Chapter in:
Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian Languages
Edited by Derib Ado, Almaz Wasse Gelagay and Janne Bondi Johannessen †
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 48] 2021

Serial verb constructions in Sezo

| 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.
2006 Serial verb constructions in typological perspective. In Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Typology, Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon (eds), 1–68. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Bisang, Walter
1995 Verb serialization and converbs – Differences and similarities. In Converbs in Cross-linguistic Perspective. Structure and Meaning of Adverbial Forms: Adverbial Participles, Gerunds, Martin Haspelmath & Ekkehard König (eds), 137–188. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
CSA (Central Statistical Authority)
2008 Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census: Population Size by Age and Sex. Addis Ababa: UNFPA.Google Scholar
Déchaine, Rose-Marie
1993 Serial verb constructions. In Syntax: Ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung, An International Handbook of Contemporary Research, Vol. 1, Joachim Jacobs, Arnim von Stechow, Wolfgang Sternefeld & Theo Vennemann (eds), 799–825. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert M. W.
2006 Serial verb constructionsː Conspectus and coda. In Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Typology, Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon (eds), 339–340. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Durie, Mark
1997 Grammatical structures in verb serialization. In Complex Predicates, Alex Alsinai Keith, Joan Bresnan & Peter Sells (eds), 289–354. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Foley, W. A. & Olson, M.
1985 Clausehood and verb serialization. In Grammar Inside and Outside the Clause, J. Nichols & A. Woodbury (eds), 17–60. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Girma, Mengistu Desta
2015 A Grammar of Sezo. PhD dissertation, Addis Ababa University.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
2016 The serial verb construction: Comparative concept and cross-linguistic generalizations. Language and Linguistics 17(3): 291–319.Google Scholar
Hellenthal, Anne-Christie
2010 A Grammar of Sheko. Utrecht: LOT. (PhD dissertation).Google Scholar
Jacobs, Bart
2015 Serial verb constructions in Papiamentu: Historical, synchronic and comparative observations. Linguistique et Langues Africaines 1: 59–79.Google Scholar