Depictive and other secondary predication in Lao

Abstract

This chapter begins by describing the Lao language wherein depictive expressions are predominantly verbal. Since the Lao language is a typical isolating language, lacking inflectional morphosyntactic categories such as case-marking and agreement, verbs are distributionally defined, and there is no difference between finite and non-finite verb forms. Thus, it suggests that the distinction between a primary and a secondary predicate can only be constructed with the secondary predicate as an adjunct in the sense that it can be omitted without changing the basic semantics of the primary predication. While having the secondary predicate in this sense, Lao does not have a particular depictive construction involving verbs, since not only depictive but also resultative and adverbial meanings can be conveyed by unmarked verbs functioning as secondary predicates. This chapter addresses pragmatic restrictions on specific combinations of primary and secondary predicate, associated to the relevance and/or conventionality of the combination.