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. 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 (however when the verb is monosylabic, the ending ia is 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 | 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.
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
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 "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
- Introduction to Seuna
- Seuna : Chapter 1
- Seuna word shape
- The script of Seuna
- Seuna sentence structure
- Seuna pronouns
- Seuna nouns
- Seuna verbs (1)
- Seuna adjectives
- Seuna demonstratives
- Seuna verbs (2)
- Asking a question in Seuna
- Seuna relative clauses
- Seuna verbs (3)
- Methods for deriving words in Seuna
- List of all Seuna derivational affixes
- Numbers in Seuna
- Naming people in Seuna
- The Seuna calendar
- Seuna units