Serial verb

A serial verb (or serial) (Toaq: jeotoachue) is created when two or more verbs are placed together. This process is called serialization.

Examples

Serial verbs are a powerful construct in Toaq grammar.

Any verb with an “event/proposition”, “property”, or “relation” slot at the end can essentially act as an auxiliary verb. See Frame for how to recognize these slots.

Here is a list of examples to demonstrate the sort of thing serial verbs let you express in Toaq.

Serial verb examples

deq koı	can walk
sheo fıeq	regret inventing
leo kuaq	try expressing
guaı kaı	work on writing
tua cuaı	make wet
jaq chuı	very early
joe suaq	be skilled at singing
taq loı	self- hate

Merging definitions

When joining two verbs together into a serial, their definitions are merged according to the serialization algorithm.

Verbs that are treated the same in this algorithm are said to belong to the same “serial frame”.

All of the behaviors in the table above arise from a handful of rules:

Event/proposition slot: “merge-into”

chı	___ believes that	___	is the case
zudeq		___	speaks language	___
chı zudeq	___ believes that ___ speaks language ___.

Property slot: “merge-away one”

leo	___ tries to satisfy property	___
baı		___	builds	___
leo baı	___ tries to build ___

Relation (binary property) slot: “merge-away two”

noa	___ is difficult to be in relation	___	with
lım		___ understands ___
noa lım	___ is difficult to understand.

Long serials

For more than two verbs, this merging process is right-grouping:

sheo (leo kuaq)
regret (trying to express)

le (taoshao (ceo guaı))
probably (intend to (start working))

Usage

The result can be used as a verb by saying each word in :

Ma deq koı súq?
Are you able to walk?

Bujuı suaomıu jí ní da.
I barely care about that.

Sheo leo ruo huaq caq jí nháo da.
I regret trying to act more strong than them.

Only the first word is conjugated for tone, and everything else stays in .

táq loı
the self-hater

jâq de
very beautifully