A lecture by foreign scholar David Gyorfi was held at the ENU

On April 6, 2026, a lecture was held at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University by Dr David Gyorfi, a researcher from the Surrey Morphology Group, Surrey University, England, on the topic “-(I)p shyk: the stage of lexicalisation in the chain of grammaticalisation”.

This lecture was organised by the Kazakh Linguistics Department as part of the course “Morphology of the Modern Kazakh Language” for students of the Kazakh Language and Literature educational programme.

In his presentation, the scholar focused on the nature of compound verbs (Co-Headed Verbs, CHVs), noting that they represent a complex type of predicate in which two verbs are combined within a single clause to express one action. One verb conveys the primary lexical meaning, while the other functions as a modifier that specifies the action. It was also noted that such constructions are formed with the participation of verbs from open and closed classes and share a common argument structure. During the lecture, the system of compound verbs in the world’s languages was examined from a comparative perspective, and the results of a study based on data from 40 languages were presented. The scholar noted that such systems develop along the path of convergent evolution, and verbs that frequently function as modifiers demonstrate Zipfian distribution. It was shown that, alongside widely used verbs, rarer modifiers also participate in the process of grammaticalisation.In the main part of the talk, the historical development of compound verbs in Turkic languages was analysed, with special attention given to the -(i)p shyk construction in the Kazakh language. Dr David Gyorfi noted that this model expresses the completion of a prolonged action and, based on texts from the 19th–20th centuries, demonstrated that it was initially used as a lexicalised construction. These findings confirm the importance of the lexicalisation stage in the process of grammaticalisation.

At the end of the lecture, students had asked questions, and there was a meaningful academic exchange. The event contributed to increasing students’ research interest, familiarising them with contemporary linguistic research, and placing the Kazakh language in an international academic context.