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Some less typical Support Verb
Constructions in Persian
Pollet Samvelian
Université de Paris III –
Sorbonne Nouvelle
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Some general facts about Persian
Writing and Morphology
• Indo-European language (spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tadjikistan)
• Writing :
- Arabic characters.
- « Short » vowels (/a/, /e/ and /o/) are not noted.
(N.B. contrary to Arabic, these vowels cannot be reconstructed)
• Morphology :
- Rather poor nominal inflection (no gender, no case) .
- Quite rich verbal morphology (modal/adpectual prefixes, 2 different
verbal stems, personal endings, incorporated auxiliaries).
- Word formation : Composition rather than derivation.
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Some general facts about Persian
Syntax
• Word order :
- SOV (verb final), though a great degree of freedoom for ordering
constituents.
- The NP is head initial.
• Determination :
- No definite determiner.
- An indefinite determiner realized as an enclitic.
• No morphological case, but differential object marking (NP râ).
• A great number of verbal collocations, called ‘compound verbs’ in
grammars.
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Verbal collocations
or Complex Predicates
• Possible combinations:
N-V, Adj-V, Prep-V, Adv-V
• Generally analyzed as « support verb » or « light verb » constructions
in recent studies:
 The « predicative noun » (generally an abstract noun or a derverbal
noun) provides the Argument Structure and the semantic restrictions on
the arguments.
 The verb is « bleached » and bears informartion about tense, aspect,
ditathesis…
• Some of the most frequently used « support » verbs :
kardan ‘to do’, dâdan ‘to give’, xordan ‘to ’, zadan ‘to hit’, andâxtan
‘to throw, to drop’, oftâdan ‘fall’, gereftan ‘to take’, âmadan ‘to come’,
raftan ‘to go’.
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Examples of typical SVCs
with zadan ‘to hit, to put’
•
1)
2)
•
3)
4)
Zadan as a non-support verb:
Omid
aks
râ
be divâr
Omid
picture
DO
to wall
‘Omid hanged the picture on the wall.’
Omid
tup
râ
be divâr
Omid
ball
DO
to wall
‘Omid threw the ball against the wall.’
Zadan as a support verb:
Omid
faryâd
zad
Omid
scream
hit
‘Omid cried out.’
Omid
be Maryam
labxand
Omid
to Maryam
smile
‘Omid smiled to Maryam’
zad
put
zad
hit
zad
hit
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Less evident cases
with zadan
•
A concrete noun (not a predicative one) :
mesvâk ‘tooth brush’ + zadan ‘to brush one’s teeth’
šâne ‘comb’ + zadan ‘to comb one’s hair
lif ‘face-cloth’ + zadan ‘to wash with a face-cloth’
jâru ‘broom’ + zadan ‘to sweep up’
rang ‘painting’ + zadan ‘to paint’
dast ‘hand’ + zadan ‘to touch’
vâks ‘polish fot shoes’ + zadan ‘to polish’
• Arguments against SVC (or complex predicate formation)
 Concrete nouns (not predicative)
 The verb zadan conserves its valency :
Omid be mu-hâ-yaš šâne zad
Omid to hair-pl-3.sg comb hit
‘Omid combed his hair.’
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Less evident cases
with zadan
•
-
Arguments for SVC (complex predicate formation)
Transitive construction formation:
1) Omid divâr râ
Omid wall DO
‘Omid painted the wall’
-
rang zad
painting hit
Adverbial modifiers within the NP:
2) Omid
divâr râ
[rang-e
sari’-i] zad
Omid
wall DO
painting-EZ
quick-indef hit
‘Omid painted the wall quickly’
- Determination/quantification realized on the noun:
3) šâne-i
be muhâ zad
(Xâne-ye Edrisihâ, p. 41)
comb-indef
to hair-PL hit
(Lit.) ‘(she) hit a comb to her hair’ / ‘She combed her hair’
( She used a comb to comb her hair)
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Less evident cases
with zadan
• Another problem :
Omid
divâr râ
Omid
wall do
‘Omid painted the wall pink.’
[rang-e
painting-EZ
surati]
pink
zad
hit
Note that in this case the noun is modified as a concrete noun.
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Questions
• Which representation (annotation) for
theses sequences ?
• Predicate or argument ?
• Two different representations depending
whether a ‘concrete’ or an ‘abstract’
reading?
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