Seuna serial verb construction

The serial verb construction (SVC) is used when two verbs (on occasion it can be more than two verbs) can be thought of as representing one single action.

In this construction one verb comes first and then the second verb directly follows. The first verb is given the full markings for tense, etc. etc. but the second verb has its final vowel deleted and the ending ia added. For example ;-

donori mia = "he walked here" or more accurately "he walked in this direction"

Here mia is a second verb indicating motion. There are eight verbs of motion very commonly used as the second element in SVC.

the 8 SVC verbs of motion

along	lia	to follow	l???
across	dia	to cross	d???
through	dwia	to go through	dw??
up	sia	to ascend	s???
down	jia	to descend	j???
back	wia	to return	w???
away from speaker	gia	go	g??
towards speaker	mia	come	m???

Two words very commonly used as second verbs in SVC are mia and gia : mai meaning that the action happened towards the speaker, and gia meaning that the action happened away from the speaker. For example ;-

he telephoned (to this location) = wire-speakori mia

he telephoned (from this location) = wire-speakori gia

to returned a call = wire-speak wia

These eight words often corespond to prepositions in English. As with prepositions they are often followed by nouns to which they relate to.

the copula in SVC

In Seuna "he painted the green house" would mean the same as "he painted the house green" because of word order. Therefor to avoid confusion we must say "he painted the house to be green". "to be" in this position is treated as a normal second element in a SVC. It is represented by ya which is a sort of modified ia.

old stuff

Five words very commonly used as second verbs in SVC are sia up, tia down, fia through, dwia along and cwia across, However often used as first verbs when the second element is mia or gia.

Note that the words palia (to enter) and malu (to exit) are most often used as first verbs.

Note ;- In the Seuna writing system ia is represented by the active verb symbol (i.e. "r") unadorned with a vowel subscript.

Often Seuna uses SVC where English would use a preposition. For example ;-

she ran across the street = ranori cwɘ street

he walked along the street = walkori dwɘ street

the barrel roled down the hill = barrel roleori jɘ hill

the above three example can be stated with less detail by missing out the means of locomotion.

she crossed the street = cwori street

he went along the street = dwori street

the barrel went(somehow) down the hill = barrel jori hill

Some more example ;-

she ran screaming out of the house = runori screamə fə dwolo

he broke into the bathroom = breakori pə bathroom

she took an axe and hit it = oyori axe timpə it

she hit it with an axe = timpori it useə axe

Notice that in the above two examples, the two verbs of the SVC do not stand next to each other.

the English word "against" is the shwa form of "oppose" in Seuna.

the English word "for" is the shwa form of "give" or the shwa form of "help" in Seuna.

deliberate and accidental actions

swela by itself means "to pounce on","to jump on", to swoop down on", "to fall on"

toko by itself means "to fall"

sweli after a verb means that that verb was done deliberately

toki after a verb means that that verb was done accidentally

Index

1. Introduction to Seuna
2. Seuna : Chapter 1
3. Seuna word shape
4. The script of Seuna
5. Seuna sentence structure
6. Seuna pronouns
7. Seuna nouns
8. Seuna verbs (1)
9. Seuna adjectives
10. Seuna demonstratives
11. Seuna verbs (2)
12. Asking a question in Seuna
13. Seuna relative clauses
14. Seuna verbs (3)
15. Methods for deriving words in Seuna
16. List of all Seuna derivational affixes
17. Numbers in Seuna
18. Naming people in Seuna
19. The Seuna calendar
20. Seuna units