Manner predication

Manner predication is a type of secondary predication which ascribes a property to an event. The expression used for manner predication is called Manner expression.

Examples
English (Germanic, Indo-European):

Coding strategies
Languages of the world employ various strategies to predicate manner to an event. It seems that most languages have more than one strategy. Below are examples of coding manner predication which are presented in more detail in Loeb-Diehl 2005.

Coordinate clause constructions
In this strategy, manner and event are coded each in a separate clause of the same rank.

Coordinate clauses with same subject
Here the verbs of the coordinated clauses refer to the same referent.

Muna (Austronesian, West-Malayan) (Van De Berg 1989:181)

Coordinate clauses with different subjects
This strategy is similar to (2), but the verb in the manner-clause shows default agreement rather than agreement with the argument of the verb in the event-clause.

Ambrym (Austronesian, East-Oceanic) (Paton 1971:77)

Non-finite clause constructions
Manner is coded as a less finite verb form (subordinated).

Non-finite clauses with same subject
In this strategy, the subject of the non-finite form is the same as the subject of the main clause, which is shown by agreement (e.g. in person, number, gender). Such Forms are traditionally called participles or relative clauses.

Abkhaz (Caucasian, Nort-West) (Hewitt 1979:240)

Sanuma (Yanomami) (Borgman 1990:34)

Non-finite clauses with different subject
The non-finite clause is not explicitely referring to the subject of the main clause or is understood to have different subject. The non-finite verb form is referred to as converb (beside other terms like gerund, adverbial participle, verbal adverb, &hellip;).

Turkana (Nilo-Saharan, East-Sudanic) (Dimmendaal 1982:379)

Abkhaz (Caucasian, Nort-West) (Hewitt 1979:240)

Non-finite clauses with copula
In few languages we find participial clauses where the manner coding item itself is not verbal and a copula ‘to do’ or ‘to be’ carries the participial marking.

Malayalam (Dravidian) (Asher & Kumari 1997:112)

Nubian (Nilo-Saharan, East-Sudanic) (Kauczor 1920:285)

Adjective-like constructions
Here the manner item is not morphologically a non-verbal, but more like an adjective.

Agreeing adjective
We find languages where the manner coding adjective agrees with the subject, like depictive construction or an apposition, i.e. as a property of a participant of an event.

Gooniyandi (Australian, Bunaban) (McGregor 1990:345)

Latin (Italic, Indo-European). (Vroom 1938:74)

Hindi (Indic, Indo-European). (McGregor 1977:33)

Non-agreeing adjective
In this strategy the manner coding adjective has default agreement or no agreement at all. In Bulgarian it is invariably marked for neuter gender

Bulgarian (Indo-European, Slavonic) (Scatton 1984:345)

German (Indo-European, West-Germanic)

Similative construction
Similative construction is a manner predication based on comparison. Examples:

Susan sang like a nightingale.

Susan sang as if she was on fire.