Chapter 16

Lexicalized nominalized clauses in Matses (Panoan)

Nominalization is ubiquitous in the Matses language. Many functions that are performed by relative and adverbial clauses in other languages are accomplished by nominalization in Matses. Verbs are nominalized by attaching one of 27 different suffixes to the verb stem in place of inflectional morphology, creating either a word that falls into the noun lexical category, or a multi-word nominalizations which I call here a “nominalized clause.” Matses nominalized clauses, rather than being noun phrases built up around a de-verbalized noun, have essentially main-clause syntax, including main-clause case-marking frame. The present paper describes the internal and external syntax of Matses nominalized clauses in comparison to simple lexicalized nominalized words. Of particular interest is that nominalized clauses can become lexicalized.