WS Serial verbs in French-based Creoles

02
déc.
2019.
14h00
17h30
Serial verbs in French-based Creoles

Salle 124

  • Anne Zribi-Hertz & Loïc Jean-Louis, SFL/U.P8 Two types of Serial Verb Constructions in Martinican and Haitian
  • Patricia Cabredo Hofherr : Comparative pase "surpass" and serial verbs in Haitian Creole
  • Discutant : Martin Haspelmath  

Anne Zribi-Hertz & Loïc Jean-Louis, SFL/U.P8 -- Two types of Serial Verb Constructions in Martinican and Haitian

 Starting with a list of defining crosslinguistic properties for "Serial Verb Constructions" (SVCs) we use Déchaine's 1993 theory of  bivalent predicates to present and describe the two types of SVCs we find in Martinican Creole (also attested in Haitian, though to a lesser degree for type 2). We show that our two types of SVCs are largely consistent with Déchaine's theory of bivalent predicates (respectively right-adjoined, and left-adjoined). Some Martinican data however turn out to violate in an interesting way one of Déchaine's assumptions — that the two subcomponents of Left-Adjoined bivalent predicates must share the same external argument.

Patricia Cabredo Hofherr  -- Comparative pase "surpass" and serial verbs in Haitian Creole

Haitian Creole has a standard marker in comparative construction that derives from the verb pase "exceed". Exceed-type verbs in comparative constructions are commonly analysed as serial verbs in Creole languages. The present talk examines the syntax of pase in comparative constructions in Haitian and argues that two types of pase have to be distinguished: the serial verb pase and pase as a marker of complements to the degree expressions pi and plis.