Article published in:
Argument Realisation in Complex Predicates and Complex Events: Verb-verb constructions at the syntax-semantic interface
Edited by Brian Nolan and Elke Diedrichsen
[Studies in Language Companion Series 180] 2017
► pp. 79–115

Serial verb constructions and event structure representations

| University of Naples “L’Orientale”
A survey of the relevant literature on serial verb constructions (SVCs) shows that the label ‘SVC’ is often used as an umbrella term that inappropriately encompasses various verb phrase sequences which are essentially different from traditional SVCs. The aim of this chapter is to highlight and discuss some syntactic and semantic characteristics of SVCs, which researchers have described over the years, within the syntax-semantics interface developed by the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) framework (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997; Van Valin 2005). The resulting analysis demonstrates that RRG provides a useful theoretical perspective able to embody the peculiarities of traditional SVCs, by distinguishing them from other multi-verb constructions that in the relevant literature are often classified as members of the SVC category.
Keywords: multi-verb constructions, Role and Reference Grammar, serial verb constructions, syntax-to-semantics linking, typological studies
Published online: 26 January 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.180.03ric
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