Talk:Serial verb construction
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Sorry, I can't make head or tail of this article. Did the people who wrote this article have knowledge of serial verbs, or did they just make it up themselves.
For example, serial verbs are supposed to be a syntactic phenomenon (definition at the start). But look at these:
1) Chinese:
- The Chinese example given, lǎo.hǔ yǎo-sǐ le zhāng, is a resultative verb construction.
- In the examples section, the Chinese example given is:
我(I) 坐(sit) 飞机(aircraft) 从(from) 上海(Shanghai) 到(to) 北京(Beijing) 去(travel)
These are totally different kinds of construction! What exactly is a standard "serial verb" construction in Chinese? Do the people who wrote this think that two verbs in a clause, no matter how syntactically related, are by definition "serial verbs"?
2) Japanese
The first example given in Japanese is NOT a syntactic construction; it's a word-building construction:
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.
Can the writer point to sources which state that this kind of construction is known as a "serial verb" in linguistics?
Would be grateful for any kind of clarification.
