Serial verb

A serial verb (or serial) 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 a “satisfies property…” or “is the case” slot can essentially act as an auxiliary verb to another.
• With other verbs, the result is like “adjective-thing”, or “verb-baq-object”.

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
pu koı	did walk
sheo fıeq	regret inventing
leo kuaq	try expressing
jaq chuı	very early
bu suao	not important
taq loı	self- hate
sao meı	big mountain
joaı haq	seek food

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:

Property slot: “merge-away”

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

Event slot: “merge-into”

le	it is probable that	___
guq		___	is underneath	___
le guq	___ is probably underneath ___

Transitive verb: “merge-with-baq”

cho	___ likes	___
rua		___	is a flower
cho rua	___ likes flowers

Adjective: “describe”

sao	___	is big
paq	___	is a part of ___
sao paq	___ is a big part of ___

Long serials

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

sheo (leo kuaq)
regret (trying to express)

le (haı (luı (ceo guaı)))
probably (already (have (started working)))

Usage

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

Dẻq kỏı súq moq?
Are you able to walk?

Bủ sủaojıe jí ní da.
I don't care about that.

Shẻo lẻo rủo hủaq cảq 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 lỏı
self-hater

täq lỏı
… who self-hates

bũ jảq dẻ
not very beautifully