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Article published In: Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 42:1 (2019) ► pp.82–109

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Nominalization and relativization in Tujia

A crosslinguistic perspective

 | Hunan University
 | Shenzhen University
 | Hunan University
Published online: 14 June 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.16021.man
Abstract
This paper presents a preliminary investigation of nominalization and relativization in Tujia from a typological perspective. We show that there are several nominalizers in Tujia, only two of which are multifunctional: ɕi and ɲie. ɕi can function as a nominalizer, a relativizer, a complementizer, a converbal clause marker or a stance marker. ɲie can function as a genitive marker, a nominalizer, a relative clause marker, a non-relative attributive marker or a stance marker. Relative clauses in Tujia can be head internal and pre-nominal. The head internal relative clauses are marked by ɕi, while the pre-nominal relative clauses are marked by ɲie.
We point out that ɲie manifests typical genitive-relative-nominalization syncretism, whereas ɕi manifests extended nominalization functions, both of which are widely attested in other Tibeto-Burman languages. We argue that ɕi originates from a general noun, of unknown etymology. The nominalizer ɲie originates from a genitive marker. These findings should prove useful to future typological or comparative research with respect to nominalization in Tibeto-Burman languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Morphosyntactic properties of nouns and verbs in Tujia language
  • 3. ɕi
    • 3.1Lexical nominalization
    • 3.2Action nominalization
    • 3.3Converbal clauses
    • 3.4Relative clauses
    • 3.5Complement clause
    • 3.6Non-embedded, independent clauses
  • 4. Ɲie
    • 4.1Genitive constructions
    • 4.2Non-relative attributive
    • 4.3Pre-nominal relative clause
    • 4.4Nominalizer
    • 4.5Non-embedded clauses
  • 5.Summary and discussion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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