Cover not available
Part of
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. 169–190

Chapter 6
Serial verb constructions in Estonian

| University of Tartu, Estonia, Beijing Foreign Studies University
The Estonian serial verb construction (SVC) consists of two or more adjacent verbs with concordant grammatical marking in the same clause: cf. Lähe-n vaata-n kohe. ‘go-1sg look-1sg now’ ‘I’ll go look now’. This type of monoclausal SVCs exists in Estonian and in some Finno-Ugric languages, at least with motion verbs (GO, COME, WALK) as first verbs. The results of a corpus study of Estonian GO SVCs show that this type of verb serialisation is productive in Estonian; the SVCs are usually monoclausal, and the first verb of the SVC is often grammaticalised, taking an intentional, inchoative or imperative-hortative function.
Keywords: Estonian, serial verb construction, grammaticalisation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.What is the serial verb construction?
  • 3.Overview of previous studies of similar phenomena in Finno-Ugric languages
  • 4.Serial verb constructions in Estonian
    • 4.1Syntactic status of Estonian SVC
    • 4.2First verbs (V1) in Estonian SVCs
  • 5.Corpus study
    • 5.1The etTenTen Corpus
    • 5.2Data and coding
    • 5.3Corpus analysis
      • 5.3.1V1 markers
      • 5.3.2V2 in the SVC
      • 5.3.3Locative and temporal adverbs in SVCs
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 26 January 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.180.06tra
References (30)
Sources of the examples
PP = Pajatusi põhjarannikult: Kirde-Eesti rannikumurre. Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia, Emakeele Selts; koostanud H. Ahven; toimetanud M. Must, P. Palmeos. Tallinn: Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia, 1957.Google Scholar
EM I = Tanning, Salme (1961). Mulgi murdetekstid. Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Keele ja Kirjanduse Instituut. Tallinn: Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus.Google Scholar
EFA = Estonian Literary Museum’s Estonian Folklore Archives Estonian Literary Museum’s Estonian Folklore Archives. E 31682/5 (2). Põltsamaa khk. - M. Kaur (1897).Google Scholar
Eisen = M. J. Eisen. Rahva-raamat. Uus kogu vanu jutte. Teine anne. Tartu ja Riia 1893.Google Scholar
Rossihnius = Joachim Rossihnius: Catechismus Herrn D. Martini Lutheri in sechs Hauptstücke verfassset, Wie derselbe in der Christlichen Gemeine, vnd fürnemblich vnter der lieben Jugend geübet werden sol: Besambt den Fragstücken Lutheri: vnd dem Traw- vnd Tauffbüchlein vnd gemeinen Collecten. Itzo In Estonische Dörptlische sprache versetzet Durch IOACHIMVM ROSSIHNIVM Pharr-Herrn zu Theall, Caroll und Felcke. Riga: Gerhard Schröder, 1632, p 20.Google Scholar
etTenTen – availabe at <[URL]> (30 May 2015) and downloadable at <[URL]> (March 2013)Google Scholar
Tartu University Corpus of Written Estonian -- <[URL]>
The Corpus of the Institute of the Estonian Language -- <[URL]>
Tartu University Corpus of Spoken Estonian --<[URL]>
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2006. Serial verb constructions in typological perspective. In Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-linguistic Typology [Explorations in Linguistic Typology 2], Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & Robert M.W. Dixon (eds), 1–68. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Armoskaite, Solveiga & Koskinen, Päivi. 2014. Serial verbs in Finnish. Linguistic Discovery 12(1): 1–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bachmann, Ingo. 2013. Has go-V ousted go-and-V? A study of the diachronic development of both constructions in American English. In Corpus Perspectives on Patterns of Lexis [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 57], Hilde Hasselgård, Jarle Ebeling & Signe Oksefjell Ebeling (eds), 91–112. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Church, Kenneth W. & Hanks, Patrick. 1990. Word association norms, mutual information, and lexicography. Computational Linguistics 16(1): 22–29.Google Scholar
Erelt, Mati. 2013. Eesti keele lauseõpetus. Sissejuhatus. Öeldis (Estonian syntax. Introduction. The predicate). Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli eesti keele osakonna preprindid 4.Google Scholar
Erelt et al. 1993 = Erelt, Mati, Kasik, Reet, Metslang, Helle, Rajandi, Henno, Ross, Kristiina, Saari, Henn, Tael, Kaja & Vare, Silvi. 1993. Eesti keele grammatika II: Süntaks. Lisa: Kiri (Grammar of Estonian II: Syntax). Tallinn: Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia Keele ja Kirjanduse Instituut.Google Scholar
Evert, Stefan. 2008. Corpora and collocations. In Corpus Linguistics. An International Handbook, Anke Lüdeling & Merja Kytö (eds), 1212–1248. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 1991. Serial verbs and the mental reality of ‘event’: Grammatical vs. cogntive packaging. In Approaches to Grammaticalisation. Focus on Theoretical and Methodological Issues [Typological Studies in Language 19(1)], Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds), 81–128. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2010. Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in crosslinguistic studies. Language 86(3): 663–687. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015. The serial verb construction: Comparative concept and cross-linguistic generalizations. Draft January 2015. <[URL]> (30 May 2015)
Heine, Bernd & Kuteva, Tania. 2002. The World Lexicon of Grammaticalisation. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jakubíček, Miloš, Kilgarriff, Adam, Kovář, Vojtěch, Rychlý, Pavel & Suchomel, Vít. 2013. The TenTen Corpus Family. In Proceedings of the 7th International Corpus Linguistics Conference CL 2013, United Kingdom, July 2013, 125–127. <[URL]> (30 May 2015).
Jarva, Vesa & Kytölä, Samu. 2007. The Finnish colorative construction and expressivity. SKY Journal of Linguistics 20: 235–272.Google Scholar
Kallas, Jelena & Tuulik, Maria. 2015. etTenTen13, the First Web Corpus for Estonian. International seminar ‘Web Archiving: Preserving the History of Data-Driven Society’, 28 January 2015, Tallinn. <[URL]> (30 May 2015).
Karelson, Rudolf. 1959. Soome-ugri keelte lausestruktuurist seoses konjunktsioonidega (The sentence structure of Finno-Ugric languages in reference to conjunctions) [Emakeele Seltsi Aastaraamat IV (1958)], 195–213. Tallinn: ENSV TA. ERK.Google Scholar
Kokkonen, Paula. 2001. A comparison of Komi serial verbs with those in Udmurt and Volgaic. In Tartu Ülikooli eesti keele osakonna preprindid 7, 13 August 2000, pars V [Dissertationes Sectionum Linguistica II], Tõnu Seilenthal (ed.), 113–120. Tartu.Google Scholar
Ojutkangas, Krista. 1998. Asyndeettisistä verbi-ilmaisuista suomalais-ugrilaisissa kielissä (Asyndetic verb expressions in Finno-Ugric languages). In Kieliopillistumisesta, analogiasta ja typologiasta (About grammaticalisation, analogy and typology) [Suomi 185], Anneli Pajunen (ed.), 110–143. Helsinki: SKS.Google Scholar
Manning, Christopher D. & Schütze, Hinrich. 1999. Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing. Cambridge MA: The MIT press.Google Scholar
Pulkkinen, Paavo. 1966. Asyndeettinen rinnastus suomen kielessä (Asyndetic coordination in Finnish). PhD dissertation. [SKS:n toimituksia 281] Helsinki.Google Scholar
Pullum, Geoffrey K. 1990. Constraints on intransitive quasi-serial constructions in modern colloquial English. In When Verbs Collide: Papers from the (1990) Ohio State Mini-Conference on Serial verb constructions [Working Papers in Linguistics 39], Brian D. Joseph & Arnold M. Zwicky (eds), 218–39. Columbus OH: The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Tragel, Ilona. 2003. Eesti keele seriaalkonstruktsioonist (About the Estonian serial constructiton). Keel ja Kirjandus 12: 919–934.Google Scholar