Complex Predicates in Oceanic Languages (Hardcover)

Hardcover. Serial verbs and complex predicates have a long history of research, yet there is comparatively little documentation on Oceanic languages. This volume presents new data for further typological studies. While previous research on serial verbs in Oceanic languages was mostly devoted to "core" serial constructions (with non-contiguous sV (o)sV(o) nuclei), this volume contributes a more detailed investigation of the "nuclear" type of complex predicates involving contiguous sVV (o) nuclei. Complex predicates of the form VV may correspond to two different syntactic structures, either co-ranking or hierarchized (headmodifier). Though the VV pattern does evidence a tendency towards structural compression, often entailing the fusion of the argument structures of two or more nuclei, yet it cannot be reduced to cases of colexicalization, compounding or grammaticalization. The data also show the "nuclear" type to be compatible with all types of basic word orders (VSO, VOS, SVO, SOV), with no evidence that this results from any word order change. This challenges the claim that "nuclear" serialization correlates with verb-final order, and "core" serialization with verb-medial order. This volume provides new data for typological studies and contributes a detailed investigation of the "nuclear" type of complex predicates in Oceanic languages. This VV pattern may correspond to two different syntactic structures, either co-ranking or hierarchized (head-modifier). It appears to be compatible with all types of basic word orders, thus contradicting the generalizations which correlate "nuclear" serialization with verb-final order. Part 1 contains two synthetic articles on the research of serial verbs in Austronesian languages, as well as detailed case studies of complex predicates in various Oceanic languages. Part 2 concentrates on some processes leading to the grammaticalization of serialized verbs into clitics or adpositions. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. …