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Article published In:
Language and Linguistics
Vol. 23:4 (2022) ► pp.644–679

The ambiguity with pa-nominalization in Lhasa Tibetan

A marker-centered account

| South China Normal University

A tensed clause that undergoes nominalization marked with pa (pa-phrase) in Lhasa Tibetan can give either an event reading or a participant reading. A syntactic analysis of the pa-phrase is conducted by proposing the Differential Nominalizer Hypothesis (DNH). Specifically, pa selects an AspP as its complement and projects an NP; pa enters the derivation either as a grammatical item that shifts an AspP to an NP or as a lexical item that binds an empty category in the theme position within the AspP. This categorial difference of pa and the consequent derivational difference of the pa-phrase provide a plausible account of the semantic ambiguity of pa-nominalization. The idea that the nominalizer pa has a double category is supported with an assumption of grammaticalization, as is evidenced by the functional multiplicity of pa in Lhasa Tibetan: it is a productive grammatical marker but still bears lexical content of a lexical formative. The assumption of grammaticalization lends support to the DNH.

Keywords: Lhasa Tibetan, nominalization, pa , ambiguity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The syntactic properties of pa-nominalization
    • 2.1Syntactic functions
    • 2.2Source constituents
  • 3.The semantic properties of pa-nominalization
    • 3.1The event/participant ambiguity
    • 3.2Thematic constraints on the ambiguity
  • 4.A syntactic account of the event/participant ambiguity
    • 4.1 Pa-phase as NP
    • 4.2 Pa as a lexical head
    • 4.3 Pa as a grammatical head
    • 4.4The Differential Nominalizer Hypothesis
  • 5.Multiple uses of pa in Lhasa Tibetan
    • 5.1 Pa in nouns
    • 5.2 Pa as a marker of adjectival nominalization
    • 5.3 Pa in ordinals
    • 5.4 Pa as a marker of aspect
    • 5.5 Pa as a marker of force
    • 5.6Summary
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 12 October 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00118.che
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