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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

Chapter 9
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
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Basic properties of Ainu
    • 2.1Basic clause types in Ainu
    • 2.2Noun phrase structure
  • 3.Noun-modifying clause constructions in Ainu: Relative clauses vs. noun-complement clauses
  • 4.Relative clauses
    • 4.1Relativization of arguments
      • 4.1.1Subject of intransitive verb (S)
      • 4.1.2Subject of two-place transitive verb (A)
      • 4.1.3Subject of three-place transitive verb (A)
      • 4.1.4Object of two-place transitive (O)
      • 4.1.5Object of three-place transitive (O)
    • 4.2Relativization of non-arguments
      • 4.2.1Relativization of adjuncts
        • 4.2.1.1Instrumental, comitative, and dative adjuncts
        • 4.2.1.2Standard of comparison equivalent
      • 4.2.2Relativization of possessor
      • 4.2.3Relativization of locative and allative adjuncts
  • 5.Noun-complement clauses
    • 5.1Content-taking nouns as head
    • 5.2Perception nouns as head
    • 5.3Relational nouns as head
  • 6.Grammaticalization of noun-modifying clause constructions
    • 6.1Relative clause construction with bound nouns as head > lexical nominalizations
    • 6.2Noun-complement clause construction with perception nouns as head > ‘mermaid construction’
    • 6.3Noun-complement clause construction with relational nouns as head > subordinate temporal clause construction
  • 7.Noun + noun compounds
  • 8.Emergent GNMCC
  • 9.Island violation
  • 10.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • Sources
  • References
Published online: 28 February 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.116.10bug
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