Separability of Light Verb Constructions in Persian*

(11) LVs:
a. kardan ‘to do’ kon- (stem) + -a:n → * kona:n ‘while doing’
b. zadan ‘to beat’ zan- (stem) + -a:n → * zana:n ‘while beating’
Only a full predicate can undergo this morphological process. LVs, being incomplete
predicates, are not able to be input to this rule. However, when LVs combine with other
items and become full predicates, they gain the capacity to undergo this operation. For
instance, the LVs in (11) as shown in (12) can form adverbs of manner like heavy verbs,
after combining with appropriate PVs.
(12) LVCs
a. raqs kardan ‘to dance’ raqs kon- (noun + stem) + -a:n → raqs kona:n
‘while dancing’
b. qadam zadan ‘to walk’ qadam zan- (noun + stem) + -a:n → qadam zana:n
‘while walking’
3.1.1.3. Modification by Adverbs: LVs, in contrast to heavy verbs, cannot
independently be preceded or modified by adverbs. Consider the following sentences:
(13) a. Ali Sasan-ra: šaba:ne zad.
Ali Sasan-DOM nightly beat-past
‘Ali punished Sasan nightly.’
b. tegarg be ba:q-e man šaba:ne latme zad.
hail to garden-Ez. I nightly damage beat-past
‘The hail damaged my garden nightly.’
*(14) tegarg be ba:q-e man latme šaba:ne zad.
hail to garden-Ez. I damage nightly beat-past
‘The hail damaged my garden nightly.’
As can be seen, the adverb šaba:ne ‘nightly’ may precede a heavy verb (13a) or an LVC
(13b), but it cannot precede or modify an LV (14). Thus, it is feasible to say that LVs, in
contrast to full verbs, cannot be independently preceded or modified by adverbs.
3.1.1.4. Argument Structure: As pointed out above, LVs and heavy verbs are different
from the viewpoint of a-structure. Heavy verbs normally tend to predicate a certain
number and types of arguments, while their LV counterparts do not seem to be consistent
in this regard and they predicate clauses with different number and type of arguments.
For example, the Persian da:dan ‘to give’ usually appears in sentences with three
10