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And Rosta scripsit:
> > When I was looking through the archives, I noticed someone use the term
> > "coverb". I happen to have been using this term, but I'm not at all sure
> > if my usage is anywhere near conventional. Does anybody want to
> > volunteer a definition?
>
> Can you remember the context? It strikes me as a nonce-term without
> any standard conventional meaning.
It's a standard term in Chinese linguistics (and perhaps other languages too)
for the non-head verb in a serial verb construction. It may be defined as
a verb which has an object but is not the main verb of its clause.
Li and Thompson give this example:
Yue1han4 huan2 -le yi4 ben3 shu1 gei3 Ma3li4
John return PFV one CLASS book give Mary
where "gei3" is the coverb. Functionally, gei3 can be seen as a dative
marker, but unlike typical markers, it is a semantically unbleached verb
which, as a main verb, means "give".
--
We call nothing profound jcowan@hidden.email
that is not wittily expressed. John Cowan
--Northrop Frye (improved) http://www.reutershealth.com