Concept: serial verb construction

Definition

A serial verb construction is a monoclausal construction consisting of multiple independent °verbs with no element °linking them and with no semantic predicate–argument relation between the verbs.

Comments

The definition is from Haspelmath (2016: 296), where it is discussed in detail (see also Haspelmath 2027).

SIL Glossary

serial verb construction

Quotation

“In many languages of the world, a sequence of several verbs act together as one unit. They form one predicate, and contain no overt marker of coordination, subordination, or syntactic dependency of any other sort. Such series of verbs are known as serial verb constructions, or serial verbs for short. Serial verbs describe what can be conceptualized as a single event. They are often pronounced as if they were one word.” (Aikhenvald 2018: 1)

Sources

Haspelmath 2016; Haspelmath 2027; Aikhenvald 2018