‘Come’ and ‘Go’ Serial Verb Constructions (Feature 84)
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Feature Annotation
This is the last feature out of a series of six features dealing with orientation and motion. In this feature, we look at directional serial verbs: ‘come’ (movement toward the speaker/deictic centre) and ‘go’ (movement away from the speaker/deictic centre).
The serial verb may precede the other verb (Value 1) or it may follow the other verb (Value 2). Any constructions in which the verbs ‘come’ or ‘go’ refer to a purposive reading (to do something in order to ...) are excluded here.
Preceding (Value 1)
Sango
I ga i si na gala. [1PLcome 1PL arrive PREP market]
‘We arrived at the market’.
Following (Value 2)
Haitian Creole
Li voye timoun yo al lekòl. [3SG send child 3PLgo school]
‘S/he sent the children to school.’
For APiCS, we use the definition of a serial verb construction given by Aikhenvald 2006:
“A serial verb construction (SVC) is a sequence of verbs which act together as a single predicate, without any overt marker of coordination, subordination, or syntactic dependency of any other sort.” (emphasis added) (Aikhenvald & Dixon 2006: 1) (for a more complete definition, see the APiCS Glossary and subsequent features on serial verb constructions, Feature 85 “‘Take’ Serial Verb Constructions”, and Feature 86 “‘Give’ Serial Verb Constructions”).
Additional remarks
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Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | Preceding | Sango I ga i si na gala. [1PL come 1PL arrive PREP market] ‘We arrived at the market’. |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Following | something like “Bouki sent the children go school” ‘Bouki sent the children to school.’ Nigerian Pidgin Ìm kari nayf kom. [3SG carry knife come] ‘S/he brought the knife.’ |
| 3 | ‘Come’ and ‘go’ serial verbs do not occur | |
| 4 | Other | (Please give details in the “General comments” field.) |
WALS No.
(None)
