This volume of new work explores the nature of verb serialisation in a
range of languages from the Pacific region – both Austronesian and
non-Austronesian. Serial verbs can be described linguistically as a
sequence of verbs which behave as a single complex predicate. A particular
focus of this book is the detailed examination given by most authors to the
relationship of such uniclausal linguistic structures with the real world
notion of eventhood. The book also makes a valuable addition to the
description and analysis of serial verb constructions from the Pacific, a
region which has generally been under-represented in cross-linguistic
discussions of verb serialisation. The book will appeal to syntacticians
and typologists as well as to Austronesianists and Papuanists.
Contributors: Louise Baird, John Bowden, Volker Heeschen, David Mead,
Andrew Pawley, Ger Reesink, Miriam van Staden, Catharina Williams-van
Klinken, and Scott Youngman.