Open AccessCoverbs and auxiliaries in Pèdè
Author(s) -
Raimund Kastenholz
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
language in africa
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2686-8946
DOI - 10.37892/2686-8946-2020-1-3-353-372
Subject(s) - verb , linguistics , context (archaeology) , domain (mathematical analysis) , function (biology) , modal verb , computer science , communication , natural language processing , psychology , mathematics , history , philosophy , biology , evolutionary biology , mathematical analysis , archaeology
In Pèdè, predicates consisting of multiple verbal elements are extremely frequent. In this context, verbs adopting a secondary function of modifying coverbs play an important role. It can be shown that this function has emerged from conceptualisation processes within serial verb constructions. Along the same lines, a very limited number of auxiliaries have been grammaticalized. The types of coverbs and auxiliaries under discussion display partially overlapping functional ranges (in the semantic domain of aktionsart), they clearly differ, however, on the syntactic level.