Talmy’s typology in serializing languages: Variations on a VP

Abstract

Based on the lexicalization patterns of manner and result meaning in the main predicate, two resultative constructions can be distinguished, namely resultative secondary predication that lexicalizes the manner component, and means construction that lexicalize the result component. Notably, both constructions are unevenly distributed across languages (Talmy 2000, 1991). However, this typology is primarily based on non-serializing languages, such as English and Romance, in which the secondary manner or result predicate is necessarily non-verbal. This constrasts with resultatives in serializing languages, in which both the manner and result component are realized by verbal predicates, making it difficult to determine the underlying morphosyntactic status of the respective predicates. By investigating the morphosyntactic and semantic properties of resultative serial verb constructions (RSVCs) in two serializing languages, Mandarin and Samoan, I demonstrate that RSVCs are neither a unified or special phenomenon (contra Slobin 2004, Larson 1991), but show the same split observed in non-serializing languages. Further, these observations have broader implications on a unified configurational analysis of manner and result meaning within a syntactic account of event and argument structure building (cf. Folli & Harley 2020).