Verb + verb compound and serial verb construction in

Jordanian Arabic (JA) and English

Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh, Aseel Zibin

Abstract

This paper investigates whether V + V combinations in Jordanian Arabic (JA) and

English could be classified as either serial verb constructions (SVCs) or V + V
compounds. Through applying the cross-linguistic criteria of SVC, which have
been established in the relevant literature, it seems that V + V combinations in JA
and what have been considered as V + V compounds in English satisfy all the
criteria of SVC. The analysis shows that the criteria found in the literature to
identify compounds and SVCs show a great deal of overlap, especially with regard
to the fact that both types of construction are inseparable. We argue that the criteria
discussed in this paper and in much of the literature to identify SVCs are
necessary, but insufficient, conditions for SVC-hood. Alternatively, we propose
that as far as JA and English are concerned, SVC and V + V compounds may exist
on a continuum.

Keywords

Linguistics, Morphology, Verb + verb compounds, Serial verb construction, Arabic

dialects, Jordanian Arabic, Multiword expressions

Cite this article as:

Altakhaineh, A. R. M. & Zibin, A. (in press). Verb + verb compound and serial
verb construction in Jordanian Arabic (JA) and English. Lingua.
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