Asymmetrical Serial Verb Constructions in Kriol of Northern Australia Dorothea Hoffmann University of Chicago dorohoffmann@uchicago.edu 1 Introduction This paper deals with semantic constraints of asymmetrical serial verb constructions (SVCs) in mo- tion event descriptions in Kriol. Furthermore, discourse environments in which these constructions occur are taken into account. Kriol is an English-lexified Creole spoken by approximately 20.000 people across northern Australia. There are a number of different varieties showing slight lexical, morphological and phonological differences. Today it is the major means of communication among Aboriginals and has often replaced traditional indigenous languages (Hoffmann, 2012). For this investigation, three varieties of Kriol, namely Roper, Westside and Daly River Kriol are taken into account. Additionally, this analysis is limited to motion event descriptions. As for many other Creole languages (McWhorter, 1998), it has been observed that Kriol’s serial verb constructions form prosodic units and are asymmetrical (Meakins, 2010). A limited number of ‘minor’ verbs belonging to a semantically and grammatically restricted class can form SVCs to- gether with unrestricted ‘major’ verbs (Aikhenvald, 2006). All SVCs in Kriol denote single events. In example (1) the most common minor verb go in an SVC with the stative verb stap encodes a telic motion event. (1) imin 3sg:aux.pst go go stap stop deya there langa loc det that tri tree ‘it stopped there at the tree’ RK 1 While such constructions have previously been described (Meakins, 2010), a number of minor verbs and their semantics in SVCs are examined here for the first time. In example (2) the function of the minor verb ran is to denote the speed of motion. (2) imin 3sg:aux.pst ran run galimap climb la loc big-wan big-nr ston stone ‘he quickly climbed up a big stone’ RK Some major verbs that combine with the limited number of minor verbs in motion event descriptions are subject to semantic constraints. For example, the most general motion verbs kam ‘come’ and go can form SVCs with an unrestricted number of major verbs, including non-motion verbs (3). However, other minor verbs such as ran in example (2) only combine with a semantically restricted 1 All examples are from my own fieldwork conducted between 2010 and 2013 (Hoffmann, 2013) unless otherwise indicated. Furthermore, each example is labeled with regards to the variety of Kriol spoken: RK = Roper Kriol, WK = Westside Kriol, DK = Daly River Kriol. 1