Typology of Pluractional Constructions in the Languages of the World

The aim of this book is to give the first large-scale typological investigation of pluractionality in the languages of the world. Pluractionality is defined as the morphological modification of the verb to express a plurality of situations that can additionally involve a plurality of participants and/or spaces. Based on a 246-language sample, the main characteristics of pluractionality are described and discussed throughout the book. Firstly, a description of the functions that pluractional markers cross-linguistically express is presented and the relationships occurring among them are explained through the semantic map model. Then, the marking strategies that languages display to express such functions are illustrated and some issues concerning the formal identification are briefly discussed as well. The typological generalizations are corroborated showing how pluractional markers work in three specific languages (Akawaio, Beja, Maa). In conclusion, the theoretical conceptualization of pluractionality is discussed referring to the Radical Construction Grammar approach.

Vadim Dyachkov, Russian Academy of Science, on Linguist List 31.1121 (23/03/2020):
[This book] contains a high quality study of pluractionality and contributes much to the understanding of the phenomenon in question. It will become a necessary resource for anyone whose research interests lie in the field of verbal aspect and pluractionality. A lot of accurate observations made by the author will definitely inspire future researchers interested in deeper semantic investigations, since the book brings to light many puzzles associated with non-standard models of polysemy (causative/pluractional polysemy, emphasis readings etc.). Any future research of this phenomenon will certainly have to take the present book into consideration, and it can be recommended both for specialists in typology and scholars who are interested in particular language families.