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.

how it works

In this construction one verb comes first and then the second verb follows. (there is a hint of SVC in English when you hear things like "go see" : however that is about as far as it goes in English)

In Seuna the first verb is given the full markings for tense, etc. etc. but the second verb has its final vowel deleted and the ending i added (if the verb is monosyllabic, the ending ia is added). For example ;-

1) donore nia = "S/he is walking in this direction" .... S/he is walking come

Some examples ;-

2) They caught cook eat three fish

3) She washed ironed folded the clothes

In the above examples the werbs follow each other, have the same object and have the same subject.

4) Take book come

In the above example the verbs do not stand beside each other.

5) They drink champagne eat caviar

In the above example the verbs have different objects

THere are even some constructions that have different subjects. For example;-

6) He painted the house to be green ???? really different subjects ????

MANCHU

tere sargan boo ci tuci+ke

that woman house ABL go.out+PAST.FINITE

That woman came out of the house.

tere sargan hoton de gene+he

that woman town DAT go+PAST.FINITE

That woman went to town.

These two sentences can be combined into a single sentence using converbs, which will relate the first action to the second. For example,

tere sargan boo ci tuci+fi, hoton de gene+he

that woman house ABL go.out+PAST.CONVERB, town DAT go+PAST.FINITE

That woman, having come out of the house, went to town.

tere sargan boo ci tuci+me, hoton de gene+he

that woman house ABL go.out+IMPERFECT.CONVERB, town DAT go+PAST.FINITE

That woman, coming out of the house, went to town.

tere sargan boo ci tuci+cibe, hoton de gene+he

that woman house ABL go.out+CONCESSIVE.CONVERB, town DAT go+PAST.FINITE

That woman, though she came out of the house, went to town.

the time structure in SVC's

In example 2) the verb ordering is iconic with respect to time. In example 3) it is a little less so (she probably did not do all the ironing before all the folding). In example 4) it is iconic. The time structure of example 5) is interesting. The two actions are "alternating".

If the actions were consequential, we would say...

drinkuro champagne humpurau caviar = they drink champagne and then eat caviar

If the actions were simultaneous, we would say...

drinkuro champagne humpurai caviar = they drink champagne as they eat caviar

But as the action is alternating, we say ...

drinkuro champagne humpia caviar

So we can see that many different time structure are handle by morphology in Seuna.

the 9 SVC verbs of motion

Going back to example 1)

Here nia is a second verb indicating motion. Verbs of motion often occur as the non-initial element in SVC's. In this position the motion verb is not so pertinent as the main verb but it certainly clarifies/colours the event described in the clause.

There are nine verbs of motion which are very commonly used as such.

along	lia	to follow	l???
past	swia	to pass	sw???
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	nia	come	n???

Some examples ;-

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

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.

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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.

other stuff

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

Some more example ;-

he broke into the bathroom = breakori enter the bathroom

normally when the first verb is a word of motion, the word "enter" is not used.

donori pidwolo = "S/he walked in the house" or "S/he walked into the house"

However with "break", which is not a verb of motion, you use "enter".

prepositions not supplanted by the SVC, but by case

As mentioned above, the second element in many SVC are functionally equivalent to prepositions in English.

Other English prepositions are functionally equivalent case tags in Seuna.

Having a second verb in SVC's was considered but it was decided to go the "case" route.

case marking	English equivalent preposition	2nd element of SVC (thought of but not used)
-ji	for	"to give" or "to help"
-u	with	"to use"
-ho	with	to accompany
-fi	at	to be at
-le	than	to surpass

Also the cases -le, -yo and -wa ; could maybe have been reoplaced by verbs meaning "come", "go", "arrive there", "arrive here", "reach", etc. etc.

other verbs commonly used as SVC elements

meaning when independent verb	Form when independent	Meaning when 2nd element of SVC	Form when 2nd element
to oppose	w???	against	wia
to do carelessly	f???		fia
to botch	b???	mis-	bia

to hurry,

to gather, to scratter

to repeat, ............... (again)

to enter, to exit

to stop off .................. for a time on a journey(when second element "to take five"??)

to connect, to disconnect ... on and off

to stay ......................continue, keep on

arrive, leave ................... to start, to stop ??

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

The four verb forms in Seuna

The verb dono (meaning, to walk) is used as an example.

1) dono is the "source form", which is the same as the infinitive in English.

2) donia is the "lagging form" and is the form used in non-initial elements of SVC's.

3) donais (Let's walk) is one of the "weak forms". All forms that have an "s" in the suffix are weak forms.

The above form is used in situations in which the subjunctive form is used in some European languages.

4) donori (S/he walked) is one of the "strong forms". All forms that have an "r" in the suffix are strong forms.

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