Abstract
AbstractThis paper deals with asymmetric complex predicates (combining a main verb and a ‘light’ verb) in Odia, an Indo‐Aryan language. The main focus is on the two most common light verbs ‐jaa ‘go’ and ‐de ‘give’. We argue that these light verbs are constructions in their own right affecting the interpretation of the event in two ways: (i) they necessarily refer to the completion of the event (as opposed to the single verb construction) and (ii) they typically express unexpectedness or abruptness and can as such be considered a mirative construction as defined by Delancey (2012). Transitivity plays a major role not only in the distinction between ‐jaa ‘go’ and ‐de ‘give’ but also in differences of degree of completion and unexpectedness.
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