A Phase-Theoretic Approach to Serial Verb Constructions in Semitic

What it is about

The full text is not in the library; this card rests on the abstract on the journal page, and its ideas are provisional. The paper treats serial verb constructions in Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic, which it describes as asymmetric, contiguous and with matching marking on both verbs (same person, number and tense). In a minimalist (phase-theory) frame it compares two derivations: two clauses sharing one null subject, still biclausal and with a slot for a coordinator, which the authors call pre-canonical; and a single clause, which accounts for the asymmetry and is the canonical serial verb. They propose that the two are stages of one development, the move to one clause being driven by economy (fewer phases).

Ideas

• I1. For the Torah trees, the practical question is how to attach the second verb of pairs like וַיָּקָם וַיֵּלֶךְ "he arose and went", וַיֹּסֶף … לָלֶדֶת, הָלוֹךְ וְ־: list the verb pairs that recur back to back with the same subject and no intervening argument, count them, and decide one UD convention (conj for the linked wayyiqtol pair, compound:svc only where there is no conjunction). The paper's two-stage view supports keeping the conjoined type as coordination.
• I2. In prag and the world reader, treat the first verb of a frequent pair (קוּם, הָלַךְ, שׁוּב, מָהַר) as aspectual or motion colouring of the second event, not as a separate event, so that "arose and went" yields one going event with an onset.

For Mova

I1 is a count on the Torah trees and a decision for Syntax: the clause and the sentence (coordination) and chapter 13, section 6 (UD conventions), compared with PTNK's choice. I2 is a rule for the event reading in tools/macula/src/prag.rs or the world layer; the list of first verbs goes into 06-verb.md. The licence is non-commercial: we cite, we do not copy.

Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. DOI 10.30564/fls.v7i10.11016

@article{altamimi2025phase,
  title = {{A Phase-Theoretic Approach to Serial Verb Constructions in Semitic}},
  author = {Altamimi, Mansour Ibrahim and Willson, Jacob},
  journal = {Forum for Linguistic Studies},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.30564/fls.v7i10.11016},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i10.11016}
}

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2025-altamimi-phase-theoretic-approach-serial-verb/