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

From:Jeffrey Jones <jsjonesmiami@...>
Date:Saturday, September 10, 2005, 2:02
On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 12:54:55 -0400, Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> >Yahya/David Peterson wrote: > >> Yahya wrote: >> >> << >> Hi Chris, >> >> Could you give me an example of what you mean by serial verbs? >> >> >> >> I'm kind of not Chris, > >Nor I... but I wonder whether a google for "serial verbs" might not turn up >useful info? Also maybe "SVC" (the usual abbrev. for _serial verb >constructions_). I tried searching the Conlang archive for "serial verbs" >but got nothing...
I often can't find things in the archives via the search function that I'm sure are there. And I'm sure serial verbs are there somewhere in the last 5 years. This thread brings up a question: is there some standard term for a serial verb and its arguments? I might want to adapt it. Or maybe some term that encompasses each of the following (a) a verb and its arguments (including subject), (b) a noun and its possessor (if any), (c) a preposition and its object, and probably some similar things. I suppose that if serial verbs are analyzed as prepositions, then "prepositional phrase" could be used, but calling a main verb or an ordinary noun a preposition is a bit weird. Jeff BTW, Roger, congrats on starting new lang!
>IIRC, the website on Solomon Is. languages I posted >discusses them a bit... see msg. # 125598 of 05/06/02 (June 2, 2005) in the >Conlang Archive. > >Kash sort-of has serial verbs, e.g.-- >yayama yanopra ratu >he-run he-cross street = He ran across the street, although this might >equally well be viewed as deletion of "and"-- or even > >yamelo yayama yanopra ratu " >he-want..... = he wanted to run across the street > >> 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. > >Well, this gets into the interesting question of "prepositions as verbs" >(or is it vice versa?). Indonesian has a few, such as _sampai_ '1. arrive; >2. until, up to' >=========================================================================

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David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...>Conlang Archives (was Re: Serial verbs (was Re: Marking nouns with person?))