[Lingtyp] Query: Habitual serial verb constructions

Mon Apr 17 12:26:22 UTC 2023

Serial verbs were commonly utilized in Yahgan, a recently extinct Native
American language from Tierra del Fuego, which I've studied for the past
quarter century. Unusually, Yahgan is a differential case-marking language
(nominative-accusative alignment) with a general SVO morphosyntax, though
there are traces of former SOV habit (which is the norm in the region's
other languages). Aspectual notions normally are expressed by use of
posture-based copular verbs suffixed to the main verb or verb string.  The
degree of contact with the substrate seems to determine where in the aspect
spectrum the particular posture verb is. -(w)i:a 'lie (down), sg.' (colon
marks tenseness of the vowel preceding it) has the greatest contact,
-mu:tu: 'sit, sg.' has a bit less contact, -mvni 'stand, sg.' (v schwa)
even less, and a:gulu: 'jump, fly' the minimum amount of contact. There are
also terms for being similarly in or out of the water also used aspectually
(the the evidence is less complete from dictionary glosses and the three
biblical texts we have). And we also have suffixed dual and inherent plural
verbs for these senses used aspectually.

With the spectrum of substrate contact (spatiotemporally) explained, we can
see that this system is somewhat iconic in terms of its motivation, though
not phonosemantically (Yahgan has only a tiny handful of onomatopes, and no
ideophones dealing with other semantic domains).

Being ready or able to start a new activity as needs or opportunities arise
takes -mvni 'stand, sg.', while more regular or habitual activity takes
-mu:tu: Complete immersion in some activity takes -(w)i:a 'lie, sg.'. Note
that these appear as SUFFIXES to the verb. Curiously, when used
PREFIXALLY on the verb, we get inverted senses. Mvni- marks being
habitually involved, while ya- means to plan, prepare for, or begin, but
not complete, an activity. And the prefixal and suffixal forms can appear
together on the same verb.

Jess Tauber

On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 6:55 AM VITTRANT Alice <alice.vittrant at cnrs.fr>
wrote:

> Dear Eva and Sune,
>
> Burmese (Sino-tibetan) uses serial verb constructions, and does have a SVC
> to express habitual meaning. This SVC contains the verb တတ် /taʔ/ that
> appears after another verb.
> The verb တတ် /taʔ/ outside of the construction means ‘be skilled, know’.
>
> Examples could be found in my chapter on Burmese (Vittrant 2019 : 58), or
> in Vittrant (2006) or (2012 <https://journals.openedition.org/lidil/3246>)
>  on SVC in Burmese.
> See also Jenny & Hnin Tun (2016:209)
>
> Best regards,
> Alice
>
>
> Vittrant, A.
> <http://www.ddl.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/Index.asp?Langue=FR&Page=Alice%20VITTRANT>,
> 2019, "Burmese", in *The Mainland Southeast Asia Linguistic Area*,
> Vittrant, A. & Watkins, J. (eds), Berlin, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 56-130
> Vittrant, A.
> <http://www.ddl.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/Index.asp?Langue=FR&Page=Alice%20VITTRANT>,
> 2012, "How typology allows for a new analysis of the verb phrase in
> Burmese", *Lidil*, 46, pp. 101-126
> Vittrant, A.
> <http://www.ddl.cnrs.fr/Annuaires/Index.asp?Langue=FR&Page=Alice%20VITTRANT>,
> 2006, "Les constructions en série : une autre approche du syntagme verbal
> en birman", *Bulletin de la Société de linguistique de Paris*, CI,
> pp. 305-368
>
> M. Jenny & San San Hnin Tun, *Burmese: A comprehensive grammar*,  New York:
> Routledge, 2016.
>
>
>
>
>
> Le 17 avr. 2023 à 10:20, Sune Gregersen <s.gregersen at isfas.uni-kiel.de> a
> écrit :
>
> 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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>
> *Alice Vittrant*
> Professeur des Universités
> Université Lyon 2 - DYNAMIQUE DU LANGAGE (CNRS DDL - UMR 5596)
> 14 avenue Berthelot - MSH - Bât C
> 69363 Lyon Cedex 07
> *Site* :
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>      http://irasia.cnrs.fr/alice-vittrant/
>
> *Mail* : alice.vittrant at cnrs.fr
>    alice.vittrant at univ-lyon2.fr
>
>
>
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