Associate professor Department of Linguistics, University of Bu-Ali Sina
This paper examines the emergence of double verbs in Persian. In double verb construction, two verbs appear beside each other, acting as a single predicate. We have shown that these verbs are different from serial verbs and Persian is not a serializing language. In grammatacalization continuum, the double verb construction is between lexical verbs and modal verbs, being different from both. These verbs are in the path of grammaticalization and we have found two main reasons for this process: high frequency and being motion or posture verbs. This paper supports the functionalist claim that language use is the main reason for language change.
