Descriptivity of Graphic Verbs in Seychellois Creole

This paper addresses the general question of semantic volume of lexical units. One thematic group of Seychellois Creole verbs is used to analyse meaning components which characterize the denoted action participants and to explore some functional repercussions of the observed lexically encoded event detalization. The paper consists of an introduction, two main sections, and a conclusion. The first section gives some insights into the relevant aspects of the verb theory. It explains why the meaning of verbs is special and what approaches can be applied to analyse it. It also specifies those facets of the verb meaning which were analysed in the current study, and defines the lexical group with which the analysis was carried out. The second section presents a classification of Seychellois Creole Graphic Verbs based on specificity of action participants encoded in their definitions. Section three explores the implications of the verb descriptivity in two functional dimensions: syntactic realization of the verb arguments and their semantic development. The concluding section summarizes the results of the study and identifies the ways of their engagement for further analysis.