Serial verb construction

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The serial verb construction is a syntactic phenomenon common to many African and Asian languages. In this construction, two or more verbs can be juxtaposed in one clause, sharing the same subject (or subject and object) and tense-aspect-modality categories, while only one of the verbs is marked for these categories. Conjunctive markings may or may not be present on non-finite elements. Serial verb constructions typically express the consecutive or simultaneous relationship of the actions expressed by the verbs. In the Chinese languages, the serial verb construction is manifested through verbal complements and coverbs.

[edit] Contrast with compound verbs

The term serial verb is usually distinguished from compound verb or complex predication:

Serial verbs stack up several events (often but not always occurring sequentially), in a single clause. For example, Ewe trɔ dzo, (lit. turn leave), "turn and leave"; Hindi फ़ोन उठा-कर कहा fon uṭhā-kar kahā (lit. phone pick.up-CONJPART say.PAST), "...picked up the phone and said...". In Chinese and in languages of Southeast Asia the direct object of a transitive first verb is the subject of the second verb: lǎo.hǔ yǎo-sǐ le zhāng (lit. tiger bite-die PERF Zhang) "the tiger bit Zhang to death" where zhang is the direct object of yǎo (bite) and the subject of sǐ (die). In the homologous serial verb in Hindi the one who dies would be the tiger, not Zhang.

Compound verb (also known as complex predicate): Here the first verb is the primary, and determines the primary semantics and also the argument structure. The second verb, often called a vector verb or explicator verb, provides fine distinctions, (usually in speaker attitude or aspect), and carries the inflection (tense / mood / agreement markers). Usually the main verb appears in conjunctive participle form (or, in Hindi and Punjabi, as a bare stem). For example, Hindi: सत्तू खा लिया sattū khā-liyā lit. parched.grain eat-TOOK, "ate up the sattu" (completive action) versus बच्चे.को खा-डाला bacce.ko khā-ḍālā lit. child eat-THREW, "devoured the child" (violent or unwanted action). In these examples, खा khā is the main or primary verb, and लिया liyā (TOOK) and डाला ḍālā (THREW) are the vector verbs.

The difference between serial verbs and compound verbs, then, is that the former use more than one verb to express more than one action while the latter use more than one verb to express a single action. Compound verbs are very common in northern Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi and Punjabi. They are less common in other Indo-Aryan languages and are also found in Dravidian, Altaic (Turkic languages plus Korean and Japanese), some Tibeto-Burman languages, some Northeast Caucasian languages, and in Quichua. Serial verbs are found in all of these languages and, in addition to them, are found in Chinese, Mon-Khmer, Tai-Kadai, Kwa, and in many pidgins and creoles. (See V.S. Naipaul's use of the Trinidadian serial verbs insure-and-burn, choke-'n'-rob, etc.)

[edit] Examples

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了(le)

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Ewe language:

Kofí trɔ dzo kpoo (Kofi turn-PERF leave-PERF quietly)

Kofi turned and left quietly.

Mandarin Chinese:

我(I) 坐(sit) 飞机(aircraft) 从(from) 上海(Shanghai) 到(to) 北京(Beijing) 去(travel)

I travel from Shanghai to Beijing by aircraft.

Japanese:

With the first verb in the continuative form (連用形 ren'yōkei):

押し通る (oshi tōru) 'I'm pushing through!' in which oshi is the 'continuative' form of osu (push) and tōru (pass; get through) is the finite form whose present tense and indicative mood get read back onto oshi.

出来る (dekiru, to come out) → 出来上がる (deki-agaru, be completed)

This construction is more classical or literary and is less freely productive today. No verb arguments can come between the two verbs.

With the first verb in the -te form (gerund or conjunctive participle):

開く (aku, to open [intransitive] ) → 開いている (aite iru, has opened and is still open)

This sequence is similar to English be seated: 'John is seated on a chair.'

Serial verbs can also be used to tie together any arbitrary string of verbs, often as a looser connection indicating causal or temporal relations, similar to English "and". A pair of examples from Hayao Miyazaki's Mononoke Hime:

足跡をたどって来た (ashi-ato o tadotte kita) 'I followed him here' (Lit: 'Following his foot prints I came.') in which the actions of following (辿る) and of coming (来る) are simultaneous.

恨みをのんで死んだ亡者 (urami o nonde shinda mouja) '...the dead, who died swallowing their resentment' in which nonde is in the -te conjunctive participial form of nomu (drink) and expresses an action prior to that of shinda (died).

The second verb can also take its own arguments, making this construction a way of connecting entire clauses.