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In:Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia: Rethinking theoretical and geographical boundaries
Edited by Yoshiko Matsumoto, Bernard Comrie and Peter Sells
[Typological Studies in Language 116] 2017
► pp. 147–178

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Chapter 7
The general noun-modifying clause construction in Tundra Nenets and its possible origin

 | School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Published online: 28 February 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.116.08nik
Abstract
Tundra Nenets (Uralic) exhibits unambiguous relative clauses and sentential complements of nouns, but I show that it also has a previously unstudied but structurally distinct GNMCC. The GNMCC covers a diversity of functions although its usage is restricted in various ways. The paper suggests that it has a direct parallel in the non-sentential domain in terms of its syntactic behaviour, the morphosyntactic expression of the constructional ingredients and the basic semantics: it is modelled after the non-clausal compound-like structure employed for the very general purpose of modifying one noun by reference to another noun. Such modification-by-noun constructions served as a historical source of Tundra Nenets GNMCCs, which emerged when the modifying deverbal noun was reanalysed as heading a clausal domain.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The basic properties of the language
  • 3.Relative clauses
  • 4.Noun complementation
  • 5.General noun-modifying clause constructions
    • 5.1Relativization-like function
    • 5.2Extended functions
  • 6.GNMCCs and noun-noun compounds
  • 7.Remarks about diachrony
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (30)
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