habitual
serial verb constructions, including verbal compounds, in any language of the world.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">With all best wishes,<br>
Eva van Lier (Amsterdam) and Sune Gregersen (Kiel)</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">REFERENCES</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">Haspelmath, Martin. 2016. The serial verb construction: Comparative concept and cross-linguistic generalizations. Language and Linguistics 17(3). 291–319.
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2397002215626895" target="_blank">
https://doi.org/10.1177/2397002215626895</a><br>
<br>
Kluge, Angela. 2023. Serial verb constructions in Papuan Malay: Forms, functions and indeterminacy. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 16(1). 1–36.
<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52507" target="_blank">
http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52507</a><br>
<br>
Snapp, Allen, John Anderson & Joy Anderson. 1982. Northern Paiute. In Ronald W. Langacker (ed.), Studies in Uto-Aztecan grammar 3: Uto-Aztecan grammatical sketches, 1-92. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
<a href="https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/8593" target="_blank">
https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/8593</a><br>
<br>
Thornes, Timothy Jon. 2003. A Northern Paiute grammar and texts. Doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon.<br>
</p>
</div>
</div>
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th’ ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann, clàraichte an Alba, àireamh clàraidh SC005336.
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
Lingtyp mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">Lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a><br>
<a href="https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp</a><br>
</div></blockquote></div>