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

-----Original Message-----
> From: theiling
> Sent: Friday 9 September 2005 21:12 pm
> To: yahya
> Subject: Re: Serial verbs (was Re: Marking nouns with person?)
>
>
> Hi!
>
> Yahya Abdal-Aziz writes:
> > On Thu, 1 Sep 2005, Chris Bates wrote:
> > [snip]
> > > ... I have a switch system
> > > which is partly used to describe different aspects of complex events,
> > > kindof like serial verbs in some Asian languages.
> >
> > Hi Chris,
> >
> > Could you give me an example of what you mean by serial verbs?
>
> It's a grammatical construction where a sequence of verbs, sometimes
> takingh an additional object are juxtaposed/serialised to all
> contribute to total meaning.  If you will, a sequence of verbs is
> interpreted as being one.  As David shown, it can be used to extend
> the number of arguments (e.g. in 'to give'; other languages might use
> adjuncts instead, like English often does).
>
> I'll give you another example from Mandarin:
>
>    wo3 hui2    jia1.
>    I   return  home
>
>    wo3 lai2    jia1.
>    I   come    home
>
>    wo3 hui2   lai2   jia1.
>    I   return come   home
>    'I come back home.'
>
> For motion verbs, such constructions are very frequent in Mandarin.
>
> Or:
>
>    kan4     = to watch (also: to see (conciously, interpretingly, for
>               a visit), to read, ...)
>    qu4      = to go to
>
>    qu4 kan4 = to visit
>
> Compare English 'go get' ~ 'fetch'.
>
> **Henrik
Thank you, Henrik.

Your Mandarin examples make the concept perfectly clear,
and I can think of several more examples in Mandarin, eg
(approximate Wade romanisations only; yes, I'm that old!)

    ch'u lai = to go
    k'an chien = to look

Regards,
Yahya


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