- Language or dialect:
- Bininj Kun-Wok
- Feature:
- Are there verb-adjunct (aka light-verb) constructions?
- Coding:
-
absent
(Evans 2003)
- Comment:
- (Note: changed coding to 'No' (0) as Nick says this phenomenon only occur in a very small number of verbs and are really only of historical importance). The combination of a 'prepound' and a verb root may occur within the verb stem (p.336). The prepound as defined by Evans may be an incorporated noun. Some prepounds however, are words which are restricted to occurring as part of the verb stem, combine with certain common verb roots and do not always have a very easily definable meaning outside of particular combinations. In these respects they are similar to the non inflecting element of complex verbs in other Australian languages, often described as 'coverbs', and the verb adjuncts of PNG languages, although those are most often to some extent independent phonological words. Some of the dedicated prepounds in BGW are described as spatial prepounds (p.339) such as djong- which occurs in the verbs djong-di [with verb root 'stand'] 'be inside something tight-fitting' and djong-bu [with verb root 'hit'] 'put on clothes'. Others do not have a spatial meaning such as -mad which occurs in the verb stems -mad-di 'stay in one place' and -mad-bu 'wait'. Note that Evans (pers. comm.) does not agree with my treating these prepound-verb structures as analogous to coverb-verb structures in other Australian languages (but c.f. coding of Gooniyandi and Murrinhpatha).
