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Today, Matt Pearson joins George and William to talk about non-finite “adverbial” verb forms called converbs.
Top of Show Greeting: Old Niveni
Links and Resources:
- Imperative Converb in Archi (conference abstract)
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Ylikoski, J. (2003). Defining non-finites. Action nominals, converbs and infmitives. Journal of Linguistics, 16(2003), 185–237.
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Ahland, M. (2015). The Functions of Non-Final Verbs and Their Aspectual Categories in Northern Mao (Omotic) Narrative. Beyond Aspect: The Expression of Discourse Functions in African Languages, 109(81), 1–40.
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Creissels, D. (2010). Specialized converbs and adverbial subordination in Axaxdərə Akhvakh. In I. Bril (Ed.), Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy: Syntax and pragmatics (pp. 104–142). John Benjamins.
- Asfawwesen, D. (2016). The inceptive construction and associated topics in Amharic and related languages. (Doctoral dissertation, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University).
- Vandewalle, J. (2016). On Uzbek Converb Constructions Expressing Motion Events/Devinim Anlatan Özbekçe Ulaçli Yapilar Üzerine. Bilig, 78, 117.
- Coupe, A. R. (2017). On the diachronic origins of converbs in Tibeto-Burman and beyond. Sociohistorical Linguistics in Southeast Asia: New Horizons for Tibeto-Burman Studies in honor of David Bradley, 211.
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Forker, D. (2013). Microtypology and the Tsezic languages: A case study of syntactic properties of converbal clauses. SKY Journal of Linguistics, 26(i), 21–40.
- Amha, A., & Dimmendaal, G. J. (2006). Converbs in an African perspective. Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs. 167, 393.
Vítor De Araújo
Oh, so that’s what the Japanese -te form is? I didn’t know what the term “converb” meant (though I had seen it before), but from the discussion in the show, the Japanese -te form seems to fit the bill. It’s used for coordination (with only the last verb getting tense inflection), for some kinds of aspectual constructions like progressive (-te + iru (be/exist)), and also for saying ‘please’ (-te kudasai).
It also reminded me of Esperanto adverbial participles. Those inflect for ‘tense’, but the tense is relative to the main clause, not in agreement with it. I’m not sure if that counts, though; you can use them for coordination to an extent, but not really the way Japanese does it.
wm.annis
Yes, the Japanese -te forms can be considered a converb. A few references even call it that.
Participles do have some functional overlap with participles, but are structurally different. You can have languages that have a good collection of both participles and converbs. Some of the languages of the Caucasus seem generous on both fronts.
Vítor De Araújo
P.S.: Excellent episode as usual! 😀
Pete Bleackley
Transcript available at http://sources.conlang.org/Conlangery%20Podcast/Conlangery%20134%20Converbs
I’d be grateful to anyone who could help out by editing this
GohtCheese [gəʊtt͡ʃiːz]
Have you considered a practicum episode about things you can do with the definite article that do not directly refer to the definiteness of the thing referred to? I don’t know many examples myself, but sort of like how they can turn into relative pronouns, or how it, in Māori can be used as a title along the lines of English’s Mr or Sir.