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In:Argument Realisation in Complex Predicates and Complex Events: Verb-verb constructions at the syntax-semantic interface
Edited by Brian Nolan and Elke Diedrichsen
[Studies in Language Companion Series 180] 2017
► pp. 79–115

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Chapter 3
Serial verb constructions and event structure representations

 | University of Naples “L’Orientale”
Published online: 26 January 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.180.03ric
Abstract
A survey of the relevant literature on serial verb constructions (SVCs) shows that the label ‘SVC’ is often used as an umbrella term that inappropriately encompasses various verb phrase sequences which are essentially different from traditional SVCs. The aim of this chapter is to highlight and discuss some syntactic and semantic characteristics of SVCs, which researchers have described over the years, within the syntax-semantics interface developed by the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) framework (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997; Van Valin 2005). The resulting analysis demonstrates that RRG provides a useful theoretical perspective able to embody the peculiarities of traditional SVCs, by distinguishing them from other multi-verb constructions that in the relevant literature are often classified as members of the SVC category.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.SVCs in the relevant literature
  • 3.Verbal status of serial verbs
  • 4.Composition and conceptual structures of SVCs
  • 5.An RRG analysis of SVCs
    • 5.1Role and reference grammar
    • 5.2.Syntactic representations of SVCs
      • 5.2.1Syntactic representations of Non-SVCs
    • 5.3Linking syntax and semantics in SVCs
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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