Following Participants in a Verb Chain

Level 4

Read each verb together with the participants involved in its event.

How It Works

A serial construction links verbs without an intervening conjunction or subordinator. Identify the actor, then ask what each verb affects. Buying and eating can share both an actor and an object: the buyer eats the purchased item. Carrying followed by coming adds motion toward a reference point. Other sequences give the verbs separate objects.

In Bísí ra ẹja jẹ, Bísí buys and eats, while the fish is bought and eaten. In Títí pọn omi kún garawa, water is fetched and a bucket is filled. The two overt objects belong to different component actions.

A licensed series can share preverbal tense and aspect markers; the verbs do not acquire person or number endings. Adjacent verbs are not automatically serial verbs: wanting followed by an action can involve a complement. Read participant roles from the construction rather than assuming that the initial subject performs every subsequent event.

Examples (3)

  1. Bísí ra ẹja jẹ.

    Bísí bought fish and ate it.

    Both verbs share the actor and the fish.

  2. A gbé àpótí wá.

    We brought a box.

    Carrying is linked with motion toward the reference point.

  3. Títí pọn omi kún garawa.

    Títí fetched water and filled a bucket.

    The verbs have separate overt objects: water and a bucket.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Following Participants in a Verb ChainLevel 4

Learn This First

Track the participants of each verb.

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Patterns that build on this one.