Tense marking on NPs

Elena Maslova Maslova at JPS.NET
Tue Jan 20 18:55:33 UTC 2004


Yukaghir (Paleo-Siberian) has a future nominal suffix. Its scope is NP. So,
for example, [met ti:]-moraw, literally [my people]-FUT, would mean "my
relatives-to-be", appropriate after an engagement but before the wedding (=
future [my people], not my [future people]) (example from Tundra Yukaghir).
It seems to be at the present time most common with de-verbal
nominalizations, which can function as complement, headless relative, or
adverbial clauses, and where the nominal future functions as a relative
tense/purpose marker.

Lena Maslova



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