Serial Verbs

This book provides an in-depth typological account of the forms, functions, and histories of serial verb constructions, in which several verbs combine to form a single predicate. It uses an inductively-based framework for the analysis and draws on data from languages with different typological profiles and genetic affiliations.

List of contents

• 1: Serial verbs: The framework


• 2: Recognizing a serial verb


• 3: Composition and meanings of serial verbs


• 4: Formal properties of serial verbs


• 5: The limits of serial verbs


• 6: The many facets of serial verbs


• 7: What are serial verbs good for?


• 8: The rise and fall of serial verbs


• 9: The essence of serial verbs: What can we conclude?


• Fieldworker's guide to serial verb constructions


• References


• Index

About the author

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald is Australian Laureate Fellow, Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Indigenous Health and Equity Research at Central Queensland University and Foundation Director of the former Language and Culture Research Centre at James Cook University.

Summary

This book provides an in-depth typological account of the forms, functions, and histories of serial verb constructions, in which several verbs combine to form a single predicate. It uses an inductively-based framework for the analysis and draws on data from languages with different typological profiles and genetic affiliations.

Additional text

The book not only captures an impressively diverse linguistic phenomenon, but its author achieves this in an impressively reader-friendly manner. Aikhenvald's "Serial verbs" will thus equally appeal to advanced students of linguistics, linguists interested in SVCs or the syntax-semantics interface in general as well as anyone with a basic linguistic knowledge and a curiosity about the diversity of human languages.

Product details

• Authors: Aikhenvald , Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. (Distinguished Professor Aikhenvald, Aikhenvald Alexandra Y.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2021
• EAN: 9780192855770
• ISBN: 978-0-19-285577-0
• No. of pages: 320
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Grammar & Punctuation, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Syntax, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Morphology, Social & cultural anthropology, Social and cultural anthropology, Historical & comparative linguistics, Grammar, syntax and morphology, Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics, Historical and comparative linguistics, Semantics & pragmatics, Grammar, syntax