Article published 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. 203–250

Noun-modifying clause constructions in Ainu

| Tokyo University of Science/National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL)
The Ainu (Southern Hokkaido) relative clause construction is built on the model of the nominal attributive construction, while the noun-complement construction is based on that of the nominal possessive construction in which the head is marked with a possessive suffix. Also, relative and noun-complement clauses behave differently with regard to island violation constraints: only the latter allow such violations. However, there is a small number of noun-complement clauses without possessive marking on the perception/relational head noun, which makes them look like relative clauses; these are the so-called emergent GNMCCs. I suggest that these head nouns appear in non-possessive form in order to dissociate themselves from the few homonymous possessive heads which are grammaticalized as modal/evidential markers in the relevant constructions.
Keywords: Ainu language, relative clause construction, nominal attributive construction, noun-complement construction, nominal possessive construction, emergent GNMCC
Published online: 28 February 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.116.10bug
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