Serial Verbs in Ibibio

Notice that there are two verbs in the constructions above. The first two verbs combine to form complex verb which means ‘arrive’ in English. The second example forms a complex predicate meaning ‘cook and eat’. Both verbs share the same subject and same object. The constructions looked at in this paper typically surface as V 1 V 2 (Obj) or V 1 (Obj) V 2. The ultimate goal in this paper is to detail the morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of SVCs in Ibibio by using criteria for SVCs established for other languages. In section 2, I provide some background information on the typology and syntax of Ibibio that is relevant for the discussion of serial verbs. Section 3 defines and describes the property of light verbs in the literature. This includes discussion of SVCs in general, the syntactic properties, the semantic properties. The purpose of this section is to show that the constructions in Ibibio are truly SVCs across both syntactic and semantic grounds and also to fit Ibibio in with the typological literature on SVCs. 2. Ibibio background Ibibio is a Lower Cross language of the East Benue-Congo branch in the Niger-Congo language phylum, which is spoken in the southern part of Nigeria by roughly 2 million speakers. The data in this section is primarily novel data, but was informed by prior descriptions of the language (Essien 1990; Kaufman 1968).


Serial Verbs in Ibibio
Travis Major University of Kansas

Introduction
This paper investigates serial verb constructions (SVC) in Ibibio, a Niger-Congo language spoken in Nigeria 12 .Basic examples of SVCs in Ibibio are exemplified in (1) below: (1) a. (ǹdùfò) è-má é-dí wùó 3 2PL.SUBJ 2PL.SUBJ-PST 2PL-go come 'You (PL) arrived.' b.Ekpe á-má á-tèm àdésì á-díyá Ekpe 3SG-PST 3SG-cook rice 3SG-eat 'Ekpe cooked and ate rice.' Notice that there are two verbs in the constructions above.The first two verbs combine to form complex verb which means 'arrive' in English.The second example forms a complex predicate meaning 'cook and eat'.Both verbs share the same subject and same object.The constructions looked at in this paper typically surface as The ultimate goal in this paper is to detail the morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of SVCs in Ibibio by using criteria for SVCs established for other languages.In section 2, I provide some background information on the typology and syntax of Ibibio that is relevant for the discussion of serial verbs.Section 3 defines and describes the property of light verbs in the literature.This includes discussion of SVCs in general, the syntactic properties, the semantic properties.The purpose of this section is to show that the constructions in Ibibio are truly SVCs across both syntactic and semantic grounds and also to fit Ibibio in with the typological literature on SVCs.

Ibibio background
Ibibio is a Lower Cross language of the East Benue-Congo branch in the Niger-Congo language phylum, which is spoken in the southern part of Nigeria by roughly 2 million speakers.The data in this section is primarily novel data, but was informed by prior descriptions of the language (Essien 1990;Kaufman 1968).

Grammatical relations
Arguments in Ibibio are realized as DPs, independent pronouns, and argument markers.All three options are demonstrated in (2) below: (2) Ekpe á-mà á-ḿ-má (míén) Ekpe 3SG.SUBJ-PST 3SG-1SG.OBJ-like 1SG.OBJ 'Ekpe liked me.' The proper name Ekpe is the subject, which is also encoded by the marker á-that precedes the tense marker (and on the verb in other cases).The 1SG object is encoded by both the full object pronoun mien and the 1SG object marker m-.The markers are sometimes variable depending on phonological considerations such as surrounding tones and vowel harmony, and also vary depending on whether the sentence was uttered carefully or naturally.The data in this paper are almost exclusively composed of careful speech.A summary of the pronouns and argument markers is shown in Table 1 below The tones and vowels take slightly different forms throughout this paper, because the tonal transcriptions are based on surface tones.The examples in the table are what I assume to be underlying tones, but depending on their position in a sentence are subject to change on the surface and as a result, in the transcriptions.

Word order
Ibibio is predominantly an SVO language when full DPs are present ((3)a), but the argument markers yield the order SOV ((3)b): á-ḿ-má 2SG.SUBJ-PRS 2SG-1SG.OBJ-like 'You like/love me.' (3) illustrates the word order of Ibibio, but also presents the organization of pronouns and argument markers in the language.The independent subject pronoun ami in ((3)a) is optional, while the subject marker is obligatory.In ((3)b), both subject and object markers are obligatory.
In ditransitive constructions, if we only consider the overt nouns (ignoring subject/object markers), two possible orders surface: S V IO DO ((4)a) and S V DO IO ((4)b), shown below: The data in (5) show that one argument marker must prefix on to the verb, but if the markers are both vowels, only one may actually be realized.Either the subject or object marker is acceptable, but not both.((5)b) shows that if the object is marked on the verb, the independent object pronoun nyIn '1PL.OBJ' is optional.However, if the subject is marked on the verb (not the object), the independent object pronoun becomes obligatory.

Tense/Aspect
The tense/aspect system in Ibibio is quite complex.This discussion is limited to those tense/aspect morphemes that appear in this paper.(6) shows the morphology that surfaces in the past tense (or possibly perfective/completive aspect): The simple past is shown in ((6)a) and is represented by the morpheme mé.In all cases of A-bar extraction (e.g.wh-questions, focus, negation), a different morpheme, ké surfaces ((6)b).Notice that the tense/aspect marker ké is also homophonous with the complementizer ké which immediately precedes it in ((6)b).Finally, the past tense marker mà may be combined with the habitual marker sé to form habitual past constructions.
The present tense morphology included in this paper is shown in ( 7): (7) a.  7)a) shows that the simple present is typically unmarked.In the present habitual, the habitual marker se appears ((7)b).However, some verbs show an overt present tense marker, such as ((7)c), where me is used.

Serial verb constructions
SVCs span a wide semantic range and display different distributional properties crosslinguistically.This section establishes a working definition from the literature and outlines the cases where Ibibio behaves within the boundaries set by other languages and where it diverges.

Working definition of serial verb constructions
As mentioned in the introduction, there is little agreement on a clear set of characteristics that constitute serial verb constructions.SVCs are typically discussed within the literature on complex predicates, defined by Butt (2003) as follows: Complex Predicate (9) a.The argument structure is complex (two or more semantic heads contribute arguments as part of primary predication.b.The grammatical functional structure is that of a simple predicate: there is only a single subject and no embedding.c.Formed either morphologically or syntactically. The definition above is meant to cover other syntactic constructions as well, such as light verbs and auxiliaries.The definition of complex predicates does provide a good starting point, however, as each of the properties shown in (9) are included in most definitions of serial verb constructions.
Aikhenvald defines serial verb constructions as "a sequence of verbs which act together as a single predicate, without any overt marker of coordination, subordination, or syntactic dependency of any other sort" (Aikhenvald 2006: 1).Bowern (2008) provides another similar (yet different) definition for SVCs: (10) a.The Clause contains two (or more) verbs under a single intonation contour.
b.The verbs must be full lexical verbs which can head simple predicates in their own right.c.The verbs share at least one argument.d.The verbs behave as a single unit for tense, aspect, and polarity marking.
All examples of SVCs to follow, minimally: 1) also function as lexical verbs; 2) share a subject (and maximally all arguments); 3) behave as a single unit for tense, aspect, and polarity marking.An investigation of the prosody of these constructions is an area for future research.

Syntax of serial verbs
This section begins by showing that serial verb constructions are different from overt coordination.Furthermore, I apply the set of diagnostics used by Hiraiwa and Bodomo (2008) to further show that the constructions in Ibibio are truly SVCs.This includes the following four tests: single tense marking, the pronouns/empty category test, the negation test, and the extraction test.

Coordination versus serial verb constructions
One of the major issues addressed in Aikhenvald's definition is that SVCs do not contain overt conjunctions.Collins (1997) points out that covert coordination is also a concern when looking at SVCs in Ewe.The examples below, for instance, appear to be cases of coordination: (11) a. Me fo kaɖɛgbɛ gba.
1SG hit lamp break 'I hit the lamp and broke it.'b.Me fo kaɖɛgbɛ gba (yɛme) tsimini.1SG hit lamp break its glass 'I hit the lamp and broke its glass.' The case in ((11)b) appears to have two objects that correspond to different verbs, which strongly suggests that this is a case of covert coordination, and not an SVC.
Ibibio displays clear differences between coordination and SVCs.Two simple coordination strategies in Ibibio are shown in ( 12 For the purposes of this paper, DP coordination is not used as a diagnostic, and the conjunction ndò in ((12)a) is not compatible with coordination of VPs or TPs.The conjunction nyʌǹg is used for VPs and TPs, so nyʌǹg is used when differentiating between SVCs and basic coordination in Ibibio.
Now that I have provided data for basic conjunctions, it is possible to discuss the differences between SVCs and conjunctions.An overt conjunction may not be inserted between V 1 and V 2 in either the pre-object or post-object position, at least with the same interpretation: (13) a. Ekpe á-mà á-fɔ ṕ ùnâm á-tá Ekpe 3SG-PST 3SG-roast meat 3SG-eat 'Ekpe roasted meat and ate it.'b. * Ekpe á-mà á-fɔ ṕ (*á-nyʌǹg) ùnâm (*á-nyʌǹg) á-tá Ekpe 3SG-PST 3SG-roast 3SG-and meat 3SG-and 3SG-eat Intended: 'Ekpe roasted and ate meat.' c.Ekpe á-mà á-fɔ ṕ ùnâm á-nyʌǹg á-tá *(ùnàm/ósòkóró) Ekpe 3SG-PST 3SG-roast meat and 3SG-eat meat/orange 'Ekpe roasted meat and he ate (some other) meat/orange.'((13)a) is a basic serial verb construction with the object ùnâm 'meat' shared between both V 1 and V 2 .((13)b) shows that an overt conjunction is not possible before or after the object.((13)c) demonstrates that the object needs to be specified for the second verb in the coordinate structure, while it is implied that the object is shared between both verbs in typical serial verb constructions, like (13)a).Even if the object is ùnâm in both VPs, it is interpreted as though they are different meats.
To demonstrate that this diagnostic is meaningful in Ibibio, consider the case below which looks like an SVC on the surface, but allows an overt conjunction without changing the structure or interpretation: (14) a. Ima [ á-kpón á-yàìyá ] Ima 3SG-become.big3SG-become.beautiful'Ima got big and became beautiful.'b.Ima [ á-kpón á-nyʌǹg/*ǹdò á-yàìyá ] Ima 3SG-become.big3SG-CONJ 3SG-become.beautiful'Ima got big and become beautiful.'((14)a) does not contain an overt coordinator, the subject is shared between both verbs which are structured as V 1 V 2 , and both verbs independently can function as main verbs.However, ((14)b) clearly illustrates that an overt conjunction is possible and the interpretive differences found in (13) do not occur when the conjunction is inserted.

Single tense marking test
The single tense marking test (Collins 1997;Hiraiwa & Bodomo 2008) establishes that tensemarking may occur only once in a serial verb construction, before V 1 .In basic coordinate constructions, the tense marker may be repeated, as shown for Dàgáárè in ( 15): (15) a. ò dà sɛ ́ lá n ɛ ńè (*dà) ɔ ɔ̀ 3SG PST roast F meat PST eat 'He roasted the meat and ate it.'(Hiraiwa & Bodomo 2008: 800) b. ò dà sɛ ́ lá n ɛ ńè à (dà) ɔ ɔ̀ 3SG PST roast F meat CONJ PST eat 'He roasted the meat and then ate it.'(Hiraiwa & Bodomo 2008: 800) The Dàgáárè data above presents this basic difference between serial verb constructions and coordinate constructions.((15)a) shows that repetition of the tense marker is not allowed in a serial verb construction.However, in a basic coordinate construction (created by insertion of the conjunction à), the tense marker may appear in both coordinated phrases.
The large variety of verbs that form serial verb constructions may give the impression that all verbs may form complex predicates or serial verb constructions, but this is not the case.For instance, a sentence composed of two unergative verbs, which optionally co-occur with cognate objects cannot form a serial verb construction: (18) a. Ekpe á-yá á-kwɔ ́ (ìkwɔ̌) á-nyʌǹg á-nèk (ùnèk) Ekpe 3SG-FUT 3SG-sing song 3SG-CONJ 3SG-dance dance 'Ekpe will sing and dance.' b.Ekpe á-mà á-kwɔ ́ (ìkwɔ̌) ìdáGá ami anye á-yá Ekpe 3SG-PST 3SG-sing song now this.time3SG 3SG-FUT á-nèk ùnèk 3SG-dance dance 'Ekpe sang and now he is going to dance.' ((18)a) shows that an overt conjunction is possible in a sentence that contains 'sing' and 'dance', while both verbs optionally display cognate objects.((18)b) shows that different tense markers may be used, which indicate a progression or sequential events.The same is true when the object is not shared between intransitives, like ((17)b).

Pronoun/empty category test
The pronoun/empty category test provides evidence that the explicit object is truly shared between both verbs, and that neither selects nor co-occurs with a null object (Baker 1989).The sentences from Dàgáárè shown below indicate that the object may only be expressed once in a serial verb construction: (19) a. ò dà sɛ ́ lá sìngkáà ɔ ɔ̀ (*á).3SG PST roast F groundnut.PL eat them 'He roasted groundnuts and ate them.' (Hiraiwa & Bodomo 2008: 800) b. ò dà sɛ ́ lá sìngkáà, à (dà) ɔ ɔ̀ á. 3SG PST roast F ground.nut.PL CNJ PST eat them 'He roasted groundnuts and then ate them.' (Hiraiwa & Bodomo 2008: 800) ((19)a) shows that the plural object sìngkáà 'groundnuts' is truly shared between both verbs, and that it cannot be expressed following the second verb, unlike in basic coordinate structures ((19)b), where an overt conjunction, optionally repetition of the tense marker, and resumption of the object is permitted.
Ibibio does not allow the object to be expressed following the second verb in an SVC, but does in coordinate structures: The serial construction ((20)a) does not allow an overt conjunction or expression of the object 'books' following the verb níé 'to own'.The coordinate structure ((20)b) allows expression of an object, but not necessarily co-referenced with ngwet 'book'.The SVC allows no other interpretation.
The same pattern for negation is observed in Ibibio:  22)b) shows that the negative marker is only allowed before V 1 , and cannot intervene between V 1 and V 2 .The only possible interpretation of ((22)b) is 'don't collect and keep the book', where the entire verbal complex is negated.However, this cannot be interpreted in a way where the book is kept but not collected.
The case in ( 22) shows that the negative ke cannot intervene between V 1 and V 2 , but this may be a problem with the form of negation.Negation surfaces in multiple forms in Ibibio, illustrated in ( 23)-(25) below: (23) a. bén òmmô take 3SG.OBJ 'Take them!' b. ké ù-bén òmmô NEG 2SG.NEG-take 3PL.OBJ 'Don't take them!' When comparing the imperative in ((23)a) to the negative imperative ((23)b), the subject marker changes from à to ù and the marker ké appears, which both occur in negative contexts.
In affirmative (non-imperative) contexts, the same change takes place between subject markers, ké still surfaces, but reduplication also surfaces on the right edge of the verb: It is unclear which of these changes actually indicates negation and which are epiphenomenal, but these are defining characteristics associated with negation in Ibibio.
Furthermore, a similar pattern is observed for 3SG subjects, as shown below: (25) a. Imà á-dép Ima 3SG-buy 'Ima bought it.'b.Imà í-dép-pé Ima 3SG.NEG-buy-NEG 'Ima didn't buy it.' In this case, ke does not surface at all, but the subject marker changes from á to í, and the reduplication also remains.Given the data in ( 23)-( 25), negation tests are a little more complicated than simply inserting a marker between V 1 and V 2 .Consider the data in ( 26 In the affirmative SVC ((26)a), the tense marker precedes both V 1 and V 2 , the subject is shared, and both verbs denote a single event.The entire event can be negated ((26)b), which results in ma becoming ké, reduplication following the first verb (but not the second), while all of the 3SG subject markers take the negative form í. The data in ((26)c-d) were offered by a native speaker as the only way that V 1 or V 2 may be negated independently, which involves insertion of the subordinate conjunction ádó and results in the events of 'falling' and 'entering a pit' being interpreted as two independent events.In these cases, tense is marked by ke in the negative clause, and ma in the affirmative clause, the negative subject markers only surface across the negative clause, and reduplication only occurs in the negative clause.The speaker mentioned that it is impossible to do this in ((26)b) suggesting that it is an SVC, and that this diagnostic is useful in Ibibio for determining SVCs.

Extraction test
Extraction tests also distinguish between true SVCs and coordination.SVCs are free from the Coordinate Structure Constraint (Ross 1967), while coordinate structures are not.Therefore, this test can help in diagnosing SVCs (Baker 1989;Hale 1991).This is exemplified in ( 27 (Hiraiwa & Bodomo 2008: 801) The SVC in (( 27 In the case of coordination, the object can no longer be shared.Furthermore, a wh-question may not be formed for either object:

Semantics of serial verb constructions
Serial verbs possess a variety of semantic properties and cover a vast semantic range crosslinguistically.The primary issue focused upon in this section is asymmetric and symmetric SVCs.

Asymmetric serial verb constructions
Asymmetric serial verb constructions as SVCs may consist one verb from a large, open, unrestricted class and another from a semantically or grammatically restricted (closed) class.Assymetrical SVCs denote a single event described by the verb from the non-restricted class.(Aikhenvald 1999a(Aikhenvald , 2006;;Durie 1997).This is illustrated in the Cantonese example below: (30) lei lo di saam lai.you take PL clothing come 'Bring some clothes.' (Aikhenvald 21: 2006) In (30), the verb lai 'come' provides direction specification for the event of 'taking clothes'.These asymmetrical constructions are widely attested and cover a wide semantic range.The Cantonese example above is classified as a 'directional' or 'orientation' SVC.
Ibibio exhibits a wide variety of directional SVCs.The three constructions shown below combine the verb di 'come' with other verbs that denote directional subtleties: When di is used as a main verb, the means by which the action of 'coming' is unspecified.In each of the cases in ((31)b-d), a specific motion verb combines with di to specify the means by which the subject goes.For instance, ((31)b) specifies that a particular destination was established, ((31)c) specifies that a meeting was planned, and ((31)d) implies that the arrival was highly anticipated or ceremonious.
Other constructions in Ibibio are structured almost identically to the Cantonese example in (30).In Ibibio, the verb ben 'lift' may form an SVC with di 'come' to form the equivalent to 'bring' in English: (33) Ekpe â-yá á-bén ùdíyá á-dí Ekpe 3SG-FUT 3SG-lift yam 3SG-come 'Ekpe will bring a yam.'It appears that di is commonly used to construct asymmetric SVCs in Ibibio.In ( 30), it provides directional information for the 'lifting' event.
Other types of directional information may also be encoded in Ibibio, such as direction to/from or up/down: ( Another tendency for languages that display asymmetric SVCs is that a subset of the closedcategory verbs involved may increase valence.For instance, the verb dá 'give' functions this way in Saramaccan: (35) Kófi bi bái dí búku dá dí muyé Kofi TENSE buy the book give the woman 'Kofi had bought the woman the book.' (Aikhenvald 2006: 26) dá in (35) introduced a benefactor to the sentence.In this case, 'the woman' follows the verb give and is the one who receives the book.
Ibibio also introduces benefactors with the verb give.In some cases, the benefactor receives an object, like the case above, but in others, a physical object is not received: In ((36)a), a benefactor ú 'you' is introduced by the verb no 'give'.In this case, the benefactor receives 'rice'.However, in ((36)b), the benefactor simply receives the benefit of watching Ekpe dance.
Another cross-linguistically common serial verb construction is used in comparatives, often containing the verb 'to surpass'.An example from Goemai is shown below: (37) kuma f'yer ma: ni also become.big(SG)surpass 3SG 'And (he) has grown bigger than him.'(Aikhenvald 2006: 27) In (37), the verb ma: 'surpass' follows the stative verb f'yer 'become big' to form a comparative.
The same construction is available in Ibibio, shown in ( 38): (38) á-sɔ ńg á-ǹg-kàn 3SG-be.old3SG-1SG.OBJ-surpass 'He is older than me.' The verb kàn 'surpass' follows sÓng 'be old' to form the comparative in Ibibio.In the case above, both the subject and object of comparison are inflected on kan.
Some closed-class verbs combine with other open class verbs to denote inception/completion, such as tɔ ́ngɔ ́ 'begin' and mâ 'finish': (39) a. sɔ ṕ díá mâ be.quick eat finish 'Finish eating quickly!' b. tɔ ńgɔ ́ díá begin eat 'Start eating!' In ((39)a) the open class verb díyá 'eat' precedes the completive verb mâ, for which the completive describes the first event.In the second case, the opposite order is observed, and the closed-class verb tÓngÓ precedes and provides an inceptive meaning to the event represented by díyá 'eat'.

Symmetrical serial verb constructions
Unlike asymmetrical SVCs, symmetrical SVCs are composed of (at least) two open class verbs that carry equal weight in the semantics of the SVC.Symmetrical SVCs often denote a sequence of actions or related concomitant actions.An example from Ewe is shown below: (40) Áma â-ɖa nú ɖu Ama POT-cook thing eat 'Ama will cook and eat.' (Aikhenvald 28: 2006) Both verbs ɖa 'cook' and ɖu 'eat' play an equal role in the event of 'cooking' and 'eating' above.Furthermore, the object 'thing' is shared by both.The construction above does imply a sequence of actions, as it is implied that 'cooking' is done before 'eating.

More serial verb constructions
Now that I have shown that SVCs in Ibibio fit in with the typological literature on SVCs on both syntactic and semantic grounds, I now provide a more exhaustive list of SVCs in Ibibio, that were not covered above.

Questionable serial verb constructions
Some SVCs in Ibibio do not easily fit in with the categories discussed above.These constructions provide modal information to the sentence, despite being open-class verbs (at least when used as main verbs).
For instance, the verb ngwana may function as a main verb that means 'fight' or an abilitative: (43) a. ḿ-mà ńg-ǹgwáná (yè) Ekpe 1SG.SUBJ-PST 1SG.SUBJ-fight with Ekpe 'I fought Ekpe.' b. ḿ-mà ńg-ǹgwáná àdí kɨp sókòrò 1SG.SUBJ-PST 1SG-fight ADI pick oranges 'I tried to pick oranges.' ((43)a) shows ngwáná used as a main verb.However, when it occurs as V 1 it denotes ability, not 'fight'.Problematically, the marker adi intervenes between the verbs and appears to be a tense/aspect marker.If this is the case, it violates the 'single tense/aspect marker' rule, and may eliminate this construction as an SVC.
Another questionable construction involves the verb keme 'be able to', which must always cooccur with another verb: (44) ḿ-mé kémè àdí kɨp sókòró 1SG-PST be.ableADI pick oranges 'I can pick oranges.' Like the case in ( 43), constructions with keme also require adi, which may eliminate this as an SVC.Either way, the V 1 V 2 object sequence has appeared numerous times throughout this paper, but not with a marker intervening.
Other interesting puzzles surface when a sequence of more than two verbs surface: (45) dì ìwúd ùnàm ì-tém ì-tà come 1PL-kill animal 1PL-cook 1PL-chew 'Let's grab our knives, kill animals, and eat them.' In constructions like (45), all of the criteria for serial verbs are met.Each verb in this sequence shares a subject and an object, all are in present tense, and this construction most definitely falls under the category of sequential, symmetric SVC.However, producing a syntactic analysis of this construction would be quite difficult, namely because of the distance between V 3 and the object ùnàm.Also of interest here, is the first verb di 'come' which is functioning as an imperative, while all verbs that follow include the speaker.
Another similar construction involves two directional verbs ké 'go out ' and dì 'come' and bén 'lift' in between: (46) ké bén ùsɔ ́ dì go.out lift father come 'Go get our father and return.'Once again, there is only one tense marker, the subject is shared for all verbs, but it becomes very difficult to determine whether all three verbs form an SVC or not.
Because the examples in ( 45) and ( 46) are imperative, and present tense is unmarked, it is possible that multiple tense markers are present, however this is not the case for the past tense construction below: (47) Ekpe á-mà á-sàngá (kèèd) yè Okon á-nyɔ ńg á-dí Ekpe 3SG-PST 3SG-walk one with Okon 3SG-go 3SG-come 'Ekpe returned with Okon.' (47) shows a sentence that contains one tense marker and a 3SG subject marker throughout.This construction is much too complicated to evaluate as an SVC, but the main point here is that Ibibio exhibits constructions that appear to satisfy the criteria for SVCs that do not fall under a simple template.The examples in ( 45)-(47) need to be investigated carefully in the future.

Conclusions
I have shown that SVCs in Ibibio are truly SVCs by using syntactic diagnostics often used in the literature.Ibibio displays the same differences between standard coordination and serial verbs as many other languages.In SVCs, an overt conjunction is banned, only one tense/aspect marker is allowed, at least one argument is shared, and the verbs form a mono-clausal predicate.With regard to semantics, Ibibio displays many characteristics found in the typological literature, namely a number of different asymmetrical and symmetrical SVCs.Ibibio Within the realm of semantics, many common constructions in the literature were shown to exist in Ibibio, both symmetric and asymmetric.
In future investigations, other areas should be investigated.For instance, a comparison between predicate cleft constructions and serial verb constructions should be done.Hiraiwa and Bodomo (2008) construct an analysis that hinges upon this comparison.To this point, there has been no or limited work on predicate clefting in Ibibio, which must be done before the work in Ibibio can be placed within the theoretical literature.

Table 1 :
: Argument markers Ekpe put the book on the table.'Subjects and/or objects appear as preverbal markers.The language also has rules against vowel hiatus, so often only one marker is able to surface 4 : ) shows a case where two verbs form an an idiomatic directional SVC, meaning 'throw it away', but literally 'throw it and lose it.'However, ((34)b) combines the stative verb súk 'be low' with sÍn 'put', which translates roughly as 'lower' in English.sÍn 'put' does not need to be combined with stative verbs, but can also combine with verbs like yít 'lock' to form a directional meaning.