Edited by Christian Leclère, Éric Laporte, Mireille Piot and Max Silberztein
[Lingvisticæ Investigationes Supplementa 24] 2004
► pp. 509–516
The nominalization or [Support] associate a sentence S2 which has nominal predicate with a sentence S1 which has verbal predicate by means of a Suppport verb. It concerns the non diathetic transformation, defined negatively as opposed to the diathetic transformation or [Diathesis]. The latter consist of focussing on the complement which is followed by the change of the voice of the verb and the link of the subject N0 transposed to the verb with the help of the enclitic preposition -na. But, the formation of derivatives called deverbal nouns calls out the nominalization as well as the diathetic transfomation. Such elements both behave like nouns and like verbs. So, as noun, a deverbal noun like fanasàna (washing) represents the head of the nominal group: Ny fanasàn'i Be ny fiara amin'ny vovo-tsavony (The washing of the car with the soap powder by Be), which can be derived from the active sentence in the present by [Support]: Manàsa ny fiara amin 'ny vovo-tsavony i Be (Be washes the car with the soap powder). But, as verb, the same deverbal noun fanasàna (act of washing habitually) represents the predicate of a sentence expressing the habitual action: Fanasàn 'i Be ny fiara ny vovo-tsavony (The soap powder is with which Be washes habitually the car), which can be derived from the habitual active sentence by [Diathesis]: Mpanàsa ny fiara amin 'ny vovo-tsavony i Be (Be washes habitually the car with the soap powder). The title implies then that in Malagasy the deverbal noun is categorially ambivalent: it concernes both a noun derived from a verb and a verb that the diathesis is marked.
Article language: French