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Part of
Predication in African Languages
Edited by James Essegbey and Enoch O. Aboh
[Studies in Language Companion Series 235] 2024
► pp. 286–313

Chapter 11
Constructions with verbal nouns in Iraqw

| Leiden University
| The University of Dodoma

Iraqw has a number of morphological means to derive nouns from verbs. All of these can develop specific meanings but it is the nominalisation that expresses the action of the verb that allows for the expression of arguments, irrespective of the actual nominalisation morpheme. These arguments (patient or agent) can be expressed as possessive elements in noun phrases. Despite the fact that the deverbal noun is fully nominal in morphological characteristics, the deverbal noun can occur in constructions in which its semantic argument (patient or agent) is expressed as an object to the main verb. There are four constructions to integrate a deverbal noun in a clause. We provide an overview of the formal characteristics of these constructions.

Keywords: nominalisation, complementation, raising, Iraqw, Cushitic
Article outline
  • 1.Formation of the verbal noun and its nominal nature
  • 2.Verbal nouns in constructions
    • 2.1Introduction
    • 2.2Overview of verbal noun constructions
    • 2.3Functional differentiation of the constructions
    • 2.4Verbal noun as object following the inflectional complex and preceding the verb (construction A)
    • 2.5Verbal noun as external object (construction B)
    • 2.6Verbal noun and ablative case clitic (construction C)
    • 2.7Verbal noun with predicative suffix ‑o
  • 3.Complements of the verbal noun
    • 3.1Overview
    • 3.2Complements in possessive constructions and their semantic roles
    • 3.3Object properties of complements of the verbal noun
    • 3.4Complements of verbal nouns as objects (constructions A and B)
    • 3.5Complements of the verbal noun with =wa (construction C)
    • 3.6Complements of the verbal noun with predicative ‑o (construction D)
  • 4.Summary and conclusions
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
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