The Serial Verb Construction Parameter

This text investigates the serial verb construction - engaging central issues in syntactic theory regarding complex predicates, clausal architecture, and syntactic variation. The proposed analysis is couched in the principles and parameters theory and the minimalist programme, based on extensive empirical evidence drawn from major Kwa languages of West Africa such as Edo, Yoruba, and Igbo, as well as from additional languages such as English, Italian, and Chinese. Two central arguments are presented in detail in this book. First, on the basis of an analysis of verb movement to Infl, the book argues that the occurrence of verb serialization in a given language is determined by the properties and relationship of a functional item (Tense) to a lexical item (Verb), not by an optional configuration of lexical phrase structure. Consequently, serial verbs occur only in languages where the verbs do not need to raise to check features with Infl (e.g. Edo, Yoruba), in contrast to languages where the verb must check features either at LF or at s-structure (e.g. English, French). Second, the book challenges the status quo of a unified analysis for serial verbs by showing systematically that tw