Serial Verbs in Finnish

Abstract

Serial verb construction (SVC) phenomena pose challenges to descriptivists and theoreticians alike (Newmayer 2004, Aikhenvald & Dixon 2006, among many others). One recurring question is whether SVC is a language specific characteristic (cf. Stewart 2001) or whether it is a universally available construction utilized under specific conditions (cf. Dechaine 1993, Newmayer 2004, Muysken & Veenstra 2006). This study contributes to the debate with evidence from Finnish (Uralic language family), which has not previously been analyzed as a serializing language (contra Jarva & Kytola 2007). Based on distributional facts as well as semantic and syntactic characteristics, we argue that the so called 'colorative construction' in Finnish is a SVC.

Keywords

• syntax
• serial verb constructions
• Finnish
• colorative construction
• Aktionsart
• aspect