[Lingtyp] Query: Habitual serial verb constructions

[Laura Arnold]

Dear Eva, dear Sune,

Ambel (Austronesian > South Halmahera-West New Guinea) is another example—in this case, the SVCs contain the element hey 'good'. These are functionally very similar to the Papuan Malay taw constructions, and speakers often use the taw constructions to translate the Ambel hey constructions. There are further details in section 13.1.3.2 (especially p550) of the Ambel grammar: https://laura-arnold.org/documents/Arnold_2018_AGrammarOfAmbel.pdf

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.

All the best,
Laura

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Sune Gregersen <s.gregersen at isfas.uni-kiel.de>
Sent: Monday, April 17, 2023 09:20
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Subject: [Lingtyp] Query: Habitual serial verb constructions

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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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