Linear asymmetries and the syntax of serialization - Against an antisymmetric approach

Carstens (2002) argues that Muysken’s Anomaly, the observation that verb order in a serial verb construction (SVC) is independent of head directionality, can be explained if the functional projection vP of the second verb merges as the complement of the lexical V of the first verb. This structure ensures that objects in an SVC always c-command those they linearly precede, accounting for quantificational binding between objects of different verbs. However, a case study on Malayalam suggests that languages replicating these facts may be incompatible with her proposal. An alternative structure and reanalysis of the binding data are provided.