[Lingtyp] verbless predications

Thu Aug 8 20:03:30 UTC 2024

My naïve feeling is that the finite verb HAVE is best known from Romance
and Germanic. It is absent from Semitic, at least part of Slavic (Russian,
eastern dialects of Ukrainian), Turkish, Kurdish (at least Kurmanji), etc.

On Thu, 8 Aug 2024 at 21:51, Martin Haspelmath via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> wrote:

> There is, incidentally, an interesting terminological question concerning
> what we regard as "verbless/nonverbal". What about (1) and (2), for example?
>
> (1) *We have enough money.*
>
> (2) (German): *Auf dem Tisch liegt ein Buch* [on the table lies a book]
> 'There is a book on the table'
>
> Do predpossessive sentences like (1) generally fall under "nonverbal
> predication", or only when they do not include a "verb"? Is English "have"
> a verb in this sense? But what about "copula verbs"? Aren't they "verbal",
> too?
>
> And what should we say about existential clauses like (2) ('There is a
> book on the table'), which commonly make use of posture verbs, as in
> German? Are existential clauses sometimes "verbal" and sometimes "verbless"?
>
> It seems to me that the best way to define terms such as "verbal
> predication", "existential clause", and "predpossessive clause" is as
> construction-functions. By contrast, the terms "copula clause" and
> "transpossessive construction" (= 'have' construction) are best defined as
> construction-strategies.
>
> (For the contrast between construction(-function)s and
> (construction-)strategies, see Croft 2022, and my forthcoming paper:
> https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/007897)
>
> Thus, I would say that (1) and (2) are nonverbal (in a comparative-concept
> perspective), even though from a language-particular viewpoint, "have" is
> an English Verb, and "liegen" is a German Verb.
>
> Martin
>
>
> On 08.08.24 19:30, Spike Gildea via Lingtyp wrote:
>
> I would also suggest:
>
>
>
> Mikkelsen, Line. 2011. Copular clauses. In Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von
> Heusinger, and Paul Portner (eds.) *Semantics: An International Handbook
> of Natural Language Meaning,* volume 2, 1805–1829. Berlin: Mouton de
> Gruyter.
>
> Overall, Simon, Rosa Vallejos, & Spike Gildea. 2018. Non-verbal
> predication in Amazonian languages: Introduction. *Nonverbal predication
> in Amazonian Languages*, ed. by Simon Overall, Rosa Vallejos, & Spike
> Gildea, 1-49. Typological Studies in Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
>
> Pustet, Regina. 2003. *Copulas: Universals in the categorization of the
> lexicon*. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.
>
>
>
> And especially:
>
>
>
> Stassen, Leon. 1997. *Intransitive Predication*. Oxford: OUP.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Spike
>
>
>
> *From: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Christian
> Lehmann via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Date: *Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 1:49 PM
> *To: *lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [Lingtyp] verbless predications
>
> Dear Sergey,
>
> here are some references for nominal clauses:
>
> Clairis, Christos & Chamoreau, Claudine & Costaouec, Denis & Guérin,
> Françoise (eds.) 2005, *Typologie de la syntaxe connective.* Rennes:
> Presses Universitaires de Rennes (Rivages linguistiques).
>
> Hengeveld, Kees 1990, "Semantic relations in non-verbal predications."
> Nuyts, Jan & Bolkestein, A. Machtelt & Vet, Co (eds.), *Layers and levels
> of representation in language theory. A functional view.* Amsterdam &
> Philadelphia: J. Benjamins; 101-122.
>
> Hengeveld, Kees 1992, *Non-verbal predication. Theory, typology,
> diachrony.* Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
>
> Levin, Saul 1978, "Predication through an obligatory copulative verb."
> *LACUS* 5:503-509.
>
> Li, Charles N. & Thompson, Sandra A. 1977, "A mechanism for the
> development of copula morphemes." Li, Charles N. (ed.), *Mechanisms of
> syntactic change.* Austin & London: University of Texas Press; 419-444.
>
> Penner, Zvi 1988, *The grammar of the nominal sentence. A
> government-binding approach.* Bern: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der
> Universität (Arbeitspapier, 24).
>
> Pernée, Lucien 1985, "La relation prédicative en grec: phrase nominale et
> verbe être." *Travaux du Cercle Linguistique d'Aix-en-Provence* 3:61-75.
>
> Rapoport, Tova R. 1987, *Copular, nominal and small clauses. A study of
> Israeli Hebrew.* Cambridge: MIT, Department of Linguistics & Philosophy
> (Unpubl. PhD dissertation).
>
> Vapnarsky, Valentina 2013, "Is Yucatec Maya an omnipredicative language?
> Predication, the copula and focus constructions." *Sprachtypologie und
> Universalienforschung* 66:40-86.
>
> Wetzer, Harrie 1992, "`Nouny' and `verby' adjectivals: a typology of
> predicative adjectival constructions." Kefer, Michel & Van der Auwera
> (eds.), *Meaning and grammar. Cross-linguistic perspectives.* Berlin &
> New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology,
> 10); 223-262.
>
> Wetzer, Harrie 1996, *The typology of adjectival predication.* Berlin &
> New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology, 17).
>
> A topic different from this one are clauses which are missing their verb.
> This is treated for Latin in
>
> Carvalho, Paulo de 1978, "Syntaxe et sémantique: verbe et phrase en
> latin." * Revue des Études Anciennes* 80:239-247.
>
> and for Russian in
>
> Wiemer, Björn 1996, "Klassifikacija nulevyx skazujemyx v russkom jazyke po
> ix leksičeskim i referencial'nym xarakteristikam." *Studia z Filologii
> Polskiej i Słowańskiej* 33:245-273.
>
> Best,
>
> Christian
>
>
>
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> --
> Martin Haspelmath
> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
> Deutscher Platz 6
> D-04103 Leipzighttps://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/
>
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