1. 1 Some less typical Support Verb Constructions in Persian Pollet Samvelian Université de Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle

2. 2 Some general facts about Persian Writing and Morphology Indo-European language (spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tadjikistan) Writing : - Arabic characters. - « Short » vowels (/a/, /e/ and /o/) are not noted. (N.B. contrary to Arabic, these vowels cannot be reconstructed) Morphology : - Rather poor nominal inflection (no gender, no case). - Quite rich verbal morphology (modal/adpectual prefixes, 2 different verbal stems, personal endings, incorporated auxiliaries). - Word formation : Composition rather than derivation.

3. 3 Some general facts about Persian Syntax Word order : - SOV (verb final), though a great degree of freedoom for ordering constituents. - The NP is head initial. Determination : - No definite determiner. - An indefinite determiner realized as an enclitic. No morphological case, but differential object marking (NP râ). A great number of verbal collocations, called ‘compound verbs’ in grammars.

4. 4 Verbal collocations or Complex Predicates Possible combinations: N-V, Adj-V, Prep-V, Adv-V Generally analyzed as « support verb » or « light verb » constructions in recent studies:  The « predicative noun » (generally an abstract noun or a derverbal noun) provides the Argument Structure and the semantic restrictions on the arguments.  The verb is « bleached » and bears informartion about tense, aspect, ditathesis… Some of the most frequently used « support » verbs : kardan ‘to do’, dâdan ‘to give’, xordan ‘to ’, zadan ‘to hit’, andâxtan ‘to throw, to drop’, oftâdan ‘fall’, gereftan ‘to take’, âmadan ‘to come’, raftan ‘to go’.

5. 5 Examples of typical SVCs with zadan ‘to hit, to put’ Zadan as a non-support verb: 1)Omidaks râbe divârzad Omidpicture DOto wallput ‘Omid hanged the picture on the wall.’ 2)Omidtuprâbe divârzad OmidballDOto wallhit ‘Omid threw the ball against the wall.’ Zadan as a support verb: 3)Omidfaryâdzad Omidscreamhit ‘Omid cried out.’ 4)Omidbe Maryamlabxandzad Omidto Maryamsmilehit ‘Omid smiled to Maryam’

6. 6 Less evident cases with zadan A concrete noun (not a predicative one) : mesvâk ‘tooth brush’ + zadan ‘to brush one’s teeth’ šâne ‘comb’ + zadan ‘to comb one’s hair lif ‘face-cloth’ + zadan ‘to wash with a face-cloth’ jâru ‘broom’ + zadan ‘to sweep up’ rang‘painting’ + zadan ‘to paint’ dast ‘hand’ +zadan ‘to touch’ vâks‘polish fot shoes’ + zadan ‘to polish’ Arguments against SVC (or complex predicate formation)  Concrete nouns (not predicative)  The verb zadan conserves its valency : Omid be mu-hâ-yaš šâne zad Omid to hair-pl-3.sgcomb hit ‘Omid combed his hair.’

7. 7 Less evident cases with zadan Arguments for SVC (complex predicate formation) -Transitive construction formation: 1)Omiddivâr rârang zad Omidwall DOpainting hit ‘Omid painted the wall’ -Adverbial modifiers within the NP: 2)Omiddivâr râ[rang-e sari’-i ] zad Omidwall DOpainting-EZquick-indef hit ‘Omid painted the wall quickly’ - Determination/quantification realized on the noun: 3) šâne-i be muhâ zad (Xâne-ye Edrisihâ, p. 41) comb-indefto hair-PLhit (Lit.) ‘(she) hit a comb to her hair’ / ‘She combed her hair’ (  She used a comb to comb her hair)

8. 8 Less evident cases with zadan Another problem : Omiddivâr râ [rang-e surati]zad Omidwall dopainting-EZ pinkhit ‘Omid painted the wall pink.’ Note that in this case the noun is modified as a concrete noun.

9. 9 Questions Which representation (annotation) for theses sequences ? Predicate or argument ? Two different representations depending whether a ‘concrete’ or an ‘abstract’ reading?