Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Vali Rezai
• Azadeh Sokhan Afarin
• Rezvan Motavalian

University of Isfahan

Abstract

In many languages of the world, there are a sequence of verbs that are called serial verb construction (SVC). They are divided into two types, symmetric and asymmetric, based on their composition. In symmetric construction, both verbs are chosen from the grammatical and semantic open class and in the construction of an asymmetric serial verb, a verb from grammatical and semantic open class, and another verb is selected from the limited and closed class. Aspectual or phasal serial verb is one of the types of asymmetric SVC which represents the perfective and imperfective grammatical aspect and the lexical aspect of inchoative, continuous and completive. The purpose of the research is to investigate the inchoative aspect of the SVC in Persian and to determine the juncture-nexus relation type in the framework of the Role & Reference Grammar (RRG). In Persian, auxiliary verb is placed in next to the main verb, it expresses tense, mood, and aspect, and there is a close and strong relationship between the auxiliary and the main verb, to the extent that they are considered a unit verb and behave similar to the construction of asymmetric SVC. Therefore, in line with the goal of the research, complex predicates consisting of auxiliary verbs and the main verb were the basis of data selection. These verbs include ‘gereftan (to take), bardɑštan (to remove), bargaštan (to return), raftan (to go), ɑmadan (to come), darɑmadan (to enter), and zadan (to hit)’, which express the inchoative aspect. The data of the research was collected from Najafi Persian Dictionary, Persian language database, storybooks, websites and other research work. Due to the avoidance of repetition, only one case was presented for each of the mentioned verbs, which were first examined based on criteria for distinguishing SVC in Aikhenvald. Finally, the type of juncture-nexus relationship was explained based on the RRG. The findings illustrate that these constructions are SVC and their juncture-nexus relation is of the type of ad-nuclear subordination.

Keywords

• serial verb construction, asymmetric serial verb, inchoative aspect, Role &
• Reference Grammar, juncture-nexus relation

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