The Syntax of Serial Verbs

The Syntax of Serial Verbs PDF Author: Mark Sebba
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902725222X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
This monograph is about the chains of verbs commonly found in Creole Languages, West African languages, in particular the Kwa sub-group of Niger-Congo, Chinese and certain other languages and have acquired the name of 'serial verbs' in the literature. As a case study, the serial constructions of Sranan, a creole language of Surinam with an English lexical base, are examined in detail.

The Syntax of Serial Verbs

The Syntax of Serial Verbs PDF Author: Mark Sebba
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902725222X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
This monograph is about the chains of verbs commonly found in Creole Languages, West African languages, in particular the Kwa sub-group of Niger-Congo, Chinese and certain other languages and have acquired the name of 'serial verbs' in the literature. As a case study, the serial constructions of Sranan, a creole language of Surinam with an English lexical base, are examined in detail.

Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions

Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions PDF Author: Carol Lord
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027276854
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
This work examines both historical and comparative evidence in documenting the sweep of diachronic change in the context of serial verb constructions. Using a wide range of data from languages of West Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, it demonstrates how shifts in meaning and usage result in syntactic, morphological and lexical change. The process by which verbs lose lexical semantic content and develop case-marking functions is described; it is argued that the change is directional, from verb to preposition (or postposition) to affix, along a grammaticalization continuum. This same grammaticalization process is shown to result in the development of complementizers, adverbial subordinators, conjunctions, adverbs and auxiliaries from verbs. Strong parallels across languages are found in the meanings of the verbs that become “defective” and in the functions they come to mark. The changes are documented in detail, with examples from a number of languages illustrating the effect of the changes on typology and word order, implications for the encoding of definiteness and aspect, and the relevance of notions such as discourse topic, foreground and transitivity. With respect to theoretical assumptions and terminology, the author has taken a relatively nonpartisan approach, and the discussion is accessible to students of language as well as of interest to theoreticians.

Serial Verbs in White Hmong

Serial Verbs in White Hmong PDF Author: Nerida Jarkey
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900429239X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
In Serial Verbs in White Hmong Nerida Jarkey investigates verb serialization, a highly productive grammatical strategy in this dynamic Southeast Asian language in which multiple verbs are simply concatenated within a single clause to depict a single event. The investigation identifies four major types of serial verb construction (SVC) in White Hmong and finds that the key function of all these types is to depict a single event in an elaborate and vivid way, a much-favoured method of description in this language. These findings concerning the nature and function of SVCs in White Hmong contribute to broader discussions on the nature of events as both cognitive and cultural constructs.

Serial Verb Constructions

Serial Verb Constructions PDF Author: Aleksandra I︠U︡rʹevna Aĭkhenvalʹd
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199279152
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
A serial verb construction is a sequence of verbs which acts together as one. This oustanding book is the first to study the phenomenon across languages of different typological and genetic profiles. The authors, all experienced linguistic fieldworkers, follow a unified typological approach and avoid formalisms.

The Acquisition of Creole Languages

The Acquisition of Creole Languages PDF Author: Dany Adone
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521199654
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
The first study into how children acquire Creoles as their first language in the absence of a conventional language model.

Complex Predicates

Complex Predicates PDF Author: Alex Alsina i Keith
Publisher: Stanford Univ Center for the Study
ISBN: 9781575860466
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
A variety of approaches to the question of the range and nature of complex predicates.

Analyzing Syntax

Analyzing Syntax PDF Author: Paul Kroeger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521016544
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Analyzing Syntax: A Lexical-Functional Approach is a comprehensive and accessible 2004 textbook on syntactic analysis, designed for students of linguistics at advanced undergraduate or graduate level. Working within the 'Lexical Functional Grammar' (LFG) approach, it provides students with a framework for analyzing and describing grammatical structure, using extensive examples from both European and non-European languages. Topics covered include: tests for constituency, passivization and other relation-changing processes, reflexive pronouns, the control relation, Topic and Focus, relative clauses and Wh-questions, causative constructions, serial verbs, 'quirky case', and ergativity. As well as building on what linguists have learned about language in general, particular attention is paid to the unique features of individual languages. While its primary focus is on syntactic structure, the book also deals with aspects of meaning, function and word-structure that are directly relevant to syntax. Clearly organised into topics, this textbook is ideal for one-semester courses in syntax and grammatical analysis.

Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions

Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions PDF Author: Giuliana Giusti
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027257930
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Verbal Pseudo-Coordination (as in English ‘go and get’) has been described for a number of individual languages, but this is the first edited volume to emphasize this topic from a comparative perspective, and in connection to Multiple Agreement Constructions more generally. The chapters include detailed analyses of Romance, Germanic, Slavic and other languages. These contributions show important cross-linguistic similarities in these constructions, as well as their diversity, providing insights into areas such as the morphology-syntax and syntax-semantics interfaces, dialectal variation and language contact. This volume establishes Pseudo-Coordination as a descriptively important and theoretically challenging cross-linguistic phenomenon among Multiple Agreement Constructions and will be of interest to specialists in individual languages as well as typologists and theoreticians, serving as a foundation to promote continued research.

Multi-verb Constructions

Multi-verb Constructions PDF Author: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004194525
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
This book surveys multi-verb constructions in multiple languages from the Americas, showing a very rich tapestry of typologically unusual constructions, including serial verbs, auxiliaries, co-verbs, phasal verbs. Where possible, a diachronic perspectrive is offered.

Understanding Syntax

Understanding Syntax PDF Author: Maggie Tallerman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317635116
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Assuming no prior knowledge, Understanding Syntax illustrates the major concepts, categories and terminology associated with the study of cross-linguistic syntax. A theory-neutral and descriptive viewpoint is taken throughout. Starting with an overview of what syntax is, the book moves on to an explanation of word classes (such as noun, verb, adjective) and then to a discussion of sentence structure in the world’s languages. Grammatical constructions and relationships between words in a clause are explained and thoroughly illustrated, including grammatical relations such as subject and object; function-changing processes such as the passive and antipassive; case and agreement processes, including both ergative and accusative alignments; verb serialization; head-marking and dependent-marking grammars; configurational and non-configurational languages; questions and relative clauses. The final chapter explains and illustrates the principles involved in writing a brief syntactic sketch of a language, enabling the reader to construct a grammatical sketch of a language known to them. Data from approximately 100 languages appears in the text, with languages representing widely differing geographical areas and distinct language families. The book will be essential for courses in cross-linguistic syntax, language typology, and linguistic fieldwork, as well as for basic syntactic description.