[Lingtyp] Demonstratives as nominalizers

[Michael Daniel]

Dear Zahid,

I had the very same feeling as Juergen, but probably because of my own
empirical bias where adjective morphology seems to show connections with
demonstratives and deictic elements. Anyway, in Khinalug (East Caucasian),
adjectives require suffixes formally identical to demonstratives to be used
independently (as NP heads).

Kibrik, Aleksandr, Sandro Kodzasov, and Irina Olovjannikova. 1972.
Fragmenty grammatika khinalugskogo jazyka. Moscow: MGU. P. 70.

Michael


--
Михаил Даниэль
*Я осуждаю агрессию моей страны против Украины.*
Michael Daniel
*I condemn my country's aggression in Ukraine.*


вс, 20 окт. 2024 г. в 20:58, Juergen Bohnemeyer via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>:

> Dear Zahid – My first thought was, there must be hundreds of such
> languages if not thousands. But to my great surprise, a quick glance at
> Heine & Kuteva (2002) didn’t turn up a single hit. Odd. (Nor, thinking of
> Riccardo’s comment, do H&K give an example of definite article >
> nominalizer.)
>
>
>
> Well, fwiw., Yucatec is a case in point. The basic facts are as follows:
>
>
>
>    - There are pronominal demonstratives *lela’* ‘this’ (exophoric
>    proximal) / *lelo’* ‘that’ (generic indexical). These are restricted
>    to the absolute right edge of the clause and
>    topicalization/left-dislocation.
>    - Adnominally, the stem reduces to *le *for morphophonological
>    reasons, which appears on the absolute left edge of the NP, and the final
>    component of the pronominal form appears as a clitic particle *=a’*/*=o’
>    *with the same distribution as the pronominal demonstratives.
>    - Syntactic nominalization is expressed (if it is expressed
>    morphologically, which is usually, but not always the case) by placing
>    *le* on the absolute left edge of the nominalized form, which may be a
>    stative predicate, a verb, a phrase, or a clause.
>
>
>
> The following example is a description of a video clip in which a shorter
> woman pushes a taller woman, who as a result causes a tower of Styrofoam
> cups to collapse:
>
>
>
> T-u=mèet-ah                              u=níik-ik
> le=bàaso-s-o’b          *le=mas=nohoch=o’*.
>
> PRV-A3=do:APP-CMP(B3SG)   A3=scatter-INC(B3SG)     DEF=cup-PL-PL
> *DEF=more=big=D2*
>
> ‘She made the bigger one scatter the cups.’
>
>
>
> I gloss the demonstrative stem *le(l)* ‘DEF’ for convenience, but it
> functions both as a definite article and an adnominal demonstrative (minus
> the semantic distinction expressed by the clause-final particle).
>
>
>
> The demonstrative system is described in Bohnemeyer (2018) and references
> therein (notably including Hanks 1990). A discussion of nominalized clauses
> (headless RCs) can be found in Bohnemeyer (2002: 129-143).
>
>
>
> Regarding the question of grammaticalization, this comes down to how one
> would form syntactic nominalizations with indefinite reference. How would
> one say ‘a bigger one’ instead of ‘the bigger one’? I cannot give you a
> definitive answer (no pun intended). As an L2 speaker, I would say ‘one of
> the bigger ones’, and I’m confident that the demonstrative/definite article
> would be accommodated. But is it also possible to nominalize without the
> demonstrative/article, by directly combining the numeral ‘one’ (plus
> classifier) with the nominalized expression? I’m afraid IDK. If it is, then
> the proper expression of nominalization in Yucatec is not the
> demonstrative/article, but determination. If it isn’t, the
> demonstrative/article has been extended to the function of nominalization.
>
>
>
> Best – Juergen
>
>
>
> Bohnemeyer, J. (2002). *The grammar of time reference in Yukatek Maya*.
> Munich: LINCOM.
>
> Bohnemeyer, J. (2018). Yucatec demonstratives in interaction: Spontaneous
> vs. elicited data. In S. C. Levinson, S. Cutfield, M. Dunn, N. Enfield, S.
> Meira, & D. P. Wilkins (eds.), *Demonstratives in cross-linguistic
> perspective*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (republication with
> permission of 2012 chapter in Schalley ed.). 176-205.
>
> Hanks, W. F. (1990). *Referential practice: Language and lived space
> among the Maya*. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
>
> Heine, B., & T. Kuteva. (2002). *World lexicon of grammaticalization.*
> Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
> Professor, Department of Linguistics
> University at Buffalo
>
> Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus
> Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260
> Phone: (716) 645 0127
> Fax: (716) 645 3825
> Email: jb77 at buffalo.edu
> Web: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/
>
> Office hours Tu/Th 3:30-4:30pm in 642 Baldy or via Zoom (Meeting ID 585
> 520 2411; Passcode Hoorheh)
>
> There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In
> (Leonard Cohen)
>
> --
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> Zahid Akter via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Date: *Sunday, October 20, 2024 at 05:33
> *To: *LINGTYP LINGTYP <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Subject: *[Lingtyp] Demonstratives as nominalizers
>
> Dear Typologists,
>
>
>
> I’m looking for languages where demonstratives function as nominalizers.
> If you are aware of any such cases, I would greatly appreciate your
> references.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Zahid
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from Outlook <http://aka.ms/weboutlook>
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