Chapter in:
Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian LanguagesEdited by Derib Ado, Almaz Wasse Gelagay and Janne Bondi Johannessen †
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 48] 2021
Serial verb constructions in Sezo
Girma Mengistu Desta | Addis Ababa University
Serial verb constructions in Sezo are formed by simple
juxtaposition of two or three verbs without any marker of coordination or
subordination. The components of a serial verb construction are always contiguous
and do not allow syntactic constituents to intervene between them. They form one
intonational group and do not allow multiple marking of grammatical features, such
as subject, tense, polarity and other syntactic dependency markers. All serial verb
constructions attested in Sezo are asymmetrical because they always consist of one
major verb and one or two minor verbs. The major verb which comes from a
semantically and grammatically unrestricted class of verbs is always the main verb.
The minor verb is either a motion or a posture verb and encodes directional
(deictic), valency changing or aspectual information. The minor verbs cannot be
treated as auxiliaries, because they are able to occur as lexical verbs outside
serial verb constructions.
Keywords: Sezo, serial verb construction, asymmetrical serial verb, major verb, minor verb, direction, valency, aspect
References
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
Bisang, Walter
CSA (Central Statistical Authority)
Déchaine, Rose-Marie
Dixon, Robert M. W.
Durie, Mark
Foley, W. A. & Olson, M.
Haspelmath, Martin