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Asymmetrical and symmetrical serial verb constructions in Kununurra Kriol

ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne, Germany
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

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Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Cologne.

Published online: 29 July 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.24027.bat
Abstract
Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) are present in many creole languages. They are also present in Kununurra Kriol, an English-lexified creole language and variety of Australian Kriol, spoken in the Kununurra area of northern Western Australia. These are predominantly found to be asymmetrical constructions of four major types: TMA, posture, causative and directional. Whilst other varieties of Australian Kriol have only been found to have SVCs of the asymmetrical type, Kununurra Kriol additionally allows for symmetrical type SVCs, which are found to be used in resultative and sequential constructions. This paper therefore provides a descriptive overview of serialisation in Kununurra Kriol. Furthermore, this paper will also discuss potential sources of substrate influence that may have shaped serialisation in the language diachronically, in particular the role of the local traditional language, Miriwoong.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Serial verb constructions
    • 2.1SVCs in creole languages
  • 3.Kununurra Kriol
    • 3.1Corpus and methodology
  • 4.SVCs in Kununurra Kriol
    • 4.1Asymmetrical SVCs
      • 4.1.1TMA SVCs
      • 4.1.2Posture SVCs
      • 4.1.3Causative SVCs
      • 4.1.4Directional SVCs
    • 4.2Symmetrical SVCs
      • 4.2.1Resultative SVCs
      • 4.2.2Sequential SVCs
    • 4.3Assessing serialisation
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
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