Cover not available
Part of
Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions
Edited by Giuliana Giusti, Vincenzo Nicolò Di Caro and Daniel Ross
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 274] 2022
► pp. 315–336

Chapter 14
Pseudocoordination and Serial Verb Constructions as Multi-Verb Predicates

 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | University of CaliforniaRiverside
Verbal pseudocoordination (as in English go and get) is often seen as an idiosyncratic phenomenon described in exceptional terms. This paper establishes the typological context to explain key properties of pseudocoordination, integrated into a more general typology of multi-verb constructions. At the same time, principled motivations are given for the arbitrary list of traditional properties attributed to Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs). The broader category of Multi-Verb Predicates (MVPs) is proposed as any monoclausal multi-verb construction with two verbs forming a complex predicate. Subtypes of MVPs are distinguished by their form: pseudocoordination with a linker ‘and’, while SVCs have no linker. Structural properties of MVPs, such as shared inflectional features on each verb, are readily explained as due to monoclausality.
Keywords: pseudocoordination, serial verb constructions, converbs, complex predicates, multi-verb predicates, typology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The definition of serial verb constructions
  • 3.Variation in multi-verb constructions
  • 4.Multi-verb predicates
  • 5.Explaining morphosyntactic variation in pseudocoordination
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 March 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.274.14ros
References (87)
References
Aikhenvald, A. Y. 2006. Serial Verb Constructions in Typological Perspective. In A. Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (Eds.), Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Typology (pp. 1–68). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2011. Multi-verb Constructions: Setting the Scene. In A. Y. Aikhenvald, P. Muysken, & J. Birchall (Eds.), Multi-verb Constructions: A View from the Americas (pp. 1–26). Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018. Serial Verbs. Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aikhenvald, A. Y., & Dixon, R. M. W. (2019, January 23). Serial verb constructions: A critical assessment of Haspelmath’s interpretation (unpublished letter to the editor of the journal Language and Linguistics). Diversity Linguistics Comment, Blog of Martin Haspelmath. [URL]
Amberber, M., Baker, B., & Harvey, M. (Eds.). 2010. Complex Predicates. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Amborn, H., Minker, G., & Sasse, H.-J. 1980. Das Dullay: Materialien zu einer ostkuschitischen Sprachgruppe. Dietrich Reimer Verlag.Google Scholar
Andrason, A. 2019. A pseudo-coordinated Serial Verb Construction “wziąć i V2” in Polish. Slovo a Slovesnost, 80(3), 163–191.Google Scholar
Barbé, P. 1993. Exploring Variation in Guernsey English Syntax [Ph.D. dissertation]. University of London.
1995. Guernsey English: A syntax exile? English World-Wide, 16(1), 1–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barbiers, S., van der Auwera, J., Bennis, H., Boef, E., De Vogelaer, G., & van der Ham, M. 2008. SAND: syntactic atlas of the Dutch dialects: Vol. II. Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. 1989. Seselwa Serialization and its Significance. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 4(2), 155–183. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1990. If it Quacks Like a Duck: A Reply to Seuren. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 5(2), 293–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolton, R. A. 1990. A Preliminary Description of Nuaulu Phonology and Grammar [M.A. thesis]. University of Texas at Arlington.
Bravo, A. 2020. On Pseudo-coordination in Spanish. Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 9(1), 125–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bril, I. 2007. Nexus and Juncture Types of Complex Predicates in Oceanic Languages: Functions and Semantics. Language and Linguistics [語言暨語言學], 8(1), 267–310.Google Scholar
Cardinaletti, A., & Giusti, G. 2001. “Semi-lexical” motion verbs in Romance and Germanic. In N. Corver & H. van Riemsdijk (Eds.), Semi-lexical categories: The function of content words and the content of function words (pp. 371–414). Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carlson, R. 1985. Grammaticalized verbs in Supyire. In S. DeLancey & R. S. Tomlin (Eds.), Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Pacific Linguistics Conference, October 1985, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon (pp. 18–53). Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon.Google Scholar
1994. A grammar of Supyire. Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Colaço, M., & Gonçalves, A. 2016. <V-and-V> constructions in Portuguese: The case of <ir-and-V>. In M. A. Kato & F. Ordoñez (Eds.), The morphosyntax of Portuguese and Spanish in Latin America (pp. 135–156). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cormack, A., & Smith, N. 1994. Serial verbs. University College London Working Papers in Linguistics, 6, 63–88.Google Scholar
Craig, C. G. 1991. Ways to go in Rama: A Case Study in Polygrammaticalization. In E. C. Traugott & B. Heine (Eds.), Approaches to Grammaticalization (Vol. 2, pp. 455–492). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cruschina, S. 2013. Beyond the stem and inflectional morphology: An irregular pattern at the level of periphrasis. In S. Cruschina, M. Maiden, & J. C. Smith (Eds.), The boundaries of pure morphology: Diachronic and synchronic perspectives (pp. 262–283). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Haan, G. J. 2010. The Imperativus-pro-Infinitivo. In J. Hoekstra, W. Visser, & G. Jensma (Eds.), Studies in West Frisian Grammar: Selected papers by German J. de Haan (pp. 131–151). John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Déchaine, R.-M. 1993. Serial Verb Constructions. In J. Jacobs, A. von Stechow, W. Sternefeld, & T. Vennemann (Eds.), Syntax: Ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung [An International Handbook of Contemporary Research] (Vol. 1, pp. 799–825). Walter de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Defina, R. 2016. Serial verb constructions and their subtypes in Avatime. Studies in Language, 40(3), 648–680. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Del Prete, F., & Todaro, G. 2020. Building complex events: The case of Sicilian Doubly Inflected Construction. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 38(1), 1–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Delplanque, A. 1998. Le mythe des “séries verbales.” Faits de langues, 6(11), 231–250. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Di Caro, V. N. 2019. Multiple Agreement Constructions in Southern Italo-Romance: The Syntax of Sicilian Pseudo-Coordination [Ph.D. dissertation, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia]. [URL]
Di Caro, V. N., & Giusti, G. 2015. A Protocol for the Inflected Construction in Sicilian Dialects. Annali Di Ca’ Foscari. Serie Occidentale, 49, 393–421. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diller, A. V. N. 2006. Thai Serial Verbs: Cohesion and Culture. In A. Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (Eds.), Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Typology (pp. 160–177). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. 2006. Serial Verb Constructions: Conspectus and Coda. In A. Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (Eds.), Serial Verb Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Typology (pp. 338–350). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Enfield, N. J. 2002. Cultural logic and syntactic productivity: Associated posture constructions in Lao. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.), Ethnosyntax: Explorations in Culture and Grammar (pp. 231–258). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Foley, W. A. 2008. The notion of “event” and serial verb constructions: Arguments from New Guinea. In W. Khanittanan & P. Sidwell (Eds.), Seals XIV papers from the 14th annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 2004 (Vol. 1, pp. 129–156). Pacific Linguistics (Australian National University).Google Scholar
2010. Events and serial verb constructions. In M. Amberber, B. Baker, & M. Harvey (Eds.), Complex Predicates (pp. 79–109). Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Foley, W. A., & Olson, M. 1985. Clausehood and verb serialization. In J. Nichols & A. C. Woodbury (Eds.), Grammar inside and outside the clause: Some approaches to theory from the field (pp. 17–60). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Foley, W. A., & Van Valin, R. D., Jr. 1984. Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Givón, T. 1991. Serial Verbs and the Mental Reality of “Event”: Grammatical vs. Cognitive Packaging. In E. C. Traugott & B. Heine (Eds.), Approaches to Grammaticalization (Vol. 1, pp. 81–127). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grashchenkov, P. V. 2012. Development of TAM Categories in Turkic: Feeling Free in the Deterministic System. In M. Markovic (Ed.), Selected papers from SinFonIJA 3 (pp. 58–75). Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Guillaume, A. (2019, September 4). Associated motion & “associated posture” in Tacana (Takanan family, Amazonian Bolivia). Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT) 13, University of Pavia.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, M. 2016. The Serial Verb Construction: Comparative Concept and Cross-linguistic Generalizations. Language and Linguistics [語言暨語言學], 17(3), 291–319. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, B., & Kuteva, T. 2002. World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hock, H. H., & Ross, D. 2016. South Asian “Agreeing Verb Constructions”: Serial Verbs, Compound Verbs, Pseudocoordination, or what? Linguistic Analysis, 40(3–4), 337–376.Google Scholar
Hoekstra, E. 2017. On the Origin and Development of an Embedded V-Initial Construction in Frisian. Amsterdamer Beiträge Zur Älteren Germanistik, 77(1–2), 171–190. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018. The Imperativus-pro-Infinitivo construction. In T. van der Wouden (Ed.), Taalportaal: The linguistics of Dutch and Frisian online. Beta (Frisian: Syntax: Verbs and Verb Phrases) (1.5 Ed.). Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research; Meertens Institute, Leiden University, Fryske Akademy & Institute for Dutch Lexicology; Taalunie (Dutch Language Union) & Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. [URL]
Hopper, P. 2007. Verb Serialization with to take in English, with a note on French and German. In M. M. J. Fernandez (Ed.), Combat pour les langues du monde / Fighting for the world’s languages: Hommage à Claude Hagège (pp. 199–210). Harmattan.Google Scholar
Jensen, C. 1998. Comparative Tupí-Guaraní Syntax. In D. C. Derbyshire & G. K. Pullum (Eds.), Handbook of Amazonian languages (Vol. 4, pp. 489–618). Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kalin, L., & Keenan, E. L. 2011. TP serialization in Malagasy. In L. E. Clemens, G. Scontras, & M. Polinsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th Meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (pp. 31–45). Dept. of Linguistics, Harvard University & Linguistics Program, the University of Western Ontario. [URL]
Kari, E. E. 2004. A reference grammar of Degema. Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Kinn, T., Blensenius, K., & Andersson, P. 2018. Posture, location, and activity in Mainland Scandinavian pseudocoordinations. CogniTextes: Revue de l’Association Française de Linguistique Cognitive, 18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lawal, A. S. 1989. The classification of Yoruba serial verb constructions. The Journal of West African Languages, 29(2), 3–14.Google Scholar
Ledgeway, A. 2016. From Coordination to Subordination: The Grammaticalisation of Progressive and Andative Aspect in the dialects of Salento. In F. Pratas, S. Pereira, & C. Pinto (Eds.), Coordination and Subordination: Form and Meaning – Selected Papers from CSI Lisbon 2014 (pp. 157–184). Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Lemmens, M. 2005. Aspectual Posture Verb Constructions in Dutch. Journal of Germanic Linguistics, 17(3), 183–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lødrup, H. 2002. The syntactic structures of Norwegian pseudocoordinations. Studia Linguistica, 56(2), 121–143. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lovestrand, J., & Ross, D. 2021. Serial verb constructions and motion semantics. In A. Guillaume & H. Koch (Eds.), Associated Motion (pp. 87–128). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manzini, M. R., Lorusso, P., & Savoia, L. M. 2017. a/bare finite complements in Southern Italian varieties: Mono-clausal or bi-clausal syntax? Quaderni Di Linguistica e Studi Orientali, 3, 11–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nagarajan, S. 1990. Tamil Serial Verbs. Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics, 39, 200–217.Google Scholar
Olawsky, K. J. 2006. A grammar of Urarina. Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pandharipande, R. 1990. Serial Verb Construction in Marathi. Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics, 39, 178–199.Google Scholar
Paul, W. 2008. The serial verb construction in Chinese: A tenacious myth and a Gordian knot. The Linguistic Review, 25(3–4), 367–411. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pawley, A. 1987. Encoding events in Kalam and English: Different logics for reporting experience. In R. S. Tomlin (Ed.), Coherence and grounding in discourse: Outcome of a symposium, Eugene, Oregon, June 1984 (pp. 329–360). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011. Event representation in serial verb constructions. In J. Bohnemeyer & E. Pederson (Eds.), Event representation in language and cognition (pp. 13–42). Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Riedel, K., & de Vos, M. 2017. Swahili coordinated infinitives and non-canonical case-marking. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 38(2). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rivas Cid, X. 1994. A perífrase agarro e marcho no galego. In R. Lorenzo (Ed.), Actas do XIX Congreso Internacional de Lingüística e Filoloxía Románicas, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 1989: Vol. VI Galego&VII Romania Nova (pp. 327–335). Fundación “Pedro Barrié de la Maza, Conde de Fenosa.”Google Scholar
Rodrigues, A. 2006. “Eu fui e fiz esta tese”: As construções do tipo foi fez no portugues do Brasil [Ph.D. dissertation, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem, Universidade Estadual de Campinas]. [URL]
Rose, F. 2009. The origin of serialization: The case of Emerillon. Studies in Language, 33(3), 644–684. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosen, A. 2014. Grammatical variation and change in Jersey English. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ross, D. 2013. Dialectal variation and diachronic development of try-complementation. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences: Illinois Working Papers, 38, 108–147. [URL]
2014. The importance of exhaustive description in measuring linguistic complexity: The case of English try and pseudocoordination. In F. J. Newmeyer & L. B. Preston (Eds.), Measuring Grammatical Complexity (pp. 202–216). Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016. Between coordination and subordination: Typological, structural and diachronic perspectives on pseudocoordination. In F. Pratas, S. Pereira, & C. Pinto (Eds.), Coordination and Subordination: Form and Meaning – Selected Papers from CSI Lisbon 2014 (pp. 209–243). Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
2018. Small corpora and low-frequency phenomena: Try and beyond contemporary, standard English. Corpus, 18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021. Pseudocoordination, Serial Verb Constructions and Multi-Verb Predicates: The relationship between form and structure [Ph.D. dissertation]. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. DOI logo
Schadeberg, T. C. 2010. Conjoint infinitive clauses in Swahili. In F. Floricic (Ed.), Essais de typologie et de linguistique générale: Mélanges offerts à Denis Creissels (pp. 107–118). École normale supérieure de Lyon.Google Scholar
Schiller, E. 1990. The Typology of Serial Verb Constructions. Chicago Linguistic Society, 26, 393–406.Google Scholar
Schmid, T. 2010. Then he went and live in Trinity. Change in progress? A study of pseudocoordinative constructions in Jersey English [M.A. thesis]. University of Bamberg.
Schultze-Berndt, E. 2017. Two classes of verbs in Northern Australian languages: Implications for the typology of polycategoriality. In V. Vapnarsky & E. Veneziano (Eds.), Lexical Polycategoriality: Cross-linguistic, cross-theoretical and language acquisition approaches (pp. 243–271). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seuren, P. A. M. 1990a. Serial Verb Constructions. Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics, 39, 14–33.Google Scholar
1990b. Still no Serials in Seselwa: A Reply to “Seselwa Serialization and its Significance” By Derek Bickerton. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 5(2), 271–292. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorrisi, F. 2010. Le costruzioni flesse con va + verbo lessicale in palermitano. Quaderni Di Lavoro ASIt – ASIt Working Papers (Atlante Sintattico d’Italia), 11, 111–120. [URL]
Soto Gómez, J. F. 2021. Pseudo-Coordination in Spanish: A two constructions analysis [M.A. thesis, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia]. [URL]
Staum, L. 2004. The GoToGo Construction: A descriptive Study [Qualifying Paper, Stanford]. [URL]
Steever, S. B. 1988. The serial verb formation in the Dravidian languages. Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Tryon, D. T. 2002. Buma. In J. Lynch, M. Ross, & T. Crowley (Eds.), The Oceanic Languages (pp. 573–586). Curzon. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tucker, A. N., & Bryan, M. A. 1966. Linguistic analyses: The non-Bantu languages of north-eastern Africa. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, P. M. 2011. Multi-verb predicates and transitivity harmony in Shipibo-Konibo. In A. Y. Aikhenvald, P. Muysken, & J. Birchall (Eds.), Multi-verb Constructions: A View from the Americas (pp. 185–212). Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van der Meer, G. 1989. The so-called Imperativus Pro Infinitivo (IPI) in West Frisian (on the interplay of syntax, semantics and morphology). North-Western European Language Evolution (NOWELE), 13, 49–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zwicky, A. M. 1990. What are we talking about when we talk about serial verbs? Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics, 39, 1–13.Google Scholar
(2002, October 11). Seeds of variation and change. New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 31, Stanford University. [URL]
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Al Khalaf, Eman, Nisreen Al-Khawaldeh & Bassil Mashaqba
2024. Negative scope ambiguity in serial verb constructions in Jordanian Arabic: an experimental investigation. Cogent Arts & Humanities 11:1 DOI logo
Khalaf, Eman Al & Nisreen Al-Khawaldeh
2024. The syntax of serial verbs in Jordanian Arabic: a cartographic analysis. Cogent Arts & Humanities 11:1 DOI logo
Çiğil, Abdullah & Mehmet Alaybeyoğlu
2024. İlişkili Hareket (Associated Motion) ve Türkçe Fiiller. Korkut Ata Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi DOI logo
Giusti, Giuliana, Vincenzo Nicolò Di Caro & Daniel Ross
2022. Chapter 1. Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions. In Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 274], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Ross, Daniel
2022. Chapter 14. Pseudocoordination and Serial Verb Constructions as Multi-Verb Predicates. In Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 274], ► pp. 316 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.