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Antisymmetry and Word Order in Serial Constructions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Vicki Carstens
Vicki Carstens*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri-Columbia
*
Dept. of English, 107 Tate Hall, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211-1500 [castensv@missouri.edu]
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Abstract

Strict head-final surface order derives from underlying left-headedness in , a Niger-Congo language of Nigeria. A word order anomaly in serial verb constructions (SVCs) strongly suggests this, and left-to-right asymmetric c-command among internal arguments of SVCs confirms it. The anomaly is universal among surface right-headed languages with SVCs, indicating that deep left-headedness is universal, as antisymmetry theory predicts (Kayne 1994). Assuming complements are in Specs, and that a light verb v selects every VP (Chomsky 1999), I derive VOVO from OVOV by two instances of V-to-v movement. I argue for a nonuniform approach to SVCs, involving relations of both raising (Campbell 1989) and control (Collins 1997). Other aspects of SVC word order are predictable from a universal thematic hierarchy nontheme > theme, and short scrambling (Takano 1998).

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 3 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 Linguistic Society of America

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