Serial verb construction

From Apics

For APiCS, we rely on Aikhenvald's definition of serial verb constructions:

Serial verb constructions allow for the repetition of the subject and of TAM markers, as in Guinea Bissau Creole:

(1)	I	nada	i	bin	li.
	he	swim	he	come	here

'He came swimming.'

(2)

Es

katcur

ta

toma

rabu

i

ta

miti

bas

di

bariga

tudu

ora.

this

dog

HAB

take

tail

he

HAB

put

under

of

belly

all

hour

'This dog always puts his tail under his belly.'

The important point here is the absence of any marker of coordination or subordination, as is the case with directional serial verbs in Guinea Bissau Creole:

(3)	*N	kuri	i	n	bin	kasa.
	I	run	and	I	come	home

'I ran home.'

With object-introducing TAKE-serials, as in example (2), the absence of a marker of coordination is restricted to cases where the direct object is not pronominalized after V2. But if the object of V1 is pronominalized after V2, the coordination i 'and' is obligatory, as in the following examples:

(4a)	N'toma	faka	___	n	tisi	___.
	I=take	knife		I	bring.

'I took the knife and brought it.' = 'I brought the knife.'

(5a)	N'toma	faka	i	n	tisi=l.
	I=take	knife	and	I	bring=it.

'I took the knife and brought it.' = 'I brought the knife.'

(4b) * N toma faka ___ n tisi=l.

(5b) * N toma faka i n tisi ___.

So example (4a) contains a serial verb construction, whereas example (5a), with the connector i 'and' does not.

In the case of object-introducing TAKE-serials, the presence or absence of the connector i 'and' is triggered by a syntactic rule (presence or absence of the pronominalized object of V1 after V2), but in the case of instrumental TAKE-serials, the presence or absence of the phrasal connector is simply optional:

(6a)	N'toma	faka	n'korta	karni	(ku	el).
	I=take	knife	I=cut	meat	(with	it)

'I took the knife and cut the meat (with it).' = 'I cut the meat with the knife.'

(6b) N'toma faka i n korta karni (ku el). 'idem'

In this case, we consider that neither (6a) nor (6b) contain a serial verb construction.