[Lingtyp] Query: Habitual serial verb constructions

[Sune Gregersen]

Dear colleagues,

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 /taw/ can be combined with another verb to 
express a habitual situation. Outside of this construction, the verb 
/taw/ means 'know', as in (2):

(1) Papuan Malay (Kluge 2023: 8)
/dong *taw* maing foli/
3PL know play volleyball
'they habitually play volleyball'

(2) Papuan Malay (Kluge 2023: 7)
/mama de blum *taw* tempat itu/
mother 3SG not.yet know place DISTAL.DEM
'mother doesn’t yet know that place'

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".

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///čakwi/, 
literally 'carry', gives the habitual meaning 'would kill'. However, 
'carry' may also be used as an independent verb, as shown in (4):

(3) Northern Paiute (Thornes 2003: 266)
/nɨnmi kammɨ koi-*čakwi */
1.EXCL jackrabbit kill.PL-carry
'We would kill jackrabbits.'

(4) Northern Paiute (Snapp et al. 1982: 68)
/baa-huu-na i gunna pa-to-*ǰakwi*-kɨ-kwɨnai-hu/
water-flow-SUBORD my wood water-shoulder-carry-APPLIC-away-PUNCTUAL
'The flood carried away my wood.'

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.

With all best wishes,
Eva van Lier (Amsterdam) and Sune Gregersen (Kiel)


REFERENCES

Haspelmath, Martin. 2016. The serial verb construction: Comparative 
concept and cross-linguistic generalizations. Language and Linguistics 
17(3). 291–319. https://doi.org/10.1177/2397002215626895

Kluge, Angela. 2023. Serial verb constructions in Papuan Malay: Forms, 
functions and indeterminacy. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics 
Society 16(1). 1–36. http://hdl.handle.net/10524/52507

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. 
https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/8593

Thornes, Timothy Jon. 2003. A Northern Paiute grammar and texts. 
Doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon.
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