Serial Verbs in Oceanic: A Descriptive Typology

by Terry Crowley

This book describes the diversity of serial verb constructions within Oceanic languages. Serial verb constructions are sequences of verbs placed one after another to express meanings which in other languages are typically expressed by means of single verbs. It has long been established that West African, Southeast Asian and Papuan languages are serializing languages, but the construction has only comparatively recently been recognized in Oceanic languages, which belong to a very large sub-group of the Austronesian family.

300 pages, Hardcover

First published November 21, 2002

About the author

Terry Crowley (1953-2005) was a linguist specializing in Oceanic languages, as well as Bislama, the English-lexified Creole recognized as a national language in Vanuatu. From 1991 till his death, he was a professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. Previously, he was with the Pacific Languages Unit of the University of the South Pacific in Vanuatu (1983–90) and with the Department of Language and Literature at the University of Papua New Guinea (1979–83).