[Lingtyp] Demonstratives as nominalizers

[David Beck]

Dear Zahid,

In Salishan languages, demonstratives regularly introduce constructions that are interpreted as headless relative clauses:  

	Lushootseed
	p’q’acəxʷ tiʔiɬ ʔəsčəbaʔəd		
	p’q’ac=axʷ		tiʔiɬ	ʔas–čəbaʔ–t
	rotten.wood=now	dist	stat–backpack–ics
	‘What he backpacks is a rotten log.’		
	(Martha Lamont, Pheasant and Raven; Beck and Hess 2014: 65, line 260)

tiʔiɬ ʔəsčəbaʔəd ‘what he backpacks’ is formed by placing the demonstrative tiʔiɬ 'distal' before a finite clause ʔəsčəbaʔəd ’s/he packs it on his/her back’. This structure is described to some extent in Beck (2002, 2013) for Lushootseed and the structure is recognizable (though not always described in these terms) in grammars of other languages in the family. I think that this also occurs frequently in Wakashan and Tsimshianic languages as well.

Cheers,

David

References

Beck, David. 2002. The typology of parts of speech systems: The markedness of adjectives. New York: Routledge.
Beck, David. 2013. Uni-directional flexibility and the noun-verb distinction in Lushootseed. In Jan Rijkhoff & Eva van Lier (eds.), Flexible word classes: A typological study of underspecified parts-of-speech, 185–220. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beck, David & Thom Hess. 2014. Tellings from Our Elders: Lushootseed syəyəhub. Volume 1, Snohomish texts. Vancouver: UBC Press.

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> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2024 09:33:47 +0000
> From: Zahid Akter <Zahid_Akter at outlook.com>
> To: LINGTYP LINGTYP <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Subject: [Lingtyp] Demonstratives as nominalizers
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> 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
> 
> 
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