complex predicate

tǝmʃʌ kǝrdǝn ‘to look’ is an experiential predicate in Garrusi Kurdish whose arguments and event structure are represented as a coverb complex predicate. The present study explores how arguments are encoded in the predicate-argument construction of tǝmʃʌ kǝrdǝn based on Croft’s typological perspective (2022). It investigates the strategies employed by this verbal event to express its participants’ roles, which grammatical and semantic functions are hosted by its components, and how its event structure is represented with respect to its argument structure. For this purpose, a fieldwork was conducted and 30 native speakers of Garrusi Kurdish were interviewed. Wallace Chafe’s The Pear Story film was used as a catalyst for data collection, and Kurdish narratives were recorded. A total of 88 tokens of tǝmʃʌ kǝrdǝn, extracted from our discursive corpus, were analyzed to study argument coding strategies. The findings revealed that this experiential complex predicate, exhibits variation in the participants’ argument coding and the type of the event it expresses. It basically used experiencer-oriented strategy, encoding the experiencer as a subject argument phrase. However, the stimulus showed variation in coding strategies, being expressed as an object argument phrase, as an oblique argument phrase, or as a complement clause. Of the 88 tokens of tǝmʃʌ kǝrdǝn, only 16 instances employed subject-object argument structure. The most tokenized coding strategy was subject-oblique argument coding with a locative/goal stimulus. Additionally, this complex predicate was observed to function as a subevent in serial verb construction. It could also express a different event structure.

This investigation aims at examining the diachrony of so-called ‘compound verbs’ in Iranian languages. To this end, a number of texts were selected from the three periods of Iranian languages. From Old Iranian period, some Avestan texts as well as all Old Persian inscriptions, from MI period some Zoroastrian Middle Persian texts as well as from a Sogdian text were picked up and searched for instances of complex predicates, including prefixed verbs, incorporational verbs, combinational verbs, etc., which were then analyzed. The data show that in OI the majority of complex predicates consist in prefixed verbs, thus, maybe ‘compound verbs’ were not much needed to be formed. Nevertheless, ‘compound verb’ patterns did exist since that period. With verbal prefixes being inseparably attached to verb stems OP, the existent patterns for formation of complex predicates increased their productivity, the verb kar ‘do’ playing a major role as the verbal element of complex predicates. In Middle Iranian, loss of productivity of some verbal prefixes as well as inseparability of many prefixed verbs increasingly led to formation of more complex predicates, with more light verbs recruited into the construction. In New Iranian, specifically in New Persian, in addition to a decrease in number of prefixed verbs, as well as an increase in number of complex predicates, two other factors prompted the formation of new ones: first, an emergent need to produce verbs out of loan elements, and second, a tendency to morphological leveling of irregular simple verbs by converting them into complex predicates.

Much research has been done on semantics of the verbal element of complex predicates (CPr), usually referred to as light verb (LV). Most researchers have confined their studies to a few limited features of light verbs. After criticizing major views proposed by scholars on the semantics of light verbs, this article presents a hypothesis on the formation of complex predicates, arguing that all of which directly or indirectly have roots in incorporation process. This process starts with a complete sentence, incorporating two elements into it and ends in eliminating other elements. Formation of each complex predicate leads to the formation of the constructional schema X+LV0 which sanctions formation of new complex predicates with the same light verb and in the same semantic field. Accordingly, the meaning of light verb in direct incorporation case is the same meaning as its heavy verb, and in indirect incorporation case is dissolved in constructional meaning of the sanctioning schema. The meaning of light verb in each of these two cases could be different and each of them is taken or similar to one of its heavy meanings. There is a third case in which the light verb plays the role of verbalizing element and makes possible for a nonverbal predicate to inflect as a verb. Thus light verbs vary from having completely schematic and non-thematic meanings to their own primary heavy meanings.

In this paper, we will study the lexical aspect in Persian deadjectival complex predicates. Hence, we firstly review different kinds of aspect. Then, we will succinctly review three common viewpoints in the study of aspect in Persian complex predicates. According to the first viewpoint, light verbs play the major role in the telicity of the complex verbs; the second considers preverb to be determinant and regards all of the deadjectival complex predicates to be telic; and finally, the third viewpoint, although pointing out to the non-homogeneity of Persian complex predicates, does not provide us with an explanation behind such inconsistency. It is argued in this paper that approaches based on the scalar structure of the verb, in which the lexical properties of the base adjective is considered to be of great importance, stand in a better position in accounting for the aspectual properties of Persian deadjectival complex predicates.

The process of compound predicates (CPr) formation in Persian has got little attention on behalf of linguists. This paper aims to situate the components of Persian light verb constructions in contexts that can be justifiably invoked as a motivation for CPr formation. The authors believe that CPrs can be considered as direct or indirect products of incorporation process.
We hold here a broad concept of incorporation, namely X incorporation (XI), in which X indicates categories including nominals, adjectives and prepositional phrases. This process, explicated by means of some concepts from Cognitive Grammar, involves CPrs originating from complete clauses, and then passing through a compositional path where a nonverbal and a verbal element are selected out of a clause and end up in a complex predicate. In such a hypothetical path, a verb argument is occasionally omitted and the verb complement or adjunct, having a higher cognitive salience, is incorporated to it.
The investigation will continue with focusing on the LVCs constructed with LV kardan ‘do, make’, as the most frequently used light verb in Persian. The paper will also explore how different paths could be associated with different ‘heavy’ meanings of kardan.
Moreover, each CPr may further provide speakers with constructional schemasupon which other LVCs formed with a given LV can be sanctioned.
Considering different kinds of LVCs explained in this paper, we can say that the semantic contribution of LVs falls into one of the two following possibilities depending on how the LVC in question is formed:i. Compositional path is directly conceivable. When this is the case, the semantics of LV is equivalent to, or derived from, a main or extended sense of its non-light counterpart, as in emtehân dâdan ‘to take an exam’ (lit. to exam-give), xâb raftan ‘to fall asleep’ (lit. to sleepN-go), and lâne kardan ‘to nest’ (lit. to nestN-do).
ii. Compositional path is indirectly accessible through a constructional schema. In this case, the LV‘s semantic contribution can be thought of as dissolved in the constructional meaning of the relevant schema, as in imeyl zadan ‘to email’ (lit. to emailN-hit) whose LV has nothing to do with ‘hit‘, but imports a sense of ‘communication’ immanent in the constructional schema X zadan which is in turn inherited from telegrâf zadan ‘to telegraph’ (lit. to telegraphN-hit).
iii. The compound verb is a denominal verb in which the light verb serves to verbalize a non-verbal element. In this case the semantic contribution of the light verb is to add processual meaning to the predicate.

In the present research the authors attempt to study the complex predicates derived from the Arabic infinitives and their derivatives by taking into consideration: the closeness of Persian to Arabic, their joint cultural and historical backgrounds in different eras and the borrowing of many words from Arabic in modern Persian to such an extent that today an outstanding part of many Persian words specially non-verbal particles in complex predicates are dedicated to the Arabic loanwords.
Regarding the development and productivity of compounding as an active word formation process in Persian, which is considered as a salient typological property, this process has constantly been regarded from different approaches by Iranian and foreign linguists. Therefore, the purpose of this research is initially to investigate and delineate the formation process of the complex predicates which are derived from the Arabic infinitives and their derivatives, using the achievements of cognitive linguistics. Moreover, it examines the dominant constraints on such compounds. It's worth mentioning here that the analysis of chosen investigated verbs is based on the three theories of categorization, configuration and conceptualization which are theoretical fundamentals of cognitive morphology proffered by Hamawand (2011).

This article explores the structure of the so-called passives in Baboli dialect. A past participle or a noun phrase along with “bayyen” as a verb constitutes these structures. Using evidences like the position of negative marker “ne-” on “bayyen” and having the same structure as main verbs, we conclude that “bayyen” is a main light verb. Then getting benefitted from data like adjectival comparative suffix “-tar” and “xeylias” a premodifier for adjectives, we demonstrate that the elements preceding “bayyen” are in fact adjective and not verb. The analysis of the relation between these two elements in passives reveals that these elements combine to form compound verbs. Therefore, the so-called passives in this dialect are not passive; rather they are active sentences with complex predicates. Finally a different form of passive is diagnosed in this dialect which we call semantic passives. It means it has the structure of an active sentence but the subject of the sentence is not known. Therefore, it is passive just semantically.

The grammatical verb bayyen ‘to become’ is found in two apparently different structures in Saravi dialect, i.e. unaccusative structures and passive sentences. Adopting a minimalist perspective, in the former structures, traditionally called copula sentences, the light verb bayyen is preceded by a non-verbal element which could be nominal, adjectival, or prepositional, and in the latter structures the auxiliary verb bayyen, appearing in the head of functional PassP, follows the past participle form of a transitive verb. Based on the empirical and theoretical evidences, the present study shows that these two structures are identical and there is no passive structure and passive projection in Saravi. This conclusion means that the light verb bayyen ‘to become’ cannot be considered as an auxiliary verb in Saravi. In sum, this grammatical verb is only used as a light verb in an unaccusative complex predicate, headed by a non-verbal element.