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Something’s gotta go, something’s gotta give: Odia light verb constructions

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This paper deals with asymmetric complex predicates (combining a main verb and a ‘light’ verb) in Odia, an Indo-Aryan language. The main focus is on the two most common light verbs jaa ‘go’ and de ‘give’. We argue that these light verbs are constructions in their own right affecting the interpretation of the event in two ways: (i) they necessarily refer to completion of the event (as opposed to the single verb construction) and (ii) they typically express unexpectedness or abruptness and can as such be considered a mirative construction as defined by Delancey (2012). Transitivity plays a major role not only in the distinction between jaa ‘go’ and de ‘give’ but also in differences of degree of completion and unexpectedness.
Tijdschrift: Studia Linguistica
ISSN: 0039-3193
Issue: 3
Volume: 71
Pagina's: 337 - 367