Re: Serial verbs (was Re: Marking nouns with person?)

Yahya wrote:

<<
Hi Chris,

Could you give me an example of what you mean by serial verbs?
 >>

I'm kind of not Chris, but I can give you an example.

In Kamakawi, there are no ditransitive verbs.  In order to say
"I give x to y", you'd say "I take x give y".  Here's what that'd look
like (where x = nawa "fish", and y = ia "you):

Ka li ei i nawa e nevi i ia.
/past-new.subject take I PRED. fish same.subject give PRED. you/
"I gave you a fish."

In a language like Thai, you also use a serial verb in a similar
construction (or at least some call it serial verbs).  So to say "I give
you a book", you'd say something like "You get book come me",
where the verb "come" indicates that the theme (book) comes via
the argument of "come" (me).  Others have argued that these are
nothing more than prepositions (e.g., "You get the book from me").
Not knowing really anything about Thai, I won't put forth an opinion.

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

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