The Amharic converb in clause chaining

Abstract This chapter examines the converb in Amharic as one of the grammatical devices for clause chaining. A characteristic property of the converb is that it is unmarked for tense/aspect, which prohibits it from functioning as a head of an independent clause while allowing it to occur with main verbs that are marked for various tense/aspect. One consequence of this is that the converb can function as an adverbial modifier of the main clause. The event expressed by the converb and the main verb can be simultaneous or sequential, and as the converb and the main verb can have different arguments, it is possible to question or focus the arguments of the converb independent of the arguments of the main verb. The chapter also shows the grammaticalized forms of some converbs, including the use of the converb of the verb ‘say’ as a complementizer occurring with verbs of cognition and speech.