Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia

Description

This volume presents a cross-linguistic investigation of clausal noun-modifying constructions in genetically varied languages of Eurasia. Contrary to a common premise that, in any language, adnominal clauses that share some features of relative clauses constitute a structurally distinct construction, some languages of Eurasia exhibit a General Noun-Modifying Clause Construction (GNMCC) -- a single construction covering a wide range of semantic relations between the head noun and the clause. Through in-depth examination of naturally-occurring and elicited data from Ainu, languages of the Caucasus (e.g. Ingush, Georgian, Bezhta, Hinuq), Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Nenets, Sino-Tibetan languages (e.g. Cantonese, Mandarin, Rawang), and Turkic languages (e.g. Turkish, Sakha), the chapters discuss whether or not the language in question exhibits a GNMCC and the range of noun modification covered by such a construction. The findings afford us new facts, new theoretical perspectives and the first step toward a more global assessment of the possibilities for GNMCCs. Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia Editorial page Title page LCC data Table of contents Preface Noun-modifying clause constructions in languages of Eurasia 1. Introduction 2. The construction under investigation 2.1 Types of NMCC 2.2 Generalized relative clauses and “aboutness relatives” 3. Possible common properties of the languages in the investigation 4. Questions investigated 5. Chapters in the book 6. Key terminology References General noun-modifying clause constructions in Japanese 1. Introduction 2. Properties of the General Noun Modifying Clause Construction (GNMCC) in Japanese 3. Possible relations of the head noun to the modifying clause 3.1 Clause-host type GNMCCs (Argument, adjunct and frame NMCCs) 3.2 Noun-host type GNMCCs (Content noun NMCCs) 3.3 Clause and noun-host type GNMCCs (Relational/perceptional noun NMCCs) 4. Determining factors for acceptable constructions 5. Conclusion References The attributive versus final distinction and the manifestation of “main clause phenomena” in Japanese and Korean noun modifying clause constructions 1. Introduction 2. Noun-modifying clause constructions and attributive predicate forms 3. ‘Main clause phenomena’ in Japanese and Korean NMCCs 4. Further infiltration of main clause phenomena into Japanese NMCCs: Emergence of the ‘less overt’ clause linkage devices marking direct quotation 5. Conclusion Acknowledgements References Noun-modifying constructions in Korean 1. Introduction 2. Forms and functions of NMCCs 2.1 Overview of morphology 2.2 Relative clauses: Basic patterns 2.3 Noun complement clauses 2.4 Other complement-like clauses 2.4.1 Perception noun complements 2.4.2 Arguments of relational nouns 2.5 Obliquely related modifying clauses 2.6 Modifying clauses with multiple nominative sources 3. Limits of NMCCs 3.1 Extended relativization examples 3.2 Consequential calculation 3.3 Limits on apparent relative clauses 4. Island effects in relative clauses 5. Conclusion References Noun-modifying clause constructions in Sino-Tibetan languages 1. Introduction 2. Sino-Tibetan 3. Modern Mandarin 4. Discussion References Noun-modifying clauses in Cantonese 1. Introduction 2. Typological properties of Cantonese 3. Forms and functions of noun-modifying clauses 3.1 Noun modification in Mandarin and Cantonese 3.2 Typology of NMCCs 3.2.1 Argument NMCCs 3.2.2 Adjunct NMCCs 3.3 Extended NMCCs 3.3.1 Frame NMCCs 3.3.2 Content noun NMCCs 3.4 Pragmatics and ambiguous NMCCs 4. Conclusions Acknowledgements References General noun-modifying clause constructions in Hinuq and Bezhta, with a note on other Daghestanian languages 1. Introduction 2. GNMCCs with a coreferential element in the modifying clause and “accessibility” 2.1 The “gap” strategy 2.1.1 The understood coreferential noun phrase in the modifying clause is an argument 2.1.2 “Relativization” of adjuncts 2.2 Resumptive pronouns 3. GNMCCs without a coreferential noun phrase in the modifying clause 3.1 Other components of the Frame Consequence/result Reverse condition Purpose Requisite 3.2 Sentential complements of nouns Nouns of communication Nouns of thought and feeling Other content-taking nouns as heads Other types 4. Coreference across clause boundaries 5. Other Nakh-Daghestanian languages 6. Conclusions and interpretations 7. A note on Tsez Acknowledgements References The general noun-modifying clause construction in Tundra Nenets and its possible origin 1. Introduction 2. The basic properties of the language 3. Relative clauses 4. Noun complementation 5. General noun-modifying clause constructions 5.1 Relativization-like function 5.2 Extended functions 6. GNMCCs and noun-noun compounds 7. Remarks about diachrony References Noun-modifying constructions and relativization in the central and western Caucasus 1. Introduction 2. Survey of relativization strategies and GNMCC’s 2.1 Nakh-Daghestanian 2.2 Ossetic (Digor dialect) 2.3 West Caucasian 2.4 Kartvelian 3. Survey of other relevant typological variables 3.1 Constraints on relativization: Role and/or case of RN 3.2 Preferred case or role, based on text frequency counts 3.3 Core chaining 3.4 Relationship of relativization to core chaining 3.5 Agreement and how it works 3.6 Survey: Summary 4. Conclusions References Noun-modifying clause constructions in Ainu 1. Introduction 2. Basic properties of Ainu 2.1 Basic clause types in Ainu 2.2 Noun phrase structure 3. Noun-modifying clause constructions in Ainu: Relative clauses vs. noun-complement clauses 4. Relative clauses 4.1 Relativization of arguments 4.1.1 Subject of intransitive verb (S) 4.1.2 Subject of two-place transitive verb (A) 4.1.3 Subject of three-place transitive verb (A) 4.1.4 Object of two-place transitive (O) 4.1.5 Object of three-place transitive (O) 4.2 Relativization of non-arguments 4.2.1 Relativization of adjuncts 4.2.2 Relativization of possessor 4.2.3 Relativization of locative and allative adjuncts 5. Noun-complement clauses 5.1 Content-taking nouns as head 5.2 Perception nouns as head 5.3 Relational nouns as head 6. Grammaticalization of noun-modifying clause constructions 6.1 Relative clause construction with bound nouns as head > lexical nominalizations 6.2 Noun-complement clause construction with perception nouns as head > ‘mermaid construction’ 6.3 Noun-complement clause construction with relational nouns as head > subordinate temporal clause construction 7. Noun + noun compounds 8. Emergent GNMCC 9. Island violation 10. Concluding remarks Acknowledgements Sources References Turkish and Turkic complex noun phrase constructions 1. Introduction 2. Turkish and Sakha constructions headed by a noun or noun phrase: Brief description of their basic properties 2.1 Turkish 2.1.1 Turkish N-complement clause constructions as phrasal compounds 2.1.2 Turkish relative clause constructions as nominal phrases with “adjectival” modifiers 2.1.3 Relative clauses have gaps, N-complement clause constructions do not 2.1.4 Additional morpho-syntactic properties of relative clauses which are different from those of noun-complement constructions in Turkish 2.2 Sakha: More Japanese-like, but not completely 3. Brief comparison of island violations, gapless RCs, and CNPs with loose head-to-clause connections 3.1 Sakha 3.1.1 Island violations in Sakha 3.1.2 Gapless RCs in Sakha 3.1.3 CNPs with loose head-to-clause connection in Sakha 3.2 Turkish 3.2.1 Island violations in Turkish 3.2.2 Gapless RCs in Turkish 3.2.3 CNPs with loose head-to-clause connections in Turkish 4. Returning to questions about syntactic islands 4.1 Apparent island violations 4.2 Apparently gapless relative clauses are gapped relative clauses targeting obliques 5. Resumptive pronouns: To what extent are they optional or obligatory, and in what contexts? 5.1 Resumptive pronouns in Sakha 5.2 Resumptive pronouns in Turkish 6. Islands in Sakha and Turkish: More on resumption, and effects of the islands’ placement in the matrix 6.1 Sakha 6.1.1 A well-formed instance of resumption as a saving device 6.1.2 Ill-formed instances of resumption in Sakha island violations 6.2 Turkish 6.3 Comparisons 7. Summary and conclusion Acknowledgements References Noun-modifying constructions in Marathi 1. Introduction 2. Noun-modifying constructions (NMCs) in Marathi 2.1 Relativizing NMCs (A) “Gap” type relativizing NMCs (B) Non-reduction strategy: The relative-corelative type of relativizing NMC (C) So-called “fused” relatives 2.2 Beyond accessibility 2.2.1 Reduced valency prenominal relatives 2.2.2 Verb-gapped prenominal relatives 2.2.3 Gapping NMCs with unpredictable (non-compositional) semantics 2.2.4 Gapless NMCs with sensory and circumstantial head nouns 2.3 Noun-complement NMCs 2.4 The short prenominal NMC 2.5 The short relative-corelative construction 3. Other functions of NMCs in ‘‑lel’‑ and ‘‑ṇār’ 3.1 As a complementizer 3.2 As insubordinate “finite” verbs (Evans 2007) 4. Marathi NMCs: Historical remarks 5. Suggestions for further investigation and concluding remarks Acknowledgements References Conclusion 1. The geographic extent of GNMCCs in Eurasia 2. Competition with other constructions 3. Factors that promote or hinder the presence of GNMCCs References Examples to explore in noun-modifying constructions A. Basic structures background questions/ examples B. Detailed elicitation of NMCs B1. Relative clause equivalents B2. Sentential complement of noun Nouns of communication as head Nouns of thoughts and feeling as head Other content-taking nouns as head B3. Other types of NMC Relational nouns as head Spatial or temporal relational head nouns Quasi-relational nouns as head Nouns of perception as head C. Questions regarding syntactic constraints questions examples further elaboration 1. Adjunct islands 2. Sentential subjects as potential islands 3. Complex noun phrase islands 4. Wh-islands 5. Coordinate constructions as islands Relative clauses and noun-modifying clauses in Chantyal 1. Introduction 2. Uses of nominalizations in Chantyal 2.1 Nominalization 2.2 Verb complements 2.3 Noun complements 2.4 Purpose clauses 2.5 Adnominal clauses 2.6 Non-relative attributive 2.7 Agent and patient nominals 2.8 Attributive nominals 2.9 Expression of the semantic predicate in periphrastic verb complexes 2.10 Main verb 3. Further comments on nominalizations in Chantyal 4. Some comments on the history of Chantyal nominalizations Some references on nominalizations in Chantyal and other works referred to in the discussion Appendix Name index Subject index